The flower in Wang Qiang's hand was a plain and simple wildflower, so ordinary it seemed like one picked casually from the roadside, the root still speckled with dots of brown soil.

By the time this person appeared in front of him, he had already glanced at the flower, but after failing to find anything unusual, he directly overlooked it. He had not expected this situation to arise.

"You're blocking our way just to sell this flower?" Liang Yi pondered for a moment but decided to probe for information from this seller. To all of them, this flower seemed nothing out of the ordinary, yet it had given Uncle Ju, himself, and his junior fellow disciple, Senior Zhou, three different sensations, which was quite unusual.

"Uh-huh, exactly, exactly. This flower was painstakingly obtained from a Secret Realm, snatched from the jaws of countless spirit beasts," Wang Qiang exaggerated with fervor, inventing more and more outrageous tales, and at this rate, he might even claim to have single-handedly defeated a Ninth Realm Cultivator soon.

"After checking countless records, only then did I discover that this flower has quite the significant origin."

Wang Qiang smiled mysteriously, whispering to Liang Yi and the others in a secretive tone.

"Continue." Liang Yi treated his words like a story, responding with an amused smile.

"What I'm going to say next is not suitable for public discourse. Please come to my stall for a detailed discussion."

Bowing with a smile, Wang Qiang's demeanor seemed to Liang Yi and the others like nothing so much as a greedy mouse.

However, to uncover the mystery of this flower, Liang Yi and the others still willingly followed him to a spacious corner by a dilapidated wall.

The street was lined with stalls run by Cultivators, each orderly leaning against the wall, maintaining a certain distance from one another. Partly this was to prevent others from seeing their own stall's goods, and partly to ensure that they could freely speak ill of their competition without being overheard.

In the corner, a large tan spirit beast hide was spread on the ground to serve as the stall, upon which were scattered all manner of seemingly mundane trinkets, such as broken sword hilts, shattered bronze mirrors, and torn ancient books.

At first glance, these trinkets appeared ordinary, but upon a second look, one would start to feel that "there seems to be something odd about this item," sparking the impulse to investigate further.

But this trick could only fool novices. Whether it was Liang Yi, Su Youyi, or Zhou Yuqing, they had little interest in looking twice at these counterfeit items.

"Can you talk now?" Liang Yi was short on time and cut straight to the point.

"My dear sir, no need to rush, I shall elucidate forthwith." Wang Qiang rubbed his hands together in excitement, feeling as if the big catch was within his grasp.

He knew that an easy mark like this youth who's been left unbothered for so long must have some underlying issue. But as they say, fortune favors the bold and the timid starve. Wang Qiang didn't want to miss this opportunity.

"As for this flower, one cannot fail to mention the Secret Realm it hails from. The information I've gathered claims that the realm is perpetually engulfed in an unquenchable golden flame, born from the very spot where, in ancient times, the Phoenix and the Vermilion Bird fought fiercely and fell together!" Wang Qiang, from where nobody knew, produced an old folding fan from his pile of miscellaneous goods and began to theatrically narrate the "records" he had "researched."

Liang Yi glanced at Zhou Yuqing, noticing the latter couldn't even bother to lift an eyelid. As the inheritor of the Vermilion Bird spirit, if the flower truly originated from the place he mentioned, wouldn't Zhou Yuqing detect it?

Su Youyi and Uncle Ju were also stifling laughter. What records he gathered—those were just fabrications on the spot.

Nevertheless, everyone tacitly ignored Wang Qiang's performance, pretending to listen attentively.

"To say that the Vermilion Bird and the Phoenix, originally were two divine birds from ancient times, they had nothing to do with each other. But in the eyes of the world, both the Phoenix and the Divine Dragon symbolize auspiciousness, the totem of faith for the masses, praised as the chief of all birds. Yet that seldom-mentioned Vermilion Bird is praised as the chief of all phoenixes, which made the proud Phoenix rather unhappy."

"The Vermilion Bird never cared about such things, but the Phoenix did. Over time, the Phoenix couldn't stand the mortal rumors of being ranked lower than the Vermilion Bird any longer and decided to challenge it."

"As a result, well obviously, both divine birds perished in the end, their bodies transformed into the sacred realm of divine birds, their fragmented souls turned into an eternal golden flame that would burn forever, waiting for the resurrection of the two divine birds."

Wang Qiang said this with some thirst, casually grabbed the kettle, and took several big gulps of water.

"So you see, my friends, obtaining this flower really wasn't easy!"

"Pfft." Uncle Orange clasped its paws tightly over its mouth to prevent itself from laughing out loud, its body trembling as it tried to hold in the laughter. This guy is really killing me, adapting isn't the same as fabricating, making up stories shouldn't lead to spouting nonsense, shouldn't there be a limit to storytelling?

It's like from the get-go it's all made up, one wonders how many people he has duped with his mouth.

Liang Yi and Su Youyi, listening to this flawed story, felt like their intelligence was being insulted.

Not to mention that the Four Spirits and Four Symbols are entirely different systems, but Phoenix and Vermilion Bird are supposed to be the same entity, right?

The Vermilion Bird exists, and so does the Phoenix. The very first Vermilion Bird was born with innate powers and along with the White Tiger, the Black Tortoise, and the Azure Dragon, was revered as one of the Four Symbols.

And when the first Vermilion Bird fell, the position of Vermilion Bird became vacant. The Heavenly Dao searched among myriads of birds to find a divine bird who could inherit the position of the Vermilion Bird, which was the Phoenix with the Five Virtues.

Only by fusion of a Phoenix and a Feng who have undergone the ordeal of rebirth from fire can one become the Vermilion Bird.

So the idea of the Phoenix being jealous of the Vermilion Bird and even dying together is complete nonsense. Even if that Secret Realm exists, that golden flame would at least be on the same level as the Vermilion Bird Divine Flame controlled by Zhou Yuqing; it wouldn't be much harder to burn a Third Realm Cultivator like Wang Qiang to death than to burn an ant.

And you plucked a flower from it too, how capable you are!

"So, how much are you selling it for?" Liang Yi interrupted Wang Qiang, who was addicted to boasting, and asked the question directly.

Just as he moistened his throat and prepared for another round of trickery, his words got stuck in his throat, and it was rather uncomfortable.

But for the sake of fleecing a fat sheep, he endured it!

"Humph, really now, the young master from some wealthy family, has no patience at all. Going out while accompanied by two peerless beauties and spirit pets, truly unaware of the dangers of society!" Wang Qiang secretly sneered in his heart, looking down completely on those born with a silver spoon like Liang Yi.

"Just... this much!" Wang Qiang hesitated for a moment, then slowly spread out his hand and extended five fingers, asking for twice the highest price he had ever sold before.

This price was already unimaginably high for him.