Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit - Chapter 213
Chapter 213 – Underground Trade Fair
As Lu Ping’s divine sense improved in strength, he also grew more resistant to the impact of teleportation.
After the teleportation ended, Lu Ping noticed that nine cultivators had arrived at the same time. It seems there were other teleportation formations other than the one they had just used.
Since everyone wore the cloak, Lu Ping couldn’t distinguish Li Xiu-Zhu and the Li Clan’s alchemist apart from the rest, so he had no choice but to go ahead on his own.
The cultivators didn’t communicate with each other either, to avoid exposing their identities.
Lu Ping looked around and found that the venue was actually an underground crypt, so it really was an ‘underground’ trade fair indeed.
The trade fair was only opened to a hundred participants each time. Naturally, the three clans secured half of the total slots for their own use and for guests of their choice, as demonstrated by Li Clan’s invitation to Lu Ping.
The remaining half of the slots were sold by the Northern League in the form of teleportation spirit charms.
These charms cost a thousand spirit stones each and were only sold to Late Blood Condensation Realm cultivators on Three Clans Island.
In total, the hundred slots were worth a hundred thousand spirit stones. These spirit stones would then be used to invite a Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master from the Northern League to preside over the trade fair.
This gave a nominal affirmation that the trade fair was under the Northern League’s authorization and also its sovereignty over Three Clans Island.
Ultimately, the three clans and Northern League didn’t mind whoever came as long as they possessed a teleportation spirit charm.
At present, the trade fair had not yet commenced, so Lu Ping found a nearby seat and settled down, patiently waiting for the fair to begin.
About an hour later, almost ninety out of the hundred participants had arrived.
Suddenly, Lu Ping’s divine sense picked up a wave of aura—he looked to the center of the crypt.
A wave of divine revelation instantly covered the entirety of the crypt, making the casual atmosphere turn solemn in an instant.
The participants in black cloaks all stood up and called out, “Greetings to the Enlightened Master!”
Out of nowhere, a short and fat cultivator appeared onstage in the center of the crypt. Looking as if he’d just finished a marathon, he pulled out a small towel from his pocket and wiped his perspiring forehead.
Then, the cultivator smiled and said, “At ease, make yourself comfortable. Let me introduce myself—I’m Bi from the Wood Cicada Division under Northern League’s Cicada Sect. I’ve been invited to preside over the trade fair, but worry not, I’m only here to make sure everything is in order, nothing more than that. So, feel free to do as you please.”
With this announcement, he pulled out a chair from thin air and sat down beside the stage, ready to doze off.
Then, as an afterthought, he hurriedly struggled up from the chair and said, “Oh, I almost forgot. I have to launch the start of the trade fair too. Sigh, it’s really hard to earn spirit stones nowadays.”
Enlightened Master Bi then proceeded to take out a jade box. Opening the lid, he placed the box on a stone table on the stage. “While on my way down, I encountered a large bird chasing my tail, so I had to kill it. Luckily for me, it gave me nine Condensed Blood Beads with the wood-and-wind element.
“I’ll exchange them for 1000-year spirit herbs. Twenty supplementary spirit herbs or four rare spirit herbs for one bead. The rarity of the herb will take priority, followed by the number of herbs you can offer. Let’s begin!”
Enlightened Master Bi was really worthy of his title to bring out nine Condensed Blood Beads at once. The sight of them immediately attracted the attention of everyone in the crypt!
After all, most of the cultivators present were in the Late Blood Condensation Realm, so they were obviously preparing for their breakthrough to the Core Forging Realm.
The participants began calling out offers in order of the numbers assigned to them. In just a few moments, three cultivators had successfully received four of the Condensed Blood Beads.
Lu Ping’s number was 57, so it hadn’t reached his turn to give his offer yet.
However, he had no interest in these Condensed Blood Beads either—he had another plan in mind for his breakthrough.
A few moments later, three more Condensed Blood Beads were traded out!
At this time, the cultivators in the trade fair had raised the offer to twenty-five supplementary spirit herbs or five rare spirit herbs.
Lu Ping was quite amazed by the wealth displayed so far.
A few moments later, the exchange had ended. With a pleased look, Enlightened Master Bi stored away over a hundred supplementary spirit herbs and about twenty rare spirit herbs.
With a wave of his hand, he let the cultivators continue to come on stage according to their numbers, while he sat down on the chair and dozed off again.
Since Enlightened Master Bi had already started the trade fair with such precious items, the participants also took out their valuable items for exchange. With such a heightened atmosphere, everyone felt that the fair was worth the trip.
Participant No. 1 directly brought out a top-grade mystic instrument and asked to exchange it for some Late Blood Condensation Realm medicinal pellets, or more Mid Blood Condensation Realm medicinal pellets.
In fact, this top-grade mystic instrument was worth about forty thousand spirit stones, equivalent to about ten bottles of Late Blood Condensation Realm medicinal pellets or twenty bottles of Mid Blood Condensation Realm medicinal pellets.
Although Lu Ping did have some with him, he was also looking for more medicinal pellets for his own use. Naturally, he wouldn’t trade his own stock, not to mention that he had no need for more mystic instruments.
In the end, this top-grade weapon was traded out for two bottles of Late Blood Condensation Realm pellets and six bottles of Mid Blood Condensation Realm pellets, plus another twenty thousand spirit stones.
After that, the participants walked up on stage to show their items one after another. The items varied from spirit herbs to spirit materials, from mystic instruments to cultivation methods, spells, and many more.
But Lu Ping wasn’t interested in anything else other than the spirit herbs. Hence, he only gained a little from the trade fair so far.
When Participant 19 walked on stage, he took out a jade box and said, “We make our living from the seas, so we rarely encounter earth-element monster beasts. I was fortunate to come across a Fourth Layer Blood Condensation monster pangolin. After killing it, I found four Condensed Blood Beads with the earth-tiger element from its corpse. I wish to exchange them for Mid and Late Blood Condensation Realm pellets, or a top-grade fire-element defensive mystic instrument.”
Although such Condensed Blood Beads were rarely seen in these parts, there were few cultivators with the earth-tiger element making a living near the sea.
Hence, these Condensed Blood Beads weren’t as valuable as they might appear. They were worth at most fifty thousand spirit stones, and barely a top-grade defensive mystic instrument.
But Lu Ping was delighted. This was because Lu Dabao was already in the peak of Early Blood Condensation Realm.
Lu Ping had been worried about Dabao’s breakthrough to the Mid Blood Condensation Realm, and he had been preparing to concoct the Bottleneck Breaking Pellets to aid him. But now, with these Condensed Blood Beads, Dabao’s breakthrough wouldn’t be a problem anymore!
Be it the tiger bloodline, or the earth element, they all suited Dabao’s cultivation base perfectly.
There were already participants giving their offers to Participant 19. The offers were done through message charms, so the contents of the offers remained unknown.
Lu Ping counted the amount of Mid Blood Condensation Realm pellets he had on hand. If Participant 19 was looking for a fire-element mystic instrument, then he must be a fire-element cultivator.
Hence, Lu Ping specifically picked out some fire-element Blood Spirit Pellets he had concocted but didn’t consume because it would conflict with his water-element cultivation base.
He naturally wouldn’t offer all the medicinal pellets he had on him. He quoted the price of ten bottles of Mid Blood Condensation Realm plus fifteen thousand spirit stones, even emphasizing that five of the bottles were fire-element Blood Spirit Pellets.
Sure enough, just as Lu Ping quoted his price, Participant 19 promptly replied to his message charm. He said, “I want fifteen bottles of Mid Blood Condensation Realm pellets plus ten thousand spirit stones. The more fire-element pellets, the better. Price is negotiable.”
Lu Ping smiled slightly and replied, “The best I can do is twelve bottles plus twelve thousand spirit stones.”
A few moments later, Participant 19 thanked the other participants who made offers, and then he replied to Lu Ping with another message that said, “Deal!”
Lu Ping stored twelve bottles of medicinal pellets and twelve thousand spirit stones in a separate interspatial pouch, then sent it to the hands of Participant 19.
Participant 19 checked the contents and nodded in satisfaction, then floated the jade box in his hands towards Lu Ping.
The underground trade fair continued on.
To Lu Ping’s surprise, Participant 20’s item was actually a talisman treasure!
One must know, talisman treasures were literally life savers for Blood Condensation Realm cultivators. Lu Ping himself had used them several times to defeat formidable opponents and escape from death.
But the one taken out by Participant 20 was a defensive talisman treasure.
Generally speaking, defensive mystic instruments were more valuable among other mystic instruments.
But in the case of talisman treasures, offensive talisman treasures were much more prized.
After all, talisman treasures were the last resort for Blood Condensation Realm cultivators. Their purpose was to help cultivators overcome obstacles or to escape death.
Hence, from these two standpoints, offensive talisman treasures were undoubtedly more useful and practical than their defensive counterparts.
Even so, this talisman treasure still attracted everyone’s interest, Lu Ping was naturally no exception.
Lu Ping had already used up his talisman treasures long ago, without this last resort, he inevitably felt a lack of security.
However, Participant 20 was looking for at least two top-grade spirit materials.
Lu Ping checked his interspatial pouch; he actually had several top-grade spirit materials, all of which were harvested from Fei Ling Island and as spoils of battles.
After a moment’s thought, he wrote out ‘Deep Sea Frosty Iron’ and ‘Fang Ling Stone’ on the message charm and sent it out.
