Dragon Hermit

The peddler almost coughed out a mouthful of blood, [I quoted a price of ¥100K and you make a counter offer of ¥50. Is there any sense in doing something like this?]

“No deal!” The peddler shooed Xia Yan away, [I shouldn’t have tried to sell to a student, it’s just a waste of my saliva! I spent ¥80 to obtain this item, so there’s no way I’ll sell it for ¥50!]

“Give me a sincere quote then, peddler!” Xia Yan didn’t leave and simply crouched down, acting as if he were buying clothes in a market as he continued to negotiate the price.

“¥100K, not a cent less!” The peddler had his attention on the young man who wished to buy the jade cicada, so he replied to Xia Yan’s query without even turning his head aside.

“How about ¥100?” Xia Yan raised the price by ¥50.

“¥100K!”

“¥150?”

“10… Grand!”

“¥200, or else I’ll really leave without buying it!” Xia Yan stated while standing up after seeing the peddler’s expression waver. Obviously, the price he had quoted had already approached the price the peddler had in mind.

“¥250, and it’s yours!” The peddler finally turned his head towards Xia Yan.

“¥250 doesn’t sound good to the ears. How about we go with ¥240?” Xia Yan suggested.

“Fine. It’s yours!” The peddler picked up the jade fragment and shoved it into Xia Yan’s hands. It was already a pretty good deal for him to earn ¥160, which was a profit of 200%.

Xia Yan paid the money and placed the jade fragment inside one of the pockets of the backpack before leaving in a satisfied manner.

The young man who was holding the jade cicada observed Xia Yan’s back as he left with a thoughtful look on his face. By the time the peddler wanted to continue marketing the jade cicada to the young man, he had already placed the article down and gotten up to follow after Xia Yan.

After discovering a special item, Xia Yan became even more interested in the black market and continued to stroll around. Although he wasn’t that well versed in antiques, he was able to ascertain a lot of information from the undead element present on the items.

After combing through the entire market once, Xia Yan had already ascertained that the so-called Ming artifacts all harbored the undead element. However, there weren’t that many genuine Ming artifacts in his market. He had, at most, found 7-8 of them. From this, it was easy to determine that this antique market only had a pitiful number of genuine articles. As such, it was best to avoid coming here unless one possessed a keen eye for antiques if they wished to pick up a windfall, or else, they would definitely lose all of their hard-earned savings.

However, Xia Yan had no interest in these so-called Ming artifacts. Although they were contaminated by a rich amount of the undead element because they were buried within tombs for years, there was nothing special about the undead element on the artifacts. Thus, he had no need for them.

On the other hand, the undead element on the jade slip didn’t seem to have manifested as a result of external contamination and was actually seeping out from inside. In other words, it was being produced intrinsically by the jade slip, and this unusual phenomenon elicited Xia Yan’s attention. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have wasted his time to procure it.

Dawn had already arrived by the time Xia Yan was done strolling around the market. This marked the time for the black market to dissolve, and as such, the peddlers packed up in succession. Xia Yan sat down at a street-side diner and ordered a bowl of porridge and steamed buns for breakfast before having them comfortably.

After finishing breakfast, he strolled around the Huanhuaxi Park and laid down on the rock beside the lake. He got up when it had become 8 AM and returned back to Antique Street.

“Not needing to sleep is quite troublesome, too. I was just strolling outside last night yet somehow ended up provoking an old Daoist!” Xia Yan felt depressed when he saw the rising sun, “I’ll have to find something to do at night in the future or else I’ll feel down once again if I run into someone more formidable than the old Daoist when strolling outside at night!”

“What would be the best thing to do? Playing games online is equivalent to wasting youth and although I could focus on studies, I can’t do that every day! Should I just find a girlfriend… No, that won’t do. Although I wouldn’t want to sleep, the girlfriend would want to…”

Lost in fanciful thoughts, Xia Yan had returned to Songxian Bridge’s Antique Street, following which he proceeded to move towards the Antique Collectibles Store.

“Huh? The doors are open so early?” Xia Yan noticed the doors of the Antique Collectibles Store were wide open when he turned around a corner, and saw a young, beautiful woman sweeping the floor with her head faced down.

Xia Yan paused for a moment to arrange his clothes and stepped forward with a smile on his face to greet her, “Hello!”

“H-Hello!” The girl straightened her back and looked at Xia Yan with doubt as it was pretty rare to see visitors drop in so early.

“May I know if… Mr. Yao Shigu is in?” Even though Xia Yan had become acquainted with a fair share of beauties ever since his arrival in Chengdu, which included an idol like Qi Ziyu and a perfect superwoman like Liu Xue’er, he still lost his breath momentarily when he saw the girl’s face.

“Why are you looking for him?” The girl flung her head back gently to fling the hair on the forehead to the side and questioned him with wide, doubtful eyes since she had noticed his nervousness.

“Ehrm… He’s my martial uncle. My master instructed me to pay him a visit!” Xia Yan answered.

“Martial Uncle?” The short-haired girl’s mouth opened up slightly as she inquired, “Your master is…”

“My master is Han Yidao,” Xia Yan answered.

“Wow. You’re really Grandpa Han’s disciple!?” The short-haired girl exclaimed in a pleasantly surprised manner, which made it obvious that she had heard Han Yidao’s name before.

“The one and only,” Xia Yan responded and then introduced himself, “I’m Xia Yan.”

“I’m Yao Ting. Yao Shigu is my grandpa!” The short-haired girl replied promptly.

Xia Yan found it hard to move his eyes away from Yao Ting, [This girl is one of the sisters that Master wanted me to choose from? With how she looks, would I even have the chance to do so? It’s possible that the line of her suitors stretches for a distance of 10 kilometers. Besides, she might have a boyfriend already. Choose, my foot!]

There would be no justice in this world if a beauty of such a level didn’t have a boyfriend yet.

In this moment, Xia Yan felt that his master’s plan of acting as a matchmaker had all been in vain. He also didn’t harbor any such thoughts and had only visited with the pure intentions of paying respects to his martial uncle.

“Please come in, I’ll go call Grandpa!” Yao Ting tossed the broom aside and swiftly made for the second floor. Xia Yan was taken aback when he saw this as her movements appeared pretty trained to his eyes, unlike most of the average girls who struggled a lot to run and took 30-40 seconds to run 100m.

Yao Ting had a slender waist and long legs along with a fit physique, so Xia Yan found his eyes focusing on her waist subconsciously and felt that those lovely curves of hers to be quite the delightful sight.

“Grandpa! There’s a guest, come out quickly!” Yao Ting’s bell-like voice echoed through the store as she made her way upstairs.

“You’re already a big 20-year old girl now, yet you’re still so energetic. No one will dare to marry you in the future if you keep this up!” A slightly aged voice echoed in the store, his tone filled with love, “Who’s the visitor?”

“You’ll know once you go down. I promise it’ll definitely make you happy!” Yao Ting said in a chirping tone, as if she were presenting a treasure.

By the time Yao Ting said this, she had already helped a white-haired old man down the stairs. Needless to say, this was Xia Yan’s martial uncle, Yao Shigu.

“Young man, you are…” Yao Shigu was stunned after seeing Xia Yan as he couldn’t put a name to his face from his memories.

“Martial Uncle Yao, I’m Xia Yan. My master is Han Yidao,” Xia Yan stepped forward to welcome him and answered respectfully.

“What?” Yao Shigu pulled his arm out from Yao Ting’s embrace suddenly and grabbed Xia Yan’s hand, “You are Senior Brother’s disciple?”

Although Yao Shigu had a head full of white hair, his grip possessed quite the strength. However, Xia Yan possessed greater strength, so he withdrew his hand coolly, placed his backpack down and took an item out before handing it over to Yao Shigu, “Martial Uncle, Master wanted me to give this item to you.”