As if on cue, the stall owner waved to her enthusiastically, “Young lady, come take a look! My goods are genuine and fairly priced—no cheating anyone, young or old!”

Feng Miao Jun initially ignored him, but then a voice reached her ear: “Look, mistress, look!”

It had been so long. She was momentarily stunned before realizing that it was the liquid metal monster White Board that had spoken.

This fellow was finally awake?

Speaking of which, this creature was truly a disappointment. Back when she had fed it the metal she’d brought out from the Cliff Mountain Sea of Fire, White Board had claimed it would awaken in just a few days. Instead, it had slumbered continuously until now!

She had thought it might never wake and had been wearing it simply as an ordinary earring. After all, it was quite normal for monster spirits to sleep for decades or even over a hundred years.

Feng Miao Jun coldly snickered as she ground her back teeth: “Don’t tell me you’ve only woken up because you’ve found something tasty?”

Glutton! Even the ones Yun Ya collected were gluttons!

“You’re so perceptive!” White Board replied somewhat embarrassedly. “There’s a treasure on this stall.”

White Board had transformed into an earring and was conversing with her at zero distance. They both kept their voices extremely low, and the stall owner couldn’t hear them as he continued his enthusiastic solicitation.

Feng Miao Jun squeezed her adoptive mother’s hand and walked over to rummage through the goods while asking, “Are these all genuine?”

“How could I sell fakes?” The stall owner glared. “If it’s fake, I’ll compensate a hundredfold!”

The stall was selling rare items and materials from the sea.

After browsing for a while, the mother and daughter pointed at two items and asked the stall owner, “How much?”

One was a conch shell that Madam Xu had picked out. It had beautiful patterns and when placed against the ear, one could hear the sound of tides. If processed, it could produce deep, resonant sounds. In folk tradition, “blowing the dharma conch” referred to this very item. Feng Miao Jun, however, had selected a pot of water plants. They were completely crimson, resembling fern-like plants with small fruits formed at the base of the leaf stalks, with a pearl-like luster.

Of course, these weren’t pearls but fruits called “Water-Feeding Pills.” After consuming one, a person could breathe freely underwater for a quarter of an hour. Half the pot of fruits had ripened, lying in a dark brown bronze pot and looking quite appealing.

“Fifty taels,” the stall owner said. Seeing that they had chosen inexpensive items, his enthusiasm diminished by two-thirds.

That conch shell was worth at most three taels of silver. Madam Xu complained, “Too expensive. Twenty taels!”

She was beautiful, so the stall owner held back his “if you can’t afford it, don’t bother” retort, merely rolling his eyes disinterestedly without responding.

Feng Miao Jun smiled, “Fifty is fine. It’s not easy doing business here.” She took out a large silver ingot and tossed it over, then gathered the two items.

The stall owner accepted the money. When Madam Xu asked about something else, he ignored her, addressing only a hesitant cultivator, “Such treasures would sell for three hundred spirit stones a pair on land! I happened to come by these by chance, and quite a few people have inquired about them today. Buy them or not, it’s up to you. Go browse around and think about it, but I’m afraid they might be sold by the time you return.”

With that, he waved his hand outward, also showing an impatient demeanor.

The cultivator bit his lip and finally made up his mind: “I’ll buy them.” He reached into his bosom to retrieve his money pouch.

Feng Miao Jun glanced at the stall owner and moved closer to ask, “What are these?”

“Sea… sea snake fangs,” answered the cultivator, a human young man with fair skin and delicate features. “Five hun… hundred years of cultivation.”

No wonder she had heard the stall owner talking non-stop earlier without the young man speaking much. It turned out he had a stutter and didn’t like to talk.

“May I have a look?” she asked.

As the young man was about to hand her the snake fangs, the stall owner intercepted with his hand, wearing a look of disdain: “Hey, if you’re not buying, why touch them?”

“How do you know I won’t buy?” Feng Miao Jun lowered her head to examine the fangs briefly. “They do indeed seem to be about five hundred years of cultivation.”

The stall owner remarked curiously, “Well, you have a good eye.” Then he turned to the young man, “See? She says the same thing.”

The young man looked at her, then at the stall owner. Feng Miao Jun understood his gaze: these two must be working together, playing good cop, bad cop.

This kid wasn’t stupid after all. She asked the stall owner, “Do you have any more? I’d like to buy a pair too.”

“No… no more.” Scarcity increases value. How could sea snake fangs with five hundred years of cultivation be so easily obtained?

“What a pity,” she shook her head repeatedly. “I was thinking of buying a pair for five spirit stones.”

The stall owner’s expression immediately changed: “If you can’t afford it, why are you making trouble? Go away!”

Feng Miao Jun shrugged and turned to leave. The young man, sensing something amiss, asked, “Why… why five spirit stones?”

The stall owner hurriedly said, “Don’t listen to her nonsense…”

But the young man had already stood up and strode away.

Having lost his fat sheep, the stall owner glared at Feng Miao Jun, but she merely showed him her back.

She returned to the Feng family group, and the young man followed her, persistently asking, “Why?”

“Shark demon teeth, even with five hundred years of cultivation, are only worth that much,” Feng Miao Jun smiled, revealing teeth as orderly as shells. “A shark demon has nearly a hundred teeth in one bite, and they’re constantly replacing them!”

A shark could shed and replace several thousand teeth in ten years. When they became old, dull, or fell out, new ones immediately grew in. These things weren’t rare to them at all.

“Not snake fangs?” The young man was stunned. “I saw poison… poison glands.”

“Counterfeit. Have you ever seen serrations on snake fangs?” Those “snake fangs” had very tiny serrations at the tip that were almost impossible to notice without careful examination.

The young man’s face flushed red with anger: “Swindler!”

Feng Miao Jun smiled and walked away with her group. The young man sincerely said, “Thank you.” Then he pointed at himself, “Feng… Fengyang City, Xu… Xu Huan Cheng.”

Feng Miao Jun imitated his gesture, pointing at herself: “Feng Family, Feng Miao Jun.” From the corner of her eye, she noticed several men approaching, slightly startled, she quickly waved at him and turned to leave.

Several men were walking toward them, blending into the crowd without standing out. But among them was someone Feng Miao Jun had seen in the Kingdom of Wei’s royal army, called Jing Shun.

It seemed these were all cultivators accompanying the army, following the orders of the King of Wei and Yun Ya.

So the people of Wei had come too. These few couldn’t possibly be here to tour the Forbidden Sea, could they?

Various factions had gathered on this small island. Feng Miao Jun felt that the situation was becoming more and more interesting.

The market was surging with people, and these few men couldn’t stride forward with heads held high either. They could only follow the flow of people, step by step, soon passing by Feng Miao Jun.

She had changed her appearance from breathtakingly beautiful to utterly ordinary. Even though Jing Shun had encountered the State Preceptor’s maid several times in the Wei army, this time he didn’t recognize her at all.

He walked past without giving her a single glance.

Two hours later, in the underwater city of Luo Fu, at the Shadow Palace.

This was the residence of the Jiao People’s King and also where the entire clan held a council. Now Jing Shun and the others stood before him. The Jiao People’s King examined them all and said, “It’s been twelve years since we last met. Is the King of Wei well?”

His voice was so soft it was almost gender-neutral, yet it was vast and grand, having an effect that lingered in the halls for three days.