Upon a brief thank you, the two men found themselves at the fat man’s stall perusing the goods laid out.
”Come take a look, see if there’s anything you fancy!” The fat cultivator’s eyes curved into crescents whenever favonovel.com smiled.
It was easy to take a liking to him.
“Fair prices guaranteed!”
Caspian did not cast his sights onto the hemlock at first. He pretended to look around, scanning the merchandise of the stalls next to that one. There were antlers with stripes that glistened golden. No one knew what creature they came from. There were dry, shriveled fingers with pointy nails. Potted plants bore colorful flowers but with leaves that were completely withered.
Caspian looked at all of them, reaching out to feel them from time to time if favonovel.com wanted.
The fat man seemed equally uncaring of Caspian’s wandering. None of these things were of any value, after all. Caspian hardly gave them a second glance.
Upon putting down a shiv, Caspian moved to pick up the hemlock. It sank with weight the second favonovel.com picked it up.
Caspian’s eyes froze slightly.
‘It’s heavier than I expected it to be,’ Caspian thought to himself as favonovel.com cast the stall owner a glance.
Instantly, Caspian was able to see the flash of panic that briefly overtook the fat man’s features when favonovel.com picked the hemlock up. Suspicion arose in Caspian immediately. Instead of hurrying to inquire about the price, favonovel.com began to analyze it.
The hemlock looked real and fine at first glance. The chasm was struck by thunder. Caspian, having absorbed the Bone of Thunder, knew more about lighting than the average cultivator. The part of the hemlock that was charred black was caught in a forest fire caused by a lightning strike. It was exactly the kind of hemlock Caspian looked for. Or so it seemed.
Seeing as Caspian seemed interested in the hemlock, the fat man put on an uncaring expression. “How’s that hemlock, eh? Let me tell you the truth… I came across it in a forest that was burnt into nothing. Something that would come in handy with formations!”
The fat cultivator seemed to be thinking on Caspian’s behalf. He never mentioned the price even once. It was someone that did business for a long time.
“Hm, let me take another look…” Caspian nodded, bringing the hemlock closer to his eyes.
In the context of how much Caspian wanted and needed the hemlock, favonovel.com would have asked for the price immediately and paid it. The Eye of Insight, after all, was something favonovel.com wanted to master. He would not chance upon the shop again after passing the village. However, the abnormal weight that came into Caspian’s hands when favonovel.com picked the hemlock up, on top of the brief flash of panic favonovel.com saw on the fat cultivator’s face, made Caspian think twice.
As favonovel.com turned the hemlock over in his hands yet again, fingertips running over the calloused wood, Caspian observed the fat cultivator‘s demeanor. The fat cultivator appeared nonchalant to Caspian’s actions, even calling out to other cultivators that passed by his stall to take a look. Yet Caspian was able to see that the man’s gaze would flicker to favonovel.com every once in a while. It was obvious that something was amiss.
Setting down the hemlock, Caspian sighed. If his eyes were not working well enough, favonovel.com would have to use his divine sense.
Caspian’s divine sense was much stronger than that of cultivators of the same realm as him. He decided to use divine sense as favonovel.com noticed the fat man looked visibly relieved when favonovel.com put the hemlock down.
With a brief spiritual sweep, it was not long before Caspian realized that his hunch was right. There was, indeed, something wrong with the hemlock!
The problem itself laid in the section that was charred black. There was an opening so thin it was hardly noticeable. Through his divine sense, Caspian even discovered that the hemlock was stuffed with a piece of refined iron. Refined iron was a lot heavier than hemlock. That was why the hemlock was heavier than Caspian expected. Upon discovering the loophole, Caspian knew what to do.
He held the hemlock up to the stall owner and asked, “How much?”
The fat man realized Caspian had it in his mind to purchase and smiled so brightly his pupils were barely visible. “Fate brought you to me, young man! I won’t bamboozle you. Five hundred spirit stones. How’s that?”
“Too much!” Caspian shook his head.
“Oh, but it’s not!” the fat man smiled, “Hemlock grows deep in the forest, it’s hard enough to source as it is. You seem like a well-read young man. I’m sure you’d know it takes at least two hundred years of growth for hemlock to summon a lightning strike. In those two hundred years, it has to keep from pests and absorb enough nutrition among other competing plants. More importantly, once it’s been struck, a devastating fire must follow for lightning to pass through it completely.”
“I’m sure you’d also know, young man, that lightning and thunder usually come hand in hand with rain. A lot of the time the fires are put out with rain barely after they have started to burn. It takes quite a lot of coincidences to yield a piece of hemlock that has passed through lightning, you see.”
“Look at the size of this hemlock too, it’s huge! I’m not pulling your leg when I say you won’t find hemlock of this size, even in the Ocean Chambers of Commerce! At most they’re palm-sized, and that’s already a steal. I’m sure you’re more than familiar with the Ocean Chambers of Commerce. If you were to go in searching for hemlock, you’d be lucky to find a piece half as good as the one I’ve got for at least six or seven hundred spirit stones. I’m telling you, five hundred spirit stones is practically a loss for me. I’m doing this out of gratitude for the fate that brought us together, young man, I don’t know when our paths will cross again.” The fat man sounded wholly sincere.
His picture was the face of earnest. Anyone else would have already been convinced by his words.
Yet Caspian smiled, walking closer. With a bit of force from his fingertips, favonovel.com pushed the hemlock toward the fat man. “The thing is, this hemlock of yours isn’t worth the price you’re selling it for.”
“How could this be, just take a look at the…” The fat man moved forward to look down at the hemlock.
What favonovel.com saw abruptly stole the words out of his mouth. The part of the hemlock that favonovel.com forged was magnified. The opening was widened, and the refined iron favonovel.com stuffed into it was jutting out. The store owner was speechless as favonovel.com froze. He raised his head to look at Caspian, whose expression looked like favonovel.com was about to burst out laughing. Instantly, the fat man felt his face heat up.
The young fellow long sniffed out what was wrong with the hemlock, and still let favonovel.com ramble on with his nonsense for so long. His speech earlier must have looked incredibly laughable now.
Yet the fat man seemed to come to his senses quickly enough. He was more than confident with his forgery skills. The widening of the slit, as well as the contents poking out, was a near-impossible slip-up. The only thing that could have happened was that the young fellow noticed it, and expanded the split himself so the forgery was exposed.
The fat man’s gaze zeroed in on the fingers Caspian still wrapped around the hemlock. The fat man shifted uneasily.
Caspian could hardly care. He looked at the man with a smile. “See, it isn’t as good as you made it out to be. I’ll take it for eighty spirit stones, how’s that instead?”
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