Shopping

"Fei Sun, I got a mission from Wang Geming to find something easily tradeable between the Tomb of the four Ancient Ones and the Ohin Continent." Xiao Fan had reasoned that Fei Sun should be able to help him.

"Something that could make a good profit, I suppose?" Fei Sun got the idea and began to think.

"Yeah. Also, smaller the better since the current way of travelling between the two places might not take in anything bigger than a human." He added in some more specifications concerning what he was looking for to trade.

"There are items that fit the description; however, as I haven't been too familiarised with everything here... We should go look stuff from the bazaar, " she spoke and came to the lower stage.

"Will you two join us?" Fei Sun coming next to Xiao Fan asked if the two others would care to join them.

Xiao Fan looked at Zhuan An, and Qian Ki, who agreed to come. 'I should have done this much earlier.' Him seeing them act so friendly was rather upset about not taking control earlier. Nevertheless, Xiao Fan, having gotten what he wanted, walked with the three women in some harmony down to the street level, wherefrom Fei Sun led them to a bazaar of shorts.

The bazaar they came to wasn't anything like the market road in the Rising Fox Sect. Even Hefei had a more regulated market than this arbitrary gathering of tents wherein everyone sold everything that could be sold. There seemed to be no regulations where one would sell and what to sell. The only way one navigated this bazaar of chaos was by keeping track of one's location to some more permanent shops.

"No wonder you never come down here, I wouldn't either." Xiao Fan walking next to Fei Sun trying show around noted.

"Wait till it gets darker."—She shook her head—"Master is right; everyone not belonging in here should be driven out." When speaking the latter sentence, Fei Sun raised her tone so that the peddlers could hear her clearly.

Xiao Fan was a little weirded out by her response since it talked about the Hag so positively. "I wonder what will you look like when you are a free woman again."

"More powerful than you will ever be if nothing else," she snickered.

"Stronger than me? Didn't I just beat you?" Xiao Fan defended.

The two starting to talk, Zhuan An and Qian Ki behind them, continued to watch this silently, not daring to say anything. Though, after some time, the two of them began to talk of other stuff by themselves.

Their talking lasted till they came over to one of the more permanent looking shops. "This is the place." Fei Sun's hand motioned to point at the wooden building.

Xiao Fan took a look at the shoddily built wooden building before nodding. "What can we get from here?" Furthermore, he had more pressing matters on his mind than commenting on the poor state of this shop.

So, as he opened the door, Fei Sun explained vaguely. "Nothing too special, some everyday items in here."

The three women went in first, and behind them, Xiao Fan came into this shop selling all kinds of things. 'Even this shop sells anything they can get their hands on?' He was slowly starting to think that these native tribes lived of recycled trash.

While his mind was thinking of this, his eyes went around the shop, searching for items that he could recognise. At the end of his skimming through the vares, he realised that he couldn't identify many of these items. To him, almost everything being sold here was foreign; however, foreign was good!

"What can I get for you today?" As everyone in their group was eyeing the items, a female peddler came over to this group of youths.

Xiao Fan and Fei Sun were the only ones to turn their eyes towards this woman approaching them. "We are looking for...anything that could help our cultivation, really."

The peddler turned her face to look at Xiao Fan, the person, who had responded to her question. "Then you have come to the right shop"—she took out a list—"here are all the items currently in our shop. If you have anything to ask concerning the items, please feel free to ask." After giving out the inventory, the peddler took a few steps back but didn't go too far.

Xiao Fan, having gotten himself the list, began to look at the stuff while Fei Sun came next to him. She too wanted to look at the inventory.

'A shifting weight? What is that?' Not understanding, he continued onto the next item. 'Weighted shackles? For training or for...' This item was more understandable, but considering the nature of this shop, they might not be for training purposes. 'Herbs? Now those I do know.' There were some herbs on the list, yet trading herbs wasn't a sound idea right now.

Going through the list, Xiao Fan didn't see anything that fit his description or needs, yet Fei Sun's finger, pointing out a specific listing indicated that she had found something suitable.

"Black Fire Rock?" Xiao Fan hadn't heard of this item, nor did he have any idea what one did.

Fei Sun's long and black hair fell to her side, as she turned to look at Xiao Fan. "These Black Fire Rocks keep the city lit at night." Her explanations were short as ever.

"These things are the reason why Ulaanbaatar is so well lit at night? I was wondering what was going on." Xiao Fan was amazed by this information.

"It should suit our needs." Fei Sun moved to the more important topic.

"It will. It will," Xiao Fan completely agreed with her. The Black Fire Rock might be something not too great, but it would surely be a start, and considering the logistics of this place...well, if this could be produced on mass, everything was fine.

"You found something?" Zhuan An, hearing Xiao Fan speak so happily, came over to look what it was.

Xiao Fan, in his happiness, didn't respond to her. "Excuse me!"—he was too busy calling for the peddler—"We found something we would like to buy."

The peddler hearing her being called came over, and after a quick chat concerning the item, Xiao Fan's smile grew a little wider.

"So you can supply me with as many Black Fire Rocks as I need?" He was happy for a reason.

"Of course, the Black Fire Rocks are easy to mine, and people are always willing to work for decent pay," she confirmed that getting a large amount of Black Fire Rocks was possible.

"How much will...a hundred kilos cost?" That was the limit he was willing to take on his first trip back. Who knows if the Black Fire Rocks weren't that good, plus transporting is always a hassle.

"For you, it will be fifty Holy Pebbles."

Xiao Fan not knowing anything of this currency turned his questioning face towards Fei Sun.

"We will take it." Fei Sun then opened one of the many bags on her hips. From the one, she opened out came these small square pebbles.

'Those must be Holy Pebbles' Xiao Fan figured as his eyes looked at those white rocks.

The peddler getting paid was happy, but tried to hide this when speaking, "I'll get the Black Fire Rocks to you in a moment." Right after speaking, she disappeared into the back of the shop.

Left alone, Xiao Fan asked the most important question, "Is there any profit margin?"

"I wouldn't have pointed it out if there was none. Yet, it isn't that great, but still, something that will surely please your new-found liege, or host?"

"Dumb of me to ask. And host, definitely host, I am not thinking about working for Wang Geming for a long time," Xiao Fan clarified.

"Where did that peddler go?" Qian Ki, trying not to cut off anyone had waited for a good timing to ask her question.

"Most likely she went out to buy more Black Fire Rocks from the other peddlers around the bazaar... Welcome to Ulaanbaatar." She sighed.

Fei Sun liked Ulaanbaatar, especially the training she got here, but the culture here was so backwards that fixing it was first on her to-do list after becoming a full-fledged Shaman.

"Really?" Qian Ki didn't believe that this was the reason why the peddler was taking so long.

Fei Sun turned around to face Qian Ki. "Trust me. I have been here for long enough to know how things work out here. Just look into the Black Fire Rocks when they come. There will be some ten different kinds of them."

"I'll trust you," Qian Ki said that she trusted Fei Sun, though that wasn't necessarily true. Her speaking like this was simply giving good faith towards the other.

"I appreciate your trust," Fei Sun, knowing this took it.

'Good. Things are working out.' Listening to the conversation from the side was Xiao Fan still pleased with their janky communication.

After that, there was some small talk until footsteps entering the shop from the back entrance could be heard. The peddler had come back from a quick tour of shopping for Black Fire Rocks.

"Here's your order," When she came back to them did she say no reason why she had taken so long.

'Thick-skinned woman,' Xiao Fan noted this from the fact that this woman didn't give two shits about wasting so much of their time. Thinking so to himself, he outwardly had a satisfied expression. "Thank you. If these work like they are spoken, I will be ordering more in the near future."

The peddler backing away from them, nodded. "Thank you for shopping here". She had no understanding what these youth were doing, but money was money.

Xiao Fan didn't say anything more; he picked up the hundred-kilo bag the woman had brought to him like it was nothing. "Let's continue to shop around here for some more." Taking their leave from the shop, Xiao Fan proposed this.

Fei Sun, walking past Xiao Fan, who was holding the door for her noted, "With my money, I suppose?"

To this, Xiao Fan looked into her eyes, which made Fei Sun correct her sentence, "Of course we can use the money I have."

Before their antics would truly calm down, Xiao Fan would give these women no quarter when it came to topics like this. 'Her money? In her dreams, maybe.' In this case, he knew that the money she was trying to protect wasn't hers.

So, the shopping continued.

"Look, here!" Zhuan An spotted something she liked. "What do you think of this? Will pressing this on a wound make a Mutant scream?" Qian Ki found something too, and wanted to hear Xiao Fan's opinion on its practicality. "Anyone hungry? I found us some meat!" Xiao Fan brought them some snacks from a street grill.

The shopping was going well. Everyone liked this, even Fei Sun found this nice and didn't care so much for the fact that it was her allowance being used here.

Somewhere else, yet still on the same bazaar.

"Boss is the manliest man of all!" A lackey was praising his boss.

"Of course, who else would be such a man like I, Luan Lyn? Who else could make a woman scream the way I do?"

The person being praised for his manliness was none other than Luan Lyn, who had awoken to everyone calling him an alpha male. At that point, he understanding the options available to him had taken the route of claiming the deed for himself.

"Boss, with your skills, you might be able to subdue that new Shaman apprentice." Another lackey, instead of only praising came up with an idea.

Luan Lyn was in a bad mood, but hearing this idea, his spirit went up a little. "Like everyone else isn't already trying to win her favour"—his hand shoved someone standing on his path to the side—"I would be one amongst many." The idea wasn't bad, but he didn't jump on it.