Heavenly Dao Engine-Chapter 93 - 00 Top Broker

Chapter 93: Chapter 0093: Top Broker

Chapter 93 -0093: Top Broker

The sixth day of the Lunar New Year, driving away the poor spirits, I wish all book friends great fortune!

※

Qi Tian stood there as he watched the stall owner and the cultivators who wanted to buy the raw stones arguing. Whenever their bickering got too heated, Qi Tian would intervene: “Do you want them, or not? If not, give them all to me.”

There were two reasons for Qi Tian’s words. One, several raw stones held by these people triggered a strong reaction in the Heavenly Dao Engine. The other reason was that he wanted to establish a certain image.

This image included several aspects. First, he was rich; second, he was not afraid of offending people; and third, he didn’t fear offending the original owners of these black market goods. Such a person was the most welcome guest at the black market. No one would like to do business with a stingy person who is always worried about this and that. This is especially true for the black market folks.

“Boy, what are you talking about?” A cultivator clutching a raw stone the size of a basketball stared angrily at Qi Tian, saying, “Do you realize that you’re stirring up trouble? If it wasn’t for your disregard for rules, could the price of the raw stones have been raised so high?”

Thud…..

Qi Tian directly kicked the cultivator away. The man lay on the ground, unable to get up for a long while. Qi Tian walked over, stepped on his face, and said: “Do you know why I kicked you? Being broke and loose-mouthed, that’s your biggest crime. Dare to utter another dirty word in front of me, and I’ll beat the living daylights out of you.”

The man nearly coughed up blood from Qi Tian’s kick but still clung tightly to his raw stone.

Qi Tian bent over, snatched the raw stone directly, and said, “Consider this as the compensation for your foul mouth and offending me. Boss, get him to pay up later.”

In one swift movement, Qi Tian dropped the raw stone into his Storage Bag which, like the others before it, was swallowed by the Heavenly Dao Engine just before entering the bag. Qi Tian was indeed curious about the grade and size of the spirit stones contained in the raw stone, but compared to the potential opportunity of feeding the Heavenly Dao Engine and promoting its upgrade, this curiosity seemed insignificant.

Qi Tian returned to the raw stone stall and said with a smile, “Everyone, have you made your selections? If you don’t want them, just hand me the raw stones, how about that?”

A few cultivators were indeed frightened by Qi Tian. In the black market, fights and even public murder were not uncommon, unless one had a strong backing. Otherwise, death just signified the end; no one would avenge them.

Qi Tian’s earlier behavior showed he was not to be trificked with lightly. There was no need to offend such a ruthless person for just a piece of raw stone.

Qi Tian picked a few of the raw stones put down by these cultivators. Just as he was about to ask the stall owner how much they cost, a middle-aged man walked over. The other cultivators all bowed in greeting: “Hello, Steward Huang.”

This Steward Huang, Huang Qiliang, was one of the people in charge of the black market. On the surface, he was responsible for daily patrols in the black market, but in fact, he also had other duties, such as identifying truly valuable customers and seizing some especially valuable goods before others. Qi Tian’s earlier actions had attracted his attention, and intuition told him that Qi Tian was not a simple customer, which was why he had come over.

Huang Qiliang pointed to the few raw stones chosen by Qi Tian and stated directly, “I want all of these stones. Boss Liu, name your price.”

Boss Liu was the proprietor of this raw stone stall. He inwardly groaned while forcing a smile on his face. “Steward Huang, it’s my good fortune that you favor these stones. If you hold me in high esteem, take them all without paying. If you insist on paying, it will mean you look down upon me.”

Huang Qiliang smiled and, regardless of whether Qi Tian opposed him or not, he took those stones right in front of Qi Tian and threw some large-denomination coins at Boss Liu, saying: “Rules are rules, they cannot be neglected.”

Looking at the mere few thousand coins, Boss Liu was inwardly cursing. But all he could do was smile. The quality of this batch of his raw stones was extremely high. Before Qi Tian came, a piece was sold for several thousand coins, but after Qi Tian arrived, the price had risen to over 10,000 coins for a piece. Huang Qiliang only paid a thousand coins for a piece and therefore Liu had suffered a big loss.

Huang Qiliang didn’t care. He was used to obtaining a few thousand coins daily from various black market merchants in such a manner. In his view, this was a matter of course and there was nothing to be embarrassed about.

He looked at Qi Tian. Although Qi Tian’s face was mostly covered by a thick veil, the bright and starry eyes left a profound impression on him. He was sure that this was a very confident young man.

Huang Qiliang held a raw stone in his hand, and after weighing it, he crushed the outer shell of the stone in front of everyone. The hardness of the spirit stones was far greater than of the stone’s outer shell, unlike that of a jade which has an uniform hardness, indistinguishable without using tools.

As the outer shell disintegrated, a faint red light diffused, causing the onlookers to gasp in surprise. It was a fire attribute spirit stone raw ore, roughly the size of an adult fist. If it was cut, it should yield about ten spirit stones. For every cultivator, ten spirit stones represent quite a wealth.

Seeing this spirit stone raw ore, Huang Qiliang’s breath staggered. A single spirit stone could be sold for tens of thousands of coins, so a raw ore like this could be worth over a hundred thousand coins.

He gave Qi Tian a deep look. Few lower-level black market cultivators quietly surrounded Qi Tian, just waiting for Huang Qiliang’s command. Once they received the order, they would seize or capture Qi Tian as per Huang Qiliang’s instruction. If necessary, they would even kill Qi Tian.

Huang Qiliang didn’t give the order immediately. He picked up another raw stone and squeezed it in his hand. The True Essence Power was released, causing the raw stone to crumble like a sandball made of sand soil, with not even a trace of spirit stones to be seen inside.

Huang Qiliang refused to believe it. He grabbed another raw stone, but the result was the same. After crushing it, there was no gain at all. His face slightly changed as he continued to crush a few more raw stones. Every single time, all he found inside was white rocks, completely worthless.

Huang Qiliang stared expressionlessly at Qi Tian and asked, “You did this on purpose, didn’t you?”

Qi Tian shrugged and said, “We are strangers to each other, why would I purposely do such a thing?”

Huang Qiliang thought for a moment, and indeed, he couldn’t find a reason for Qi Tian to have done so. Qi Tian bought the raw stones at a price of tens of thousands of coins each. He had just crushed several of them, totalling to seven or eight tens of thousands of coins. No one would invest so heavily in setting up such a trap.

“Humph, if you didn’t do it on purpose, then why did you buy so many worthless white stones?” Huang Qiliang asked, staring into Qi Tian’s eyes.

Qi Tian replied, “I bought them because I believed spirit stones could be found in them. As it turns out, my choice was accurate. If I had bought these raw stones, I would have made some profit, maybe around a ten percent margin. It’s just a shame that you beat me to it.”

Huang Qiliang contemplated over it, and indeed, if Qi Tian had bought these raw stones, he would’ve needed approximately ninety thousand coins. He would have been able to mine a spirit stone raw ore worth a hundred thousand coins, isn’t that about a ten percent profit?

While this profit was not low, in the black market, it was just average. Many in the black market indulge in zero-investment dealings, making pure profits. With this thought, he gave up on his plan to hold Qi Tian captive for exclusive gem gambling in the black market.

A guess rate of one in ten might seem high, but in reality, it could be much lower. Even if Qi Tian can consistently maintain this guess rate, if Huang Qiliang wanted to use Qi Tian as a tool to make money, he would have to convince the stall owners to sell the raw stones to him at extremely low prices. Stall owners could tolerate this one or two times, but if this happened too often, they would not bear it. If the stall owners withdrew and stopped supplying goods to the black market, the black market would ultimately suffer a loss.

Visit freёnovelkiss.com for the 𝑏est n𝘰vel reading experience.

Understanding this, he put away the spirit stone raw ore, rejoicing in his profit of a hundred thousand coins. He glanced at Qi Tian again and said, “You look like a big business man. Would you be interested in visiting a place with me? As long as you have enough capital, you could buy anything you want.”

Qi Tian thought for a moment, then nodded. Although he seemed calm on the surface, he was extremely excited inside. His performance just now had, at last, attracted the attention of a top broker of the black market like Huang Qiliang.

Qi Tian had noticed Huang Qiliang quite early. From snippets of conversation left behind by Shi Yufeng and others, Qi Tian knew that there were several top brokers like Huang Qiliang in the black market. They were like a swarm of wild bees, dangerous if provoked unintentionally, but if one was careful, one could potentially follow them to find the hive and collect the sweetest honey.

How to get the measure just right was something Qi Tian had pondered upon several times. How to attract their attention in the best possible way, tempt them with some benefits, but also not entrap himself in the process. The understanding required for this was quite profound. It was only because of his exceptional comprehension and wisdom that he was able to handle things so well. Any minor mistake, and the situation would be vastly different.

Seeing Qi Tian nod his head, Huang Qiliang gestured to one side and said, “Come with me.”

Qi Tian followed Huang Qiliang towards the Straight Market District, the black market cultivators who had earlier attempted to surround him dispersed.

Soon, Qi Tian and Huang Qiliang arrived at the Straight Market District. Huang Qiliang led Qi Tian into a store where neither the shopkeeper nor the shop assistant paid any attention to them, as if they didn’t see them at all. They allowed them to wander through the shop and walked out through the back door.

Outside the back door was a small alley. They followed the convoluted alley and arrived at the door of a small courtyard. Huang Qiliang took out a jade talisman and attached it to the courtyard gate…