Spending Money

Cultivators have limited lifespans and difficulty advancing, so most dedicate their entire being to cultivation, finding it hard to manage industries.

But the cultivation world is also an economic world; without spirit stones and resources, one cannot move an inch.

Therefore, most cultivators with some strength would choose to become honored guest elders of small families, enjoying the family’s offerings.

The cost would be to escort and protect the development of this small family.

Or, they might establish their own sects or families, recruit disciples, and have their disciples help manage their industries.

Su Qing originally spent a lot of time managing her industries, which inevitably hindered her cultivation.

Now, with Zhu Xing’er, as well as Jiang Shuang and Jia Song, managing her businesses for her, she only collected one or two tenths of the profits. This was already the most reasonable solution.

Yulong Bank was one of Tianque City’s large banks.

Each branch had at least a Golden Core cultivator guarding it, so there was no need to worry about safety.

The clerks here were already very polite and friendly.

After asking Su Qing about her certificates, their smiles grew even more amiable.

Even though Su Qing declined his enthusiastic recommendations for financial packages, insurance, and membership upgrades, he still brought fruit and tea.

Su Qing looked at the green fruits arranged on the jade plate, each fresh and dewy. Although they were all low-grade Clear Jade Fruits, they were still spiritual fruits containing spiritual energy.

Such hospitality was not something everyone received.

Su Qing inwardly grumbled, ‘She too had become a major client of a bank one day.’

Although she was a poor soul who loved to cut corners, when out and about, and especially at such a critical juncture, she wouldn’t touch anything edible from an unknown source.

After about three quarters of an hour, the clerk handed Su Qing a brand new storage bag on a tray and said softly, “Everything has been retrieved as per your request, honored guest. Please count it; it should all be there.”

The spirit stones Tian Ning had placed with her, and the later generated interest, she didn’t touch.

Counting only her own share, Zhu Xing’er’s certificate contained three million spirit stones, and Jiang Shuang and Jia Song’s combined amounted to two million, totaling five million.

This converted to four hundred fifty high-grade spirit stones, plus three thousand mid-grade spirit stones, and two hundred thousand low-grade spirit stones.

Su Qing’s divine sense swept over them roughly, knowing they were all there. She stood up. “Thank you.”

She took out ten low-grade spirit stones, intending to give them to the clerk who helped her.

The clerk, however, said, “We are merely following regulations. While I appreciate your kind intention, I absolutely cannot accept it. However, if you don’t mind, that plate of Clear Jade Fruits…”

Su Qing then gave him the Clear Jade Fruits.

The clerk, being at Qi Refining Layer 3, found Clear Jade Fruits easiest to digest.

His smile became even more genuine as he handed Su Qing a pictorial advertisement and a copper coin-shaped voucher, explaining, “The month after next, Yulong, Fenghui, Jubao, and Fulu—the four major banks, in conjunction with the world’s number one business guild, the Nine Heavens Pavilion branch—will hold an auction. It’s said many rare and precious treasures will be displayed. If the honored guest has time, you are welcome to come and see.”

The clerk looked at the copper coin-shaped voucher and said, “With this item, you can enter the outer exhibition area for free.”

Although this was a method to attract customers, Su Qing wasn’t bothered by saving the ticket fee. She put away the voucher and cautiously walked out of Yulong Bank.

Indeed, within five li of the bank, there was a faint aura of Golden Core cultivators, and under this deterrent, no petty criminals dared to trespass. But once she left this range, several auras followed.

Su Qing’s divine sense was far stronger than that of ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators, so she had sensed something was amiss early on. She took a detour and shook them off.

These individuals, seeing her nimble footwork, not like an ordinary cultivator, couldn’t keep up for a while and gave up in frustration.

Otherwise, Su Qing’s sword would probably have claimed a few more lives, and her hands would have gained a few more worthless storage bags.

After shaking them off, she first followed Ye Mingshi’s verbal description to find the location of the Crimson Leaf Sect.

Although it took some effort, she found it. This was a small courtyard located in the city’s suburbs.

The courtyard was somewhat old and not large, but it included a vegetable garden and a horse trough.

Unfortunately, the place was long deserted; there was no trace of the Crimson Leaf Sect.

Su Qing touched the dust on the tabletop, guessing they had left at least half a year ago.

The courtyard was clean and simple, with few things left behind.

Su Qing and a spider weaving a web in the corner of the room stared at each other, and she sighed, ‘It’s really inconvenient without a phone.’

She walked into the courtyard and found that the vegetable patch here had been converted into a simple medicinal garden.

However, now the weeds had grown more lush than the spiritual herbs. Su Qing discovered that some withered medicinal herbs were actually still left in the garden.

This shouldn’t be the case.

The Crimson Leaf Sect was strapped for cash; they would even pull spiritual herbs from the roadside to pocket, so how could they leave behind their cultivated spiritual herbs?

Presumably, something happened, and they left in a hurry.

Su Qing searched around but found no other traces.

Plus, with Nascent Soul cultivator Ye Ruici residing there, she should have the ability to protect herself.

She carefully erased her tracks and headed towards the city.

By this time, it was already dusk.

The sky was filled with pink and purple clouds, and the distant mountains, illuminated by the sunset glow, appeared faintly silhouetted.

It was precisely when the black market opened.

She used the Face-Shaping Art to mold her face into that of a middle-aged man with a complexion like tender beef, then adjusted her physique to that of a strong, burly man.

Finally, she draped a plain robe over herself.

These disguise techniques of hers were all learned from evil cultivators. Although the methods were unconventional, they were undeniably effective.

The entrance to the black market was guarded by two Qi Refining cultivators. Entry required five low-grade spirit stones.

Su Qing paid the money and entered normally.

Both sides of the street, stretching nearly three hundred meters, were lined with stalls.

Cultivators of various appearances sat in front of their stalls, not hawking, but quietly waiting for willing customers to inquire about prices. The street was very quiet, with only a few low murmurs of inquiry.

Su Qing had three objectives for her visit: firstly, to buy some medicinal herbs for body tempering; secondly, to buy spiritual ores, preferably at least Tier 3 top-grade, or ideally Tier 4 low-grade, to feed her Man Qing Sword.

For spiritual ores, she wasn’t very hopeful.

After all, Tier 3 items were rarely found on the market, let alone Tier 4 treasures, which were usually only available in large spiritual treasure pavilions or even auction houses.

Her Man Qing Sword had recently become much pickier due to her feeding.

It barely ate ordinary Tier 3 top-grade spiritual ores, insisting on Tier 4 low-grade, or even a mix with a tiny bit of Tier 4 top-grade spiritual ores.

And it was quite cunning, picking out the high-grade spiritual ores to eat, forcing Su Qing to first spend a considerable effort thoroughly mixing the high-grade and low-grade spiritual ores before feeding.

Thirdly, she was looking for cultivation techniques, preferably divine sense techniques or methods that could quickly enhance her abilities.

If she couldn’t find them in the black market, she would check the Limitless Pavilion, but overall, it would be more expensive there than outside.

Having connections was better than having none; it simply meant working more for the sect.

As she walked and looked, she discovered many unexpectedly good things.

The foremost stall sold raw mustard seeds, which were the raw materials for storage bags, storage bracelets, and even more advanced spatial artifacts.

On the surface, they were unassuming dark grey stones, but they contained realms within.

High-grade mustard seeds could not only store living creatures but also create a secluded space with mountains and rivers.

If they encountered an enemy attack, they could simply burrow into the mustard seed to hide.

As long as the opponent wasn’t specialized in spatial magic, they would be helpless.

Therefore, the cultivation world was utterly obsessed with this item.

However, raw mustard seeds were much more complex.

They were mostly covered by weathered husks, predominantly grey-white, black-green, or grey-brown.

As for the internal quality and potential to become mustard seeds, it was truly difficult to tell from the outside alone.

One had to rely on specialized processing tools to uncover the truth.

But in this case, even for finished mustard seeds, the price would definitely increase by more than tenfold compared to raw stones.

Therefore, some cultivators who were short on funds or simply enjoyed gambling specifically studied raw mustard seeds.

They even published a professional book called “On Stone Gambling,” which countless people regarded as gospel.

Su Qing always declined this game of “one cut to poverty, one cut to wealth.” She bypassed the cultivators who were shining lights, scanning the stone crevices with their divine sense, desperate to press their eyes against the stone skin, and was about to leave.

She suddenly remembered something: she still had a golden shovel in her mind; she was an official.

Being of the same spatial attribute, could these mustard seeds serve as a reward snack for the Orange King?

Recently, her struggle with the Orange King had been extremely fierce.

In the past, the Orange King would come up to her and rub against her, rolling on the ground with utmost flattery, meowing to beg for food.

But ever since she chased it around the Sword School with the cook lady’s imperial serving spoon to make it lose weight, and had Teacher Qing Ge restrain it, insisting on prying open its closed cat eyelids and ears to teach it characters from picture books, she had rarely seen the Orange King.

It certainly didn’t listen to stories about the divine cat Aotian; it was already a divine beast, so it wouldn’t listen, wouldn’t listen.

In any case, the Orange King avoiding her saddened Su Qing, a sadness that only strengthened her resolve.

As its chosen poop-scooping official, they had some hidden connection.

Although it took some effort, Su Qing could always find it.

Thinking this, Su Qing also joined the ranks of stone gamblers.

Only, unlike other cultivators, after selecting a stone, she would ostentatiously rub it in her hand.

In reality, she would let the golden key in her divine sense approach it.

If there was no reaction, she would put it down. If there was some reaction, she would pick them all.

The Orange King was a spatial divine beast, and this key was intimately connected to it, so it could naturally identify other spatial spiritual items.

Among them, a stone the size of a fingernail actually caused the golden key to emit a faint golden light, indicating that this stone was of no low grade.

Therefore, the other stone gamblers watched as this burly man with a peculiar face casually picked up a few raw stones of varying sizes and colors, and had the stall owner wrap them up.

This item was not cheap.

Even raw, a jin cost a hundred spirit stones. Moreover, ordinary treasure-hunting spirit beasts like treasure-seeking rats didn’t know how to deal with spatial spiritual items.

Thus, these people didn’t think much of it, merely sighing inwardly that this big man was foolish and rich, picking indiscriminately.

Six raw stones totaled one thousand eighty jin.

The stall owner, seeing her generous spending, directly rounded down the change by eight thousand spirit stones, for a total of one hundred thousand spirit stones.

Su Qing took out ten high-grade spirit stones and handed them to the stall owner.

This made the surrounding onlookers’ eyes turn red. ‘What a rich patron!’

And the stall owner must have been of high cultivation.

After receiving the high-grade spirit stones, he didn’t pack up his stall and leave.

It seemed he wasn’t afraid of being coveted and certainly possessed some strength.

Su Qing knew this action would definitely make her a target, but she wasn’t afraid.

The Eternal Night Forest had created her terrifying divine sense dimension.

It was difficult to control it well, but killing with it was effortless.

If someone truly came to kill her, she was confident she could kill back and earn some unexpected wealth.

Su Qing also browsed the remaining stalls, mainly selecting some spiritual ores.

This was even simpler; she just had to see if Man Qing Sword would eat them.

Anything that showed a little appetite or gave some reaction, she had the stall owner wrap it up.

But when she bought medicinal herbs for herself, she changed her demeanor.

Haggling was a must, and if she couldn’t haggle the price down, she would ask the stall owner to round down the change.

If that truly wasn’t possible, she would ask the stall owner to give her some extra items as a bonus, leaving the stall owner quite speechless.

They could only say, “Alright, alright, how can a big man like you be so calculative?”

The people silently trailing behind Su Qing were all puzzled, unable to tell if this person was blessed or poor.

Su Qing herself found it strange. She used to be a university student who wasn’t good at haggling. What had changed her?

She thought about it.

Perhaps it was poverty.

By the time the moon hung high, Su Qing had more or less finished browsing.

It wasn’t until she reached a certain stall at the very end that she found what she was looking for.