24 A Large Transaction
It was true that Lin Mu did not know what those two beasts were, and neither did he know how strong they were, but he never expected to get 6 gold coins total for both the beast corpses. Another point Lin Mu understood was that he was in extreme danger the whole time he was in the presence of the beasts.
The one thing he did not have to worry about anymore was about affording a room at an inn. With the 6 gold coins he got, he would be able to easily spend the rest of the winter in the inn. A single gold coin is enough to rent a decent inn for an entire month.
'I was pinning my hopes on the fragrant wood box to get enough money to last the winter, but these two corpses are already more than enough.' Thought Lin Mu.
The older merchant was staring at the shocked Lin Mu. Seeing that he was not answering, the merchant questioned,
"So will you take the offer?"
"YES, yes I'll take it." Said Lin Mu hurriedly after he snapped out upon hearing the merchant's question.
The older merchant asked the young man standing at the side to take the beast corpses away while he took out 6 gold coins and passed them to Lin Mu, who took them with shaky hands. The older merchant smiled a little upon seeing Lin Mu's shaky hands.
Lin Mu pretended to put the coins in his pouch, but he actually stored them in the ring. Lin Mu had never handled such a large amount of money, so he wanted to keep it safe and the safest place would be the ring.
Lin Mu was also grateful to the older merchant as he had dispersed the crowd before offering him the money or an incident such as the one with the snow veiled hare would have happened again today.
Even though Lin Mu was stronger than before, being in the 6th stage of the body tempering realm, he still would not be able to defend himself against multiple people.
After completing the transaction, Lin Mu turned around to leave. Now he only needed to find a merchant that would buy the fragrant wood box. Lin Mu browsed around the square until he found a rich merchant who seemed like he would buy the box.
The rich merchant was a middle-aged man wearing a long yellow robe and had his hair tucked in a hat. There were many items that were set for sale in the makeshift shop. Though most people were only watching them, never actually buying them.
There were goods of different types- amulets, pendants, bracelets, earrings, bejeweled daggers and blades, vases, and pots of exquisite quality along with a multitude of luxuries.
Lin Mu approached the shop and looked around. Seeing all the items he felt like the merchant would probably accept the fragrant wood box.
Lin Mu turned his gaze to the merchant, who was sitting and drinking a cup of tea in silence.
"Sir Merchant, do you buy things here?" asked Lin Mu respectfully.
The merchant, who was engrossed in enjoying his cup of tea, opened his eyes and gazed at Lin Mu.
"Depending on the item, I may or may not buy it. But know this, that I only buy high-end or rare items." Answered the middle-aged merchant expressionlessly.
Lin Mu pulled out the fragrant wood box from the sack, which he had withdrawn from the ring beforehand. He then presented it to the middle-aged merchant.
The middle-aged merchant narrowed his eyes upon seeing the fragrant wood box.
"A fragrant Agarwood box and hmm, what's this?" The middle-aged merchant muttered as he saw the pattern engraved on the box.
The merchant seemed to have identified the pattern on the box, as his interest in the box rose.
"How did you get this pill storage box from the Tri-cauldron peony sect?" asked the merchant.
Lin Mu was a little surprised as the merchant was able to guess the use of the box with just one look. He also confirmed his suspicion that this box and the Four vessels restoration pills were indeed from the Tri-cauldron peony sect.
"A man pawned it off to my father in exchange for some money." Answered Lin Mu.
He had long thought of what excuse he was going to give, in case anyone asked.
The middle-aged merchant had a slightly confused look upon hearing Lin Mu, but then had a change of expression, as if he had some kind of realisation.
"Ah, you must've gotten it after last year's plague. Of course, the Tri-cauldron peony sect were the ones who supplied the cure for it." Said the merchant with an affirming tone.
This was news to Lin Mu. He did not know that the Tri-cauldron peony sect supplied the medicine for curing the plague.
The plague that spread last year was devastating for the Northern and the Eastern town. Around thirty percent of the population of both towns died due to it. It was not until a month later, after it started to spread, that the mayor of Wu Lim city requested the sect for help. The medicine arrived two days later, but it was already late for Lin Mu's parents as they had long succumbed to the disease.
Lin Mu pushed his thoughts aside for now and spoke,
"Will you buy this box then?"
"Let me test it first." Said the merchant as he took the box from Lin Mu's hands.
The merchant tapped his finger on top of the pattern, and suddenly it lit up. Various runes appeared floating on the engraved pattern. Lin Mu's eyes went wide as he saw the sight.
The merchant noticed Lin Mu's shock as he said,
"It seems you did not know that it had a preservation formation placed on it."
Lin Mu nodded in affirmation to the merchant's words.
"Of course you are not a cultivator, so there was no way you could know." Said the merchant to himself.
"Wait, that means you are a cultivator?" asked Lin Mu curiously.
"Yes, I am a cultivator indeed." The middle-aged merchant answered.
The merchant then switched his gaze towards the box and stayed silent as if in thought. He had his hand under his chin as he spoke,
"It's a fragrant agarwood pill storage box from the Tri-cauldron peony sect with a preservation formation placed on it. So for it, I'll give you a price of… hmm, a 100 gold coins."
Lin Mu was too shocked to even express it. He even secretly pinched himself to ensure that he was not in a dream, heaven knows that he has not had a dream for a few days now; he could have just started to daydream without even realising it.
Lin Mu was not the only person who was shocked upon hearing the price. While there was no one else at the shop, there were two men standing a little farther from him that also heard it. The two men were standing with their backs to Lin Mu. They did not turn around to look right away, instead they walked a little farther from the shop and then turned around to look.
The day had been going amazing for Lin Mu. He already felt lucky upon getting 6 gold coins for the two beast corpses, but now that he was getting a 100 gold coins in exchange for the fragrant wood box, he was on top of the world.
Understanding Lin Mu's acceptance, the middle-aged merchant turned his left palm up and a small pouch appeared on it out of thin air. Lin Mu looked closer at the merchant's hand, and indeed there was a ring on the middle finger of the merchant. The merchant was also wearing a spatial storage ring.
It was the first spatial storage ring he had seen, except for the one that he had. The ring that the merchant was wearing was vastly different from Lin Mu's. While Lin Mu's ring was a dull grey with five small protrusions on it, the merchant's was golden with a small blue gemstone embedded in it.
After the small pouch appeared in the merchant's palm, he opened it and counted 100 gold coins before putting them on the counter. Lin Mu hastily picked them up and stored them in his own coin pouch.
He could not store them in the ring right away as the amount was too much to hide and also the merchant in front of him was a cultivator, who could notice it.
While this all happened the two men were closely watching the entire transaction. Greed could be seen igniting in the eyes of both men. The men seemed to have said something to each other before they disappeared in the crowd of people.
While Lin Mu had wanted to prevent a similar situation as before, by hiding and being as secretive as he could be with the transactions, the thing that he feared still happened, and right now he did not even know that he was in danger.
Done with the transaction, Lin Mu walked away from the merchant and went towards the deserted alley where Jing Wei's Emporium was located, as he still had other items he wanted to sell. While he was walking, he was completely unaware that two men were following him from afar.
