The Six Immortals Chapter 13

A Profitable Transaction Jing Feng said: “Follow me, the valley out here is a maze, do not get lost.” Bi Fan followed him very closely, but he wouldn’t dare to trust him blindly. He knew nothing about Jing Feng’s background, so naturally, he was worried. Bi Fan was very careful, after all, he had suffered a lot of humiliation at the hands of people all his life. It had become really hard for him to trust people. Bi Fan closely followed Jing Feng as he took a sharp left and then several right turns, and then suddenly, he could see their destination. All three sides were covered with lofty mountain ranges, leaving only one path to go in. Once he entered it, the size of the basin astonished him, there were several building all around and people were constantly going in and out. The whole basin was bustling with excitement. “Welcome to the Ting Feng valley, if you see anything you like, you can always tell me, I have some savings” Jing Feng said. The practitioners were using spar (crystal stones) as currency; however, the most precious of items were being bartered. The two Yin Yang pouches that Bi Fan had acquired earlier, had some spars in them, but mostly low-grade. He took some time and counted them. He had one hundred and thirteen spars and approximately three thousand low-grade spars. Low-grade spars could be traded for their grade counterparts in the ratio of hundred to one; similarly, a high grade spar would fetch a hundred low-grade spars. These were the basics that revolved around the exchange of the currency, and Bi Fan was well aware of it. Ting Feng valley was a very liberal place; no identity verification was required to enter. As soon as he entered the Ting Feng valley, he could hear the sounds of transactions and bargaining, peddlers advertising their products and so on. “High grade magical instruments available for barter with a double-edged sword of similar workmanship.” “Herbs from hundred year old tree trunks, interested people can come and have a look.” Jing Feng heard the magical instruments peddler and walk over to him. “What about this jade fan? How much for it?” “Products will only be traded for swords, not spar” the middle aged man coldly replied to Jing Feng. Jing Feng looked at the jade fan, his eyes were gleaming, he didn’t have a sword to trade, but he still wanted the jade fan. Jing Feng imagined himself holding the fan; he would have looked very handsome, and thought that he could make others jealous. Bi Fan wanted Jing Feng to get the fan, and even though he had a high grade double-edged sword, he didn’t want to help him out in making the barter. He wouldn’t reveal his valuables to people whose true intentions weren’t clear to him. This Bi Fan was well aware of; in fact he was a little more cautious than most people. Jing Feng reluctantly put the fan down and walked away. Ting Feng valley was very wide, it had a lot of streets and these streets were studded with stalls. These stalls had some really fantastic items on sale. Pellets of Dan, rare books, copies of martial arts techniques, Panacea to refine medicinal drugs, magical instruments, weapons and so on. Bi Fan had always embraced the idea of expanding one’s vision, so every now and then he would go into a vendor’s booth and inquire about article, articles he had no intention of purchasing. Recently, Bi Fan had acquired a lot of precious items, these items had raised his standards, and he was no longer interested in ordinary items, which would have earlier acquired his attention. Jing Feng said: “Brother Bi Fan, if you like any items, let me know, I’ll buy them.” Jing Feng was very smart, and Bi Fan was aware of it. Bi Fan knew that if he took too many favors from Jing Feng then it would be embarrassing in the future to refuse him some rights over the long Diao. “No, its fine, really. I have some ‘spars’, so if the need arises, I can use them.” Bi Fan said, shaking his head. Jing Feng looked awfully confused, he could not understand how Bi Fan had acquired spars, and why was he so interested in magical tools, especially considering that he probably wasn’t even at ‘inner breath’ stage, so he wouldn’t be able to use them properly.  Bi Fan on the other hand was very enthusiastic, he was mostly inquiring about items out of curiosity, from the beginning he hadn’t had the intention of buying any of the items he had inquired about. Jing Feng had bought a lot of small items, but he didn’t look satisfied, he still wanted to buy the jade fan, he had been enchanted by it. Bi Fan and Jing Feng entered a booth that had a lot of books. There were a total of eighteen books there. Bi Fan started examining the books, some of them were meant for ‘fetus’ jie but most of them required the practitioner to be at least as strong as the ‘inner breath’ layer to be able to make use of them properly. He had already executed longevity burst once, and knew that this barrier wasn’t always true. Bi Fan considered the options for a while. There was a book by the entrance, its title was written in beautiful calligraphy, ‘Divine seals’. The title seemed to be portrayed in a very arrogant manner, the book was had a golden cover, a very bright golden cover. The golden color of its cover dazzled in the light but the book only spoke about some basic fundamentals, and didn’t have of anything of much value in it. “Sir, how much for this ‘Divine seals’ book?” Bi Fan asked. The old man, wasn’t used to be being called ‘Sir’ and felt flattered. “Young man, if you wish to purchase this book, you can have it for ten spars.” Bi Fan was about to make the transaction, when Jing Feng interrupted: “Brother Bi Fan, this book only speaks about some fundamental concepts, even though it has a golden over, it does not make this book worth ten spars. It’s worth much lesser.” “Young man, I will rephrase my asking price, you can buy this book for five spars, and it’s almost the same as my buying price.” The old man spoke. The old man seemed to be telling the truth, one could see that the book’s cover was extremely delicate, it was obvious that it required a great deal of effort. Although the book didn’t contain any valuable information, but spending a few spars to study it, was okay. Bi Fan quickly agreed: “Well, I’ll take it.” He took out the spars and bought the book. After leaving the booth, Jing Feng whispered: “Brother Bi Fan, you lost a lot of money on that deal, that book was worth a lot lesser than what you purchased it for. Please next time let me negotiate.” “It doesn’t matter, as long as the book has use to me, five spars won’t make much of a difference.” Bi Fan said expressing his difference in opinion. If the items had no use for him, then even the most precious items were a complete waste, and he wouldn’t spend a single spar to buy them. However, if the item had a use for him, he wouldn’t mind spending a little extra, as long as he felt that the price was justified for his requirement. Jing Feng didn’t agree with Bi Fan’s statement, but decided not to argue with him. It wasn’t his money anyway. As they continued to stroll down the market, Bi Fan would stop at almost every stall and examine the articles very carefully. Based on the knowledge he had acquired, he would try to distinguish the quality of the items. Suddenly, Bi Fan came to stop at a vendor’s booth where he saw a slightly damaged armor. This armor didn’t seem to have anything special about it; in fact it looked quite ordinary, with some pieces of magical units attached inside it. Even though it was his first trip here, he had already formulated some tricks. He picked up a piece of magical instrument and asked: “How much for this one?” He carried a casual look on his face, if he showed any signs of likeliness to the object, then he would make an easy target. He picked up another magical tool and looked it over. The stall owner looked at him as if he was a sheep waiting to be slaughtered. “This is a very high grade instrument, only the best materials were used to make this, it’s the best in the entire region. But since you are like my little brother, I will let you have it for a bargain, only five hundred spars.” The stall owner articulated, over-exaggerating the quality of the product. The item he held in his hand was clearly an average item and was by no means of the best quality in the entire region. That stall was quite dark inside, and was charging a fairly high price for general items. Bi Fan put the item down “I don’t have five hundred spars to buy this product.” The stall owner realizing that Bi Fan isn’t a complete fool, decided to lower his price: “Two hundred spars, this is the best price you will ever get for such a high quality product.” “Two hundred spars for this, is still high, but if you throw in this broken armor, then I can give you two hundred spars.” Bi Fan picked up the broken armor. The inside of the armor was awfully shabby along with some shiny parts. The stall owner hesitated for a second, and then agreed. The repairs on the inside of the armor were probably going to cost less than ten spars. And the two items put together were now worth a lot more than two hundred spars. With the deal reached, Bi Fan collected his two purchases. His tactic had succeeded and he had made a profitable transactions. Jing Feng had been watching from the side lines and wanted to interrupt Bi Fan, but decided to keep his mouth shut. Since the conversation that had followed the purchase of the book, Jing Feng had realized that Bi Fan was very stubborn and wouldn’t stop at anything.

Chapter end