Chapter 168: Victory Loves Preparation
One thing you quickly learn in a cultivation sect is that there are always two economies running in parallel – the official one and the unofficial one. The Azure Peak Sect was no exception.
The Heavenly Treasures Pavilion was the sect's official store, a gleaming three-story building of white stone and blue-tiled roofs where disciples could exchange their hard-earned contribution points for cultivation resources. It was elegant, organized, but since there was no haggling allowed, it was absolutely no fun at all.
The Sect Marketplace, on the other hand... now that was where things got interesting.
"Fresh spirit herbs! Gathered this morning from the eastern mountains!"
"Talismans! Get your talismans here!"
"Beast cores! Still warm from the beast!"
The marketplace was built in concentric circles, with the more expensive and prestigious stalls closer to the center. Outer disciples like me usually stuck to the outer rings, where prices were more reasonable and the shopkeepers less likely to look at you like something they'd scraped off their immortal boot.
"Master," Azure's voice held a note of amusement as we watched a young disciple argue with a merchant about whether a "grade-A beast core" was actually from a mouse spirit, "your heart rate suggests you're enjoying this chaos."
He wasn't wrong. There was something nostalgic about marketplaces – they felt the same whether you were in a modern city, a cultivation world, or anywhere else really. The only real difference was that here, when someone shouted "These prices are robbery!", they might actually mean it literally.