Chapter 207: The Expensive Heavenly Essence
As Zen came out of Quenching Peak, he saw it was raining.
Rainy days were rare to come by in the dead of winter.
He looked up at Hell Mountain, located not so far off in the distance, and his eyes instantly hardened.
He used to think the mountain too far to get to. But as his strength increased day-by-day, he knew it wouldn't be too long before he finally rescued his sister.
Moving his eyes away from the mountain, he turned around and took off.
The All Peaks Competition would be a golden opportunity for him to display his talent. It would be the ultimate test of his strengths. Although there was still a long time to go before the competition was held, Zen was eager to make the best of every minute and second till then to prepare himself.
The competition was held every three years, and as it drew nearer, all the disciples began to feel a sense of urgency.
The outer disciples were anxious to shoot ahead of others and become inner disciples; while the inner ones were seeking to be awarded the higher rankings. The top-ranked ones in the inner circle were training themselves to obtain good scores in the competition.
Whether it was Skytop Peak, that ranked the first among the Peaks, or Drizzle Peak, that ranked the last, all the disciples including the mediocre and the highly talented ones were training hard.
Of course, Zen was no exception to it.
Entering the Lake of the Magical Fish would cost him a slew of points. Zen had practiced in it for two hours each time before, but now, he would need four, or even six hours in total. The points it would deduct from his card was rather astonishing. Each time he entered the lake, hundreds of points were on the line.
To ensure there were sufficient points in his disciple card, Zen had to trade away his cubic crystals. He had no choice but to let the Cloud Sect demand an outrageous charge from him—ten thousand cubic crystals in exchange for five thousand points. However, in order to practice, he had to make do with the deal.
Zen practiced continuously in the Lake of the Magical Fish for about a week. After hours spent fighting against the deadly Murlocs, he finally experienced a new breakthrough.
Having entered the nature level from half a step, he had already broken through a critical bottleneck on his road to the martial arts. Contrary to that, breaking through the first grade of nature level to reach the second was way easier.
But nature creatures faced the same bottleneck subsequently as well. For instance, breaking through the ninth grade to reach the tenth, which was the consummation of the nature level, was a constriction very difficult for them to sort out. Advancing from the consummation of nature level to the Illuminating Soul Realm was even more challenging. As a matter of fact, only one out of a hundred who reached the consummation of nature level could successfully leap into the Illuminating Soul Realm, while most of them found themselves stuck and unable to cross the choke-point.
It was a major achievement on his part to reach the second grade of nature level, but the points in his disciple card were almost depleted by now...
“Now I'm in trouble,” murmured Zen as he returned to Drizzle Peak once he was done training in the Lake of the Magical Fish. His brows were deeply furrowed, and one could not see the joy of the breakthrough on his face. His points were quickly running out. It was not too severe a problem, but it was a tricky situation to get himself out of.
Zen could cultivate his body in the Lake of the Magical Fish, but the Streamer Sword he had acquired could not be honed in that place, which meant that he could not brush up on his swordsmanship there.
At the Cloud Sect, the most suited place for practicing swordsmanship was the Seven-Star Sword Light Platform. That place did not consume as many points as the Lake of the Magical Fish did. Every two hours in the lake docked him two hundred points, while the sword platform would only deduct eighty.
Zen guessed that it was probably because the Seven-Star Sword Light Platform had room for multiple people to practice simultaneously, whereas the Lake of the Magical Fish only had provisions for one person at a time.
His dilemma was that there were only about a hundred points left in his disciple card, which would enable him to practice at the platform for only two hours tops, and that was far from enough for him...
Feeling rather gloomy, Zen climbed onto Drizzle Peak, about to have a sumptuous meal before taking some rest. To his surprise, he ran into Wurth right after finishing dinner.
When Zen caught sight of Wurth, he felt like he had come across the God of Rain after enduring a lengthy drought. If Wurth had sold the heavenly essence Zen had entrusted him with last time, it would satisfy Zen's crying needs!
“How was the auction?” Zen was always calm and rational, but at the moment, he asked the question rather urgently.
Wurth was bewildered to see Zen so edgy. Previously, when he had auctioned the crystal core, Zen obtained a large number of cubic crystals. To the other outer disciples, that amount would be quite substantial. But now, looking at Zen's anxious face, Wurth deemed that his friend was badly in need of more cubic crystals.
Despite his confusion, Wurth didn't ask him about it directly. He merely gave a smile and said, “I did sell all your goods in the last auction.”
“What was the final price of the deal?” Zen probed him. Even though he did not attend the auction, he would not be fooled on the price, because the sky-high rates of each of the items the Blessed Auction House sold off soon passed down among folks via word-of-mouth. Zen could easily inquire about the information from anyone.
Wurth grinned teasingly, choosing to keep Zen in suspense. “Take a guess!”
Watching his beaming face, Zen knew the selling of the heavenly essence was a success. The price should be good, certainly not lower than the price at the prior auction. After giving it a thought, Zen offered his guess, “One hundred and fifty thousand, right?”
Wurth shook his head, his expression unfathomable.
“Two hundred thousand?” Zen blurted, simply guessing a higher number.
“Not high enough!”
“Two hundred and fifty thousand?” Zen slowly grew excited. Last time at the Blessed Auction House, he had watched the heavenly essence get sold at a price of one hundred and twenty thousand. Did the price double up this time because of Wurth's business acumen?
Wurth laughed and said, “Two hundred and eighty thousand!”
“That high?” At the figure, Zen's face showed gleeful surprise. How could the price of the same heavenly essence shoot up to two hundred and eighty thousand this time? That was a large margin compared to the one hundred and twenty thousand last time. For the life of him, Zen could not figure it out.
“It went for a lot more than I expected. The auction turned out to be so competitive this time.” Wurth shook his head and locked his eyes on Zen. He went on with a smile, “You were in luck! Just happened to sell the goods when two great clans were engaged in refining their fairy weapons!”
“Two great clans?” Zen was still at a loss.
The two great clans that Wurth just mentioned were the Yu and the Yun clans.
It was assumed that the two clans were trying to polish their fairy weapons, so as to convert the low-grade ones into medium-grade.
From refining it to molding it into shape, each weapon had only one chance to get condensed. The condensation directly determined its grade.
Zen could condense the Streamer Sword back then because Chase was unable to do it. He left the chance to someone from later generations, who happened to be Zen.
When a weapon was already condensed and in shape, it could get difficult to upgrade it. One way was to melt it down, which was basically starting over again. Another was to embed crystals into it so as to enhance its power, but that enhancement was rather limited.
The last option was to infuse the heavenly essence into the weapon through secret means, upgrading it forcefully.
But the heavenly essence was so rare that it was possible for it not to be available for several years in a row. Plus, to make a low-grade fairy weapon into a medium-grade one, it normally required dozens, if not over a hundred drops of the heavenly essence, and that still could not guarantee a successful upgrade.
After so many decades, the Yu, as well as the Yun clan had in their possession three or so low-grade fairy weapons, but neither of them had a medium-grade one. In fact, the remaining five of the top seven noble clans owned one medium-grade fairy weapon each.
That was why the Yu and the Yun clan wanted the heavenly essence: to upgrade the weapons they possessed!
Last time, fifty drops of heavenly essence were bought by the Huang clan. And this time, with the hype surrounding the Blessed Auction House, how could the two noble clans miss out on the opportunity?
Since the start of the auction, the two families were hell bent on trying to outbid each other—raising the price up to one hundred and thirty thousand cubic crystals, that immediately blocked outside bidders. Next, the Yu clan and the Yun clan began to bid between themselves. They even sent their men to each other's tables to offer some give-and-take conditions, persuading the other to give up the bid in exchange for other monetary compensations and the like.
Unfortunately, the heavenly essence was too precious. Neither side was willing to let go of it. So, they had to compete with each other head-on.
Consequently, the auction turned out way fiercer than the last one. The price did not stop soaring. It finally went up to two hundred and eighty thousand cubic crystals. In the end, the heavenly essence fell in the hands of the Yu clan.
As Zen listened to Wurth's account of the above, he imagined how hot and vehement the auction must have been. He could even visualize the Yu clan bickering with the Yun clan, and if they had no scruples about maintaining their images as noble clans, he was sure they would have come to blows.
Wurth took out a small card from his pocket. The card was fully transparent and gleamed with a hint of green light. “Give me your token,” he said to Zen. “After deducting the auction service charge, you're left with two hundred and fifty-two thousand cubic crystals. I'll transfer them to your token.”
The service charge of the Blessed Auction House was separate for different persons. For normal people who wanted to auction off some items, the charge was twenty percent, or even thirty percent of the sale. It was the largest source of profit for the Blessed Auction House. However, Wurth helped Zen apply for the minimum charge, which only deducted ten percent of the sale.
Even though the charge was set at a ten percent rate, this single deal earned the Blessed Auction House twenty-eight thousand cubic crystals!
The deal would go down as an outstanding record in Wurth's file. So in reality, Wurth should be the one thanking Zen.
Zen took out his token from the space ring swiftly and tossed it at Wurth.
Wurth put the transparent green card and the token of the Blessed Draft Bank on each other. As pneuma started to surge from his hands, the transparent card gradually began to melt, soon combining into the token of the Blessed Draft Bank.
This transparent card was refined with the crystal core of a supernatural beast. It recorded the crystal quantity of the Blessed Draft Bank and was encrypted with special measures of security, so it was convenient and safe to use.
As the card enjoined into the token, the two hundred and fifty-two thousand cubic crystals worth of balance was recorded onto it.
“It's done! This was a successful deal. But Zen, last time you said you were in possession of more heavenly essence. Do you really have more...” Wurth asked his friend tentatively.
He knew Zen seldom lied. If Zen said he had some, it must be true. However, it was still rather difficult to believe that someone could provide so much of heavenly essence at any given moment. Unless Wurth saw it with his own eyes, he wouldn't be confident about it.
It would be great if Zen was truly in possession of it. Heavenly essence was the most elusive item in the Burning Sky Empire. Wurth could sell for Zen as much as he had, but... Did Zen truly have more?
A mysterious smile played on the corners of Zen's mouth. After he put away the token of the Blessed Draft Bank safely, he sidled Wurth into a secluded place and fished out a small bottle.
“Here are one hundred more drops of the heavenly essence. Whether it should be sold all at once or twice in parts, is your call,” Zen told him, chuckling lightly.
Wurth's eyes widened to two round saucers. “You do have more! And these are a hundred drops...”
Wurth was rendered utterly speechless. Truthfully, he started to suspect that the amount of heavenly essence Zen actually had was far more than the one hundred drops he currently held in his hand.