Chapter 795 - 380: Chang’an’s Black Market! Zhang Fan and Li Miaoyin (2)

"The doors are open, let's go."

At eight thirty in the morning, the gate to the antique market opened; it would stay open until ten at night.

"Last year when you had your breakup, I was planning to drag you out here to Chang'an to cheer up," Li Yishan said while walking.

"Breakup?!" Meng Qiwu's ears perked up at that, and she couldn't help but look at Zhang Fan curiously.

In her eyes, it was already surprising enough that someone like Zhang Fan even had a partner, let alone that the other person had actually broken up with him.

"Can't you just keep your mouth shut for once?" Zhang Fan shot him an angry glare.

"Hard to imagine someone like you would get dumped," Meng Qiwu blurted out.

Now Zhang Fan was in the Great Master Ninth Realm; by right, with that level of cultivation, he should have long since transcended mortal feelings. A breakup last year? And needed someone to hang out with him?

Even just hearing about it felt odd to Meng Qiwu.

But what she didn't know was that this time last year, Zhang Fan had just graduated from university. He was still in the middle of his Great Night tribulation, no different from an ordinary person.

"Compared to this, our black market in Yujing is really pitiful," Li Yishan couldn't help but comment.

They walked into the market—just one glance down each aisle and you couldn't see the end. There must have been seventy or eighty shops lining each side, and this was just one of many routes.

There were nine such routes for the entire market. All together, there had to be five hundred or six hundred shops in total.

Most of the stuff laid out in ordinary shops were just crafts. The real dirt-dug artifacts would never be out in the open.

"Whoa, hold up, is that Four Ram Zun? Wasn't that thing in the National Museum?"

Just as he entered, the first shop to his right had a bronze Zun set out front that caught Zhang Fan's attention. It looked exactly like the pictures from history books, even with traces of earth staining and copper rust on it.

"Son, you've got a good eye. The one I have here is basically family to the National Museum's one—just not as old, is all."

At that moment, a chubby middle-aged man walked out, wearing a giant flashing gold ring on his finger.

"You want it? I'll give you a deal. Three hundred grand. Put it in your house, it'll suppress the feng shui."

"It won't suppress anything, trust me..." Zhang Fan replied with a forced laugh.

Clearly, this thing was just a contemporary craft, probably made of a copper alloy. Even if you pushed it to the limit, it wouldn't go for three hundred grand.

"Come on."

Li Yishan tugged Zhang Fan and pulled him away.

Around here, nothing really amazed you—if you had enough money, they'd probably get you the Heirloom Seal of the Realm.

Zhang Fan stood for quite a while, truly dazzled—it seemed there wasn't a single national museum treasure you couldn't find here.

"Looks just like the real deal," Zhang Fan couldn't help but remark.

"Isn't it just? How do you know those museum treasures aren't sourced from here?" Li Yishan replied offhandedly.

"Uh..."

"This world, what's real and what's fake... who can really say? It's just like cultivation—we use the fake to seek the real."

Back when Li Yishan was a kid, his family had a big shot on the business scene, one of the top in all of Jiangnan Province. The guy had his own private museum, with a collection even rarer than some regional museums.

Rumor was, all those collectibles together were worth at least nine digits. He'd often take business partners there for tours.

Later, when the financial crisis hit, the guy went bankrupt and skipped town. Creditors stormed his house, drooling over his treasures, wanting to use them to pay off debts. But once the experts appraised them, every single one turned out to be a knock-off—so-called Shang or Zhou dynasties? More like last week's batch.

The oldest thing in the whole collection was probably the janitor. All together, it couldn't even buy you a bathroom in the most expensive part of Yujing City.

"Let's go look for something proper," Li Yishan waved his hand.

Obviously, you weren't going to see genuine dirt-fresh treasures here.

"Some other day, I'll personally take you underground to take a look." Li Yishan leaned in close to Zhang Fan, lowering his voice.

He practiced [Jia Sheng Gui Si], so he knew things underground better than things on the surface. Especially ancient tombs—he'd been digging those up since he was a kid.

"Qin Burial Ridge, Han Tomb Slope, Shang and Zhou relics are mostly found by the two rivers. Spring and Autumn and Warring States go into mountain peaks, Qin and Han tombs are buried in the ridges. Eastern Han and Southern Dynasties pick mountainsides, Sui and Tang and Song tombs are tucked under slopes. Tang tombs are sweet, Song tombs are tart, Ming and Qing are all about lime..."

Li Yishan got so into his recitation, but before he was done, Zhang Fan yanked him hard.

He snapped out of it to find the market security guard not too far away staring straight at him, all suspicion on his face.

"You want to shout any louder?" Zhang Fan shot him a look.

"Seriously, have you actually dug before?"

"For cultivation purposes," Li Yishan whispered.

Cultivation means seeing through the essence of all things, grasping the patterns and principles.

People die and go into tombs, where the secrets of life and death are hidden away.

To cultivate [Jia Sheng Gui Si], he'd slept in who knows how many tombs—even Ancestor Master Chongyang's Living Dead Tomb wasn't spared. Otherwise, how could he have his current achievements?

"Let me put it this way—every famous tomb at Beimang Mountain in Luoyang, I've slept in them all," Li Yishan said solemnly.

That got Meng Qiwu looking at him with some very weird eyes.

"Guy's got a touch of pervert in him," Zhang Fan muttered with a twitch. He also thought it was kind of creepy.

"You don't get it—when you find a top-notch ancient tomb, if you don't get it for yourself, don't sleep in it, it's like an itch you can't scratch. I can't help myself," Li Yishan sighed.

Maybe, that was the side effect of cultivating [Jia Sheng Gui Si].

But clearly, his side effect wasn't quite like other people's.

"…"

"Come on, follow me!"

Meng Qiwu walked ahead, head lowered, putting a good distance between them—she really didn't want to be recognized in this place.

She led Li Yishan and Zhang Fan down a small alley, passing through a cardboard recycling station, and a secret side street appeared in front of them.

There were shops on both sides, too, but it was much quieter here than outside. Some storefronts even hung banners—giving off a classic, old-world charm.

"Now this is a real black market," Zhang Fan said in a low voice.

As soon as he stepped foot on this hidden street, he sensed a strange aura. Even the Mighty Spirit Demon-Suppressing Gold Seal in his pocket gave a faint shiver in response.

Li Miaoyin once told him, magical treasures have spirit—they're a different sort of lifeform. Maybe there was something here that interested the Mighty Spirit Demon-Suppressing Gold Seal.

"Let's see whose luck is better—maybe we'll actually find a real treasure today," Li Yishan murmured.

As the saying goes, there's only mistaken buying, never mistaken selling.

Trying to score an authentic gem here was next to impossible—the real goodies, the shop owners knew exactly what they were worth; if your offer didn't move them, you weren't taking it home.

Like that black iron plate Zhang Fan scored for two hundred yuan—one in a million kind of thing.

"There are a few shops here that I know well," Meng Qiwu said—she was a local after all, much more familiar than Li Yishan.

"If you need anything, just let me know. Rare opportunity—some of these treasures would make great gifts back home."

"Gifts?!"

Zhang Fan's heart skipped a beat. He didn't quite know why, but the first face that floated into his mind was Li Miaoyin's.

"Next week is Transcendent Zhenren's disciple selection ceremony. Wonder if she'll show up?" Zhang Fan mused internally.

Right now, the biggest event under heaven was next week on the second—Zhenwu Mountain's ceremony, where Transcendent Zhenren would choose his closed-door disciple.

Li Miaoyin had told Zhang Fan she planned to show up for the fun.

Back then, Li Miaoyin had left in a hurry. Looking back, it was almost half a month ago—Zhang Fan felt like it'd been ages.

"She'll probably go, right?" Zhang Fan thought to himself.

He'd already decided: as soon as he left Chang'an, he'd be heading straight for Zhenwu Mountain.

"By the way, what's going on between you and Li Miaoyin?"

Just then, Li Yishan's voice cut through, yanking Zhang Fan out of his thoughts. ℴℴ𝘮

"Hm?" Zhang Fan's heart did a flip, and he got a little shifty-eyed.

"Who's Li Miaoyin?"

Meng Qiwu's womanly intuition immediately came online—she couldn't help but ask.

"She's my matchmaking prospect. Zhang Fan, you've been taking good care of her, haven't you?" Li Yishan said offhandedly.

As soon as he said that, Meng Qiwu froze, then her expression immediately got colorful. Her gaze at Zhang Fan shifted entirely.