The Legend of Min Hong

Chapter 52: The General Market

The market was located in the northern plaza of Wuhan village of the merchant tribes.

Coincidentally, this was where numerous influential factions came into contact with one another, either to broker a trade with the merchants or to come for various auctions that were held frequently in the market.

But, unlike these various auctions which were organized by a small merchant tribe or two sometimes, the General Market was organized by the associations of all the merchant tribes combined, which was why it was a very special, grand and well-anticipated event by the entire Soaring Cloud Village.

In the market, there were different stalls from several establishments already setup. Some from the merchant tribes themselves, others from the several factions within the merchant region.

Due to this profitable arrangement, most of the factions tolerated the existence of the market, and they also respected the association of merchants well enough to strike a balance amongst themselves.

Even outside the Soaring Cloud Village, the general market was extremely well known. Thus, besides the local crowd, it also attracts several bandits and mercenaries from several neighboring villages.

Moreover, this helped to increase the diversity of the crowd.

This made even all the local tribes and families dare not to control this market, for the fear of destroying one of their major income sources as this was where majority of all the tribes in the Soaring Cloud Village come to trade their mined resources.

When Min Hong and Min Qing arrived at the vicinity of the market area, they couldn't help but stop in shock as they saw the sea of human heads moving from one stall to the other.

The sheer scale of tumult caused by the huge amount of people in this market vicinity was enough to drown the amount of ruckus caused in an ongoing war. Yes! This place was that crowded.

"Let's go."

Min Hong gazed at the market with a curious look. He rarely ever left the Min Family region except for the one time he went into the Soaring Cloud Forest to train. Thus, an event which commands this huge scale of attendance was very new to him.

This sort of attendance had never been witnessed by him. Not even on earth, where the sport of football commands a huge number of spectators. Here, there was so many people to the extent that someone who usually stand out in the community would be invincible.

There were people from all races, clans, tribes, factions and even kingdoms present here. the reason why the Soaring Cloud village was so popular was because, one can hardly find any region where all the merchants in the kingdom could select a region of space just for themselves.

As a result, the merchant tribe of the Soaring Cloud Village consists of not only the unaffiliated merchant tribes, but even the merchant tribes from outside the Soaring Cloud Village.

In the modern-day earth, it would be akin to a Social Media Conference, where one can find representatives of; Facebook, Amazon, Snapchat, Twitter and so on, in a single area which was the size of an American Football Pitch.

It is so easy to imagine how populated this kind of area would be. In fact, it was so packed that it was so easy for thieves to steal without the risk of being identified by the victims.

After he urged Min Qing, he grabbed her as she was still stunned by the sheer scale of people present for this event. Then he burrowed through the mass of human body as he approached the center of the market area.

When he got to the auction area, he saw many unique stalls setup around the market area. There were so diverse that there was even a certain stall that converted gold and every other type of currencies into spirit stones, since that was the universal accepted currency.

The variety of items displayed by these stalls were so diverse and unique that it would take even a merchant several days to browse through them all. this only shows how grand and special the General Market was in the entire Soaring Cloud Village.

In Fact, its influence extends to the entire East Wind Empire. This was because, unique and valuable items and resources were often found in unexplored and unurbanized areas.

Therefore, since the entire Soaring Cloud Village was still pretty rural compared to the entire East Wind Empire, it was only normal that many people would come over to buy items that were already rare in the more urbanized regions.

This was the major reason why the Central Region of the Soaring Cloud Village was so important to all the families in the area. Furthermore, this was the reason why all the families in the Village went to war with each other over the Central Region.

This caused the royal family to assign a Royal Guard to solve the problems. The Royals didn't bother to participate in the strife because the entire domain of the East Wind Empire belongs to them.

Moreover, the sheer amounts of tributes paid by each clan was already enough for them to allow each factions and clans deal with whatever resources come from their individual regions.

If not because of the amounts of lives lost in the battle for the central region, which attracted the Royal Clan, they won't even bother to send a whole Royal Guard to come and diffuse the situation.

After walking through a small portion of the marker area, Min Hong and Min Qing were already dripping with so much sweat that they could squeeze their clothes and drink its water to their fill.

Min Qing's tiny pale face was already ruddy with excitement that even Min Hong, who had barely left the Family Castle, felt she was acting comical.

But, despite their newbie behaviors, many people were still attracted by the sheer beauty and purity that Min Qing portrayed, her snow-white skin coupled with her childish behaviors was something irresistible to even the experts that visited this event.

At last, the two of them stopped at a very pristine set of stalls. This part of the market was considered a high-level shopping area as the Zhou Family and Wang Family had stalls setup in this area to sell various resources unique to their location here.

"Min Qing, wait for me here. I will be back before you bat an eyelid." Since his total amount of power reserves was already greater or at least equal to that of himself. Min Hong had begun to address Min Qing in a little sister manner or at most an equal manner of respect.

After making that statement, he slipped into the crowds and disappeared from view, since what motivated him to come here was completely different from Min Qing's.

As he wriggled himself through the crowds, he casually bought himself a bamboo hat to make his identity a secret. He then arrived at a place where it was relatively safe to see his merchandise without drawing any unwanted attention.

He saw a giant black door, and after sighing at the unfamiliarity of what he was about to do, he walked through the door. As he stepped through the door, he felt an ominous and extremely solemn aura saturate the entire room.

Within the room lay an alleyway. Following this path, he discovered many tightly shut doors with lit-up runes shimmering on them.

He knew that there were transactions being made in these rooms, and these runes must serve to cancel noise and prevent spying.as he quickly searched for an open room.

After walking into one empty room, he saw a long table and a comfy chair.

There was a small burning dim lamp just in front of the chair while the table extended to the other side of the room which was completely dark.

Sitting on the chair, Min Hong noticed that he couldn't see the other end of the table as his buyer was most likely sitting at the end of the table and as he tried to squint his eyes, everything started to blur.

So, he snapped his eyes shut and relaxed awaiting the other person to speak.

"Welcome, esteemed sir. If you have anything to barter or trade, please kindly slide them across the table." A seemingly babyish voice broke the silence.

Due to the secrecy and privacy of this booth, Min Hong finally relaxed his tensed body. Anything that happens within this place cannot be recorded.

Thus, should anything happen it would be Min Hong's words against the theirs.

He fetched the same bottle where he stored the liquid Qi, which has long been exhausted but now contained the diluted version of the perfected 'Yang Yuan Pills'.

He simply achieved this by splitting the mote of green light into three different part during the process of perfecting the pill.

He slid the bottle to a point on the table where he could still vaguely see it. He could sense the other person pause in shock at first before some movements were made.

A strong and hairy hand was extended towards the bottle, and with a swift movement the hairy hand retrieved the bottle.

After what seemed to be thirty breaths time, the other person spoke once again, but this time in a deep masculine voice, one that could be relatable to the strong hand Min Hong just saw; "Three high grade 'Yang Yuan Pills'. Very good for curing those who had been exposed to excess Yin Qi."

"It could also be used as a cultivation resource. Not to mention its basic ingredient, the 'Sun Fire Branch' is extremely rare and very hard to collect." Min Hong intentionally placed his palm around his neck to reduce the vibration and volume of supporting his speech.

This helped in masking his voice a bit.

He noticed that since he could barely see the man on the other side, it was most likely the same for the him, and the man could barely see him also.

"Though these medicinal pills are very valuable, there are also too expensive judging by how high tier they are."

"I could feel my cultivation roiling just by taking a whiff of its scent. Therefore, it would be a real pinch in the gut trying to find a buyer for such pills. But, since it is also mild in nature, I'm willing to pay you a higher price for them. What do you want in exchange?"

Min Hong waved his sleeves and crossed on leg over the other, "Fifteen Mid-grade spirit stones" This was the most important thing to him currently and he would be lying if he wasn't a bit agitated at the price these pills were going to sell at in the end.

Min Hong could hear the man choke in shock, "Isn't that a bit too much? You should know that this pill would only be worth a lot to someone who's looking to cure a Yin Qi infection, which in this entire region is an extremely rare occurrence."

"But, for the fact that it is mild in nature and easy to absorb for cultivation, I'm willing to pay six Mid-grade spirit stones for them."

"Twelve!" Min Hong snapped a price at him.

"Ten!" the man snapped back.

"Deal!" Min Hong spoke coolly.

"Unh?" the man paused for a bit as if he just realized something.

"Urgh! Burn me! Damn, boy you're good!" the man realized very late that he had fallen for Min Hong's trap in the bargaining bout. If only he knew that Min Hong had been dealing in the Black Market since his first life.

Min Hong simply shrugged with a cunning smile splitting his face in half under the bamboo hat. If three of the diluted versions of a perfected 'Yang Yuan Pill' could fetch him ten Mid-grade spirit stones, then this was a pretty good deal and he didn't even mind if the man extorted him a bit.

After all, he had about a dozen more of these pills, and didn't care much about them since they couldn't satisfy his cultivation requirements. Thus, he was extremely happy with the outcome of this exchange.

In just about three minutes, an exquisite wooden box was slid across the table towards Min Hong, a bit closer to the dimly lit lamp.

Knowing the intentions of the man, Min Hong stood up and walked towards the lamp and then stretched his sleeves.

He could sense the gaze of the man on his sleeves, but as he got closer to the lamp, Min Hong waved his sleeves and put off the lamp and with a swift fluid motion he grabbed the wooden box and bolted out of the room.

The instant he stepped out of the room, there was a 'whoosh' sound as the man arrived at the spot Min Hong was just standing. Then with a snap of his finger the lamp was lit and burned very bright, illuminating the entire room in the process.

"Why was I getting a familiar vibe from this guy? Or could I be sensing wrong?" the man turned and his face came into full view. It was indeed Min Hong's third uncle; Min Lei, who recently formed his fire elemental Nascent Soul.

"There should only be a handful of people with this 'Yang Yuan Pill'. I tried to get some for my cultivation earlier but father just shut me out. Or probably he already sold it to this person much earlier and he was just trying to get more profit by reselling them" Min Lei snapped his fingers again as the lamps went off and his silhouette vanished with the light.

As Min Hong, exited the exchange room, he headed for a random, quiet street around the corner where he took off his bamboo hat and straightened his dress.

Afterwards, he took a random walk around the bustling market and after confirming he wasn't being followed, he approached the spot where he left Min Qing.

He had also sensed a familiar aura from the man he just made an exchange with. He couldn't place where the sense of familiarity was originating from but he knew it wasn't just a random sensation, but a truly and genuine one.

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