The atmosphere at the dilapidated bronze wares stall suddenly grew tense. Three people, three different auras, formed a silent but deadly tripartite balance, brimming with killing intent. It caused the surrounding buyers to sense the anomaly and hastily retreat into the distance.
The old stall owner maintained his lazy, lethargic demeanor, seemingly indifferent to the imminent struggle about to unfold before his stall. To him, whoever paid the money was the customer.
The short, fat, middle-aged man, who had first grabbed the Lac bird green bronze fragment, turned his head. His tiny eyes narrowed into slits as he looked at the black-robed youth from the Black Dragon Stronghold who had just appeared.
"One hundred Spirit Stones?" the fat man sneered, his voice dripping with contempt. "Have the people of the Black Dragon Stronghold become so wealthy lately? You're willing to pay that much for a scrap of bronze?"
"What I have set my sights on has nothing to do with you," the black-robed youth replied, his voice gloomy and freezing cold. "If you can't afford it, scram to the side."
"Scram?" The fat man seemed to have just heard a joke. "In this City of Chaos, no one has ever dared to say the word 'scram' to me, Kim Bao! Your Black Dragon Stronghold might be strong, but this is not your territory."
This fat man was clearly no ordinary figure either.
While the two tigers were growling at each other, Tran Kien, the one who had instigated it all, quietly took a step back, blending into the crowd of curious onlookers. He had no intention of participating in the bidding war. He knew that in a chaotic place like the City of Chaos, using wealth to solve problems was the most foolish method. Whoever won would instantly become prey for countless others the moment they stepped away.
He was observing. Observing the relic. Observing the two enemies. And observing his surroundings. In his mind, the stratagems from the ancient text "Stratagems of the Ancients," which he had skimmed through in the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Books, were rapidly turning.
The stratagem "Shedding the Golden Cicada's Shell" could not be used; the target was too obvious. "Luring the Tiger from the Mountain" wouldn't work either; he didn't have the forces. So... there was only one way.
A bold and somewhat underhanded scheme, yet incredibly effective in this situation, formed in his mind. The stratagem "Throwing Stones and Hiding One's Hands," also known as "Framing and Shifting the Blame."
"Two hundred Spirit Stones!" Kim Bao didn't bother to bicker anymore; he threw out money to suppress his opponent.
"Two hundred and fifty!" the Black Dragon Stronghold youth refused to be outdone.
The bidding war continued, the price rapidly pushed to three hundred low-grade Spirit Stones—a maddening sum for an unknown piece of scrap bronze.
Right at that moment, Tran Kien made his move.
He didn't approach the stall. He slipped away, heading towards a medicinal herb stall opposite them. Feigning the appearance of an ordinary buyer, he bent down to inspect a few spiritual plants.
Then, when no one was paying attention, his hands moved with lightning speed, producing a small cloth pouch from his sleeve and quietly placing it beneath a large bamboo basket of herbs. Inside the pouch was nothing valuable, merely an item he had looted from the corpse of a Black Hawk Manor lackey.
A small medallion engraved with an eagle spreading its wings.
His deed done, he didn't leave immediately. He remained there, pretending to haggle with the stall owner.
On the other side, the contention had reached its conclusion. The Black Dragon Stronghold youth, backed by the wealth of a major sect, finally secured the Lac bird fragment for the price of four hundred low-grade Spirit Stones. Kim Bao snorted coldly in anger but didn't dare to act out, storming off with eyes brimming with killing intent.
The Black Dragon Stronghold youth smugly tucked the fragment into his robes. Just as he was about to leave, suddenly...
"Catch the thief!!!"
A loud roar erupted from the medicinal herb stall. The stall owner, a skinny old man, pointed at his herb basket and screamed at the top of his lungs. "My Black Hawk Medallion! Who stole my Black Hawk Medallion?!"
The entire open-air market was instantly in an uproar. A Black Hawk Medallion? Wasn't that the token of the Black Hawk Manor, the faction that had just been wiped out, yet whose lingering remnants still instilled fear? Who would dare to steal such a thing?
Hearing the words "Black Hawk," the Black Dragon Stronghold youth's heart skipped a beat. He had heard the rumors of the battle in Indigo Capital.
While everyone was still bewildered, Tran Kien, playing the role of a kind-hearted passerby, suddenly "accidentally" kicked the small cloth pouch he had planted under the basket.
The pouch flew out, landing right at the feet of the Black Dragon Stronghold youth. And from within, the eagle-engraved medallion rolled out.
In an instant, the entire market plunged into dead silence. Every gaze shifted from doubt to certainty, locking onto the black-robed youth.
"So it was you!" The old medicinal stall owner roared, lunging forward. "You're from the Black Dragon Stronghold, yet you dare steal from the Black Hawk Manor! Did you think you could do whatever you please just because the Black Hawk Manor was destroyed?!"
The Black Dragon Stronghold youth was completely dumbfounded. He had no idea what was happening. "Crazy old man! I didn't take it!"
"Still denying it? The stolen goods are right there!"
The City of Chaos was a lawless place. But it had its own unspoken rules. The Black Dragon Stronghold and the Black Hawk Manor, though both following the Unorthodox Path, belonged to different factions and had deep-seated grudges. Stealing each other's tokens and getting caught red-handed in the middle of a market was a profound humiliation.
"Hahaha! Has the Black Dragon Stronghold stooped so low as to engage in petty thievery?" Kim Bao, the fat man who had just left, had returned at some point and laughed gloatingly. He immediately added oil to the fire. "Or has your Black Dragon Stronghold truly reached the end of its line?"
"Shut up!" The Black Dragon Stronghold youth's face turned purple with rage. He knew he had fallen into a trap. But there was no way for him to explain himself.
While the attention of everyone, including the old bronze wares seller, was completely drawn to this chaotic farce...
Tran Kien, the mastermind behind it all, had quietly returned to the bronze stall.
He didn't take the real Lac bird fragment. He merely reached out and picked up another item from the pile of scrap bronze. An old, rusty bracelet devoid of any spiritual aura.
But in the exact moment he grasped it, he used a sleight of hand as fast as lightning, swapping it with the real Lac bird fragment that the Black Dragon Stronghold youth had just bought—the very item Tran Kien had "accidentally" pilfered when the fool wasn't paying attention.
His work complete, he didn't linger for a single moment. He quietly stepped back, blending into the clamoring crowd, and vanished without a trace.
Five minutes later, the commotion finally ended. The Black Dragon Stronghold youth, having gone to great lengths to escape the crowd's accusations, angrily turned back. He reached into his robes to check on his newly acquired treasure.
His hand stiffened. What lay within his robes was not the ancient green bronze Lac bird fragment.
It was merely a rusty, worthless bracelet.
"Ah... Ah... AHHH!!!"
A roar filled with indignation and unwillingness echoed throughout the open-air market.
The oriole had leisurely flown away, leaving behind the mantis and the cicada, who were still completely bewildered as to what had just transpired.