“Thank you, Sixth Senior Brother.” Ning Shiyue’s eyes sparkled with brilliant joy as she smiled. She also casually scooped up a share of spirit stones for Qin Hanyan.
Feng Qingran swept her gaze over the spirit stones on the ground. Each share contained at least a hundred thousand premium spirit stones—equivalent to one billion lower-grade spirit stones.
Having hung around her generous Sixth Senior Brother for so long, Feng Qingran had almost forgotten what lower-grade spirit stones even looked like.
Without any pretense, Feng Qingran helped herself to a share.
After that, she went on to prepare some spirit stones for everyone else as well.
She included upper-grade, middle-grade, and lower-grade spirit stones—a full range.
After all, this place wasn’t like the others. Flash premium spirit stones around too casually in the black market, and you’d be marked as an easy target for extortion.
“Little Junior Sister, where… where did you get so many spirit stones?” Ning Shiyue’s eyes went wide. The spirit stones that their youngest junior sister had prepared were no fewer than what Sixth Junior Brother had brought!
“I… sold some talismans earlier.” Feng Qingran blinked her almond-shaped eyes, feeling a tad guilty.
“If any of you have things you want to sell, you can bring them in too.” Tang Chonglou spoke up, cutting off Ning Shiyue’s follow-up questions.
Baili Wenyue rubbed his chin, gazing at the spirit stones before him in deep thought.
It seemed their Little Junior Sister had quite a few secrets they didn’t know about?
Just then—
Mo Jinghong’s deep voice rang out: “Give me your tokens for a moment.”
Baili Wenyue’s train of thought was interrupted. He pulled out his token and handed it to Mo Jinghong.
Feng Qingran immediately offered her token to Mo Jinghong as well.
Ning Shiyue and Qin Hanyan didn’t hesitate either, performing the same action.
Only Tang Chonglou showed a moment’s reluctance, but seeing everyone else’s movements, he too chose to hand his token over to Mo Jinghong.
Mo Jinghong took Feng Qingran’s token first. With a light tap of his fingertip, a faint red glow flickered across the token, and a strange rune sank into it.
After inscribing all five tokens, Mo Jinghong spoke: “I’ll wait for you outside the sect.”
Hearing that Mo Jinghong planned to stay outside, Feng Qingran thought back to a few years ago, when she’d entered the black market—he hadn’t gone in then either.
Did Seventh Senior Brother really have no curiosity about what the black market looked like?
“Then we’ll trouble Seventh Junior Brother,” Ning Shiyue said, her eyes sparkling like brilliant gems.
“Seventh Junior Brother, rest easy waiting here. If I come across anything good, I’ll grab a share for you too.” With that, Baili Wenyue strode toward the teleportation array.
Ning Shiyue and Qin Hanyan followed suit, stepping onto the array and sitting cross-legged.
Tang Chonglou exchanged a glance with Mo Jinghong. Ever since arriving in Fire Spirit Province, Tang Chonglou had been observing Mo Jinghong closely.
He had been reborn into this body for several decades now.
Most of his power as the Demon Lord had been recovered, and his current strength was equivalent to a human cultivator at the Mahayana stage.
Yet he still couldn’t see through Mo Jinghong. In fact, he had a vague feeling that Mo Jinghong was many times stronger than him.
This made Tang Chonglou deeply uneasy.
Mo Jinghong cast a few sidelong glances at Tang Chonglou, then turned his gaze to Feng Qingran, who was staring right at him. “Little Junior Sister, aren’t you going in?”
“Seventh Senior Brother, aren’t you even the least bit curious about what it’s like inside the black market?” Feng Qingran’s voice was crisp and clear.
“Not curious.”
Just then—
Zhuo Yan suddenly materialized, his tone dripping with contempt: “Hmph! Look at you, acting like you’ve never seen the world before. The trash they sell in the black market isn’t even worth Master’s attention.”
The moment Zhuo Yan appeared, Tang Chonglou’s expression shifted.
He immediately strode toward the teleportation array, sat cross-legged, and entered the black market.
Zhuo Yan sensed a faint ripple of aura and muttered, “Strange… why do I smell demonic energy?”
Feng Qingran narrowed her eyes, fixing Zhuo Yan with a stare. “What a pity. I still haven’t found any strange fire, so I can’t make soup…”
Zhuo Yan flapped his wings frantically. “Evil woman! Evil woman!”
Feng Qingran ground her teeth. “Seventh Senior Brother, you’re missing a birdcage.”
A smile crept across Mo Jinghong’s face—a face that could overturn nations. His voice was warm as he said, “Little Junior Sister, you can buy a birdcage at the black market, but don’t stir up any trouble.”
“I know~” Feng Qingran touched the tip of her fair, jade-like nose. Ever since the Bear-Tiger Ridge incident, Mo Jinghong’s trust in her had plummeted.
“Hmph! A trouble magnet—how could she not stir up trouble?” Zhuo Yan squawked in a rigid, deliberate tone.
Feng Qingran shot Zhuo Yan a glare, couldn’t be bothered to engage, and stepped into the teleportation array, entering the black market.
Mo Jinghong flicked his sleeve, laying down a barrier within the room.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go to the black market.
Rather, the soul power of the one who built the black market was too low. If he entered, the market would collapse from the sheer pressure of his soul power.
Besides, ever since he and Feng Qingran had arrived at the provincial capital—
someone had been tailing them in secret.
Staying outside might just give him the chance to uncover some leads.
——-
On Feng Qingran’s side, the moment she entered the black market, a large crowd swarmed around her.
These people held all sorts of odds and ends in their hands.
A woman dressed like a housewife spoke up: “Little girl, want to buy some magical artifacts? I can give you a good deal!”
“Little girl, don’t listen to her—her stuff is all second-hand. Buy from me, mine are fresh off the forge!”
“Little missy, don’t be fooled by them. Everything they sell is counterfeit. Mine are the real deal…”
“Miss, buy from me! I’ve always run an honest business, and I would never cheat my customers!”
Pfft!—
As soon as that last person finished speaking, a chorus of disdainful snickers erupted from all around.
Feng Qingran’s beautiful eyes swept across the crowd, her divine sense brushing over those surrounding her. Clearly, they were all in soul form.
And yet, in soul form, they could still handle physical objects. It seemed the master behind this black market had some real skill.
Feng Qingran’s gaze swept over the items in each person’s hands, quickly recognizing that nearly everything they were peddling was fake.
“Move aside.” Her voice was cold and crisp. Her slender brows arched lightly, and her eyes shimmered like brilliant stars—like a pool of clear water beneath moonlight, as though filled with flowing radiance. She carried herself with an air of refined nobility and unapproachable dignity.
The crowd looked startled. They had taken her for an easy target, but it turned out they’d stumbled upon a tough nut.
They parted one by one, clearing a path for her.
Feng Qingran stepped forward toward the market ahead. As she passed by an elderly man, she caught a strange, unusual aura.
Her limpid, crystalline almond-shaped eyes glimmered faintly. She shot a sidelong glance at what the old man held in his hand, and her steps slowed just slightly.
