Chapter 239 The Ruthless Senior Brother of the Path of the Path of the Cannon Fodder (Part 22) *Slap...*
Of course, not all items at an auction are popular. Merchants will often bundle some less popular items with the more popular ones for sale.
The price of this kind of product is not very high. Usually, they will find a rich sucker and a straight man to praise it. It will take a long time to pull the strings each time.
Heng Mo was like a complete novice, looking around curiously as people continued to bid. But when he heard the gavel fall cleanly on the platform and the deal was done, his eyes widened in surprise.
Lin You watched his performance quietly from the side. To be honest, his acting skills were no less than those of Song Yu, the movie star.
After the gavel fell, the auctioneer respectfully brought over the item on a tray, beaming with a smile, and said:
"Congratulations, Immortal Master, on winning the bid for the Ice Crystal Lotus. This Ice Crystal Lotus is the best-growing among hundreds of them; it would make a very unique bonsai..."
Although the waiter flattered us for a while and brought over a lot of fruits and snacks, and even offered a 20% discount, treating us like VIPs.
But Heng Mo knew very well that he was afraid he would renege on the debt and wanted to exchange money for goods right now.
He had seen it when he was in the city; many vendors liked to rip off rich people who were naive and had no experience of the world. He never thought he would experience that kind of treatment himself.
Being able to save a low-grade spirit stone, Heng Mo was naturally happy. He looked pleased to be valued, paid the bill readily, and even gave the waiter two plates of pastries as a reward.
The waiter accepted the snacks with a beaming smile, then carefully offered a string of compliments. Only after confirming that the two guests had no complaints did he breathe a sigh of relief and leave.
The starting bid for the Ice Crystal Lotus was two low-grade spirit stones, which was already an inflated price from the auction house. Heng Mo's asking price of five low-grade spirit stones not only pleased the auction house but also made them somewhat apprehensive.
This is the cultivation world, not the mortal realm. In the mortal realm, having money doesn't necessarily mean having power or influence, but in the cultivation world, strength is paramount.
A cultivator who doesn't seem to care much about five low-grade spirit stones, even if he himself isn't very skilled, must have a powerful backer who could easily demolish his shop.
These young waiters, who are sent here to serve people, are responsible for delivering goods, collecting payments, and keeping customers happy. They also have another function: to vent people's anger.
If a customer feels wronged, slapping or kicking them a few times is the least of it. Even if they are crippled or killed, as long as they feel satisfied, that's fine.
After all, it only costs ten taels of silver to buy an ordinary young apprentice, and if there is a year of famine, three taels of silver can buy two.
The auction house will earn three and a half low-grade spirit stones from this Ice Crystal Lotus transaction, which is more than three thousand taels of silver. A mere shop assistant wouldn't even earn a fraction of that.
Even the table full of fruit and pastries they sent to Heng Mo was worth a hundred taels of silver; the young waiter's life was just an extra.
After Heng Mo and the others left, they studied the Ice Crystal Lotus with Shen Ting. It has to be said that this kind of potted plant with its own smoke and cooling effect was the first time they had ever seen it, and it was quite rare.
Lin You also thought it looked pretty good, and planned to buy a few pots to put in her backpack when she went shopping later. It would be nice to plant them in her space.
[Ding! Side quest 2 in Chaoyang City has been completed. You have obtained the top-grade material Ice Crystal Snow Lotus and gained 30 points.]
[Ding! Side Quest 3 for Chaoyang City has been activated. Please go to the third large willow tree by the East City River and dig out a red wooden box two meters below the tree. (30 points)]
Heng Mo was just about to be happy about earning another thirty points when he suddenly glanced at the notification and realized that this thing was actually an Ice Crystal Snow Lotus?!
His master was an alchemist. Although Heng Mo hadn't started learning alchemy yet, he had read many books and jade slips about spiritual herbs and medicines. He had even seen information about the Ice Crystal Snow Lotus in the jade slips.
He already had a good memory, and after practicing cultivation, he became even more sharp-eared and sharp-eyed, able to remember everything he saw, and could memorize many things after seeing them only once.
Although the Ice Crystal Snow Lotus is not as rare as top-grade materials like Star Pattern Refined Iron, it is still a rare spiritual plant. Although it looks exactly like the Ice Crystal Lotus, it is difficult to distinguish it with the naked eye.
However, the difference between Ice Crystal Snow Lotus and Ice Crystal Lotus is similar to that between a thousand-year-old snow lotus and an ordinary lotus in the mortal world. Not only is it very valuable, but it is also extremely rare and has a price but no market.
For Heng Mo, the most important thing is that the Ice Crystal Snow Lotus can not only improve the quality of spiritual roots, but also serve as a remedy for repairing damaged spiritual roots.
It is especially suitable for use by those with ice and water spiritual roots. Not only can you use it to improve the quality of your spiritual root, but your master can also use it to heal injuries to your spiritual root.
If Heng Mo hadn't already learned to keep his emotions in check in the streets, he probably would have jumped up and run three laps to express his excitement and exhilaration.
As for why the Ice Crystal Snow Lotus was mistaken for an ordinary Ice Crystal Lotus, it's really not the auction house's fault for not recognizing its value.
Because after the Ice Crystal Snow Lotus matures, it will disguise itself as an Ice Crystal Lotus to hide its tracks. Ice Crystal Lotuses are almost everywhere in the far north, and even the divine sense of a Nascent Soul stage cultivator cannot find the real Ice Crystal Snow Lotus.
Many cultivators even believe that the Ice Crystal Snow Lotus is a complete fabrication, a rumor spread by unscrupulous merchants who sell Ice Crystal Snow Lotus potted plants.
Because of this legend, the Ice Crystal Lotus was fiercely sought after by many cultivators, all of whom tried to find the legendary Ice Crystal Snow Lotus to improve their physique and reach the pinnacle of life.
Whether it's true that no one has found it or someone hasn't dared to reveal it, there has never been any definite news that anyone has found the Ice Crystal Snow Lotus.
Compared to ordinary ice crystal lotus, the appearance of ice crystal snow lotus is not much different. You can only tell the difference by eating it.
The petals of the Ice Crystal Lotus have no medicinal value; instead, they carry an extreme chill. If an ordinary cultivator takes a bite, he will need to spend half a day meditating and regulating his breathing to expel the chill.
Later, everyone discovered that the chance of finding Ice Crystal Snow Lotus by buying this stuff was not much greater than the chance of finding a spirit stone mine by simply digging up a mountain with a shovel.
This has led to a gradual decline in demand for Ice Crystal Lotus, and the large quantities of Ice Crystal Lotus that were once transported here have now been reduced to mere filler items at auctions, unwanted by most people.
Even auction houses, when promoting the Ice Crystal Lotus, are too lazy to mention its effects, to avoid being accused of false advertising.
Standing behind Xiao You, the ghost who was keeping an eye on the progress of the cheat system also took the opportunity to use this incident as an example to explain to Lin You:
"Items that can be obtained through cheat codes, such as this Ice Crystal Snow Lotus, will wither in no time if left undiscovered and left to rot. Only with items like this can our cheat code software extract a small percentage of the revenue."
Meanwhile, Xiaoyou quickly received Hengmo's item submission, which was still only one percent of the total. After submitting a small piece of Ice Crystal Snow Lotus petal, Hengmo successfully gained another four hundred points.
Seeing Xiao You excitedly showing off, A Piao calmly handed him a pack of tissues. "Laugh, laugh a little longer, you won't be able to laugh anymore soon."
Xiao You examined the items in his hand with suspicion, and then checked the cheat code process, but found nothing wrong. Just as he was about to ask what the ghost meant, he saw a scene that broke his heart.
Heng Mo gave Lin You a piece of the Star Pattern Refined Iron, which he had previously spent points to ask him to help split in half.
Then he plucked half of the petals from the Ice Crystal Snow Lotus, and gave the rest, along with the flowerpot, to Lin You.
"If Senior Lin likes it, let's plant it. Maybe it will survive." Although Heng Mo was paying attention to the auction, he had also been keeping an eye on Lin You's situation and had already noticed that she liked the Ice Crystal Snow Lotus.
"Let's browse around some more later, and maybe buy a few more to keep as pets."
Xiao You immediately withdrew her bared teeth, feeling that the tiny petal fragment in her hand, no bigger than a fingernail, suddenly lost its appeal.
The Ice Crystal Snow Lotus has ten petals in total. Heng Mo not only gave five petals, including the roots and the seedling, to Lin You, but also kept the petal that was missing a piece after the mission was completed.
The ghost patted him on the shoulder and said with emotion, "You'll get used to it. My host still needs this person's information as a reward to do tasks."
Looking at Heng Mo's mission progress bar, Xiao You suddenly felt as if he saw his own future in the ghost.
Of course, the ghost wouldn't tell him that the main reason his cowardly host was unwilling to do the mission was because he was afraid of ghosts. After calming down his excited colleague, he left with his hands in his pockets.
Lin You didn't think there was anything wrong with it. Each of her mission targets would give her something, and after making sure that Heng Mo had kept enough for himself, she casually put it into her backpack.
That nonchalant action made Xiaoyou, who was pretending to be a customer service representative and had been keeping an eye on the situation, feel even more heartbroken.
Who said that expatriate employees have a hard life? She earned in just a short time what I would have earned in ten years!
Since the other items at the auction weren't part of the mission, Heng Mo didn't buy anything else. Shen Ting, however, casually bought two jars of fine wine, intending to use them to appease his father if he ever angered him.
After playing in Chaoyang City for three days, Heng Mo followed the game's quest prompts and obtained a red wooden box, two hundred mid-grade spirit stones buried by a senior from three hundred years ago, a section of lightning-struck vine that looked like a dead tree branch, and the Hundred Water Gold that a child almost mistook for a stone and threw away.
Of course, it was still the same old rule that made Xiao You drool with envy: he would share half of everything he got with Lin You.
These aren't the kind of snacks you can buy for two taels of silver on the street. Any one of them is worth a lot of points. If Xiao You weren't so self-aware and knew he didn't have the ability to win without effort, he would have applied to go out on field duty.
After browsing the system forum and seeing a group of systems crying and lamenting, having earned only a few hundred points in ten years, he wiped his face and dismissed the terrible thoughts from his mind.
Once the cheat system notified him that all the current map quests were completed, Heng Mo decided to head home. He now had points to exchange for Breakthrough Pills and spiritual medicine to heal his master, so naturally he was heading back.
He wasn't so careless as to carry a bunch of valuable items while continuing his training. Heng Mo's cultivation level wasn't high enough, so he was only using the simplest storage bag. If something unexpected happened and he lost one or two items, wouldn't that be a huge loss?
Shen Ting had no idea that his friend had gained so much; he simply thought he had just accompanied him on a aimless stroll and made a few laughs at his simple training journey before skipping back with him.
The Seventh Elder hadn't expected his disciple to be so attached to home. He had only been gone for three days, wandered around the foot of the mountain, and then came back. He coughed lightly, but out of consideration for his little disciple's feelings, he didn't say anything.
The Third Elder, standing to the side, didn't care about all that and mocked the two of them without any politeness: "What you two are doing doesn't count as going out for training, it's more like going out to digest your food."
"What disciple goes on a training expedition without ever venturing outside the sect's territory? Next time you have this kind of training, you don't need to specifically ask your master for permission; he can sense you with his divine sense from the mountain."
Seeing the Third Elder's smug and self-satisfied demeanor, Shen Ting couldn't help but cover his face. What gave him the audacity to mock someone who provided meals?
Xiao Mo does have a good personality and doesn't get angry easily, but that doesn't mean he won't play tricks on you. He knows that when his fifth and sixth uncles were making those strange and unusual foods, Xiao Mo came up with a lot of mischievous ideas.
To avoid being caught in the crossfire, Shen Ting immediately abandoned his attempt to wink at his master and quickly retreated seven or eight meters.
Heng Mo looked at the Third Elder, lowered his head and lowered his eyes slightly, his tone was low: "It's because my cultivation is too low and I'm too useless. After I was lucky enough to get the medicine that could heal Master's spiritual root, I dared not train anymore. I only thought about going home to heal Master. I was afraid that my skills were not good enough and something unexpected might happen. I was also worried that Master would suffer more."
After saying that, he revealed an expression that was seven parts disappointed and three parts aggrieved. Looking at his master, his voice was much lower: "Master, I'm sorry, I've embarrassed you."
The Third Elder remained frozen in a grimacing expression for a long while before realizing what he had said. He grabbed Heng Mo in disbelief, but before he could say anything, he met his junior brother's reproachful gaze and his junior nephew's slightly reddened eyes.
Third Elder: ...?
No, I was just casually teasing the child, what did I do?!
Heng Mo honed his skills with the "green tea" technique, and after seeing the Third Elder's scratching-headed expression, he generously stated that he had never blamed the Third Elder, but only blamed himself for being incompetent, which was why he was talked about like that.
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Author's Note: [Owl emoji]
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