Chapter 142: Best of Both Worlds
After leaving the Thousand Medicine House, Han Li didn't immediately return to his cave abode on Mount Youyang. Instead, he began to explore some of the larger shops nearby.
The pills that he had purchased up to this point had almost completely exhausted his stash of spirit stones, and he was definitely going to need spending money, so he was planning to sell some of his materials and treasures for top-grade spirit stones.
After walking for a while, he made his way onto a crowded main street, and he spotted a tall building that occupied the best spot on the entire street.
The building was three stories tall, and it was entirely constructed from fire clay bricks. There was a pair of gold-plated pillars in front of the entrance, supporting a hexagonal eave, atop which were glazed green tiles and golden rooftop beasts, presenting a stunning sight to behold.
Above the entrance was a large red plaque with a golden border, upon which was inscribed the words "Exotic Treasure House" in majestic gold-plated text.
Han Li took a glance at the plaque, then made his way up the stone steps before striding over the doorstep to enter the shop.
There were quite a few customers in the shop, gathered together in small groups in front of a series of redwood counters, examining and pointing at the treasures and materials placed on the shelves behind the counters.
Each group was accompanied by an azure-robed attendant, who were either offering descriptions and explanations of the shop's wares, or pulling down items from the shelves so the customers could examine them more closely.
Han Li took a brief glance at his surroundings, and he discovered that even though the treasures and materials on the shelves weren't of a particularly high caliber, with even the best ones among them only suitable to be used by Deity Transformation cultivators, they were all of an extremely high quality.
Right at this moment, he was spotted by an azure-robed attendant, who quickly excused himself, then approached Han Li with a smile as he asked, "What are you looking for? Do you require my assistance with anything?"
"I'm not here to buy, I'm here to sell," Han Li replied with a smile.
The azure-robed attendant was rather taken aback to hear this, then said, "I see. In that case, please come with me. Master Hai and Master Hu have always been the ones overseeing the purchase of items in our Exotic Treasure House, so I'll take you to see them."
Han Li merely nodded in response.
He was led by the attendant up a spiral wooden staircase straight to the third floor.
The layout of the third floor was completely different from that of the first floor. Rather than a shop, it bore a much closer resemblance to a tea room, and there was a series of separate rooms here.
The attendant made his way to the door of one of the rooms, then called out, "Master Hai, Master Hu, I've brought a customer."
The door of the room swung open, and Han Li was greeted by the sight of two people seated across from one another with a go board placed on the table between them, upon which were dozens of black and white stones.
The two of them looked up at Han Li, and upon sensing his aura, they immediately rose to their feet before extending a salute to him.
Among them was a scholarly azure-robed middle-aged man, and he waved a hand to dismiss the attendant, then said, "My name is Hai Wuliang, and this here is my colleague, Hu Dayou. May I ask your name, Fellow Daoist?"
The short-haired elderly man's attention was still on the game, and his gaze remained on the go board. He merely put on a faint smile and nodded at Han Li in an absent-minded manner.
"You can call me Liu Shi," Han Li replied.
"The two of us have always been responsible for the appraisal and purchase of items here in the Exotic Treasure House. The fact that you've been brought here must mean that you have something to sell to us, right?" the scholarly man asked with a warm smile.
"That's right. I have a water spirit bell here that I would like to have appraised," Han Li replied with a smile.
He flipped a hand over as he spoke, and a small blue bell appeared on the palm of his hand, The bell was glittering and translucent, with complex runes inscribed on its surface, and there were also several streaks of light that resembled roaming dragons swirling around it.
Hai Wuliang's eyes instantly lit up at the sight of the bell, and the short-haired elderly man also finally shifted his gaze away from the go board.
The two of them carefully accepted the water spirit bell, and after some close examination, they exchanged a glance with one another, following which one of them said, "This is a treasure of a very high caliber, and it can only be used by cultivators who are at least at the Grand Ascension Stage. However, it appears to not be an offensive or defensive treasure. Instead, it can only be used to seal all of the spiritual qi in an area."
This was a treasure that Han Li had secured from Han Qiu's storage bracelet, and just as the short-haired elderly man said, it was a rather niche treasure.
Hence, this was the first treasure that Han Li wanted to sell.
"You are indeed correct, Fellow Daoist. However, this is an exceptional treasure for those who are using water-attribute cultivation arts or want to conceal certain water-attribute spirit items. I'm sure you'll give me a fair price," Han Li said with a smile.
After a brief moment of contemplation, Hu Dayou asked, "I can do three top-grade spirit stones. What do you think Fellow Daoist?"
Han Li thought about this offer for a moment, and he felt it to be a fair price, so he nodded in response.
After that, he flipped his hand over once again to summon a white bead, which was giving off glacial qi that was visible even to the naked eye.
As soon as the bead appeared, the temperature of the room instantly plummeted, and a burst of faint crackling rang out from the teacups placed beside the go board. As it turned out, the tea inside had been instantly frozen solid.
The eyes of the two appraisers lit up once again, and they began to carefully examine the bead...
Around an hour later, Han Li slowly emerged from the Exotic Treasure House. Hai Wuliang and Hu Dayou had insisted on accompanying him down to the first floor and out of the shop.
Prior to his departure, they had invited him repeatedly to come back if he had any more treasures that he wanted to sell, and they assured him that they would give him good prices.
Han Li thanked them with a smile, then turned to depart, and the two appraisers watched him until he was completely out of sight before returning to the Exotic Treasure House, much to the bewilderment of all of the shop's attendants and customers.
They had purchased five treasures and a spirit material from Han Li, and they were ecstatic, thinking that they had made a massive haul.
However, in reality, they had only purchased around a tenth of everything that Han Li wanted to sell.
After leaving the Exotic Treasure House, Han Li visited the largest few shops in the city one by one, and only as night began to descend did he leave Black Wind City and return to his temporary cave abode on Mount Youyang.
After activating all of the restrictions in the cave abode, he went straight into his secret chamber.
Inside, he flipped a hand over to summon his azure cow mask, then placed it onto his face.
He then tapped his index and middle fingers against his glabella while chanting an incantation, and a burst of azure light flew out of the mask to form a giant array plate on the wall.
His gaze roamed over the right side of the array plate for a moment, following which he began flicking his fingers through the air.
One streak of light flew forth after another, and they all contained treasures that landed on the azure array plate.
Even though Han Li had altered his appearance several times and sold his stash of treasures and spirit materials in several batches, he still kept several of the most valuable treasures in his collection, including that black metal spike he had obtained from Wyrm 16.
These remaining treasures were virtually all scavenged from the bodies of the deceased Transient Guild members during his last trip to Red Moon Island, and most of them were signature treasures of theirs, so revealing them in Black Wind City could spell trouble for him.
Hence, he had decided to sell them all in the Transient Guild.
After that, a thought suddenly occurred to Han Li, and he turned his gaze to the left side of the array plate before writing something in the air.
As one glowing azure character flew into the array plate after another, a mission that was requesting leads for dao pill recipes quickly took shape.
After doing all of that, he stowed away his mask and closed his eyes to meditate.
……
Several days passed by in the blink of an eye, and Han Li thought that it was going to be a very long time until he heard back about his dao pill recipe mission, but to his surprise, that was the first thing that he received a response on.
However, he hadn't been given any dao pill recipes. Instead, he was informed that what he was requesting was too precious, and such a thing generally wouldn't appear in normal trades.
Only higher-level core members of the Transient Guild could occasionally encounter someone willing to put a dao pill recipe up for trade, but even then, the trade conditions were always extremely rigorous and virtually impossible to satisfy.
Han Li was also informed that if he could obtain the title of Heavenly Pill Master and a piece of suitable collateral, then it would be far easier to obtain dao pill recipes.
In fact, if he could satisfy those two conditions, then he wouldn't even have to actively seek out dao pill recipes on his own. Instead, other guild members would supply him with recipes and ingredients so that he could refine the pills for them.
After that, Han Li inquired about some matters related to the three paramount laws, and he was told that there were many scriptures that claimed to be able to allow one to cultivate the paramount laws, but most of them were under the ownership of powerful entities in the Immortal Realm, and they were generally kept secret from outsiders.
As for some that were circulating in the outside world, they were either incomplete or flawed and unreliable, so no one would dare to cultivate them.
Furthermore, during the past few days, all of the treasures that Han Li had put up for sale in the Transient Guild were sold one after another.
In addition to the spirit stones he had obtained from selling treasures and materials in Black Wind City, he had made a small fortune of over 600 top-grade spirit stones.
This was an astronomical sum of wealth for the average cultivator, but in Han Li's eyes, it was nowhere near enough for the grand auction that was coming up in three years and the steep cost that would be required to leave the Black Wind Sea.
However, he wasn't overly concerned, and he released another mission to the Transient Guild, this one to search for Soulbirth Flower seeds.
According to his estimates, with the assistance of the Heaven Controlling Vial, he would definitely be able to nurture a Soulbirth Flower above 10,000 years old prior to the commencement of the grand auction.
With such a precious item up his sleeve, he was confident that he would be able to exchange it for whatever he required.
However, if he were to use the spirit liquid to accelerate the maturation of a Soulbirth Flower, then the rate at which his Earthly Deity Avatar was deriving heavy water would undoubtedly be negatively impacted.
However, this was unavoidable, and it was impossible to get the best of both worlds.
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