Author's note: This chapter (and the next two) are sponsored by TKA! Thank you! ^_^

Host's note: I'm not the author. I'm hosting this story on RRL with author permission.

The busy streets of Black Pearl Market were bustling with movements as everyone went about their business. There was still a faint hint of excitement in the air. Many people still have not calmed down from the previous two days. The destruction of three major clans in the city and the great generosity of the Jin Clan had left many numbed with disbelief and anticipation.

There was a greater deal of merchants in the city today, with several people setting up small stands all around the city. These new people are obviously not from the city originally.

To the side of the street, two merchants were chatting among themselves. In front of each of them was a small table. Shiny jewelry and rings were sprawl across the tables in open display.

“Damn, just what is going on this city? I heard there was a huge wave of demand abruptly coming from here just yesterday. This has never happened before…” A middle aged merchant in straw hat said, as he watched the crowds walk by.

“What do you know? I heard the new lord of this city gave out quite a large sum of gold to every folks in this place. Even the beggars got some of the leftovers!” The other merchant wearing brown clothes, who was chewing a stalk, replied. With a hair full of gray and an aged face, the older merchant was leaning his back against a building, his bottom seated on a wooden crate.

“What? Then that rumor was real…”

“What do you mean “then that rumor was real”? How else do you expect a bunch of folks from a Lesser City to suddenly be able to purchase high quality goods outside of their own city? That’s the whole reason why merchants like us came flocking to this city in the first place!”

“But if there’s suddenly so much money,wouldn’t many of the shops be unable to keep up with the new demands?” The straw hat merchant said, with a slight confused look on his face.

“My god, why the hell are you worrying so much? What do you even think you and I are in this city right now for? We are here to earn money. We go wherever there is a surge of money. It’s all about money. Heck we care about if those shops close.” The brown clothed merchant grunted, rolling his eyes.

He then continued: “Right now, several merchants from other provinces are rushing over here like vultures, to gobble up these people’s money! I heard some of this city’s residents had left as well, thinking of starting anew at another province. Heh, they didn’t even bother to stay and just left after getting the money….”

“Then this city will not last long?” The straw hat merchant continued to ask.

“Who told the person to give so much money to everyone at once? In a small city like this, I doubt they’ll be able to meet every demand, unlike those giant cities. And with new merchants popping up left and right, hehe..you can already imagine the chaos that’ll soon ensue.” The brown clothed merchant replied.

The straw merchant nodded his head. Although he had asked about the city’s health, in reality, he did not really care. It could be said that as wandering merchants, he couldn’t afford to worry about someone else. In the end, it was the brown clothed man had said, only the money matters. He merely asked to keep himself and the other party entertained, while they waited for customers.

“A small boom like this is useless. People are leaving. Shops will soon close down. The distribution of wealth is uneven. I’ve seen several cities fall because of things like this…” The brown clothed merchant muttered as he closed his eyes.

Having worked as a merchant for years, he had traveled to many cities and had seen many situations. Thus, his analytical ability, when it comes to money and business, was much more advanced than others.

“Well, I guess we’ll have to squeeze as much money out of these folks before things get out of control…” The straw hat merchant sighed. “Anyways, did you hear about this other rumor in this city? Apparently, the city lord is said to be a Xing Profound expert…and a very young one at that!”

“Bulls. A Lesser City having such a peerless expert? Fat chance. I see this city barely even have a Wudan 9th stage practitioner, the hell you think a peak expert like that would appear here?

And you say it’s a young expert? Do you actually believe something like that? If that’s so, then that person must’ve been cultivating since he was in his mother’s womb! It’s just not possible.

Most likely, those were probably rumors spread by some managers of this city to attract more visitors or something. There’s always fake news like that traversing across other cities. If everyone believed every rumor about a Xing Profound expert appearing in their city, then those large clans would probably have to move across different provinces every single month! Who would have time and manpower to do something like that?”

The two merchants continued to dwell on rumors and recent news that’s been spreading in Tian City, while they waited out in the hot sun for customers.

As the crowd scurried about, a handsome youth wearing pure white clothes stepped into the street. Immediately, many heads looked at the youth’s direction. Excitement suddenly bursted from their eyes.

“Oy, oy, isn’t that second young master of the Jin Clan?!”

“Hush, what second young master? He’s the first young master now, you fool! Do you want to die?!”

“Oh my! His looks are really refined as the rumors said!”

“Where is he going? With his status right now, there shouldn’t be any need for him to come out here himself..”

Murmurs rose from the surrounding as people began to recognize the youth in white clothes walking leisurely through the street.

Having overheard a few gossips along the way, Jin Xia had a faint smile on his face.

“Mortals really do not change much even after many years, huh…well, with this, this city’s finance should be ruptured. Those who were never loyal should have all left by now. And soon enough, a monetary crisis should strike this city soon, wiping out most of the shops in this place.

When that happens…it would be much easier to reconstruct this city from the bottom up. The citizens who stayed would be more grateful if my Jin Clan was able to help them solve the upcoming crisis, leading to an even more firm foundation…” Jin Xia thought smilingly in his mind.

With the simplicity of mind of the people in Tian City, it was much easier to please the citizens. But there were still several factors that Jin Xia could not control. For example, many of the shops in the city have been around for years, but not every shop is needed, nor is every shop a “good” contribution to the city’s atmospheres.

There were even stores in the city that were set up by families from other provinces! After all, even if Tian City was Lesser ranked city, it was still a place valid for business.

Overall, the city’s financial matters and overall structure was quite obscure. The people in this country were simply too simple-minded, thus no one ever questioned the system.

Therefore, in order to start over, Jin Xia made a radical decision. He chose to personally destroy the city, in a financial sense.

By purposely adding an influx of new money, several things would be shifted around in the city. And without any proper management, chaos would definitely ensue. Once this happens, families from other provinces would withdrawn their shops that were set up in Tian City. After all, if the city was to go haywire, the profit range would plummet dramatically. Almost all the shops would not survive.

Afterwards, by having Liu Dan take command on the reformation of the city, not only would the people be even more grateful to the Jin Clan, the city’s matters would be much more clear to them! Although there may be other unforeseeable consequences of this decision, Jin Xia was not too worry about it right now.

Even if his plan failed and the city was instead pushed into a regressed state, he believed that once the Jin Clan starts growing, the expansion of the city would naturally follow and recover. And with greater strength, comes the power to bend rules at one’s will.

If a person was strong enough, they could even twist the illogical into “logical!”

After a while, Jin Xia arrived in front of a large store. On the side of door was the wooden board that wrote, “Tian Slave Market.”

Stepping through the large door, Jin Xia was immediately greeted by a plump man in purple garments. The middle-aged man had a small moustache with shrewd eyes that gave off a clear light.

“Ah! If it isn’t Young Master Jin Xia! It is a great honour for us to have you here. My name is Da Hai. Our Tian Slave Market thank the young master for his generosity the other day…hehe, if the young master needs anything from us, feel free to say it!”, the plump man rapidly fired off his introduction as he cupped his hands respectfully towards Jin Xia.

“Mn.”, Jin Xia nodded to the enthusiastic fat man, as he looked around the large yard. “I am here to purchase some cultivation slaves today. I want to see the best of those you have.”

“Certainly, certainly! This humble one will bring them to young master right away!”, Da Hai said gleefully as he quickly went to inside one of the buildings at the further end of the yard.

Moments later, Da Hai returned with around thirty people who had chains strapped around their hands and legs. Those large group of people were slaves.

On their ankles and wrists were black colored shackles. Jin Xia instantly recognized them to be Spiritual Shackles. These special shackles are created with special symbols, which would restrict the ability of whoever wears them. Some even have the function of brainwashing the wearers.

“I have brought them, young master Jin Xia. These are the best slaves we have in our Tian Slave Market. Let me introduce them…”, Da Hai said proudly as he began to ramble on about their strength and personality.

Jin Xia did not bother to listen as he started scanning the group of slaves with his soul.

“Hmm, most of them only have an innate quality of about 1 or 2, with 3 being the highest here. These are the so called ‘best’?”, JIn Xia silently mused to himself. After scanning the entire group of people, Jin Xia had discovered that most of these slaves’ innate quality was quite poor. To a large slave house such as the Tian Slave Market, they should at least have a few slaves with innate quality of 4’s in reserve…

“Mister, are these slaves really the ‘best’ that your Tian Market have?”, Jin Xia interrupted Da Hai, who was still talking.

“And this one here- eh? Of course they are, young master Jin Xia! Look at this one over here. Look at his muscular body and fierce nature, he has an innate quality of 5 for a cultivation slave! His value is priceless…”

As Da Hai trailed off while speaking, he suddenly felt a burst of coldness coming from his side. He quickly turned his head only to find JIn Xia looking coldly at him.

“What’s going on?”, Da Hai alarmingly thought to himself as sweat poured from his back.

“Mister Da Hai, if you did not wish to sell me good slaves, then don’t waste my time. Amongst these slaves, there are barely one that passed an innate quality of 3. Not selling to me may be one thing, but what I hate the most are liars.”, Jin Xia coldly said as he stared at Da Hai.

The smile on Dai Hai’s face froze as he felt his body go rigid. A feeling of coldness and fear squirmed out from his heart.

“H-how did he know about that?!”, Da Hai screamed in his heart as he fearfully lowered his head.

“I-I apologize, young master Jin Xia! I-I must’ve remembered their innate quality wrong..right, that must be it. T-This is all a misunderstanding, haha! Please do not get angry, I will immediately go back and see if I can find a better bunch. Please wait here.”, Da Hai hastily said as he brought the slaves back into the building.

Seconds later, Da Hai returned once again. This time, there were only five slaves by his side. Three of the males looked to be in their early forties while the two girls in the group looked to be about seventeen to nineteen.

“Here they are, young master Jin Xia. I am sorry about the offense earlier. To make up for it, our Tian Slave Market is willing to offer you a fifty percent discount!” Da Hai nervously said.

Without a word, Jin Xia looked over the five slaves.

“Hmph, it seems this time around these slaves are much better than earlier ones you brought out huh..” Jin Xia said.

Da Hai remained silent while his head lowered in fear. He still could not discern how Jin Xia was able to see the slaves’ innate quality without a spirit stone. Did the youth have a special treasure on his body that’s allowing him to do so?

But no matter how much Da Hai tried to reason with himself, there was no answer. He did not even dare question JIn Xia either at this point, having slightly offended Jin Xia earlier…

Out of the five slaves, Jin Xia found the three men possessed an innate quality of 4 while the two girls surprisingly had an quality of 5! If these five persons were not a slave, they would have undoubtedly been hailed as cultivation geniuses, in particular the two girls…

With Jin Xia’s experiences, he could vaguely feel that the identity of these people must not be simple at all.

“Who are they?” Jin Xia asked as he continued to observe the slaves.

“A-ah, they are slaves who were captured during the recent war between our Great Azure country and the Fei Vermillion country. Naturally, the other country is already under our Great Azure country’s control, so many of those high officials were sent over to us to sell as slaves this time around. The slaves are left at our market for two months, and if they’re not sold within these two months, we would have to draw a random lot and send them to the slave market that was drawn. I do not know about other countries, but this is basically a small tradition among slave sites here, so that no one site would be able to control the entire market in the Great Azure Country…

Moreover, these three men here were once high ranking soldiers. Although their thoughts have been suppressed by the Spiritual Shackles, their battle strength has not diminished in the slightest!

As for those two girls…hehe, they were once princesses in their country! What’s more, they are still pure virgins and their innate quality is enough to be assessed as a genius! They are also currently the finest slaves in our Tian Slave Market. You have come at right time, young master Jin Xia!” Da Hai said as a genuine look of pride surfaced on his face.

Host's note: "I don't believe it's a good idea to post this novel here if the author will never pick it up again"- Saleban1

Saleban1, when I contacted the author about hosting this story on RRL, he told me that he plans on resuming the story soon. In fact, I'm hoping that this hosted version will help motivate the continuation of this story.