Chương 12: Trading Stalls and the First Clash with Reality

An walked through the forest and emerged onto the Outer Platform. Setting his sights on the Kavana tree, he ran toward it.

"Now I can use my Qi, transform it into a wind-like element, and add a bit of sharpness. Come on, imagination, work!" He practiced on the ground beneath his feet, but while he could imagine the sharpness, he couldn't quite actualize it. In the end, An simply compressed the energy flow into a thin, narrow thread. He launched it with force at a fruit, successfully slicing the twig. Seeing it work, An began firing these Qi threads in every direction.

As the fruits fell, they were caught by another flow of Qi, which An used to guide them directly into his pouch. After some time, he realized there was almost no space left, so he decided to stop. Looking up at the remaining fruits in the higher branches, he nodded, he had only taken a small portion of the entire harvest. He decided it was time to check the trading stalls on either side of the Hall. He went to the right side first. Even though it was still night, more than a third of the tables were open.

Approaching the first one, An saw various trinkets, though half of them emitted no Qi flows at all.

"What's this? And this? And that?" An asked, pointing his finger at everything on the table.

"Night butterfly wings, a sleeping draught, stomach relaxants, a stone with a seed inside, spirit beast skins from early first-rank beasts, and some seeds I found in a cave during a mission..." As the disciple explained each item, his voice grew heavy and sharp with irritation.

"How much for the seeds and the stone with the seed?" An asked, staring intently.

"Um... ten shards for the six seeds and fifteen for the stone," the seller said, his voice softening as he anticipated finally getting rid of the junk he was tired of carrying.

"Shards? I don't have any. What about five Kavana fruits?" An pulled five fruits from his pouch and held them out.

"Kavana? Five is too few. Eight, and we have a deal!" The seller's eyes lit up. An nodded and added three more. He was surprised at how quickly the disciple snatched them up before handing over the seeds in an envelope and the stone. An tucked the items away and continued his rounds.

"What's this? And this?" He began walking from table to table, annoying everyone. Some stayed silent, seeing the brand on his neck, while others snapped at him to leave. Some accepted the fruits in exchange for goods, but others simply refused, not trusting him. By the time he finished, he had bought several items others considered useless: forty first-rank seeds, a small sickle for spirit plants, and a few miscellaneous herbs.

He sat on the steps of the Outer Hall to review his haul, then stood up and headed inside. An approached an open window "Greetings, Elder. I would like to ask where I can exchange items for contribution points and how to buy things with them?" The middle-aged cultivator behind the window raised his head. He looked An up and down, his nostrils flaring slightly.

"You can do that right here. What do you want to exchange?" He pointed to a tray next to the window. All the while, the elder's furrowed gaze didn't leave An's face, his dislike obvious. Trying to ignore the stare, An took out one fruit and his two experimental pills. He slid the tray toward the elder.

"Hmm... a Kavana fruit." The elder raised an eyebrow, "One fruit, one point." He tapped the tray, then turned to the pills. He unwrapped the first one.

"A pill? What is this? Where did you get it?"

"There is a calming effect in that pill, but it is also poisonous," An explained.

"Heh... some senior's alchemy waste. This is useless." The elder smirked and picked up the second pill.

"This one has a strong calming and paralyzing effect on the body," An said. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Hmm, slightly better, I suppose. Still useless. Tell your senior brother, the one you serve, that the Hall only accepts first-rank pills and above. And strictly by recipe! Who is going to check these strange pills for poison?" The elder tossed the pill back onto the tray with a lazy gesture.

"Then I want to exchange fifty fruits for points." An produced forty-nine more fruits, covering the table. The elder looked surprised at the quantity but quickly regained his cold expression.

"Plaque!" the elder demanded after counting them. An handed it over, and after a few seconds, the elder returned it. An checked his balance and saw he had only forty points, when he should have had sixty.

"Why did you only credit thirty? Where are the other twenty?" An asked, looking the elder in the eye.

"Who are you to question me? You pup, take your plaque and get out of here!" The elder snorted and swept all the fruits into his own pouch before demonstratively slamming the window shut. An boiled with rage. He was about to bang on the glass but stopped himself.' This is the cultivation world. Strength decides everything... and I have no clan or family. I'm just a ten-year-old slave.

'He turned toward the exit, trying to calm his breathing,' Getting thirty out of fifty is better than nothing... but I'll remember your ugly face.' Leaving the Hall, An walked back to the Kavana tree and sat beneath it to wait for morning, hoping that more disciples would arrive to trade interesting things. In the morning, An saw that the empty spots at the trading tables were slowly being occupied. This time, he only bought two things, a dozen hooks and twenty meters of sturdy fishing line.

He decided that since he lived by a lake, it would be a crime not to take full advantage of it. After checking his pouch, An walked entirely around the Outer Hall, hoping to discover what else was there besides the Scripture Pavilion. During his exploration, he found the Alchemy Hall, the Workshop, and the Hall of Justice. The Hall of Justice was decorated with black flags with green borders. At the main gate stood two statues over ten meters high. One was a warrior holding a spear and shield.

The second was a dog, about seven meters high, in a sitting pose, with a huge cauldron around its neck like a bell on a collar. Both statues were carved from snow-white stone. An didn't go inside, as he saw no immediate reason to do so. Next was the Workshop. Above its gate were intricate metal patterns, various shapes in the form of beasts, people, weapons, and pills. The gate itself was made of bright red wood. Stepping inside, he saw that the floor consisted of gray wooden planks laid out like tile.

The base of the walls was trimmed with the same red wood as the doors, and vines grew in patches along the walls, much like in the Outer Hall. Listening to the conversations around him, An realized that this Hall was essentially a miniature version of all the specializations found on other Peaks. Since each Peak had its own primary focus, disciples on Hope Peak could still study Formations or Artifacts here without any problems.

On a different Peak, there might not be a separate Alchemy Hall, it would simply be part of that Peak's Workshop. After another look around, he left and headed for the Alchemy Hall. The Alchemy Hall appeared unremarkable at first, designed in uniform, calming colors. There were no statues at the gate, just a large sign reading ' Alchemy Hall'. However, what caught his eye was the sheer number of plants on the walls and the gate itself.

In other buildings, vines were sparse and only found inside, but here, they covered the exterior as well. Inside, An saw that almost everything was made of brown and dark green wood, except for the walls, which were a soft white with a hint of pink. Everything was draped in vines and flowers: the walls, the ceiling, and even the edges of the floors. In the center of the hall stood ten sections with tables, similar to those in the Outer Hall but without the glass partitions.

Behind these tables were doors leading deeper into the building. On either side of these sections were two large hallways. The right corridor led down to a basement area, while the left led up. An decided to explore the right side first. He descended the stairs and reached the first basement floor, which opened into a very long corridor. Thick stone doors were set into the walls about five meters apart. Some were open, while others were tightly closed. Approaching the nearest open door, he peeked inside.

It was a small room, two by two meters, made of dark stone. In the center stood a small cauldron, against the far wall sat a table and chair with a small cushion nearby. He glanced into the next open room and saw an identical setup. He also noticed that the walls between these rooms were a full meter thick. The corridor seemed to curve clockwise. Curious, An walked to the very end, counting a thousand rooms over the course of an hour.

He realized the underground structure was built in the shape of a snail shell, though he wasn't sure how tightly it coiled. If it were a perfect spiral, the journey would have taken him much longer. An then tried to descend even further, but after a few minutes, he ran into a glowing formation. He pushed against it and presented his plaque several times, but the barrier didn't budge. Realizing the path was closed to him, he hung his head and turned back. On his way up, he passed several senior brothers and sisters.

Some simply ignored him. Others looked as if they were about to offer a greeting, but upon seeing the brand on his neck, they immediately looked away. An no longer paid any attention to it.