But then Shopkeeper Li spoke up, saying that the merchandise here turned over quickly. These were new arrivals now, but give it ten days to half a month and an entirely new batch could replace them.
If he waited until his fellow disciples were actually sold off, tracking them down one by one through this kind of trading system would be nearly impossible.
After all, with such an outrageously twisted set of trade rules, no matter how thoroughly you investigated, you would never turn up a single lead.
Who was being sold, to whom, and where they ended up — there was simply no way to trace any of it. No names, no identifying features, and therefore absolutely no clues to follow.
It had to be said that these trade rules were utterly vile, but they maximally protected these profiteers' interests and guaranteed their safety.
Even the merchandise themselves — even if they eventually regained their freedom and their strength surged dramatically — would likely never be able to find the people to take their revenge on.
Passed from hand to hand, who knew who ended up with them in the end? Who was the one who resold them?
Jiang Chen hesitated for a moment. If he didn't buy this batch, and his fellow disciples were among them, letting this chance slip by would mean he'd never get another opportunity.
But buying them — one or two thousand people — even with his considerable wealth, he might not be able to cover it. And that wasn't even mentioning the possibility that they wouldn't sell the entire lot to one buyer.
His finances might not be enough regardless.
After turning it over in his mind, Jiang Chen decided to deal with the immediate situation first. He asked, "Shopkeeper Li, this thousand-odd people — what would the price be if I took the whole lot?"
"What?" Shopkeeper Li was completely stunned. "The — the whole lot?"
Seeing the exaggerated reaction, Jiang Chen rubbed his nose, aware that what he'd said was rather shocking. But at this point, he had no choice but to push forward.
"Is that not allowed?"
Shopkeeper Li smiled bitterly. "Esteemed guest, you really ought to check the asking prices first. Besides, our trade has its rules — a single purchase is limited to fifty people at most. Any more than that and the impact becomes too great; it is absolutely not permitted. Fifty is the hard ceiling."
Jiang Chen glanced casually at a few of the listings. The jaw-dropping prices made his heart clench, and his entire mood soured in an instant.
Origin Realm level: two hundred thousand to one million Sacred Spirit Stones each.
Saint Realm level: two million to ten million Sacred Spirit Stones each.
Averaged out, that meant at least two to three million Sacred Spirit Stones per slave — and there were over a thousand people here in total.
Taking the whole lot would come to two to three billion Sacred Spirit Stones.
That sum, no matter how wealthy Jiang Chen was, was still far beyond his reach.
It was true that his sweeping raid on two or three thousand people last time had yielded a handsome haul. But those people had only been carrying day-to-use Spirit Stones on them — hardly their entire fortune.
When converted to Sacred Spirit Stones, what he'd plundered amounted to perhaps a few hundred million at most.
Yet this batch of one or two thousand slaves required a total of two to three billion — a truly astronomical figure.
Setting aside whether Jiang Chen could even afford it, even the Wei family of Liuli Royal City, one of the most prominent names in the city, might not be able to mobilize that many Sacred Spirit Stones on such short notice.
The Wei family certainly had the wealth, but scrambling to produce it all at once would still be a tremendous strain.
This kind of sum was probably something only a great clan-level power could produce easily without crippling itself.
"Didn't Wei Jie say this Ten Thousand Puppet Pavilion was a Sikou family enterprise? The Sikou family — they have that much money?" Jiang Chen was quietly shocked.
But he also knew this trade was enormously profitable. The merchandise listed at two to three billion likely cost no more than a tenth of that to acquire.
Of the vast profits generated, perhaps thirty to forty percent actually ended up in the Sikou family's pockets, with the rest going to grease countless other channels along the way.
Otherwise, an industry as high-risk as slave trading could never have survived in such robust fashion.
The problem now was that even if he had the money, they wouldn't sell to him.
Shopkeeper Li had been very clear — only fifty slaves per purchase. More than that, and it was a no-go.
Jiang Chen finally understood why the man had worn that stunned expression when he mentioned buying the whole lot. Turns out he'd blurted out something only a clueless outsider would say.
"Shopkeeper Li, your trade rules really are set in stone! Where does this fifty-person limit even come from? Are people not allowed to buy more if they have the money?"
Shopkeeper Li smiled bitterly. "Esteemed guest, you must have come to our Liuli Royal City from out of town. Slave trading was never exactly a legitimate business operating in broad daylight — truth be told, it already skirts the line in many ways. If someone were to purchase too many at once, it could destabilize the whole situation. Buy a few hundred or a thousand at a time, and once those people gain their freedom, imagine the impact on Liuli Royal City! The potential trouble it could cause! To put it bluntly, what if someone deliberately caused chaos — bought several thousand slaves all at once — the damage to Liuli Royal City could be catastrophic!"
"So what you're telling me is that even with money, I have nowhere to spend it today?" Jiang Chen said, thoroughly frustrated.
"My apologies, esteemed guest. You're welcome to purchase according to our rules — fifty at a time, once every seven days. That is already the absolute limit." Shopkeeper Li had been in this business for decades, and he had truly never encountered a situation like today's. Buying the whole lot? One or two thousand people in one go? Did this young man even have that kind of money?
Shopkeeper Li was an old hand after all. Though inwardly he found it amusing — thinking the other party was hopelessly naive — he didn't let any of that show on his face.
Jiang Chen exchanged a helpless look with Huang'er, and each saw the same resignation in the other's eyes.
"Huang'er, I'm afraid they're practically daring me to rob the place," Jiang Chen transmitted through divine sense.
Huang'er smiled faintly. "Then let's rob it."