"Right, do you sell Frigid Sun Grass here?"
Shaking his head to dispel the additional thoughts in his mind, Zhang Xuan asked.
On top of miscellaneous items, this vendor also sold some herbs.
After finishing those books in the Compendium Pavilion, he had already found a solution to Zhao Ya's problem. With a Pure Yin Body, she should cultivate a gentle and neutral cultivation technique. This way, the problem of the accumulation of yin energy should be solved!
However, she had already cultivated a pure yin cultivation technique for a long time and the meridians in her body have already adapted to it. If an abrupt change were to be introduced, her body might sustain a severe trauma and her cultivation would fall steeply. To prevent this from occurring, some preparations have to be made in advance!
One of them was to nourish her meridians through medicinal herbs!
Frigid Sun Grass grew in cold regions despite favoring sunny conditions. As a result, the warm and cold spiritual energy contained within it clashed, causing the amalgamation of yin and yang, thus making it the ideal choice for nourishing her meridians. Since he was in the commercial city now, it was a good time for him to ask around about it.
"Frigid Sun Grass? It is a coincidence that you ask this. Not to brag, but I can guarantee you that I am the only vendor in Tianyu Commercial City that has this good. I procured them a few days ago from a dangerous region in Tianxuan Forest. I have a total of ten stalks and each stalk costs 100 gold coins. How many do you need?"
The vendor smiled and turned around to take out a box. Opening it, a few fresh-looking plants were revealed within.
White flowers with red stems and leaves.
"Let me take a look first!"
Zhang Xuan only knew about the Frigid Sun Grass through reading books, so he wasn't very familiar with it. He reached out to grab a stalk and placed it on his palm.
Weng!
The library jolted and a book appeared.
"Frigid Sun Grass, harvested from an unknown valley 200km into Tianxuan Forest. Aged 2... Flaws..."
The name of the herb was written on the cover of the book, and the location of its procurement and its flaws were recorded in it.
"It is Frigid Sun Grass, this fellow isn't lying!"
Confirming that there was no mistake with the name on the book, Zhang Xuan knew that the vendor owner wasn't lying to him. This was the authentic medicinal herb, so he nodded his head. Just when he was about to speak, his eyes happened to glance on the interiors of the box.
"Why does this stalk of Frigid Sun Grass look slightly withered? Could it be that your procurement method is incorrect, causing its death?"
There was a specific method to harvesting medicinal herbs. If the method was wrong, the medicinal properties of the herb might be lost, causing its price to drop steeply.
The stalk of Frigid Sun Grass he was talking about was withered thin and slightly yellow, seemingly immature. Furthermore, it didn't look fresh at all. With a shriveled large head, it seemed as though it would die at any moment
"This gentleman here must be joking. I depend on this for a living, so how could I possibly get it wrong! This stalk of herb isn't of good condition from the very start, it was already like that when I procured it initially. If you want it, I will sell it to you at half price, 50 gold coins!"
The vendor said.
"Un!"
Zhang Xuan picked up the yellowish and withered stalk of Frigid Sun Grass.
Weng!
"Frigid Sun Mother Grass, the origin of other Frigid Sun Grasses. harvested from an unknown valley 200km into Tianxuan Forest. Aged 15..." Flipping open the book, the name of the herb and details on it were recorded.
"Frigid Sun Mother Grass?" Zhang Xuan's eyes lit up.
He had read it on the books previously. This extremely valuable and rare herb was the core of all other Frigid Sun Grass. If this herb were to be used in the creation of a medicine, its effectiveness would at least be ten times the latter!
He didn't expect to stumble upon this treasure when he was just casually looking for herbs. Furthermore, this herb was 15 year old. Just by this determined its extraordinary worth.
If Zhao Ya were to use the Frigid Sun Grass to nourish her meridians, she would still require the augmentation from several other means to successfully change her cultivation technique. However, with this stalk of Frigid Sun Grass, the problem could be easily solved. She wouldn't even need the augmentation from other means!
This was the most suitable medicinal herb for her, no questions about it!
"Wrap this stalk up for me!"
Although he was agitated, his face still remained expressionless as he casually passed it back to the vendor.
If the other party realized that this was a mother stalk and not a sickly one, its price would instantly shoot up by ten times and even so, he might still be unable to purchase it from him!
As a Four Haves Youngster [1] who grew up in the modern civilized world, he wouldn't do himself any injustice when he was able to profit out of something.
"50 gold coins!"
Seeing how well-dressed the young man seemed to be, he thought that he would purchase a few stalks. He didn't expect that he would just buy a sickly one. Pursing his lips, he wrapped it casually, the warmth from before absent on his face.
Even a vendor judged his own customers when doing sales. The person before him wasn't even willing to buy a good medicinal herb, thus making it clear to see that he was a poor bloke. Since that's the case, it would just be a waste of time to try to coax him otherwise.
"Alright!"
Grabbing the herb, Zhang Xuan reached out to his pocket and awkwardness immediately showed on his face.
Due to being too absorbed in the library, he forgot about the matter of money... As a low-level teacher, his wage was low. Furthermore, due to scoring a zero in the Teacher Qualification Examination, his fortunes were penalized severely... In other words, he didn't even have 10 gold coins in his pocket, needless to say, 50.
"Is there anything wrong?" Sensing that something was amiss from his face, the vendor asked.
"Cough cough, can you... sell it to me for eight gold coins?" Zhang Xuan counted the gold coins he retrieved from his pocket, only having eight pieces of them.
"Eight? You must be joking! Since you didn't bring any money, why are you trying to buy anything at all..."
Seeing the few coins placed on the other party's palm, the vendor owner was on the verge of doing a somersault and crashing to the floor.
He had met with miserly customers, but he had never met with such a miserly one!
[Trying to buy Frigid Sun Grass with just eight gold coins? You must be dreaming! Even if this stalk is sickly, it is still worth far beyond this price.]
Snatching back the herb, he waved his hand with an annoyed look, "Scram if you don't have any money. I don't have the effort to be arguing with you over this!"
"Cough cough! It is true that I didn't bring sufficient money, but are you sure that you don't want to sell it to me?"
Seeing the attitude of the vendor, Zhang Xuan shook his head.
"Nonsense! Even if this stalk looks awful, it still contains medicinal properties. At worst, it can still be sold for 30 or 40 gold coins. Yet, you offer me eight gold coins? What a joke! Hurry up and leave, or else I will be calling for the security enforcement team!"
Seeing how this fellow was reluctant to leave despite being broke, he angrily chased him away.
In order to prevent people from coercing others to buy or sell goods, as well as to deter troublemakers, most large commercial cities operated a security enforcement patrol team in their perimeter. As long as one called out for them, they would appear quickly. Even if you were a Fighter 5-dan Dingli realm expert, you would be chased out of the commercial city instantly!
Furthermore, to make a move on the security enforcement team meant making a move on the entire commercial city. Normally, no one would have the guts to stand up against them.
Upon seeing how this fellow refused to leave despite not possessing sufficient money, he was certain that he was here to cause trouble. So, he opened his mouth to call for the security enforcement team.
"Don't call for the security enforcement team, I'm really interested in buying it!" Zhang Xuan interrupted him. With a calm and steady look, he chuckled softly, "I might not have sufficient money, but I'm not here to cause trouble. Do you believe that if I were to open my mouth, not only will you be willing to sell it to me, you would even offer to give it to me for free?"
"Give it to you for free? Are you still in the midst of your sleep?"
The vendor didn't expect the poor bloke to say such words. He looked at the young man before him with an attitude as though he was looking at an idiot, and sneered coldly, "If I were to really give it to you for free, I'll call you grandpa!"
In his opinion, this fellow must have a screw loose. Not mentioning how he didn't bring sufficient money to purchase goods, he even thought that he would give it to him for free...
[I am not insane, why would I give it to you for free?
Who do you think you are!]
"Call me grandpa? You don't need to do that!" Zhang Xuan shook his head. He looked at the vendor with a bright smile and said, "You will give it to me for free because I said so. If you doubt my words... I will take two steps... Cough cough, let's see what will happen after I give you a punch!"
[1] Four Haves refer to Dream, Moral, Culture and Discipline. Originated from Deng Xiao Ping in 1980.