Twisted Skies, Chapter 15 - Cheater Meets Cheater (Patreon)

Soon after he had begun his search for a buyer, Thurain managed to find a section of the market which did not deal in the fruits or vegetables of the city's fields. Instead, he could feel all manner of qi fluctuations from within, and the smells spoke of mad concoctions. This should be the place where the day laborers got their talismans from, and the place where many hopefuls would come if they had a supernatural problem, but couldn't pay for the official services of the sect.

As soon as he entered, Thurain was hounded by strange folk. Old men with long gray beards praised their skills and history as great martial artists as they tried to sell him ancient manuals passed on in their family since the dawn of time. Women with long hair held back by headbands pretended to read his great fortune in balls of glass or in the rising smoke of a tea cup. Be it his future wealth, his love life or his health, he only needed to give a small offering if he wanted the details.

Somewhere in this mess, Thurain expected to find Theodoro, who would have fit right in with them. However, the scammer was strangely absent from the mass of tricksters, even though he had moved in this direction when they had separated earlier.

Although he felt like leaving as soon as he had come, he decided to stay after he had taken a second look. Every once in a while, he found what looked like a legitimate business among all the scams. After all, even the silliest of people would stay away from a place that never offered anything of value.

Within some of the large stalls he walked along, he found several objects with an internally woven qi-matrix. These were genuine artifacts, not the fake artifacts like the bricks the city had been built from. Unlike the bricks, which were crudely blasted with concentrated yang until they were saturated, the qi inside these objects had been spun into forms to create internal arrays, for various purposes.

Within one stall that seemed more reliable, a middle-aged man talked in an animated manner with a customer and haggled over the price of a small crystal with a light array. Although the shop was only protected by a single person, there was no threat to its valuables. After all, the single person wore the dark green robes of the Elemental Path Sect. As a member of the sect that owned the city, Thurain expected him to have a keen eye for treasure and lots of money, a good target if he wanted to sell his ring for a high price.

For a while, Thurain patiently waited for the sect member to finish his negotiations. But even after the customer had bought the crystal at an exorbitant price and then ran off in frustration, the sect member still made no attempts to talk to him. Instead, he leaned back in his chair and lazily reorganized his artifacts back and forth on the table to appear busy.

“Excuse me, master!” Thurain called out. Despite his polite manner, his words earned him a frown.

“You don't see that I'm busy?” the shopkeeper asked back.

I see that you're busy slacking off.

Rather than speak out his mind and risk conflict with a member of the sect, Thurain pretended servility and bowed his head.

“Excuse me, master, but I am here for business. I guarantee it will be worth master's while.”

“Huh.” The shopkeeper huffed and sat up straight. “What do you want to buy then, boy?”

“I'm not here to buy, I'm here to sell.”

Although Thurain tried to show off his ring for an offer, he didn't get the chance. Before he had even fished it out of his pocket, the sect member had already lost any interest.

“We only sell, we don't buy,” he said as he leaned back on his chair and closed his eyes. “Go away. We're not buying your garbage, and I'm on a break right now.”

“But-”

“Did you not hear me? Or do you perhaps not respect the name of the Elemental Path Sect?”

With his mouth left open, Thurain stared at the rude disciple. However, he still didn't blow up. He had learned his lesson from the previous day. Within the city, he couldn't just solve his problems with violence, least of all problems with its rulers.

That might be how these sect people are, bullying whoever they feel like. It's no wonder they're this forceful. The entire city is theirs after all.

“I'm sorry master, I misspoke. I want to buy this one,” he said and stared at the wares on offer to pick up an object at random. However, as he did, his eyes shrunk to the size of pins as they fell on a flower sat at the edge of the table.

Wasn't this a Valorplume? The strange flower with its bronze-colored blossoms looked unassuming and didn't radiate any qi, but was a rare spirit material nonetheless. In fact, the lack of qi was its most unique feature, because the Valorplume swallowed any qi it came in contact with.

Although Thurain wasn't too familiar with modern array technology, his master had taught him about all older forms of cultivation, especially botany and geology. While the Valorplume looked like a flower, it was in fact a mineral, and an exceedingly rare one. If this sect disciple sold it in this mortal market, it meant that he had no idea what sort of treasure he had on his hands.

If Thurain could get the Plume, not only would he make a steal and get some revenge on the rude sect member. Even better, he would be able to set up a much more effective practice array for himself, one no worse than what he had trained with in his old home.

“How much for this one?” he asked, and his hand hovered over the items on the table for a bit in feigned indecision, before he grabbed for the Valorplume.

“Uuuh,” the sect member looked at it for a bit, seemingly confused at Thurain's purpose. However, as he looked at the young cultivator's disinterested face, he seemed to come to his own conclusions.

“That's a fossilized Plumeflower, not something anyone can handle,” he said in suspicion. “Do you even know what to do with it?”

Just as Thurain had expected, the sect member had no idea about the flower's true nature. So he acted out an impatient appearance to keep the charade going.

“Master, are you willing to sell or not?” he asked, as if he wasn’t interested in the item, and only in striking any deal whatsoever.

“Sure, sure. I'm selling,” the sect member said before Thurain would come back to his senses. “It's ten Rai.”

Of course, this was an outrageous price for even a fresh Plumeflower, much less a fossilized one. However, Thurain didn't feel like haggling over it. As far as he was concerned, getting ripped off was part of the Heliana experience. At least this time, he'd be on the winning end of the scam.

“Deal! I'll pay with this!” Thurain said and stretched the ring towards the shopkeeper.

“Hey, didn't I say we're not buying your junk!? Go get rid of your trash somewhere... else?” As the sect member registered just what he was seeing, his eyes turned wider and wider, just as his voice got quieter. By now, he realized what kind of treasure the ring was. so a smile crept onto the corners of his mouth, despite his obvious attempts at a stoic expression.

“Young man, you want to buy the Plumeflower with this ring? It's not worth much.” After only a second, the stall owner caught himself and his face showed the same smug indifference as before. However, Thurain wasn't so easily tricked. Not this time, at least.

“What do you mean, 'not worth much'? Don't think I don't know what I'm offering,” he argued. “This is a genuine array keystone. A high-quality one at that. The jade alone would be worth more than a Plumeflower, not to mention its value as an artifact. Don't tell me you can't feel all the qi infused inside? The carvings are high-quality too, they're my master's legacy techniques. I wouldn't even be selling it if me and my master weren't migrating to a better place with stronger keystones.”

Just like he had learned from the people of the city, Thurain began to make up stories of legacy techniques and invisible masters behind him. Of course, he understood that it was important to have a backer in such a valuable transaction. Without one, he might just be robbed of everything he got by the greedy disciple.

Yet with a mysterious master behind Thurain, the stall owner needed to have some reservations and had to deal with this aboveboard, at least until he found more about his customer's background. By the time he would realize that Thurain’s backer was fake, if he ever did, the Valorplume would be used up, Thurain would be a member of the Elemental Path Sect, and everything would be too late for the greedy shopkeeper.

“Fine, you can have the flower for the ring,” the disciple pretended to give in after some faked internal struggle.

“Are you kidding me?” Thurain got angry. This time, he didn't have to pretend. “You're seriously not giving me any money back in this deal? You know that flower is worth nothing compared to the ring.”

“What do you want, huh?” the shopkeeper sneered. “Do you even know who you're talking to? This is Heliana, and I'm with the Elemental Path Sect. You really wanna fight against the entire sect over this?”

“You want to exploit your sect connections just to steal from me?”

“So what can you do about it?” His sneer widened even further. At this point, Thurain really felt like punching someone again, but he held back for once.

“I can just leave and not sell the ring to you,” he argued. “It's not like I need the Plumeflower, I just care about the money. That, I can get from anywhere.”

“Ha, and where would you sell it, if not to our sect’s members?” With foolish confidence, the disciple laughed right into Thurain's face. “Just wait, by this evening, this story will have spread all over the city. By then, no outside cultivator would dare buy from you and risk offending a member of the Elemental Path. Then who will you sell to but me?” The gangster grinned and looked like he was ready to celebrate his victory, but Thurain remained unimpressed.

“I can always just offer it to other people of the sect. I doubt you're the only disciple with a shop on this market, let alone in the entire city. Aren't you just some minor outer sect disciple? I can read your robe inscriptions just fine, and I'm not an idiot. You can't speak for the entire sect, not even for a part of it. Now, do you want the once in a lifetime chance to buy something this valuable on the cheap, or not?”

As Thurain spoke, his opponent's sneer faded, but he still remained stubborn.

“What would I even do with a farming ring?” he asked. It seemed like the sect's disciples weren't completely useless, since this one could feel the medicinal properties stuck to the ring after decades of use.

“You can use the ring as a keystone for all kinds of arrays, not just farming,” Thurain explained. “And youwon't be using it anyways. We both know that you'll just hand it over to whatever elder you're attached to so you can gain a favor. In that sense, the ring is almost priceless to you.”

“Fine, I give you eight hundred-”

Thurain snorted in amusement, so the disciple corrected his offer.

“Two thousand Rai.”

“Fine, but I'm taking the Plumeflower too. And I want a sect token from you, to show that I know people in the sect. I'll participate in the entrance examination next month. Please put in a good word for me, master.”

Although officially, the sect would treat all of its applicants the same, the world behind the curtain was always built on relations above all else. If he could prove that he knew people inside the sect, the testers would be much more lenient with him.

“Ah, sure, sure. I'll do that,” the greedy sect member said. As he threw over two bags filled with coins, as well as cheap wooden token, he showed a big smile, convinced that he had made the deal of a lifetime. “My name's Kast, just tell them my name and they'll know. I'm well respected within the sect. You'll see.”

As the prideful man's head rose higher and higher, a disinterested Thurain handed him the ring, which was promptly snatched away. After, the young cultivator carefully stored the Valorplume inside his pack and left before Kast could change his mind. There was no need to check the bag, Thurain could see inside just fine without opening it, which would only insult the disciple. Although he couldn’t be sure that he got exactly two thousand this way, but it was close enough that he wouldn’t make a fuss over it.

In all honesty, two thousand Rai was still a laughably low price for his jade ring anyways. However, the Valorplume was worth even more than the ring, and he had also gained the token from a member of the Elemental Path Sect in the process, so he considered the entire process a huge win.

Now that he had his money secured, he finally didn't have to worry about survival for the next month. However, since he had promised both the landlord as well as Theodoro to meet them again, he decided to head back to the apartment.

First though, he returned back to the food section of the market. On his way to search for a buyer, he had smelled some of the enticing goods on offer. Together with the sizzle of greasy meat, it had really whetted his appetite. Now that he was loaded with cash, a little snack wouldn't hurt.