The Free Market

"Pills! Pills! Pills made by our own sect's alchemy apprentices!"

"Spell books and cultivation tips! Only exchanging for beast cores!"

"Ready-made talismans for all purposes! Defend, attack, trap, and escape!"

"Medium to high-grade flying swords! Accepting barrier breaking pills as payment!"

The sound of various disciples hawking their wares, haggling prices, and bartering items filled Jiang Lan's ears. Though Liu Lan had visited the free market a few times, this was Jiang Lan's first time fully experiencing a crowd of this magnitude. The human desperation, deception, and determination flooded her senses as she took a moment to observe the businesses bustling with customers and the shops that went overlooked.

The entrance to the free market was mildly congested, but the most crowded section was centered around a mid-sized building that housed the trade requests of various disciples. This trade center not only housed a board displaying requests but also contained an appraisal office.

Jiang Lan carefully picked a path through the crowd, towards the stall that Liu Lan had been most familiar with. This particular stall was situated a few feet outside the most popular section of the market, settled on the fringes of prime real estate.

There was a variety of goods, including a cage filled with floating ghost fragments, a box of talismans, and a small container filled with various jades. However, the main display, in the center of the tent, was a short, wooden table showcasing various pills and ancient artifacts.

Ancient artifacts are classified as objects that originate from the Primordial Age, an age long lost to the passage of time. The defining characteristic of artifacts from that era include a resistance to spiritual and elemental energy.

Though a few high level cultivators had dedicated their lives to studying these remnants, little progress had been made on their usages, aside from a few rare pieces that retained unique attributes. For the most part, these ancient artifacts remained much weaker than spiritual weapons due to their inability to channel spiritual power and were primarily used by poorer cultivators as weaker substitutes for expensive spiritual weapons.

Jiang Lan's meager savings were insufficient to purchase even a spiritual weapon of the lowest grade, so she was forced to try her luck at the selection of ancient artifacts in this little stall.

"Junior Sister Lan! Welcome back to my humble shop. Are you looking for more pills or does junior sister need something else this time?"

Liao Jia was a shrewd female disciple who was more interested in business than cultivation, to the great disappointment of her aunt, an apprentice alchemist in the inner sect. Though her stall was situated outside of the market center, she had more than enough business to cover the cheaper rental costs of her location.

She had an extremely honest-looking face and was skilled at talking up her products and maintaining good business relationships with her regulars. With the backing of an inner sect relative, there was no shortage of customers looking to capitalize on her connection by buying her products in an attempt to leave a favorable impression.

However, Liao Jia was an expert at ensuring that these types of customers would inevitably leave her shop with significantly lighter purses, spending much more than they had originally intended.

"Senior Sister Liao, junior sister has just returned from a mission and is looking for anything to improve her performance at the outer sect competition. This sister has recently advanced, so…"

Liao Jia grinned, a slightly manic look in her eyes at the prospect of a desperate customer, "I have just the thing for you…"

Jiang Lan felt her head spin as she was introduced to a variety of products, each one sounding better than the last, before she interrupted Liao Jia's fervent advertisement with a sad confession about the pitiful size of her budget. Liao Jia's excitement abruptly cooled, though she remained attentive, and instead brought over a few of her cheapest products.

"This is the Fiery Bone Pill, the most cost-efficient pill I have for cultivation at the seventh level. Though the energy in this pill is comparable to the most popular seventh level pill, there is a slight possibility that the violent nature of the pill's spiritual energy may harm your vitality. Most cultivators are unwilling to take the risk, but I assure you that the chances of it occurring are extremely minimal.

Think of it this way, if taking this pill accelerates your advance and gives you a chance to break through to foundation establishment, then what is the loss of a truly minuscule amount of vitality compared to one hundred extra years of lifespan?"

Liao Jia then brought out an artifact she dug out from the depths of her storage pouch. It was a farmer's hoe and sickle, each with a smooth, wooden handle and a dull, dark gray blade. The blades were slightly cracked and the edges were rather dull. Attached to each handle, was a long, rusted, metal chain connecting the two.

"As for artifacts, the only one you may be able to afford is this set of farming tools. I acquired them ages ago, but I have not been able to sell them. Spiritual farmers cannot use them because they repel spiritual energy, and most cultivators are unwilling to use farming tools as weapons no matter how sturdy they are. It is a matter of face.

But, if you are willing to take them off my hands, I can give them to you dirt cheap. With a purchase of pills, of course."

Jiang Lan considered the artifacts carefully, running her hands over the cracked surfaces of the blades, and was pleasantly surprised to feel how dense the material was. She projected some of her spiritual energy and attempted to channel it into the blades, but it dissipated upon contact.

She altered her approach and arranged her spiritual energy into a basic attack, hoping for the same dissipation effect, but her face soured as she noticed one of the cracks widen almost imperceptibly. Clearly, this artifact was basically useless: unable to channel energy to reinforce itself and unable to withstand energy attacks. It would only be good for brute force.

No wonder Liao Jia had been unable to sell it for so long. Nevertheless, Jiang Lan was incapable of understanding why her soul aggressively urged her to take the artifact with her. She mentally calculated her savings before bracing herself for a fierce battle with Liao Jia, one conducted entirely through falsely polite smiles and subtle psychological manipulation.

By the end of the skirmish, Jiang Lan had managed to retain an astounding number of two whole low-grade spirit stones, out of her painstakingly earned, original amount of twenty-three, and left the stall with two bottles of Fiery Bone Pills and the useless pair of farming tools.

Satisfied by the amount of pills, which would be sufficient to support her cultivation for at least the next two months, Jiang Lan left the free market, both exhilarated by the anticipation of increasing her cultivation and depressed by the frighteningly instantaneous depletion of her life savings.