Chapter 3: The Psychotic Who Sells Charms
Translator: Tim Editor: Tehrn / Carolin
After thanking Wang Ying, Ye Mo returned to school since he had nowhere to go now except there. He was unfamiliar with this place, but at least there were some things he could learn there. On top of that, the spirit Chi here was very scarce, but it seemed to be richer inside the school.
After the last class, he didn’t go to his English teacher. For him, there was no difference whether he passed or failed, and didn’t need to listen to a woman ramble on. Although he hadn’t yet cultivated, his memory was exceptional, so if he wanted to learn anything, he could just go straight to the library.
In the following days, Ye Mo would go to the library when he wasn’t cultivating. He would occasionally go to a few classes he liked. As for failing due to his attendance, he didn’t care at all.
The dormitory initially housed four people; however, one of them was at the internet café all day long while another was renting outside with another girl, living the couple life; the third person was residing in the center of the city. Ye Mo often cultivated in the small forest right outside the university. Each time he cultivated, it would often be a whole night, so his dorm was often completely empty as the only person living in the dorm would most likely be Ye Mo. Every three days, he would come back for a good night sleep while the rest of the time would be spent on cultivation.
Although he knew that there would be no result in cultivating in a place like this, his long-term habits had led him to have nothing better to do other than cultivating. Fortunately, he had a great memory and would remember things he liked with one look which saved him large amounts of time.
Ye Mo who kept a low profile in his past life assumed an even more humble one after coming to this strange environment. However, after the love letter event last time, he still received the nickname “lover outside of the bedroom”. Nevertheless, Ye Mo wouldn’t care about it at all, things were still how they were supposed to be.
In the beginning, everyone thought he had a thick skin for entering the dining hall and the library so apathetically, but after some time, no one noticed him anymore. It was as though he was an insignificant drop of water in the ocean, just barely even there.
After two months, Ye Mo barely reached the first stage of Chi Gathering. This was due to him cultivating day and night, as well as spending the 20,000 dollars Wang Ying brought him on Chinese herbs and soups.
However, he also knew that, without external things to help him, the first stage of Chi Gathering would probably be the final stage he would ever reach in his entire lifetime.
Although his cultivation progress wasn’t much, he had acquired quite a lot more from the library. Not only did he use two months to learn everything from primary school to high school, but he also scanned through all sorts of books about medicine as well as other metaphysical things.
Although he felt that metaphysical knowledge was very shallow in this world, he did not waste a lot of his time on them. After all, he was only in the first stage of Chi Gathering now.
During summer holidays, the school library was going under reconstruction, and Ye Mo had nowhere to go. Unfortunately, now, he was in a financial crisis again, and there wasn’t much money left on him. He only had about 2000 dollars or so. If he didn’t find a job in the summer holidays and earn money, then even his meals would become an issue. He needed to cultivate and that had become a habit. Only cultivation would give him some sense of direction in his life, and without money, this would be impossible. On top of that, his salary from a regular job would be a joke to be able to cultivate; the decision to spare time for either cultivation or to get a job was difficult.
He knew how to concoct pills; however, he was only in the first stage of Chi Gathering and couldn’t prepare pills, but even if he really could, were there any spiritual herbs or pill cauldrons? As such, he had to give up on the thought of concocting pills. The good thing was that he also knew how to make charms [1]. In the first stage of Chi Gathering, he couldn’t make high-level charms, but he could still make a few low-level spirit cleansing charms, ghost repelling charms, protection charms or even the simple fireball charms, and so forth.
He bought some charm paper, weasel’s hair, cinnabar (a special type of red paint) and so on. Although the best charms were all made with spiritual beasts’ blood and skin, there was no way there were spiritual beasts on Earth. He could still make it with cinnabar and chicken blood after a few other procedures. Although he couldn’t make high-level charms for the moment, this would be enough for sub level 1 charms.
Luckily, with the best quality Huang Biao [2] here and a few herbs, he could make it into charms. After all this, Ye Mo’s remaining 2000 dollars were almost gone.
Cinnabar, rooster blood and a few of the cheap herbs were made into charms with a light aroma. A few thousand dollars were indeed little as he could only make 30 or so charms with all of these things combined, and this didn’t include the materials he wasted due to failure.
The good thing was, although Ye Mo was only in the first stage of Chi Gathering, he was originally a master who could make level 5 charms. Unfortunately, now, the charms he made didn’t even have a level. With material enough for 30 or so charms, he only made 8 charms. He made 2 of each amongst the spirit cleansing charm, the ghost repelling charm, the protection charm, and the fireball charm. Although he only managed to make 8 charms, one of the mind clearing charms was almost made into something close to a level 1 charm due to a stroke of good luck. This was indeed a great surprise.
The eight charms took him half a month. On average, he could make one charm a day. What he had to do now was to sell the charms and, even though he knew that selling charms were thought to be metaphysical propaganda here, the government didn’t enforce a prohibition on it. Ning Hai had a large market of “Sea Treasures and ancient relics trading market”. It was also called by some people as the “Sea Treasure Garden”. There were not only all sorts of ancient and fascinating items sold here, but there were also people like Ye Mo selling charms.
Ye Mo also saw the charms people sold here. They were all made with normal Huang Biao without any spiritual Chi and wouldn’t have any effect at all. However, they were all sold very cheaply: ten to tens of dollars a sheet, and there were rarely any over a 100 dollar.
Of course, Ye Mo couldn’t sell his charms so cheaply, since if he actually sold them for such a low price, he might as well find a job.
In order to prevent being recognized and thus causing a disturbance in his peaceful life, or maybe even being captured and used as a lab rat, Ye Mo wore a big pair of shades as well as a hat with a very low rim. He came to Sea Treasure Garden and found a corner to set up his stall like those fortune tellers. He placed a few charms on a piece of black garment and opened his business just like this.
Although there were many city guards in Ning Hai, there weren’t any in Sea Treasure Garden, so no one came to bother Ye Mo saving him a lot of trouble. If other people relied on the number of their charms for money, Ye Mo knew he could only sell his to those who had keen eyes. If it weren’t someone who could tell how good his charms were, they would not buy his charms.
“Hm, there’s a ghost repelling charm, what’s this? Yo, boss, how much is your ghost repelling charm?” A man and woman walked in front of Ye Mo with the guy asking. Ye Mo didn’t think that there would be someone to ask for the price as soon as he set up his stall. He immediately stood up with surprised joy: “All the charms are 10,000 a piece—”
“You are psychotic!” Before Ye Mo finished speaking, he received those three words, followed by the backs of the two people walking off into the distance.
1: These charms usually refer to the ones made of paper. The paper bombs in Naruto are a good indication of what they look like, and most of them are consumables, so they could only be used once.
2: Huang Biao: Yellow paper used to inscribe runes.