The Box Puppet brought out the three items and displayed them before Qi Ping. It started with the Sun-Blaze Wood seed, placing the seed—which emitted a scorching power—clearly in front of him.
Rank 3 Mid-grade Sun-Blaze Wood seed. Active and full of vitality! the Box Puppet's mechanical voice rang out.
"No problem!" Qi Ping nodded after hearing this.
Next, the Box Puppet showed the second item: a Spirit Vein Essence that looked like a jade-colored flood dragon, emitting a mysterious glow.
Spirit Vein Essence. Spirit is intact, can be further nurtured and promoted!
"No problem!" Qi Ping nodded again.
Finally, the Box Puppet brought out a small deer cub. Its body was snow-white, but its brow and fur bore water-drop-shaped three-colored marks. Its hooves had the same marks as its brow, and its two antlers emitted a special aura of a "Forest Son." Rumor had it that the divine Nine-Colored Deer was a child of the forest, protected and blessed by nature. Having a trace of its bloodline, the Three-Colored Deer naturally carried this aura.
"Yo-yo..."
Held by the Box Puppet, the three-colored cub widened its eyes and looked curiously at Qi Ping, letting out two cries.
'What an ethereal sound! "Yo-yo cries the deer"—the description truly wasn't wrong!'
Hearing this ethereal and pleasant sound, Qi Ping thought of the lines from the Book of Songs. He immediately felt a sense of affection for the little deer. He hadn't made a mistake in choosing this one!
Rank 3 Low-grade Three-Colored Deer cub. Healthy and normal aura!
Total: 103,000 spirit stones!
"No problem!"
After confirming everything was correct, Qi Ping immediately summoned his bees, who transported storage bags from all directions. Facing this scene, the Box Puppet remained motionless, waiting quietly. It was unclear if it lacked emotions or if it had seen this many times before.
After a while, Qi Ping gathered the one hundred and three thousand spirit stones and handed them over.
"Here are the one hundred and three thousand spirit stones."
The Box Puppet nodded its "box head," handed the three items to Qi Ping, and then swept the stones inside. Qi Ping put the jade boxes containing the essence and the seed into a storage bag and placed the deer cub into a Spirit Taming Bag.
Transaction complete!
The Box Puppet's mechanical voice sounded, and just as it was about to leave, Qi Ping hurriedly called out to it.
"Excuse me, do you buy items?"
We do! Rare items are bought at eighty percent of market price or even at a premium. Common items are bought at sixty to eighty percent of market price. Do you wish to sell?
"Yes, please wait a moment!" Qi Ping nodded firmly.
He summoned his bees again to bring more storage bags from all over. After a lot of maneuvering, a large pile of miscellaneous items was stacked in front of the Box Puppet. These were mostly dharma artifacts, pills, and various strange objects. He even brought out the weapon of the black-robed cultivator he had killed on Peak 007 in District D of the Cloud-Mist Mountain Range long ago. He had gathered everything that had been gathering dust; he didn't want this junk in his sanctuary.
As for the spirit herbs, techniques, and seeds, he kept them all. Those were useful for building his territory and his knowledge base.
When the items were laid out, the Box Puppet scanned them and instantly divided them into two piles with incredible speed. It pointed to the smaller pile first.
These have no value. We do not want them.
Then it pointed to the other pile.
These are valued at fifty-three thousand two hundred spirit stones. Common items are valued at forty-six thousand eight hundred.
The Box Puppet then pointed to an orange-yellow strange item.
This is a rare item. It is purchased at a ten percent premium for six thousand four hundred spirit stones.
Do you wish to sell everything?
Qi Ping was slightly surprised; the total value was higher than he had estimated. The main reason was that orange-yellow object. The Box Puppet didn't say what it was, clearly not wanting to be a free appraiser. But Qi Ping didn't care; it was an unexpected gain. He didn't know if these unknown items were blessings or curses; asking others carried risks, so exchanging them for spirit stones was more practical. For things with unknown risks and opportunities, he would rather not have them or handle them coldly. Selling them was a great result.
"Sell everything!"
"Also, deposit three thousand two hundred spirit stones into the token!"
Understood!
After receiving his reply, the Box Puppet handed fifty thousand spirit stones to Qi Ping and then departed. Qi Ping took the stones and immediately checked the token, finding the balance had increased. Previously, he had refreshed Foundation Establishment missions twice (400 stones), Qi Refining missions eighty times (1,600 stones), and queried items three times (4,200 stones), totaling six thousand stones. The initial ten thousand he had deposited was down to four thousand, so he had to add the three thousand two hundred.
Black Market Spirit Stones: 4,000 + 3,200 = 7,200.
Black Market Points: 4,700.
'This thing is more of a money-sink than a gacha game!' Qi Ping cursed inwardly.
He had spent six thousand stones without realizing it! That was enough to buy a common Rank 3 spirit wood seed!
'At least the queried information is still there. Information is priceless, I suppose.'
If not for the Black Market, he might not have found these things even if he paid several times the price. He could only comfort himself this way, but the value of information was indeed critical. After handling this, he put the rejected junk into a storage bag and had the bees bury it in a deep pit in the middle of nowhere. Then he left quickly.
After finding a safe place, he used the token again.
Purchase Rank 3 Low-grade Moon-Glow Tree, Rank 3 Mid-grade Star-Dust Wood, Rank 3 Low-grade Ghost-Iron Tree.
Arrival in one and a half days.
The reply was faster this time. With the experience of the first transaction, the second went smoothly. Qi Ping quickly got the three seeds. He spent several days studying them to ensure there were no problems before bringing them back to his sanctuary. He hid the token far away from the Cloud-Mist Mountain Range.
Back in his territory, a relaxed smile appeared on Qi Ping's face.
'A bountiful harvest. Now, it is time to focus on improving!'