After putting away the Spirit Fruits into his spatial ring, Yuan and the others followed Madam Feng to the fourth floor, where even fewer display cases were available.
"What kind of pill is this?" Yu Rou suddenly asked after seeing the reddish pill in the display case, as she cannot imagine how a single pill could possibly cost hundreds of millions of gold coins.
"That’s the Spirit Advancement Pill; it can boost the cultivation base of any Cultivator before the Spirit Master realm by an entire realm— so nine levels." Madam Feng explained to her.
"An entire realm?! So I can reach the Spirit Warrior realm right now if I swallowed it?" Yu Rou asked, her voice filled with shock.
"Correct. However, you can only consume one of these in your lifetime, so most people would consume it at the first level Spirit Warrior realm so they can become a Spirit Master instantly."
"Wow... How much would one of these costs?" Yuan asked afterward.
"650 million gold coins," Madam Feng responded with a smile on her face.
"650 million?!" Yuan’s jaw dropped. It didn’t take him much effort or money to reach the fifth level Spirit Warrior realm, so the ridiculous price seemed unjustified in his eyes.
However, to the majority of Cultivators in this world that require months and even years of effort for a single breakthrough, if they could potentially save many years of their life with a single pill, the Spirit Advancement Pill was worth every penny if they could afford it.
After walking a circle around the fourth floor, Madam Feng brought them onto the fifth floor, where only seven items were being sold.
"Everything in here is worth over 1 billion gold coins...? I wonder what you can do with that amount of money in this world..." Yu Rou mumbled.
"Although one billion gold coins may seem like a lot, it’s actually not as much as you are thinking. An average sect will earn and spend tens of millions of gold coins a month, whilst the bigger ones spend hundreds of millions of gold coins every month." Madam Feng said.
"But that’s for an entire sect with thousands of people, right? I cannot imagine someone spending so much money on a single individual," Yu Rou shook her head.
"If you are talented enough, people will be willing to spend as much resource as needed. You will be surprised by how much resources wealthy families spend on their most talented children." Madam Feng said with a smile on her face.
"Let’s take this Golden Spirit Silk for example. This Golden Spirit Silk is a very important ingredient for an extremely rare and powerful pill that will permanently increase an individual’s cultivation speed. If you have a very talented individual in your family and enough money, would you be willing to spend it on this person, who will surely become a great figure in the future and earn much more than what you’d spent? There’s really not much difference between investing in business hoping for a good return and investing in an individual hoping to maximize their growth."
"Investing into a person’s future, huh?" Yu Rou turned to look at Yuan, who was considered to be one of the most talented child prodigies in history, and how much their family had invested into him before he became a cripple.
"Do you know of a herb called the Seven Colored Herb? How much do you think one of those would cost?" Yuan suddenly asked her, who appeared very experienced in prices for treasures.
"The Seven Colored Herb? Now that’s a treasure everyone with a store in the Golden Phoenix Bazaar would covet even though they probably won’t try to sell it. If I had one right now, it would be placed on the sixth floor, as they are extremely rare and priceless."
"Priceless, huh..." Yuan nodded.
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"..."
Seeing his reaction, Madam Feng narrowed her eyes at him, wondering if he had in his possession a Seven Colored Herb.
"Anyway, let’s continue the tour." Madam Feng said a moment later, and they returned to looking at the display cases whilst Madam Feng explained to them the history and value for each of these treasures that are worth over a billion gold coins.
Sometime later, Madam Feng brought Yuan and the others onto the top floor in the building.
"There are only 3 items on this floor?" Yuan mumbled after seeing three thick display cases perfectly distanced from each other. However, unlike the previous transparent display cases, these display cases were completely black, resembling glasses that were tinted to the extreme.
"These display cases are protected by a powerful formation that can block even attacks from a Spirit Grandmaster such as myself," Madam Feng said to them.
Then she snapped her fingers, and one of the display cases suddenly became transparent again, allowing them to see the item inside.
"Is that... Is that a heart?" Yuan asked in a baffled voice after seeing the red pulsing object that resembled a beating heart.
"It’s still beating, too!" Yu Rou exclaimed.
"Although it looks like this and closely resembles a heart, it is actually a Monster Core that once belonged to an extremely fearsome magical beast at the Spirit Grandmaster realm," Madam Feng said.
"A monster core?! This beating thing?!" Yuan’s jaw dropped, as this is his first time seeing such a unique-looking monster core. Although he can eat normal monster cores without batting an eye, he will definitely have trouble putting something this disgusting into his mouth.
"The Spirit Grandmaster demonic beast was a special existence that had demonic blood flowing in its veins, hence why its monster core looks this way." Madam Feng said.
"Demons? How do they differ from magical beasts?" Yuan asked.
"Demons are extremely powerful and fearsome monsters that resemble humans but are neither human nor beasts— they are bloodthirsty entities with unknown origins, so we do not know how they came into existence. However, we do know that they are extremely powerful and feared by most people," she explained.
"I see..." Yuan nodded.
"Well, you won’t find any demons in the Lower Heavens, though, as they are usually too powerful to exist here." Madam Feng said a moment later.
"Let’s move onto the next item. I have a feeling that you’ll really like it."
After snapping her fingers, the second display case revealed itself.
"This is... a sword?" Yuan looked at the beautiful yet fierce-looking sword in the long display case with admiration, and his hands quickly became itchy, as he had this strong urge to hold the sword.
"This is not your ordinary treasure— it’s a Soul Weapon," Madam Feng said with a smile on her face. "And it’s called the Empyrean Overlord."
"A Soul Weapon?" Yuan became even more interested after hearing that.
"Hm? Don’t you also have a Soul Weapon, brother?" Yu Rou suddenly recalled.
"Eh?" Madam Feng looked at Yuan with wide eyes filled with surprise.
"Y-You also have a Soul Weapon? If you don’t mind, can I see it?" she asked him a moment later in a trembling voice.
"Sure." Yuan nodded and retrieved the Starry Abyss the next second.
"Amazing! This is my first time encountering another individual with a Soul Weapon!" Madam Feng exclaimed, and she continued, "If you don’t mind me asking, where did you obtain this beauty?"
"It was given to me by some people I helped," he said in a calm voice.
"I-It was given to you...?" Madam Feng mumbled in a trembling voice with a dazed expression on her beautiful face, wondering what kind of person would give away a Soul Weapon just because they had been helped by him?
"What about you? Where did you obtain this sword?" Yuan then asked her.
"I found this baby inside the Legacy Tomb of some powerful Cultivator five hundred years ago," Madam Feng said with a nostalgic feeling around her.
"Legacy Tomb? What’s that?" Yuan tilted his head.
"They are essentially a Cultivator’s graveyard, Brother Yuan. When a powerful Cultivator is near death but they want to pass down their legacy, they will create these areas to challenge those who wish to attain their legacy, and whoever passes the challenges will obtain all of that Cultivator’s wealth," Xiao Hua explained to him.
"I’m more interested in how long ago you found it... 500 years? Do Cultivators really live that long?" Yu Rou said to Madam Feng with a dazed look on her face, as she cannot even imagine living past 150, much less 500.
"Yes, most Cultivators at the Spirit Grandmaster realm can live up to 1,000 years," Madam Feng said to her.
"1,000 years? Then what about a Spirit King?" Yu Rou asked as she turned to look at Xiao Hua.
"..." Xiao Hua’s eyebrows immediately twitched, as she understood Yu Rou’s intent on asking such a question.
"I’m not really sure, but they should have a longevity of at least 10,000 years..." Madam Feng answered with an innocent face.
"10,000 years?!" Yu Rou’s jaw dropped, and her curiosity regarding Xiao Hua’s age intensified.
"Anyway, even though I managed to obtain this Soul Weapon, I cannot use it, as it won’t recognize me as its owner no matter what I did." Madam Feng sighed afterward.
"It won’t recognize you...?" Yuan mumbled with a profound expression on his face.
When Xiao Hua saw this, she turned to look at Madam Feng before asking her, "Since the Soul Weapon is on display in this store, you are willing to sell it, right?"
Hearing her question, Madam Feng immediately nodded, "T-That’s correct! Though, I am mostly looking to trade it for something of similar value... if you don’t mind..."
Madam Feng spoke in a reserved voice, as her fear for Xiao Hua still lingered within her heart.
Meanwhile, Yuan stared at Xiao Hua whose intentions were clear as day with a surprised face, clearly speechless.