Chapter 177: Kite Skydeck
While sitting up straight in the room, cross-legged, he eyed the Sun Moon Stars Picture before him with the utmost attention.
These past few days, he had not been to the Lake of the Magical Fish, as his points were just not enough.
It was during his journey to the south when he collected most of his points.
After he killed the blade locusts and acquired the crystal core from the queen blade locust, the points he had obtained became the envy of all the outer disciples of Cloud Sect.
Indeed, thousands of points was a huge number for any outer disciple. It did not cost him much if he only used them for some healing drugs and vitality cultivation elixir, which could help him in the practice.
Even when he went to the Heavenly Library once, it only took him a hundred points.
However, if an inner disciple used these points for practice, they could last for ten days or half a month at most.
If truth be told, Cloud Sect's points and rewards system was actually more than practical.
If one wanted to go to the certain places where he could practice and improve his strength rapidly, he had to help the Cloud Sect accomplish many tasks. Then, the points they obtained from the tasks could be used in practice again.
In the beginning, he had hoped to earn millions of points in a short time. However, after enduring many things, he now realized how na?ve he had been. The reality was, he did not only have to earn points, but he also had to use them to do other things. If things were to carry on at such a slow speed, collecting millions of points was going to be impossible.
Besides obtaining the points through accomplishing tasks, there was another way, which was to buy points with cubic crystals. Usually, two cubic crystals could buy one point.
At the moment, Zen had around twenty thousand cubic crystals. If he decided to bargain them for points, he could receive ten thousand Cloud Sect points.
Even though ten thousand points sounded like it was a lot, that particular amount would not last long if used for practice in the Lake of the Magical Fish.
With the rise of the depth in which Zen had leaped into the lake, the time it took would also accordingly increase.
It took two hundred points for two hours of practice in the Lake of the Magical Fish. If he had to practice for four hours each day, then he had to pay four hundred points on a daily basis.
That meant that ten thousand points would only last him for less than a month.
Other than the cubic crystals, Zen also had over six hundred drops of heavenly essence.
From the spiritual weapons he had acquired, he extracted over a thousand drops of heavenly essence. Nevertheless, he had not used all the heavenly essence in the dragon sculpture; he had over six hundred drops left with him.
In the past, fifty drops of heavenly essence with unknown sources were traded for as high as 120 thousand cubic crystals at the Blessed Auction House.
Therefore, if his heavenly essence could be sold at that price as well, then he could gain over one million cubic crystals at the auction.
However, the law of supply and demand controlled the commodities' prices.
Heavenly essence was a good thing, and it was a precious treasure without a doubt, particularly for those weapon refiners. Normally, finding and getting them only occurred with a bit of luck.
If six hundred drops of heavenly essence appeared in the market all of a sudden, the price could decrease due to the high amount of supply. In that case, the rate of fifty drops could not be 120 thousand cubic crystals.
Besides, Zen had the black fire that could help him gain more heavenly essence whenever he wanted. On the other hand, it was impossible to bargain so much at once.
'I will sell fifty drops in a bottle one at a time, ' Zen decided after a bit of contemplation. Simultaneously, he wanted to entrust the heavenly essence to Wurth who could sell it.
For a long time, not knowing whom to entrust them with troubled him before. On top of that, he was also unsure whether to disguise himself if he ever handed over the heavenly essence to someone.
It became clear over time to ask Wurth to sell them for him, as it was possible that the man would only assume that Zen got them by chance. Although, asking Wurth for the second or third time was surely going to raise suspicions.
Zen knew the saying 'An innocent man gets into trouble because of his wealth' all too well.
If anyone discovered that he had the ability to create heavenly essence, he could get into a lot of trouble.
Although a lot of misfortune seemed to surround him already, he still hoped to attract less trouble as possible.
Other than Wurth, however, Zen could not think of anyone else whom he could trust with such a delicate favor.
'Wurth and I are good friends, ' he thought. 'It is a good thing he is helping me sell the heavenly essence. His family is very rich, so I assume that he would not take advantage or do any harm to me.' As the saying went, 'Love your neighbor, yet do not lower your defenses.' At the end of the day, it did not hurt Zen to be cautious.
As soon as he came up with a good excuse, he left and headed for Wurth's residence. When he reached his destination though, he could not find the man anywhere.
After asking someone around the house, he found out Wurth was not in his room, and that he had gone to the Drizzle side peak to practice. Without wasting another moment, Zen went to the side peak to look for him.
Among the many side peaks of Drizzle Peak, intensive training became the central purpose for several of them.
Although these side peaks paled in comparison to the guarded cultivation places in Cloud Sect, at the very least, these practice spots were free to the disciples of the Drizzle Peak.
As it turned out, Kite Skydeck was one of the practice places in Drizzle side peaks.
To go to the Kite Skydeck from the Drizzle main peak, one had to pass a treacherous mountain road. As the path was really a vertical cliff, it was practically inaccessible.
There were wooden piles firmly thrust into the cliff by Illumination Soul Realm masters. Usually, they stepped on the piles to cross the cliff and reach the other end.
Cowardly inner disciples would probably shudder at the sight of the bottomless chasm below the cliff and did not dare to cross it.
Standing in front of the cliff, Zen glanced at the Kite Skydeck not far away, and then he jumped onto the piles without batting an eyelid.
The treacherous cliff seemed very dangerous judging by its appearance alone, but if one were brave enough, falling down would be out of the question.
After running at full speed for a few minutes, Zen reached the top of the Kite Skydeck. As he had heard that Wurth often went there to practice nowadays, he thought that he would find him there.
Panting heavily, Wurth's huge body quivered with each abrupt gasp he took. Beads of sweat dripped down his cheeks, drenching his white robe all over.
Although people who were out of shape tended to be lazy, Wurth was quite an exception.
On the contrary, he trained rigorously and so few people could match the efforts he put in each practice.
The Kite Skydeck was situated on a round side pick, and the towering main peak just stood on the right. On the side of the main peak that faced the Kite Skydeck was a steep mountain cliff. Its surface was very smooth as if a knife had cut it. There was almost no way for one to grasp and climb up.
Wurth was wearing a heavy load suit, which was completely made of lead. It weighed over a thousand pounds.
Taking a deep breath, he began to sprint towards the edge of the cliff.
“Bang, bang, bang…”
His heavy body in the heavy load suit caused a dull thud with his every step.
When he approached the edge, he drew a deep breath, leaped towards the cliff, and then he began to climb his way up.
Despite it being very smooth and with nothing he could hold onto, his resilient momentum made it possible to lug his heavy body as he quickly rushed upward.
On the Cliff, one could easily see visible red paint marks with numbers indicating the height: 5m, 10m, 15m, 20m, and etc.
With Wurth rising higher upward the cliff, he quickly passed the 5m, 10m, 20m marks, and finally, he did not slow down until he reached 30m where his strength wore off. It was only then when his plump body began to slide downwards.
'30m seems to be my limit…' Wurth thought to himself and shook his head in disappointment.
Such a test should be taken seriously.
It could demonstrate one's speed in sprint, strength, and response time.
The top mark on the cliff was 55m.
Rumors claimed there was once an outer disciple who had reached 55 meters. It was the highest record among the outer disciples in the Drizzle Peak. The outer disciple who had set the record smashed hard on the place where he reached with his palm, leaving a deep hand print.
So far, no one had ever surpassed the point marked by the hand print.
Nevertheless, this record was only within the outer disciples of the Drizzle Peak. If the nature creatures from the inner disciples of the Drizzle Peak came to challenge the record, they could definitely exceed the current top record.
As soon as Wurth slid down to the ground, an agile figure rushed onto the cliff.
The thin man was as agile as a monkey. He clung to the cliff and climbed up like a gecko. Sprinting at full speed, he quickly exceeded the height that Wurth had just reached and passed 40m. Even after passing the 40m mark, he maintained the same strength and took another leap. It was not until when he reached 45m that his strength dwindled and he began to fall.
The lanky outer disciple sneered at Wurth with a tint of derision.
Upon witnessing the man's triumph, Wurth could do nothing but stare back with his fierce round eyes.
The lanky outer disciple whose name was Wyatt Wu joined the Drizzle Peak last year. Although his strength ranked eleventh among the outer disciples of Drizzle Peak, he was still behind Wurth.
Due to his small figure, his agility came as a bit of a surprise. His performance had exceeded many people's expectations during his practice there.
In general, Wyatt usually reached over 40m to 45m at most. However, today he just effortlessly surpassed 45m, and almost hit a new record by getting to 46m.
It seemed that Wyatt had made further progress in improving his strength.
It was highly possible that none of the outer disciples of the Drizzle peak could reach 46m, let alone surpass Wyatt.
Truthfully, as a man from a rich and influential family, Wurth could inherit his family trade in the future. Even though he was only a common warrior with bone refining level, he could someday give orders to the masters of nature level. As the saying went, 'Money makes the world go round.' To command nature creatures, he only needed to pay more. It was a piece of cake for the Zhang Clan.
The descendants of the Zhang Clan possessed half of the head for a business genius, as well as sharp insight. On the other hand, when it came to the talent for cultivation, they were far behind the descendants of the seven noble clans.
However, Wurth was a disciplined man. Ever since he joined the Cloud Insect and the Drizzle Peak, his goal was to keep practicing until he made the breakthrough and became a nature creature.
As soon as Wurth prepared to sprint for the second time, Zen suddenly appeared on the Kite Skydeck before him to block his only path and broke the man's concentration.