Unexpectedly the enraged old man released his aura and Ben could feel the power of his cultivation applying pressure to him.
"Huh? Oh, so this is how it is done!" Ben seemed to somehow pick up on how to project his cultivation aura from feeling the pressure of the old man who was trying to crush him.
Ben, however, was currently three levels higher than this old man so he only felt a minimal amount of pressure from the aura pressing down on him.
It felt as if he was giving a piggyback ride to a very small child. There was an increase in felt gravity, but it wasn't enough to slow him down.
The old man's face suddenly changed when he realized his aura wasn't crushing this young brat to his knees and was even more stunned Ben had an absent look on his face like he was in deep thought over something and had not even noticed his aura attack.
Ben was curious to try out this little trick after remembering he had read about techniques similar to this in web novels. He sloppily pushed out his aura, but instead of directing it at a target it went out in every direction.
Not only the old man was hit with it, but the shoppers walking by and the vendors in the stalls on either side of him all suddenly dropped to their knees as if someone had just jumped off a table onto their backs while wearing full plate armor.
Luckily the other vendor and shoppers were on the outer perimeter of his aura and only caught about 5% of it or it may have killed someone.
Ben had no idea that his aura could be used as a weapon that could hurt or kill others when he had innocently projected it.
The old man who was closest to Ben staggered back about four steps and almost fell over from the clumsy aura blast with his eyes the size of saucers.
Ben realized what he had done after seeing everyone around him straining under his aura to not be flattened against the ground and instantly stopped his aura projection.
He embarrassingly began to apologize to everyone around him and walked over to help up a woman who was unwilling subjected to his experiment.
Cultivators in this part of the world had a status higher than nobility even though most of them were nobility. When everyone realized this young man was a cultivator none of the surrounding people complained and in fact, they began to look at him with a hint of reverence.
The surrounding shoppers began to whisper about what just happened and began to stop and gather around Ben's stall.
"H..Ho...How can you.." the old man stammered to speak drawing Ben's attention away from the growing crowd.
"How old are you and what is your cultivation level?" He asked Ben when he could finally speak again.
"I am nineteen years old and I am at Stage Three, Level Nine." Ben honestly answered
"A genius! It took me over thirty years to reach Stage Three, Level Six and here you are three levels above me at nineteen years old!" The old man exclaimed loudly while he threw his hands in the air in defeat.
Ben just laughed, he couldn't tell the old man that he had a system that provided him with a flawless cultivation technique and that he never had to establish a foundation after raising each level as normal people did.
Before the old man continued to ask him questions about how he had reached his level at his age, Ben grabbed his knife off the shelf behind him and sliced up one of the vegetables he had on display.
"Try this sir cultivator, seeing...or tasting is believing. Eat this vegetable slice and tell me what you think."
The old man looked from Ben to the thick tomato slice and back before deciding to give it a try. The old man began to chew on the slice and then swallowed it. After a few seconds, Ben watched as his facial expressions began to change.
At first, the old man didn't sense anything, but a gradual warm feeling began to grow from his dantain. He closed his eyes and began to circulate his Qi for a minute then his eyes popped open in shock.
There was now a larger crowd all gathered around Ben's stall watching the show playing out. After the burst of auras and the old man's claims, the customers all thought it could be entertaining to watch how this all unfolded between these two cultivators.
"It's true! I don't know how it is possible, but it is true!" The old man yelled out.
"These vegetables have spirit plant qualities! I feel like I just swallowed half of a Qi pill after only eating a couple bites of a vegetable!"
Everyone around gasped out in disbelief. This was the perfect time for Ben to begin spreading the word about his goods so he began passing out fruit and vegetable slices to the surrounding crowd so that everyone could experience the benefits they provided.
This old man ended up becoming his best salesman in the end for doubting him.
Now he was bringing out his money pouch and filling up a shopping sack with Ben's spirit goods.
A chain reaction occurred as soon as the old man greedily filled his bag to the top. The surrounding people all began to step up wanting their own share of these spirit foods.
Using his calculator option from the system programs once a part of his laptop he swiftly provided prices for the amounts of goods for each person. After the rush, he began to have small spurts of sales for the rest of the day off and on.
Ben understood that once these people all went home and made a meal with his food and felt how much Qi and Mana were present in one meal that his stall would soon be the talked about all over the city.
Even if someone did not cultivate the QI and Mana would still benefit them. This was why people of this world were so much stronger than people from Earth. By just being exposed to the two energies which were so abundant in this world it physically improved them and even extended their life spans!
Ben had found this out the hard way when he fought the drunk mercenary guard in the roadside camp. Because he was from Earth his cultivation at the time made him equal in strength to a regular man who was only physically fit from this world.
During the off time when Ben didn't have customers, he made a display alongside his stall of a stacked stone blocks and wood planks.
Most people would think why would you try to sell wood planks and stone blocks for?
The reason he set them out is his wood planks were all perfect dimensions and looked like they went through a plane sander they were so smooth. The same went for his stone blocks, they were all the same exact size and looked like they had been cut with diamond masonry blade.
The stone blocks of this word were all quarried by hammers, chisels, and breaker rods. They had no smooth edges each block looked like a beaver went around a bit chunks out of every square inch of them.
The available wood planks of this world were harvested with axes and crude iron saws the dimensions were all different and they all had wavy lines.
The difference was huge the basic resources that Ben was selling looked like they were cut by master carpenters and master masons compared to the quality of this world.
A few times men would stop and take notes on the resource prices and the quality of the ore, wood, and stone, but that was the only interest they showed. Ben figured this is how the construction business worked. These guys were probably all runners for the companies who went around checking current prices, quality, and availability.
Hopefully, when their bosses heard about the quality his goods they would send buyers over to him.
At the end of the day after everyone had cleared out, he put everything into his inventory and went back to the Inn. Now that he had more money he paid his room for the week.
After having dinner in the Inn's dining room he went up to his room to cultivate a few hours before going to bed.
Over the next few days, his sales increased along with his new [Mercantile] skill. Ben also made a deal to sell all the stone blocks and wood planks he had brought with him to a respectable company that seemed to build most of the upper-class homes in the city for people with money.
Ben closed his stall so that he could walk over to this companies warehouse. On the way there, he bought a gold ring from the System Store that had engraved runes on it. The runes somehow provided a low health regeneration bonus when it was worn.
He wanted a ring that he could pretend was a spatial ring. Not wanting to pay a 1000g for a real spatial ring he decided to buy this one for 100g.
He paid a lot for his new ring, but to have even a small amount of health regeneration was a huge advantage for him. From now on whenever he was injured his wounds would slowly heal on their own. It was a great backup for when he was out of Mana and could not heal himself.
When Ben found the warehouse location of the construction company a worker took him inside and showed him where the goods could be delivered.
Ben performed a little acting by holding his hand out and touching his ring with his eyes closed. After a couple of seconds, he brought the stone blocks and planks out of his inventory.
The worker was dumbfounded to see two enormous stacks of wood and stone suddenly appear before them. He was aware of spatial rings and thought instantly that even though he had never seen one that the ring on Ben's hand was most definitely one.
After a quick inspection of the resources the worker passed Ben a leather pouch with 10 platinum coins and 100 gold coins for a total 1100g for the two huge piles of high-quality stone and wood. Ben thanked the man and left the warehouse to return to his stall without delay.
When he got back to his stall he was excited to see people lined up awaiting his return. He apologized and gave the patient customers a little more spirit food than they paid for to let them know he appreciated them waiting for him to return.
The word about his spirit food and resources quality continued to spread across town it wasn't long until he began hearing people talk about him even in the Inn's dining room and tavern.
After a week and a half, it got to the point that people started recognizing him on the streets and praising him for his goods.
A couple of parents had stopped him to let him know that since they began feeding their kids these spirit foods for the past week they started to show small glimpses of talent toward magic or cultivation. It seemed that the concentrated amount of Qi and mana was helping to shape and develop the children of his customers.
They began to grow a little sturdier and their dormant latent talents began to bloom like spring flowers exposed to the first warm sun rays of the year.
It seemed that when a child with talents toward cultivation ate his food they would feel a slight circulation of their Qi from their dantain to their first meridian. Those children with talents towards magic felt an energy that seemed to apply pressure to their frontal lobe as if it were increasing their ability to wield magic.
Most of the commoner parents had no idea what these symptoms ment at first until they asked local healers about the sudden Qi circulation or pressure on the frontal lobe. Imagine their shock when they found out their child might have a chance to become a cultivator or a mage!
If their child were to become a cultivator or a strong mage the kingdom would treat them differently and provide them with benefits!
This was shocking to hear for Ben and he wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not. It was great in the fact it would help him to sell his goods, but simultaneously, he would be making the people of this kingdom that much stronger in the future. If he were to ever fall under attack from this kingdom wouldn't he be providing them with an increase in military strength that could be used against him?
Ben chose to ignore it for now since he needed the money and his food was the best option for him to make a name for himself. If he raised enough money, he would open a store here and begin to sell even more goods made by his workshops.
So sales continued to rise until three weeks after the time he had first opened his stall he had sold off all his goods. He left the city with about half the ore that he had brought to sell and everything else was now turned into gold coins.
With a total of 4138 gold coins, Ben left Goldcrest City early in the morning to head back home.