EBE Chapter 615: First Day of Trade
Chapter 615: First Day of Trade
The survivors who had just entered the market stood a distance away to watch first while discussing the situation.
There were other people selling stuff in exchange for either crystal cores or other useful things.
Some even sold water.
Chu Miao was surprised to find that a bottle of half a liter of water actually sold for a hundred crystal cores or even a kilogram of rice.
In the apocalypse, while food was scarce, water was also scarce and it was more important.
Water is basically the foundation of life. Without it, people would die faster.
So, it was more expensive than food.
Seeing this, Chu Miao had her people add water to their stock.
Moreover, their water was cheaper than the rest.
For half a liter, it could be exchanged for fifty crystal cores or half a kilogram of rice.
This way, the people could get more than before.
She was able to conjure water almost without limit after absorbing so many crystal cores.
Her superpower had reached a level that others could not even hope for.
Moreover, since her superpower had merged with her spiritual power in the dantian, her ability had more than doubled.
Even though she knew that this would hurt the other merchants selling stuff in the market, she had volunteered to do this as charity for her mother, so she wouldn’t back down.
The survivors walked around haggling and buying things.
When they reached the area Chu Miao and her people had set up, their eyes widened in disbelief when they saw the supplies on display.
There was food such as rice, flour, sugar, and other dry foods.
However, what surprised them even more was the fresh vegetables, meat, medicine, and water.
It was as if this was a regular market before the apocalypse.
"Is this... a trap?" someone asked.
"Even if it is... we don’t have a choice." another replied bitterly.
Hunger had already pushed them to their limits.
Inside the exchange area, Chu Miao stood at the side watching quietly.
The first group of survivors stepped forward cautiously.
"We... we heard you are trading?" their leader asked nervously.
"Yes." Chu Miao replied simply.
"What do you have?"
The man hesitated before taking out a small pouch.
"Crystal cores... and some materials."
Chu Miao glanced at them briefly.
"Acceptable."
She then gestured with her hand and a soldier stepped forward and placed a small bag of food on the table.
The man’s hands trembled as he took it and peeked inside.
His heart shook when he saw the things inside.
He had given a pouch with three hundred crystal cores.
It had taken him a few days to collect all those crystal cores, but now he felt that it was worth the risk to go out and hunt zombies.
In the bag of food, there was a kilogram of rice, a half kilogram of flour, some salt, a two-liter bottle of water, and half a cabbage.
There was also a small piece of fresh pork and two eggs inside.
This was the best food he had seen in months.
When the apocalypse had just started, supplies were still abundant and going out to search yielded some good results.
Back then, they could find preserved vegetables and dried fruits.
But after a year of scavenging, almost all the supplies were gone.
To maintain nutrition, people had been digging wild vegetables. Some weren’t even edible plants before but now, just to fight hunger, people were eating anything they could find.
Some even ate raw tree bark.
Others dug up vegetables in nearby mountains but some had mutated and would kill after eating.
Yet now, he was holding a cabbage. This was a real vegetable that could nourish the body.
There was also fresh pork.
A wide smile broke on his face as he buried the bag under his wide jacket and left immediately while observing his surroundings as if afraid that someone would snatch his food.
"Thank you..." he whispered, his eyes turning red.
Behind him, others watched in disbelief.
"It’s real..."
"They’re really trading...such precious supplies."
Soon, more people approached and the area occupied by the sect became more lively.
At a stall in the corner, a few pairs of eyes watched this progress seriously.
"Where did these people come from?" One person asked.
"I don’t know, but they are interfering with the balance here." Another one said.
"Should we act?" one asked.
The figure who seemed to be the leader shook his head.
"Not yet."
The man’s gaze lingered on the stall where Chu Miao stood, his expression dark and calculating.
"Let’s observe first." He added in a low voice.
The others nodded.
Even though the supplies were tempting, they weren’t fools.
In a world where a single bottle of water could cost a hundred crystal cores, seeing such abundance being sold so casually was anything but normal.
Back at Chu Miao’s stall, the crowd had begun to grow.
Word spread faster than wildfire.
Within minutes, almost everyone in the market knew that a new group had arrived, one that sold fresh food, clean water, and even medicine at prices lower than the usual rate.
For the survivors, this was nothing short of a miracle.
"Miss, how much for this?" a middle-aged woman asked nervously as she pointed at a small bundle of vegetables.
"Fifty crystal cores." The cultivator at the stall replied calmly.
The woman froze.
"Fifty?" she repeated in disbelief.
"Yes." The cultivator nodded.
The woman hurriedly rummaged through her bag and poured out a handful of crystal cores onto the table, afraid the price might suddenly increase.
"I’ll take it!" she said quickly.
The moment she held the vegetables in her hands, tears streamed down her face.
"It’s been so long..." she murmured.
Chu Miao watched the scene quietly from the side.
Her expression didn’t change, but her eyes softened ever so slightly.
This was exactly why her mother had suggested this.
And now, she understood it more clearly.
Helping others... wasn’t entirely meaningless.