A little earlier---
There was silence in the dark stone room.
A woman wearing snow-white night clothes and a fox mask was sitting cross-legged on a straw mat, condensing her energy in meditation, while traces of spiritual energy could be seen floating around her body.
Jingle jingle~~
Suddenly, a bell rang.
!!
Su Waner was so frightened that her body trembled violently. Getting the energy flow in her body out of control, she coughed out a mouthful of blood. However, she quickly stabilized herself and calmed down the spiritual energy in her meridians to prevent herself from exploding and dying.
"Whoo--"
She wiped the blood from her mouth, and with a look of fear on her face, she turned to look at the jade bell she had placed on a simple altar.
She had tried everything she could think of, but no matter whether she roasted it in fire, smashed it with a hammer, or chopped it with a sword, none of these methods had been able to leave the slightest scratch on this jade bell, let alone get rid of it.
Therefore, she concluded that this jade bell was most likely a high-grade tracking magic device, and therefore, particularly frightening.
For the past month and a half, every time she rested or concentrated, this jade bell would suddenly appear and sway next to her ear.
The fact that the jade bell scared her was one thing, but now she was afraid that the old woman from the Black Star Sect would come to her door. So whenever there was any noise around, her nerves would instantly collapse.
Under this double pressure, she was truly going crazy.
Su Waner looked at the bell with a dejected face, and finally expressed her regret, slapping her right hand with her left. "Su Waner, you idiot!! Why did you steal that Young Lady's stuff? If you didn't steal her things, you wouldn't have suffered this torture!"
Then, she rubbed the back of her right hand which was red from the slapping, took a deep breath, and said, "Whatever! I won't hide anymore. The worst that can happen is getting caught by that old woman. No matter how petty she is, she is still a cultivator in the Void Returning stage. She won't lower herself to deal with a small cultivator in the Core Formation stage like me, right? At worst, I'll kowtow to her, wash her feet, massage her back, and so on..."
"But then again, since when did a second Young Lady appear in the Black Star Sect? She looked like she was at least ten years old, and there was never any news at all on the black market."
"Sigh--"
Su Waner sighed and patted her cheeks with both hands to give herself courage.
Then, she stood up, got a set of clothes from her storage bag, and took off the white night clothes that she had not taken off for a month and a half, as well as the fox mask on her face.
Under the mask, there was a baby-ish face imprinted with a large red mark left by the mask, with almond-like eyes and lips like soft cherry blossoms.
She took out a bronze mirror and admired her face. "Hmph~ What a beautiful fairy."
Jingle jingle~~
!!!
Su Waner was so frightened by the jade bell that suddenly appeared on her shoulder that she jumped up a foot. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed the jade bell and frowned, cursing. "Second Miss of the Black Star Sect, right? I dare you to ask your mother to come and catch me! I'll be waiting! Heh..."
The worst-case scenario was just to kowtow and do chores.
But she didn't say that because it was too embarrassing for her to say it.
Su Waner pouted, hung the jade bell to her belt, raised her sword finger, and her figure instantly turned into a white wisp and floated out through a gap in one wall of the stone room.
... ...
Jade Pass City , the Jade Sand Pavilion teahouse.
The shopkeeper with a scar on his face stood at the counter, "crackling" the abacus in front of him and looking up every time a customer came through the door.
The shopkeeper's name was Wu Guang, and he was the master of the Jade Sand Pavilion .
This Jade Sand Pavilion was the number one pawn shop in the black market and its main business was reselling. It had informants within each sect, and there was nothing they dared not sell, only what customers dared not buy.
A while ago, they even obtained a pair of secondary gold pills of a late-stage Deification cultivator, and they had been contacting buyers recently, hoping to sell them.
Looking at the teahouse customers who came in, Wu Guang felt a little bored, thinking that there would probably be no business today. All the people who came in were small casual cultivators who came to drink tea, and there was nothing to squeeze out of them.
But just as he was thinking this, the next moment, a light voice came from across the counter. "Boss, a bowl of Jade Sand 's best tea."
This was the secret code of the Jade Sand Pavilion , which meant there was something good for sale.
Wu Guang paused, looked up, and saw a little girl who was no taller than the counter walking in the door. But seeing as she was already a cultivator in the Core Formation stage, he didn't dare to judge her by her appearance. "Miss Su, is that you? What... have you finished a job again?"
"A big job."
Su Waner grinned, walked to the counter, and took out a sword wrapped in oilcloth and two seventh-grade talismans from the storage bag.
"Boss, take a look and make an offer."
Wu Guang glanced at the two fire talismans, then picked up the sword. He weighed it, opened the oilcloth, drew it out half an inch, and suddenly raised his eyebrows. "Oh? That's pretty good. Eighty thousand spirit stones. However, since you are a regular customer, how about I give you eighty-nine thousand?"
"Boss, I've been in this line of work for decades. With this price, you couldn't bluff a kid, do you think you can bluff me?"
"Ah haha..." Wu Guang was slightly startled. "Miss Su, that's because you've only come to Jade Pass in recent months, so I thought you had just taken this path recently. That was rude of me."
"Well then, give me a real price. I'm not in the mood for haggling."
"Let's round it to two hundred and twenty thousand spirit stones, and I'll have a small profit of fifty thousand. Maybe a little more if I find someone I can take advantage of and sell it for two hundred and fifty thousand. For the talismans, I'll give you ten thousand each..."
As the two were haggling, a bell suddenly rang, interrupting Wu Guang's words. Su Waner was startled and quickly glanced right and left as if fearing that someone would enter the door.
Seeing her like this, Wu Guang pursed his mouth and said calmly, "It seems that Miss Su stole these things? Then, according to the rules, it will be 50% off."
According to black market rules, the price of stolen items was reduced by 50%. After all, there was the risk of being found, not to mention, who knew who the items were stolen from.
It wouldn't be a problem if it was an ordinary little cultivator, but it would be troublesome if it was stolen from some ruthless people.
"..."
Su Waner gritted her teeth when she heard this and fiercely looked at the bell on her waist, but said nothing and waved her hand. "Okay."
"Just like that?" Wu Guang frowned slightly as he asked with narrowed eyes, "Could it be that it was taken from the hands of some cultivator here in the Jade Pass ? In that case, this thing can only be sold after a month. This is the rule. If you break the rules, your name will be ruined and you won't be able to do business on the black market."
"I got it a month and a half ago. I know the rules in this business better than you."
Su Waner rolled her eyes and waved her hand, motioning him to come with the money quickly.
Jingle jingle~~
Once again the bell rang, and at the same time, a young man wearing a scholar's robe walked in with his hands behind his back.
Ye Anping stepped across the threshold, glanced at the shopkeeper and Su Waner at the counter, and came forward, saying, "Boss, can I have a bowl of Jade Sand 's second-best tea?"
This was the code for getting information.
Wu Guang frowned, pulled back his neck, and glanced at Ye Anping. Then, he looked back at Su Waner and wondered, why are today's guests all so short?
"Young master, have you just arrived at the Jade Pass ? I don't recognize your face."
Ye Anping replied with a smile. "I used to supervise a store in the Black Star Sect's market, but the boss ran away, so now I came over here to make a living."
"Oooh~ it's quite impressive to be able to run a store in the Black Star Sect's market. What do you want to find out?"
"For example..." Ye Anping squinted his eyes at Su Waner, glanced at the bell on her waist, pretended to be a playboy, and said, "What's the name of this beautiful lady?"
When Wu Guang heard this, his face fell.
Shit, he thought he was here for business, but it turned out he was here to flirt with a girl.
"Tsk..."