Gourmet Hunter - Chapter 368 (Patreon)

Chapter 368: Vulture Street

The shop had closed, and the plump woman who had come to buy food left in disappointment.

What Buhara ate was enough for a family of four for a month. Moreover, the process of making those foods wasn't simple. After selling out, it would take at least three days to restock.

Thus, Sago painfully closed the shop, unable to operate for the time being.

How could he have been so careless, letting a fat guy eat freely in the shop? Worse, the fat guy had devoured the entire stock within half an hour!

Luo ignored what was happening below and continued sorting through the clutter on the bed. There were so many things piled up.

After a lot of effort, he finally managed to clear the mess, revealing three wooden boxes carved with various animal and plant patterns.

Wooden boxes were rare in the desert. Sago's house mostly had furniture made of sand and rock, making wooden household items uncommon.

Judging by their size, the boxes seemed to be for storage, and each latch had a small lock.

The unknown item hinted at by the white smoke was inside one of these three wooden boxes.

In Luo's eyes, the locks were no obstacle; he could easily open them. However, since they belonged to someone else, he felt uneasy about opening them without permission.

After hesitating for a while, he decided not to open the boxes without consent and went to find Sago.

When Luo found Sago, Sago had just finished cleaning Linne's room. Linne was sitting in a chair with her eyes closed, seemingly napping.

"Are you talking about those three wooden boxes?" Sago raised an eyebrow.

"Yes." Luo nodded.

"The things inside are some antique trinkets my little sister picked up years ago on Vulture Street. If you're interested, I'll find the key for you later."

There was a different emotion in Sago's tone.

Those trinkets were almost like relics, though not officially.

His little sister, who Linne had asked about before, was Sarin. She ventured into the forbidden zone of the Kendia Desert many years ago and had not been heard from since.

"Vulture Street?" Luo looked puzzled.

Sago composed himself and explained, "It's a place specifically for selling antiques. Though called a street, it's actually a square. Because of the abundance of gullible outsiders, there are many fake items, meant to swindle them. But among so many stalls, there are always some genuine goods."

Hearing Sago's words, Luo couldn't help but feel intrigued.

Vulture Street was probably similar to the antique streets in Yorknew City. If it were in a big city, Luo might not be as interested. But here, in the Kendia Desert, the sands buried countless prosperous eras in history.

Even if most of the antiques were fake, there was a high chance that the genuine ones dug up might carry nen.

Seeing the interest on Luo's face, Sago said unceremoniously, "You don't want to be a gullible buyer, do you?"

"I do have that idea." Luo smiled indifferently. He still owed Jin a translation fee of five billion. If he had time, he indeed needed to make some money.

Originally, Luo wasn't in a hurry to earn money, but Jin insisted that the money had to be transferred to his account before he would give Luo the translated content of the ancient Serbo text. He didn't even give Luo a chance to owe him, meaning Luo had to gather five billion to get the translation.

"May Elba bless you."

Sago blew on his beard, pinched his thumb and forefinger together, and tapped the center of his forehead, then lightly tapped Luo.

Elba, in the local dialect, meant the sun. It had multiple meanings: the name of an oasis and the name of a country.

Sago's blessing gesture was something the deceitful stall owners on Vulture Street often did. Whenever a customer bought something, they would smile and bless the customer, while internally praising the gullible buyer.

Luo didn't know this and didn't catch Sago's sarcastic meaning. He said, "I want to see what's in those boxes first."

"I don't know where I misplaced the key; I'll have to look for it," Sago said.

"Alright."

Luo shrugged helplessly and immediately changed his mind. He turned to Linne, who was pretending to nap in the chair, and asked, "Linne, I want to go to Vulture Street."

This kid dared to call Sister Linne by her first name!

Sago's eyes widened, thinking Luo was being disrespectful.

Linne squinted her eyes open a bit, didn't speak, and just nodded.

"Then I'm off."

Seeing Linne's approval, Luo turned and ran out the door. Just as he stepped out, he stopped, turned back to Sago, and said, "Sago, keep the key safe until I get back."

With that, he dashed off.

"Sister Linne, these two kids..."

Sago looked at the now empty doorway, hesitated, and stopped himself. He wanted to ask if Luo and Buhara were Linne's grandchildren or something, but he didn't dare say it out loud.

"Didn't I say? They're my juniors," Linne said softly with her eyes closed.

"Uh..." Sago was at a loss for words. "Junior" had two meanings, but which one did she mean?

However, he didn't dare to ask further.

...

After leaving Sago's house, Luo found that Buhara had eaten all of Sago's snacks. Sago sent Buhara to buy live ingredients like scorpions and bugs.

So, Luo had to go to Vulture Street alone.

After asking a few locals along the way, he quickly found the location of Vulture Street.

As Sago had said, though the name included "street," it was actually an open-air square, equivalent to a large pit dug out among densely packed buildings!

When Luo arrived at the square, even under the scorching sun, it was bustling. All around were stalls and throngs of people.

The stalls varied in size, each one spread out on a mat on the ground, filled with goods. Regardless of the stall's scale, every one had a sunshade umbrella.

Luo looked at the lively scene in the square, as if seeing many bills flying around.

Since the six types of nen had reached over 60%, his strength had been improving slowly.

Luo had calculated that even with rigorous daily training, it would take at least thirty years to fully master all six types. However, absorbing nen from ancient objects or consuming grade B or higher materials could greatly reduce this time.

Luo came to Vulture Street to make some money and see if there were any nen-infused antiques.

He was about to start exploring when his attention was drawn to a high platform in the center of the square, surrounded by a crowd.

He quickly walked over and saw three people on the platform: an old man in a hooded robe, a tanned, scantily clad woman seemingly unafraid of the scorching sun, and a middle-aged man in commoner's clothing.

At that moment, on the stone table in front of the robed old man was a clay pot, dark green all over, with a vivid, grinning human face relief on one side.

"This is a greed pot from the Ruluka era. Pots from that era had a flaw: rough craftsmanship, and the surface often had flaws. But this pot has no flaws in its appearance."

"The mouth of the pot should be stepped, but this one is straight. And the handle should be sickle-shaped, but this one is crescent-shaped."

The robed old man spoke seriously, gently stroking the pot with gloved hands.

"Master Zelas, according to you, doesn't this pot..." The tanned woman had a hint of a smile in her eyes, almost ready to call it a fake.

The crowd in front of the stage began to murmur, while the middle-aged man on the stage looked desperate.

"It's too early to draw conclusions," the robed old man waved his hand, though his previous remarks had already condemned the pot.

Luo looked at the greed pot on the stone table. Without touching it himself, he couldn't determine its authenticity, but he saw nen wrapped around it, suggesting it was likely genuine.

"What are they doing?"

Luo lightly tugged at a nearby uncle and asked softly.

The uncle glanced at Luo and said irritably, "Can't you tell? They're appraising an antique."

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