Plundering the Heavens

After a few twists and turns, everyone returned to their own trades. Despite how cautious everyone was being, the exchanges were still carried out in an orderly fashion, and it wasn’t long before the Black Market reached its climax. Even those who’d initially wanted to wait and see couldn’t hold themselves back any longer and joined in as well.

As people were finishing up their trades, Fang Xing walked to the front of the crowd and declared in a clear voice, “I’ve got something I’d like to trade as well, but the price is fixed at one hundred and fifty Spirit Stones—nothing less. See… the truth is, even with a hundred fifty stones, it will still settle at a loss for me; before I joined the sect, it cost my father over thirty thousand gold taels….”

As soon as he started to speak about his trade’s value, everyone around him quieted down.

The young man from before had amazed everyone with his mid-tier Flying Sword worth a hundred Spirit Stones, and now there was something worth even more? And he was even claiming he’d still end up at a loss for this amount? Such a rare treasure had everyone rushing to crowd around Fang Xing, especially the mustached man from earlier—his eyes in particular were squinting with excitement.

“What spirit tool could be worth thirty thousand gold taels? Come on and show it to us!”

Walking over to where the mustached man was, Fang Xing gave a polite request, “Esteemed Shixiong, you look like you might know your spirit tools well. Would you like to have a look for me? To see whether it is indeed worth one hundred and fifty Spirit Stones, or if I should demand even more?” As soon as his words had finished, Fang Xing opened up his palm to reveal a strange yet wonderful snuff bottle glistening with reflections of the moon above.

“Huh?” The mustached man took a quick look. It was indeed a spirit tool, but something didn’t seem quite right. He was certain it couldn’t be worth as much as Fang Xing declared it was, but after seeing how confident Fang Xing was, he needed a closer look to confirm his thoughts.

The mustached man wasn’t the only one to have such thoughts at first glance—all of the people soon came closer for a second look.

“It is a spirit tool alright, but it’s definitely not worth thirty thousand gold taels. Are you sure your father wasn’t cheated by the merchant?”

“You’re not doing this on purpose, are you? You don’t really think you can scam us, right?”

“But we don’t know, do we? Perhaps there’s something special about this. Would you mind showing us why it’s worth this much?”

As everyone was debating over its actual value, someone finally asked to see how the snuff bottle worked.

“Of course I can show it to you all! And for those who think it’s worth less than what I said… I don’t even want to say this, but your eye for value is absolutely rotten! Just for you guys, today I’m going to redefine your knowledge on what areal spirit tool is like!” Fang Xing placed his other palm above the snuff bottle before continuing, “Now, come closer everyone; you need to make sure you look very closely….”

Hearing Fang Xing’s explanation, nobody could help but to huddle up even closer towards the snuff bottle, unwilling to miss a single thing.

“Abracadabra! Show us your worthiness of this thirty thousand gold taels!”

Swoosh ….

Within seconds, a bluish-green smog leaked out of the snuff bottle, sending a soporific fume into the nostrils of everyone nearby.

Everyone in tier one fell straight into sleep.

Those in tier two were also heavily shaken. They felt lightheaded at first, then they felt an overwhelming sense of powerlessness in their knees and lost consciousness.

The mustached man was the only person present in tier three. He was the fastest to react to the fumes and nearly escaped to the entrance, but it was of no use; he’d also been the person standing closest to Fang Xing, and Fang Xing had made certain when the fumes were released that the mustached man inhaled the highest concentration.

“Why… you little….” The man pointed his finger at Fang Xing while trying hard to keep his eyes open. He released an angry growl before finally falling down to the floor alongside everyone else.

Although the mustached man was the cautious type, he’d never imagined a brand new disciple would have the nerve to do such a thing. Even as he traded, he would always have an extra eye on the few older-looking disciples just in case they were up to no good; the only reason he ended up falling for Fang Xing’s trap was a single moment of misjudgment.

“Argh! You almost cost me my entire plan!” Fang Xing started to kick and abuse the mustached man to release his frustration and stopped only after confirming the man had completely lost consciousness. Fang Xing knew a person with a higher cultivation was less likely to be affected by the fumes, but the snuff bottle’s strength had certainly lived up to expectations this time.

Fang Xing’s fourth uncle had owned an even larger one before his death. He’d used it against Xiao Jianming, but there had unfortunately been no effect and it was shattered with a simple wave of a sword, making it likely the fumes were ineffective against someone in tiers seven and above.

Fang Xing had only decided to use this method after testing the fumes on himself a few days earlier. It had taken only a small amount to send him sleeping for an entire day and night since he was only in tier one, and such results had convinced him it was worth a try.

“Is everything okay?” someone shouted from the entrance, and Fang Xing soon realized the guards must have noticed something was amiss. ‘Ah sh*t, I forgot about those two.’

“Hey, don’t push me! I won’t trade it anymore! Get out of my way, I am out of here!” Fang Xing yelled out in mock anger while pretending to leave the market.

The guards exchanged glances before running inside, only to nearly bump into the thin man and cause a snuff bottle to fly out of his hands towards the two. When one of the guards tried to reflexively catch the snuff bottle, the thin man jumped up and pressed his palm against the top of the bottle to release its fume right into the guard’s face.

“Who—” The guard fell into a sweet snooze right then and there, before he could even finish his sentence.

“What… what do you want!” While the other guard was somewhat dazzled by the fume, he hadn’t been as close.

“I want… this !” Fang Xing drew out his dagger and stabbed it towards the remaining guard.

The guard narrowly dodged the stab by jumping out of the way, but he was sent to the ground by Fang Xing’s follow-up kick. The guard was still recovering from his fume-induced daze, leaving his reactions slow.

The guard began resisting his lightheadedness with great difficulty and finally reached for his Flying Sword. At the same time, however, Fang Xing also revealed something shiny and an object flew right towards the guard.

Tzin tzin tzin ….

A frightening sound rang out as a flash of silver flew past the guard.

“You know… this stuff is no fun when it’s nailed into you. If you don’t want to die, put your sword to the side,” Fang Xing coldly ordered the guard while he held a metal cylinder—the origin of the silver flash—in one of his hands.

Turning his head behind him, the guard could see an entire row of silver needles, with most of them pierced deeply in the ground and a few lodged inside a nearby tree. Each one—without fail—was almost fully embedded in its target, causing him to tremble as he imagined them striking his body instead.

“I see you’d rather die. Then….” Fang Xing didn’t give the guard much time to do anything at all and raised the cylinder once more.

“No! I’ll throw away my sword!” the guard pleaded and put the sword down. He was just a new recruit to the outer court as well, after all; there was no way he was going to risk his life for this.

“Good. Good boy,” Fang Xing sneered as he put his metal cylinder away, right before he walked up to the guard and kicked him square in the face.

“What? Why?” the guard cried out as he slowly looked back up, unable to comprehend what this man now wanted.

“Ok, this is a bit awkward.” Surprised the guard was still conscious even after his kick, Fang Xing embarrassedly took his snuff bottle out once again.

—

“What a good day! So many cash cows….” Fang Xing dragged both of the guards into the market with everyone else before laughing and collecting his earnings for the day. He remembered very clearly the people who’d shown something of value, so it was like an easy drive on a familiar path for him. The first thing he did was grab the storage ring from that rich bastard, of course, followed soon after by the Spirit Stones.