Chapter 64
Baek-Cheong lay on her bed, losing track of time as she monitored the trends on the Nameless Forum.
Her confident troll post had been buried under the mockery of Dao Friends, but the fervor for the Five Elements Pill did not cool down and burned steadily.
The bidding price, which had briefly stalled at 15 High-High-Grade Spirit Stones, began to rise once again as the Auction Deadline approached and dao friends who had finished their waiting game joined the fray.
Finally, a notification appeared stating that the long, five-day auction had ended.
[Dao Friend (913.14)'s auction has been won.]
[Final Winning Bid Price: 20 High-High-Grade Spirit Stones.]
[Successful Bidder: Dao Friend (237.309)]
Baek-Cheong’s mouth dropped wide open upon seeing the auction results.
Converted to Low-High-Grade Spirit Stones, it amounted to a staggering two hundred thousand.
“I’m rich!”
But the joy was short-lived.
A subtle twitch formed on Baek-Cheong’s face as she belatedly checked the successful bidder’s Interface Number.
Before long, Dao Friend (237.309) left a post that seemed to boast about the winning bid.
『Dao Friend (237.309): The exterior looks plausible enough, so it seems to be real.』
[I’ll feed it to my cherished Five Elements Spirit Root test subject and leave a review if the effects are certain. If it’s a scam, I’ll be quite disappointed in Dao Friend (913.14).]
In the end, a crazy Old Monster crushed the other dao friends with overwhelming wealth and obtained the Five Elements Pill.
And it wasn’t even a purchase for their own consumption, but to feed to a test subject.
“It’s not a scam, so… they’ll know once they feed it. And even if it were a scam, what are they gonna do about it?”
Baek-Cheong bluffed, wiping away the cold sweat trickling down the back of her neck.
Struggling to shake off her anxiety, she checked her Storage Platform.
The Nameless Forum’s trading function was razor-sharp and precise.
In one corner of the Storage Platform, twenty High-High-Grade Spirit Stones emitting a brilliant light were neatly stacked.
Taking out one High-Grade Spirit Stone to examine it, she felt its highly pure spiritual energy and finally realized she had become rich.
“Where do I even use this?”
However, even with twenty High-High-Grade Spirit Stones in her possession, it was an awkward situation to actually use them.
She was merely at 5th-Stage Qi Condensation, so it would be dangerous to go around outside using High-High-Grade Spirit Stones, and their origin was too unclear to present them proudly to the Clan elders.
If she, who had been cooped up in the Main Family, suddenly whipped out twenty High-High-Grade Spirit Stones, a terrifying interrogation demanding their Source was bound to follow.
Even so, she couldn’t exactly confess that she had sold something in an unidentified space called the Nameless Forum.
“Ah, I have Spirit Stones but I can’t even use them as I please. They’re totally white elephants.”
Baek-Cheong smacked her lips, glaring at the High-High-Grade Spirit Stones in her Storage Platform with resentful eyes.
From the start, she could freely take Pill Refining Ingredients from Yak-seon’s Pill Refining Room, and the Clan generously provided any items needed for her Training.
As a result, unable to handle the overflowing Spirit Stones, Baek-Cheong naturally turned her eyes elsewhere.
“Since these are Spirit Stones earned in the Nameless Forum, maybe I should flex them in the Nameless Forum.”
Baek-Cheong slowly browsed the items for sale on the Marketplace Board.
She held onto the expectation that, just as she had sold off the Five Elements Pill, someone else might have posted a tremendous fortuitous encounter.
However, the Nameless Forum’s Marketplace was no different from before; the more she looked around, the further it was from her romantic imagination.
The listings filling the board mostly consisted of extremely ordinary 1st-grade low-low-tier spirit herbs, crude basic talismans, or suspicious items with unclear origins.
Furthermore, searching for Marketplace-related reviews on the Chat Board revealed an even more dismal situation.
『Dao Friend (234.9): Never buy anything from the Marketplace.』
[They said it was an Ancient Era Talisman Formation on the Marketplace, so I paid a fortune for it. It was just a scrap of a talisman that mortals used and threw away. All you scammer bastards should drop dead.]
『Dao Friend (112.5): I bought a 4th-4th-grade Spirit Treasure and almost got possessed by the Nascent Soul inside it.』
[I happened to need a Nascent Soul stage Nascent Soul anyway, but I’m leaving this review to warn juniors to be careful.]
With so many dao friends present, it was no different from a lawless zone where scams and deception ran rampant.
If one lacked the ability to discern dao friends and posts with a keen eye, the Nameless Forum Marketplace was a place where one’d get robbed blind.
“As expected, non-face-to-face transactions can’t be trusted.”
Unable to hide her disappointment, Baek-Cheong quickly swiped through the Marketplace posts.
She was filtering out the miscellaneous garbage listings and digging into the older posts on the Marketplace Board.
She stopped at a certain post.
『Dao Friend (718.44) Selling: Five Elements Banner, never used. 10 High-High-Grade Spirit Stones.』
[It’s a flag that can handle all Five Element attributes.]
A brutal price tag of 10 High-High-Grade Spirit Stones.
Compared to that, the description was so poor and lacking that it felt insincere.
On the surface, it clearly looked like a scammer’s post or the prank of an attention-seeker putting up an absurd price to enjoy the reactions.
“This Interface Number is…!”
However, Baek-Cheong’s small heart pounded fiercely as she recognized the Interface Number.
It was the Dao Friend she had stumbled upon while struggling to resolve her cursed aptitude as a Five Elements Spirit Root holder, the Senior Dao Friend and fellow Five Elements Spirit Root Holder who had scattered fortuitous encounters related to the Five Elements Spirit Root across the Nameless Forum before suddenly ascending to the Upper Realm.
“Could it be… they posted it on the Marketplace a long time ago and forgot about it?”
Since the Marketplace Board, like the Information Board, had few new posts, even posts from several years ago could be found just by turning a few pages.
Because of this, it was common for older posts towards the back to remain like Dead Stock.
It was highly likely that this was an item Dao Friend (718.44) had tried to dispose of on the Marketplace in the past, but it had been left behind, unsold.
“I absolutely have to buy this!”
Filled with excitement, Baek-Cheong sprang up from her bed.
It was an item belonging to a Great Cultivator who had ascended to the Upper Realm, an item from a senior who had overcome the shackles of the Five Elements Spirit Root and awakened to the Principles of the Five Elements to their absolute limit.
Given the name Five Elements Banner, it was undoubtedly a tremendous fortuitous encounter - a flag specialized in handling Five Elements Qi.
If not for Dao Friend (718.44)'s advice in the first place, she wouldn’t have awakened to the Five Elements Mutual Generation and circulation, and she would still be struggling to forum-surf without having broken through the Barrier of the 5th-stage.
Therefore, a blind faith and a deep respect for Dao Friend (718.44) were firmly rooted in Baek-Cheong’s heart.
“It’s mine!”
She lost her reason, captivated by an impulsive desire to purchase.
Yet, a sudden, random question popped into her mind.
“But how do I pay for and receive an item in the Lower Realm from someone who has already ascended to the Upper Realm?”
It was unknown whether the Nameless Forum could transcend realms for the Transmission of items.
‘There seems to be a separate Upper Realm Nameless Forum anyway, so it’ll probably figure itself out.’
Baek-Cheong tossed aside her useless worries.
They were High-High-Grade Spirit Stones with ambiguous uses anyway.
Even if she got scammed and blew them, her stomach might churn a bit, but it wouldn’t be a blow to her livelihood.
Rather, as she thought that she could snatch up the fortuitous encounter with an ascended Great Cultivator for a bargain, an investment of this level was well worth the risk.
[Payment has been completed.]
[10 High-High-Grade Spirit Stones have been deducted.]
[Dao Friend (718.44)'s item has been transmitted to your Storage Platform.]
Along with notifications she normally wouldn’t have even glanced at, 10 High-High-Grade Spirit Stones vanished without a trace from her Storage Platform.
And as if in exchange, a single old, crude flag appeared out of nowhere in her Storage Platform.
Even though the Storage Platform was linked to the Nameless Forum, it was such a fascinating occurrence that she was curious about the underlying principles.
“I-I really bought it!”
Filled with excitement, Baek-Cheong pulled out the Five Elements Banner that had been transmitted to her Storage Platform.
Expecting it to spew out heaven-shaking spiritual energy and a brilliant Five-Colored halo of light, she even deployed her Qi Observation Technique to check it.
“…Huh?”
However, her excited expression gradually stiffened.
The Five Elements Banner, examined through the Qi Observation Technique, was far too different from her expectations.
It was in a crude state: five strands of yellowed, faded, and patchy Five-Colored Cloth were shoddily tied to a crooked Wooden Staff that was embarrassing to even call a flagpole.
Far from heaven-shaking spiritual energy, a faint aura - even weaker than a commonplace 1st-Grade Low-Tier Talisman - was barely trickling out of it.
“No way, right?”
Flustered, Baek-Cheong spread her Divine Sense to scan the Five Elements Banner.
But she couldn’t figure out from the Five Elements Banner how to use it.
Even when she alternately infused Five Elements Qi from her Dantian, the old scraps of cloth merely fluttered powerlessly; no Technique/Spell-like fluctuations or feeling of a Formation manifested.
“W-what is this? How do you use it?”
She swung the flag this way and that, and tapped the Wooden Staff, but there was no change.
A sense of despondency washed over her, as if she were holding a cheap flag used by mortals.
“Could it be… I got scammed by an ascended Senior Dao Friend?”
Baek-Cheong froze with a devastated expression, alternately staring at the unsightly Five Elements Banner in her hand and the High-High-Grade Spirit Stones in her Storage Platform, which had been reduced by half.
“Nah, there’s no way.”
What kind of Soul Formation stage cultivator would try to scam his or her juniors?
“…Well, not me, for one.”
Suddenly feeling a prick of conscience, she retorted inwardly.
But looking at the Five Elements Banner she had purchased for 10 High-High-Grade Spirit Stones, she felt like she had fallen into a Labyrinth.
“Seriously, what is this?”
Baek-Cheong figured there must be a separate way to use it, like the Baekju Dharma Tool.
She absolutely did not want to believe that she had been blinded and scammed.