Chapter 3736 — The Trash King

A hundred and fifty spirit jade? Wei Zhao's heart skipped a beat.

That price was hardly low—among all the early Foundation Establishment spirit beast carcasses he had seen priced so far, it already ranked at the very top. This bearded middle-aged man was indeed rather generous.

Seeing Wei Zhao waver, another merchant at his side grew anxious and hurriedly called out, "I bid a hundred and sixty spirit jade!"

The bearded man shot the man a glance, not even bothering to lift an eyelid, and immediately raised his offer. "A hundred and eighty spirit jade!"

The others, seeing him so flush with wealth and so plainly determined to have it, could only sigh in helpless resignation. A Nine-Tailed Cloud-Piercing Leopard carcass was exceedingly rare, true, but at bottom it was still only an early Foundation Establishment spirit beast, and this price had all but exceeded the ceiling.

If they bid any higher, even if they won the thing, they likely would earn no profit at all once it was finally sold—they would simply be running themselves ragged for the sake of Wei Zhao, a total stranger they had never met.

Yet even so, one merchant gritted his teeth and pushed the price up anyway. "I bid a hundred and eighty-five spirit jade!"

But before Wei Zhao could react at all, the bearded man called out again. "Two hundred spirit jade!"

At that, every other merchant fell silent.

To pay more than two hundred spirit jade for the carcass of an early Foundation Establishment spirit beast—even one as rare as the Nine-Tailed Cloud-Piercing Leopard—would surely be a losing bargain, with no profit to be had whatsoever.

Even Wei Zhao could not help but look at the bearded man with a shade more respect. To be honest, his first impression of the man had been that of a typical merchant—seemingly sincere and warm, but with calculation hidden underneath, the sort who might fleece you at any moment. Now, however, it seemed that even if he was a merchant, he was a merchant with nerve.

For the carcass of a Nine-Tailed Cloud-Piercing Leopard without even a demon core, he dared to bid as high as two hundred spirit jade without batting an eye, leaving his rivals utterly speechless. Such nerve was not something ordinary men possessed.

Wei Zhao glanced at the faces of the others and could tell they would bid no higher. But just as he was about to strike the deal, a bystander in the crowd suddenly gave a sigh and said, looking at Wei Zhao, "This is a rare prize indeed—what a pity to sell it!"

Wei Zhao was taken aback and studied the man carefully. His features were utterly ordinary, his dress plain and unremarkable—one might even call it shabby—and his cultivation was nothing formidable, only the peak of early Foundation Establishment. He did not stand out in a crowd in the slightest.

Yet on closer inspection, Wei Zhao found that there was something distinctly different about the man's bearing—not the air of a brilliant prodigy, but something more like the temperament of a scholar who had devoted himself year in and year out to one single pursuit.

If he had to name someone close at hand for comparison, the feeling this man gave Wei Zhao was somewhat akin to Han Jingyi.

In daily life, that girl Han Jingyi was a bit muddled and showed no particular talent, yet in the matter of pill refinement alone her gift could be called unprecedented. Given the chance to develop it fully, she was the kind of once-in-an-era figure who could overturn the entire world of pills and lead the transformation to come.

And this utterly ordinary man before him carried that same uncommon air—except that his gift need not lie in pill refinement.

Before Wei Zhao could speak, the bearded man beside him grew agitated and glared at the fellow. "Trash King, you penniless wretch, what nonsense are you spouting? I offer two hundred spirit jade for this brother's Nine-Tailed Cloud-Piercing Leopard carcass, and you say it's a pity? Go on then, if you've got the skill, bid higher and let's see—never mind two hundred spirit jade, you probably couldn't scrape together twenty!"

The man called the Trash King flushed with embarrassment. Seeing everyone looking at him, he waved his hands in flustered discomfort. "I didn't mean it's a pity to sell for two hundred spirit jade—two hundred is indeed a very high price. But some things are found only by chance and never sought, and they are priceless. If the leopard's front claws and whip-tail were used for artifact forging, the weapon forged from them would be worth at least two thousand spirit jade!"

"Bah! Keep dreaming! You, the Trash King, forge a weapon worth two thousand spirit jade? Who are you trying to fool?"

The bearded man shot him an exasperated glance, then turned to explain to Wei Zhao, "Don't listen to this boy's ravings, brother. He's the most unwelcome inner disciple in the whole Qingyun Pavilion. His name is Wang Lanyue—good for nothing but forging artifacts, and he goes about calling himself a master forger. He's always buying up the leftover scraps of spirit beast carcasses from us, but he's never once forged anything decent—just piles of junk. That's why we've always called him the Trash King."

Hearing himself introduced this way, the Trash King went red in the face with agitation and hurried to defend himself. "That's because you don't understand artifact forging! In forging, quality always trumps everything. A true master forger will forge the finest divine weapon even from the basest materials—success rate is only secondary. Mine is merely a little lower..."

"From what I know, you've never actually succeeded at forging a single thing, have you? And you still dare call your success rate just a little lower?" The bearded man and the others in the know all burst out laughing.

"A forger speaks only of quality, never of success rate—what would you laymen know..." the Trash King went on, red-faced, though judging by the crowd's reaction, it was a completely futile effort.

Watching coldly from the sidelines, Wei Zhao could not help but smile. This Trash King was a curious character indeed—a veritable Kong Yiji of the cultivation world!

As the crowd was still laughing at the Trash King, Wei Zhao suddenly spoke up. "Brother Wang, you said just now that the Nine-Tailed Cloud-Piercing Leopard's front claws and whip-tail are good materials for artifact forging?"

Everyone present was struck dumb, staring at Wei Zhao with strange expressions and exchanging glances. Surely he wasn't actually going to believe the Trash King's nonsense?

Among them all, it was the bearded man whose face fell the furthest. He had sincerely meant to buy this Nine-Tailed Cloud-Piercing Leopard carcass from Wei Zhao as a showpiece, and to that end had been willing to sink two hundred spirit jade into it at a loss. He had been on the verge of getting Wei Zhao's nod when this confounding variable had to go and intrude—it left him grinding his teeth in fury.