Chapter 48: The Unnamed Little Shop (Part 2)

Shuisheng glanced sideways at the gloomy-looking young man, thinking to himself, *Who do you think you are? The shop owner hasn't even made an offer yet, and you're already jumping in to outbid them? If they offered ten billion, would you match that too?*

Sure enough, both the old man and the round-faced girl cast displeased looks at the sullen young man.

"And who might you be?" Shuisheng finally asked, unable to hold it in any longer.

The gloomy young man said with arrogant pride, "Zhang Xuan of the Zhang family in Fuling City!" His demeanor suggested he believed he was a celebrity known to everyone in the entire city.

*What Zhang family? Never heard of them.* Shuisheng thought to himself: *Since he is acting so brazenly, I'll just sell it to him at a high price. A sale is a sale, after all.* So he asked, "Then, Mr. Zhang, how much are you willing to pay?"

"Never mind how much I'm willing to pay. In any case, my bid will be higher than theirs, and I'm taking this item!" Zhang Xuan declared.

Hearing this, Shuisheng turned back to the old man and the round-faced girl. "What do the two of you think?"

The old man and the round-faced girl exchanged glances.

The old man was named Ning Xuanbo, the owner of this nameless little shop. The round-faced girl was his granddaughter, Ning Xiaoxuan. Ning Xuanbo had been running his supernatural merchandise shop on this supernatural street for some twenty years, boasting his own unique discernment and a stable network of supply and demand. Ning Xiaoxuan was simply helping out because she had nothing better to do.

This Zhang Xuan was the second son of the head of the Zhang family in Fuling City's Fudong District. Having met Ning Xiaoxuan by chance, he had taken a fancy to her and repeatedly pestered her, often lingering in the shop for half a day under the guise of buying goods. Out of necessity for doing business with the Zhang family, Ning Xuanbo and his granddaughter were forced to treat him with superficial courtesy.

The Zhang family was hardly a prominent clan in Fuling City, considered at best third-tier even within Fudong District. However, because they seemed to have the backing of the formidable Crocodile God Society gang, offending them was no simple matter.

While Ning Xuanbo remained silent, Ning Xiaoxuan blurted out, "The Ice Prison Eagle corpse, 2.2 million! The crystal carrying the water-element immortal crystal skill is 2 million—that makes 2.2 million in total!"

Upon hearing this, Shuisheng's eyes widened in disbelief. "How much?!"

"2.2 million!" Ning Xiaoxuan said earnestly.

2.2 million... how many zeros came after that number again? Shuisheng's little heart began to pound rebelliously.

Ning Xuanbo gave his granddaughter a peculiar look. For an Ice Prison Eagle together with a water-element immortal crystal supernatural skill, which were fundamentally scarce on the market, this price was not actually high. But they were the buyers here; their role was to drive the bargain down! By blurting out such a high price right off the bat, had she left any room for negotiation?

He immediately understood: his granddaughter did not like Zhang Xuan in the least and was merely humoring him. Quoting such a high price was a deliberate attempt to trap Zhang Xuan. Didn't this arrogant, know-nothing kid claim right out of the gate that he would outbid them? Let's see how he handles this now!

Sure enough, upon hearing the price, Zhang Xuan's expression turned bizarre. He looked at Ning Xiaoxuan, then at Shuisheng, his already gloomy face growing increasingly dark.

Yanning, standing nearby, was also profoundly shocked, never imagining that the dried carcass of a beast from the Ice Prison Islands could fetch such an astronomical sum. She and her companions had previously laughed at Shuisheng for being poor, yet in the blink of an eye, his personal wealth surpassed the combined fortunes of all four of them.

*Good grief... Where is the justice in this?*

"This shop owner has offered 2.2 million," Shuisheng said to Zhang Xuan with exceptional seriousness and sincerity. "Since this gentleman claimed his bid would be higher than theirs, may I ask how much you are offering? Are you going to bid 2.5 million?"

As soon as "2.5 million" left his mouth, even Shuisheng himself could barely keep from laughing. The remark was a blatant mockery of Zhang Xuan's arrogance and conceit.

Zhang Xuan's face darkened so much it seemed as though it might drip water. How could he fail to catch the sarcasm in the young man's words? But it mattered not; he had already made up his mind. Slowly steadying his composure, he said, "I bid 2.3 million—higher than their offer. However, since I don't have cash on me and my account balance is currently insufficient, I can pay a deposit of 100,000 first, and settle the remainder another day."

Pay a deposit first and clear the balance another day? Was there ever such a rule on the Supernatural Street? Disapproval was clearly written across the faces of Ning Xuanbo and his granddaughter.

Their signless little shop essentially functioned as a black market establishment. To play the installment payment game in a black market shop where names and backgrounds were never asked? Where was this fellow's shame?

Shuisheng naturally realized this as well and immediately shook his head. "I'm sorry, sir. If you don't have enough money, I cannot sell this to you. Shopkeeper, let's continue our discussion."

"Hold on!" Zhang Xuan pressed one hand firmly onto the Ice Prison Eagle's corpse, his expression cold and menacing. "I said I'm offering 2.3 million! The rule of the black market is that the highest bidder wins! Even if I didn't bring enough cash with me, I'll pay the down payment first! The rest will be settled another day!"

"I'm sorry, sir, I do not accept your payment terms," Shuisheng shook his head. "Please remove your hand from my property." *What a joke,* he thought. *If I let you pay a down payment and take the Ice Prison Eagle away, what happens when I come looking for the rest of the money and you refuse to pay? I don't even know who you are.*

"And what if I insist?" Zhang Xuan glared at him with malicious intent, finally revealing his true motives.

Seeing that the other party was merely a young man, he had never intended to pay any real money from the start, choosing instead to resort to daylight robbery. And his target wasn't just the Ice Prison Eagle; he had his eyes on the boundary stone ring worn by the youth, which was infinitely more valuable.

From the very moment Shuisheng had retrieved the Ice Prison Eagle's corpse from his boundary stone ring, Zhang Xuan had harbored this scheme.

Even the most ordinary boundary stone ring was worth tens of millions of Donghua dollars in the Supernatural Grand World! It was something money alone could not buy!

Indeed, the Ice Prison Eagle business was merely a pretext!

Using this pretext to pick a fight and forcibly seize the youth's boundary stone ring as well would allow him to kill two birds with one stone!

As for the companion standing nearby—dressed in a suit and as handsome and dashing as a gigolo—Zhang Xuan completely disregarded him.

How much genuine capability could a flashy fop like that possibly possess? Besides, he had a trump card of a secret technique up his sleeve.

"Oh? Is this negotiations falling through and turning into a brawl?" Ning Xiaoxuan, the round-faced girl, remarked with a mocking, ambiguous tone. "Whatever business you have between yourselves, resolve it outside. Don't fight inside my shop; if anything gets broken, you'll have to pay for it."

These words carried a distinct flavor of adding fuel to the fire.

Hearing this, Zhang Xuan grabbed the Ice Prison Eagle's corpse and vaulted straight out of the shop. Tossing the carcass onto the pavement, he beckoned mockingly to Shuisheng. "Come on out! If you beat me, I'll pay the full price according to your terms! If you lose to me, you'll do things my way! This Ice Prison Eagle, and everything else you're carrying, will all belong to me!"

*What kind of nonsense is that? Everything on my body belongs to you?*

Shuisheng finally grasped the full extent of the other man's intentions. The Ice Prison Eagle was merely an excuse; the true target all along was the boundary stone ring gifted to him by Mei Yulang!

*What kind of person are you? Resorting to daylight robbery in broad daylight! Is there no justice left? Is there no law?*

Before parting, Mei Yulang had indeed hesitated slightly before bestowing the item upon Shuisheng. He could tell the lad genuinely cherished it, yet the object was so extraordinarily rare and precious that it would inevitably provoke the greed of countless eyes. Without the strength to protect it, it might well bring about a fatal disaster. Ultimately, he chose to leave it with him; whatever storms awaited in the future, the boy would have to face them head-on. If he couldn't even safeguard a single boundary stone ring, how could he ever speak of soaring like a fish in the vast sea or a bird in the boundless sky?

Judging preliminarily from the pale green glow and intensity of the supernatural energy radiating from Zhang Xuan's body as he leaped, the man was clearly a Level 3 wood-element supernatural being.

Shuisheng stepped out of the shop, pale supernatural energy beginning to flare across both his hands. This was tantamount to accepting the challenge.

Though there was a gap in their cultivation levels, standing quietly by and continuing to endure after being bullied to his very doorstep was simply not the style of Mr. Shuisheng.

If you want to fight, then we fight!