Upon a brief thank you, the two men found themselves at the fat man’s stall perusing the goods laid out.

”Come take a look, see if there’s anything you fancy!” The fat cultivator’s eyes curved into crescents whenever he smiled.

It was easy to take a liking to him.

“Fair prices guaranteed!”

Caspian did not cast his sights onto the hemlock at first.

He pretended to look around, scanning the merchandise of the stalls next to that one.

There were antlers with stripes that glistened golden.

No one knew what creature they came from.

There were dry, shriveled fingers with pointy nails.

Potted plants bore colorful flowers but with leaves that were completely withered.

Caspian looked at all of them, reaching out to feel them from time to time if he wanted.

The fat man seemed equally uncaring of Caspian’s wandering.

None of these things were of any value, after all.

Caspian hardly gave them a second glance.

Upon putting down a shiv, Caspian moved to pick up the hemlock.

It sank with weight the second he picked it up.

Caspian’s eyes froze slightly.

‘It’s heavier than I expected it to be,’ Caspian thought to himself as he cast the stall owner a glance.

Instantly, Caspian was able to see the flash of panic that briefly overtook the fat man’s features when he picked the hemlock up.

Suspicion arose in Caspian immediately.

Instead of hurrying to inquire about the price, he began to analyze it.

The hemlock looked real and fine at first glance.

The chasm was struck by thunder.

Caspian, having absorbed the Bone of Thunder, knew more about lighting than the average cultivator.

The part of the hemlock that was charred black was caught in a forest fire caused by a lightning strike.

kind

Or so it seemed.

seemed interested in the hemlock, the fat man

that hemlock, eh? Let me tell you the truth… I

would come in

to be thinking on

the price even

did business for

take another look…” Caspian nodded, bringing the hemlock closer to

much Caspian wanted and needed the hemlock, he would

Insight, after all, was something

not chance upon the shop again after

he picked the hemlock up, on top of the

turned the hemlock over in his hands yet again, fingertips running over

nonchalant to Caspian’s actions, even calling out to other cultivators that passed by his stall to

Caspian was able to see that the man’s gaze

was obvious that something

the hemlock, Caspian

not working well enough, he would have

divine sense was much stronger than that of cultivators of the

fat man looked visibly

not long before Caspian realized that

something wrong with the

laid in the section

an opening so thin

discovered that the hemlock was stuffed with a piece of

was a

why the hemlock was heavier than

discovering the loophole, Caspian

to the stall

his mind to purchase and smiled so brightly his pupils were

me, young man! I won’t bamboozle

Five hundred spirit stones.

How’s that?”

much!” Caspian

but it’s not!” the fat man smiled, “Hemlock grows deep in the forest, it’s hard enough to source as it

like a well-read

know it takes at least two hundred years of

those two hundred years, it has to keep from pests and absorb enough nutrition among other

devastating fire must follow for lightning to pass through

young man, that lightning and thunder usually come hand in

the time the fires are put out with rain barely after they

coincidences to yield a piece of

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