How come I was born a deity?

Chapter 18: Free Purchase

After closing the bookstore door, Shen Nianxu led Chen Qi and Hu Yao to hail a taxi on the roadside and arrived at a remote urban village outside Qingcheng.

On the way, Hu Yao whispered to Chen Qi, "Is your bookstore so free? You can close down whenever you want, don't you care about your revenue at all?"

Chen Qi thought to himself, "I've been working here for two days, and the bookstore has closed twice. Forget about revenue, I haven't seen many people come in to read."

In the first three days after opening, the only revenue came from the 260,000 yuan that Wang Shande had been extorted from. Chen Qi himself was not sure whether this bookstore had any future.

Walking through the alleyway with its dense overhead power lines, the surrounding buildings seemed to be a generation behind compared to those in Qingcheng city proper.

Shen Nianxu led the two to a shop with a sign that read "Qin's Firm".

The shop's roller shutter door was tightly closed. Shen Nianxu took a step forward and came to the small door on the side of the roller shutter door, and knocked on the door.

bang bang bang --

A small window in the iron gate opened, and a pair of sinister eyes peered out, asking, "Who is it? What do you want?"

Shen Nianxu grabbed Chen Qi's hand, the one with the ring, and lifted it up, saying, "We're from the bookstore; we've come to buy something."

"Book bar?" Upon hearing these two words, the person behind the door took a closer look at the ring on Chen Qi's finger, then glanced at Shen Nianxu's face, and clicked open the door.

"Come in."

As soon as the three entered the shop, the small door behind them closed. Hu Yao, who had never been to such a place before, instinctively grabbed Chen Qi's arm and asked in a trembling voice, "Where...where is this?"

"This is Qingcheng's black market. The Qin family's firm manages this place, and their boss also has the right to vote in the year-end election for the leader," Shen Nianxu explained. "So we're not just here to spend money; we also need to try and see if we can get votes from the black market."

Chen Qi responded.

After passing through a dark corridor, the three of them quickly arrived inside the building.

The entire black market was like a row of cylindrical buildings, with each layer stacked on top of the other in a circular fashion, and each layer selling different things.

There weren't many people in the black market, but they were all cultivators from Qingcheng.

A beautiful woman in a black cheongsam walked up to the three of them, flashing a business-like smile, and asked, "Hello, Ms. Shen, welcome to Qin's Firm. How can I help you?"

Shen Nianxu cut to the chase: "Do you sell cultivation techniques here?"

The beautiful woman nodded. "Of course, Qin's Agency can get anything the customer needs, as long as the customer is satisfied."

Chen Qi craned his neck, "Really? Then can you help me find the love letter that the prettiest girl in my class confessed to me when I was in fifth grade?"

The beautiful woman blushed and said, "This... might be a little difficult..."

"Don't make things worse," Shen Nianxu pressed his head back down. "Take us to see the cultivation techniques you sell here. The more precious the better. Don't worry about the price. It would be best if there were actual demonstrations or demonstration videos."

Upon hearing that a major client had arrived, the beautiful woman's eyes lit up immediately. She quickly gestured for the three to enter and led them to the elevator. "Then please come with me to the fourth floor. All the most precious cultivation techniques in the Qin family's firm are stored on the fourth floor."

Once inside the elevator, Hu Yao cautiously tugged at Chen Qi's sleeve.

"What's wrong?" Chen Qi lowered his head.

Hu Yao tiptoed and leaned close to Chen Qi's ear, whispering, "I've heard Master say before that the Qin Family Firm's black market has everything, but the prices are very high. Even Master himself might not be able to buy anything good there. Is our bookstore... really that rich?"

Chen Qi patted her on the shoulder.

Do you know what "free purchase" means?

Hu Yao: "? What purchase?"

As soon as they reached the fourth floor, the elevator doors slowly opened with a ding, revealing a huge counter to the three of them.

A man in a suit stood behind the counter, wearing sunglasses and sporting a slicked-back hairstyle, looking every bit the big boss like Chow Yun-fat's God of Gamblers. But he had an Alpenliebe double-ball lollipop dangling from his mouth and was sporting a wicked smile.

Outside the counter stood a young man who was a bit older than Chen Qi. His features looked somewhat familiar, and he was also accompanied by several bodyguards in black.

"Sister Shen!" The man in the suit in front of the counter opened his arms and chuckled. "Long time no see. I haven't seen you since the funeral of the previous owner of your bookstore."

Shen Nianxu also wore a business-like smile, "Boss Qin, it's been a long time. And this person next to me, it's been a long time too."

The young man outside the counter stared intently at Shen Nianxu, a frivolous smile playing on his lips. "Hello, Miss Shen. You must recognize me, right?"

"Of course, He Wenchong, the leader of the new generation of the He family, one of the strongest contenders for the position this year, how could I not remember you?" Shen Nianxu said with a forced smile. "I wonder what that old bald man He Yan's expression was like when he went back yesterday?"

He Wenchong ignored the second half of Shen Nianxu's sarcastic remark and instead focused his gaze on Chen Qi.

"A first-tier cultivator, attempting to break through to the second tier..." He assessed Chen Qi's current strength almost instantly, and only after confirming he posed no threat did he withdraw his gaze. "I heard your voice from the fourth floor. You wanted to buy a cultivation technique, right? Is the bookstore's current revenue enough to buy cultivation techniques on the black market?"

Boss Qin thoughtfully added, "Even if the previous owner of the bookstore were to come back to life and appear here, Qin's Agency would absolutely not offer any discounts!"

"You two don't need to worry about that," Shen Nianxu said enthusiastically as she approached the counter. "Boss Qin, hurry up and bring out your most expensive cultivation technique!"

Upon hearing this, Boss Qin's eyes, hidden behind his sunglasses, flickered slightly. "The most expensive cultivation technique? Are you sure? You're going to start learning it now?"

Even He Wenchong's gaze changed slightly.

"No, it wasn't me who learned it," Shen Nianxu pulled Chen Qi to her side and poked his face with her finger. "It was this kid who learned it."

"he?"

Boss Qin and He Wenchong were both momentarily stunned, and the latter almost couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Miss Shen," Boss Qin, being more professional, didn't laugh out loud, but said, "Don't joke around. Whether you have the money to buy the cultivation technique is another matter, but he's only a first-level cultivator right now, isn't he? Even if you really bought the technique, it's really asking too much of a first-level cultivator to learn such an excellent technique."

Boss Qin even thoughtfully gave an example: "As you know, the more excellent the technique, the more difficult it is to learn. For example, Wang Shande's object manipulation technique is extremely difficult. He is the only one in the entire Qingcheng Society who knows this technique."

"Excuse me for being blunt, but you don't need to waste your money like this. If you really just want to spend money, I can send you the payment code directly, and then you can transfer the money to me directly."

Shen Nianxu snorted coldly, "Boss Qin runs a shop, how can he not do business? Just hand over the cultivation technique when I tell you to, don't give me all this nonsense!"

Shaking his head helplessly, Boss Qin replied, "Alright, alright, please wait a moment, I'll go get it for you."

"But let me make this clear from the start: once the goods leave the store, I am not responsible for any issues and there will be no returns."

"If you buy it but can't learn how to use it, please don't come back to us for a refund."