"Do you have a token?" the guard asked them.
Fang Yuan showed his white token to the guard. Bai Ning Bing, however, had nothing of the sort.
"It will be two hundred primeval stones, then."
Bai Ning Bing frowned. She had accumulated a number of assets from her and Fang Yuan's misadventures, as well as from her status as an external elder with the Bai Clan. However, she was being forced to pay while Fang Yuan got through without having to pay anything. Naturally, no one would be happy about this and it would spark jealousy in anyone's eyes.
"Relax," Fang Yuan said, catching her expression as they walked down to the fourth inner city. "We'll get you a token as well. With that, you won't have to pay in many places, and we'll even get a discount in some areas. And if you happen to want to borrow some primeval stones in the meanwhile from me to offset these costs..."
Bai Ning Bing snorted. She was sure that if Fang Yuan wanted to lend her primeval stones, it would be at a rate or with some conditions attached that would absolutely make it not worth it.
The fourth inner city was much better than the fifth. Here, the buildings were far better developed and towered over multiple stories. Light was provided by a large number of rank one Moonlight Crawling Mountain Tiger Gu, which was a type of vine growing on the walls of the streets.
A small amount of blue moonlight came out from it. Fang Yuan thought about it. It could potentially be useful for growing Moonlight Orchids, he thought to himself, if he could get his hands on some of them. The gentle light was just enough for the Moonlight Orchids to grow, but not too much where they would wither.
However, this was not their intended destination. The two of them continued deeper and got to the city gate to enter the third inner city.
"Both of you will need to pay six hundred primeval stones each," the guard said. This guard was the first one that they had encountered whose rank was rank three. Rank 3 Gu Masters would normally be elders, and yet this man was here guarding the gate. It spoke to how important the third inner city was, and just how powerful the Shang Clan was.
Bai Ning Bing almost audibly groaned as she handed over the amount. Fang Yuan showed the man his token.
The third inner city was built using Star Stones and was capable of humming starlight in the darkness. This, too, could potentially be used to try to raise more Moonlight Orchids back in the Gu Village, Fang Yuan thought to himself.
The place had very few people. After all, how many people could have afforded that price without a token? Nearly every single Gu Master they came across was Rank 3. The mountain did go deeper, of course, to the second inner city, and finally, the innermost city. However, to get there was not an issue about primeval stones; you would have to use a token.
Fang Yuan considered such and knew that his white token would allow him to get to the second inner city, but no further beyond.
"Tong Ou Shop," Fang Yuan said, pointing out their destination. "This is a shop that sells Gu worms."
"Please come in," an attendant, a young girl, said and beckoned them inside. She was a rank one Gu Master, and her pupils dilated slightly upon seeing Fang Yuan's rank five cultivation, but she was still professional and regained her composure as she lead the two of them to an elegant room with various decorations on the walls. This was without a doubt a first-class establishment.
Tea and other refreshments were brought out for them. However, they had already eaten their fill, so these were left untouched. An elderly man entered, who was a Rank 2 Gu Master and cupped his fists and bowed deeply before Fang Yuan. "Lord Gu Master, are you here to buy or sell?"
"We'd like to do both if possible," Fang Yuan said.
The elderly man took out two gu worms. Both of them were Bookworms. It looked almost like a silkworm and was similar to the Liquor Gu in that its demand was high, despite only being a rank one Gu.
It could store knowledge and information, which was extraordinarily useful for Gu Masters. Both Bai Ning Bing and Fang Yuan used their primeval essence to gain the information etched in these bookworms.
The information was almost too much to bear as the shop sold ten thousand different varieties of gu worms, all from rank one to rank five. There was also information in addition to their prices. Some of them required tokens to buy, and unfortunately, many of the Rank 5 gu worms were like this. Fang Yuan's white token could mitigate this problem and given him access to some - but not all of them.
"All right, I'm done looking at them," Fang Yuan said.
"Esteemed guest, then what would you wish to buy? If you buy in bulk, then we can certainly accommodate you and even throw in a little discount."
"We would like to sell our gu worms first," Fang Yuan said. He took out the Bone Spear Gu and explained how it functioned. The man valued it at 310 primeval stones, as he had not seen a Gu worm like this before. Clearly, Jiang Ya's caravan had not yet spread it too much to the point that it would have reached this city.
Fang Yuan still tried to bargain, and so each of them was sold at 320 primeval stones. Fang Yuan had almost four hundred of them which he removed from his aperture.
He would not have been able to raise so many if it had just been him on his lonesome. However, that was one of the benefits of traveling with a clan and of being clan leader.
He could force his subordinates to take care of as many of the gu worms as possible, and he had taken the surplus, storing them within a storage-type gu while coming here. He did not need to worry about them starving since he had enough milk for the short journey on the White Form Immortal Snake.
"So many of them...." the man said, feeling he should've bargained harder if he had known such. Even a difference of a single primeval stone would be large if amplified 400 times - let alone 10 - he had essentially given up 4,000 extras stones! However, the price had already been decided, and these were promptly sold.
Fang Yuan then took out another Gu worm, the Spiral Bone Spear Gu, and explained what it did. They negotiated a price of eight hundred primeval stones, and Fang Yuan took out a hundred of them from his aperture, selling them all for a total of 80,000 primeval stones.
Fang Yuan then took out the Bone Spike Gu. This was different from its previous two iterations in that, although its attacking power was high, it also damaged the user. The rank one and rank two versions of it did not have this drawback, and so that was a significant consideration, and the price had to be lowered compared to a normal Rank 3 gu worm. Fang Yuan sold all of these as well.