Chapter 312: The Black Market
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 312: The Black Market
Donghu Lake.
A lake situated east of Wuchang, it was one of Wuhan's most iconic scenic spots, along with the Yellow Crane Tower.
Since ancient times, countless poets and artists had visited this place, leaving behind poems and writings that sang of its breathtaking beauty. It was a vast lake, its surface area eleven times that of Yeouido.
Recalling the Yellow Crane Tower Lord's explanation, I stared blankly at Donghu Lake.
The calm surface of the water shimmered, reflecting the moon in the night sky.
Just gazing at it seemed to wash away the impurities that had accumulated in a corner of my heart.
The importance of rest.
For some reason, the phrase drifted through my mind.
It was true that I had been running nonstop, but that didn't mean I hadn't rested at all.
Whenever I held my women in my arms, shared our affection, and fell asleep, my fatigue would vanish completely.
But it seemed that wasn't enough.
With the lake's surface as my backdrop, I sat down in the lotus position.
Hoooo, haaa...
Inhale and exhale.
With long and short breaths, I took in the spiritual energy of the heavens and earth.
The energy, free of any impurities, flowed through my meridians and once again filled my dantian to the brim.
Wooooong-
With the exception of my still-blocked Ren Meridian, energy filled the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and began to circulate rapidly.
In less than fifteen minutes, I had completed a Small Heavenly Cycle.
It was a speed that couldn't even be compared to before.
‘Is this what they call the sense of a new era?’
The time it took to complete a Small Heavenly Cycle was getting shorter and shorter.
Just as the app's buff made my magic recover tens, even hundreds of times faster than other mages, the speed at which my internal energy replenished had also become incomparably faster than other martial artists.
It was partly due to the efficacy of the Formless Vajra Art, but it seemed to be a synergistic effect from my Primordial Body constitution.
It felt as if all the energy in the world was welcoming me.
Kiiiiing-
Ink-black and golden energies blossomed on my palm, intertwining as if in a dance, attempting to create another ‘color’.
At a glance, it looked like pure white, but it also resembled an empty void.
I knew instinctively.
This was a realm not yet permitted to me.
Ssk.
Watching the energy scatter like smoke from a fire, I brushed my hands off and stood up.
I wanted to be a little greedy, but excessive desire was nothing but poison.
So, for the day I would eventually reach that realm, all I had to do was silently continue doing what I could now.
Just as I had always done.
‘...Is that it?’
Looking down at Donghu Lake from the top of a hill, I sensed the faint presence of people not too far away.
There had to be at least several hundred of them.
There could only be one reason for so many people to be gathered by the lakeside after midnight.
Thud!
After casting a perception-hindering magic, I moved quickly.
With every kick off the ground, the surrounding scenery changed rapidly.
Before long, I witnessed a strange sight.
I could definitely feel presences nearby, but there wasn't a single person, not even an ant, in sight.
In that moment, I felt a sense of déjà vu.
‘Don't tell me... a formation?’
I had felt something similar at the Jegal Family's estate.
Something was clearly right in front of me, yet I couldn't see or feel it.
The power of sorcery, a different discipline from magic.
From inside my cloak, I took out a wooden token engraved with the character for ‘Black’ (黑).
The Yellow Crane Tower Lord had given it to me the night before.
Piit!
At that moment, a small light flickered from the wooden token. The scenery before me began to distort, and soon, a plausible-looking market appeared in the previously empty clearing.
‘I see why the authorities can't crack down on the Black Market.’
Although its level was a bit lower than the Jegal Family's formation, it was clearly a mystical array with a sophisticated formula.
I didn't know how it operated, but I could tell the wooden token was a kind of admission ticket.
In any case, as befitting a market run by the Black Market organization, shouting could be heard right from the entrance.
“Hey, why the fuck is this so expensive! This is a total rip-off!”
“Cut the crap and get lost if you're not buying!”
“What?! You bastard, do you know who I am?!”
Clang!
A man who looked like a martial artist was brandishing his sword at a merchant.
But even in that situation, the merchant didn't bat an eye.
If anything, he seemed to be sneering at the man.
“What, you gonna stab me? Go ahead, try it. You think you can walk out of here in one piece after messing with a Black Market merchant?”
“Keuk...!”
The merchant's words reminded me of the Black Market rules the Yellow Crane Tower Lord had mentioned.
First, do not argue about the products being sold.
Second, do not harm the merchants of the Black Market.
Third, do not cause any more commotion than necessary.
Perhaps because it was a market for the underworld, there were only three rules.
“Tsk! A lowly merchant, of all things!”
But they were absolute.
Even the rough-looking martial artist from the Evil Faction couldn't harm the merchant and had to walk away.
Harming a merchant within the Black Market would result in retaliation from the Black Market organization.
Even if one managed to escape the market safely, it was nearly impossible to survive the organization's pursuit and the assassins hired through them.
‘A kind of order, I suppose?’
It was contradictory for an underworld market to open within the territory of the Orthodox Faction, but that didn't mean Orthodox martial artists didn't visit.
According to the Yellow Crane Tower Lord, stolen goods from families and sects would eventually find their way to the Black Market, and martial artists would gather here to retrieve them.
Of course, they couldn't just take them back by force.
The Black Market's first rule: do not argue about the products being sold.
Thanks to that, the victims had to grit their teeth and buy back their own items at exorbitant prices.
The only ones not bound by such rules were probably the Nine Great Sects and One Alliance or the Five Great Families.
Of course, even they found it burdensome to antagonize the Black Market organization, so they would pay to buy back their items.
In return, the Black Market apparently sold to them at a normal price. A full-blown war with them wouldn't be what the organization wanted either.
‘Well, it's a good thing for me.’
Here, finding the internal energy cultivation method I wanted would be a piece of cake.
If I was lucky, I might even be able to obtain a high-level martial art from a prestigious family or sect.
It would be expensive, of course, but I wouldn't be short on funds.
‘In any case, not bringing Yeo-hwa was the right call.’
I could feel filthy, raw, and lewd gazes from all around.
Show any weakness, and a pickpocket would approach. Enter a deserted area, and robbers would swarm.
I'd heard it was common for customers to end up as merchandise.
If those underworld scumbags had looked at my woman with their filthy eyes, I might not have been able to suppress my anger and would have burned the entire Black Market to the ground.
The Black Market organization, which just pushed its weight with money and numbers, was no match for me, unlike the Black Dragon Castle or the Black Crow Sect, the main forces of the Twelve Demonic Sects.
One against many.
A situation a mage loves more than anything.
Of course, there was no need to go looking for trouble, so I let out a moderate amount of killing intent.
Only then did some of the gazes on me disappear.
The fact that they didn't vanish completely suggested that some guys from the Black Market organization were tailing me.
Every one of them had a faint presence, as if they were assassins.
Pretending not to notice, I browsed a stall.
It was a shop dealing in elixirs and spirit herbs, and Cheon Yeo-hwa suddenly came to mind.
She was currently resting in a merchant guild building run by the Jegal Family.
She hadn't shown it, but the internal injuries she sustained in the battle at Seoyu County were not something that could be healed in a short time.
Above all, she needed to recover her body, which had been ravaged by the Heavenly Heart Extreme Yang Flower Poison Lotus. She had no time to leisurely stroll through a market.
‘I should find an elixir for Yeo-hwa soon.’
Finding an elixir that contained demonic energy wouldn't be easy, but I had the money and the ability to make it happen.
I was planning to go to England for the staff anyway, and speaking of England, there was a famous auction house there.
I might be able to find one there.
‘...Anyway, these are all low-quality or fake.’
As I walked around the market, examining the stalls, I couldn't help but feel disappointed.
The spirit herbs with thick roots, the sharp-looking swords—they were all fakes that only looked plausible on the surface.
Then again, in an underworld market, passing off fakes as genuine articles was probably a common occurrence.
‘That's enough sightseeing. Time to head deeper inside.’
According to the Yellow Crane Tower Lord, the stalls near the market entrance and along the main road were for ripping off suckers.
If I wanted to find something proper, I needed to go deeper.
Scanning my surroundings, I headed straight for a dark alley.
Rustle-
As if on cue, I felt presences from all corners of the alley.
They were clearly not friendly guides.
‘Are they robbing people secretly because of the third rule?’
What diligent and hardworking bastards they were.
A faint killing intent flowed from the various paths branching off the alley.
Whoosh!
And with it, the sound of metal cutting through the air.
Without hesitation, I reached out and caught the daggers that flew at me from both sides.
“What?!”
“A-an expert!”
The panicked men let go of their daggers without a moment's hesitation and turned to flee.
Being from the underworld, they were quick to give up.
Flick.
I readjusted my grip on the daggers and threw them at the fleeing men.
The daggers cut through the air, glinting as they reflected the moonlight.
Soul-Snatching Heavenly Killing Darts: Soundless Under the Moon.
Thwack!
The daggers accurately pierced the back of their heads.
Being blades, they should have made a sound as they flew through the air, but the daggers I threw were eerily silent.
Indeed, it was a martial art befitting an assassin.
Recalling the sensation at my fingertips when I used the technique, I started walking deeper into the alley again.
Before long, the path suddenly widened, and I reached a new area.
“Hoh, isn't this a Yunnan Iron Snake? I heard it's so venomous the state has banned it by law.”
“Fifty silver pieces.”
“That's fucking expensive.”
“Get lost if you don't have money.”
“...I'll buy it.”
“What about the auction?”
“They say it starts in an hour.”
“Remember, you can give up on everything else in this auction, but you must win the bid for that item.”
“Yes!”
“Slaves, you say? These are all we have.”
“...Are there no young women?”
“Hey, you have to get sex slaves at the auction. Female slaves are so rare these days.”
The street was now incomparably more crowded. The merchants were also actively hawking their wares.
Most importantly, there were no Westerners among the passersby. Every single one was a first-rate or higher martial artist.
‘Good thing I used perception-hindering magic.’
At first, I thought about covering my face with a mask, but with the rumors about me spreading throughout Wuhan after the commotion at the Yellow Crane Tower, a mask would be useless.
So, even if it was a bit inconvenient, changing my face with magic was the right choice.
“Hey, how much is this?”
“Hm?”
Stopping in front a random shop, I picked up a hairpin from the stall.
It was a hairpin decorated with a ruby.
All the other gems were fake, but this hairpin was the only one with a real jewel.
“Hoh... a customer with a discerning eye.”
“The price?”
“Heh heh, you've got no manners. Just give me fifty silver pieces.”
“...Expensive.”
Fifty silver pieces was 2.5 gold pieces.
It was a bit much for a single hairpin, but considering the size and purity of the ruby, it wasn't a complete rip-off.
“I'm not knocking off a single coin, so if you don't have the money, put it down nicely and...”
Clack.
The merchant's eyes changed when I took out a silver ingot from my robes.
“Oh my! Thank you, customer!”
“You change your tune as fast as a nimble wolf.”
“Haha, it's an essential virtue for a merchant.”
Pretending to put the hairpin in my robes, I carefully stored it in my inventory.
I planned to give it to Cheon Yeo-hwa as a gift.
“Do you have any accessories decorated with emeralds?”
“Emeralds, you say?”
After a moment of thought, the merchant went inside his shop and came back with a small wooden box.
“How about this?”
“Oh...”
What he showed me was a bracelet with a large emerald set in it.
Usually, when the gem is large, the accessory tends to look tacky, but even to my male eyes, this one looked quite good.
‘This would be a perfect gift for Iris.’
I wanted to buy gifts for my other women too, but that wasn't why I was here today, so I decided to stop here.
“How much?”
“Just give me two silver ingots.”
“Do you want to lose your fingers?”
“...Just sixty silver pieces, please.”
The merchant broke out in a cold sweat when I unleashed a strong wave of killing intent.
There was a rule about not harming merchants, but if you beat them up where no one can see, it's all good.
I paid the price and put the bracelet in my inventory.
“By the way, can I ask you something?”
I spoke to the merchant, who was refilling his stall with new accessories.
They were all decorated with fake gems, but that was none of my business.
“Do you know where I can buy martial arts manuals? Not useless junk, but proper martial arts.”
“...Martial arts, you say?”
The merchant gave me a curious look.
“Why, is there a law that says an expert can't acquire new martial arts?”
“There isn't.”
“So you don't know?”
“Of course I know.”
The merchant stepped out onto the street and pointed somewhere.
“If you go that way, there's a bookstore run by an old man named Hwang. He's a cranky old fellow, but I hear he was a pretty famous thief in his younger days, so if you're lucky, you might find some decent martial arts.”
“Any other way?”
“You'll have to use the auction house.”
“The auction house?”
This time, the merchant pointed to a different building.
“It's the Black Market's auction. You can enter for ten silver pieces. All the good stuff ends up there, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to check it out. However, whether you can protect your item after winning the bid depends entirely on your own skill and luck.”
“The Black Market organization doesn't help?”
“Well, they provide escorts if you pay, but the price varies depending on the value of the item, so you could end up paying more for the escort than the item itself.”
“Vicious.”
“That's the underworld for you.”
I chuckled at the merchant's words.
“That's true.”