Chapter 3055 — Butting In

"This..." Xiao Yi said with a bitter face, "That brat Wei Zhao is too devious—more devious than you, even! He couldn't beat me, so he actually had his spirit beast attack Tagan Long. You know as well as I do, that spirit beast's strength is only at the peak of the late Earth rank, a whole major tier below me, but its hide is thick and its flesh is tough! My attacks did it no real damage. If I'd set my mind to killing Wei Zhao, it's not that I couldn't have done it, but Tagan Long would definitely have been done in by that spirit beast first!"

Ancestor Xuanchen nodded. He had only been speaking out of anger; this matter really was not Xiao Yi's fault. So Ancestor Xuanchen said to Xiao Yi, "Send people to keep close watch on Wei Zhao's movements and find out whether that heaven-rank divine weapon is truly in his hands. If it is, we'll think of a way—if we can't get it from him, we'll trade for it. If that truly won't work, we'll hire the Blood Garment Yellow Springs Sect to seize it by force, so long as we keep our own hands clean of it and the Five Luminaries Sect is not implicated!"

"Yes, **, I'll send people to handle this at once!" Xiao Yi nodded. This concerned his own affairs, so naturally he threw himself into it wholeheartedly. After Xiao Yi took his leave and returned, the very first thing he did was dispatch peripheral members of the Five Luminaries Sect from the Hidden Rain Family to keep tabs on Wei Zhao!

Yu Yi of the Hidden Rain Family had all along been the one responsible for liaising with Shen Yushu, so taking on one more task was a mere trifle that added little to his burden.

Early that morning, Wei Zhao had been preparing to head to the ** Practitioners' Trading Association. He took out all the pills Han Jingyi had refined while practicing her craft and loaded them into his car, then drove straight for the ** Practitioners' Trading Association.

"Hello? Is this Vice President Ouyang of the ** Practitioners' Trading Association?" Wei Zhao had no sooner gotten into the car than he dialed the number on the golden business card the heaven-rank vice president had given him.

"Speaking. May I ask who this is?" Vice President Ouyang said after picking up.

"This is Ling Yi. I wonder if Vice President Ouyang still remembers me?" Wei Zhao gave the name he had used last time at the ** Practitioners' Trading Association.

"Oh, Mr. Ling! Hello, hello. What can I do for you?" Vice President Ouyang remembered Wei Zhao at once—this remarkable man who could unleash the thirteenth stance of a heaven-rank martial technique despite only possessing the strength of a peak mid Earth-rank cultivator. Among his acquaintances, there was no one else like Wei Zhao, so his memory of the man was fresh indeed.

"Haha, so Vice President Ouyang hasn't forgotten me after all. Here's the thing: I have a batch of pills on hand that I'd like to sell off. I wonder if Vice President Ouyang might be interested?" Wei Zhao asked.

"The Trading Association hasn't started a new market auction yet. It's not that you can't bring your pills in now, but you won't get the sort of price an auction would fetch. What's more, at present we only support barter—they can't be converted into cash. Are you sure you want to do this? You'll lose a great deal this way!" Vice President Ouyang was still quite wary of Wei Zhao, so he explained the pros and cons in detail. With anyone else, Vice President Ouyang would have cheated them for all he could, but with Wei Zhao, that was out of the question.

"That's quite all right—barter is exactly what I'm after!" Wei Zhao said. "Shall I come over to see you now?"

"That works. I'm in the same office as last time at the ** Practitioners' Market. Just come straight over, give your name, and demonstrate your strength, and you'll be let in. The ** Practitioners' Market also handles barter for ** practitioners in the ordinary course of things," Vice President Ouyang said.

"Good. See you shortly," Wei Zhao said.

With that, Wei Zhao drove off toward the ** Practitioners' Trading Association. This was his second visit. He parked the car at the foot of the mountain below the ** Practitioners' Trading Association, and with the pills in hand, went dashing straight up the mountain!

The same mountain gate, with the same two guards at the entrance—except these were not the men from last time. The ones from last time had been beaten to death by Wei Zhao. These two clearly had no wish to follow in their predecessors' footsteps, and made no trouble for the ** practitioners who came here, so Wei Zhao entered the ** Practitioners' Trading Association without the slightest hitch.

Wei Zhao did not linger. He went straight to the office and found Vice President Ouyang on duty there.

"Vice President Ouyang, it's been a long time. I trust you've been well!" Wei Zhao stepped forward with a smile and greeted him.

"Mr. Ling, you've come! Please, sit!" Vice President Ouyang's face broke into a smile at the sight of Wei Zhao. He knew Wei Zhao's strength well and naturally did not dare treat him lightly. "May I ask what Mr. Ling has come to trade this time?"

"All the pills I've brought this time are right here. Please have a look, Vice President Ouyang. As for what I want in exchange, I have a list here—take a look and we'll talk." As he spoke, Wei Zhao handed over both the pills he had brought and the list of medicinal ingredients he needed.

As for the pills Wei Zhao had brought this time, most were rank-one pills, refined by Han Jingyi to pass the time when she was bored. They were of little use to Wei Zhao sitting in his hands, nor were they worth much, so he had simply brought them along to trade for what he needed.

"Rank-one pills... so many of them!" What Vice President Ouyang saw was business opportunity, not the grade of the pills. In a commercial institution like theirs, rank-one pills might be low-grade, but they were still hot-selling goods. So he did not think the pills low-grade in the least—so long as there was profit in it, he was happy. "The pills are no problem. We can take them all. It's just a question of whether we have the medicinal ingredients you need—let's see about that first!"

"Very well!" Wei Zhao nodded and said, "Vice President Ouyang, have a look first, and then we'll talk."

Vice President Ouyang carefully read through the list of ingredients Wei Zhao had brought over, then said, "Of these, only two are rare ingredients and fetch a rather high price. One of them is extremely precious—we have only a single piece in stock. But the quantity you need here is fairly small, so what we have should be enough."

"Oh? You have them all? That's wonderful! Then can I trade these pills of mine for them?" Hearing Vice President Ouyang's words, Wei Zhao was both astonished and delighted, and asked at once.

"You can. In fact, I should say you'll have more than enough—I'm getting the better of you here. But you know as well as I do, that's how barter works. Pills absolutely cannot be valued at their retail price, only at their pawn price. That being so, it comes out just about even..." Vice President Ouyang explained. (To be continued)