"For a pound of tiger meat, I am willing to pay a a thousand gold. You can keep everything else, I only want to buy the meat", he was extremely excited, rank 5 beast meat was a treasure.
This was something he had to have. He wanted to know the taste of it, was it a strong flavor or a gentle sensation? How much would people be willing to pay for this?
If sold to the right people and he could make a profit, famous restaurants would pay thousands for something like this. His mind spun, thinking of the possibilities that this meat brought.
"Hmm, how much would you pay for the Thunder Roc's flesh?"
Lao Gan's jaw almost dropped to the floor when he heard those words.
"You have both?" he asked, barely containing his already spilling excitement.
"I do. I grabbed its broken wing and chopped it off."
"Yo-what?! How much did you get?!"
Lao Gan was shocked. He did not think that Ming Yue was so ambitious to have taken from both.
"I can't show you now. The smell might attract some unwanted attention."
Ming Yue did not have the time to properly process the parts. If she were to take them out now, the scent of blood would waft out of the cave.
"That's alright, I have these Null Sense Formation Flags. If I set it up around us, it will be as if we don't exist. I would've used it earlier but doing so would have revealed our location."
Lao Gan pulled out three white flags with strange golden symbols drawn on them. He moved to the entrance of the cave, peeking out to see if there was anything out there before setting up the flags. With all three placed around the cave entrance, the flag glowed and hummed before a subtle wave of energy washed over them.
"There we go", he sighed with relief and returned to Ming Yue, only to find that she had gone deeper into the cave.
He followed after her, stopping when he noticed a hulking mass laying in front of him. In fact, there were two of them, emanating a bit of warmness. It was extremely fresh.
Ming Yue had gone deeper to find somewhere more spacious to take out the tiger's leg and the Thudner Roc's wing. Several hundred feet further was a large cavern where she took out the parts and began cleaning them up.
She knew a little bit about butchering due to her upbringing but this was different from what she was used to. It was on a much larger scale. Using the light from Lao Gan's trinket, she started carving away and Lao Gan watched.
He was absolutely starstruck, Ming Yue must have had over a thousand pounds of materials in just those two parts.
He fiddled with his spatial ring, taking out a number of supplies. There was a massive tarp to put the parts on and giant tubs to store blood. He laid it all out and let Ming Yue do her work. These items were for large purchases and this one might be the largest one he would make.
It took Ming Yue six hours to do everything: collecting the blood, skinning the fur, taking out the feathers, separating the flesh from bone. At the end of it, it was an enormous haul, much more than she would've anticipated.
When she was finished, Lao Gan had already calculated how much he would gain from this and made his proposition.
"Five thousand gold for a pound of the tiger meat, this is a Purple Storm Tiger. I didn't get a good look at it before but now I'm sure of it. Same price for the Thunder Roc as well. Twenty pounds each, which makes it a hundred thousand gold."
His merchant sense had come out as he began negotiating for the price.
Ming Yue was slightly taken aback by his aggressiveness but she was not about to be defeated to easily. This was the flesh of two rank 5 beasts, it carries the essence of their power. It was certainly worth more than five thousand gold a pound.
"Ten thousand gold", she answered back.
"Ergh, Seven thousand!"
"Nine thousand."
"Eight Thousand! That's the best I can do!" he said.
"Hmm. Fine, eight thousand gold per pound for twenty pounds of each beast. That is 320,000 gold total."
"Yes, yes! That's good!"
Ming Yue weighed the meat in her flesh, cutting off about twenty pounds of the Purple Thunder Tiger meat and the Thunder Roc meat. She handed it to Lao Gan, who wrapped it in cloth and placed it into his spatial ring. She stored everything else in her spatial ring.
"The butchering is a bit lacking but its freshness should give me a good price. Though the smell, different from what I had expected", Lao Gan thought.
He had taken a whiff of both meats, expecting a very strong and gamey smell, something earthy. However, he was pleasantly surprised to find that both had a distinct smell. It resembled something that had been smoked with wood chips. It was certainly a meaty sort of smell but there was a hint of savoriness. In any case, he was extremely happy. If it weren't for Ming Yue, he would not have had such quality ingredients.
Meanwhile, Ming Yue moved all of the materials into her ring. She couldn't help but laugh at herself. Who would've thought she would get so much money in just a day. When she was saving money for the Splitting Moon Blade, it took her over a month to get that same amount. This time, it tooke her only a day.
"We should leave quickly. I'd rather not stay here any longer", said Ming Yue, who finished pakcing everything up.
"Ah yes, we should."
Lao Gan agreed. If he stayed here any longer, he might not live long enough to sell his newly aquired wares.
Thus, they made their way out of the cave and carefully walked through the mountains. Ming Yue carried the exhausted Hei Yue in her arms. The little fox would not awaken for another day or so. Ming Yue kept in mind to not have him use the black fog too much. As useful as it was, the power took quite the toll on his body. Even after waking from his slumber, Hei Yue was still somewhat weak. He had never had to use the fog in such a way, continuously producing as much as he could.
It was only after a week that he had fully recovered.
By then, the group was halfway through the mountains. The Merciless Storm Peak was much closer now and with it, came an oppressive aura.
"Stop, let me rest for a bit", Lao Gan panted before dropping his wooden backpack on the ground.
"We should find somewhere safer, this is too open."
Ming Yue didn't stop and continued onwards, looking around for somewhere with cover. Further down the path was another cave, it seemed much smaller but it was more than enough for a short rest.
"Over there, we can rest in that cave", she pointed and went in, checking to see if there was anything inside.
Fortunately, there were no traces of anything living here so she walked in. Lao Gan didn't bother putting on his backpack, instead he slung it over his shoulder and carried it like that.
Inside, he took out his light trinket and placed it in the center. Grabbing a bottle from his backpack, he drank from it, taking heavy gulps. Afterwards, he wiped his mouth and held it out to Ming Yue.
"Something to drink?" he offered.
"No, I'm alright", shaking her head, Ming Yue sat down quietly and stared at the light trinket.
She was halfway through her journey. Once she passed the Merciless Storm Peak, she would have reched the Ying Long Sea. Form there, she would take a boat to the Dark Water Kingdom.