Chapter Ninety-Nine: A Second Deal with Heather

Qin Jing looked quite easygoing, and only said, “I’m waiting here for someone to finish a deal with me. You’re just the courier. Once this is over, I’ll let you go.”

At that, Ma Tong finally let out a breath of relief, and looked at Qin Jing with a little gratitude. “Thank you, Mr. Qin!”

Seeing his expression, Qin Jing knew the moment was about right. He took a pack of premium cigarettes from his pocket, drew one out, and handed it over.

Ma Tong accepted it somewhat flustered. He stared blankly at Qin Jing, not understanding why the other man had suddenly become so “kind” to him.

Qin Jing said leisurely, “Do you know what you brought here?”

Ma Tong shook his head.

“Open it and take a look.”

At Qin Jing’s words, Ma Tong’s curiosity was instantly stirred. But the next moment, another thought flashed through his mind: could it be something illicit? Was he trying to find an excuse to silence me?

Hastily, he shook his head and forced an awkward laugh. “I’d rather not.”

“I told you to open it, so open it,” Qin Jing said unhappily, his tone hardening.

Ma Tong quickly opened the sack of spiritual rice. He was curious himself about what exactly was inside.

The next instant, row upon row of pearl-white grains appeared before his eyes. He stared in stunned terror. This was rice? And how could rice give off such rich spiritual energy?

A faint memory stirred in Ma Tong’s mind, and he could not help trembling as he said, “Th-this is spiritual rice?”

At that moment, even his voice seemed to have gone dry. Spiritual rice was the most important foundational resource for cultivation. Legend said that the favored sons of heaven from the previous age of spiritual awakening ate spiritual rice every day. With its endless supply, they could advance rapidly. Back then, anything below rank three in the transcendent realm was treated like child’s play. Rank nine was the true goal of those prodigies!

Then, staring at the gleaming white rice, a thought surfaced in Ma Tong’s mind: with so much spiritual rice, how much money would it be worth?

Qin Jing’s voice seemed to come from beyond the heavens. “See? This is the kind of business I do. The person we’re waiting for is the buyer.”

“Hiss—”

Ma Tong drew in a sharp breath.

A hundred jin of spiritual rice sold in one go!

He no longer dared imagine who could possibly make such a massive purchase. It had to be one of the most powerful transcendent factions in Cold Sea, surely. Perhaps Ma Junshan could manage such a thing. But no matter how one looked at it, Ma Tong himself was far, far removed from that level.

At that moment, Ma Tong suddenly realized how trivial his hatred for Qin Jing really was. He had been blind enough to provoke such a formidable person, and had even thought about taking revenge. Now that he looked back on it, it was laughable. In that man’s eyes, he himself was probably no more than an ant.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Qin!”

Just then, a dazzling figure appeared at the mouth of Erdaozi Alley. She was a mixed-race beauty with long golden hair and features that still carried a certain Eastern delicacy. She had a devil’s figure and an angel’s face. The very first time Ma Tong saw her, his heart began to pound.

Not because she was too beautiful, but because he recognized who she was: Hathaway, the great expert who had advanced to rank four in the transcendent realm only days ago, and the Phoenix Society’s leader, one of the top local transcendent powers in Cold Sea.

“The shop is being renovated, so I simply brought the goods out here to wait for you. Take a look and see whether any of these are useful to you.”

A faint smile appeared on Qin Jing’s face. He casually pointed to the sack at Ma Tong’s left hand side. Ma Tong had not managed to open that one, and now his curiosity deepened even more. What, exactly, was inside it?

Hathaway glanced at the crowded street around them and asked in puzzlement, “Mr. Qin, do you want to look at them here?”

Qin Jing had chosen this place for a reason.

In the past, he had believed that transcendent beings all hid in the shadows and, under the pressure of the authorities, were not allowed to alarm ordinary people. But now it seemed that had been nothing more than his own wishful thinking. How could those ordinary people who had suddenly awakened into transcendence possibly avoid causing even the slightest stir? And as the recovery of spiritual energy progressed, there would only be more and more transcendent beings.

In that case, what reason did Qin Jing have to hold back? He intended to do business with transcendent beings, so the more open and aboveboard the better.

Besides, Qin Jing was not without his own troubles. For instance, after paying Old Song six million, his cash reserves had already reached the warning line. And because the business was tied up with house construction, he still had no new source of ready money. In other words, more and more goods were being taken in, but the corresponding sales channels were shrinking.

For Qin Jing, the most urgent matter now had become opening up a new source of profit.

Inviting Hathaway over was only the first step. After all, Hathaway was already an old customer, and the financial strength of any single faction was limited. Qin Jing’s real goal was to attract a large number of walk-in buyers. Today, seeing so many transcendent beings in Erdaozi Alley, weren’t they perfect walk-in customers?

These people came from all sorts of different factions, or were simply wild transcendent beings on their own. If they learned that Qin Jing’s place was actually selling transcendent supplies, what kind of frenzy would they unleash?

By then, Hathaway had already opened the sack. Ma Tong stole a glance, then raised his eyebrows, because inside were all sorts of odds and ends: some men’s and women’s accessories, a comb, an MP3 player, and other completely unrelated things, and even a large brick.

What on earth was all this? Did anyone actually want such things? Ma Tong was utterly baffled.

At first, Hathaway was also somewhat surprised. But then her expression turned serious, because she was shocked to discover that every single item in that pile emitted a trace of strange spiritual fluctuation, one that was even closer to magic or spiritual power!

The energy of heaven and earth could not be used directly. Only through constant cultivation could transcendent beings gradually draw upon it. But if an object carried usable spiritual fluctuations, then it had already become a transcendent item. The value of transcendent items came from the spiritual energy within them, because once that energy was contained inside an object, a transcendent being could make use of it through proper methods. In many cases, a transcendent item that had been refined could even more than double a transcendent being’s combat power.

And what now lay before Hathaway was exactly that sort of transcendent item.

“How much are these?” Hathaway asked, looking at Qin Jing. She wanted to buy them all, but her wealth was not limitless, so she could only suppress her impulse for the time being.

“The normal price is ten million. If you’re buying them, then five million apiece, regardless of type or size.”

Qin Jing answered casually.

What he had taken out were tainted items. When the spiritual energy at the school erupted once, Qin Jing had obtained ten such items. The most valuable among them had been appraised at only five million by market standards. But Qin Jing naturally would not sell them for that much. In fact, ten million per item was already quite fair. It was only because he had so many on hand, and urgently needed to recoup his costs, that he gave Hathaway a price at cost.