Luckily for him, all of the ingredients Tian Kai wanted to buy were pretty cheap.
Although Xue Chang wasn't poor, he had to admit that his wallet wasn't the happiest either. Plus it had been a while since he had been able to earn an income.
Most of his money came from guild commissions, and they were spent soon after in order to obtain even more earth fire for his "tenants" and guards' training.
The only reason he wasn't completely broke was thanks to the fact that the guild gave him quite the hefty discount when purchasing directly from them.
He couldn't help but chuckle at how others had to struggle to even obtain a single liter of earth fire, yet he was making bulk purchases at a fraction of the price.
The ingredients at the food market they were in were kept pretty fresh. While most of the herbs and vegetables were either dried or old, Tian Kai was lucky as he came early in the morning when all of the new items were placed out.
Unlike the streets surrounded by restaurants and food stalls, this place wasn't as pleasant to be in.
Housewives and maids were running around all over the place trying to get what they could as early as possible, making the market a chaotic battlefield.
The scent of cheap perfume mixed in with the scent of herbs and raw meat. Creating an obnoxious concoction that Xue Chang couldn't stand.
He just could figure out why Tian Kai could have such a brilliant smile when walking in such a place.
"How much longer do we have to stay here?
"Almost don't, just give me a few more minutes." Tian Kai didn't even look over at Xue Chang when he responded.
His full attention was placed upon several bottles of spices placed down in front of him. He was bargaining with the vendor in order to get a better price, which Xue Chang thought was useless since they had plenty of money to spare.
"Money isn't a thing you can spend wildly Xue Chang. Doing so makes you no better than those young masters who never worked a day in their life. You need to know the worth of a single coin, even if it's the lowest copper one. Plus bargaining is a great skill to have, you can never go wrong with learning a skill like that."
Tian Kai smiled kindly while explaining this to Xue Chang.
Although they were similar in age, Cue Chang felt as if Tian Kai was much more mature than both him and Tian Hai.
It was an interesting feeling.
As they continued to explore the market, Xue Chang would watch Tian Kai in action and see what he could learn from it.
At the very least, he learned that he was terrible at bargaining.
Several times, vendors would offer Tian Kai a price that Xue Chang felt was perfect, yet Tian Kai somehow got them to lower the cost of some things even further until they were basically receiving things for free.
If he could do that, when would he ever have monetary troubles like he had now?
He had always paid outright when buying something, but he could see now that maybe he had been going about things incorrectly.
"Every time I watch you work, I feel amazed." Xue Chang complimented Tian Kai in another successful business transaction, "I sometimes wonder why you stay under my employment. You can definitely be bored by my family as a butler, which will give you a lot more status and money you know?"
"Haha, the Immortal Xue Family huh? Well if I was interested in status and money then maybe I would do it. But that's not all I care about."
Tian Kai wasn't a fool, he understood that Xue Chang was offering him a chance to work for his family. Not just his direct one, but the clan itself. The clan who held far more resources and held much more respect than anything their city held.
But he didn't care for all of that.
In his eyes, Xue Chang was far greater than even the immortal families.
How else could he describe the miracle worker who surpassed his limits as a human despite the difficulties of his constitution.
Plus, "I don't really want to join in such organizations. I don't like those political battles nor do I want to worry about being killed by both my enemies AND allies. I would rather just stay here with you where I'm most comfortable." He just didn't want to be bothered.
Xue Chang wanted to continue the conversation, but before he could say anything a large crowd began to cause a commotion nearby.
"What's going on over there?"
The two friends walked over to see what the commotion was about and witnessed a group of men surrounded a single fruit stall.
"Don't you know who we are? We are the city's militia! We protect these damn streets, and you can't even give your protectors some compensation?!"
The man who spoke kicked over the stall, toppling all of the products that were in top of the stand.
"Sir please! One more month, just give me one more month. I've barely been making enough money to pay for my child's education, but I'll get you the money soon I promise!"
The stall owner, a woman who looked to be in her thirties, got into her knees and grabbed at the militiaman's robe.
She groveled onto the ground and begged for more time.
As tears streamed down her cheeks, the man formed a scowl across his face as he released a vicious kick toward the woman.
The force of his blow launched her back, crashing into a nearby wall.
Her body collapsed onto the ground as she furiously vomited out a mixture of bile and blood.
"Don't you dare touch me you disgusting skank, who do you think you are! You think a sob story will make me forgive you? Well you have another thing coming."
To the surprise of the crowd, the militiaman pulled out the blade sheathed at his side.
Pointing its sharp tip toward the woman, the militiaman yelled out to the crowd, "Let this be a lesson to all of you, anyone who refuses to pay the protection fee will be punished!"
A screech of anger came from the crowd as a young man charged through all of the onlookers and ran toward the man.
"Leave her alone! Mom! Mom!"
He wildly lashed out at the militiaman, but was held back.
The other guards, who appeared to be friends with the agitator, got in the way of the young man while snickering to themselves.
Slapping him aside, the men laughed at the woman's son. One of them even grabbed the kid by his head and slammed it into the ground.
"Stand back kid, or you're next in line to dealt 'justice' understood?"
The young guy screamed until his voice was hoarse, telling the militiaman to leave his mother alone.
He was angry, why was he so stupid.
Because he stupidly chose to go out and play in the woods while touching strange plants, he got poisoned.
This poison quickly deteriorated his health, and because of that his mom had to sacrifice her hard earned savings in order to save him.
Worst part that these men who claimed to be collecting money for the city's militia came monthly and extorted money from them. If they didn't pay up then these men resorted to violence.
If only he didn't stupidly touch that plant without thinking, then everything would've been fine. It was all his fault.
The guilt grew within the young man as he was forced to watch the man approach his mother with the sword.
"DAMN YOU, I'll kill you I swear it!"
The militiamen just smiled at his struggles.
Just as the militiaman was about to cut the young man's mother down, a calm voice spoke out from the back of the crowd.
"When did the city's militia become common thugs?"
Xue Chang and Tian Kai could no longer keep watching the scene, they had finally decided to act.