Chapter 374: (1): Encountering Old Friends in a Foreign Land
Chen Ping'an had passed by immortal ferry stations several times before. Apart from the ferry station located on the border between Water Combing Nation and Pine Stream Nation, where he had made a purchase at Green Beetle Shop, Chen Ping'an had largely passed by the other ferry stations in a rush. He had stopped at some of them and wandered around, yet he hadn't made any purchases.
Today, he decided to take Pei Qian and the others with him and spend a good amount of time wandering around this ferry station. Chen Ping'an gave each of his four subordinates a single lesser heat coin, allowing them to purchase whatever they wanted. There was the so-called "magnitudes of 10" rule when it came to immortal currency, and this rule referred to the fact that one snowflake coin was worth one thousand taels of silver, while one lesser heat coin was worth one hundred thousand taels of silver.
Buying spirit tools or immortal treasures with one lesser heat coin was nothing but a pipe dream, but a few rare and interesting trinkets from the mountains were very much affordable.
After agreeing with Wei Xian and the others to meet at the most famous landmark of the ferry station in two hours, Chen Ping'an left with Pei Qian to wander around on their own.
When purchasing items at ferry stations, it would be incredibly difficult to find a bargain at places like Green Beetle Shop, where there would be skilled appraisers evaluating each treasure. Moreover, treasures in such shops would be relatively expensive compared to other shops.
On the other hand, one could try their luck with merchants who peddled their goods in cloth wrappers. This was a gamble, and at the same time a test of one's appraisal skills. These wandering merchants were often vagrant cultivators and itinerant cultivators who called the entire world their home.
They liked to purchase treasures from declining clans at a low price, and some liked to claim that their clan or sect had produced earth immortals at the Golden Core Tier or Nascent Tier before. This was a common theme among the wandering merchants, so potential buyers didn't need to concern themselves with these trivial matters.
Chen Ping'an had learned many things from Xu Yuanxia when traveling around the nations with him and Zhang Shanfeng, and the so-called caged haggling that Yao Jinzhi had mentioned also pertained to the process of making transactions with these wandering merchants.[1]
Pei Qian hadn't seen much of the world yet, so she was fascinated by the myriad of immortal paintings, spirit tools, and mountain spirits that were sold in the various types of shops. However, there was one good thing about the little girl who Zhu Lian ridiculed as a Taotie, a beast of gluttony. She liked to collect trinkets, and she wouldn't turn down anything that came her way. However, she didn't like to spend money, and she wouldn't waste a single copper coin more than she had to.