Chapter 47: Dealing with Black-Market Merchants

Faint, dim light spilled across the intricately carved wooden doors, casting mottled patterns of light and shadow.

A mysterious figure pushed open the heavy wooden door, and a wave of decadent luxury washed over them—antique calligraphy and paintings, priceless porcelain, and dazzling treasures filled the space, standing in stark contrast to the chaotic and dilapidated scenes outside the black market.

Chu Feng and his companions stepped into the room and looked around. Beneath the seemingly magnificent and opulent facade, a strange and eerie silence permeated every corner.

Shadows shifted indistinctly in the dark, and gazes swept across them from time to time, chilling them to the bone like a venomous snake darting out its tongue.

In the center of the room, a bulky man reclined lazily on an ornate carved throne, toying with a pair of jade balls in his hand. It was Boss Bai.

His fleshy face was piled with a smile, yet his eyes flashed with shrewd calculation.

"Welcome to my humble abode, my friends."

"We've long heard of your great reputation, Boss Bai," Chu Feng said calmly, his sharp gaze sweeping over every person in the room.

Boss Bai let out a hearty laugh, pointing to several items displayed on the table. "You've had a hard journey, and these little trinkets are just a small token of my hospitality." The table displayed various weapons and medicines that looked valuable at a glance, but Chu Feng could tell with a single look that these were merely ordinary goods, of little use to people like them who possessed spell-mark abilities.

"You are too kind, Boss Bai," Chu Feng said, a cold smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "We came here this time to discuss a deal with you."

"Oh? What kind of deal?" Boss Bai asked.

"We will trade our team's spell-mark resources for the intelligence you hold," Chu Feng stated bluntly.

The smile on Boss Bai’s face froze. He narrowed his eyes, sizing Chu Feng up from head to toe as if trying to see right through him.

"Spell-mark resources are exceedingly rare commodities. Are you all really willing to part with them?"

"Whether we are willing or not depends entirely on whether Boss Bai's intelligence is worth the price," Chu Feng conceded not an inch.

Boss Bai fell silent for a moment before suddenly bursting into loud laughter. "Good! Young people with backbone! I like that! But..." He paused, his tone turning icy, "What if I insist on using these 'little trinkets' for the trade?"

Chu Feng's expression remained unchanged. He said indifferently, "Then I'm afraid Boss Bai will be disappointed. Let's go." He turned as if to leave.

"Hold on!" Boss Bai abruptly stood up, the smile on his face completely vanishing. "Do you really take me for someone who can be easily pushed around?"

In the dim room, the air seemed to congeal, and the tense atmosphere formed an invisible net, tightly enveloping Chu Feng's team.

Boss Bai's fat body stood erect, carrying the oppressive presence of a mountain of flesh. His narrowed eyes gleamed with a chilling, cold light, like a venomous snake locking onto its prey.

"Young man, you're smart," Boss Bai's voice was low and raspy, like coarse gravel grinding against the ground. "However, being overly smart is never a good thing. Offending me here in the black market means you'll likely find it hard to take a single step further!"

As Boss Bai's voice fell, over a dozen fierce-looking brawny men lunged out from the shadows around the room. Wielding sharp weapons with menacing expressions, they closed in, tightly surrounding Chu Feng and the others.

The blades flashed with a dazzling, harsh light in the dim illumination, resembling ravenous beasts waiting to devour their prey. A suffocating pressure permeated the air.

Pan Yue tightly gripped the short blade in her hand, her petite body trembling slightly, yet her gaze was exceptionally resolute. Liu Yong remained as taciturn as ever, but a mechanically modified crossbow of bizarre design had already appeared in his hands. Sun Yue nimbly flitted through the crowd, searching for the optimal escape route. Chen Qing stood like a monolith at the very front of the formation, his burly frame acting like a copper wall and iron rampart, shielding the teammates behind him with his life.

Facing this hair-trigger situation, Chu Feng's face still maintained its composure, a meaningful smile curling at the corner of his lips.

He slowly raised his right hand and drew an inconspicuous metal shard from his inner pocket. The shard was irregularly shaped, its surface covered in densely packed fine lines that emitted a faint, ethereal glow.

***

"Boss Bai," Chu Feng's voice remained steady, akin to the calm before a storm. "You're right, I am indeed very smart. Therefore, I have another proposal for a trade."

He raised the metal shard, displaying it to Boss Bai, and continued, "We accidentally acquired this item within a spell-mark space. It radiates a very peculiar energy fluctuation, and we deduce that it might be an object of exceptional value."

Boss Bai's gaze was instantly drawn to it. He narrowed his eyes, observing the metal shard in Chu Feng's hand closely, while the look of puzzlement on his face grew increasingly intense.

Seasoned in commerce and widely traveled as he was, he had never laid eyes on such an object before, and an inexplicable curiosity began to sprout in his heart.

"What is this?" Boss Bai's tone carried a hint of urgency, utterly devoid of his previous arrogance and domineering demeanor.

Chu Feng did not answer immediately. Instead, he turned his head to glance at his teammates beside him. A subtle, elusive smile played on his face as he said, "Boss Bai, I believe the value of this item far surpasses those 'little trinkets' of yours. Won't you reconsider?"

The atmosphere inside the room turned peculiar once more. Boss Bai's facial expression shifted unpredictably as he stared at Chu Feng, as if re-evaluating the young man's worth.

He never imagined that this group still held a trump card; it seemed he had underestimated them after all.

Meanwhile, Pan Yue's eyes never left Chu Feng, the corners of her lips lifting gently into a reassuring smile.

Pan Yue's gaze remained fixed on Chu Feng, her clear eyes shining with a tender yet resolute radiance.

She knew that Chu Feng was by no means a reckless person. If he dared to propose a trade under these circumstances, he must have absolute certainty.

Pan Yue smiled faintly, like a spring breeze brushing across the surface of a lake and sending ripples outward. That smile was filled with trust and support, silently telling Chu Feng, "I believe in you." The rest of the team members also remained taciturn by tacit agreement; though their expressions varied, their eyes all revealed profound trust in Chu Feng.

Liu Yong kept a tight grip on his mechanical crossbow; though not one for words, his actions were enough to demonstrate his stance. Sun Yue prowled through the shadows like a cheetah waiting for an opportune moment, his crafty gaze wandering between Boss Bai and his subordinates. Chen Qing stood like a towering mountain peak, firmly guarding the forefront of the formation to shelter the teammates behind him from wind and rain.

Sun Yue's figure shuttled through the crowd like a phantom, nimbly avoiding the menacing thugs. Taking advantage of the fact that all their attention was focused on Chu Feng, he silently slipped into the corner of the room.

Moving with the agility of a nimble cat, he leaped upward, scaling the wall and concealing himself within the darkness.

With sharp eyes, he carefully observed every corner of the room and discovered an obscured hidden chamber at the back, upon whose door a bizarre pattern was engraved.

Sun Yue engraved these details firmly into his memory before quietly returning to the team, imperceptibly transmitting the intelligence to Chu Feng.

Upon receiving the information relayed by Sun Yue, a meaningful smile touched the corners of Chu Feng's mouth.

He once again displayed the metal shard in his hand to Boss Bai, saying calmly, "Boss Bai, the power contained within this fragment might just help you unlock the doors to your hidden chamber and find the thing you've been yearning for."

Hearing this, Boss Bai's countenance altered drastically. He stared fixedly at the fragment in Chu Feng's hand as if trying to devour it whole.

His chubby body trembled slightly, causing the flesh on his face to quiver along with it.

He realized that he might have truly underestimated these young people. Not only did they possess formidable spell-mark power, but they also possessed extraordinary wisdom.

"You... how did you know about that?" Boss Bai's voice carried a trace of shock, his sharp gaze locked onto Chu Feng as though attempting to strip away his disguise.

"We know far more than you imagine," Chu Feng smiled faintly, his tone tinged with self-assurance. "Boss Bai, do you still think those 'little trinkets' are enough to trade for our intelligence?"

Boss Bai's expression turned mercurial. He drew a deep breath and forced a strained smile onto his fleshy face. "Very well, it seems I, Boss Bai, truly misjudged people this time. Young man, what is it that you want?"

Chu Feng raised the corners of his mouth.

***

Boss Bai's expression changed once more. He had not anticipated that Chu Feng would open his mouth so wide, demanding to acquire all of his intelligence network.

Yet, he had to admit that the young man before him indeed possessed the capital to negotiate with him.

In the end, Boss Bai conceded.

He sighed heavily and said, "Fine, I agree. But I want the fragment in your hands, and... you must guarantee that you will never leak the secret of my hidden chamber."

Chu Feng smiled with satisfaction. He slowly stowed away the metal shard and said, "Deal!"

"Happy cooperation." Boss Bai extended a chubby hand, intending to shake hands with Chu Feng.

Chu Feng did not respond. Instead, he cast his gaze toward a corner of the room, where Sun Yue's body shifted slightly.

Boss Bai wanted to say something further, only to find that the smile on Chu Feng's face was gradually fading...

The transaction concluded, Boss Bai piled a hypocritical smile onto his thick face, a sight that made one want to retch.

He ordered his men to bring over a heavy wooden chest filled with a variety of items. Among them were shimmering crystal stones radiating bizarre glows and ancient scrolls exuding an archaic and mysterious aura.

These were precisely the targets of Chu Feng and his group—the essential resources for advancing to intermediate spell-markers, alongside precious intelligence regarding spell-mark spaces.

"Happy cooperation." Chu Feng accepted the intelligence, yet there was not a trace of joy on his face; instead, his expression grew even graver.

He knew this was merely the first step of black market trading, and the true challenges still lay ahead.

A smiling tiger like Boss Bai would never let them off so easily.

The team members swiftly stowed away the resources, scanning their surroundings vigilantly without a single shred of relaxation.

Sun Yue darted through the shadows like an agile cheetah, paying constant heed to the movements around them.

Chen Qing stood like an iron tower, securely guarding the rear of the formation to block any potential threats.

Pan Yue glanced at Chu Feng with worry, able to sense the immense pressure radiating from him.

Just as they were preparing to leave this decadent yet perilous place, a tattered beggar suddenly darted in front of them, secretly handed Chu Feng a crumpled note, and swiftly vanished back into the crowd.

Chu Feng unfolded the note. A few scrawled words were written upon it: "Gray-Bearded. Crucial intelligence. Heavy price."

"Gray-Bearded?" Pan Yue asked, perplexed.

"It seems there is an even more troublesome character in the black market than Boss Bai." Chu Feng raised his head to look deep into the black market, where darkness lurked like a giant beast, waiting to devour everything in its path.

"Let's move." Chu Feng's tone was resolute. In the shifting tides of the black market, the slightest carelessness would lead to total annihilation.

"Wait," Sun Yue suddenly blocked the others, lowering his voice. "I think I saw..." Before he could finish his sentence, a deafening explosion erupted from deep within the black market, flames soaring into the sky as chaotic cries echoed wave upon wave...