Hunting Fortuitous Encounters in the Market
Baek Cheong's small heart pounded with excitement the moment she opened her eyes, already imagining herself scouring the market for treasures. Her mind brimmed with romantic fantasies of the real deal—true fortuitous encounters from this xianxia world, waiting just for her.
"Uncle, have you been well?"
"Was your sleep comfortable?"
"Hehe, thanks to you."
"Good. Let's eat, then."
After finishing breakfast with her uncle, Baek Cheong hurriedly prepared to head out. Her uncle, no sooner had he set down his chopsticks than he had to attend to urgent merchant guild business, leaving the residence in a hurry with his escorts. On his way out, as if struck by worry, he left her with some words.
"Cheong-ah, you'll have a late-stage Core Formation protector accompanying you through the market, so relax and enjoy yourself. If anything catches your eye, just put it on the merchant guild's tab."
With her uncle's solid backing, Baek Cheong felt light as a feather on her feet.
"Miss, I'll escort you to the market."
Under the protector's guidance, Baek Cheong stepped out through the mansion's grand gates.
...
The morning in Yeonha Fortress City buzzed with vibrant energy and hustle. Beyond the neat shops lining the main streets, countless street vendors had set up in the road's center and tucked into every alley corner, hawking the motley assortment of goods gathered from far and wide by cultivators and mortals alike.
"Come one, come all! Fresh red tiger hide caught yesterday in the Black Wind Forest! Skin from a 2nd circle beast—guaranteed tough!"
"Century-old spirit mushroom! No better spiritual medicine for mending your meridians, sirs!"
Baek Cheong's eyes sparkled at the lively market scene. She itched to unfurl her fifteen divine senses and sweep every vendor's stall for hidden treasures.
But unleashing divine sense recklessly in a market teeming with cultivators was suicide. Peering into others' belongings or goods with it was a strict taboo in the cultivation world. Irritate a grumpy expert or ill-tempered old monster, and even a protector might not save her bones.
Ah, can't use divine sense—it's so frustrating.
Swallowing her regret, Baek Cheong resorted to the Observing Qi Technique, relying on her eyes and faint qi sense. It was a basic scouting method, concentrating qi in her eyes to read the spiritual energy flows emanating from objects.
Her first stop was a shabby stall littered with rusted metal lumps and unidentified fragments. Memories from her Moomyeongbang browsing flooded her mind.
'A shabby scrap hiding an ancient sword manual from antiquity!'
Brimming with anticipation, she picked up a sword fragment corroded red with rust. Focusing her Observing Qi Technique revealed a faint metallic aura, but that was it. No traces of mystical formations or lingering intent.
"Where'd you get this? Any special history...?"
Baek Cheong asked in a voice thick with excitement. The grubby vendor flashed a friendly grin and bowed low.
"Aigoo, young miss has quite the ordinary eye. That's just a chunk of steel I scavenged from the local scrap heap. Perfect for kindling or odds and ends."
His brutally honest, overly kind reply deflated her completely. Vendors usually hyped their wares to inflate value. Unbeknownst to Baek Cheong, his excessive courtesy stemmed from the protector looming behind her. To market-dwelling cultivators scraping by, young heirs with escorts were untouchable. Get caught scamming, and you'd be lucky to keep your limbs—they knew it better than anyone.
"Ah... okay, thanks."
Baek Cheong awkwardly set down the scrap and moved to the next stall, piled high with haphazard herbs and spiritual materials. Drawing on her honed eye from Gok Elder's pill room, she scanned the heap, hoping for a rare spirit herb or legendary treasure slipped in unnoticed.
A withered twig caught her eye. It looked like ordinary firewood, but a stubborn wood-attuned qi pulsed faintly within.
'Thought it was dead weed, but it's a sprout from an ancient Spirit Lantern Tree!'
Heart racing, she snatched it up. "What's this? Feels unusual."
The vendor, sweating bullets, waved his hands frantically. "Ah, miss! Put that down! It's a poisonous root I yanked from the spirit fields yesterday. Deadly toxin—even touching causes rashes. Nasty weed; I hadn't sorted it yet..."
Baek Cheong yelped and flung it away. Her fingertips stung, so she hastily circulated a purification technique to cleanse her hands.
"Finding real fortuitous encounters is brutal..."
She combed the market stalls relentlessly after that. Faded talisman paper? Rat-chewed junk. Porcelain with mysterious runes? Cheap mass-produced trinkets from distant demon kilns. No matter how she probed with Observing Qi or grilled the vendors, no legendary treasures or peerless manuals appeared—not even a hint.
After hundreds of stalls, her excitement soured into disappointment and fatigue.
"All duds... Everyone else stumbles on them so easily."
As she grumbled wearily, in a dim, deserted alley corner, an old cultivator exuding sinister qi sat by a single stall. Atop it sat a lone weathered wooden box.
Baek Cheong sensed the unnatural aura wafting from it—dense and archaic, worlds apart from the junk before.
"What's that?"
Drawn by curiosity, she approached, but the protector swiftly blocked her.
"Miss, step back. That one's qi is murky and ominous."
Ignoring the warning, the old cultivator smirked slyly and proffered the box toward Baek Cheong. "Heh heh heh. Sharp-eyed young miss. This here's a secret treasure unearthed from the ruins of the Hwaeum Sect, wiped out a millennium ago. Haven't opened it myself, but the aura's no joke. Hundred low-grade spirit stones, and it's yours."
A lost sect's secret treasure from a thousand years past—the phrase that magically loosens cultivators' purses.
Baek Cheong's eyes rolled back in glee as she reached for her storage pouch. This could be the real deal!
Just as she went for the merchant guild's jade token—
Shing!
Sharp sword qi erupted from the protector's sheathed blade. His keen tip hovered precisely at the old man's throat.
"You dare peddle a junk illusion as a Baek family heir's treasure? Scram from this market before I take your head!"
The old man paled and flattened himself on the ground at the roar. The archaic aura from the box dissipated like smoke upon touching the sword qi, revealing its true form: a worthless wooden crate. A brazen scam, faking an artifact's appearance with illusion.
Watching it all, Baek Cheong slumped in hollow defeat. Fortuitous encounters? This place is scammer central.
In the end, after ransacking the market all day without a speck of dust to show, she dragged her heavy feet back to the mansion. Her body weighed a ton, but the spark of obsession for treasures still smoldered in her chest.
Entering the inner hall, she found Baek Muyoung, fresh from his duties, sipping tea to greet her.
"Oh, Cheong's back. Enjoy the market? Snag any curiosities?"
"No, just junk and scammers everywhere. Didn't get a thing."
Baek Cheong pouted and grumbled. Baek Muyoung chuckled heartily, setting down his cup.
"Haha, finding true fortuitous encounters at street stalls is harder than a needle in a sand dune. Real valuables trade in proper pavilions, not mats."
He eyed her with a meaningful smile. "Conveniently, there's a big auction tomorrow at Myriad Phenomena Pavilion in the city center. I've business there too—thirsty for treasures? Come with your uncle?"
Auction house!
Baek Cheong's eyes lit up, boredom vanishing. Auction houses were goldmines where legendary manuals, rare elixirs, and ancient treasures flowed like water.
"I'll go! Absolutely! Please let me broaden my horizons, Uncle!"
All the market's fatigue and letdowns evaporated as she clenched her fist, determined to sweep up real encounters with her golden spoon status and the guild's deep pockets.