Qiongyu Tower and Jubao Pavilion were both located in the most bustling central area of Yun City, not far from each other.
Su Yixin led Bao Gu leisurely towards Jubao Pavilion. She was a very articulate and humorous person, chatting and laughing with Bao Gu along the way, creating a pleasant atmosphere. She tried to probe which immortal cultivation family Bao Gu came from, but Bao Gu was tight-lipped, only revealing some irrelevant information.
“My talent is poor, I have the five useless roots, so my cultivation progresses slowly.”
No wonder she was still at the third stage of Qi refining at her age.
“I haven’t taken any detoxifying and body-clearing pills, just eating one Zhu Ming fruit every day.”
Eating one Zhu Ming fruit daily, over the years, how much would that cost?
“Yes, I have taken Qi refining pills. I used to take one in the morning during practice, but later they became ineffective, so I stopped.”
It’s pitiful to have the five useless roots, and even Qi refining pills became useless at the third stage of Qi refining!
“I don’t use spirit stones for cultivation, just adding two spiritual herbs to my food every day.”
You must think the spiritual energy from spirit stones is impure, right? Not refining the spiritual herbs into pills but cooking them in food every day? How much of their medicinal properties must be lost? The person behind you must be very willing to waste resources on you!
Su Yixin thought to herself, “Luckily, I run a tavern, not a kidnapping business. I dare not provoke the big figure behind you, otherwise, I would definitely kidnap you for ransom. Throwing you into a pill furnace might even refine a batch of precious pills!” Children from immortal cultivation families really can’t be compared with poor scattered cultivators like us! Trying to get information out of this naive girl fills me with bitter tears!
In less than the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the two leisurely arrived at the entrance of Jubao Pavilion.
The attendant at the door greeted Su Yixin with a smile upon seeing her approach, saying, “Oh, Manager Su is here!” He respectfully lifted the curtain for Su Yixin to enter, while shouting, “Manager, Manager Su from Qiongyu Tower is here! Please, Manager Su!” He invited Su Yixin to the VIP room on the second floor.
The manager of Jubao Pavilion came out from the inner room, greeted her with a smile, and said, “Oh, what brings Manager Su here? Are you here to purchase again?”
Su Yixin replied, “This time, I’m bringing this little Daoist friend here.”
Hearing this, the manager of Jubao Pavilion looked at Bao Gu with a smile and scrutinized her. When he saw the ink monkey demon beast on Bao Gu’s shoulder, whose depth he couldn’t fathom even with his Golden Core late-stage strength, he immediately became respectful and invited Bao Gu to the second floor. He secretly transmitted a message to Su Yixin, asking, “What’s the background of this young lady?”
Su Yixin replied through a secret transmission, “Not very clear, but she’s not someone to be underestimated.”
Upon reaching the second floor, Bao Gu found the shelves filled with various items, too many to take in at once. Usually, stores with a second floor and private rooms don’t display their best items on the first floor; the items on the second floor are generally more valuable. She couldn’t tell the quality and, not wanting to give herself away, casually glanced around and naturally took a seat at the chief guest’s seat.
The manager of Jubao Pavilion bowed and asked directly, “May I know if the young friend is here to buy or to sell?”
Bao Gu softly uttered, “Sell.”
Seeing the manager of Jubao Pavilion looking at her, she took out the bamboo tube given to her by Yu Mi and handed it to him.
Su Yixin had thought Bao Gu would take out some rare treasure, but was surprised to see it was just an ordinary bamboo tube used for holding drinks.
Afraid of getting drunk from the smell of monkey wine again, Bao Gu quickly pinched her nose and said, “I heard from Sister Su that there’s an auction at Jubao Pavilion tonight. Please help me auction this wine.”
Su Yixin asked with a smile, “Why are you pinching your nose?”
Bao Gu replied, “My cultivation is low, and smelling this wine will make me pass out.”
Su Yixin laughed, “What kind of wine is so powerful?”
When the manager of Jubao Pavilion opened the bamboo tube, the fragrance of wine and spiritual energy filled the air, with wisps of rainbow light spilling from the mouth of the tube.
Su Yixin couldn’t help but take a deep breath and said, “How fragrant! Is this monkey wine? Top-grade monkey wine! No, no, this wine is even more fragrant and rich in spiritual energy and medicinal properties than top-grade monkey wine, and there’s a mist of spiritual light emerging, this…”
She looked at Bao Gu, who was still pinching her nose despite her face flushed from the wine’s aroma, and asked, “Where did you get this wine?”
Bao Gu quickly gestured for the manager of Jubao Pavilion to cover it.
The manager asked, “Do you wish to sell this wine?”
Bao Gu, trying to wave away the wine’s fragrance in front of her, nodded “Hmm” and covered her mouth and nose.
Su Yixin, who runs a tavern selling wine and dishes, knew the value of this wine and was very interested. She chided, “If I had known you were selling this wine, I wouldn’t have brought you here. I would have bought it directly at the tavern.”
Bao Gu could hear the reproach in Su Yixin’s words. Earlier, when Su Yixin asked her what she was selling, she didn’t say. She wasn’t foolish; if she had said, Su Yixin, with her quick wit, would have insisted on buying the wine at the tavern.
The manager of Jubao Pavilion was very interested, and upon hearing Su Yixin’s words, he looked at Bao Gu for her reaction.
Bao Gu, often accompanying her father on business, understood what this meant. She guessed that the manager of Jubao Pavilion and Su Yixin must have a private relationship, or perhaps Su Yixin would offer something in return, wanting to favor Su Yixin.
Since Su Yixin had kindly brought her here, she couldn’t refuse her face-to-face. She smiled and said, “Sister Su, it’s okay. If you like this wine, I’ll leave a tube for you.”
Then, looking at the manager of Jubao Pavilion, she said, “This wine should be enough for the auction, right?”
The manager replied, “Of course. This wine can be considered the top-grade among monkey wines, extremely precious. Young friend, the starting bid for this wine is 1,200 top-grade spirit stones, how about it?”
Bao Gu, hearing the starting bid was 200 more than the bottom price her senior sister mentioned, found it reasonable and nodded “Hmm.”
The manager said, “According to the auction house rules, five percent of the auction proceeds will be taken as a commission fee. Is the young friend aware of this?”
Bao Gu nodded again and took out the remaining two tubes of monkey wine from her storage bag, handing one to the manager, saying, “Please check this tube as well. Let’s auction both tubes together!”
She then handed the other tube to Su Yixin, saying, “Sister Su, this is for you.”
Both the manager of Jubao Pavilion and Su Yixin were shocked to see Bao Gu take out three tubes of top-grade monkey wine at once.
The manager of Jubao Pavilion and Su Yixin each opened a tube and found it was indeed the same monkey wine as before.
Bao Gu decisively pinched her nose and stayed far away while they checked the wine, as if it wasn’t a top-grade spiritual wine coveted by everyone in the cultivation world, but some foul-smelling thing. She really didn’t want to touch this wine; if she got drunk here, it would be embarrassing, and if she messed up, it would be a disaster.
Her reluctance to touch the monkey wine provided a full explanation for her selling these three tubes of monkey wine. She needed spirit stones, and because her cultivation was too low, she would get drunk from the wine, so auctioning it was naturally the best choice.
The manager of Jubao Pavilion confirmed the authenticity and quickly prepared a contract for Bao Gu to finalize the deal.
1,200 top-grade spirit stones was a huge amount. Su Yixin, merely managing a tavern for someone else, although well-connected, didn’t have a wealthy background and couldn’t possibly carry so many spirit stones on her.
Fortunately, Qiongyu Tower was as close as a next-door neighbor. She returned the monkey wine to Bao Gu, saying, “I didn’t bring enough spirit stones with me. Wait for me a moment. Keep the wine for me!”
“Okay!” Bao Gu responded, taking back the monkey wine Su Yixin returned to her, and saw Su Yixin rush off like a gust of wind.
The manager of Jubao Pavilion quickly drafted the contract and finalized the deal with Bao Gu. In the end, he also handed out an invitation, inviting Bao Gu to attend the auction that evening.
Bao Gu gladly accepted and was about to stand up when she saw Su Yixin return.
Su Yixin handed over 1,200 top-grade spirit stones and a jade token to Bao Gu, saying, “Sister Su feels bad about taking advantage of you. This is a VIP jade token from Qiongyu Tower, please accept it.”
Bao Gu thanked her and accepted it, leaving Jubao Pavilion with Su Yixin.
Su Yixin asked Bao Gu where she was headed next and invited her to visit Qiongyu Tower.
Bao Gu shook her head and said, “I need to find a creditor to repay a debt.” Then she bid farewell to Su Yixin and left. She wandered around Yun City for half a day before seeing Yu Mi appear and pull her into an inn.
Although the inn had a formation to block others’ prying eyes, Yu Mi still set up a concealment formation after entering the room and asked, “Is it done?”
Bao Gu replied, “It’s done.” She handed over the contract signed with the manager of Jubao Pavilion, the invitation to Jubao Pavilion’s auction, the 1,200 top-grade spirit stones, and the VIP jade token given by Su Yixin to Yu Mi, reporting the sale of the monkey wine.
Yu Mi was stunned, her lips parted in shock for a while before she clicked her tongue and said, “An invitation to Jubao Pavilion’s auction and a VIP jade token from Qiongyu Tower…”
Neither of these could be bought with money.
Bao Gu said, “Senior sister, don’t look at me like that. They both offered these to me voluntarily.”
Yu Mi was flabbergasted. She had underestimated Bao Gu! To play such a scene in front of the managers of Jubao Pavilion and Qiongyu Tower without giving herself away, making them believe without a doubt and offer the auction invitation and VIP jade token!
Bao Gu said, “Senior sister, let’s go to the auction together tonight!”
Seeing the little monkey jump onto the table and chatter questioningly, she looked at it and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Yu Mi raised her hand, and a pile of newly bought spiritual fruits and herbs instantly buried the Duobao Spirit Monkey! After thinking for a moment, she said, “Okay, let’s go to the auction tonight, but we can’t reveal our identities. There might be fellow sect members at the auction.”
Then, she divided half of the top-grade spirit stones with Bao Gu and leaned over to look at the pile of spiritual herbs and stones, which had instantly halved, and said, “Little monkey, was this deal worth it?”
In the blink of an eye, the pile of spiritual fruits and herbs disappeared completely, so fast that she didn’t even see how the little monkey ate them.
The little monkey returned to Bao Gu’s shoulder and chattered at Yu Mi, gesturing.
It took Yu Mi a while to understand its meaning: there was only one pot of monkey wine. Yu Mi exclaimed, “Can’t you brew it?”
The Duobao Spirit Monkey gestured and chattered again. Yu Mi guessed and guessed, but couldn’t understand the complex gestures and the monkey language. In the end, she had to use her not-so-strong divine sense to communicate with the monkey with some difficulty, and the answer she got was that brewing this monkey wine not only required a large amount of sixth or seventh-grade spiritual fruits and herbs but also needed a hundred years of aging.
Yu Mi: “…” Can she throw this Duobao Spirit Monkey up for auction? Little monkey, give back her spiritual fruits and herbs!
Seeing Yu Mi’s unfriendly expression, the Duobao Spirit Monkey bared its teeth and chattered twice, then jumped onto Bao Gu’s shoulder and hid in her hair.
