Chapter 20 - Warrior’s Market
Both Long Chen and Ling Xi stopped talking when they found Yang Lingqing.
Rather than being depressed, Yang Lingqing was even more motivated than before after losing to Yang Lingyue at the Family Meeting. When Long Chen found her, she treated him coldly as her heart was conflicted.
“What do you want from me?”
Yang Lingqing knew about the grudge between Long Chen and her brother, but they had always had trivial fights. She hadn’t felt anything wrong about Long Chen stripping her brother naked in front of a crowd. It’s not as though her brother had been some damsel. Who would have guessed that he couldn’t face the humiliation and killed himself? That was how things got complicated.
Yang Lingqing knew that this was unintentional from Long Chen’s end, but Yang Zhan was still dead. Even though she hadn’t seen eye to eye with her brother ever since they were little, he was still her biological brother.
When he sensed the anger in Yang Lingqing’s eyes, Long Chen knew that he had caused a lot of pain for the girl. He felt guilty too. “I’m sorry about your brother. I never would’ve thought he would do that. I’m here today to ask you about something.”
Yang Lingqing replied plainly, “What do you want to ask? I’m still busy cultivating. The Demon Hunting Tournament is about to start soon and I don’t want to lose to the Bai family.”
“I need herbs that nourish the Divine Soul. Do you know where I can get it? Or do we have it in our family?”
Long Chen asked with anticipation. Yang Lingqing was giving him the cold treatment so he was worried that she might not help him.
But he was merely gauging the heart of another with his own measure.
“Our family doesn’t stock such herbs, but you can try visiting the herb stores at the market. The shops usually sell herbs bought from cultivators or from larger towns so they probably have it.”
Yang Lingqing thought for a moment.
Long Chen had never been to the market before. Ever since he was young, he had always traveled from the inn and the brothel. “Where is the market?” he asked curiously.
Yang Lingqing said in an unfriendly tone, “The Warrior’s Market is indeed located somewhere slightly hidden. Fine, I will accompany you there.”
Long Chen looked at her with gratitude. Even though she hated him somewhat, she still helped him to the best of her ability when he needed her help. She was much kinder than Yang Lingyue and Yang Wu.
Yang Lingqing and Long Chen walked together. They attracted some gazes but the onlookers did not comment since the two were still the young master and young mistress of the Yang family.
Long Chen’s reputation was also spread throughout Baiyang Town for the past few days. Almost every home in Baiyang Town knows about him now. In the past, Long Chen was a person that everyone rejected, but in just one month he had turned his reputation around, becoming one of the rising stars amongst the younger generation of Baiyang Town.
“Oh, right, since you learned the Meteor Fist in such a short amount of time, what about the Dragon Seal? Did you learn much about it?” Yang Lingqing asked suddenly as they walked on the road.
Long Chen smiled lightly. “Why? Do you want to learn it too? I can teach you but you have to call me Big Brother Chen.”
Yang Lingqing turned around and scoffed. “I’m only at the Fifth Draconic Stage. I don’t have enough Qi to cultivate the Dragon Seal. Also, I want to obtain the Dragon Seal with my own strength!”
Looking at her gaze, which was filled with conviction, Long Chen was secretly impressed.
They walked for a bit before Yang Lingqing asked another question as she furrowed her brows. “You are also at the Fifth Draconic Stage. The Dragon Seal is an advanced martial technique so you can’t cultivate it either. Why not give it to Sister Lingyue? She’s very close to the Seventh Draconic Stage so she might have some hope …”
It was indeed an advanced martial technique, and he did only have the strength of the Fifth Draconic Stage, so Long Chen was not surprised that Yang Lingqing was looking down on him. He smiled lightly and remained silent.
“Long Chen, do you know about the Demon Hunting Tournament? The Bai family is stronger than our Yang family. If they obtain the right to rule over Baiyang Town, our family might be in danger. Everyone in Baiyang Town more or less knows that the Bai family will become part of the Lingwu family from Yuanling City if they rule Baiyang Town. At that point, they will be able to exercise the authority of the Lingwu family.”
Long Chen had heard of the Lingwu family from Yuanling City. It was the strongest family within Yuanling County, personally selected by the royalty of the Cangyang Kingdom themselves! They had complete authority to rule over the entire Yuanling County and were more or less their overlords. The family that ruled Baiyang Town would undoubtedly receive protection from the Lingwu family as well as countless benefits.
Even though the patriarchs of the Yang and Bai families were close, they still intended to fight for the chance.
Long Chen laughed. “That’s only because they don’t have any wisdom.”
Yang Lingqing tucked the long strands of hair on her face back behind her ears. Her eyes were filled with exasperation when she said, “Of the younger generation in the Yang family, the stronger ones are Elder Brother Yang Wu, and Sister Lingyue. Including you, at most we have a Seventh Draconic Stage and two Six Draconic Stage cultivators.
“The Bai family have two Sixth Draconic Stage and two Seventh Draconic Stage cultivators. Bai Shiji is somewhat acceptable as he more or less has the same strength as Elder Brother Yang Wu, but Bai Shichen attained the Seventh Draconic Stage at only seventeen years old. He broke through the Seventh Draconic Stage the earliest, and his cultivation is still unfathomable. He has always been the strongest among the younger generation of Baiyang Town.”
Long Chen was confused. “He’s only at the Seventh Draconic Stage. What’s so special about Bai Shichen?”
Yang Lingqing shook her head. “Don’t you know? There were rumors that he almost broke through the Eighth Draconic Stage and that he had cultivated the Bai family’s advanced Yellow-tier martial technique, the Abyssal Heaven Fingers, up to the second finger! The Abyssal Heaven Fingers is stronger than our Dragon Seal. Also, the Dragon Seal only has two techniques while the Abyssal Heaven Fingers has three. The strength of the second technique of the Abyssal Heaven Fingers eclipses the strength of the Vast Dragon Seal! Unfortunately, Elder Brother Yang Wu has only managed to cultivate the Vast Dragon Seal.”
When Yang Lingqing was describing Bai Shichen, her voice was filled with helplessness.
“Seventh Draconic Stage, Abyssal Heaven Fingers? Sounds scary but I, Long Chen, only lose to him in terms of Qi.”
Yang Lingqing turned and stared at him. “He and Bai Shichen have the potential to hunt down a category eight Yellow-tier demonic beast. Tell me, how will our Yang family be a match for them?”
Long Chen didn’t know how to answer her. “There’s no need to feel dejected about it. You are a coward if you surrender before it starts. I, Long Chen, am not a coward. Who cares about the Bai family? Even if it's Bai Huahua, I would just smack him till he becomes Hei Youyou! [1]”
Yang Lingqing couldn’t stand Long Chen’s occasional lack of seriousness. She rolled her eyes. “You still haven’t changed your problem with boasting. They have a grudge against you, which means you are in the most danger during the Demon Hunting Tournament. You should cultivate properly and hide somewhere far away during the tournament or you might get humiliated …”
“Alright, alright, auntie. This humble person understands.”
Still, he smiled coldly in his heart. Hide? That’s not my style.
Long Chen’s nonchalance left Yang Lingqing speechless.
Soon Long Chen followed Yang Lingqing into a tall tower. They wove through some corridors and entered through a door before reaching a large open space.
Long Chen was in a daze as he stared at the rows of shops and the streets in front of him.
“This is the Warrior’s Market. I’m not sure where the herbs that nourish the Divine Soul are, so you should go ask for them yourself. You’ve been smart ever since you were young so you probably won’t get fooled by anyone. I’m almost at the Sixth Draconic Stage but I still need an opportunity. Since I’m already here, I might as well as go find it myself; otherwise I might die from anger because of you.”
Without waiting for his reply, she walked off and turned into one of the streets.
There were quite a few cultivators in Baiyang Town. Long Chen stared at the streets and roughly estimated that a few hundred people were shopping where he was. Everyone was a cultivator, and some of the stronger ones were even hiding within the crowd.
“The Warrior’s Market is indeed a place where the strong hide among the weak. Xiao Xi, can you feel where the herbs that can nourish your Divine Soul are?”
Ling Xi’s faint voice spoke in his ear. “You need to get closer. I can’t sense them if we are too far. There shouldn’t be too many herbs that can nourish the Divine Soul in such a small town. I need to search carefully …”
Ling Xi’s voice was getting fainter, and Long Chen grew more anxious. He prayed in his heart continuously in hopes of finding such a herb.
Long Chen decided to enter the first herbal shop. There were many different kinds of shops in the Warrior’s Market. Some of them sold weapons while others sold herbs. There were even pawn shops.
The pawn shops mainly purchased materials collected from demonic beasts and some other rare materials. Naturally, people purchased those items too. Most of the things that a cultivator needed could be found here.
Long Chen was engulfed in the fragrant smell of herbs the moment he entered the first herb shop. He guessed that the shop would have many herbs at the same level as the demonic ginseng. Long Chen realized that most of the transactions were done with spirit jades. Not many of them traded with gold and silver. He only had 500 spirit jades so he needed to be careful how he spent them.
The Yang patriarch had given him 500 spirit jades for his cultivation, but he didn’t mind spending all of it for the sake of Ling Xi’s life.
Long Chen walked around the shop as if he were inspecting the items but it was actually Ling Xi scanning the herbs. After circling the entire shop, they didn’t find what they needed.
Long Chen was panicking a little. He approached the shopkeeper, a middle-aged man with a grim face, and asked, “Are you selling any herbs that nourish the Divine Soul?”
The shopkeeper was slightly surprised. “I’m sorry, but we don’t have any.”
Long Chen was disappointed.
“Young man, it’s almost impossible to sell a herb that nourishes the Divine Soul in such a small town like Baiyang Town. Most of the shops like mine don't keep stock or sell them. If you are desperate for it, it’s better if you hurry along and ask the other shops.”
Long Chen nodded and thanked him. He had just walked out of the herbal shop when he anxiously asked Ling Xi. “Based on what he said, it seems that Baiyang Town doesn’t have any herbs that nourish the Divine Soul. Xiao Xi …”
“What should we do …”
Xiao Xi was panicking too. Baiyang Town was even more remote than she’d thought.
Long Chen clenched his fist. “No, we haven’t checked the other shops so we can’t give up now. Let’s go to the other shop. There has to be at least one in such a large market.”
He entered shop after shop. There were more than fifty herbal shops in the Warrior’s Market. Long Chen was wasting a lot of time going into each shop one by one and asking the shopkeepers. But what was more worrying was that none of them had it.
“I’m sorry, but we don’t have it.”
“We don’t usually keep stock of such herbs."
“It doesn’t sell well.”
Long Chen’s face became grimmer as he got more and more anxious.
“It’s fine if you can’t find it. Ever since my physical body was destroyed, I know I wouldn’t have much time left. But it’s nice knowing you, Long Chen …,”
Long Chen’s eyes progressively got more bloodshot as he growled softly. “Don’t say such nonsense. We still have more shops to go. I do not believe that I can’t even accomplish such a small task. If we can’t find it in Baiyang Town, we can visit other places. I don’t care about the Demon Hunting Tournament!”
“No, we can’t do that. I still have to help you unlock the seal …”
Just as the two of them were worrying about their predicament, there were several explosions a distance away. The shoppers moved towards the source of the explosion. Long Chen was ignoring the noise but someone suddenly said, “Looks like one of the young ladies from the Yang family is fighting with the Bai family!”
“Yang Lingqing?”
1. The author is trying to make a name joke. Even if he’s shining white (Bai Huahua), I’d make sure he’ll end up super dark (Hei Youyou)! ☜
Doge & Chacha's ThoughtsYeah I get that feeling when you one something specific but you are all the way out in the countryside and they don't stock it.
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