“Thirty superior spirit stones,” replied Zhou Donghuang.
The man’s hopes of being able to buy the Thousand-Year Red Wood for a low price were immediately dashed.
“Brother, can’t you sell it for less?” asked the Winter Valley disciple with a smile. “Look, I just spent twenty superior spirit stones on your Frozen-blood Jade.”
“No bargaining,” replied Zhou Donghuang flatly as he glanced calmly at the Winter Valley disciple.
“Alright.” The man looked disappointed, but he was helpless. He still intended to purchase the Thousand-year Red Wood. “Brother, I do not have enough spirit stones at the moment. Can you wait for a while? I’ll borrow them from someone and be back right.”
“Half an hour.” With that, Zhou Donghuang stowed the Thousand-year Red Wood.
“I’ll be back within half an hour!” the Winter Valley disciple promised. Then, he anxiously took to the skies and headed in the direction of the Winter Valley. Clearly, he was going to borrow spirit stones.
En route, the Winter Valley disciple prayed quietly, “I hope that, during this half an hour, he does not look at the auction board. Otherwise, he will definitely sell the Thousand-year Red Wood to the person from the Summer Valley who bid on it! That Summer Valley disciple has bid eighty superior spirit stones for the Thousand-year Red Wood!”
Of course, he was worried about nothing. Zhou Donghuang had already known the amount that the Summer Valley disciple had bid. Otherwise, he would not have Frozen-blood Jade or Thousand-year Red Wood in his hands. These two items had been made using cheap materials. Unless they were really used, the fakes would be indistinguishable from the real thing. The old forgery manual that Zhou Donghuang had obtained in his previous life was considered a priceless treasure throughout the entire universe. Zhou Donghuang had already used many of the forgery techniques to trick many deities.
“What a pity that, out of the ten-plus items that the Summer Valley disciples have bid on, only nine can be forged. The remainders are either not suitable for forgery or require a fire stronger than the third-level of Samadhi fire to create.” Although Zhou Donghuang had three Golden Essences, he was still some way away from attaining his fourth. He was a Primal Core adept, and the fire he produced could only be classified as a third-level Samadhi fire.
To produce a fire of the fourth level, one of his Golden Essences would have to attain the Dharma stage. Of course, for one of his Golden Essences to reach the Dharma stage, all four of his Essences had to be Golden Essences already. Only then would he be able to break through the Dharma frontier. This was the unique characteristic of the “Way of the Four Supremes,” and it was a rule that he had no choice but to obey.
Now, I’ll sell two first. Later, I’ll try to sell the other seven, Zhou Donghuang thought to himself.
Zhou Donghuang had given the Winter Valley disciple half an hour, but he returned after twenty minutes and handed the spirit stones to Zhou Donghuang. “Brother, here are thirty superior spirit stones, count them for yourself.”
“Correct.” Zhou Donghuang accepted the spirit stones and took out the Thousand-year Red Wood and passed it to the Winter Valley disciple. “Test it for yourself.”
The Winter Valley disciple picked up the piece of wood and scrutinized it, then nodded and said, “No problem. Thank you, brother.” With that, the man left after bidding farewell to Zhou Donghuang. As he left, his face and eyes were filled with excitement he could barely conceal. The two items in his hands would earn him eighty superior spirit stones once he resold them! And it would take him less than half a day to make that amount! As the Winter Valley disciple hurried off to find the disciple from the Summer Valley who had placed the bid on the items, Zhou Donghuang took out another two items.
Not long after, someone else took the bait. This time, Zhou Donghuang had two customers. The two looked at each other knowingly, and each bought one item without saying a word. Both of them were well aware that both of these items were on the auction board.
If they sold to the disciple of the Summer Valley, one of the items could earn the first buyer twenty superior spirit stones, while the other would make the second buyer fifty superior spirit stones. After the two of them had bought the items and walked out of Zhou Donghuang’s earshot, they whispered to each other, “That brother must be out of touch with the auction board. How could he put these two items up for sale? And for market price!” He shook his head and said quietly, and his eyes filled with excitement.
The other person took out fifteen superior spirit stones and handed them to the first man. “I did not call you out, and you didn’t expose me either. Here, I’ll give you fifteen superior spirit stones, so we’ll each earn thirty-five spirit stones from this deal.”
“Thank you, Brother Lan!” The first man took the spirit stones and thanked him profusely.
“Let’s go! We’ll find the two people from the Summer Valley and sell these items to them!” the second man exclaimed, his face radiating with glee. “I never thought that there would be such an easy way to earn spirit stones! With just one transaction, we can earn thirty-five superior spirit stones. Under normal circumstances, we could only earn thirty-six superior spirit stones in three years from the sect.” Clearly, these two men were inner disciples.
“Brother Lan, will that brother cause trouble for us later?” The first man was worried.
“Don’t worry about it.” The other man was nonchalant. “The market has its own rules. Furthermore, we paid for the spirit stones in full. We do not have a duty to remind the merchant that the two items are on the Summer Valley’s auction board. A while ago, the Autumn Valley disciple, Da Zhuang, bought a fake nine-ringed bamboo from the Summer Valley disciple, Pan Yilin, and lost a hundred mid-level spirit stones. But he did not get anything back at the end of the day. The market has its rules. We traded spirit stones for the item, so after the trade, nobody can reverse it.”
Hearing this, the first man then calmed down. “Now that you mention it, Da Zhuang was unfortunate. A hundred mid-level spirit stones are equivalent to ten superior spirit stones.”
The two men thought that Zhou Donghuang would not be able to hear them since they were some ways away, but Zhou Donghuang’s hearing ability had been enhanced by the “Way of the Four Supremes” each time his level of attainment had improved, so he could hear every word.
He shook his head and smiled to himself. These two were simply pawns in the game of chess he was playing.
“Let’s continue.” Over the rest of the day, Zhou Donghuang successfully sold the remaining fake goods at his stall. He finally sold the ninth item at dusk. Then, he packed up and returned to the Autumn Valley.
“The Summer Valley is about to have some fun these next few days!” On his way back to the Autumn Valley, Zhou Donghuang smiled to himself as if he had accomplished something unremarkable today. To him, it was indeed not worth a mention. The nine fake items had taken him ten full days to create. But this was because he had spent much of that time on his practice and had only invested a little of his downtime in creating the items.
“The most important thing right now is to train the fourth Golden Essence. Only then can I break through the Dharma frontier. Otherwise, I can’t even go anywhere near the Dharma stage’s barrier.” For Zhou Donghuang, who was practicing the “Way of the Four Supremes,” he could only reach the Dharma stage after attaining his fourth Golden Essence.
After returning to the Autumn Valley, Zhou Donghuang prepared to return to his room in the courtyard to train. When he arrived, he noticed that Da Zhuang was chatting with some people in the adjacent yard. These people were comforting Da Zhuang. Zhou Donghuang had a vague impression of these men, who were all disciples of the Autumn Valley.
“Little Brother is back.” Once Zhou Donghuang arrived in the air above his courtyard, Da Zhuang noticed him.
Zhou Donghuang nodded, then landed in his own courtyard. As for the other people, he paid no attention to them at all. Seeing this, the few men beside Da Zhuang were slightly offended.
“This Zhou Donghuang has no manners!”
“Doesn’t he know how to greet his seniors?”
…
The few Autumn Valley disciples beside Da Zhuang were all energetic teenage boys. Since Zhou Donghuang’s arrival in the Autumn Valley, they had noticed that, whenever the teenage girls from Autumn Valley gathered, they no longer talked about them. They were only concerned about the newcomer, Zhou Donghuang. This made them feel as if Zhou Donghuang had stolen their limelight, and they were secretly jealous of him.
“Seniors, please do not badmouth Little Brother.” Da Zhuang frowned. “Little Brother is a very kind man, so you cannot badmouth him.”
“Da Zhuang, we are not badmouthing him!” Because Da Zhuang was very close to the princess of Autumn Valley, He Mengxi, all the male disciples were very polite to Da Zhuang. “We only said that he was disrespectful. He did not even greet us when he saw us.”
“Exactly! He is nowhere as polite as you, Da Zhuang.”
“We are here discussing how to take revenge for you. What about him? Who knows what this newcomer has been doing all day out there. He comes back so late and rushes into his room as if he does not care that the Summer Valley disciples bullied Da Zhuang.”
…
Hearing these disciples speaking so brazenly about Zhou Donghuang, Da Zhuang was furious, and his face turned red. He growled in a low voice, “Seniors, Little Brother is nothing like that! If you badmouth him one more time, I… I… I will have nothing more to do with you!” Da Zhuang was immensely angered by what they had said.
The Autumn Valley disciples did not expect Da Zhuang’s reaction to be so extreme. They looked awkwardly at each other, then left quickly. As they turned to leave, their eyes were filled with disgust and arrogance. If not for their intention to use Da Zhuang as a steppingstone to get into the Autumn Valley princess’ good books, none of them would have bothered talking to a big fool like Da Zhuang.
