135: Book Pavilion

The stall owner appeared to be a shrewd middle-aged man. He glanced at Jiang Nian's fine attire and spoke with a smile.

"This is a book left over from the ancient era. The characters and symbols on it might record a secret text containing special mysteries. This is my Family heirloom."

"Sigh, if I weren't a destitute profligate, I wouldn't have brought out this ancient book for sale."

He went in a long circle talking about the origin of the ancient book but didn't mention its price.

Jiang Nian's fingers brushed over the characters on the book. A thin layer of faint crystal dust fell from the characters. The Chu Family often used dust ground from Source Spirit Stone to feed the 'Colorful Cloud Jellyfish' behind the mountain.

Thus, Jiang Nian was all too familiar with the texture of this dust. Moreover, there was some dark gold powder, which the owner must have mixed with another special mineral powder.

Characters written with these two spiritual materials allowed the book to emit obvious energy fluctuations even while lying in a pile of junk, attracting passersby.

Jiang Nian tossed the book back into the junk on the stall and spoke softly, "If it's so precious, isn't it priceless? Then it's indeed not easy for me to buy."

Seeing Jiang Nian give up on the purchase, the stall owner felt a flash of urgency, having finally encountered a woman who seemed to lack experience. He picked up the book that had been tossed back.

He spoke with a sycophantic smile, "Five hundred Origin Rune Stones. For just five hundred Origin Rune Stones, I'll hand over this Family heirloom to you. Seeing your wealthy attire, there must be capable people in your home who can decrypt this book."

"Five hundred Origin Rune Stones? You've praised this book to the high heavens; it must be the most expensive thing at this stall, right?" Chu Shengyuan asked, standing before the stall with wide, innocent eyes.

The vendor looked at Chu Shengyuan, momentarily unsure of how to respond.

Beside Jiang Nian, Chu Shenghan looked at the stall with a bit of disdain and suspicion. "Mother, if anything else is more expensive than this book, wouldn't those all be his Family heirlooms too?"

"What kind of Family could have so many treasures passed down? He must be a swindler."

After saying that, she reached for Jiang Nian's arm to leave the stall.

Seeing the deal he had worked so hard for about to fall through, the vendor said urgently, "Madam, Madam, please stay! This book is, of course, the most expensive item at my stall. I didn't expect Madam to have such a Wisdom Eye to pick it out at a glance."

"Really?" Chu Shenghan pointed to a stone carving shaped like a phoenix. "How much is this stone carving?"

"Three hundred Origin Rune Stones."

"Oh, this is almost the same price as your Family heirloom."

A trace of anxiety appeared on the vendor's face. Great, he had set the price too high.

Chu Shengyuan pointed to a broken sword on the other side and asked, "What about this broken sword?"

The vendor licked his lips and said tentatively, "One... one hundred Origin Rune Stones?"

Chu Shengyuan looked disgusted, then he and Chu Shenghan both looked at Xu Yinyue, signaling her with their eyes to choose one.

Xu Yinyue was clever and immediately understood their intention. So, she pretended to point casually at a Black Lotus. "How much for this?"

The vendor said somewhat despondently, "Fifty Origin Rune Stones."

"Good." Jiang Nian pulled out a brocade bag and tossed it to the vendor. "Five hundred and fifty Origin Rune Stones. I'll take both the book and that Black Lotus."

The vendor opened the brocade bag in a daze and checked the amount of Origin Rune Stones inside. Before he could react, Jiang Nian had already taken the two items she wanted and disappeared into the crowd with the three children.

Jiang Nian led the three of them around the first floor for a while before finally going to the Book Pavilion where Chu Jingyu had purchased the map of the Phantom Mist Spirit Plain.

This was also Jiang Nian's main purpose for coming to the Treasure Pavilion: to buy relevant ancient texts to fill the Family's Library Courtyard.

Upon arriving at the Library Pavilion, the young man sitting behind the desk only glanced at the four who entered. He didn't greet them and continued writing at his desk.

Jiang Nian looked around the pavilion. It was empty with few people coming and going; it could be said to be the quietest shop in the Treasure Pavilion.

This was normal. Books were generally expensive, and those not from a Noble Family couldn't afford them. Furthermore, most Noble Family members had their own Legacy for many years and had little need for books, so there were very few people in the pavilion.

Jiang Nian glanced at the three children and nodded to them.

The three of them—Chu Shenghan and the others—quickly dispersed in three different directions. Whenever they saw a book title they didn't recognize, they began stuffing it into their arms.

Once their arms were full, they piled them on the empty desk in the middle, then returned to the shelves against the wall to repeat the action.

The young man leaning over the desk saw their movement and looked up. The brush in his hand trembled in shock.

He put down his brush, stood up, and quickly walked to the desk now piled high with books. He blocked Chu Shengyuan, who was continuing to stack books, with both hands. "Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing?"

Chu Shengyuan looked at him strangely. "Buying books. Isn't this a place that sells books?"

As he spoke, Chu Shengyuan broke free from his arms and piled the stack of books in his arms onto another empty desk.

The young man looked around and spotted Jiang Nian, who was also moving books and seemed to be the one in charge.

He hurried over and pointed excitedly at the pile of books, his face looking a bit bitter. "Madam, do you really intend to buy all these books?"

Jiang Nian held the books in her arms, looked at the young man, and nodded in response.

"Yes. It's just that we are buying a bit more at once; you don't need to be surprised."

The young man lightly patted his chest and forced a smile. "Madam, if you buy so many at once, you won't be able to finish reading them for a while. How about just these for now?"

It seemed this young man was unwilling to sell so many books all at once.

Jiang Nian looked at him askance. "You run a Book Pavilion, yet you're afraid of selling too many books?"

Hearing Jiang Nian's question, the young man felt bitter. He ran a Book Pavilion, but he had transcribed every single one of these books himself! If there were no books left, how could he keep the pavilion open?

Most importantly, his Source Beast, the 'Bookworm', would have nothing to eat. If the pavilion became mostly empty, given the nature of his 'Bookworm', it would surely cause an absolute uproar.

"Fine, fine. For these books, I'll give Madam a ten percent discount, alright?"

Jiang Nian's eyes darted. She hadn't expected such a surprise today, and the young man truly looked like he was about to cry.

She waved to the children who were still busy at their respective shelves. "Children, stop for now."