Chapter 40: Baibao Hall

  Lin Feng and Liu Kai had already been close to the city of Luminous Light when they met, and after walking for a while with laughter and conversation, they clearly felt that there were more and more people coming and going, most of whom were cultivators. It was clear that they were not far from the city. After crossing another mountain ridge, suddenly the scene in front of them opened up, and when they looked up, they saw several small rivers winding like jade belts on a vast green plain in the distance, with misty mountains rising faintly, and vaguely saw the shadow of a building complex hidden among the mountains and water, appearing and disappearing from time to time.

  As they walked closer, they could see a stream of people like ants at the city gate, going in and out. From time to time, they could also see cultivators flying with their swords taking off and landing at the gate. Needless to say, Lin Feng also knew that this must be Yao Guang City.

  As expected, Liu Kai pointed to the faintly visible city and said: "This is indeed the distant light city, we will arrive in half an hour, let's hurry up, now it's almost noon, which is the busiest time. Let's speed up, maybe we can catch the evening market, sell the leopard blood and skin early, and I'll treat you to a good meal."

  "Are all the streets in Yangguang City open in the morning and closed in the afternoon?" Lin Feng asked as he walked.

  "No, the booths in the market are open all day, but generally, the scattered repairs people set up stalls in the morning, and there are many fewer people in the afternoon." Liu Kai talked a lot about the things of Yangguang City along the way with Lin Feng, among which the most mentioned was the booth city that the repairers wanted to go to.

  "Why don't we just go early tomorrow to set up the stall, it's not like we can sell much now, might as well take a stroll first." Lin Feng knew that Liu Kai and those scattered cultivators would go to the southeast corner of the market to set up stalls, but he was more interested in other places in the market, such as Baibao Hall, Lingbao Pavilion, and Baoqi Zhai, which specialized in selling cultivator supplies.

  Liu Kai knew that Lin Feng was visiting the Grand Bazaar for the first time and had originally planned to take him on a tour, but he was too embarrassed to do so before selling his goods because he didn't have enough money to treat Lin Feng. That's why he wanted to sell his goods first and then explore the bazaar. However, since Lin Feng had already said that, Liu Kai couldn't say much more and could only ambiguously agree.

  Lin Feng saw his changing expression and thought for a moment before understanding the reason. He then said, "It's okay, I'll treat you today. Tomorrow, after you sell your things, you can treat me."

  "Haha, I'm really sorry about this. It should have been me treating you first... Since that's the case, let's wait till tomorrow when I sell my stuff and then I'll treat Brother Lin." Liu Kai had a great conversation with Lin Feng all along the way, and now he didn't pretend to be polite anymore, responding very naturally.

  In the blink of an eye, the two had arrived at the grand city gate. The entrance was bustling with people coming and going, mostly cultivators. Compared to Fei Ling City, where the majority were ordinary people, this place was clearly a city of cultivators. At the gate stood four or five Qi Refining stage guards around the seventh or eighth layer, as well as a powerful Jie Dan stage expert. Lin Feng couldn't estimate which layer he was at. But thinking about it, if each of the four gates of Yao Guang City had such strong cultivators guarding them, then the city's strength was not to be underestimated. No wonder so many Jie Dan stage experts would dismount and walk into the city when they reached the gate.

  However, these guarding monks seemed to be ignoring everything else, neither collecting fees nor checking identities. Lin Feng followed Liu Kai, this old bird, and entered the city along with the crowd. The guards didn't even give him a second glance, it's unknown what kind of role they were playing by standing at the entrance.

  "I thought I had to pay to enter the city, but these monks just stand at the gate and do nothing. What's their purpose? And there's even a Foundation Building expert!" Lin Feng recalled that when he first entered Fei Ling City, ordinary people also had to pay an entrance tax.

  "They are the guardians of Yuguang City, specifically in charge of maintaining order. You also know that the Xiu Xian realm is not peaceful either, and conflicts do occur from time to time. However, once you enter the city gate, you can't just fight randomly; otherwise, they will take action. In the future, if you encounter a strong enemy outside and can't defeat them, hurry back to the city. No matter how big the conflict is outside, as long as you enter the city, you'll be safe." Liu Kai explained.

  "With just these few guards? If they were to encounter a master from the Foundation stage, I'm afraid they wouldn't be able to handle it." Lin Feng looked at the guards who were gradually disappearing from view, somewhat puzzled.

  "Don't worry, I've heard that there are always top-notch masters in the city who can settle things at any time. Moreover, the three major forces of Taoism, Demon, and Evil in Yangguang City have a very deep relationship with each other. No one dares to cause trouble here easily." Liu Kai's expression was calm and carefree, but his gaze at Lin Feng had a hint of looking down on him, which made Lin Feng feel suffocated and humiliated. He secretly vowed that from now on, he would never speak lightly again, or else he would be ridiculed to death by this kid.

  But he soon forgot this oath, when a giant treasure pagoda suddenly appeared in front of the two, with dozens of doors on the first floor all open, and hundreds of people coming in and out. Lin Feng couldn't help but look at the ancient gold-plated characters "Baibao Hall" and ask: "Is this Baibao Hall? It's so big?"

  "Hey, how about it? I didn't exaggerate, did I? This White Treasure Hall has all sorts of things like elixirs, weapons, talismans, and all kinds of strange and unusual items. Almost anything you want, they have it. As long as you have spirit stones, there's nothing you can't buy. Come on, let's go take a look." Liu Kai said, pulling Lin Feng along as he walked inside.

  A few steps up the stairs, Lin Feng stepped into the Treasure Pavilion and was instantly stunned. The first floor of the pavilion stretched out as far as the eye could see, with an area of over 10,000 square meters. Except for the prominent counter and a few staircases leading to the second floor, there were almost no supporting pillars in sight, which clearly defied the architectural principles of mortals and was reinforced by the arrays of the cultivators.

  But this was not the fundamental reason why Lin Feng was shocked, it was because every counter had a shelf behind it, all of which were filled with various spiritual objects, and it would not be an exaggeration to describe them as piled up like mountains. Lin Feng infused his spiritual energy into the jade, opening his mind to feel the entire hall, and suddenly the jade's surface was covered in colorful lights, bright and dim, already indistinguishable from one another, the entire jade had become a single piece of colored light, even on the passageway of the first floor, not a single seam could be seen, it was clear that there were many treasures above the second floor of this tower.

  Good heavens! There are so many spiritual objects here! Lin Feng felt incredibly rich when he found one spiritual object every few miles while collecting medicine in the Qi Lian Mountains, but now that he's seen the Hundred Treasures Hall, he suddenly feels like all the spiritual objects from the entire Qi Lian mountain range have been gathered here. It's truly shocking.

  "What's wrong, stupid? Haha!" Lin Feng was still in shock when Liu Kai said this, and his face turned red again. He was really angry and had been made a fool of by this kid once more.

  "Alright, don't be shy either. The first time I came to this Baodatang, I was almost scared silly, worse than you. How about it? This place has everything you need, what do you want to look at first?" Liu Kai asked with a smile after teasing him a bit.

  "Let's take a look at the elixirs first!" Lin Feng thought for a moment, he himself was studying alchemy, so he understood some of it. Moreover, in the future, he would inevitably have to rely on selling elixirs to support his cultivation, and this way, he could also get a general understanding of the market here.

  "Well, over there, are you buying or selling elixirs?" Liu Kai was very familiar with this place and led Lin Feng directly to the counter area where they sold spiritual elixirs. The spiritual elixir area not only bought and sold spiritual elixirs but also bought and sold medicinal herbs for refining spiritual elixirs. Moreover, the medicinal herbs sold here were all processed and could be refined in a furnace as soon as they were purchased, which was very convenient.

  "What kind of spiritual elixir or medicine are the two Taoist friends looking for? Our store has a wide variety of spiritual elixirs and medicines, with excellent quality and reasonable prices. Welcome to patronize! The two had just walked up to the counter when a female cultivator at the fifth level of Qi refinement came forward to greet them, speaking in a fluent and practiced tone that made the two feel extremely warm and fuzzy inside."

  "Let's take a look first and see what's needed before calling you." Liu Kai was experienced and dealt with the situation in one sentence.

  "Alright, fellow Taoist, choose what you want and call me when you're ready." The female cultivator turned to face another customer, as there were quite a few low-ranking cultivators coming and going here.

  Lin Feng glanced at the female cultivator and said in a low voice, "The service here is quite good, but using a fifth-level Qi Refining cultivator to stand at the counter seems a bit too extravagant, doesn't it?"

  "Do you know what? Even the work at this station's counter isn't something that loose cultivators like us can get. These cultivators may be stationed here, but the stipend Baibao Hall gives them every month is quite generous. Otherwise, why would a Qi Refining stage 5th layer cultivator like her be so polite to us? I'm asking you, are you here to look at people or look at dan, or perhaps you've taken a liking to that female cultivator?" Liu Kai teased, seeing Lin Feng staring absent-mindedly at the shelves of medicinal pellets.

  "Go ahead, I'll just say it casually. Who's as cunning as you? Anyway, the medicinal pills here are indeed abundant and the prices are reasonable. The only thing is, I wonder how much they pay for collecting the medicinal herbs?"

  Lin Feng raised his eyes and took a look, and he had already scanned the entire Spirit Dan area. This place was all filled with first-grade Dans - there were Dans for regulating one's Qi, clearing filth, healing wounds, and even Hundred Flower Dans. Whatever you wanted, they had it, but as for second-grade Dans, not a single one could be found. It seemed that they should be on the second floor.

  Lin Feng took a look at the Qi Dan, which was also divided into lower and middle grades. The lower grade was further divided into two categories based on quality, with the better ones selling for eight spirit stones each and the poorer ones for seven spirit stones. Lin Feng thought it was still quite reasonable. However, the middle-grade Qi Dan was a bit expensive, priced at twenty spirit stones per piece. But when Lin Feng looked closer, he saw that the jade bottles on the shelf were empty, with a label that read "Out of Stock". It seemed that the market for middle-grade Qi Dan was indeed huge! Nevertheless, Lin Feng had no intention of selling his middle-grade Qi Dan for the time being, as he still needed to keep some for himself. After all, who could refine pills every day? But cultivation required daily consumption, and without some stockpiles, it would affect his practice.

  However, every time he refines the elixir, so many low-grade elixirs are produced, but they are of no use. Lin Feng can only sell them for spirit stones, so he wants to know the price of collecting elixirs here.

  "How can you refine the elixir and even sell it?" Liu Kai was somewhat skeptical. With Lin Feng's cultivation level and age, he thought that even if he had learned alchemy, his skills wouldn't be very high, and he might not even have enough for himself, let alone having extra to sell. However, after thinking carefully, he said with a self-assured tone: "You want to exchange it for some spiritual medicine, right?"

  Lin Feng smiled and said, "Yes, I want to exchange some spiritual medicine to improve my alchemy skills." Lin Feng understood Liu Kai's meaning. Many novice alchemists spent a lot of spiritual stones on alchemy at the beginning, although each furnace only produced one or two pills, which was always a loss, but after a day of alchemy, they could still get several low-grade pills. Since they couldn't use them all up themselves, they would simply sell them and buy more spiritual medicine. This was actually a process of burning money to improve their skills.

  Lin Feng didn't sell Dan for this reason, but he also didn't want to say more. After all, it's troublesome to explain, and he didn't want Liu Kai to be too surprised.