Side Story: Buying and Selling

Herb farming was the original sect industry Chen Wentian had planned. The events during the war gave him a second one, one involving creating spatial bags and camouflaging spatial bags. This industry would be much more difficult to get going but would also be much more profitable. For it, he needed void energy from the void bee hive as well as hairs from General Jiao, the immortal camouflaging sasquatch.

The queen void bee had been successfully transferred to Ten Thousand Valley. Unfortunately, most of the existing hive could not be moved. During the chaotic last moments of the war, he managed to carry the queen with him through the teleportation array but there was no chance for others. They were all ordered to suicide to avoid falling into the wrong hands.

At least the queen was still alive. If he had absorbed the soul but without a living queen's body, he could not create worker bees or create a hive.

The queen bee started building a new hive in the forest next to the herb farm. It was a good place. The variety of cultivated herbs and flowers nearby provided rich nectar. The larva needed common nectar until they grew mature. Once that happened, the they would mostly live off of space-attribute spiritual energy in order to further cultivate.

Having a female insect soul was slightly strange for Chen Wentian so he took a hands-off approach. He did not want to be involved with day-to-day activities such as laying hundreds of eggs. It would be totally weird. He merely scanned its memories occasionally while leaving out the juicy details.

Getting hairs from the sasquatch was also difficult. An immortal beast had full control of its body and did not shed hair unless it wanted to or through force. General Kong, the gorilla, did not have the reputation of being smart or interested in such things. It would be strange to directly ask to buy hairs from the beast. It would be incredibly suspicious and might tip off King Wu.

The king was already in a terrible mood. They had lost the war and General Sun, the snow monkey, had also abandoned them out of the blue. It made no sense and none of the underlings knew exactly what had happened. There were only a large number of missing monkeys and a small number of missing female human prisoners.

The final conclusion was that General Sun, with its perverted ways, found an incredible human female among the prisoners and did not want to give her up. The snow monkey killed many underlings to hide the evidence and then escaped with its prize. This was pretty close to the truth and quite convincing.

Being convincing didn't stop King Wu from giving its two remaining generals a good beating, an indirect one in the form of a spar. The king forced both generals to fight it until it had expended its frustration. Both Sprit Lord beasts were left with heavy wounds, broken bones, and also large handfuls of fur that had been ripped out during the brawl…

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Chen Wentian stepped through the teleportation array and arrived in an underground cavern. The cavern was so huge a whole city was built within it. From the bottom, one could barely see the ceiling which sparkled with a dull orange radiance that illuminated everything. There were narrow streets and crowded houses everywhere.

Right next to the teleportation array, at the center of the city, was a huge circular building that overshadowed everything. It was the auction house, the main attraction of Eternal Sunset City. It was where mortal and immortal cultivators flocked to buy and sell treasures. It was not the best auction house in the subcontinent but it was one he was familiar with. This fact was the most important and why he came here.

In the past, he had always sneaked around the city carefully under disguise. Now, he was an immortal and he did not need to hide. His immense aura was on full display and attracted a lot of attention. He walked off the platform and was met by a squad of guards in pale orange uniforms.

"Greetings, sir immortal!" They bowed and paid their respects.

The leader among them spoke first, "May we know your great name, sir?"

Chen Wentian glanced around slowly, arrogantly. He patted his rotund stomach and gave several very wet sounding coughs as if suffering indigestion or gas.

"Immortal Sword Bandit Lin Huzhong." He finally answered.

The guards looked at each other in confusion. They had never heard of such a name before. Almost every human Spirit Lord was known. Even the name of the most recently ascended Immortal Blue Dragon had spread far and wide. However, it was their leader that saved them from an early grave for offending an immortal.

"I have heard of your great name, Immortal Sword Bandit. Welcome to Eternal Sunset City and the Eternal Auction. This servant's name is Song Tangguo. May I help you with anything?"

Chen Wentian stroked his substantial grey beard for a while and finally smiled, "Good, good. Finally, a sensible person. I'm here to buy but I am also here to sell. I need a room and I need the auction schedule. When is the next immortal auction?"

"Sir, it shall be done. The next immortal auction is in two days. If sir wants to sell something, there is still enough time to spread the word around but it will require an additional fee."

"No need. Prepare the room for me…"

He then ignored them and rose into the air.

"Sir!" They called after him.

"I need to go and shop! Before all the good deals are gone!" He yelled and floated towards the auction hall.

The guards were left behind, befuddled.

"Tangguo, you know that person?" One of them asked.

"Yeah, he was a strange one…"

"Shh! Shut up!" Song Tangguo whispered furiously, "You imbeciles, do you want to get your daddy killed?"

"…"

"Do you remember the massive war in Beast God Province a few weeks ago?" He asked.

"No… really?"

"Impossible…"

"Yes! He is that Abominable Sword Bandit that killed two Spirit Lords! Right under the noses of seven Spirit Kings!"

"Why is he here!"

"Doesn't he know that the Beast God Sanctum put a bounty of a thousand kilograms of red spiritual crystal on his head?"

That comment was met by the sudden rush of an immortal aura. The guards were suddenly frozen. If they moved even a hair, they would be sliced into dog food by the deadly sword energy around them.

"Hmmm, a thousand kilograms of red spiritual crystal?" Chen Wentian had returned and hovered around them with a strange smile.

"S… sir…"

"Forgive… us!"

They shivered in pure fear.

"Hahaha! You guys really are idiots, even you." Chen Wentian pointed at Song Tangguo, "Don't you know who your master's true master is? Do you think a bunch of beast lovers would try to cause problems here? Imbeciles!"

He harumphed and put his hands behind his back. He straightened his posture and tried to look as a respectable immortal should.

"Now, I am a righteous cultivator, a true swordsman. I have never harmed someone that did not deserve to be harmed." He said, "I don't want you people spreading slander about me. I killed those people because they were criminals, evil people. Do you understand? I am a noble and righteous person…"

"Y… yes! Immortal Sword Bandit is a noble and righteous person! He is a noble and righteous person!"

"That's right, don't forget it." Chen Wentian smiled widely.

He removed the sword energy around the guards, letting them go. Deciding he had played around enough; he finally left these useless people and entered the auction house.

He had many things to do and time was short. He had to sell a crystal containing space-attribute spiritual energy collected from the queen void bee. He had to sell a handful of camouflaging sasquatch hair that he managed to painstakingly smuggle out of the wilderness. And finally, he had to find some good weapons or armor at the peak of the Spirit Initiate Realm in order to make new immortal items for his disciples.

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