65: Popular Instagrammable Spots

"Take care, guest, come again next time!"

"Next time for sure, next time for sure."

Zhou Yan smiled and waved behind him, signaling the shopkeeper that there was no need to see him out.

Although this shopkeeper was black-hearted, it proved that a "greenhorn" who wore a mask and wasn't afraid of making a scene was the natural enemy of such unscrupulous merchants.

Originally, the other party only wanted to offer one High-Grade Spirit Stone, but under Zhou Yan's persistent argument, he stubbornly insisted on a thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones.

Reasonably, bargaining should involve back-and-forth concessions until an agreement is reached.

But after putting on the mask, Zhou Yan completely let loose, showing no intention of haggling at all, leaving Li Zhe to perform his frustrated act alone the entire time.

Thus, the person who should have been anxious about pawning the item was calm, while Li Zhe became the anxious one. This was because he truly loved that golden bow.

In the end, he still pawned it to Zhou Yan for a price of one hundred and thirty High-Grade Spirit Stones, with an agreement to pay it back within twenty years; otherwise, the treasure would belong to the pawnshop.

One hundred and thirty High-Grade Spirit Stones! This instantly made Zhou Yan's net worth much more substantial.

The Spirit Stones bestowed by the Sect were of high quality and fine luster, so they had to be saved as much as possible, mostly for future Formation consumption or self-improvement.

He remembered Huo Zhongshan saying that this black market was also an industry of the Lianxing Pavilion, so it seemed the card Yi Sanyi gave him couldn't be used carelessly.

Therefore, what Zhou Yan could actually use right now was these 1.3 million Spirit Stones.

As for that card, he still needed to find an opportunity to withdraw the Spirit Stones inside; money in a bank was nowhere near as safe as money in his backpack.

Zhou Yan walked cheerfully toward his next destination. Behind him, Li Zhe watched him depart, his original smile turning so cold it could practically drip water.

After confirming Zhou Yan had left, Li Zhe closed the pawnshop's main doors and hung a "Temporarily Closed" sign.

"A'da!"

As the doors shut, Li Zhe shouted toward the back.

A dark shadow appeared nimbly, kneeling on the ground in response.

"Shopkeeper, your subordinate is here!"

Li Zhe turned around, slapping a small token onto A'da's shoulder as he walked. Just as the token was about to slide off, A'da caught it nimbly.

"That person is called Jiang Hongyue. Once he leaves the Night Roaming Ruins..."

"Spare no effort to intercept and kill him, then bring the Spirit Stones back to me!"

"Yes!"

A'da's figure vanished instantly, leaving only the ice-faced Li Zhe in the hall.

"Jiang Hongyue, oh Jiang Hongyue... wouldn't it have been better to just take a little and leave? You just had to take so much."

"I didn't originally intend to kill you; blame your own greed."

In the Night Roaming Ruins, the pawnshop business was different from an auction.

Auction closing prices were usually no lower than the starting price, while Li Zhe's pawnshop profited from the price difference.

He provided loans at prices far below market value. If the other party could repay the principal and interest within the agreed timeframe, he would have to return the item but could still earn interest.

If the item pawned was of extremely high value, he would find ways to renege.

Whether by stalling until it expired or making it impossible for the other party to repay, he could eventually use various means to seize the item and resell it at a high price.

So, even if that golden bow was a priceless treasure, it was essentially just temporarily stored here by Zhou Yan. As long as the contract wasn't terminated, Zhou Yan still had a chance to redeem it.

Li Zhe had hoped he would ask for more, but he had asked for far too much.

One hundred and thirty High-Grade Spirit Stones!

Now there was no way to renege, because if he didn't get them back, he couldn't fill this hole in his accounts.

As for selling the golden bow? How could he bear it! It was his! His!

Thinking of this, he returned to the table where the golden bow was placed, carefully stroking that rare treasure.

"I've lived in vain for decades and earned countless treasures... how could any of them compare to this one?"

"But it doesn't matter. As long as I exploit the contract loopholes and intercept and kill him, I won't spend a single cent of those Spirit Stones, and the golden bow will still be mine!"

Li Zhe stared at the golden bow with eyes full of greed; it seemed he would be looking at it all day today.

Meanwhile, on the other side.

"Ah, this is more like it. This is the right vibe."

Zhou Yan looked up at a giant plaque that read "Night Travel Ruins Auction."

Since he had managed to come here, how could he not visit this famous check-in spot of the Xuanhuan and cultivation worlds?

"Following the normal tropes, a protagonist coming to an auction will definitely find a hidden gem, right?"

Zhou Yan didn't consider himself a protagonist, but his Luck since transmigrating was indeed abstract.

If it were said that wherever he went, things became "lively," that might be a coincidence.

But if trouble broke out every single place he went, then it was likely his problem.

Regardless of whether the Luck was good or bad, chaos arrived as scheduled. Wasn't this a form of "misfortune is what fortune leans upon, and fortune is where misfortune hides"?

So he had to participate in the auction. Even if nothing really happened, it would prove he truly wasn't a protagonist, preventing him from feeling too good about himself. Plus, he could check in and take a souvenir, completing a life record.

Just as Zhou Yan was about to enter.

"Hey, hey, hey!" A guard nearby directly blocked him. "Newcomer, you have to pay an entry fee to go in. Didn't you know?"

Zhou Yan was speechless upon hearing this.

Well then, here it comes. I knew something was missing.

There were certainly many smart people in the cultivation world; after all, everyone lived quite long. But among those who lived long, there were surely many whose brains weren't great but whose Luck was good.

In all his travels, aside from that fellow in Langxi Village whose name he'd forgotten and who tried to kill him with human wave tactics, he hadn't seen a second one.

If he had to say, Niu Zhiyuan was one as well, but that guy was likely due to his own Bloodline talent, an Innate issue like Buwen and Buyu.

But even counting him, Zhou Yan rarely saw those kinds of naive and "cute" enemies.

Now another one had appeared, which actually made Zhou Yan feel a bit of warmth. After all, being stupid was better; it was certainly better than those insidious old fogies.

"I wonder how much the entry fee is?" To avoid misunderstandings, Zhou Yan decided to test the waters further. What if the other party was just doing their job and simply had a bad temper?

Seeing that Zhou Yan didn't resist, the guard grinned, greed showing in his eyes.

"One Mid-Grade Spirit Stone!"

He laughed without concealment, and his icon on the map shifted from neutral to hostile.

Well, he's taking me for a pushover.

Zhou Yan looked around.

There were basically no people wearing masks; he was the only one. He guessed he was being stopped as a newbie on a whim.

But because he was too polite, he was successfully stopped, identified as a newbie, and then treated like a pushover.

Seeing the schadenfreude on the faces of those around him, it seemed this was a common occurrence.

Zhou Yan smiled.

"Sorry, big brother, I don't know the rules. This is a small token of my appreciation; please have some tea on me."

Zhou Yan pressed a small object into the guard's hand.

Seeing the other party show such weakness, the guard thought this was likely a Loose Cultivator—no background and cowardly. He definitely wouldn't live long, so leaving Spirit Stones on him would be a waste; better to accept them himself.

"What 'token of appreciation'? These are the entry rules! If you want to show respect, you'll need to add at least one more!"

As he spoke, the guard suddenly felt something was wrong with the texture.

This material doesn't feel like a Spirit Stone?

"Kid, you dare—" The guard's face was full of rage, but just as he was about to explode, he suddenly broke into a cold sweat.

As a member of the black market, he had many bad habits, especially a love for gambling. Gambling dens were equipped with Formations to block a Cultivator's five senses and Divine Sense, so more often than not, one had to rely on card skills and experience.

As an old gambler, he could tell what any card was just by touching it with his fingers. At this moment, the hand he used for feeling cards subconsciously felt that there were characters on the object.

And now, he was trembling all over, cold sweat flowing uncontrollably.

"Brother guard, is it cold right now?" Zhou Yan asked in a concerned tone.

But to the guard's ears, it sounded like the dead of winter.