The next day, Fan Xiwen rose early and began his planned morning training.
Although the Marrow-Cleansing Pill had made his physique much stronger than that of an ordinary person, this was still far from enough.
Back in Dragon City, Fan Xiwen had also needed to practice alchemy. Now that he had some free time, he naturally had to begin physical training.
When Longjiang Residence was originally built, Mo Younian had developed only one side of it, while the back still retained its original appearance.
Fan Xiwen did not want to be surrounded and watched again in the villa district, so he simply went to the mountain forest behind it to run. There happened to be a trail leading up and down the mountain, and he stopped only after running four or five laps back and forth.
On his final lap, Fan Xiwen encountered an old man practicing boxing among the trees at the mountaintop.
The old man was practicing soft and sluggish tai chi. Fan Xiwen lost interest after one glance and did not continue watching.
After returning to the villa, Fan Xiwen began his cultivation for the day. The great formation had absorbed pitifully little spiritual energy during the night, and the new batch of jade would not be delivered until tonight, so Fan Xiwen could only make do.
“Forget it. Since I’m here, I might as well make the trip.”
All the jade purchased by Mo Younian came from a jewelry store in Shao City. However, the other party’s headquarters was not in Shao City but in Yue City, in northern Hu Province. Moreover, the more jade Fan Xiwen needed this time, the better, so the other party also had to gather supplies from elsewhere. As a result, the process was rather slow.
After calling Mo Younian to ask about it, Fan Xiwen left Longjiang Residence.
Hengping Street in Shao City had been the location of Shao City Station twenty years ago. Later, as Shao City continued to develop and its urban area expanded, the station was moved away, but its popularity remained.
Mo Younian had told Fan Xiwen that Hengping Street was not as simple as it appeared, because many people secretly engaged in other lines of business.
On Hengping Street, Fan Xiwen found two Pawnshops, three antique shops, and three jewelry stores. These shops were said to have existed for at least twenty or thirty years.
Over the years, no matter how Hengping Street changed, these shops had stood there unchanged, year after year. Their storefronts seemed to keep expanding outward.
Fan Xiwen’s target on this trip was precisely these eight shops. He entered a Pawnshop called Hengrui.
It was quite spacious inside, and a young attendant greeted Fan Xiwen with a beaming smile.
“Boss, are you here to pawn something?”
Fan Xiwen stood in the hall for a moment before saying calmly, “Did Mo Younian tell your boss that I would be coming?”
The young attendant was startled. “Could you be the Master Fan Haotian whom Master Mo mentioned?”
Fan Xiwen nodded.
“Our boss has been waiting for you for quite some time. Please come with me.”
Although the young attendant was surprised that Master Fan was even younger than he was, he was quite quick-witted. He respectfully invited Fan Xiwen to accompany him to the Pawnshop’s rear courtyard.
The rear courtyard of the Pawnshop had a distinctive appearance. A two- or three-meter-high wall enclosed it, and a lotus pond had been arranged in the middle. A middle-aged man dressed in black martial attire was sitting on a stone bench drinking wine.
“Boss, Master Fan has arrived.”
The young attendant called out, and the middle-aged man turned around. When he saw Fan Xiwen, the shock on his face was impossible to conceal.
Young!
Far too young!
He looked exactly like a student who was still in school!
“You are Master Fan?”
The Pawnshop owner asked with a trace of uncertainty. The reason for his uncertainty was mainly that Fan Xiwen was simply too young.
A Master capable of alchemy, someone whom Mo Younian was willing to bow before, was actually this young?
The Pawnshop owner’s first thought was, What kind of international joke is this?
However, Fan Xiwen did not give the Pawnshop owner time for pointless chatter. He directly took out the card Mo Younian had given him.
“Take me to see the items your Pawnshop has collected over the past several decades. Deduct the cost directly from this card. If it isn’t enough, have Mo Younian send more—or just tell me what you need.”
At this point, the Pawnshop owner finally believed him by eighty percent.
With that expression, an ordinary young upstart could never have pretended so convincingly.
“Master, please come with me.”
The Pawnshop owner composed himself, made an extremely respectful inviting gesture, and then led Fan Xiwen into a side room. This room was also filled with all kinds of objects, but Fan Xiwen was not interested in them, because the true treasures were not here.
Seeing Fan Xiwen’s expression, the Pawnshop owner became even more certain. He walked directly to the corner of the side room and rotated a porcelain bottle placed on a wooden shelf. A rumbling sound came from the wall, revealing a staircase.
Following the staircase downward, they found a basement beneath the Pawnshop about the size of a basketball court. More than a dozen wooden shelves stood inside, piled with all kinds of objects.
Porcelain, wood, iron—every kind of object imaginable was there.
At this point, the Pawnshop owner began to introduce the collection. “Hengrui has been operated by my family since my grandfather’s time, nearly forty years now. Over the years, we continued acquiring items, which is how the collection reached its current scale. You could say these are all fine pieces left behind by my grandfather and father.”
Fan Xiwen gave a soft laugh, then walked straight to a wooden shelf. His gaze immediately fell on a wooden box containing a string of Buddhist prayer beads. Judging by their condition, they appeared to be quite ancient.
The shop owner hurried over at once and said with an ingratiating smile, “This is a string of Buddhist prayer beads. Someone discovered them in an ancient tomb. It is said that they were the burial object of some prince from one of the dynasties that once ruled our Dragon Nation. If you like them, Master, you can take them directly. Consider them a respectful gift from me, Ma Zhi.”
There was nothing unusual about Ma Zhi trying to curry favor with Fan Xiwen.
That miraculous elixir was something that, once anyone got their hands on it, would surely send them leaping over the dragon gate, with a future of unimaginable wealth and status.
In the eyes of the tycoons of Shao City, Master Fan, who could refine elixirs, was absolutely a God of Wealth.
Moreover, Master Fan was so young yet could make Mo Younian bow before him, clearly proving that his origins were extraordinary. If they could secure his support, it would greatly benefit the family’s development in the future.
Fan Xiwen gave Ma Zhi a half-smiling look. “If these Buddhist prayer beads had been unearthed a few years earlier, perhaps you could have worn them and still slept peacefully. Unfortunately, as for now…”
Heh.
These Buddhist prayer beads were a magical artifact. Unfortunately, nearly all the spiritual energy attached to them had already dissipated.
Fan Xiwen ran his right hand over them once, and the originally dull beads instantly gained a trace of luster.
What Ma Zhi did not know was that the last bit of spiritual energy in the beads had been absorbed by Fan Xiwen during that touch.
Fan Xiwen had only one principle when it came to spiritual energy: absorb it all, absorb every last bit, and leave nothing behind.
There was too little spiritual energy in these Buddhist prayer beads, and Fan Xiwen was unwilling to spend money taking home a mere decorative item.
Continuing forward, he stopped before a jade pendant.
The jade pendant was of average quality, but its carving was vivid and lifelike. It was neither a dragon nor a phoenix, but a pixiu.
A smile crossed Fan Xiwen’s lips. “Wrap this one up.”
Ma Zhi said nothing and merely nodded.
Fan Xiwen’s earlier comments about the Buddhist prayer beads made Ma Zhi understand that although Master Fan was young, his knowledge of such things might not be inferior to his own.
Therefore, Ma Zhi chose to do more and speak less.
Fan Xiwen continued walking among the wooden shelves, but he did not select many items—only an armillary sphere and a pearl.
Hengrui Pawnshop’s forty years of accumulation had yielded only four magical artifacts, which inevitably left Fan Xiwen somewhat disappointed.
But there was nothing he could do about it.
Among all the cities in Hu Province, Shao City was unquestionably near the bottom of the rankings. This could be seen from Mo Younian alone.
Fan Xiwen did not bother asking how much Ma Zhi had charged for the three items. He simply told him to have someone deliver them to Villa Number One at Longjiang Residence later. He then went to another Pawnshop, but unfortunately, he found only one magical artifact there, comparable to the Buddhist prayer beads, and Fan Xiwen absorbed its spiritual energy as well.
Fan Xiwen did not even bother entering the remaining three antique shops. In a place like an antique shop, if even one out of ten items displayed outside was genuine, that would already make it an exceptionally honest business. Only young people who had read a few novels and truly believed they could find overlooked treasures in antique shops would visit them. As for the inventory areas of those three antique shops, Fan Xiwen found nothing worth going down to inspect.
Fan Xiwen had finished visiting the two Pawnshops and three antique shops. Next were the three jewelry stores.
Xiangfu, Xiangrui, and Xiangnian—the ancestors of these three jewelry stores were said to have originally operated a single business, which later split apart.
These three stores also contained the richest spiritual energy on the entire street. When Fan Xiwen stood in front of them, he could even feel the spiritual energy within his body circulating slightly faster.
Jade could contain spiritual energy. With the enormous amount of jade accumulated across these three stores, it was only natural that the spiritual energy was abundant.
This was Fan Xiwen’s true purpose in coming to Hengping Street. He had not come to find overlooked treasures; he had come to sweep up the inventory.
“This time, it looks like I won’t be disappointed.”
Fan Xiwen laughed, and just as he was about to enter the shop, his brows suddenly furrowed.
“Classmate Fan Xiwen,”
At that moment, a clear voice called out from the side.
Tang Qingrou came running over with a faint smile and a hint of pleasant surprise. “Classmate Fan Xiwen, I didn’t expect you to come to Shao City too. When I saw you just now, I thought I was mistaken.”
“Hello, Classmate Tang Qingrou.”
Fan Xiwen smiled and waved at Tang Qingrou.
“Qingrou, why are you running so fast?”
Tang Qingrou had not come alone. Besides the ever-present Chen Gang, there was also a tall, slender girl wearing high heels and large wavy curls, looking like a stylish urban beauty.
“I didn’t expect us to meet in Shao City. You really are impossible to shake.”
When Chen Gang saw Fan Xiwen, he gnashed his teeth in hatred.