Chapter 775 - 331: Exposed (2)

"This..."

The stall owner's eyes lit up.

'A thousand Spirit Stones, just like that. If the young man doesn't come back, I'll have the Thunder God Sword. It's like I spent five thousand Spirit Stones to buy a Flying Sword worth twenty thousand. It's a surefire win for me!'

He was tempted.

This was a gift from the heavens.

"Fellow Daoist, I have five thousand Spirit Stones right here. I'll lend them to you. Just leave the Thunder God Sword with me for a bit, and I'll wait for you to come back. I don't even need the thousand Spirit Stones as a reward. I just feel that your destiny is profound and unfathomable, and I'd like to be your friend."

Another one of the fat-headed youth's lackeys stepped forward, pretending not to know him, and said.

Hearing this, the old stall owner sensed something was wrong. He quickly stepped between the two and said to the man who offered the thousand Spirit Stones, "Don't believe him! He has nothing in this market. I at least have a stall, so you can find me when you get back. How about this? Let's just say we're making friends. I don't want your thousand Spirit Stones either. I'll lend you the Spirit Stones right now. After you buy the sword, you can leave it here while you hurry back to get your own Spirit Stones. I'll watch the sword for you."

"What nonsense are you spouting? Am I that kind of person? Here, I'll give you all seven thousand Spirit Stones I have on me! Let him see if I'd run off with the sword."

The lackey grew agitated and started shoving the stall owner.

"Hey, hey, hey! Fellow Daoist, please calm down. I asked this big brother first. Thank you for your kind offer, but I'll just borrow the five thousand Spirit Stones from him."

The lackey who wanted to buy the Thunder God Sword quickly tried to placate him.

Chu Lingguang stood at the back of the crowd, taking it all in.

'He'd seen this kind of low-level scam on TV in his past life. To think someone would actually fall for it in a cultivation market.'

He needed Favor Points.

Seeing the fat-headed youth again, now using a different method to earn Spirit Stones, he pushed his way to the front. Just as the stall owner was about to hand a Small Storage Pouch full of Spirit Stones to the fat-headed youth's lackey, he used his body to knock the stall owner's hand away.

At the same time, he grabbed the "Thunder God Sword"!

"Hey, Fellow Daoist, I've got my eye on this sword," the fat-headed youth's lackey said hurriedly.

Chu Lingguang held the Thunder God Sword and turned to look at him. The lackey seemed to recognize Chu Lingguang in an instant and flinched.

"Fellow Daoist, this Thunder God Sword..."

The fat-headed youth hadn't yet realized what was happening. Not wanting Chu Lingguang to ruin his business, he reached out to take the Thunder God Sword back.

But at that moment, a powerful surge of Spiritual Power erupted from Chu Lingguang's palm, causing the Thunder God Sword to shed its skin like a snake.

The wooden veneers on its surface all peeled off.

It became an Iron Sword.

The ability to gather and fuse the Five Elements Power vanished completely.

At first, Chu Lingguang had been fooled as well.

It was only when he sensed something was off and covered it with his seventh-rank Telekinesis, inspecting it with his Spiritual Sense, that he saw through the illusion. The so-called Thunder God Sword's ability to fuse the Five Elements Power was just a fake.

The reason it could fool people was that the wooden veneers were inscribed with a Restriction Array that allowed the Iron Sword to fuse with Five Elements Spiritual Power.

The person who inscribed the Restriction Array was very skilled.

They had hidden the Restriction Array within the wooden veneers and even infused it with a Concealing Technique, preventing an ordinary person's Spiritual Power from seeing through the Flying Sword's true nature.

It was easy to be fooled.

This was a common trick among scammers in the cultivation world.

The fat-headed youth and his group would hit one place and move to the next. They had been swindling people everywhere for years, and every time they made a huge profit.

"This..."

"How could this be?"

The stall owner was dumbfounded.

The two lackeys who had been playing their parts turned to slip away through the crowd.

But they were sealed in place by a powerful wave of Telekinesis.

Seeing things had gone south, the fat-headed youth abandoned his stall and tried to shoot into the sky, intending to flee toward the sea.

The moment he recognized Chu Lingguang, he had sensed trouble and a powerful, dangerous aura.

BOOM!

Unfortunately, an invisible wall formed of Telekinesis appeared in front of him. He slammed into it, his head splitting open and bleeding on the spot as he fell from the sky.

"So they were a bunch of crooks working together."

"You almost ruined my lifelong reputation!"

The stall owner was furious. To dare open a stall in the market, his strength was not weak; he too was a Foundation Establishment cultivator. He proceeded to give the two lackeys a sound beating.

The fat-headed youth also had both of his arms dislocated.

"So they were in it together."

"A lot of scammers have been showing up in the markets recently. They seem to be like this group."

"Damn them all."

The crowd broke into a flurry of discussion.

"Quick, go report to the Hall Master! Tell him Chu Lingguang has appeared in the market!"

"He actually dared to come to Lingshan all by himself!"

"Elder Ma died at his hands."

Chu Lingguang's move to punish the fat-headed youth had drawn a lot of attention. The Cyan Cloud Sect disciples in the market recognized him at once. They whispered to each other and began to make arrangements in secret.

Chu Lingguang frowned.

As a Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment cultivator, his Spiritual Sense could already cover a radius of forty li.

While he couldn't detect the traces of some of the more unfathomably powerful cultivators, he could clearly see the small movements of the ordinary Cyan Cloud Sect disciples.

He wasn't flustered.

When he was walking around with Kong Sinuo earlier, he had taken note of his surroundings and had seen those Cyan Cloud Sect disciples. Although there were Foundation Establishment cultivators among them, they posed no threat to him.

"Thank you for your help, Fellow Daoist. I was almost cheated out of five thousand Spirit Stones by them."

With the fat-headed youth and his men having their Spiritual Power sealed by Chu Lingguang, the stall owner was deeply grateful to him.

"Helped Boss Zhou expose a scam, preventing him from being deceived. Received 333,221 Favor Points."

A line of text appeared before Chu Lingguang's eyes.

Seeing that he had gained over three hundred thousand Favor Points in one go, he quickly cupped his fists and said, "It was nothing. Besides, I have some old grievances with them."

"Regardless, you're the one who saved me from being cheated, Fellow Daoist. Otherwise... *sigh*."

Boss Zhou was endlessly grateful and invited Chu Lingguang to rest at his cave residence.

Chu Lingguang politely declined.

He then took the fat-headed youth and his two men away.

"Fellow Daoist Chu, please spare us! We swear we'll never scam anyone again."

The fat-headed youth begged for mercy.

The last time they tried to rob him on the road, Chu Lingguang had scared the living daylights out of them. He had remembered Chu Lingguang's name and identity ever since. Now that he had fallen into Chu Lingguang's hands, he felt as if he were facing a formidable enemy.

He felt like Chu Lingguang could eliminate him at any moment.

He knew that the Profound Celestial Sect prided itself on being righteous, delighting in slaying demons and monsters to build their prestige and fame. If Chu Lingguang were to kill the three of them in public, the people in the cultivation market would only applaud; no one would blame Chu Lingguang for being inhumane.

Therefore, he was panicking internally.

"Take out all the Talismans, Magical Treasures, and Spirit Stones you have on you," Chu Lingguang commanded.

"Yes!"

The fat-headed youth quickly took out a small stack of Talismans, a few Magical Treasures, and several thousand Spirit Stones.

Chu Lingguang just stared at him.

That small stack of Talismans and Magical Treasures were all items used by third or fourth-level Qi Refining cultivators. They were completely useless to him.

The fat-headed youth used to be a roadside robber and had now switched to swindling. The amount of Spirit Stones and other treasures he had accumulated over the years must have been considerable.

This small amount couldn't possibly be everything.

The fat-headed youth's scalp tingled under Chu Lingguang's gaze.

So, he opened his Storage Pouch.

He pointed the mouth of the pouch at the ground and shook it forcefully a few times, trying to empty it. Another few thousand Spirit Stones tumbled out, along with some more Talismans and Magical Treasures.

"What do you think would happen if I killed you and refined your Storage Pouch myself?" Chu Lingguang asked with a smile.

"Don't!"

The fat-headed youth's heart leaped into his throat.

His heart aching with regret, he completely emptied the Spirit Stones from his Storage Pouch.

There were as many as fifty thousand Spirit Stones.

There were also some Talismans and Magical Treasures used by Foundation Establishment cultivators. Chu Lingguang was inwardly shocked. If not for his seventh-rank Telekinesis, his Divine Thought at Perfection, and his Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment cultivation, how could he possibly have subdued the fat-headed youth?

It was a good thing he had acted decisively, using his Telekinesis to suppress him and strip him of the courage to resist. Otherwise, if the youth had thrown all those Magical Treasures and Talismans at him, he might not have been able to defend against them. Even if he could, the fat-headed youth would have long escaped.

'The fat-headed youth's heart was now filled with regret.'

'If he had known this would happen, he would have fought Chu Lingguang to the death. At worst, he would have lost his life, but that would have been far better than handing over everything he had accumulated to Chu Lingguang in one go. Unfortunately, he no longer had the chance.'