Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Worthy of being a Golden Lion Clan’s genius of a thousand years. As soon as he transformed, his strength increased by several folds and directly tore open a powerful half-step King.” The scene of a half-step King’s tragic death was nothing new to the spectators. In Richlight Oceanspan, experts died every day. They were all quite happy to enjoy the bustle.
“This is already the second half-step King Shi Shaobao has killed this month. Hehe…Golden lion clan sure is bold and mighty.” The handsome youngster aroused his battle intent and said arrogantly.
“Let’s go!”
The battle had concluded, and Shi Shaobao had the last laugh. Ye Chen also gained a new understanding of high-aptitude demonic beasts that had cultivated to half-step Demonic Beast Kings.
“En!” Murong Qingcheng followed behind Ye Chen.
“What’s going on? A mere attendant is making the master follow her?” An annoyed look appeared on the handsome young man’s face. However, he didn’t have any retort either. After all, Murong Qingcheng showed no opposition.
“Miss, my name is Lin Yuxuan…Keep in mind!” The handsome young man, Lin Yuxuan, sent a Zhen Yuan transmission to Murong Qingcheng.
She paused, but didn’t reply. Following behind Ye Chen, the two headed toward Foursquare Island not far away.
The top section of Foursquare Island was flat and the foundation of a huge city extended dozens of li far. Landing on a street, Ye Chen casually looked around and found a map selling store.
“Boss, a Foursquare City Map please.” Ye Chen arrived at the shop and gently tapped the counter.
“Of course, here is your map! Ten upper grade spirit stones!” The boss took out a neatly folded map from the drawer and placed it on the counter.
A city map costing ten upper grade spirit stones?
Ye Chen’s corner of mouth twitched but he didn’t say anything.
Walking outside the store, Murong Qingcheng smiled, “All people coming here are powerful. They wouldn’t care about ten upper grade spirit stones.”
“A place’s worth is decided by the people there. But, the contrast here is too striking compared to other places.” In a small nation’s ordinary market, a map would at most cost a few taels. Even if it were a great market of a martial city, it would be at most a few low grade spirit stones. The disparity was simply too big.
At the same time, such a cost was not completely unreasonable. All the people that came here were Sea of Soul realm experts and half-step Kings. If one asked them a few low grade spirit stones, there would be many who would struggle to find some. After all, they would mostly be carrying upper grade stones, and perhaps only a few mid grade spirit stones.
Anyhow, the map was quite detailed. Every street and what it offered was clearly marked on the map.
“Let’s take a look at the ingredient shops first. Maybe I’ll find what I’m looking for.”
The road to half-step King was not without shortcuts. According to Battle King’s records, there was a kind of half-step extreme spirit herb called the Heart Protecting Flower that could protect the heart. If it were to be refined in a pill, its efficacy would double. If he had the Heart Protecting Flower, Ye Chen could increase his blood circulation by several folds. As long as he didn’t increase the blood circulation to an absurd level, he would not have to worry about his heart being unable to endure.
Ingredient shops were three streets across, on a street which comprised of various ingredient shops and miscellaneous shops. Although the vast majority of the things here were worthless, one might chance upon a priceless treasure. This would depend on one’s luck and discerning power of course.
Arriving at the street’s entrance, Ye Chen and Murong Qingcheng entered the first shop.
“Welcome, please take a look around. The items here are cheaper than what you’ll find in other stores.” The boss cordially greeted.
Ye Chen faintly nodded.
The majority of the items here were of mid grade, and some were upper grade treasures. As for half-step extreme grade materials, they were all locked behind the counter and could only be seen through the crystals. However, there were also a few unknown materials. Their grades and uses were not specified. Due to being stored and set aside for years, they had gained some dust, giving them an ancient look.
“This store actually has soul stones, though not much.”
On the eastern wooden shelf, Ye Chen saw a few silver black soul stones. He released his soul power, but it was immediately obstructed by the silver glow around the stones. Although his soul power was not completely obstructed, it faced some resistance. This was because the number of soul stones was low. In large numbers, they could completely isolate probing from soul power.
They were without a doubt genuine soul stones!
“A fist-sized soul stone is worth five thousand upper grade spirit stones in the market. These spirit stones are at least half the size of a fist. Four thousand upper grade spirit stones is not too much of a fraud.” Ye Chen observed them for a moment, then turned his attention to other things.
“Boss, do you have more soul stones?” Right at this moment, a person walked in. Picking up a soul stone from the wooden shelf, he asked the boss.
Seeing business at his door, the boss smiled while rubbing his hands, “I do. There are a few more in the storehouse, but I’ve set them aside for my own use. Check out the price…”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take as many as you have and pay five percent extra!” This man was dressed in a white robe and had a graceful appearance. He was clearly a high-level member of some powerful sect. Collecting soul stones was most probably his sect assignment. A powerful sect must have an array to guard against soul power probing, which required a lot of soul stones. Therefore, soul stones generally didn’t have much use for an individual, but held great value for sects.
“Alright, follow me to the warehouse.” The boss led the white-robed man into the warehouse with a smile.
“Let’s try other shops.”
Ye Chen didn’t find anything good after going through the entire shop, so the two exited the shop and again arrived at the street. Following that, Ye Chen visited seven-eight shops and eventually found three Heart Nurturing Grasses, two Spirit Melting Grasses, and a Spirit Ice Flower.
Heart Nurturing Grass was a peak upper grade herb that had the same purpose as Heart Protecting Grass, although in a different way. The latter emphasized on the word ‘Protect’ and strongly increased the resistance of the heart for a certain time period. Meanwhile, the Heart Nurturing Grass focused on the foundation and steadily strengthened the heart. After a while, the heart would naturally be capable of enduring a great pressure.
Three Heart Nurturing Grasses would certainly increase his chances of entering half-step King realm. However, he couldn’t tell whether he would actually succeed or not.
As for the upper grade Spirit Melting Grass, it was quite a unique herb. This grass could increase the duration of Zhen Yuan and blood fusion. If this time duration were to sufficiently increase, he would no longer need the Heart Protecting Grass or Heart Nurturing Grass to complete the full cycle of merged Zhen Yuan and blood. However, two were simply too few.
And finally, the Ice Spirit Grass was a protective measure to guard against accidents. If the pressure on the heart increased too much and could no longer be brought down in a short while, he could swallow the Ice Spirit Grass and freeze the blood circulation, instantly decreasing the pressure on the heart. Thus, it would prevent the situation from degrading to the level of blood necrosis.
Although the three kind of spirit grasses undoubtedly increased his chances by two folds, but in reality, they still couldn’t compare to the Heart Protecting Grass. The effect of Heart Protecting Grass was short, only lasting for a week, but he would have extremely strong cardiac defenses during this period.
Three Heart Nurturing Grasses cost Ye Chen eight hundred thousand upper grade spirit stones, Spirit Melting Grass cost two hundred thousand each, and the Ice Spirit Flower cost a little less—only eighty thousand. The whole haul cost him a total of a million and two hundred thousand upper grade spirit stones, which were several folds more expensive than other herbs of the grade.
The reason they were so costly was because everybody knew that these herbs were supplements for becoming a half-step King. If a person could become a half-step King, would he still care about a million upper grade spirit stones?
“Let’s search a bit more! Heart Nurturing Grass won’t let me attack half-step King realm for a while. If I can get my hands on the Heart Protecting Flower, I can try immediately.”
Ye Chen took a deep breath and headed to another street based on the city map, visiting other ingredient shops one after another.
…
The sun descended in the west, and the day quickly passed by. Ye Chen and Murong Qingcheng had visited almost every ingredient shop in the city, but didn’t find a single Heart Protecting Flower. Instead, they got to hear from a shopkeeper that an auction half a year ago sold the clues of Heart Protecting Flower’s location for a price of five million upper grade spirit stones.
Heart Protecting Flower was a rare treasure no matter where one went, even rarer than some extreme grade herbs. It had a price, but no market.
After all, fifth grade and fourth grade sects had a lot of their members at peak Sea of Soul realm. Although they wouldn’t go crazy over a Heart Protecting Flower, they also wouldn’t allow it to circulate outside. Therefore, there were many who had heard the name of Heart Protecting Flower, but hardly any who had seen it.
Roaming with Ye Chen, Murong Qingcheng also had some small gains, entirely comprising of some demonic attributed herbs. They were extremely cheap, and even seemed to have been sold at half their price. In True Spirit World, the number of cultivators with demonic power and demonic dao were exceedingly rare. Dozens of different kinds of herbs only cost her about a hundred thousand upper grade spirit stones, so it was undoubtedly a real steal.
Finding a restaurant with residential courtyards, they checked in.
Night fell, and cold breeze whizzed across. Ye Chen was sitting in a restaurant’s special room, harmonizing his breath. Several long lanterns were brightly lighting the room, but not enough to be dazzling. Harmonizing his breath for a few moments, he took out the three Heart Nurturing Grass from his storage ring.
The three herbs had varying degrees of maturity. The most mature one was five thousand and two hundred years old, while the least was merely three thousand and three hundred years.
Picking the grass with the least maturity, Ye Chen sucked in. With that, the medicinal energy of the grass entered his mouth in the form of a sparkling blood light.
Gurgle…
As soon as the stream of blood light entered his body, it stuck to his constantly beating heart. Under introspection, he could see a layer of blood garment on the exterior of his heart. This blood garment was incessantly squirming, injecting wisps of blood into the heart and nurturing it.
A few minutes later, Ye Chen felt a burst of cool from his heart, which was followed by a burst of warmth in the next moment. Both bursts incessantly occurred following one after another. He couldn’t even tell whether he was feeling cool or warm. In the end, Ye Chen simply stopped paying attention, letting Heart Nurturing Grass tenderly nourish his heart.
Days flew by, and in the blink of an eye, Murong Qingcheng and Ye Chen had spent three days there.
During the three days, half of the three thousand three hundred years old Heart Nurturing Grass’ medicinal power had been absorbed by his heart. Ye Chen could clearly feel that his heart had become a lot stronger. Although his heartbeats didn’t increase, they had become more vigorous.
The following day, Ye Chen and Murong Qingcheng arrived at a teahouse at the city’s central plaza. This teahouse was unusual because its visitors were all those seeking to form teams. Why form teams? That was naturally to search for ruins.
Ruins were quite dangerous, after all. If explored alone, one could easily be buried inside.
