Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

About a month or so later, Alex arrived at the top of a barren mountain range and looked below at a place far down.

In the shadow of this large range lay an Oasis. In the deep valley that was the oasis, there was a market established around it that people ran from either the tribes or people from the city beyond the giant walls to the south.

This was a place known as the Sunken Oasis, and the market was known as the Grand Bazaar of the Wasteland.

This was the place where everyone came to buy and sell their things for food, clothing, weapons, or other things.

Metal was one of the most popular things that were sold here as metal was very rare in the desert after all.

Aside from that wood was also hard to find, but it didn't sell as well as metal, especially since the desert people had already figured out alternatives to wood.

They had houses built from stones, and their fire never needed fuel. So, they were more than happy to go without it.

However, Alex cared for none of that. What he was more curious about was the fact that they apparently also sold spirit stones in this place.

Alex was more than curious about it and wanted to learn if the tribe people from nearby were cultivators now, so he felt like he had to come here.

During the last month, he had spent the majority of it on the road. However, from time to time, he would take a detour to a village or tribe nearby to check if his father is there or not.

He also needed water and food for his journey, so he would sell the beasts he killed on the way to acquire those.

During one of those trades was where he had come to learn about this Grand bazaar. They spoke so highly of it, that even if there was nothing he wanted from this place, he would still visit it.

It could be said to be one of the many wonders of the Southern Continent after all.

While Alex was curious about the bazaar, what he was really interested in was the wall in the south which was another source of shadow in this place.

Beyond those walls was where the Qi could be found, and he couldn't wait to go there.

Alex jumped off the steep mountain and basically ran all the way down to the foot of the mountain that was over 2 kilometers below him.

There were roads by either side of the mountain range that could be used for easier travel, but that meant taking a long way around, and it was easier to just run down.

Scarlet slowly flew down from the sky after him and perched on his shoulder again, as she always did.

"Ooh, this place looks fun," she said when she saw the market up close.

It was around 10 or so in the morning, so there were around 5 hours of sunlight remaining before the shadow fell into this place.

Alex slowly walked towards the bazaar while looking at the many carriages that ran through the place that brought many things to sell or buy.

Alex slowly arrived inside the market itself and saw what was being sold.

Grains, dried meats, flowers, colors, spices, and various other things. Alex was tempted to buy the things, especially the clothes that were being sold.

He truly wanted to wear cotton clothes again, instead of the leather cloth he had been wearing for 2 months now.

Unfortunately, he didn't have any money on him at all.

'Wait, what do they use as currency? Dead beasts, right?' he thought to himself while looking around. His spiritual sense took over the market and looked at everything.

'Yes, the beasts work,' he thought.

He approached the middle-aged vendor. "Brother, I want to buy these 3 robes. Can you tell me how much it will cost me?" he asked.

"Aha, don't worry customer. It won't cost you—" the vendor looked up in time to see the clothes Alex was wearing and paused. "Uhh, do you have money?" he asked.

"No, not exactly," Alex said. "I was hoping to trade with you using something else."

The vendor's eyes moved towards Scarlet that was perched on his shoulders. "I can trade with the bird, but you can only get 2 robes. That's also only because this bird is very beautiful to look at," he said.

Scarlet got angry and was ready to burn everything. Alex only chuckled and shook his head. "That's not it, brother. I had a beast corpse that I can sell if you are willing to buy," he said.

"Is that so?" the vendor said as he looked around Alex to find a place where the beast's corpses could possibly be. "I'm sorry, I don't trade with corpses. I only trade with spirit stones."

"What?" Alex looked confused. He could see the entire market both on this side and the other side of the body of water in the middle, and none of them were exclusively selling anything for just spirit stones.

'Why would you come to this place if you want spirit stones?' Alex thought. He could see that the vendor wasn't trusting him at all.

"Fine, I shall get some spirit stones. Do you know where I can trade corpses for spirit stones?" he asked.

The vendor pointed towards another vendor far away where many carriages were gathered. "They take beast corpses and buy them for many things, including Spirit stones. You can get some there," he said.

"Thanks," Alex said and quickly walked away.

He arrived at the new vendor and asked if he could get some spirit stones for beast corpses.

"Yes, you can," the woman said. "Do you have some beast corpses to sell?"

"Yes," Alex said. "I have a few."

He moved his hands and about 30 different beast corpses came out from his storage rings. He used to have more, but he had exchanged it for water and food along the way.

"How much would you say I can get for these?" he asked.

The woman looked at the corpses with a bit of a surprised look on her face. It wasn't every day that she saw someone bringing out beast corpses from thin air.

The cultivators didn't fight off any sort of beasts in the wasteland, and the tribe's people couldn't use storage bags. So, it was really a surprise to see it all come out all of a sudden.

She wondered where he possibly got it all from. She quickly checked Alex's cultivation base but could see nothing. 'A mortal huh? I wonder how he used the bag,' she thought.

Her eyes a bit around the many beasts and she said, "150 Spirit stones."

"Hmm, 150?" Alex asked. '5 per beast?'

He couldn't tell if that was high or not. People rarely used spirit stones as currency in this place for some reason, so he was unable to figure out anything.

'Well, 150 is a bit low, but it's not bad for a few beasts I casually killed while coming here,' he thought. 'I can earn more once I'm inside and start making pills.'

"I will take the spirit stones, thank you," Alex said.

The woman nodded and brought out 150 spirit stones before handing them to Alex.

Alex took the spirit stones and stared at them. He stared at them for a good while before turning to look at the moment.

"Did you make a mistake?" he asked, showing the spirit stones back to her.

"Mistake? Did I miscount?" the woman asked.

"No, the number is not the issue here," Alex said. "It's the spirit stones themselves. You gave me common Spirit stones by mistake."

"Oh… uh, is that so?" the woman got nervous for a second before feigning ignorance. "I must not have looked carefully."

"Since you did not look carefully, you might have not looked at the corpses carefully too. Because there is no way they earn such little money," he said.

"No, no, that is all they sell for. The cultivators don't really want these beasts," she said.

"Is that so? Then maybe I should take this to the old man with a grey beard about 30 paces in that direction? He seems to be selling these for about 20 spirit stones per beast," he said.

"What? No, that's not possible. This is the correct pri—"

"Are you sure that is the right price?" Alex's voice rang in her mind, shocking her to the depth of her core. Finally, she understood who she was dealing with.

"A saint realm expert!" she said softly under her breath. She quickly bowed, even kneeling in front of Alex, begging him to not punish her.

Alex felt awkward and sighed. "Get up and give me my spirit stones. I will leave immediately," he said.

"Yes, yes," the woman said and brought out about 150 True Spirit stones in total. Alex finally felt satisfied with his sale.

"Do you know what the tribe's people use this for?" he asked. He could see some tribe folks specifically buying the spirit stones.

"The stones? That's mostly for when you are traveling and need to bring along some Phoenix fire," the woman said. "The Qi inside them keeps the flame alive for a long time even when taken away from the spirit vein it is attached to."

"Oh, I see," Alex said. That made sense, considering the fire attracted Qi to continue burning.

Alex thanked her for the information and the trade and went back to the clothing vendor, who he paid with spirit stones and quickly got a set of clothes.

Now, he didn't see anything else he had to do, so he left for the wall in the south.