Two horse-drawn carriages passed each other on the snow-covered official road.
The driver on the opposite side turned his head toward Li Ban and nodded in greeting, acknowledging him.
His attitude was casual and natural, as if the carriage wasn’t carrying corpses but winter cabbages.
In this world, it seemed there was never a shortage of dead people.
Where did those people even come from?
Did they fall from the sky?
Or were they grown from the earth?
The cold was bone-chilling, and the whole world had turned desolate.
After that, Li Ban didn’t encounter anyone else, not even outside the city gates of Qingcheng County, which was eerily quiet.
Snow-covered roads were difficult to travel, so even the old horse wouldn’t speed up.
He found an inn outside the Black Market White Market and booked an upstairs room, making sure to take good care of the horse and goods.
The innkeeper and waiter politely took Li Ban’s things and assured him that he could rest easy—the goods would definitely not be bumped or damaged.
Afterwards, Li Ban, carrying his menial worker identity token, continued to roam around the Black Market White Market.
He came here partly to find good wine for the jailer Zhou Gu and partly to look for suitable elements for himself.
After roughly wandering through the streets of the Black Market White Market, Li Ban didn’t find any high-concentration wine, nor did he see anyone selling elements.
Logically, Qingcheng County was the only large county nearby, and this county only had one big market—the Black Market White Market. There shouldn’t be no sellers of elements!
Could it be because of the bad weather?
Li Ban circled around twice, feeling that he simply hadn’t found the right channel.
He thought for a moment and decided to walk all the way to the slave grounds.
That day, there weren’t many buyers for slaves. When Li Ban entered the slave grounds, he immediately saw Uncle Ma yawning.
The grass stem in his mouth was about to fall, trembling unsteadily.
“Uncle Ma,” Li Ban strode over.
Uncle Ma saw Li Ban and immediately smiled, waving cheerfully at him. “Here to buy slaves again? By the way, since you became a menial worker, the death rate of slaves in Death Prison has clearly slowed down. Don’t your jailer lords mind?”
Li Ban smiled but didn’t answer his question. “Not here to buy slaves. I want to ask, Uncle Ma, the Black Market White Market has such a famous name, but why are there so few things being sold?”
Uncle Ma took out the grass stem and stared at Li Ban. “What do you want to buy?”
“A pot of high-concentration good wine, and… is there anyone here buying or selling elements?”
Li Ban knew Uncle Ma was a first-tier corpse-bearer. Asking him about elements should yield some clues.
“Forget about good wine. Before you came to ask me, you must have already checked the wineries in the county. That stuff is rare and hard to find. Even if it exists, you might not be able to snatch it away from others.”
“I’m buying it for jailer Zhou Gu.”
“I know. You don’t smell like you’ve been drinking, so there’s no way you’re buying for yourself. Just have the winery boss keep an eye out and save you a barrel of good wine. If they can’t, then forget it.”
Jailers were third-tier identities, high-ups in Death Prison, but not big shots in the Witch World overall.
Li Ban nodded, silently reflecting on Uncle Ma’s comment about the absence of wine smell on him.
“What about elements?”
Uncle Ma sized Li Ban up again but didn’t ask further. “To buy elements near Qingcheng County, you need to go to the Eternal Tower. The rest are private small businesses. No one dares to compete with the Eternal Tower’s big business.”
Li Ban perked up and quickly asked, “Uncle Ma, aren’t you the corpse-bearer of the Eternal Tower? Can I buy from you?”
Uncle Ma shook his head repeatedly. “I’m only a first-tier corpse-bearer. I don’t pick up corpses or refine them, let alone deal with buying and selling elements—that’s the responsibility of fourth-tier layer lords. If you want to trade elements at the Eternal Tower, you have to head to the mass grave area—that’s where I pick up your corpse. There’s an Eternal Trading Association there. Just look for the sign with white bones on a black background.”
Uncle Ma spoke very clearly, but Li Ban wasn’t able to go that far now.
He sighed inwardly, realizing he probably wouldn’t accomplish either of his goals today.
“Thanks, Uncle Ma. One more thing—how much does it usually cost to buy a common-grade element?”
“Common-grade elements aren’t expensive, mostly starting at twenty taels of silver. If it’s especially powerful or easy to fuse, it could be more expensive—hundreds of taels is possible.”
Li Ban furrowed his brows and asked again, “What about inferior-grade elements?”
“That’s harder to say. Some inferior elements are completely useless, no one even buys them. Most sell for between one and ten taels.”
“Inferior elements usually have significant defects. Only those with certain advantages might find buyers.”
That explained things quite clearly to Li Ban.
He thanked Uncle Ma again.
Uncle Ma chuckled, “Don’t just thank me—remember to buy slaves from me next time. I go pick up corpses every five days and am around the rest of the time. If I’m not here, ask for Little Douzi.”
He spit out the grass stem and pointed vaguely at the busy ponytail kid behind him.
“Just don’t ask Old Li Laoba. His slaves have complicated backgrounds, and who knows what’s going on.”
Li Ban agreed repeatedly, “Definitely, definitely. I won’t let you take care of my business for nothing.”
But inwardly he thought, the slave you sell, Lu, also has a complicated background.
Since Uncle Ma saw Li Ban go out with the tree-person jailers last time, he had been trying to build relations.
Last time, Uncle Ma wasn’t around, and Li Ban bought three slaves from Old Li Laoba.
When Uncle Ma returned and found out, he was furious.
Although he didn’t care much about the loss of three slaves, he was afraid of losing the Death Prison connection entirely.
This was a long-term arrangement: not many bought each time, but every two or three months someone would come.
If Old Li Laoba completely took over, he’d be furious.
So this time Li Ban came, Uncle Ma said everything he could. In the end, fearing Li Ban the simpleton wouldn’t understand, he bluntly stated his purpose.
Li Ban learned the way to buy elements from Uncle Ma and prepared to return to the inn to continue cultivating.
But as soon as he left the slave grounds, a bearded big man hurried over to him.
“Hey there, young brother, are you looking to buy elements?”
Li Ban glanced at him, unfamiliar, and immediately became cautious.
The bearded man smiled, showing a mouthful of yellow teeth. “Don’t be nervous, young brother. I happen to have a few elements. I overheard you talking about it vaguely at the slave grounds entrance, so I wanted to ask you.”
Li Ban kept a safe distance. “You… sell elements? Aren’t you afraid the Eternal Tower will come after you?”
“Small-time sales of a few elements? The big shots at the Eternal Tower don’t care.”
This matched what Uncle Ma had said.
“What elements do you have?”
“If you’re interested, I’ll invite you for some tea. It’s freezing out here;
we can talk while drinking.”
The bearded man pointed to a tea house nearby where business was being conducted. Li Ban knew the tea house owner, and Death Prison also bought tea there.
Li Ban felt a bit more at ease and went in first, picking a seat by the street.
Seeing this, the bearded man, Hai Dakui, knew Li Ban hadn’t fully let down his guard and smiled, following to sit down.
“Don’t worry, young brother. I, Hai Dakui, often hang around here and would never scam you. Besides…” He grinned broadly, “I don’t want to provoke Death Prison either!”
If he was mixing in the Black Market White Market, it was indeed likely he knew Li Ban.
Li Ban asked directly, “What elements do you have?”
Hai Dakui didn’t bother with pleasantries anymore. “I currently have four elements: three inferior-grade elements with minor side effects, and one common-grade element.”
“Can you introduce them all?”
Hai Dakui briefly explained a few.
Li Ban originally didn’t want inferior elements, and hearing these had no attack or defense properties, he skipped them.
Only when he heard the last element did he feel a spark of excitement.
“My only common-grade element is called Iron Fish Scale. It has extraordinary defensive power. Fused into a vital part of the body, weapons find it hard to cause injury!”