Chapter 423 - 383: Netherworld
The night was as black as ink.
A fine, drizzling rain fell from the sky.
A quarter past 5:00 PM.
This was usually the most bustling hour for the Hidden Emperor Castle’s Black Market.
But now, only seven or eight carriages were parked haphazardly outside the fortress.
A dozen or so scattered figures, most wrapped in straw cloaks and wearing conical hats, made their way toward the stone fortress’s entrance.
Perhaps due to the cold, rainy night, the two Celestial Sword Sect disciples on duty couldn’t even be bothered with routine inspections. They didn’t even collect the basic entrance fee, simply letting the dozen or so people file inside.
Chen Li and Bai San blended in with the small crowd, following the flow of people into the familiar fortress gate passageway.
Upon entering the main hall of the stone fortress, they saw several wind-lanterns hanging high from the vaulted ceiling, casting large, hazy, yellow-hued halos of light.
In the vast space, only a few scattered shops were open. There wasn’t a single stall to be seen.
The few customers present were scattered in twos and threes across the cavernous hall, making it feel even more empty and desolate.
"Fuck..."
Bai San swore instinctively, looking left and right. "Is this really the damn Black Market? Why are there so few people? Did we come at the wrong time?"
Just moments before, outside the fortress, the two had seen how few people were waiting and thought they might have been too early or too late.
But seeing the state of the shops and the sparse customers, it was clear that the Black Market’s popularity had declined to a shocking degree.
"Haven’t been here in a while, have you?"
A soft chuckle came from nearby.
Bai San turned his head and saw two men standing not far away.
The speaker was tall and slender, wearing a white fox mask with slightly upturned corners on its mouth, and his posture was somewhat languid.
The man beside him was more robust, wearing a red fox mask that looked rather fierce.
The White Fox Man’s tone was playful. "These days, who comes to this godforsaken place to buy real goods? Everyone’s gone to the Netherworld Ship."
"The Netherworld Ship?"
Bai San was taken aback. He had never heard that name before. "Where’s that? A new Black Market?"
The White Fox Man was about to say more, but the burly man in the red fox mask cut him off in a low voice. "Watch your tongue. Let’s go."
With that, he pulled the White Fox Man away and strode off without a second glance at Chen Li and Bai San.
Bai San wanted to ask more, but seeing them leave, he could only give up.
Chen Li and Bai San took a short walk around the fortress and found that only about twenty shops were still in business. Just three of them were medicine shops; many other areas were completely dark.
Bai San lowered his voice and asked, "Master, looking at the state of things, there are only those three medicine shops. Even if they have what we need, I’m worried about their stock. How about... I go and scout out that Netherworld Ship? Sounds like a new spot has opened up."
Chen Li didn’t answer immediately. He stood still as the Power of his Primordial Spirit silently and slowly spread out, enveloping the entire stone fortress in an instant.
Within his perception, most of the people inside the fortress were between the Qi Realm and the Spirit Realm. The Celestial Sword Sect disciples, who should have been stationed everywhere, were now pitifully few, with only a handful scattered near a few of the entrances and exits.
The strongest aura in the entire fortress was only at the level of a Divine Hall Grandmaster.
It was a world of difference compared to the situation two years ago, when three Divine Hall Grandmasters had been stationed here and over a hundred elite disciples patrolled the grounds.
No wonder it had been surprisingly easy when he and Bai San snuck into the underground secret chamber last night to retrieve the four million five hundred thousand taels of silver. From start to finish, they hadn’t encountered a single patrolling Celestial Sword Sect disciple.
He had even waited cautiously for a day, only re-entering tonight under the pretense of buying medicine. Now it seemed that his caution had been a bit excessive.
The Hidden Emperor Castle Ruins Market had likely been all but abandoned by the Celestial Sword Sect. They had left only a minimal guard to maintain it symbolically, perhaps just to save face.
’What a pity,’ Chen Li sighed to himself.
After all, a Black Market on the scale of Hidden Emperor Castle had previously been one-of-a-kind in all of Jiangzhou.
Its decline meant that many conveniences would disappear along with it.
"I’ll go buy the medicine. You go gather information."
Chen Li retracted his Primordial Spirit’s perception, giving the concise order with a nod.
Bai San nodded in acknowledgment. With a flicker of his body, he headed off in the direction the White Fox Man and his companion had gone.
Chen Li walked straight to the nearest medicine shop.
The shop wasn’t large. Behind the counter sat a young clerk who looked to be in his early twenties. Seeing Chen Li enter, he lazily raised his eyes, got up, and asked, "What can I get for you, customer?"
Chen Li didn’t waste words, directly listing the names of several medicinal ingredients. They were mainly the primary and secondary herbs needed to refine the Sweet Wind Jade Dew Heaven-Repairing Creation Pill, along with a few materials for the Mysterious Black Tortoise Tribulation Secret Medicine.
After listening, the young clerk shook his head without a second thought. "Sir, we still have plenty of ginseng and Cistanche in stock, and the age is decent. But as for Nine-Bend Spirit Ginseng and Snow Lotus... to be honest with you, we haven’t gotten any new shipments of those precious things in almost half a year. Do you still want the others?"
Chen Li’s brow furrowed slightly.
While ingredients like ginseng and Cistanche were also in demand, he could get them at any large, ordinary apothecary or from his brother-in-law’s Bai Family, and at a lower price. He naturally had no interest in buying them here.
He had come here specifically for the rare ingredients that were hard to find on the open market or were controlled by the Government Office.
"No, thank you. I’ll check the other shops."
Chen Li turned and left.
He then visited the remaining two medicine shops in succession.
The situation was more or less the same.
Between the two shops, he was only able to find three of the more common primary and secondary ingredients for refining the Sweet Rain Jade Dew Heaven-Repairing Creation Pill, and even those were in low supply.
As for the ingredients required for the Mysterious Black Tortoise Tribulation Secret Medicine, there were quite a few available.
Chen Li couldn’t help but feel a renewed sense of lament.
He had never imagined that in just two short years, this Black Market that once gathered all the rare treasures of Jiangzhou would have decayed to such an extent, its supply of medicinal ingredients now stretched so thin.