Was it surprising that the market resembled a night market festival? As soon as the sun was over, so was the moment of peacefulness. Workers returned to their pushcarts and started hollering at customers, pushing their lowest prices as the crowd jostled to get past one another. Gu Ying immediately carried Anji in her arms, shielding the girl from the rather violent crowd. Mingshen and Bai Dajin stood in the centre of the storm like the eye, unfazed.
Anji had seen people going crazy over limited-time offers and special discounts. However, she had never seen such an aggressive bargaining session at a marketplace before. It seemed as if a fistfight would break out at any moment with how heatedly these people were haggling at the store over a basket of green vegetables. If anything, it was weirder that they were haggling for a higher price than other buyers instead of trying to get it for a lower price from the store owner.
"Why are they trying to pay more money than other customers for a basket of vegetables?" Anji asked, confused by the strange behaviour.
Walking at a leisurely pace with his paper fan out, Mingshen swaggered his way past those people, and Gu Ying followed behind. Seeing a rich young master with a big, scary, scarred man behind, people naturally made way for them, parting immediately as if there was an invisible barrier surrounding them. Amazed by how different the townsfolk behaved around her brother, Anji wondered if this was the power of confidence or wealth.
Bai Dajin was a big man. He towered over other people easily most times. If anyone wanted to cause trouble, just one look at his multiple scars and bulging muscles would make them reconsider. Even without carrying his sabre, the man was terrifying to look at. Now, with his sabre rested casually on his shoulder, people instinctively avoided him out of concern for their well-being. Mingshen knew this and used it to his full advantage, not that Bai Dajin knew his intentions. However, even if the White Tiger Sect Leader found out, he would only feel mildly annoyed. After all, this was for Anji’s sake.
"That’s called auctioning," Mingshen explained when they finally left the busiest street in the Eternal Night Marketplace. "Remember when I said resources were rare here due to the lack of sunlight?"
Anji nodded. Apart from mushrooms and maybe some critters, it was difficult for people to grow or rear anything else in this valley. The tall stone peaks blocked out sunlight for most of the day, and it was also constantly cloudy. Vegetables required plenty of sunlight to grow well, and the vegetables sold here were mostly transported from other regions into the valley.
"What do you think would happen when plenty of people live in the Eternal Night Valley with no means to grow their own vegetables? Remember how long it took us to get here? The road is not easy to travel on because of the mountainous range. We took the longer route instead of the bamboo forest. If these merchants took the winding road we did, the vegetables would have rotted before they arrived here. Hence, they can only transport small batches of vegetables every trip through the bamboo forest."
Pondering over this, Anji realised how scarce green vegetables were in this valley. Not only vegetables, medicine, education, transportation and even clothes. The price hike was justified due to the risks involved. However, that also meant many people who needed these resources but could not afford to pay for them suffered. While it appeared that the merchants who made a lot of money by transporting these goods profited, they also took a huge risk by travelling through the dangerous bamboo forest. The situation benefited nobody. Yet, many chose to travel through the Eternal Night Valley because it was the only neutral zone allowing them to pass from one region to another without climbing mountains.
"Brother, would the situation here improve if there were more accessible roads travelling from the valley to different cities?"
Unsure why Anji was asking this, Mingshen nodded. If the roads were more accessible, the prices would eventually be regulated, and more regular supplies would come in. However, the situation in the dark valley would not change unless they destroyed the stone peaks blocking the sun. Thɪs chapter is updated by novel fire.net
"It would improve, but the people will still need to buy their food without any means to grow their food here."
Frowning, Anji looked around the market. Everywhere she went, people were auctioning their items. There were no fixed prices for anything in this valley. Even so, items sold like hotcakes within an hour. Nobody rented the shops in the area, and many preferred to lay their wares on the ground so they could pack up once everything had been sold. While they walked around, Anji had seen that happen three times. The fastest record was some well-known fabric merchant who sold all his clothes in fifteen minutes. Ten of those fifteen minutes were spent packing up his store.
"Do vegetables really need sunlight to grow?" she asked. "What if we kept lanterns burning at all times? Would they still grow?"
That... was a brilliant question. Mingshen had no idea. However, the lights from the lantern and candle would be too weak to help a field of vegetables grow.
"We have to experiment on this to know if it is possible. Even if possible, using lanterns and candles would not be a long-term solution. Burning a candle will cost more than the vegetables, making it even more expensive than the current prices."
From behind them, Bai Dajin looked at the odd siblings. Was this a normal conversation between children? Zhao Mingfeng raised aliens. None of his children were right in the mind. Mingshen, he could understand. However, Anji was on a different level of crazy. Her imagination was wild but not without substance as he listened to what she said next.
"But what if we used cultivation powers to help with farming? I could make light-emitting talismans that you can stick to surfaces. They can absorb the qi from this mountain and glow without ever extinguishing unless damaged. We could grow them indoors, underground, or in caves where the talismans will be protected from wind, rain and dampness!"
Shutting his paper fan, Mingshen stopped walking so abruptly that Bai Dajin almost collided with the teen. Annoyed, he was about to growl at the pipsqueak when he noticed the serious look in those eyes. Those were the same eyes that he recognised when Mingshen was thinking about a grand strategy. Although Zhang Mou was brilliant at administration, Mingshen was the real mastermind behind the Gentlemen Club’s success. Hong Nian Ning and Zhang Mou were merely his advisors to cover where Mingshen’s experience was lacking. Now, he was about to witness the explosive greatness of the Celestial Dragon’s children again.
"I’ll try it at the Golden Halo first," Mingshen nodded. "If you can give me a few of those talismans, I can oversee the construction after you enter the Mystical Qilin Sect. Either way, I would have to return through this route. It might be possible."
Thrilled, Anji cheered and felt better after knowing there might be a solution to the scarcity of resources in this valley. Yet, little did she know how groundbreaking her ideas were. If the world were to learn about a successful indoor farming method, it would revolutionise agriculture forever.