Chapter 0657: A Jade Strip
Ning Cheng reigned in his shock and took a sip of the wine in his glass, finding one-of-a-kind indescribable reluctance remaining on his lips. It seemed that a one-of-a-kind sentimental attachment and dependence had started to emerge from inside of him.
At this moment, Ning Cheng had a feeling that if he tried learning a new skill or spirit technique at this time, the effect would be much better than if he had not sipped this wine.
“Good wine…..” Some of the Heaven Seated experts exclaimed in surprise.
Su Youqinghong’s voice came in on time, “Many thanks to all of you for partaking in this joyous occasion. This is one of the few rare wines in my Su Clan’s collection. Today, although I want to take this opportunity to be drunk with you all, this Su Youqinghong needs to leave for a while. You all are our distinguished guests, please do make yourselves comfortable. We even have Reluctance Fruit for you all to sample.”
Ning Cheng looked at the empty glass in his hand and shook his head silently. He truly had taken a liking to this wine. It was only a single glass of wine, yet it still managed to get him drunk. Just as he guessed, Su Youqinghong most likely had to attend to other more distinguished guests. As for experts more important than Heaven Seated Powerhouses, they definitely would be experts in the Life and Death or the Eternal Realm.
Once Su Youqinghong left, Su Baijiao and Duan Gantai also followed him out after receiving everyone’s blessing. At this moment, a server came forward to present the guests with the Reluctance Fruits, and Ning Cheng got one. From the name and the aura coming from the fruit, Ning Cheng could guess that this Reluctance Fruit should be one of the main ingredients in brewing the wine that they had just tasted.
Ning Cheng did not eat this spiritual fruit; instead, he took out a jade box and stored it inside it. He planned to leave the Su Clan immediately, and although he did not obtain any Purple Yin Spirit Spring, he did receive some news about the Purple Yin Spirit Spring Bead, which made it a worthwhile trip. The next thing to do was to look for cultivation resources and stay low until he advanced to the Heaven Seated Realm.
At this point, a cultivator from the Su Clan in the Heaven Seated Realm suddenly stood up and spoke to the cultivators sitting in the wooden hall with cupped fists, ”Respected friends, it’s rare for everyone to get together. All those who can sit here are the powerhouses in the Eternal Night Domain. Or, at the very least, unusually distinguished guests within the Eternal Night Domain.”
“The Eternal Night Domain and the void surrounding it is simply too vast. We all have obtained quite a few treasures from in and around here. Maybe we all have what each other needs, but also things that are of little use to us. Therefore, on behalf of the Su Clan, I’m planning to set up an item exchange here. If you want to attend, then please stay. If you don’t want to attend, you can continue enjoying the spiritual fruits in the guest rooms.”
No one felt unwilling to part with such activities. Moreover, as the cultivator from Su Clan said, no one here had an inferior status. At the same time, such kinds of item exchanges were usually tough to get in, even with their respective ranks. Now that an opportunity came knocking, only a fool would willingly leave this place. Even if one did not exchange anything, the insight and information gained would definitely provide him or her with a valuable experience.
Even Ning Cheng dispelled the idea of leaving.
The Heaven Seated Cultivator from the Su Clan seemed to have already known that no one would leave and took out a jade box before speaking, “Then please allow me to start the show by throwing in brick to attract jade[1]. This is a strain of Ascending Dragon Orchid. I presume I don’t need to explain the role of the Ascending Dragon Orchid, as you would already know all about its uses. I just want Perpetual Moon Pills or Permanent Essence Pills in exchange for it.”
Ning Cheng knew about the Ascending Dragon Orchid. It was a top-grade starry sky spiritual grass used for body forging. A mature Ascending Dragon Orchid could easily reach the level of a Grade 8 Starry Sky Spiritual Grass. Frankly speaking, even Ning Cheng wanted to obtain this starry sky spiritual grass. At the same time, he also understood that this cultivator from the Su Clan had used this item as a trigger. Otherwise, this fellow would never come out with such a treasure, and definitely not exchange it for Perpetual Moon Pills for cultivation. In any case, people already had inklings that he was a foreign cultivator; therefore, it was better to stay low-key for now.
Apparently, Ning Cheng was not the only body-forging cultivator in this hall. Therefore, when the Ascending Dragon Orchid came out, it immediately drew in the attentions of several cultivator. Even two Heaven Seated Experts competed for it. In the end, it was taken away by another Heaven Seated Cultivator for a price of 400,000 Perpetual Moon Pills.
With the exchange of the Ascending Dragon Orchid, it immediately invigorated the atmosphere. Numerous other cultivators started bringing out a variety of things to trade. Unlike the item exchanges Ning Cheng had seen before, most of the things taken out this time were all relatively rare item. It even included medicinal pills and weapons. However, there were only a few requests to trade the items for Perpetual Moon Pills.
Ning Cheng didn’t take out anything or trade for any of the items. It was not that he did not want these things, but that the objects on him were either too precious or just plain ordinary.
After a cultivator in the Heaven’s Mandate Realm just finished trading for an artefact-crafting raw material, a Heaven Seated Cultivator sitting in the front of the hall suddenly stood up and raised a jade strip in his hand, “I have a jade strip here. This jade strip contains a Void Positional Chart to a maelstrom that formed out of a spacial collapse. Although I do not know what is inside, I know that every forty-nine days, the maelstrom would cough out a lot of extremely pure Celestial Essence gas. It’s just that this Celestial Essence gas dissipates too quickly, making it unconducive for cultivation……”
This Heaven Seated Cultivator had not yet finished, but Ning Cheng had already guessed what this fellow wanted. From the looks of it, this cultivator had found this place due to an accident and thought that the maelstrom formed by the spacial collapse might contain a Perpetual Moon Pill Pond after examining it from the outside for a relatively long time. Judging by this fellow’s actions in bringing out the jade strip containing the direction chart, he most likely had not found any way to get through the spacial collapse safely to search for the pill pond. Out of desperation, he could only choose to come here to make a deal.
Since Ning Cheng could guess this, then the other cultivators would also be able to speculate it. All the people intently stared at this jade strip in this fellow’s hand. At the same time, everyone knew that even if someone here obtained the jade strip, he or she might not be able to get the Pill Mountain or the Pill Pond inside the spacial maelstrom.
“I don’t have any particular requirement to trade for this jade strip. As long as you can take out something that could interest me, you can have it.” It was very unusual for a Heaven Seated Cultivator, who brought out a jade strip to trade, to ask people to bring out something that could interest him, without mentioning exactly what he wanted.
“I can give you 300,000 Perpetual Moon Pills for that jade strip.” One of the cultivators immediately called out.
Arguably, 300,000 Perpetual Moon Pills was not a small number, but the Heaven Seated Cultivator only shook his head in disapproval. This caused everyone to feel that although this person said that he did not want anything, this fellow already had something in his mind.
People immediately tried to offer him different kinds of starry sky spiritual grasses, weapons and other things; yet, none of the items stated could satisfy the Heaven Seated Cultivator.
Ning Cheng wanted to wait a little longer. When he saw the cultivator from the Su Clan finally leaving the hall, he immediately took out a jade box and threw it to the Heaven Seated Cultivator, “You don’t have to open the jade box immediately. Just use your Spiritual Consciousness to peer into the box to see its contents. If you like it, then give me the jade strip. If you don’t, then just forget about it. However, if you agree to trade with me, you will have to swear on the Thunder Tribulation that you would not go to this place for at least ten years. At the same time, you will also not tell another soul about this place in any form.”
The restriction that Ning Cheng had laid out was a special one. Only when one’s Spiritual Consciousness penetrated into it could the one holding the box feel the aura of the item stored inside.
The Heaven Seated Cultivator glanced at Ning Cheng with some disdain. Ning Cheng looked like a cultivator with messy Celestial Wheels; as such, he at most was a Heaven’s Mandate Cultivator. How could a Heaven’s Mandate Cultivator feel daring enough to ask him to swear over the Thunder Tribulation? This fellow sure had a lot of guts.
However, when his Spiritual Consciousness penetrated into the jade box, his hand immediately shook, and he almost dropped the jade box to the ground. He immediately put away the jade box and threw the hade strip in his hand to Ning Cheng with the words, “Ok. I will trade for it. Since I, Yang Jun, decided to trade it with you, I take an oath to not intentionally come anywhere near the place marked on the jade strip for ten years. At the same time, I swear that I will not tell another soul about this location in any form. If I violate this oath, may the Thunder Tribulations turn me to ashes.”
He anyways had no intentions to go to this place. As such, there was no difference if he swore on it or not. Even so, he took care to use the word ‘intentionally’ in the oath. Therefore, if he accidentally ended up going to this place, he wouldn’t end up violating the oath.
Although Ning Cheng picked up on the subtleties in this fellow’s words, he did not care much about it. What he wanted was actually the following sentence; that is, this cultivator named Yang Jun would not share the information on the jade strip with any other person in any form.
The rest of the cultivators felt amazed. What did Ning Cheng actually take out? Not only did this Heaven Seated Expert agree to trade for it immediately, but even made such an oath.
Under the gazes filled with amazement, Ning Cheng calmly put away the jade strip. He had taken out a small Time Stone, and since the cultivator in question was a Heaven Seated Expert, he would certainly understand the value of a Time Stone. Sure enough, the Heaven Seated Cultivator could not resist the temptation of the Time Stone. This treasure contained the Laws of Time.
After Ning Cheng put away the jade strip, all gazes immediately focussed on Ning Cheng. No one dared to ask the Heaven Seated Cultivator about what Ning Cheng had given him, but everyone wanted to know about the treasure that moved the Heaven Seated Cultivator to quickly finalise the exchange and even swear such an oath.
The eyes of some of the cultivators who knew about Ning Cheng’s background immediately shone with greed. Previously, Ning Cheng had casually given away a tail feather from a Starry Sky Grade 9 Demonic Beast, the Flame Wind Crow, and now had only taken out a single thing to trade for a jade strip. From this, they could easily guess that this cultivator definitely had many good things on him.
Ning Cheng planned to leave immediately while pretending that nothing happened. Initially, he had thought of opening an Alchemy or Artefact-crafting Store in the Eternal Night Domain to gather Perpetual Moon Pills for cultivation. He knew that it was a last resort of sorts. Moreover, no matter it was Alchemy or Artefact-crafting, none of them could satisfy his terrifying consumption of cultivation resources.
At the same time, both Alchemy and Artefact-crafting consumed a lot of time, which would further affect his cultivation.
Knowing that the void outside the Eternal Night Domain had many unknown Perpetual Moon Pill Mountains, he had another idea to go out and search for them. And this jade strip further reinforced this thought. His circumstances were different from others, and only a windfall could help him quickly advance to the Heaven Seated Realm.
Just before Ning Cheng got up, Su Youqinghong came into the hall once again. Su Baijiao and Duan Gantai still walked behind him, like two tails. He smiled and greeted the crowd before turning to Ning Cheng and speaking with a gentle voice, “Dao Friend Ning Cheng, you just traded for a jade strip from Dao Friend Yang Jun. I’d like to buy that jade strip from you. Whether it is Perpetual Moon Pills or Permanent Essence Pills, or something else, you just need to ask for it.”
Ning Cheng felt suspicious in his heart on hearing those words. If he didn’t have the Mysterious Yellow Bead, he would have definitely agreed to Su Youqinghong’s terms entirely and ask for Permanent Essence Pills. Permanent Essence Pills were anyway the best type of cultivation resource. However, because he had the Mysterious Yellow Bead, he subconsciously felt something beneficial to him within that maelstrom formed by the spacial collapse that Yang Jun had mentioned.
Some of the cultivators also looked at Yang Jun and wondered if Yang Jun would show regret now that Su Clan showed such sincerity about paying such a huge price for the jade strip.
[1] The phrase 抛砖引玉 is a Chinese idiom that transliterates to ‘to throw a brick to attract jade’ in English and in a more figurative sense ‘Offering a humble remark, please give us your valued opinion/commonplace remarks as a foreword to a distinguished speech