Longevity starts with choosing Hextech enhancement

Chapter 360 Finding a Bargain: The Second Sculpture (4K)

After getting the exact location from Chen Fan.

Xiao Chen immediately set off and arrived at Sandaogou, north of the market, and easily found the long row of shelves.

It must be said that there are still talented individuals among the independent cultivators.

To attract customers, they made sure to display all the prizes openly.

As long as you draw the corresponding number, you can redeem the prize on the spot.

Especially in the middle of the shelf, there were several items worth thousands of spirit stones.

As a result, it attracted a lot of onlookers, and many people chose to try their luck.

After all, they had just sold the two jade pieces, so they had some extra money in their pockets.

Even if we lose ten spirit stones, it won't have a particularly big impact.

If you manage to win a valuable item, that would be an even bigger win.

Xiao Chen had just arrived when he saw three cultivators drawing lots.

However, two of them only received the worst reward, which was a Bigu Pill worth one spirit stone.

Only one person was lucky enough to draw a spirit vine worth fifteen spirit stones, making a small profit.

"Let me see if there's anything else of value."

Xiao Chen didn't rush to participate in the lottery. Instead, he scanned the spiritual items on the shelves to see if there were any leftovers.

If there's nothing good left, then forget it.

To his surprise, he saw a sculpture that looked somewhat familiar; it was the golden-tailed tiger statue that he had just inspected.

Did Chen Fan return the items?

That's impossible; he's definitely not as fast as me.

Xiao Chen immediately realized that these things were likely in pairs.

Great, now the next goal is clear.

That means drawing the slip of paper numbered three, four, or five, and then taking the statue with you.

"Would you like to try your luck, fellow Daoist?"

Seeing Xiao Chen approach the specially made protective box, the stall owner quickly explained the rules: "It only costs ten spirit stones to draw a box here, and the result depends entirely on luck."

"However, this is a small business, so you have to pay first before it's settled."

To prevent people from running away after not getting good items, we require payment before you can participate.

This is a perfectly normal precaution.

Xiao Chen readily took out one hundred spirit stones: "Sure, let's start with ten rounds."

He then reached into the protective box and randomly pulled out ten small pieces of paper folded into squares.

To his disappointment, not only was the sculpture not there, but there wasn't even a small prize.

All they got in return were ten pieces of junk worth ten spirit stones.

"what?"

The stall owner stared at the note on the table, momentarily stunned.

To attract more cultivators, they've set up many items here worth three or five spirit stones each.

The main strategy is to operate on a low-profit, high-volume model to attract more cultivators to participate.

Generally speaking, you can get a good result every three draws, so it's really rare to get only one spirit stone in ten consecutive draws like this.

"Ok?"

Xiao Chen frowned slightly, feeling that something was amiss with the result.

He immediately took out another hundred spirit stones: "Ten more times."

This time, he finally won a reward that was specially included to recoup his investment, and received an item worth fourteen spirit stones.

"Hey, ten more times."

"That doesn't make sense, do it ten more times."

"I failed again. I refuse to believe it. I'll try ten more times."

……

Xiao Chen drew a thousand spirit stones and won a hundred prizes.

However, all of these things combined were not even worth two hundred spirit stones.

This caused many of the onlookers to hesitate and not move forward.

"What's going on? Could there be no valuable reward in the box at all?"

"You know what, I also find it strange. There are so many valuable spiritual items displayed outside, but not a single one has been sold."

"If you ask me, there's definitely something fishy going on here. I saw that senior smoke it a hundred times with my own eyes, and he didn't find anything of value."

Hearing the discussions of the crowd, the cultivators who were in charge of setting up the stall were stunned.

They admitted that the chances of winning the grand prize were actually quite low, and most cultivators would inevitably not be able to recoup their losses.

But normally, it wouldn't be necessary to receive these worthless items one after another.

They didn't tamper with the box, so what happened?
"Brother, why don't we stop this fellow Daoist from continuing to draw?"

One of the monks who was in charge of guarding the shelves approached the stall owner and whispered in his ear, "If this continues, no one will dare to come anymore."

The stall owner was also in a dilemma: "No, if we chase people away now, it will only make us look guilty."

"The best way now is to let this fellow Daoist continue to participate and win a prize of at least several hundred spirit stones, so that others will believe in us."

However, this is not an easy task.

If Xiao Chen gets angry and quits, or if they try a few more times but still can't draw anything good, then their reputations will probably be ruined.

To be honest, the stall owner is even starting to regret it.

I should have tampered with the prize money; that way, I could have secretly controlled the other person's chances of winning.

However, his concerns in this regard were clearly unnecessary.

Xiao Chen has plenty of methods; he doesn't need any help at all.

He reached out and pressed the box, asking, "Let me confirm first. For everything that's displayed on the back of the container, there's definitely a corresponding note in the box, right?"

Upon hearing such doubts, the stall owner hurriedly patted his chest and assured him, "That's right!"

"All the prize numbers are in the box, and they match perfectly; not one is missing."

"Please rest assured, fellow Daoist and everyone else, we brothers are not the kind of people who would do anything deceitful."

That makes things easier.

Xiao Chen smiled slightly: "Now calculate how many sticks are left in this box?"

"I'll take them all!"

Fun fact: If there's no behind-the-scenes manipulation, buying all the lottery tickets guarantees you'll get the item you want.

"what?"

The stall owner paused for a moment: "All-inclusive?"

Is there such a good thing?

It's worth noting that the average price of all the prizes is less than five spirit stones.

If someone actually takes on all the work at once, they can not only make a large profit but also finish work early.

However, this unusual situation made him instinctively suspicious.

Is there any problem?

Seeing him in a daze, one of the rogue cultivators watching the show spoke up and questioned, "You guys aren't hiding something, are you? Otherwise, why are you afraid to agree?"

Immediately, someone chimed in: "Exactly! Let's open the box and inspect the goods!"

Seeing that things weren't going well, the stall owner immediately agreed: "Of course, no problem!"

"There are still 1,236 items left. I'll round down the total price to 12,000 spirit stones."

As it turned out, the numbers in the boxes did indeed match one by one.

In other words, he really just had bad luck with the lottery before.

Xiao Chen remained silent for a moment, then quietly put away the large pile of spiritual items.

Well, at least we got the statue, right? As for the extra clutter, we can just hand it over to Zhang Cunfu to deal with when we meet again.

Thinking of this, Xiao Chen felt that he could go and see what the situation was like on the other side tomorrow.

But for now, let's examine these sculptures first.

The stall owner, who was only at the Golden Core stage, clearly didn't realize the hidden secrets within.

Therefore, although Xiao Chen spent more than 10,000 spirit stones, overall he managed to get a small bargain.

Upon returning to the Xu family with the sculpture, he immediately began to carefully study its secrets.

To his surprise, the second sculpture contained a melody that had no beginning or end.

It sounds like a fragment that was spontaneously recorded by a fourth-level sound cultivator who was comprehending the Great Dao and suddenly had a sudden inspiration.

Strange, these two sculptures are extremely similar, according to logic.

Even their methods of concealment are the same, so they must have come from the same person.

However, the things contained within them are completely different, especially since they each carry different insights into the Great Dao, making them seem as if they came from the same person.

After all, it is extremely rare for a cultivator to comprehend different Great Daos at the same time.

Based on this, it is highly likely that these two sculptures were created by a single organization, each inscribed with different insights to be passed down to future generations.

"Hmm, that doesn't seem right either."

Xiao Chen examined it again, but felt that this thing didn't seem like a legacy left for future generations.

After all, although a trace of sword intent and a piece of music remained inside, it clearly had no teaching meaning whatsoever.

Moreover, if it is a senior cultivator who wants to take care of a junior, they will usually make it more detailed and easier to understand.

However, the artistic conception conveyed by these two sculptures clearly shows no intention to cater to future generations; rather, they seem more like a sage recording his own insights and reflections.

"Wait, proficient in both flying swords and music?"

Xiao Chen suddenly remembered a special prodigy he had read about in the Cai family's ancient books a few days ago—Venerable Swordsman.

This is a genius cultivator who left the blessed land of Zejing more than 300,000 years ago.

His most famous feature is that he simultaneously practices swordsmanship and vocal music, and always carries a fast sword and a bamboo flute on his left and right.

Furthermore, he likes to play a song to send off his opponents after defeating them.

The life of this Sword-Dai Venerable was quite legendary, and Xiao Chen remembered it vividly after reading it only once.

He was one of the few cultivators from the wilderness who displayed extraordinary talent, thus being specially recruited into the Guiyun Sect.

It is said that he broke through to the Nascent Soul realm in just forty-nine years.

He became one of the very few super geniuses who could advance to the Nascent Soul stage before the age of fifty.

Later, he went to the Holy City to train and made a name for himself, earning the nickname "Master of the Flute and Sword".

He even broke through a major realm at the age of over three hundred years, entering the realm of the Nascent Soul Venerable.

It is said that after becoming a Venerable One, he made a special trip back to the blessed land of Zejing and toured his hometown thoroughly.

However, the subsequent records in the book are vague and unclear.

After all, once someone becomes a Venerable One, many things become difficult for outsiders to access or inquire about.

What usually circulates to the outside world are various rumors, most of which are unreliable and obviously not suitable for formal recording in family heirlooms.

Of course, Xiao Chen didn't care much about what happened next.

He suddenly remembered that this Venerable Swordsman had made a special trip back to the area.

If that's the case, could these two spiritual items be something the other party intentionally left behind?

"Oh, could it be that..."

Xiao Chen's eyes lit up; he felt this place was definitely worth exploring further.

Although this is just a guess, continuing to investigate may not yield any results.

However, he had been waiting for news from the Cai family to contact a weapon refiner these past few days, so he had plenty of free time to spare.

Moreover, this is very likely something left behind by a venerable person.

If any discoveries are made, there is a high probability that considerable benefits can be obtained.

But where should we begin?

Xiao Chen had already read through all the books in the Cai family's collection, but there was no more valuable information in them.

He would have to find another way to obtain information on this matter.

Actually, there's not much to think about, I'll just go find Zhang Cunfu.

Xiao Chen remembered that he had said before that as long as you have spirit stones and spirit objects, you can smooth things over within the sect and secretly steal some of the internal information collected by Guiyun Sect.

Since that's the case, let's just have him make a record about Venerable Swordsman while he's at it.

After all, that Venerable Swordsman was also a disciple of the Guiyun Sect.

Therefore, the records within the Guiyun Sect would inevitably be more detailed and reliable.

So the next afternoon, Xiao Chen arrived at the market ahead of time and left a secret mark on the only way to the warehouse.

This was a marker they had specifically agreed upon last time.

Sure enough, not long after, Zhang Cunfu, who had discovered the secret mark, quietly came to that alley.

As soon as he entered, he bowed deeply and said, "This humble one greets senior!"

As he spoke, he turned around and bowed to everyone in front, behind, left, and right.

Although he couldn't see anyone, since Xiao Chen had taken the initiative to invite him out, he must already be waiting.

Therefore, Zhang Cunfu immediately bowed, believing that it was better to be polite than not.

Where are you looking?

Xiao Chen deliberately appeared behind him and looked him up and down: "You look like you've been doing well lately, your face is glowing."

Zhang Cunfu quickly smiled apologetically and said, "It's just because of your influence, senior."

"These past few days, while dealing with spiritual items, I unexpectedly encountered a big client and had two spiritual banquets with him."

"I was just thinking of coming to congratulate you, senior. I've already dealt with nearly half of the spiritual items you asked me to handle last time."

A major client?
Where did this big client come from? Did he just appear out of nowhere?
Xiao Chen was well aware that the batch of spiritual items was extremely valuable, totaling over ten million spirit stones.

Nearly half of that would amount to around five or six million.

Therefore, he was somewhat surprised. Besides the Guiyun Sect and the four major families, were there other forces in the area?

Hmm~, it can't be the Reverse Immortal Alliance, can it?

Curious, Xiao Chen pressed for details, asking, "What exactly happened?"

"Tell me in detail who that big client is."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Cunfu immediately recounted in detail everything he had seen and heard over the past few days.

At first, it even went down to the specifics of how many dishes were eaten at each meal and what they were called.

It was only after Xiao Chen asked for simplification that the explanation became slightly simpler.

It turned out that after obtaining that large batch of spiritual items last time, Zhang Cunfu began to devise how to make a move.

As the Double Jade Conference is currently underway, various private gatherings and exchanges are in full swing.

So he also thought of taking advantage of this opportunity to get rid of those spirits without anyone noticing.

Therefore, Zhang Cunfu was involved in many of these covert gatherings.

It was during this process that he unexpectedly encountered a cultivator who was buying spiritual items from all over the place.

Although both of them were masked at first, they became quite familiar with each other after making deals at several rallies.

Both sides wanted to deal with the spiritual objects while simultaneously wanting to purchase them in large quantities.

So they went to the Fangshi Restaurant together to discuss cooperation.

Of course, Zhang Cunfu was initially wary, also suspicious of the other party's identity and why he would use so many spiritual objects.

But after thinking about it carefully, I realized that Senior Xiao was actually the True Lord of the Reverse Immortal Alliance.

There's no reason for our own people to sell to each other.

So he didn't suspect anything.

(End of this chapter)