Xuanqing Guard-Chapter 72: Unexpected

Flying Dragon really put in the effort, and he took a big risk, too. If it ever got out that he was an undercover informant for the Xuanqing Guard in the Black Market, the best-case scenario for him would be to change professions—in most cases, some ruthless figures in the black market would just take care of him directly. Guys like Flying Dragon are considered the rat shit of the Black Market.

But for the sake of money, Flying Dragon talked animatedly, and to be fair, he did lay things out pretty logically.

"You know, these days it’s tough to do magical artifact business in the Black Market, and there are fewer and fewer buyers who can pay up. So those sellers are all desperate for leads. But from what I’ve heard, there hasn’t been any major transaction of illusion arrays or Blinding Magical Artifacts in the Jingxi Black Market for the past three years—even small deals have been rare."

"I managed to get a list. It’s probably not super detailed, but this is the most I could dig up."

Shen Hao frowned slightly, clearly not satisfied with what Flying Dragon had handed over.

"Just the last three years?"

"Ay, Shen Zongqi, you know how it is—sellers in the Black Market are like rats, usually they do one sale and then lie low for years. Plenty of them even retire after a single job. There aren’t many who stick at this long-term. Even intermediaries like me change every other day, it’s either prison or the grave. It’s tough, man!"

"..." Shen Hao was speechless, but still picked up the list and skimmed through it quickly. It listed nineteen transaction records, all very rough: just the type and quantity of items, and which intermediary had brokered the deal. Details about buyers and sellers were very vague.

The most important thing was, the magical artifacts involved in these nineteen deals were all Lower Grade or Inferior Grade—none were above Middle Grade.

And according to what Shen Hao had heard from his colleagues who specialized in magical artifacts at the Xuanqing Guard’s arsenal, it would take at least a Middle Grade—preferably a Top-grade Magical Artifact—to confuse or blind people on an entire street, especially if you’re dealing with constantly changing crowds. Even if those people were just ordinary folk, the requirements were still high.

"You’re telling me there’s no record of any Middle or High Grade magical artifact deals like that in the past three years?"

"Middle or High Grade? That stuff’s super rare. As far as I know, I’d say there hasn’t been one in the past six or seven years. Not just anybody can afford those, and hardly anyone sells them these days. Instead, it’s those junk magical artifacts I told you about before that sell best—there are plenty of sellers, people buy them in tens or hundreds, and they’re often bundled together with General Spirit Stones. Selling those supports at least a third of the people who make their living in the Black Market now."

"General Spirit Stone?"

Shen Hao asked instinctively, then remembered what it was, mainly because that thing was a bit outside his usual dealings—he just hadn’t thought of it right away.

The so-called General Spirit Stone is basically a substitute for Spirit Stone.

Unlike Spirit Stones, which are widely useful and versatile, the Spiritual Qi in General Spirit Stones is chaotic and can’t be absorbed by cultivators, but they can still serve as energy for magical artifacts.

Cultivators generally don’t need General Spirit Stones, since they have their own True Qi to power artifacts—and it works much better than a General Spirit Stone. As for energy consumption, cultivators always use artifacts matched to their own cultivation level, so they can keep up just fine with their own True Qi. It’s rare that they’d ever need a General Spirit Stone to top up.

Besides, General Spirit Stones have a clear downside: their chaotic Spiritual Qi only works with middle- and lower-grade magical artifacts.

Actually, Shen Hao had never used a General Spirit Stone himself—he’d never been in a war or faced a situation where he had to keep burning through True Qi for a long stretch.

Flying Dragon knew he probably couldn’t satisfy Shen Hao this time, so while he was secretly sweating, he tried to play things down and muddle through with a smile: "You don’t know, nowadays the Court isn’t fighting any wars, so there’s a massive surplus of General Spirit Stones and a lot end up in the Black Market. They go great with those junk artifacts for ordinary people, some folks even use them as incense burners...."

"What did you say?"

Shen Hao’s ears pricked up at the word "incense"—his brow shot up and his voice turned cold. The shock was so much that Flying Dragon slid right off his chair and ended up kneeling, pale-faced, totally clueless as to which word he’d said wrong.

"What did you just say about incense burners?"

"Huh? I—I said General Spirit Stones, right? Since the Court isn’t at war anymore, we’ve got too many General Spirit Stones, so a lot are flowing into the Black Market. Some people make junk magical artifacts just for burning incense, using up General Spirit Stones, all for that aroma given off when the Spiritual Qi gets drawn out. Zongqi, I’m not lying, I swear...."

"Shut up!" Shen Hao’s face turned serious. He cut Flying Dragon off, then turned to the guards at his side and barked, "There are General Spirit Stones in the garrison, right? Go to the arsenal and fetch me one, quick!"

In no time, a guard returned holding a walnut-sized, dark green crystal stone—no need to go to the arsenal, some of the rookie soldiers just starting their cultivation in the Black Banner Battalion had those on them. This stuff was rare in the secular world, but among the Xuanqing Guard, it was nothing special.

Shen Hao took the General Spirit Stone, pulled out his own Evil Chasing Disc, and found the inconspicuous slot on the back designed for True Qi substitutes—like General Spirit Stones or Spirit Stones. This was his first time using it, though.

The General Spirit Stones the guard brought were standard-sized, as was the slot on the Evil Chasing Disc. Shen Hao pressed the stone in firmly—"click", it snapped into place.

Then Shen Hao started manipulating the Evil Chasing Disc, and the General Spirit Stone in the slot began to "burn Spiritual Qi".

Within just a few seconds, the Evil Chasing Disc emitted a faint fragrance, a scent Shen Hao had never noticed before—or maybe he’d smelled it but never paid attention.

"Urgent order!"

"Present!"

"Order! Team A Small Banner Officer Wang Jian, Team B Small Banner Officer Zhang Liao—immediately have every party involved in the case smell the scent produced by General Spirit Stones, and confirm if it’s the same as the scent at the scene. Also, field-test at every crime scene whether this aroma can cover half a street! Move!"

Shen Hao immediately got up and left the Interrogation Chamber himself. He needed to go to the West Gate and ask Liu Yan’s parents if the scent they’d smelled during the incident matched this one.

Seeing that Shen Hao seemed to have discovered something important and was hurriedly leaving, Flying Dragon, still kneeling on the ground, was at a total loss, but quickly stood up and pocketed the silver notes from the table. He shot a nervous grin at the two big guys still in the chamber, hunched his back, and started to sneak out.

"You’re not going anywhere."

"Come on, Shen Zongqi already left, I’m done here, and my wife’s waiting for me to bring money home for some rice—guys, be cool, will you?"

"Zongqi never said you could go. Even if we let you, you wouldn’t get out of the Black Banner Battalion’s encampment. If there’s any misunderstanding and you get hacked down, that’s just wasted effort—so think it over yourself."

Without Shen Hao’s say-so, these two toughs from the Torture Department weren’t about to let Flying Dragon walk out.

"Huh!? So, so when can I go home?"

"You leave when Zongqi says you can leave."

Hearing that, Flying Dragon glanced at the two fierce-looking bruisers, then looked around the gloomy Interrogation Chamber—instantly at a loss for words, his expression pained.