Chapter 26: Plane Trader
Chapter 26: Plane Trader
Inside the wooden house, beside the oil lamp.
Gao Jing sat on a chair, staring dazedly at the desk before him.
What chair was it?
An incredibly premium red sandalwood chair with cloud-pattern ripples, scales, and packed golden specks!
What desk was it?
An incredibly premium red sandalwood desk with cloud-pattern ripples, scales, and packed golden specks!
Impressive?
Totally awesome without compare!
The chair and desk Gao Jing was using right now were custom-made for him by Shan Teng.
To be precise, they were carved from leftover scraps by that old Giant.
A small gift.
Gao Jing didn’t refuse this practical present again.
Though the workmanship could only be called crude, the material…
Was more precious than its weight in gold!
It was worth noting that while timber harvested from the Great World came in astonishing sizes, its texture, grain, and fiber structure were not much different from Small-Leaf Sandalwood of the Primary World.
Actually, its quality was even more outstanding!
But what made Gao Jing dazed wasn’t this set of furniture worth more than gold. It was the notebook resting on the desk.
Inside its opened pages, neat, densely-packed Great Wilderness Script filled every line. Beside each character, Gao Jing had added his own phonetic symbols and notes.
This notebook, brought by Gao Jing from the Primary World, contained a total of 3,375 characters of the Great Wilderness Script.
According to Elder Shaman Shan Yan, mastering these 3,375 characters would allow one to read any Great Wilderness text without secret scripts.
So-called “secret scripts” referred to privately invented characters for confidentiality. Their quantity was untold, and learning them held no value.
Ignoring secret scripts, learning just these 3,375 characters was challenging enough.
Many characters had intricate strokes and rich meanings, with highly specific usages, making study time-consuming and mentally taxing.
Yet Gao Jing had essentially mastered the entire set of Great Wilderness characters in just 15 days.
He could recognize them, read them, write them correctly, and even hold basic conversations with the Elder Shaman after his Yan Xiao Talisman stopped working!
At least, simple daily exchanges were no problem.
Honestly, Gao Jing himself could barely believe he was this capable.
But the memory in his mind felt utterly real.
His rapid mastery of the Great Wilderness Script wasn’t without reasons.
Firstly, the powerful effect of the Yan Xiao Talisman was crucial. Being able to understand spoken words cut the difficulty of learning the characters by more than half.
Secondly, the Great Wilderness Script shared many similarities with Chinese, eliminating comprehension barriers.
Lastly, Gao Jing’s current memory was significantly sharper than before.
That point was also essential.
Combined with his relentless, day-and-night hard work over the past half month, he had created this small miracle!
Gao Jing felt an ineffable sense of satisfaction.
The kind of joy and happiness he had as a student, solving a baffling problem or scoring high on a difficult exam!
He carefully put away the notebook.
The biggest thrill of having a Storage Space was the ability to carry vast amounts of supplies anytime, anywhere.
Including things not needed daily.
You never knew when they might come in handy!
Tap! Tap!
Just then, a soft knock came at the door.
Gao Jing immediately stood up. “Come in.”
This wooden house belonged to Shan Yan. Usually, besides lessons, only the Elder Shaman himself and Shan Guoer could enter.
Shan Guoer never knocked.
The Elder Shaman pushed the door open and entered, smiling. “Gao Jing, hope I’m not disturbing you?”
“Not at all.”
Gao Jing quickly replied, “Shaman Chief, please have a seat.”
“Shaman Chief” was his respectful title for Shan Yan. Indeed, this Elder Shaman was also the leader of the Shan Yue Tribe.
The Elder Shaman sat down by the large wooden table with a chuckle. As usual, he drew out his wooden pipe, stuffed it with tobacco leaves, lit it, and began puffing away.
Lately, he visited Gao Jing every night for a chat.
These talks not only greatly improved Gao Jing’s speaking skills but also gave him a deeper understanding of the Great World.
The Elder Shaman had traveled extensively in his youth, even visiting the Great Wilderness’s grandest city—The City of Ten Thousand Kings.
His deeply wrinkled face seemed etched with stories weathered by wind, frost, rain, and snow.
“I’m lending this to you.”
Taking a few puffs, the Elder Shaman pulled a thick book from his robe and placed it on the table.
Gao Jing was thrilled.
Ignoring the word “lending,” he stared wide-eyed at the tome now before him.
This was the first Great Wilderness book he had ever seen.
The book was enormous, looking over four meters long and nearly one meter thick.
It was heavy enough to crush Gao Jing.
The cover seemed made from some kind of tanned animal hide; the skin’s texture was still visible, though marked by signs of heavy use.
Chronicles of the Great Wilderness.
Three bold black characters ran vertically down the cover. An ancient, powerful aura radiated from it!
“I bought this book in the City of Ten Thousand Kings. It chronicles thirty thousand years of Great Wilderness history,” Shan Yan explained.
“It cost me thirty Shell Coins back then.”
The Elder Shaman shrugged. “Found out later, a copy just like this wouldn’t cost more than two Shell Coins at most in the City of Ten Thousand Kings.”
Gao Jing couldn’t help but smile.
The expression on the Elder Shaman’s face perfectly captured the frustration and helplessness of a young person being deceived for the first time.
It was kind of amusing.
He must remember that episode vividly.
But Gao Jing had a faint feeling that the old man wasn’t just telling him a joke.
He might be hinting that not everyone in the Great Wilderness was honest and kind.
As Gao Jing bowed his head in farewell, a cynical thought surfaced: For all their uprightness, they too must have encountered deceitful swindlers.
“Thank you for your generosity.”
Gao Jing’s smile faded as he earnestly expressed his gratitude: “I will never forget the help you and the Shan Yue Tribe have given me!”
The Elder Shaman blinked and asked, “Do you plan to leave this place?”
Gao Jing met his gaze honestly. “Yes. I wish to return to my home.”
The Elder Shaman showed no surprise. “When?”
“The day after tomorrow,” Gao Jing replied. “Shaman Chief, I wish to propose a business arrangement. With you, or rather, with the Shan Yue Tribe.”
“Business?”
The Elder Shaman looked intrigued. “What do you need?”
“I need this kind of wood.”
Gao Jing knocked on his small desk, then stepped firmly on the large plank floor beneath his feet. “And this kind, too.”
The Elder Shaman gave him an odd look. “Just… these woods?”
For the Shan Yue Tribe, both Red Sandalwood and Small-Leaf Sandalwood were utterly ordinary building materials.
Plentiful in the nearby forests, easily harvested whenever needed.
As much as one could desire, completely worthless!
“Yes!” Gao Jing confirmed firmly. “Precisely these woods. May I ask what the Shan Yue Tribe needs?”
Over these past days, Gao Jing had thought everything through clearly.
He intended to become an inter-dimensional merchant first.
But earning money wasn’t Gao Jing’s sole aim.
He sought to build a relationship of mutual trust, friendship, and goodwill with the Shan Yue Tribe and this very Elder Shaman through trade.
To gain genuine friendship!
“Hmm.”
The Elder Shaman contemplated for a moment.
He could feel Gao Jing’s sincerity and earnest intent.
After a thoughtful pause, the Elder Shaman retrieved a stone from the pouch at his waist. Holding it between two fingers, he offered it to Gao Jing. “Do you recognize this?”
The stone was roughly the size of a soccer ball, dull gray-black, and decidedly unattractive in appearance.
Gao Jing shook his head, puzzled.
The Elder Shaman explained, “This is salt.”
Salt?
Gao Jing had learned the character, but he’d never imagined salt in the Great World looked like this!
Could it be Salt Stone?
He rubbed his hand hard against the stone’s surface. Powder loosened, clinging to his fingers.
He brought his fingers to his mouth and tasted it.
Bitter and harsh!
Yet a distinct saltiness was undeniably present.
“I understand,” Gao Jing said, touching his lips. “I will bring salt for the Shan Yue Tribe.”
He would bring back real salt, far superior to this crude rock!
The Elder Shaman smiled. “Excellent.”
The first transaction between them was thus formally settled.
Though they hadn’t discussed specific quantities, a thing called ‘trust’ had already begun to grow!
“I shall take my leave now,” the Elder Shaman said, stowing the Salt Stone and rising to his feet. “Rest early.”
It was clear he was quite pleased.
Yet the happiest person in the room was undoubtedly Gao Jing.
After seeing the Elder Shaman out, Gao Jing held back his mounting excitement. He turned his attention back to the book on the desk.
With some effort, he lifted the heavy cover. The densely packed Great Wilderness Script covering the pages inside immediately filled his vision.
Gao Jing did not rush to read.
He retrieved his GoPro, replacing the battery and inserting a fresh memory card.
He planned to meticulously record every page of this thick “Chronicles of the Great Wilderness.” That way, he could study its contents at leisure later.
Tonight would be a long night of work!