Crystal Merchant

"Could you tell me…what is dao?"

"Huh? Why is a kid like you asking about dao? Hmm, what's this, you're actually a cultivator at such a young age, your talent must be quite decent! Young lad, I advise that you go home and cultivate diligently, don't worry about dao for now, it's a mysterious power far beyond your comprehension!"

"…"

Yaan stared as the old man walked off. He was clearly feeling satisfied with his lecturing of this 'ignorant junior'.

"Well, I probably should have expected that most cultivators won't take me seriously when they think that I'm actually a Qi Gathering Realm child…"

With a sigh, Yaan no longer bothered with the old man, a travelling cultivator and a merchant who regularly stopped off in Pentagonal Dune Town during his trip between Salt Pit City and Salt Sky City.

There was no real reason for him asking this cultivator his question out of all of those around. Really, Yaan planned to ask his question to whomever caught his notice. That old man seemed to have a warm disposition, so Yaan had hoped that he might be helpful. Unfortunately, whilst the old man did indeed try to be of help, he ended up being useless to Yaan.

Yaan continued walking through the trading market. This place was located in the town centre, it was a gathering point where all of the travelling cultivators came together and exchanged goods with one another and with the townsfolk. Since most of the people here were travellers, the trading market was arranged as a large open area without any buildings obstructing passageway, allowing anyone and everyone to setup a temporary stall to sell or trade their goods.

'Perhaps I should release a stronger aura?' Yaan considered this, but immediately decided against it. He wanted to blend into this town right now. If he were to release an aura beyond the Qi Gathering Realm, then others would act differently towards him. If he then went on to ask his question of dao, it was likely that they would answer more carefully and cautiously, which was not what he wanted.

He wanted to hear their most natural, heartfelt answers, answers they didn't need to consider deeply, because they already understood the point in their heart.

Maybe that was asking a bit much of these low realm cultivators, but Yaan at least wanted to try.

After looking around the trading market for some time, he noticed that a crowd had gathered around a certain stall. Feeling intrigued, he made his way towards the crowd, easily slipping past the mass of people and soon arriving at the front.

"Hmm?"

The trader responsible for drawing in all of this attention immediately noticed Yaan's arrival. Yaan raised an eyebrow…it was unusual that this person noticed his movement given that he concealed his presence and made himself easy to overlook. It wasn't that others would be unable to find him, just that they would tend to gloss over him without stopping.

So, when this Qi Gathering Realm middle aged man, an ordinary looking cultivator by any means, stared at him, Yaan felt curious.

"Hey kid…are you interested in buying some crystals?"

After getting over his initial surprise, the trader quickly decided to target Yaan as a potential customer. He wore a bright smile and took a step back, opening his arms and showing off an array of crystals which were tied up with string and hanging from wooden pins behind him.

Chatter broke out behind Yaan immediately.

"Look, Lunar Salt Crystals, Solar Salt Crystals, heavens, there are even World Salt Crystals!"

"So many of them, and the grade seems quit high too…"

At this point, the trader stood upright, wearing a proud expression as he stroked his beard.

"Indeed, all of my crystals are High Grade materials! In fact…" The middle aged man glanced around, as if he was unsure about showing everyone this right now. In the end though, he withdrew a leather pouch from his pocket, then flashed three neatly stacked crystals to the crowd.

"I am also selling Top Grade Lunar Salt Crystals."

When the crowd erupted into excited shouts as people attempted to buy these crystals before anyone else, Yaan showed an odd expression.

He wasn't familiar with this material, but he had heard that the three types of salt crystals were a popular commodity in the salt desert. He had never seen these crystals personally before now, but even so…

"So kid, are you interested? Heh, my wares aren't easy to come across you know!" The middle aged man actually ignored all of the bidders around him, turning towards Yaan with a wide, expectant grin.

In his eyes, this child who could sneak through the crowd undetected so easily must definitely be some rich young master! The only way for a Qi Gathering Realm cultivator to move like was by relying on a valuable treasure. Not only that, this child's age, combined with his cultivation, suggested a high talent at the very least. He was definitely an affluent young master, this was an excellent opportunity!

Unfortunately, Yaan's following words made the trader's heart fall from heaven to hell in an instant.

"These are all fake though…as are these bidders."

Yaan's words contained a ripple which immediately shattered the illusion created by the trader. In an instant, all of those precious crystals on display transformed into regular salt! At the same time, many people in the crowd cried out, but each for different reasons.

After all, one half of this crowd were indeed legitimately interested in the crystals…the other half were people hired by the trader, bidding on the crystals to increase the enthusiasm and desire felt by those around them.

Yaan revealed the true appearance of these crystals, whilst his words outed the trader and his accomplices as frauds.

In the trading market, these sorts of people were not taken kindly to.

"He tried to scam us!"

"Bastard!"

"Get him!"

"Ah, no, wait, I-!"

Yaan watched expressionlessly as a small mob formed around him, targeting the trader and his accomplices, before beating them until they were bruised and bloody.

It seemed that the mob did not intend to go too far however. After the trader was beaten, and his accomplices, all of whom were clearly hired very recently, fled, everyone dispersed and ignored the pitiful con-artist who was left twitching on the dust ground.

Once the crowd dispersed, Yaan walked across to the con-man and crouched down slightly.

"Could you tell me…what is dao?"

As the con-man struggled to role over, he looked up into Yaan's eyes. At first, he planned to curse this kid to death, until he saw the look in his gaze.

This gaze towards him, this gaze held by the one responsible for his downfall, contained only curiosity and a desire to learn. Those eyes held no feelings to towards him, no hatred, disdain, schadenfraud, or anything of the sort.

The con-man could not see through Yaan's cultivation, obviously, but he suddenly thought about how this child had appeared in front of him without anyone noticing. He thought about how this kid was able to see through his illusion, which had once successfully fooled a treasure appraiser at the Innate Qi Realm…

"You…you're hiding your true cultivation…aren't you…?" The con-man managed to say as he forced himself to sit up. He grimaced slightly, but turned to look at Yaan with a serious expression.

Yaan remained silent and did not say anything, waiting for the man's answer.

"Hah…" The middle aged man sighed and scratched his head. When he looked back towards Yaan, he sighed once again.

"Dao, huh…so what, you're some sort of powerhouse seeking dao by returning to their mortal roots? I've heard rumours about this sort of thing, but I never really believed it. To think that it was true, and that I would run into such an individual myself…"

"Mortal roots?" Yaan finally spoke, blinking in surprise.

"Huh, isn't that what you're doing, kid…ahem, I mean, senior…?"

When Yaan didn't respond, either to the con-man's question or to his subtle probing into his age, the middle-aged man coughed and felt the need to continue speaking.

Suddenly, he felt like his current situation was quite precarious…

"It's said that some powerful cultivators return to their mortal roots when they encounter a bottleneck in their cultivation and need to improve their understanding of dao. I really don't know much more than that, or how it works or anything…"

His words made Yaan fall into thought.

"Honestly, I don't understand it at all." The con-man sighed. "How are you supposed to comprehend dao by pretending to be a mortal? Surely dao is comprehended by cultivating, or by using valuable treasures, or visiting rare natural cultivation paradises, right? Sigh, dao is too far off for me, when will I be able to use this power…wait, just now, was that the power of dao that you used to break my illusion?"

The con-man rambled on as he stood up. As he had a thought, he turned towards Yaan, but found that he was nowhere to be seen. Startled, the man looked around quickly, but no matter how hard he searched, he couldn't find a single trace of the child from before.

"He…he wasn't actually some esteemed powerhouse, right…? Oh lord, I was only speculating when I said that, did I accidentally offend someone incredible?!"

By now, Yaan was already far away from Pentagonal Dune Town. As he flew through the skies, the ground below him became a blur.

"Returning to mortal roots…perhaps I will find the answer to my question amongst mortals…"