Chapter 37
As soon as she opened her eyes, Baek-Cheong’s small heart pounded at the thought of looking around the Marketplace.
Romantic fantasies that a genuine fortuitous encounter of the Xianxia World was waiting for her filled her head.
“Good morning, uncle.”
“Did you sleep well?”
“Hehe, yes, thanks to you.”
“Good. The food will get cold. Let’s eat.”
After finishing breakfast with her uncle, Baek-Cheong hurried to get ready to go out.
As soon as he finished his meal, her uncle hurriedly left the Mansion with his guards, saying he had to handle important affairs for the Merchant Guild.
Perhaps worried on his way out, he left her with a few parting words.
“Cheong-A, a Protector at the Late Foundation Establishment Stage, will accompany you on your tour of the Marketplace, so put your mind at ease and enjoy yourself. If there is anything you like, you can just put it on the Merchant Guild’s tab.”
With her uncle’s solid backing, Baek-Cheong felt her steps become as light as a feather.
“Young Lady, I will escort you to the Marketplace.”
Guided by the Protector, Baek-Cheong stepped out through the large gates of the Mansion.
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.
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The morning in Yeonha Immortal City was incredibly lively and bustling.
In addition to the fine shops lining both sides of the main street, countless street vendors were spread out in the middle of the road and in every corner of the alleys.
rogue cultivators and mortals who had flocked from all over laid out the miscellaneous goods they had scraped together on their stalls, enthusiastically soliciting customers.
“Come, come! The hide of a red tiger freshly caught yesterday from the Black Wind Forest! It’s the hide of a 2nd-Tier demonic beast, so its durability is guaranteed!”
“A hundred-year-old Spirit Ganoderma! There is no better spirit medicine for soothing the meridians of immortals!”
Baek-Cheong’s eyes sparkled at the noisy and bustling scenery of the Marketplace.
The urge to immediately spread out her massive 15-zhang Divine Sense to sweep through every corner for hidden fortuitous encounters among the street vendors surged within her.
However, recklessly deploying Divine Sense in a Marketplace densely packed with countless cultivators was no different from suicide.
Carelessly snooping on others and their goods with Divine Sense was a strict taboo in the Cultivation World.
If she accidentally offended a displeased Expert or an eccentric Old Monster, there was a high risk that she wouldn’t even be able to salvage her bones, even with a Protector present.
“Ah, it’s really frustrating not being able to use my Divine Sense.”
Swallowing her disappointment, Baek-Cheong had no choice but to use the Qi Observation Technique, which relied on her vision and subtle Spiritual Perception.
It was a basic search method that involved focusing energy into both eyes to read the flow of spiritual energy emitting from objects.
The first place she stopped was an old Stall scattered with rusted lumps of iron and unidentified metal fragments.
Stories about fortuitous encounters she had seen while browsing the Nameless Forum popped into her head.
“A Sword Art from the Ancient Era hidden inside an insignificant piece of scrap metal!”
Filled with anticipation, Baek-Cheong picked up a dark red, rusted sword fragment.
When she focused her Qi Observation Technique, she could feel a faint Metal Element aura, but that was all.
She couldn’t feel any traces of a mysterious Formation or a hidden will whatsoever.
“Where did you get this? Does it perhaps have an incredible origin…”
Baek-Cheong asked in a voice swollen with anticipation.
At that, the grimy-looking Stall owner flashed a good-natured smile and readily replied.
“Oh my, the young Young Lady’s eye for things is truly ordinary. That’s just a scrap of steel I picked up from a nearby junkyard. It’s only good for using as a fire poker.”
Baek-Cheong’s excitement completely deflated at the Stall owner’s overly honest and kind answer.
Usually, in places like this, merchants would bluff and inflate the value of their goods.
Baek-Cheong was completely unaware, but the merchant’s excessive kindness and honesty were entirely due to the Protector standing behind her.
To the rogue cultivators who made their living in the Marketplace, scions accompanied by protectors were existences that absolutely should not be messed with.
The rogue cultivators knew better than anyone that if they were caught trying to pull a scam, it would be difficult to keep their limbs intact.
“Ah… right, keep up the good work.”
Baek-Cheong awkwardly set the piece of metal down and headed to the next Stall.
This time, it was a place where all sorts of medicinal herbs and spiritual items were piled up in a mess.
Baek-Cheong fully utilized the discerning eye she had honed in Yak-seon’s Pill Room to scan the pile of herbs.
It was a shallow expectation that a rare spirit herb or a legendary fortuitous encounter was perhaps mixed in, hidden from the merchant’s eyes.
A single shriveled branch particularly caught her eye.
On the outside, it looked like ordinary firewood, but a subtle Wood Element aura was persistently fluctuating within it.
“Thought to be a dying weed, but it was actually the sprout of a Spirit Wisteria Tree from the Ancient Era!”
With a pounding heart, Baek-Cheong picked up the branch.
“What is this? I can feel an unusual aura from it.”
The Stall owner sweated profusely and hastily waved his hands.
“Ah, Young Lady! Please put that down! That’s a poisonous root I pulled from a Spirit Plant Field yesterday. It harbors a deadly poison, so it’s a very nasty weed that causes hives just from touching it! I hadn’t gotten around to sorting it out yet…”
Freaking out, Baek-Cheong threw the branch away.
Feeling a stinging sensation on her fingertips, she hurriedly deployed the Purification Art to wash her hands.
“Finding a real fortuitous encounter is so tough…”
Even after that, Baek-Cheong scoured the street vendors of the Marketplace as if searching for lice.
The faded, old Talisman Paper was just a defective product gnawed on by rats, and the pottery engraved with mysterious patterns was a cheap decoration mass-produced in a distant Spirit Kiln.
No matter how hard she glared with her Qi Observation Technique or grilled the merchants, she couldn’t see even a hair of a legendary fortuitous encounter or a hidden Peerless Secret Manual.
After she passed through hundreds of stalls, her anticipation gradually turned into disappointment and fatigue.
“They’re all duds… Other people seem to stumble upon fortuitous encounters just fine.”
Just as Baek-Cheong was grumbling with an exhausted expression.
In a secluded alley with rare foot traffic, an old Rogue Cultivator exuding a gloomy aura was sitting with a Stall laid out.
On the Stall, only a single old, worn-out wooden box sat conspicuously.
Baek-Cheong caught the unusual aura emitting from the wooden box.
It was a rather heavy and antique aura, distinctly different from the previous junk.
“What’s that?”
As Baek-Cheong tried to approach, drawn by curiosity, the Protector quickly blocked her path.
“Young Lady, please step back for a moment. That person’s aura is extremely murky and ominous.”
Despite the Protector’s warning, the old Rogue Cultivator flashed a sinister smile and held the wooden box out toward Baek-Cheong.
“Hehehe. Young Lady, you have quite the eye. This is a hidden treasure excavated from a Secret Realm of the Hwaeum Sect, which was annihilated a thousand years ago. I haven’t been able to open it to see what’s inside, but its aura is certainly extraordinary. I will hand it over for just one hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones.”
A hidden treasure from a Sect annihilated a thousand years ago.
It was a miraculous phrase that made cultivators open their wallets.
Baek-Cheong’s eyes rolled back in excitement as she grabbed her Storage Platform to take out her payment.
“It might be a real hidden treasure!”
Just as Baek-Cheong was about to pull out the Merchant Guild’s jade token.
Sharp Sword Qi erupted from the Protector’s Flying Sword.
Schwing!
The sharp tip of the Protector’s sword aimed precisely at the nape of the old Rogue Cultivator’s neck.
“How dare you try to deceive a precious member of the Baek Clan by selling junk covered in an Illusion Art as a hidden treasure! Get out of the Marketplace before I cut off your head this instant!”
At the Protector’s bellow, the old Rogue Cultivator turned pale and prostrated himself flat on the ground.
The antique aura emitting from the old wooden box the old Rogue Cultivator had held out scattered like smoke the moment it touched the Protector’s Sword Qi, revealing its true form as a shabby wooden crate.
It was the trick of a bold and malicious scammer who manipulated appearances to sell fake relics as genuine articles.
Watching this unfold, Baek-Cheong dropped her shoulders in dejection.
‘What fortuitous encounter? It’s just full of pure scammers.’
In the end, despite rummaging through the Marketplace all day, Baek-Cheong couldn’t salvage a single speck of dust and had to return to the Mansion with heavy steps.
Her body felt as heavy as a thousand catties, but her obsession with finding a fortuitous encounter still harbored a smoldering ember in a corner of her heart, refusing to die out.
Upon entering the Mansion’s Inner Hall, Baek Mu-Yeong, who had returned after finishing his affairs, greeted Baek-Cheong while drinking tea.
“Oh, Cheong-Yi, you’re back. Did you have fun looking around the Marketplace? Did you pick up any rare items?”
“No, it was nothing but junk and scammers everywhere. I couldn’t pick up a single thing.”
As Baek-Cheong grumbled with a pout, Baek Mu-Yeong laughed heartily and set down his teacup.
“Haha, picking up a really fortuitous encounter from a street vendor in the Marketplace is harder than finding a needle in a haystack. Truly rare and valuable items are traded in proper pavilions, not on straw mats.”
Baek Mu-Yeong looked at Baek-Cheong with a meaningful smile.
“As it happens, a rather large-scale auction is being held at the Myriad Phenomena Pavilion located in the center of the Immortal City tomorrow. I plan to attend for Merchant Guild business, so if you are thirsty for a fortuitous encounter, would you like to tag along with your uncle?”
“An Auction House!”
Baek-Cheong’s eyes snapped wide open at the boredom-banishing word.
An Auction House was truly a goldmine of fortuitous encounters, where legendary secret manuals, rare spirit medicines, and Dharma Treasures from the Ancient Era poured out as naturally as breathing.
“I’ll go! I’ll absolutely tag along! Please let me broaden my horizons, uncle!”
Baek-Cheong in a single breath blew away the fatigue and disappointment she had experienced in the Marketplace and clenched her fists.
She fully intended to sweep up true fortuitous encounters, backed by her status as the privileged and the abundant financial power of the Merchant Guild.