Holding the tattered book in his hand, Yu Xiaogang flipped through it casually. Although his eyes were bright, the expression on his face remained unchanged.
Therefore, Flender did not notice anything unusual about Yu Xiaogang.
After finishing his spiel to Bibi Dong, he even cast a rather relaxed glance at the book in Yu Xiaogang's hand.
"Are you interested in these ancient texts, customer?"
"I am a bit curious about the past eras."
Yu Xiaogang nodded, then placed the book back on the stall.
"The past eras, huh? To be honest, I am also quite curious about what happened on the Douluo Continent in the past."
"For instance, Spirit Hall has always worshipped the Angel God, but why are there so few records of the Angel God's deeds?"
"Is it because they are unwilling to speak of it, or is it because... never mind, let's not talk about this."
"Young man, if you like ancient texts, I can consider selling these to you for a cheaper price."
Flender acted like a merchant willing to do business at a loss.
"Oh? What price?"
Yu Xiaogang asked calmly.
"Fifty gold coins per book."
Flender wore an expression that suggested he thought the customer was getting a great deal.
A merchant standing nearby with nothing to do gasped when he heard Flender's price.
Good grief, seriously, good grief. He considered himself a profiteer, but even as a profiteer, he had to bow down before Flender, the master profiteer.
He dared to ask for fifty gold coins for a pile of waste paper. If he ever got his hands on a Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone, he would probably have the audacity to demand the Upper Three Sects change their surname to his!
With prices like that, only a fool would buy them.
As the merchant had expected, Yu Xiaogang rolled his eyes upon hearing Flender's asking price.
"Then you'd better keep these for yourself to read."
Yu Xiaogang turned his head to look at other items.
"Damn, the price was too high."
Seeing Yu Xiaogang turn away without hesitation, Flender immediately realized he had miscalculated.
The guy in front of him, who clearly had an unusual background, was not the type of person he could just name any price to once interest was shown.
This type of person was the hardest to deal with.
They had money, but they were rational; it was very difficult to scam such a person.
Therefore, Flender could only remain calm on the surface, while secretly trying to figure out how to reignite Yu Xiaogang's interest in those ancient texts.
After some effort from Flender, Yu Xiaogang began to look through those ancient texts again.
However, the frequency of his flipping was low; clearly, he was still quite bothered by Flender's earlier asking price.
According to Flender's observations, the books this person was most interested in were, first and foremost, those tattered ancient texts, followed by books labeled as the journals of various Spirit Masters.
Only after that came the rest of the miscellaneous items.
After reading a few more ancient texts and some Spirit Master journals and discovering that the contents were of little use, Yu Xiaogang made a gesture as if he had lost interest and was about to leave.
Flender became anxious upon seeing this.
"Young man, I see that you are interested in those ancient texts?"
"Hmm, a little, but your price is too outrageous."
"But to be honest, only a few people in this entire treasure market sell these things; most people sell treasure maps, weapons, and other miscellaneous items."
"How about this? I see you're interested in those ancient texts, so I'll lower the price for you. How about thirty gold coins per book?"
Hearing this, Yu Xiaogang looked at Flender with interest.
"Dropping the price by twenty gold coins immediately? It seems you make quite a profit, boss."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Daring to sell a tattered book for that price—this is only possible in a treasure market like this. Anywhere else, you'd probably be beaten to death by someone."
Yu Xiaogang's teasing did not make Flender show any sign of embarrassment.
In this line of work, you have to have a thick skin.
"So, do you want it, young man? If you do, I'll wrap it up for you."
"If you sell them for ten gold coins each, I might consider it."
Yu Xiaogang slashed the price by another twenty gold coins.
"Uh... that's a bit too excessive of a cut, isn't it? How about twenty-five?"
Flender wore a difficult expression.
"Too excessive? In my opinion, it's not excessive at all. In fact, even at ten gold coins, you would still make a profit."
"So, this is my final offer. If it works, we have a deal; if not, forget it."
Yu Xiaogang said nonchalantly while grooming his fingernails.
"You, I... sigh, fine, fine, it's a deal."
Upon hearing this, Flender opened his mouth to speak but stopped, then opened it again, hesitating for a long time before finally nodding in agreement with a pained expression.
Of course, the pain was only on the surface; in reality, Flender was already overjoyed inside.
This pile of books was indeed, as he had said earlier, collected from the homes of wealthy villagers nearby.
But the problem was that these tattered books, with content they couldn't understand, were merely ornaments used to decorate the villagers' homes.
It was as if having these books made their households seem like those Families with a long Legacy.
And when Flender went to purchase these ancient texts, although they would ask for a slightly higher price, it wouldn't be too high.
Books like these were basically two or three gold coins each.
Being able to sell them for ten gold coins each meant he had already made a huge profit.
Watching Flender's pained look, Yu Xiaogang curled the corner of his lips. He took the few books he had already picked out, swiped his storage soul tool, and pulled out a bag of gold coins.
He counted out enough gold coins from it and handed them to Flender; thus, the money and goods were exchanged.
After completing all this, Yu Xiaogang finally couldn't help but take out the ancient text with the blurred cover and start reading it.
"On How Spirit Beasts Form Spirit Bones"
This was the text present in this ancient book.
The characters in the book were very different from the current characters of the Douluo Continent, but fortunately, Yu Xiaogang had seen the same characters in the library of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect.
As for the content of the ancient text, Yu Xiaogang guessed it was a record of conjectures by former researchers, or perhaps it was a research record.
And this thing definitely came from the pre-civilization of the Douluo Continent.
Because the material of this book was the same as that of the special atlas Yu Xiaogang had found earlier.
And regarding that special atlas, Yu Xiaogang did not recognize most of the images on it; he only recognized one of them.
That was a structure he had discovered by dismantling a Spirit Bone.
In other words, that atlas was a record drawn by the pre-civilization to study the structure of Spirit Bones.
Therefore, a book with the same material as it, containing content like "On How Spirit Beasts Form Spirit Bones," was an extremely valuable item to Yu Xiaogang.
For something like this, let alone fifty gold coins, Yu Xiaogang would buy it even for five hundred gold coins.
Of course, he would buy it, but Yu Xiaogang was not willing to be severely ripped off.
That was the reason for the scene of Yu Xiaogang haggling.
And now, the transaction was complete; it was too late for Flender to regret it.
And Flender was indeed just as Yu Xiaogang had imagined; he was already regretting it at this moment.
The moment he saw Yu Xiaogang take out the ancient text and open it impatiently just after completing the transaction, Flender's face turned green once again.
Good grief, so it turns out that he, a profiteer, had misjudged the item today?