Chapter 909 - Black Market
Luo Lie hurriedly returned home, and raced to find Luo Ba. He knew he was not as clever as his elder brother; if he allowed Luo Ba to handle things, they would cause the greatest strike to Ling Han.
“Brother! Brother!” he called out, panting heavily. The descendants of important nobles like them would not usually remain in the Academy. The conditions for cultivation were even better in their own home, and they merely had to go to the Academy once every five days to attend a lecture.
He recounted what he had previously witnessed.
When Luo Ba heard all he had to say, he immediately erupted into great laughter. “Ling Han, Ling Han, this time you’ve fallen into my hands. Just see how I will deal with you!”
“Brother, what do you plan to do?” Luo Lie quickly asked. He, too, bore a deep-seated hatred towards Ling Han.
Luo Ba thought for a moment, then said, “A thief must be caught red-handed. Have someone stand guard, and the next time Ling Han appears, we’ll catch him together with his loot!”
“Brother, that guy might have seen me. Perhaps he would switch to another place to sell off the alchemical pills next time.” Luo Lie was still quite clever.
Luo Ba nodded, and said, “We’ll prepare for both eventualities. We’ll wait until just before this month’s monthly assessment, and if we still have yet to catch him red-handed, then we’ll directly tell on him. Anyways, with that shop assistant as a witness, Ling Han would similarly not be able to escape punishment!”
He hummed for a while, then said, “For this matter, we have to request Seventeenth Clan Elder’s help. He is an elder by rotation of the Northern Institution, and with his cooperation, it would not be difficult to execute Ling Han for this crime!”
“That’s right, he has to die!” Luo Lie exclaimed with bloodshot eyes. He, the honourable young master of the Luo Clan, had actually been beaten onto the ground and forced into submission; what great humiliation was this? As long as Ling Han was still alive, he would not be able to sleep soundly at night.
Luo Ba smirked coldly; merely the sale of alchemical pills was not enough to cause Ling Han to lose his life. After all, the latter was a Four-Star genius, and that was something rarely seen in history. However, rules were still rules. With Seventeenth Elder stepping out to exert pressure and turning the small matter into a big one, it would be enough to expel Ling Han from the Scarlet Heaven Academy.
Furthermore, without the backing of the Scarlet Heaven Academy, what would a little cultivator of the Shattering Void Tier from a small world be worth? A careless stomp and he would be dead.
“To actually dare to steal the limelight from me… This is the price!” Luo Ba’s eyes shone with a cold light. The first one was Ling Han, and the second was Ma Xing. He would deal with both of them.
Unfortunately, though the power of the Cheng Clan was not on par with the Luo Clan, Cheng Haofei was not someone that he could just deal with as he desired, so he could only spare him. Otherwise, he’d eliminate all three!
Meanwhile, Luo Lie was satisfied with just dealing with Ling Han. He snickered maliciously, and was impatient to see the scene in which this great enemy of his would be trampled underneath his foot.
***
When Ling Han returned to the Academy, he just happened to bump into Li Weiwei and Ji Yun’er. The first batch of food ingredients was completely sold out, and had been sold off for a total of 36 True Origin Stones. Ling Han gained half the share, which was 18 True Origin Stones, whereas Li Weiwei and Ji Yun’er each earned nine True Origin Stones.
In truth, this could actually be considered a great sum of money. One had to know that even if Ling Han and Ji Yun’er were two of the top three prodigies, they were each only given two True Origin Stones from the Academy, so it could be seen how valuable they were.
Li Weiwei was even more pleased. Although she definitely did not lack these nine True Origin Stones, they were earned with her own effort, which made her extremely happy.
“Oh, right. You’ve already missed two classes with Big Sister Shui. Big Sister Shui is very angry, so you can just wait to be killed!” Li Weiwei said, delighting in his misery. Cooperating with Ling Han to earn money and being unhappy with Ling Han were two different things.
To mess with Ling Han was a thought that had never vanished from her mind.
Ling Han sighed. He had been busy with concocting alchemical pills these few days, and he still had to concoct alchemical pills for a few more days. No matter what, he would have to finish off the medicinal ingredients he had just bought, right? Furthermore, for the sake of earning money, he could only concoct alchemical pills. Who asked him to be born without a father who was the Left Minister, or a mother that was the Right Minister?
After the two women enjoyed a meal, and played around with the big fat cat, they took a whole spatial Spirit Tool’s worth of food ingredients each and left. They did not ask how Ling Han’s spatial Spirit Tool was so big, and how much stuff was actually stored inside.
After all, neither of them was foolish.
Ling Han once again began to concoct pills. In 200 years of his last life, he had been an alchemist, and this identity had seeped deep into his bones.
One day, two days, three days. Time passed very quickly. This was Level Ten alchemical pill, and even Ling Han would not be able to speed up the concoction time by much. Concocting a whole furnace’s worth of pills, no matter what, would need at least half a day; thus, after concocting these ten batches, another five days passed.
However, his rewards were colossal. Aside from the beginning two furnaces, which only had four successful pills each, the following eight attempts had reached the perfect standard of five pills respectively.
This was how the Alchemy Emperor should be.
Ling Han was also very satisfied. This time, he had a total of 48 Replenishing Spirit Pills, and even if seven pills could only be sold off for a single True Origin Stone, he could still earn seven True Origin Stones, which was six times his costs.
Great profit, this was really great profit.
Of course, this was only limited to an Alchemy Emperor like him. In the case of an ordinary alchemist, it would be considered quite impressive if they could only earn 20-30% profit, just like Ling Han’s first attempt of concocting this pill.
He did not plan to head to the pharmacy to sell these. Seven pills in exchange for a single True Origin Stone was too much of a loss!
The Scarlet Heaven Academy had a black market, and students would head there to sell and exchange items. Everyone was masked in the black market; the only consideration was the goods, and no questions about the seller or customer’s identity would be asked. If one was interested, they’d just pay and the transaction was done. Absolutely no one would get to the bottom of things.
Ling Han was confident that even if he sold five pills for a single True Origin Stone, there would be others fighting just to buy from him.
The reason was very simple… because this was concocted by his hand!
He had tasted one, and the Replenishing Spirit Pills he himself concocted were at least 30% more effective than the Replenishing Spirit Pills the Academy granted.
Furthermore, these five pills were only sold for a single True Origin Stone; it would be strange if they didn’t sell out like mad.
When night arrived, Ling Han found a cloak along with a black scarf. After he left, he covered himself with the cloak and scarf in a corner, and came to the foot of a small mountain.
The Imperial Capital was too big, and the Academy was too big as well. There were three mountains in the Academy itself, and this was the smallest one. As soon as night arrived, there would be stalls set up in this place, but everyone would be hiding their identities here.
Who knew when this tradition had begun? In any case, the Academy did not bother with them, so it could be said that the Academy had given tacit approval for its existence.
The black market naturally started at night. It was very dark here; the only light came from the moon. There was absolutely none of the commonly used Stored Light Crystals—an item used to provide light in the Immortal Realm. It could exude bright light in the midst of darkness, and one could adjust its brightness’ degree, which made it very practical.
But here, not just Stored Light Crystals, not even a single torch was present.
Low-key and mysterious was the main theme of this place.
Ling Han arrived in a corner and sat down. He set upright a wooden plaque in front of him, on which was written: “Replenishing Spirit Pill, sold in batches of five, one True Origin Stone, extraordinary quality.”
He sat down, but as black-cloaked people passed one after another, they merely gave him a passing glance. Some would even humph lightly in disdain.
Those that bought things here were aiming for either cheap prices or rare items. Otherwise, if the price was similar, then why should one not buy it outside? It would be safer. Moreover, if any problems came up, one could still find the seller.
Why should they really consider it extraordinary quality with just a declaration of ‘extraordinary quality’?
Ling Han sat down for two hours, and finally saw a person with incredibly well-built figure walk over. Even his cloak could not conceal his sturdy figure; it was really too amazing.
The person stood in front of Ling Han, and said, “Where’s the goods? I want to take a look.”
Ling Han nodded, took out a pill bottle, and tossed it over. There was only a single Replenishing Spirit Pill stored inside.