Ning City was still the same bustling Ning City. Walking along the streets inside Ning City, no one noticed Lin Feng’s appearance. As for Tangyuan, to avoid trouble, it voluntarily used its stealth abilities. Although standing on Lin Feng’s shoulder, no one could see it.

Entering Ning City this time, Lin Feng did not go directly to the auction house but chose to wander around the city. On one hand, to adjust his mood, and on the other, to see if he might encounter any other opportunities.

Soon, he walked to the market in Ning City. In the market, many loose cultivators were setting up stalls with all sorts of bizarre items. After glancing at those stalls, Lin Feng said to Tangyuan, who was in an invisible state on his shoulder, "Keep your eyes sharp."

"Boss, rest assured!" Tangyuan’s smug voice appeared out of nowhere.

After getting Tangyuan’s response, Lin Feng walked directly toward those stalls, carefully examining them one by one. He didn’t find anything particularly unusual. They mostly had common spiritual medicine and some miscellaneous items, but none were high grade and were of no use to Lin Feng.

As he walked, suddenly there was a commotion ahead—people arguing. From the looks of it, if it weren’t in the city where fighting was forbidden, they might have started a fight over there. This caught Lin Feng’s attention, and he immediately walked towards the commotion. Soon, he arrived at the scene of the argument.

"How can you be so shameless!"

"What’s wrong with me? Giving you ten Yuan Stones is already generous!"

"I won’t sell it for ten Yuan Stones. Give me back the item!"

"If you’re not selling, then why did you give the item to me?"

"You didn’t ask the price first and just took it!"

...

Lin Feng saw an elderly stall-owner loose cultivator in a gray robe arguing with a young-looking person. Through their quarrel, Lin Feng realized what was happening. The young person hadn’t asked the price and intended to give ten Yuan Stones, the elderly stall owner wouldn’t agree, hence the argument.

The people around looked at the young person with anger. Setting up a stall is not easy for loose cultivators, and forcibly purchasing an item at an unreasonable price was blatant exploitation—how could one be so shameless!

Perhaps feeling the gazes of those around him, the young person’s face turned extremely unpleasant. Unable to bear the people’s eyes, he threw the item back onto the stall-owner’s stall.

"Just you wait!" The young person threw down a fierce remark before turning and leaving.

Seeing the young person leave, the crowd dispersed as well, feeling the young person was simply unreasonable. To be so arrogant in Ning City, it’s incomprehensible, comparing to the now-vanished merchants. How can someone be so bold in Ning City now?

The elderly stall-owner was relieved to have his item back and said nothing more, rearranging the items diligently and sitting aside, waiting for the next customer. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Witnessing this, Lin Feng intended to leave, but before he could walk away, he suddenly felt Tangyuan’s little paw pressing firmly on his shoulder, prompting him to stop.

"Boss, there’s something good on that stall. The red stone in the upper right corner is Fire Cloud Stone. That thing contains a strong Fire Element, it should be beneficial for your Heaven and Earth Strange Fire." Tangyuan’s voice was gentle, audible only to Lin Feng.

Lin Feng, upon hearing this, immediately focused on the red stone Tangyuan mentioned. He squatted down, picked up the red stone, and examined it but didn’t sense the presence of the Fire Element. He pretended to be unsatisfied and placed the stone down, shaking his head, then stood up to leave.

"Dear customer, please have another look; this red stone is of unknown origin, but old man believes it is extraordinary!" The elderly stall-owner spoke to Lin Feng, feeling quite disheartened, having not had any business for half a month. At this rate, he might end the month without any income.

Hearing the stall-owner’s words, Lin Feng paused, glanced at the red stone, but didn’t focus on it. Instead, he redirected his gaze to a very peculiar small object. The reason it was called peculiar was that it was a sculpture, and it depicted an Earth Pixiu. Encountering an Earth artifact in the Myriad Heavens Divine Realm, how could he not be intrigued!

"What is this?" Lin Feng picked up the Pixiu sculpture and curiously asked.

"What is it? The old man doesn’t know either. About three or four years ago, I encountered a loose cultivator who ventured out to sea and found it there. The old man considered this sculpture to be quite unique, so he took it in." The elderly stall-owner apologetically replied upon hearing Lin Feng’s question. Indeed, he didn’t know what it was. Thinking back, it’s been sitting unsold for three or four years, causing the stall-owner considerable frustration. Had he known it wouldn’t sell, he wouldn’t have taken it then.

Upon hearing this, Lin Feng nodded and then asked the stall-owner, "How much for this sculpture?"

"Twenty Yuan Stones, although I don’t know what this sculpture is or what its purpose is, when I first acquired it, it was already twenty Yuan Stones, which is just the cost price." The slightly older Loose Cultivator finally encountered someone interested in the sculpture, so he immediately spoke up, directly stating a low price in hopes that Lin Feng would buy the sculpture and relieve him of it.

Upon hearing the older Loose Cultivator, Lin Feng furrowed his brows slightly, seemingly pondering something. After hesitating for a while, he finally spoke, "This sculpture plus that red stone, twenty Yuan Stones in total!"

The older Loose Cultivator became frustrated upon hearing Lin Feng’s words, realizing this deal was a major loss. The cost price of acquiring that red stone was five Yuan Stones alone. With this in mind, he said to Lin Feng, "To be honest, that red stone cost five Yuan Stones when I bought it. Both items for twenty Yuan Stones, I’m really at a loss!"

"Then forget it." Lin Feng, upon hearing the Loose Cultivator’s words, tossed aside the idea and was about to leave.

Seeing Lin Feng about to leave, the older Loose Cultivator was pained to the extreme. He clenched his teeth and called out to Lin Feng.

"Deal!" The older Loose Cultivator was truly pained as selling both items together for twenty Yuan Stones was indeed a loss. However, the problem was that only Lin Feng showed interest in these two items, which had been in his possession for several years. If he missed this chance with Lin Feng, who knows when he’d be able to sell them next? He didn’t want to hold onto the items any longer, so he agreed to Lin Feng’s price to at least recoup twenty Yuan Stones.

Hearing the older Loose Cultivator agree, Lin Feng showed no expression. He returned to the Loose Cultivator’s side, took out twenty Yuan Stones, and handed them to the Loose Cultivator. Meanwhile, the Loose Cultivator handed over the Pixiu sculpture and the red stone to Lin Feng.

After the transaction was complete, Lin Feng immediately turned to leave...

"Boss, why did you go through so much effort? What’s wrong with that sculpture?" Tangyuan looked at Lin Feng, asking with great curiosity. It had only suggested Lin Feng buy that Fire Cloud Stone; how did Lin Feng end up handling the situation inversely?

"It’s a bargaining mindset. If I fix my gaze on the intended item from the start, the seller might quote a very high price. But if I target other items, the seller won’t realize my true target. This way, no one notices the Fire Cloud Stone." Lin Feng calmly explained.

"I see, Boss is worried others might notice the Fire Cloud Stone!" Tangyuan finally understood Lin Feng’s strategy, thinking Boss is indeed ingenious. This way, no one would pay attention to the Fire Cloud Stone, merely thinking Lin Feng favored the peculiar sculpture, something they could all see was ordinary.

Hearing this, Lin Feng nodded, not saying much, and continued exploring the market, but found nothing else worthwhile.

After browsing the market, Lin Feng planned to leave for the auction, but what puzzled him was a large mansion at the market’s end, appearing quite grand, with "Dong Mansion" written on the gate. Out of curiosity, Lin Feng casually approached a passerby.

"Excuse me, what’s the Dong Mansion for? This house is quite impressive!" Lin Feng inquired humbly.

"The Dong Mansion is Alchemist Dong’s residence, of course, it’s impressive. Many in the city looking to refine pills can only seek Alchemist Dong!" The passerby briefly explained to Lin Feng, assuming Lin Feng was a non-local given his accent, so his ignorance of Alchemist Dong was understandable.

"Thanks a lot!" Lin Feng expressed his gratitude and then turned to leave.

The passerby, seeing this, didn’t mind either, and turned to leave as well.

"Boss, do you have some kind of plan?" Tangyuan looked at Lin Feng with a smile, its intuition telling it Lin Feng had a reason for his inquiry.

"Guess?"

Lin Feng responded with a mysterious smile, then walked around the Dong Mansion’s structure. In no time, he slipped into a corner where no one was in sight, leaned against the wall, and seemed to fall asleep.

Inserting his Divine Sense into the Dong Mansion, Lin Feng was surprised to find that it contained formations preventing Divine Sense peering. However, the formations were too basic, and with a simple adjustment, his Divine Sense penetrated them, beginning to survey everything within the Dong Mansion.

Not long after, Lin Feng discovered a large house in the back garden of the Dong Mansion, filled with a rich Fire Element aura, causing his eyes to light up—this was his true target, Alchemist Dong’s Alchemy Room.

Continuing with his Divine Sense, Lin Feng abruptly discovered Alchemist Dong refining pills; an elderly man with graying hair sat before a Pill Furnace. Not far from the furnace, on a small table, lay a handwritten book!

That’s it!

Upon seeing the handwritten book, Lin Feng immediately recognized it. With just a glance, he knew it was an Alchemical Book detailing Alchemy techniques and the uses of various common Spiritual Medicines. Seeing this, Lin Feng felt as if he’d found a treasure. His Divine Sense transformed into a shape, blowing through like a breeze, as the book flipped page by page...