Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Two pieces? The four demons were startled. They didn’t expect that Su Yu, who was the less favored among them, would manage to dig out two pieces!
Several pairs of gazes, all of which were as sharp as arrows, looked toward Su Yu’s hands. The people here couldn’t help but furrow their brows when they saw the Human Skin Drum, as they all could detect its reeking bloody scent.
But, its grade was still obviously not any lower than Bai Shanliang’s White Bone Whip. It was also a semi-manufactured fairy artifact!
As for the broken sword, it should have been a spiritual artifact when it was intact, and now that it had suffered great damages, it had become only equal to a semi-manufactured fairy artifact.
“Junior brother, your luck is really enviable.” Bai Shanliang laughed involuntarily. “The Ghost Clan’s magical treasure should be worth at least 300,000 merit points. As for the broken sword, it seems like it has unusual origins, and if I’m not mistaken, then it should be the longsword of Changbi Tieluo, which was quite famous in the Red Blood Palace a hundred years ago.”
Bai Shanliang then added, “His sword was quite strange, as it could grow longer at its owner’s command. Changbi Tieluo used such a sword to sweep through the Eighteen Blessed and Heavenly Lands, killing innumerable ghosts in the humans and ghosts great battle a hundred years ago. This caused a great sensation. However, it was a pity that he disappeared later on, and it could be assumed that he had already died on the battlefield, as they never found his corpse.”
Bai Shanliang then said, “If you return this broken sword to the sanctum, then you will get a reward, which would be at least 4,000 merit points.”
It seemed that Su Yu had gotten 7,000 merit points on his first day alone! Everyone present was amazed by his good luck!
“Let’s go to the manor and quickly exchange them, so that we can go back to rest,” Bai Shanliang stood up and suggested.
Gongsun Wuxie rolled her eyes. “I will also go there to have a look at what treasures those inner sanctum disciples have dug out.”
Bing Wuxin furrowed her brows. “I will also go to have a look.”
“Me too.” In the end, even Zi Xuan stood up and followed them. After all, she wouldn’t let any opportunity for looking for Su Yu pass. But, it was a pity that she still didn’t know that Su Yu was actually beside her!
Su Yu looked at Xue Qi and asked, “As for you?”
Xue Qi shook her head and didn’t seem interested. “Just leave me here. You can go without me.”
Xue Qi then looked suddenly at Su Yu. “If you see that group of inner sanctum disciples, then you better not have any conflict with them. As far as I know, two of the seven disciples have ambiguous relationships with the Shao family, so don’t give them a reason for causing your trouble.”
Su Yu’s heart shuddered. It seemed that Shao Yueming had sent people here as expected. Moreover, they were even two inner sanctum disciples, who were probably both Divine Masters!
Such a lineup was really like a deadly trap for Su Yu. He wondered would come next.
Su Yu’s eyes flickered as he took a looked at Zi Xuan. “Fine. Since you will be alone in the camp, you should be careful,” Su Yu said.
Su Yu then set out, along with the four demons, and flew towards the manor. There was a person, who had been sent by the sanctum, within the manor, who was in charge of examining the treasures and exchanging them for merit points.
When they reached the manor, they found that it was bustling with activity. There appeared to be no less than 100 people here. They were the sanctum’s people, all of whom had been here for a long time, as they were in charge of the excavation.
Since they were in charge of only the excavation, they couldn’t exchange treasures for merit points like Su Yu and the others. Instead, they could exchange them for ordinary cultivation resources. If this hadn’t been the case, then by staying here for the long-term and accumulating merit points, they would have been able to become much wealthier than even the inner sanctum elders!
When Su Yu swept them with his gaze, he immediately noticed an empty counter that had a solemn and aloof middle-aged man at it.
“It’s there. Let’s go.” Su Yu took the lead and went toward the man.
Just after this, seven other people strode forward among the crowd, also heading toward the middle-aged man. The one at the front was a beautiful young woman, who wore a multi-colored dress and seemed to be around 28 years old. She had a gentle temperament and a pretty, pleasant-looking face.
She was the person who had gotten the right of entering the Elegant Spirit Mountain, while the other six people had been brought by her here.
“Senior, we came to exchange the objects we have dug out, so please have a look at them.” The young woman spoke in a soft voice and wore a respectful expression as she put nine treasures on the table.
When Su Yu took a look at them, he found that half of them were already almost decayed, so he threw many of the objects away immediately.
The middle-aged shopkeeper’s expression was calm and composed, and he didn’t take even a single look at them as he lowered his head and started passing his palm over the objects on the table.
“The first one has already lost all of its spiritual properties, so it isn’t eligible,” he announced.
Ding!
The middle-aged shopkeeper tapped the extremely damaged flag, then shot it away. Such an action was quite disrespectful. After all, these people were inner sanctum disciples, yet they were still being treated by this middle-aged shopkeeper so coldly!
The expression of the young woman in the multi-colored clothes became somewhat unsightly, and the entire group was clearly embarrassed.
“The second one, a Bloodthirsty Sword, it’s just a defective good, so it’s also useless,” he announced. “The third one is a waste as well, and the fourth one is barely eligible… So… 3,000 merit points…”
It was only now that the expressions of the nine inner sanctum disciples eased slightly, changing for the better. They didn’t completely relax until he had finished examining all nine objects, and in the end, only four of them were eligible and could be exchanged for a total of 12,000 merit points. This was quite a large sum!
“Take your merit points.” The middle-aged shopkeeper said as he gave her the merit points.
“Many thanks senior.” The young woman in the multi-colored clothes smiled sweetly and thanked him.
After she spoke, she was about to turn around and leave, when a tall youth spoke to her, “Senior sister Jiyu, it seems like the outer sanctum disciples are also here.”
The other six people followed his gaze, while the young woman swept Su Yu and the others with her gaze curiously. She nodded and revealed a faint smile as her gaze fell on Su Yu. She then averted her gaze and was about to leave.
“Senior sister Jiyu, aren’t you interested in having a look at the outer sanctum people’s harvest? They might have a better harvest than us,” the same youth spoke to her once again, and his words had a provocative tone to them.
Su Yu couldn’t help but pay attention to the youth, and when his gaze met his, he saw a glint of craftiness flickering in his eyes for a moment. Su Yu immediately wondered…
Is he one of the experts, who was sent by Shao Yueming to take my life?
The young woman was somewhat moved by his words, so she stood in her place and did not leave yet. When Su Yu and the others noticed that they wanted to observe them, they could only walk forward helplessly and reveal everything they had gotten to the middle-aged shopkeeper.
“Four pieces?” The expression of the young woman changed slightly, as even though their cultivations were many times weaker than theirs, they still managed to dig out four treasures!
She was especially shocked by Su Yu, as he took out two pieces. His cultivation was obviously the weakest among them all, yet he still took out more treasures than any of the others.
Two youths among the seven people took a look at each other at such a moment, and greed could clearly be seen in all of their eyes. Since Su Yu was unexpectedly capable of taking two pieces by himself, then they knew that they must get his secret techniques for excavating the black mountain!
“White Bone Whip! This is eligible, and I will give you 3,000 merit points for it.” The middle-aged shopkeeper swept over the item with his palm calmly.
“Vajra Scepter! Eligible… For 3,000 merit points!” The middle-aged shopkeeper was quite indifferent and heedless as he went through the items.
Just after this, the Human Skin Drum that Su Yu had found was perused by the shopkeeper. “Eligible! I will give you 3,000 merit points.”
In the end, when he stroked the long sword, his palm stopped, while his eyes observed it carefully. Shock suddenly emerged on his calm face, while a faint smile appeared at the corners of his mouth. “There is finally someone who dug out this long sword!”
He raised his head and looked at Su Yu, then made a rarely seen action. He actually nodded and said, “This piece isn’t bad! It once had a great significance, so I will give you 4,000 merit points.”
His different attitude made all of the inner sanctum disciples envious of Su Yu. This lad really had good luck, as he had found two treasures all by himself!
However, the following scene dumbfounded them all, as the middle-aged shopkeeper spoke calmly, “Take the other five pieces too and exchange them.”
His words made Su Yu’s whole body shudder, as he couldn’t believe what was happening. He had not taken the other five items because he had wanted to keep a low-profile, yet the middle-aged man before him had discovered them with just a glance!
How could he peek into my spatial ring’s contents? Su Yu couldn’t understand this, even after pondering over it for a long while. However, the inner sanctum disciples were even more shocked than he was!
“You still have five pieces?” Gongsun Wuxie’s eyes widened as she asked in surprise.
Even Bai Shanliang and Tian Renyao were astonished, and Bing Wuxin couldn’t help but take several looks at Su Yu as she muttered, “What a freak!”
They were incapable of understanding how Su Yu found such a grand number of treasures. Su Yu blanked for a moment, before he looked at the middle-aged shopkeeper deeply. He then took out the other five treasures. Two of them were the Ghost Clan’s magical treasures, while the other three were the Human Clan’s magical treasures.
The young woman was shocked even more when she discovered that all of those treasures were in a good state. In fact, not one of them was decayed at all!
How did he achieve this? Such a question appeared in the minds of all of the people, and none of them could calm down for a long while. The eyes of the two tall youths in the young woman’s group became even more ardent at that moment.
The middle-aged shopkeeper’s eyes lit up, and he couldn’t help but chuckle and praise him, “Good! This is too good. It wasn’t like I never saw someone who had such great luck, but it’s my first time seeing someone like you, who found seven pieces in just one day!”
The middle-aged man started examining the treasures, one after another, and declared that they were all eligible. The two Ghost Clan’s treasures were worth 6,000 merit points, while the Human Clan’s treasures weren’t really special, so their price was quite a bit lower. They were worth just 500 merit points. In summary, all of them were worth 6,500 merit points in total.
If the previous 7,000 merit points were added to this total, then Su Yu’s total for the day was more than 13,000 merit points! Such a large sum of merit points made the eyes of all of the people become red with jealousy!
“Isn’t this guy’s luck too great?” The young woman in the multi-colored clothes looked at Su Yu suspiciously, as she was quite frustrated to see that the hard work of a group of seven people didn’t amount to even an early stage Fairy’s efforts alone!
“Let’s leave and go speed up our excavation tomorrow.” The young woman stamped the ground with her fair feet, clenched her teeth, and prepared herself to compete against him again tomorrow.
After they returned to the camp, the little demoness hugged Su Yu’s thigh. As she looked at him with her watery eyes and put on a pitiful look, she said, “Brother Yuxian, please bestow upon the pitiful Wuxie some of your merit points. After all, I already gave you my last 10,000 merit points to get the quota.”
Su Yu shook his thigh, yet the little demoness was clinging to him tightly, so he couldn’t throw her off. The transvestite took avail of such an opportunity and came over, wanting to embrace Su Yu as well.
Su Yu’s scalp became numb, and he conceded quickly, “Fine. If I dig out enough Ghost Clan’s treasures tomorrow, then I will give you one of them.”
“Many thanks brother Yuxian! I love you the most.” The little demoness smiled craftily.
“As for me?” The transvestite asked resentfully. “You are willing to accept the small vixen, Wuxie, yet you don’t care about my deep feelings for you?”
Su Yu kicked him angrily and rolled his eyes at him. “Get lost!”
As for Bai Shanliang, he had actually gotten some harvest today, so he would find it embarrassing to go and ask for more. Bing Wuxin looked at Gongsun Wuxie and Su Yu quietly.
She was his girlfriend in name, and this matter was known by everyone in the sanctum, yet Su Yu had given Gongsun Wuxie a promise, yet didn’t give her anything. However, since she didn’t really have any feelings for Su Yu, she didn’t mind too much.
When all of people calmed down, Su Yu suddenly noticed that there was something missing. Su Yu raised his brows suddenly and asked, “Where is Xue Qi? Wasn’t she in the camp?”
It was only at that moment that the four demons realized that she had disappeared. “Her objective is different from ours, as she came here to investigate the Eighteen Linked Mountains disappearance cases. She is most likely out looking for some clues about that,” Tian Renyao guessed.
Bai Shanliang’s expression became grave as he picked some of the soil off of the ground and sniffed it before he spoke in a deep voice, “There is a creature that came here, and I smell a faint poison that it left behind in the soil. It’s the same poison as the corrosive poisonous gas that was left in the Eighteen Linked Mountains.”
The expressions of all of the people here solemn when they heard him. They knew that Xue Qi could be in grave danger.
“Let’s separate and look for her.” Su Yu’s heart shuddered as he offered the suggestion to the group.
Bing Wuxin looked at Su Yu and asked, “Are you close to her? Since that mysterious creature has managed to capture Xue Qi, then it should be quite powerful, and you would be in grave danger if you ran into it alone.” Her unspoken implication was that there wasn’t any need for him to look for her.
Su Yu was disappointed by her, and he turned his head back to look at her as he spoke calmly, “Even if we don’t consider her status as being one of our fellow disciples, she’s still one of our companions on this trip. If I can abandon her today and not care about her, then I could also abandon you tomorrow? What’s the meaning of such a team then? Wouldn’t it be better for each one of us to go his own way?”
Xue Qi’s character was quite good, and she even warned Su Yu to be on guard against the two inner sanctum disciples that had been sent by the Shao family. As such, there was no reason for Su Yu to give up on her now.
Bing Wuxin was startled by Su Yu’s words, as it was rare for people dare to speak to her so harshly. In fact, she was quite displeased and she snorted coldly.
“Did I say that I didn’t want to go? I just asked you to stay here obediently and not to throw your life away in vain.” After she said this, she strode forward in big steps, lifted open the tent’s curtains, then left in a huff.
Bai Shanliang sighed. “Junior brother, you misunderstood her. Although she treats people coldly, she isn’t really heartless. In fact, even if you hadn’t mentioned it, she would still have gone to look for Xue Qi.”
Did I misunderstand her? Su Yu felt somewhat sorry as he thought of this.
“Fine, let’s leave too,” Bai Shanliang said, then left soon after.
Gongsun Wuxie and Tian Renyao followed him, and only Su Yu and Zi Xuan remained.
“Do you need me to help you?” Zi Xuan asked.
Su Yu nodded, while Zi Xuan tilted her head sideways. “Fine, but I can’t expose my cultivation, as there are two people with high cultivations in the manor, and they would probably end up discovering me.”
Su Yu was grateful to her. “You should just act according to what’s possible for you. You can leave the rest to me.”
After Zi Xuan left, Su Yu summoned Sheng Ge.
“Did you discover anything?” Su Yu asked her hurriedly.
Sheng Ge sniffed the surroundings as she spoke gravely, “Master, I can’t be mistaken about it. It’s the aura of the ghost that I detected yesterday, and although it’s quite faint, I can still detect it. It’s him.”
A ghost! Su Yu was shocked, as it was unexpectedly a ghost that had captured Xue Qi.
“Can you detect in which direction he went?” Su Yu asked in a grave voice.
Sheng Ge furrowed her brows. “It has already been a while, and it isn’t really certain that there is some of his aura left on the road, but I will give it a try.”
Su Yu’s heart tightened. “Fine, then let’s quickly chase after him.”
The direction in which Sheng Ge went was none other than the Eighteen Linked Mountains’ direction. Su Yu’s heart sank slightly as he looked at the pitch-black Eighteen Linked Mountains. It seemed like he might be obliged to expose some of his magical techniques for this mission!
