Chapter 47 - Beifong Town (1)

Kai pulled the wagon back to Beifong Town. He casually joined the line behind all the other people who were trying to enter the town.

Mina and Lao Ren were both inside the wagon, wearing the same robes. According to Lao Ren, these were standard robes worn in the region so they wouldn't stand out if they wore these. Kai had also changed into a pair of simple clothing that he found in the cave.

They had come up with a simple story of being a small merchant family going around selling their wares. Kai had initially wanted to leave the stolen goods hidden in the wilds, but Lao Ren had assured him that these were goods stolen from elsewhere. Nobody in this region would even know where they had come from.

Soon it was there turn, and Kai pulled the wagon to the inspection site. The guard wasn't too meticulous and only gave the wagon a quick once over before asking for payment. The cost here was different than Huang City. They didn't give out entry tokens but rather took an entrance fee everyone someone entered the town.

The fee was 10 copper coins for each person. If Kai had to leave the city multiple times in a day, he would incur some serious costs.

Luckily, Kai had liberated over 90 silver coins from the deceased man-hunters in the cave so 30 copper coins wasn't anything to him. He paid the 30 coppers and they were let through without any issues.

When they entered the gates, Kai was shocked by what he saw. Unlike Huang City which had a high level of order and cleanliness, this town was covered in signs of poverty and filth everywhere. The roads were unmaintained and the people all looked sketchy. Homeless people were begging on the streets while women wearing heavy make up solicited their 'services' openly in broad daylight.

"This place is a real hell hole...", Kai murmured to himself as he pulled the wagon along the bumpy road. Kai wondered if Ryu was OK seeing as he had unknowingly forced him to fend for himself in this place for a few days now.

They quickly reached a large open square market with what looked like thousands of people loudly trading their goods and services.

"Fresh Grade-2 Elk-Bison milk!, only 50 copper per bottle, hurry before it's all gone!"

"Come see this armor made from a [Grade-3] Corpse-Eater!, nothing can pierce through it!, only 3 gold, today only!"

"Buying all the herbs you can sell. Any frost leaves or lesser-spirit herbs will be bought for 20 silver each!"

Kai inspected the items as he passed by and quickly realized that a lot of them were fakes. He walked up to the vendor selling the [Grade-3] armor.

"Ah, you have a good eye!, this was hand crafted by a master craftsman using the finest hide from a Grade-3 behemoth, the Corpse-Eater....". The seller went into a long sales pitch but Kai simply ignored him and uses [Qi Detection] on the armor.

[Grade-2] [Undead-Tiger Armor] [ Qi 500]

"Undead-Tiger huh..." Kai whispered to himself.

However, the seller was able to catch his words as a cold sweat immediately fell down his back. He knew exactly where the armor was from, but he knew that only a master craftsman or someone with a noble cultivation background would be able to tell the difference. Yet this man had gone as far as identifying the real beast where it came from. This meant the man in front of him fell into either one or both of these categories. The man couldn't afford to offend either one so he did the only thing he could do.

"Please accept my sincerest apology, my ignorance had been my undoing!". The man gave a 90 degree bow with sweat running down his forehead.

Kai was surprised by the sudden turn of events, he only read the system pop up and didn't expect the man to suddenly apologize. Mina and Lao Ren were also shocked by the man's sudden change in demeanor.

One second he seemed to be confidently hawking his wares, but now he was apologizing all of a sudden. They looked over to Kai curiously, wondering what exactly he had done to incite such a response from the seller.

Kai stepped closer to the seller and crouched down so they were now on the same level. "You see, I don't like when people lie to me. Now tell me, how can you make things right?..." Kai whispered to the man in a sinister voice

Kai wasn't one to let an opportunity to rip off a merchant pass him by, so he planned to milk this encounter for all it was worth.

The man was terrified and his body started to visibly shake. "I...I am truly sorry sir. Please, name your price..."

Kai nodded his head, then walked back to the wagon. "Old Lao, what's the value of everything in the cart?".

Lao Ren was surprised by the question, but his over sixty years of administrative service kicked in. He inspected carefully and after a few minutes, he responded to Kai.

"Sir, the current market rate for all the weapons, armor and miscellaneous items should be 6 Gold 52 Silver and 34 copper to be exact".

Kai was a little surprised. He stole a lot of stuff so he figured he would get something for them, but six gold was really out of his expectations. He had inspected everything when they took a break earlier and hadn't found anything higher than [Grade-2]. For the current Kai, anything below [Grade-3] wouldn't be too helpful so he wasn't interested in any of the stuff.

Kai nodded his head as thanks, then turned back to the seller. "Buy everything at double market price and I'll call things even".

"D...Double?!". The seller instantly became pale. If the old man's valuation was correct, then he would have to spend over 13 gold to get out of this situation!.

"I'm sorry sir, I don't have that kind of money, the best I can do is by them at market price..."

Kai was yet again surprised. This told him that the man had at least 7 gold on him. The only reason he asked for double was to see the man's reaction.

"Hmm, OK. I won't make things too difficult for you. Give me 10 gold and that armor and we'll call it even. Kai thought the Undead-Tiger Armor would look good on Mina so he decided to get it as well.

"10 gold..."

"Will this also be a problem?..." Kai asked with an annoyed voice. He was unknowingly exuding pressure onto the man as he spoke.

"No!, I accept 10 gold. Thank you sir for you kindness, thank you!" The man bowed as he handed over a purse to Kai with a pained expression.

Kai unceremoniously took the sack and confirmed that it contained 10 gold before he put it into his chest pocket.

"This will do as an apology". Kai tried to hide his excitement as he put the money away. Just this alone made the trip to this town worth it. Kai and Lao Ren unloaded the goods off the wagon, then Kai took the Unded-Tiger Armor. He gave the seller a friendly wave then pulled the wagon away.

The seller fell onto his bottom as soon as Kai was out of sight. One of his men came quickly to help him up.

"Sir, do you want us to...take care of them?"

"Idiot!, do you want to get us killed?!. Those people aren't ordinary. The old man was able to accurately get the market value of all these items in just a few minutes. And that young man...he is dangerous. The reason I've lived this long is because I know who I can and can't mess with. Just forget about what happened!"

The seller thought back to the feeling of pressure he felt when Kai spoke. It reminded him of his few interactions with those Internal Cultivation Nobles.. Yet this young man's pressure was on a whole other level.

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