Glancing around, Xiao Chen pointed to six fragments. "I’ll take this one, this one, and those few over there."

"Alright, that’ll be fifty Spirit Stones for the six fragments."

The vendor grabbed the fragments with his right hand but held out his left hand first.

Xiao Chen took out fifty Spirit Stones and placed them in the man’s hand, then accepted the fragments he had selected.

He had seen his fair share of Top Grade Magical Artifacts, so he had some experience with these things.

He had seen fragments of Top Grade Magic Shields and Magic Robes—items that ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators rarely encountered—many times before.

So, for the six fragments he had picked, he was about sixty to seventy percent confident in his choices.

But who would have thought that upon inspection, only the smallest piece was from a Middle Grade Magical Artifact? The rest were all from Low Grade ones.

Fragments like those were practically worthless. It was a total loss.

’Huh, that makes no sense.’

Refusing to give up, Xiao Chen picked out another six fragments.

Things went a little better this time. Three of the fragments were from Middle Grade Magical Artifacts, and a larger, thin slice was from an Upper Grade one.

Because of its size, that piece was worth about twenty Spirit Stones. All told, he had still lost thirty Spirit Stones.

Even though he was still in the red, Xiao Chen felt he was starting to see a pattern.

This time, he picked twelve fragments in one go, convinced he was about to strike it rich.

But after paying and taking a look, he found it was a total wipeout. Although eight fragments were from Middle Grade Magical Artifacts, their combined value likely wouldn’t even fetch ten Spirit Stones.

.

After all that, Xiao Chen was down one hundred and eighty Spirit Stones.

Seeing that he’d failed again, he activated his Eye of Truth to check if there were any valuable fragments on the stall to begin with.

For anyone else, trying to determine the grade of an Artifact Fragment with a Spiritual Eye Technique was next to impossible.

The fragments were simply too small, and the vendor had treated them in advance to obscure them.

But the Eye of Truth was powerful in its own right, and with a tenfold boost from his Augment, it was truly extraordinary.

A Spiritual Light flashed in Xiao Chen’s eyes. As he scanned the stall, he could immediately and clearly distinguish the original grades of all the fragments.

Judging by the varying brightness of their Spiritual Light, he saw that there was only a single fragment from a Top Grade Magical Artifact on the entire stall, and it was placed right by the vendor’s foot.

There were a few more fragments from Upper Grade Magical Artifacts, but still only a meager fourteen in total.

Out of more than three hundred fragments in total, they accounted for less than five percent.

It proved that trying to earn Spirit Stones here on luck alone was practically impossible.

It was just like the saying goes: the only way to win is not to play.

Xiao Chen shook his head and got up to leave.

But as his gaze shifted, he suddenly spotted a conspicuous flash of blood-red light amidst the multi-colored spiritual glows.

He followed the light with his eyes and found its source: a broken jade pearl near the vendor’s foot.

The pearl itself was just a common, shattered Spirit Pearl, likely an embellishment from a Top Grade Magic Robe.

But right now, hidden beneath its own soft, white glow, an almost invisible red light was blooming from within.

’What is this?’

Xiao Chen took a step to the right and stared directly into the center of the Spirit Pearl’s crack. A brilliant red light burst forth, so intense it was almost blinding.

’Something’s wrong. There’s a problem with this Spirit Pearl.’

"I’ll take this one, this one, and that Spirit Pearl at the top."

Maintaining a calm expression, Xiao Chen casually pointed to five useless fragments, adding the Spirit Pearl to his selection.

However, to his surprise, as the vendor handled the items, the Spirit Pearl was swapped for a different one—a pearl taken from an Upper Grade Magical Artifact. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

’He actually swapped it!’

Xiao Chen was so incensed that he laughed.

He had originally been prepared to accept his losses. Even though he had seen the other Upper Grade Artifact Fragments, he had deliberately chosen not to pick them.

After all, he was just out to relax; cheating would have spoiled the fun.

If it weren’t for that strange, blood-red light, he would have already been long gone.

Besides, while Top Grade Magical Artifacts were expensive, a broken Spirit Pearl like this wasn’t worth much on its own.

If sold for scrap, a pearl like this would only fetch fifty or sixty Spirit Stones.

Even if he had let Xiao Chen have the pearl, the vendor still would have made a profit of over a hundred Spirit Stones from him.

But he truly hadn’t expected this. Not only had the vendor planted a single Top Grade Artifact Fragment as a gimmick, but he was also cheating and playing dirty.

This was just poor sportsmanship.

Xiao Chen picked up the swapped pearl and held it out. "This isn’t the Spirit Pearl I just pointed to," he demanded. "How dare you switch my item?"

The vendor’s expression changed at his words.

But it wasn’t a look of nervousness; it was one of indignation, as if he’d been gravely wronged. "Kid, watch your mouth. You can’t just say things like that."

"I’m Vendor Zhang, and I’ve had this stall for thirty years! I’ve always conducted my business honestly, with fair prices for all."

"And you have the gall to accuse me of swapping your item? That’s pure slander!"

His tone then shifted. "Look, I get it. You didn’t find any valuable fragments, and you’re upset. But that’s no reason to start making things up."

"Since you’re just a kid, I won’t press the issue."

"If you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave. Don’t throw a fit just because you lost a gamble."

He delivered these last few lines with an air of someone who had been deeply wronged.

There were many cultivators in Xianghe Market today, and a crowd of passersby was nearby.

Hearing the vendor speak like this, they all turned to look, surprised.

Influenced by the vendor’s side of the story, they jumped to the conclusion that Xiao Chen was a sore loser trying to extort the man.