Chapter 1974: Selling bathwater

The Inner Disciple Trading Hall is an internal organization spontaneously formed by the inner disciples. It serves as a convenient place for them to buy and sell treasures required for cultivation.

Led by Cao Chengli, they quickly arrived at the location.

The place looked quite simple, just a small courtyard at the foot of a mountain. After presenting their tokens, they entered and immediately saw numerous stalls set up on the ground, sparsely displaying various goods.

Longswords, cultivation manuals, rare natural treasures, elixirs, pets—everything imaginable was available!

However, these items were not from the sect; instead, they were possessions of inner disciples obtained during trials or from their families.

"We only accept Sword Pavilion Coins here, not Immortal Yuan Pills..." Zhang Xuan asked at a few stalls and received the same answer.

The sellers' purpose was to gain entry to places like the Sword Calligraphy Hall and the Sword Testing Hall to learn more advanced sword arts. To enter these places, only Sword Pavilion Coins were accepted.

"What if I don't have Sword Pavilion Coins?" Zhang Xuan felt a wave of depression.

He had thought that the few Immortal Yuan Pills Cao Chengli had given him could be used as currency, but to his surprise, no one accepted them!

At Lingyun Sword Pavilion, cultivation level was not paramount. What mattered was comprehension of sword intent and sword techniques. As long as these two aspects grew stronger, making a disciple outstanding among their peers, they would naturally receive strong support from the sect and never lack resources.

Precisely because of this, Immortal Yuan Pills, a type of medicine that enhances cultivation, were not considered precious here.

Seeing his young master's worried expression, Cao Chengli approached and whispered, "Young Master, how about... we just rob them? I just observed a few people, and none of them are stronger than you. If we just find a way to lure them into a corner, kill them, and take everything, we'll have whatever we need..."

"Rob? Are you out of your mind!" Zhang Xuan nearly fainted from anger. "Can't you think with common sense? This is Lingyun Sword Pavilion! The sect rules forbid robbery. If you dared to act, you wouldn't even know how you died! And lure them into a corner... Do you think inner disciples are fools? Every cultivator who can become an inner disciple of Lingyun Sword Pavilion has some tricks up their sleeve. Not getting robbed by others would already be good enough, let alone robbing them..."

"Or how about this..." Cao Chengli pledged confidently, "I just saw a beautiful inner disciple selling items. I'll use a honey trap..."

Zhang Xuan clutched his forehead, wishing he could kick this idiot to death on the spot. "Go ahead and try it. Just make sure you don't get beaten to death..." Too lazy to bother with this fool, he walked along the stalls.

He inquired at a few more places. The Spirit-Connecting Jade Tablets here were indeed priced as he'd been told, about twenty Sword Pavilion Coins, while Immortal Yuan Pills were two Sword Pavilion Coins each. The difference between them was a full tenfold.

In other words, even if bartering were allowed, the Immortal Yuan Pills he possessed were not enough to buy even one Spirit-Connecting Jade Tablet.

"If Spirit-Connecting Jade Tablets are the standard, why is there such a huge price difference for Immortal Yuan Pills?" Unable to hold back any longer, he asked an inner disciple who was selling goods.

The inner disciple shook his head and explained, "You're referring to the Spirit-Connecting Jade Tablets from smaller places, right? Those tablets default to Great Sage 1-dan strength, so their price is very low! However, the ones sold by inner disciples in the Sword Pavilion default to Ancient Sage 1-dan, so naturally, their price is dozens of times higher! And for core disciples, the Spirit-Connecting Jade Tablets they use default to the Void Immortal realm... their price is even higher!"

"Oh..." Zhang Xuan suddenly understood.

He had been confused for a while, but he never expected the answer to be so simple.

He had been using the price of Spirit-Connecting Jade Tablets as a standard to measure the price of Immortal Yuan Pills, unaware that the Spirit-Connecting Jade Tablets here were already different from those in the outside world.

Could the price of the same account be the same if one was a king tier and the other bronze?

After asking around for a while and becoming more familiar with the situation, Zhang Xuan couldn't help but ask, "I want to buy a Spirit-Connecting Jade Tablet. Do you know of any good ways to earn Sword Pavilion Coins?"

"Good methods? I'm looking for them too... If I found one, I wouldn't be setting up a stall here..." The inner disciple opposite him rolled his eyes.

Zhang Xuan felt awkward. He had thought it might be like some trade houses where he could earn money by answering questions, but now it seemed he had been overthinking it.

"I only have seven Immortal Yuan Pills and one storage ring right now... Relying on selling these to earn twenty Sword Pavilion Coins probably won't work..."

If nothing else worked, he could set up a stall like everyone else, but... he had no treasures to sell!

Storage rings were rare resources in Xuanjiang City, but here, almost every inner disciple had one. Those who didn't could even rent them from the sect; there was simply no market for them!

As for Immortal Yuan Pills... he only had seven. Even if he sold them all, he couldn't afford a Spirit-Connecting Jade Tablet!

"Right," he thought, "the gourd's bathwater has miraculous effects on healing injuries. If I can sell this... it should be quite valuable!"

After pondering for a long time, his eyes suddenly lit up.

He had only been in this Heavenly Realm for about ten days. He had never gone out and had almost never fought anyone, leaving him completely penniless. The only thing he had left were a few bottles of the bathwater from boiling the gourd last time.

This substance had miraculous healing effects, even more effective than some elixirs. If he could sell it, he might just be able to afford a Spirit-Connecting Jade Tablet.

"That's it!" With that thought, he no longer hesitated. He took some fabric from his ring, set up a makeshift stall, took out the jade bottle containing the gourd's bathwater, placed it on top, paused, then took out another piece of cloth, wrote the four characters "Healing Divine Medicine" on it, and sat down.

The inner disciple at the neighboring stall saw his sign and couldn't help but shake his head. "Healing Divine Medicine? Brother, you really aren't afraid of death... The character 'Divine' (神) isn't something you can just use casually! Otherwise, once discovered by a deity, you'll be instantly obliterated!"

"Can't use it casually? But... the Sword Pavilion also has the Sword God Hall!" Zhang Xuan looked over.

The inner disciple explained, "The character 'Divine' (神) in 'Sword God Hall' was seized by force from the Divine Temple by the Sword Pavilion's founding ancestor back then. Because it was only half a character, they could only use it to name a regular sub-hall, not the sect itself! On this continent, only the Spirit-Connecting Temple has that qualification. It's said that their former Master single-handedly broke into the Divine Temple and forcibly seized the character directly from the deities!"

"Characters... need to be seized?" Filled with surprise, Zhang Xuan asked a few more questions, only then understanding the situation and gasping sharply.

The Heavenly Realm, as he saw it, was known as the Forsaken Continent, supposedly abandoned by deities. Therefore, neither the six major sects nor common people were qualified to use the character "Divine" (神). The only way to use it was to... find a way to enter the Divine Temple and forcibly seize the character from the hands of a deity!

Over thousands of years, among the six major sects and the Spirit-Connecting Temple, only Lingyun Sword Pavilion had obtained half a character, and the Spirit-Connecting Temple had obtained one. Other sects, even if equally powerful, had never succeeded!

If seizing a single character was so difficult, the power of the Divine Temple was unimaginable. It seemed the character "Divine" (神) was indeed not to be used lightly.

He changed the two characters "Divine Medicine" to "Immortal Medicine." Below it, he wrote the line, "All injuries, instantly cured!" Only then did he await customers again.

Nearly an hour passed. Many people came to look, but after uncorking the bottle, they all shook their heads and left.

Other people's healing medicines were full of spiritual energy, but his looked like ordinary boiled water. It would be strange if anyone bought it.

The sky gradually darkened. Just as Zhang Xuan was thinking that selling things truly had no future, a girl walked over.

She appeared to be in her twenties, tall and exceptionally beautiful. Though not comparable to Zhao Ya and the others, she was still a beauty among hundreds. However, her brows were tightly furrowed, as if she was worried about something.

After circling the stall a few times, she came before Zhang Xuan and looked at him intently. "Is your healing medicine really effective?"

"Of course!" Zhang Xuan nodded. "It can cure any injury! If it doesn't work, I'll refund the full price..."

"A relative of mine was injured by an immortal beast and has taken many healing medicines, but none have worked. Your... how much is it?" The girl paused, then asked.

In truth, she was desperate, clutching at straws. She had given her relative countless elixirs, all to no avail. Seeing that this person had actually written "Immortal Healing Medicine" and "instantly cured" on their sign, she came over to inquire, hoping against hope. She figured it wouldn't hurt to try; if it didn't work, then so be it.

"One bottle, twenty Sword Pavilion Coins!" Zhang Xuan stated.

"Twenty Sword Pavilion Coins? Why don't you just rob someone?!" The girl was startled.

Ordinary healing elixirs, even those for the Void Immortal realm, didn't exceed ten Sword Pavilion Coins. Yet, this bottle, which looked no different from plain water, was priced directly at twenty... This was outrageous!

"You get what you pay for. As fellow inner disciples, I wouldn't dare to ask for this price unless it had special healing effects. Otherwise... wouldn't I be beaten to death?" Zhang Xuan raised an eyebrow. "You can choose not to buy, but this price won't change!"

After speaking, he closed his eyes, adopting an attitude that implied "buy it or leave, I don't care."

Although he had never done business before, he had read countless books and understood the tactics of merchants and the psychology of buyers. If he chased after customers, they might not truly want it, and might even be suspicious, wondering if it was a scam.

Maintaining an aloof demeanor and giving off an air of mystery would, on the contrary, make people trust him more. Moreover, his product was genuinely not fake.

As expected, seeing his attitude, the girl paused.

If there was no suitable medicine for treatment, her relative might die... Otherwise, she wouldn't have rushed to the Inner Disciple Trading Hall to buy medicine in such a hurry. Yet, with her eyesight, she truly couldn't discern any efficacy from this bottle of water.

"Fine, I'll buy it," the girl huffed, picking up a bottle after hesitating for a moment. "If it doesn't work, I'll come find you and make you understand the consequences of deceiving me!"

"Don't worry," Zhang Xuan said indifferently. "If it doesn't work, you won't even need to say anything; I'll dismantle my own stall..."

Anyway, he only planned to sell it once. Once he had a Spirit-Connecting Jade Tablet, would he still worry about money? What a joke! When it came to earning money in open tournaments, he was absolutely a professional!

"That's good..." Relieved, the girl picked up the jade bottle and casually threw over a bag. "Here are 20 Sword Pavilion Coins!" After speaking, she turned and left directly.

Opening the bag, he found there were indeed twenty sword-shaped gold coins inside. Zhang Xuan's eyes lit up.

He had thought he would need to wait longer, but he never expected it to be so easy.

He stood up, intending to pack up his stall and find a place to buy a jade tablet. Just then, the inner disciple next door looked at him with a sympathetic expression. "Hurry up and get out of here. Find a way to leave the Sword Pavilion, or I'm afraid you'll soon be beaten into a pulp!"