Shen Yuan thought for a moment, then abruptly raised his head, “Wait! You need a specific alchemy fire to practice alchemy?”
Yue Lan giggled softly,
[Of course, you need special talent for alchemy, otherwise, all the cities would be filled with alchemists looking at how much they earn from alchemy.]
“…” He stared silently at her, making her turn her head to the side, “Why didn’t you mention this sooner?”
[It doesn’t matter, you can buy the Low-Tier Minor Grade Alchemy Talent for only 9,999 Chaos Coins! It’s a really rare talent to have.]
Yue Lan spoke enthusiastically to him, trying to sell him the talent.
He shook his head, “Why would I need to buy it from you?”
Shen Yuan picked up all the materials and stored them in the inventory. “Buy a basic appearance-changing technique.”
[Ding!]
[Congratulations Host for buying Illusory transformation skill!]
[Illusory Transformation Skill: Helps to change the user’s appearance and aura.]
He stood up after buying the technique, “I will use it after leaving the hall.”
Yue Lan nodded her head and jumped on his head, but he ignored her and started heading towards the exit of the room.
The old man looked at him but didn’t say anything.
Yue Lan lay down on his head lazily and asked,
[Where are you heading?]
“Black Market.” He answered her shortly.
“Hmm? Why are you going there?” She asked him curiously.
“You will find out when we get there.” He smiled mysteriously and began walking through numerous streets, going from one to another. At one corner he changed his appearance and aura, looking like a common man who you would lose in a crowd.
…
After walking for some time he finally reached the Black Market. It was situated at the outskirts of the city.
The basic setup of the Black Market was the same as the main market in front of the city gates. But the atmosphere was different.
It was darker and gloomy as if anyone could swindle you here.
He didn’t stop to look at the wares as most of the goods here were either looted from merchants or stolen from Sects or Clans.
He soon came in front of another section of the market, and the stench of fear intensified as he read the words written on a signboard, “Slave Market”
Yue Lan looked inside the gloomy market where rows of cages were lined up,
[Do you want some slave beauties now, Shen Yuan?]
Yue Lan’s amused voice sounded from atop his head. Making Shen Yuan shook his head as he didn’t reply and entered the market.
He looked through the cages one by one, there were a lot of different races of slaves caged inside. Both male and female.
The difference was that, males were covered in mud and appeared beaten, while females were kept clean, as if to better display their appearance.
But the one thing in common among all of them was the desperation in their eyes.
He ignored all of them and came in front of a large open area, where a fat auctioneer was loudly presenting his goods.
“Step right up, folks! Rare specimen, from all around the corner of this world! All for you to bid and take home to make them work for you or to warm your bed!”
Shen Yuan looked at the slaves chained together, the difference between them and others was that except for a few women, most of them were emanating the aroma of herbs.
Yue Lan asked him curiously,
[Are you looking for an alchemist as a slave to do your work instead?]
‘You will find out soon enough.’ he smirked slightly and went towards the auctioneer.
The auctioneer smiled politely and came towards Shen Yuan, “Ah dear guest, is there anything that you would like to get from my humble store.”
He remained polite even though Shen Yuan’s common appearance, ‘A professional in his business I see.’ Shen Yuan thought while looking at him.
“Is there any vile alchemist that you have for sale? Those who have done inhumane crimes before?” he asked in a light tone.
The fat auctioneer’s eyes lit up slightly as he smelled a fat deal ahead. “Aha! You have come to the perfect place, dear guest!” He slapped his thighs and exclaimed.
“Please, follow me, dear guest.” He said and began leading Shen Yuan toward the area where the vile alchemists were caged.
“You can select whichever you want from them, their information is written on the cages.” He made an inviting gesture towards Shen Yuan.
Who nodded his head and started looking at different slaves. There were dozens of them here, mostly ranging from Low Tier 1 Alchemy Novice to Tier 2 Alchemy Apprentice.
He looked at all of their details, even their crimes were written on the labels outside their cages.
(Killed an entire village by poisoning the water.)
(Exterminated a clan because of a disagreement.)
(Forced himself upon traveling merchant women.)
…
Each was more vile than the other, Shen Yuan felt an urge to kill all of them on the spot, but Yue Lan patted the top of his head lightly to calm him down as she said,
[You should get used to it, there are a lot of such people on the higher planes as well.]
Shen Yuan took a deep breath and calmed down. He reached the deepest corner of the area where a single cage was placed, inside was a shriveled old man lying down.
Shen Yuan looked at the label to look for his crime since he could feel that he was the strongest and also the one with the best talent among all of the slaves.
(Refined the Primordial Yin of 99 Maidens trying to create an Immortal Pill.)
Shen Yuan frowned upon seeing his deeds, but he didn’t think further about that as he couldn’t change the past.
“Tell me about him,” he said to the fat auctioneer, who was following him from behind.
“Ah yes, he is a vile alchemist-” Just as he started speaking to build suspense, Shen Yuan interrupted him.
“I already read what he did, tell me about his rank and his price.” He said coldly, his mood was ruined looking at all the vile alchemists gathered here.
The fat auctioneer rubbed the back of his head and smiled apologetically, “Yes, yes the rank and price. He was a Tier 3 Master Alchemist in his prime. And his price is set at 50,000 Spirit Stones due to him being a cripple, but his alchemy knowledge is still very useful.”
Shen Yuan didn’t bullshit with him as he can see the price was reasonable. The price was low currently due to him being a cripple.
He took out a pouch from his storage ring and gave it to the auctioneer. Who counted then swiftly and smiled delightfully, “It was a pleasure doing business with you, Sir”
He changed the way he addressed Shen Yuan from dear guest to sir. A clear sign of him acknowledging him due to his wealth.
Shen Yuan didn’t say anything, the fat auctioneer also opened the cage soon, letting the alchemist out of it.
But the alchemist didn’t rejoice as he looked at Shen Yuan with eyes filled with anger and fear.
“Is there any private room here? I want to talk with him.” Shen Yuan said to the auctioneer.
