Chapter 183: Capitalism Ho! – Part 2
Chapter 183: Capitalism Ho! – Part 2
183 Capitalism Ho! – Part 2
The rented booth was located deep in the slum district. Yet, every minute, at least a hundred cultivators passed by the place. Although its location wasn't as noticeable as the other booths from the Qiang Clan, Cao Mao was satisfied by the exposure of this place.
The booth was a humble 2 square meters rectangular table. A wooden board was hung at the edge, covering the area below the table.
The place was guarded by the local thugs. When Cao Mao approached the empty table, a group of thugs glared at him, "Wha'chu want, motherfucker!?"
These thugs were ballsy. Even though they were 2nd-stage weaklings, they had the guts to show a hostile attitude in front of a half-step 4th-stage expert.
Cao Mao had the urge to slaughter the thugs, but he kept his anger in check. He revealed the contract that he got from the Pang Clan.
"I've rented this place for a day. Here is the contract. Make way, or else."
The thugs widened their eyes. Their attitude flipped 180 degrees as they bowed and smiled, revealing their yellowish teeth, "Great sir! You can have it. We'll do our best to protect you from other troublemakers! We'll take care of your safety as well!"
"…Ah."
Cao Mao rolled his eyes. He ignored the thugs and got behind the table. Then, he began sorting and cleaning the place, preparing to open his own shop.
While Cao Mao was cleaning, the thugs brought a few small wooden plates for the former, "This is a service from the Pang Clan. You can use these as price tags."
"Oh? How considerate."
"Of course, sir! We do our best to serve our honorable customers!"
The swelling anger from before disappeared like smoke. Cao Mao found these local thugs funny and cute at the same time that he no longer wanted to beat these silly idiots. He ignored them and began sorting the place.
After cleaning everything, Cao Mao placed his items on the table.
The first batch of his items was the cheapest items that Cao Mao could make – the orc strength pills. He placed ten pill bottles on the table and wrote the price tag with 100 RSS.
As Cao Mao was arranging the space to put more items on the table, several customers gazed at the price tag and the pill description on the small wooden sign. When they discovered that the items were one of the illegal products, the aphrodisiac pills, they flocked to the booth.
"Brat, are these pills really aphrodisiac pills?"
A full-bearded man's voice was loud enough to attract other travelers on the slum street. They glanced at the bearded man and thought that he was causing a commotion.
Cao Mao glanced back at the 5th-stage expert. He uncorked one of the bottles and let the boorish man smell it, "Take a whiff and test the effect yourself."
The odor was the same as a healing pill, but it contained a strong smell of earth.
The expert had seen and smelled aphrodisiac pills in the market before. It was supposed to be a pink pill, but this one was white. Moreover, normal sex pills were almost odorless. However, Cao Mao's item emitted pink gas and vegetable scent.
"Are you kidding me? Brat, are you selling fake pills?"
Cao Mao rolled his eyes, "My pills are genuine. You just haven't seen this type of aphrodisiac pill before. Also, you'd better check your pants."
"Hmm?"
The boorish expert frowned for a moment, but he sensed something in his pants. His manhood was already standing tall, and everybody nearby could see the pitched tent.
The onlookers grinned and snickered in a hushed voice. Even Cao Mao couldn't stop grinning, "See?"
The bearded man was embarrassed. He tossed a bag with 100 refined stones and took the opened bottle away. Even though he wanted to kill Cao Mao for shaming him in public, he didn't dare to cause a scene here as he could sense the killing intent from a nearby 6th-stage expert.
This area's stores were protected by the Pang Clan and the Qiang Clan. Any troublemaker would be killed on the spot!
After the bearded man bought a pill, several men approached the table. Some of them tried to bargain for a lower price, but several men behind the cheapskate grabbed a few pill bottles and paid the full price right away.
Before Cao Mao could put a new product on the table, the ten pills were sold out within a minute. He made 1,000 refined stones back.
But more customers kept coming.
"Junior, do you have more aphrodisiac pills? Can I buy 10 pills for 500 refined stones?"
An elderly man with long white hair, white beard, white robes, white wooden mask, and white cane spoke in a hoarse voice. Despite having a hard time walking, his power as a 6th-stage expert terrified the other cultivators nearby.
Cao Mao was still surprised that sex pills sold like hotcakes. He was so happy that he didn't notice this elder.
"Oh, if you buy in bulk, I can give you a discount. If you buy 100 pills, I can give you a 10% discount. If you buy 1,000 pills, you get a 20% discount. If you buy more than 10,000 pills, I'll give you a 50% discount."
Hearing that Cao Mao had more than 10,000 pills, the old man was so shocked that he almost dropped his cane. He muttered, "Doesn't the pill's ingredient expensive? Are you sure?"
Cao Mao shrugged. He placed more sex pills on the table, but he hadn't looked at the elder's face, "Let's say I'm gathering a fund for the upcoming auction. I'm selling these pills at a cost price."
"Ah, I see," The elder was satisfied with the explanation. He brought out an item that Cao Mao hadn't seen before and presented it to the latter. "I'll buy 20,000 pills. Do you accept an essence core?"
"Wait, what!?"
Cao Mao stopped what he was doing and looked at the elder's face.
He was an odd elderly man with a white wooden mask. Everything about him was pure white like snow.
The elder noticed that Cao Mao didn't know about the core, he explained, "This essence core is an advanced form of energy. Since you're a half-step into the essence gathering realm, you should be aware that you need to form an essence pond to take the first step to the 4th-stage. With this core, you should be able to condense an essence sea with this."
From the local's measurement standard, an essence river was 10,000 liters of essence water. As for the essence sea, it was 100,000 liters.
The elder continued with his explanation, "One essence core can be exchanged into a million of refined stones. I'm buying 20,000 aphrodisiac pills for a million refined stones."
"Oh? Give me a second. I need to verify with my seniors."
Cao Mao texted Jia Wenhe and asked him about the essence core.
Within a few seconds, Jia Wenhe gave Cao Mao the confirmation that the elder told him the truth. An essence core's worth was a million refined stones. As one of these cores was precious for 4th-stage cultivators who needed many liters of either Yin or Yang Essence to form essence seas, the demand for these items never decreased.
Ding
\u003cOne essence core contains about 50,000 liters of Life Essence. You should exchange refined spirit stones for essence cores if you can.\u003e
Even the system encouraged Cao Mao to take it.
With the affirmation from both Jia Wenhe and the system, Cao Mao accepted the elder's offer, "Thank you very much. I'll transfer the pills right away."
Cao Mao ejected orc strength pills from his dummy spatial rings, and the elder collected them into his rings.
During the transfer process, Cao Mao got curious, "Senior, I'm wondering. Why do you need so many pills? If you need a hundred or so, I can understand your reasons. But you're buying so many pills. What do you need it for?"
The white elder giggled, "You don't need to know."
"…"
After taking 20,000 pills from Cao Mao's rings, the elder gazed at Cao Mao's face, "From your action, it seems you still have more pills. How many do you have?"
"Probably enough to empty your pockets."
"Hahaha! Do you have enough pills to exchange for 1,000 essence cores?"
Cao Mao was shocked inwardly, but his face remained expressionless. This guy might be a big shot from a sect or a country, so he didn't dare to offend this man. Cao Mao sighed and circulated his Qi into his spatial rings, checking his wares.
213,000 orc strength pills were sitting inside the rings!
Cao Mao giggled. But then, he sighed in regret.
There were so many 5th-stage and 6th-stage experts among foreign cultivators, so it was not safe to reveal his wealth to the public. If he were to reveal his assets to everybody here, the Qiang Clan and greedy cultivators here would have killed him to snatch all the expensive pills.
"I have 20,000 more pills."
"Then, I'll buy everything. Here is another essence core."
The elder laughed and tossed two palm-sized balls, the essence cores, at Cao Mao.
Cao Mao caught it and transferred the pills to the elder's ring again. Once he was done, the elder laughed and flew away in satisfaction.
Looking at the departing elder, Cao Mao had a complex feeling. He was glad that he got his hands on two essence cores to strengthen himself, but he was confused about why the elder needed so many sex drugs.
"Junior, do you still have more aphrodisiac pills?"
A question from another potential customer snapped Cao Mao back to his senses. He put the matter of the white elder to the back of his head and attended the new customer.
"I still have a few bottles left. How many pills do you need?"
"Sell me two, please."
Another cultivator shouted from behind, "Sell me, too! I need one for my wife!"
"I want two!"
"Give me five!"
"I want one, too!"
.
.
Surprisingly, sex pills were somewhat popular among the local cultivators.
By the time that no one showed up in front of Cao Mao's booth, it was already 8 PM.
In the end, Cao Mao sold another 1,000 sex pills to the local cultivators. Most of them only bought one or two pills for their family members or their wives.
In the end, Cao Mao couldn't get the thought of the white elder out of his mind. He kept questioning why the elder invested heavily in these drugs.
"Haiz."
"You've sold so many pills. Why are you sighing?"
While Cao Mao was having a headache from the unnecessary stress, someone called out to him. He turned around to see who was talking.
It was Qiang Han. It seemed that this city lord was aware that Cao Mao was here.
"Oh, it's you, senior."
"Ha! Did you expect someone else? Well, what troubles you? Your business is thriving here."
Not knowing who to consult, Cao Mao asked Qiang Han, "Say, if someone is hoarding 40,000 aphrodisiac pills to himself, what is he going to use them for?"
"Wha!? You brat, did you just sell 40,000 aphrodisiac pills to someone?"
"It's figurative of speech," Cao Mao rolled his eyes. "My master texted me that I have to reserve some of the pills for his customer. He had an order of 40,000 aphrodisiac pills from someone."
"Is that so?" Qiang Han laughed, "For a moment there, I thought you really sold 40,000 pills."
"I wish. Well, back to my question. What do you think, senior?"
Qiang Han looked up and placed his hands on his hips, showing the sign of uncertainty. But he had a vague idea who might need so many pills.
"A dual cultivator."
"Pardon?"
"In the past, dual cultivators always used this kind of pills to drug young maidens and kidnap them to be their yin cauldrons. This is a rumor, but I don't if it's true or not. They said that if the girls were in heat, the male dual-cultivators could plunder the partner's yin Qi and their dantian. They can also absorb the experience and memory of their partners."
"Huh!?"
"Well, old men and a few bastards might need those pills for entertainment or for their sex slaves. I doubt a dual-cultivator still exists at this age. Most of them should have been eradicated by those holy land agents."
Cao Mao almost retorted that Xu Xiuying and her succubi were all dual-cultivators. Moreover, he was also one.
Still, Cao Mao was in shock. The white old man might just be another dangerous antagonist.
Antagonists and villains were everywhere!