Chapter 28: What? This Is Worth That Much?!

Everyone was overjoyed at suddenly receiving such a large sum of money.

Lan Ling and Xiao Mo exchanged a glance.
"Shall we give that thing a try?"
"I think we can."

Several other players nodded in agreement, and a few of them brought out some items to display on their stall. Xiao Mo stepped back, raised her hand, and released a streak of white light. Players with a Light Spiritual Root who have reached the tenth level of the Qi Refining stage are capable of emitting a small amount of light-attributed spiritual energy, just as she did now.

Bathed in the white glow, the new items on the stall shimmered with a captivating, crystalline brilliance.

Passersby: "!!!"
"What are those? They are too beautiful!"

Under the light, the transparent ornaments glowed with an ethereal, translucent luster, drawing everyone’s gaze.

"I have never seen anything so beautiful; they look like treasures from the immortals' banquets in legends!"
"How stunning! Are they for sale? They must be incredibly expensive!"

They clearly looked expensive. Even though the common folk were mesmerized by the beautiful light and exquisite appearance, they didn't dare ask the price.

The players who brought out the items, however, were quite patient. If they sold, they sold; if not, it didn't matter. After all, these items didn't take up much space in their storage rings.

Feilong Zaitian was stunned: "Glass bottles? Glass plates? They’re actually taking the items they pulled from the random supply crates and selling them!"

Doubi Tiantian Kaixin was green with envy: "They’ve got quite the business sense! It’s a pity I didn't pull any, or I could have made a profit too!"

"How much for this?" Finally, someone asked for a price, and the players perked up.

The man who approached looked completely out of place among the commoners—he was exceptionally neat and clean, wore high-quality fabric, and had a plump, ruddy face. He was a merchant, and at this moment, he was gazing at the glass bottles and plates with an expression of total intoxication.

"It’s too beautiful! If I take this to the capital to offer to the Emperor, it will surely be enshrined as a treasure!"

The items before him were nothing short of miraculous! He admired them, looking them up and down, several times reaching out as if to touch them, only to pull back, fearing he might break them.

"Is this crystal? Or perhaps high-purity glazed glass? How beautiful!"

The glass items the players pulled were manufactured with modern techniques and were flawless. Each one was crystal clear, without a single crack or impurity. The craftsmanship of this world could never achieve such a level.

If not for the lack of chill, the merchant might have even thought these items were crafted by immortals using the purest ice and snow combined with spiritual power.

Such beautiful things would definitely fetch a high price!

The merchant felt an itch in his heart and couldn't wait to buy them all. "How much do you want for them? I can trade goods for them, too. In short, anything I have is yours. I was originally planning to go to another country for trade and brought plenty of cargo!"

The players exchanged glances. As expected, they knew that in the eyes of the ancients, high-purity glass was valuable! Look, someone had already come knocking.

However, how much should they ask for? They had no idea about the local prices. After all, commoners had no use for glass, and cultivators didn't care for such fragile, pretty things.

They looked at each other, and finally, they all turned to Lan Ling. "Why don't you decide!"

After fighting side-by-side yesterday, the players had great trust in the four professional gamers and the chef, "Did You Eat Today." Of course, for the latter, it was mostly about brown-nosing. Unless they wanted to eat the trash they cooked themselves, maintaining a good relationship with this big shot was undoubtedly crucial.

Lan Ling pondered for a moment. Glass of this purity could pass for fine glaze, enough to be a royal tribute. In TV dramas, royal tributes were worth at least a thousand taels, right? It was a rare commodity, and they were the only ones in the world who had it. Since no one else could produce it, selling it all for a thousand taels didn't seem excessive.

Lan Ling hesitated for a moment and held up one finger: "One..."

The merchant was stunned, looking a bit surprised. "Are you sure? You won't regret it?"

Lan Ling thought to herself: *Was it too high after all?* She almost forgot that in this world, there were two types of taxes, and the commoners had to provide offerings to the cultivators, so they probably didn't have much money on hand.

Just as she was wondering whether to nod, she heard the merchant speak quickly, as if afraid they might change their minds:

"In that case, ten thousand taels it is."

"As expected of immortals, truly generous! For a mere ten thousand taels, I can acquire such beautiful, masterful, and peerless treasures!"

The merchant continued with his flattery. The players: ??? Ten thousand taels?

*Damn, this guy is so rich! We asked for too little!*
*Wait, no, this is just glass! How can it be this valuable!*
*Is there something wrong with his brain, spending so much money on glass?*

"It's just that I don't have ten thousand taels of gold on me right now; I only have a little over nine thousand. How about this, can I use some goods to make up the difference?"

Lan Ling was dumbfounded. Ten thousand taels... of gold? Buddy, aren't you a bit too much of a tycoon? Heaven knows they originally only wanted to sell it for one thousand taels of silver!

However, using goods to trade—Lan Ling pulled out two rocks: "Can you get us stones like these?"

The merchant looked at them: "These yellow and white stones?" He was going to trade these worthless things for hundreds of taels of gold? "Even if there are a lot of these, their value is far from hundreds of taels of gold. Are you sure you want to trade?"

He had already begun to look at them as if they were fools. Were these cultivators stupid? These were just broken stones that weren't worth anything and weren't hard to find.

"Yes, we like these stones." Lan Ling exchanged glances with the other players.

"Alright, I have some connections, and I happen to have some friends not far from here. If they travel overnight, they can collect a lot by tomorrow noon. How shall we get in touch then?"

"We've booked the largest inn in the city. Just come find us there. We'll be leaving no later than tomorrow afternoon, so please hurry!"

"Understood!" It was rare to run into such foolish sellers, and the merchant was terrified they might change their minds. He quickly paid over nine thousand taels of gold, took all the glass items, and vanished from their sight in a flash.

As for cheating them and not collecting the stones? Don't make him laugh! There were a full hundred cultivators right in front of him! Even the royal family could be crushed by them like ants, let alone a small merchant like him. How could he dare to run?

Su Qingyue was currently in the inn, watching the players set up stalls and make money from a god's-eye view. Seeing this, she became thoughtful: "Those stones—they are saltpeter and sulfur. They also baked a large amount of charcoal earlier. So that's what it was."

The system also had an epiphany. They were actually quite smart, knowing how to compensate for a lack of strength with external tools.

The transaction was completed, and both sides were satisfied, fearing the other might go back on their word, and they quickly cleared the scene.

It was late at night by now, and the players returned to their respective rooms—some to cultivate, others to sleep. Players could gain spiritual energy, i.e., experience points, by sitting in meditation, though not all players liked leveling up this way. Many were sleep-deprived in reality, and since the time flow between the game and reality was five-to-one, why not take the opportunity to catch up on sleep? And I must say, the feeling of sleeping for a long time while only two or three hours passed in the real world was truly blissful!

At ten o'clock the next morning, Su Qingyue looked silently at a row of tightly shut doors: *So this is the reason none of you woke up this morning, right?*

She was a bit bored and lay on the soft couch in her room, staring blankly, when the system suddenly spoke: "Oh no, Host, the players are in trouble!"