Chapter 557 - 362: You Can’t Be Too Careful

Chapter 557: Chapter 362: You Can’t Be Too Careful

TAP, TAP, TAP...

The soft sound of footsteps echoed on the street as Lin Li entered the Spirit Stone shop.

Just as he had suspected when he was standing outside, the Spirit Stone shop was eerily quiet, empty save for a dozing clerk.

Lin Li’s gaze fell on the clerk behind the counter. The boy’s head was propped up on his right hand, his eyes were closed, and his head was bobbing, looking as if he might slump onto the counter and fall asleep at any moment. Lin Li thought to himself,

’This clerk is pretty careless. Isn’t he worried a thief might sneak in and steal something?’

Lin Li walked up to the counter, reached out his right hand, and tapped on its surface.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK...

The sound startled the dozing clerk, who immediately snapped his eyes open.

"Er..."

"Hello, sir. How can I help you?"

The newly-awakened clerk hastily rubbed his eyes, then stood up from his chair to greet Lin Li.

The clerk before him was quite young, looking to be fourteen or fifteen at most. He wasn’t very tall, either—only about 1.6 meters.

Lin Li looked down at the young clerk, then reached into his pocket, pulling out a fist-sized chunk of Spirit Stone ore and placing it on the counter.

"I have some Spirit Stone ore of this quality that I’d like to exchange for Spirit Stones. Do you take them here?"

The young clerk didn’t reach out to touch the Spirit Stone ore Lin Li had placed on the counter. He just nodded and said, "Please wait a moment."

After he spoke, the young clerk left the counter and hurried over to a door at the back of the shop.

Lin Li watched the clerk knock on the door and say, "Uncle, a customer wants to exchange some Spirit Stone ore for Spirit Stones."

’Uncle? So the young clerk is the Shopkeeper’s relative! No wonder he dared to doze off behind the counter during work hours.’

’After all, anyone else would be too afraid to sleep on the job. They’d be fired if they were caught...’

Lin Li now understood the clerk’s relationship with the Shopkeeper. Just then, the door swung open, and a middle-aged man in his fifties with thinning hair walked out.

"Hello, sir." Guided by his nephew, the Shopkeeper came up to Lin Li and greeted him with a smile.

"Hello," Lin Li replied with a nod, watching as the man picked up the Spirit Stone ore he had placed on the counter.

Then, a Spiritual Energy Wave emanated from the Shopkeeper.

’Second Rank Initial Stage,’ Lin Li thought, perceiving the Spiritual Energy Wave emanating from the Shopkeeper and assessing his cultivation level.

"Sir, the quality of this Spirit Stone ore is quite good..." the Shopkeeper said with a smile after inspecting the ore in his hand.

"How many Spirit Stones is this ore worth?" Lin Li asked.

The Shopkeeper hefted the Spirit Stone ore in his hand and said, "It can be exchanged for seven stones."

A fist-sized piece of Spirit Stone ore for seven pigeon-egg-sized Spirit Stones. ’This Shopkeeper does fair business. He’s not trying to lowball me,’ Lin Li thought, nodding in satisfaction.

Then, with a thought, he retrieved all thirty-odd pieces of Spirit Stone ore of varying sizes that he had previously obtained in the cave from the Mysterious Small Island and placed them on the counter.

Upon seeing Lin Li’s action, the Shopkeeper and his nephew’s eyes widened in shock.

’His hands were empty, yet so much Spirit Stone ore appeared out of thin air with just a wave of his hand. This customer is a Cultivator who has awakened the Storage Space Superpower!’

After taking all the Spirit Stone ore from the Mysterious Small Island, Lin Li said to the wide-eyed Shopkeeper,

"Shopkeeper, please exchange all of this ore for Spirit Stones."

The Shopkeeper snapped out of his daze and immediately responded with a smile, "Of course, sir. Please wait a moment. I’ll calculate how many Spirit Stones you can get for all this ore."

After the Shopkeeper finished his calculations, Lin Li’s haul from his treasure hunt—dozens of pieces of Spirit Stone ore of various sizes—came out to a total of three hundred and twenty Spirit Stones.

Lin Li had initially estimated that the ore he’d found would exchange for three hundred to four hundred Spirit Stones, so the final amount of three hundred and twenty was well within his expected range.

Once the Shopkeeper had calculated the total, Lin Li didn’t say anything more and just asked him to make the exchange for Spirit Stones.

"Sir, where did you get so much Spirit Stone ore?" the Shopkeeper asked reflexively.

He then seemed to realize his question was impolite and quickly added, "Sorry, you don’t have to answer if you’d rather not say."

Lin Li hadn’t expected the Shopkeeper to ask about the ore’s origin. Still, since the man had asked, there was no harm in giving a casual answer. It wasn’t like this was Blue Star, anyway.

"I just happened to find this Spirit Stone ore outside the city..."

"You’re very lucky, sir... Ke, put this Spirit Stone ore away. I’ll go get the Spirit Stones for our guest."

The Shopkeeper, of course, didn’t believe a word of what Lin Li said. After all, finding one or two pieces of Spirit Stone ore outside the city by chance was one thing, but finding this many all at once was obviously impossible.

The Shopkeeper had only asked out of passing curiosity, and Lin Li had given an equally casual answer. Neither of them pursued the topic any further.