Chapter 208: The Seven Star Sword Light Platform
As a matter of fact, at the moment, Zen had over that amount of heavenly essence. Last time when he owned more than 600 drops of heavenly essence, he entrusted the auction of 50 drops to Wurth, indicating that he still had over 500 drops left with him. On another occasion, when he refined the Streamer Sword, it cost more than a hundred drops. Adding up all of these, including the bottle with a hundred drops of heavenly essence in his hand currently, Zen had a total of 400 drops of heavenly essence remaining.
“Since it's so popular and in demand, should the hundred drops be divided into two fifties and sold at two separate auctions or sold entirely at one auction? Which way suits you better?” Zen inquired with an apparent tone of curiosity.
“Well… Well, of course, the best bet is to sell it as a whole at one auction!” Owing to a sudden burst of excitement, Wurth spoke out in an abrupt high pitch, but he quickly covered his mouth and looked around carefully, turning his chubby head twice in a bid to check if someone was paying close attention to what he just said. After all, he could not expose the secret of his business, that the heavenly essence he auctioned was being procured from Zen.
Upon seeing his cautious behaviour, Zen was amused as he briskly responded, “Don't worry. Nobody was paying attention to our conversation!” As Zen's strength of soul was far more powerful than that of other outer disciples of Drizzle Peak and Wurth, even if he closed his eyes, he could easily detect if anyone was paying any attention to him.
“If any weapon refiner wants to upgrade a low-grade fairy weapon into a medium-grade fairy weapon, 50 drops of heavenly essence may not be enough. Hence, in their refining process, no weapon refiner will have the thought to save even a single drop of essence they have, that is to say, they will utilise all the heavenly essence into the furnace in one shot. The more amount of heavenly essence, the higher the success rate will be,” Wurth explained what he thought in detail.
For example, if 50 drops of heavenly essence were mixed with a single low-grade fairy weapon for refining, the odds for its successful upgrade to a medium-grade fairy weapon was only approximately 20%, but if a hundred drops of heavenly essence were to be added, the odds of that success would witness a sharp increase to about 50%.
Therefore, this basically meant, the value of a hundred drops of heavenly essence, in fact, was way more than that of 50 drops of heavenly essence.
Just like the last time when Zen refined the Streamer Sword, he poured all his heavenly essence into the refining process, which could be termed as the right way to refine a sword. Nevertheless, he poured the essence all over the sword instead of focusing on the primary parts, which was considered a great waste of the valuable essence. Thus, it was reasonable to believe that he should have a large amount of heavenly essence.
“In that case, this time, Wurth, I am also counting on you for the auction!” Zen expressed in a rather sincere tone. Soon after that, Zen handed Wurth the bottle full of a hundred drops of heavenly essence.
The hundred drops of heavenly essence were gathered in the small bottle, like a hundred elves, emitting a silver-white glow. It appeared so alluring. Upon seeing so much heavenly essence, Wurth too felt a little overwhelmed, as he wondered where Zen got a hold of so much of it!
However, he knew very clearly that it was none of his concern as it was Zen's private business. He would certainly not be nosy and petty to indulge in any gossip about it. After carefully putting it into his Space Ring, he smiled and politely said, “Zen, thank you for the opportunity. I will surely live up to your expectation!”
This was the second time Zen had sold a hundred drops of heavenly essence, and according to Wurth's judgement, Zen would have a lot more of that in hand, and he estimated that the quantity was surely over a hundred drops. With that thought, he guessed that Zen had discovered a secret place, where there was a large amount of heavenly essence available for use or that he found a way to make heavenly essence! However, whether it was the former or the latter situation, it was Zen's own luck and destiny. Wurth would never interfere in those matters.
Currently, Zen was facing a money crunch, and at this crucial point, Wurth offered him another two hundred and fifty-two thousand cubic crystals earned from the auction, which was really a timely intervention that solved his pressing need for money.
The next day, Zen went to exchange 50, 000 cubic crystals for the 25, 000 points. Barely with any remaining, he rushed to the Seven Star Sword Light Platform.
Similar to the Lake of the Magical Fish, Seven Star Sword Light Platform was also a special area dedicated for practising martial arts. The only difference was that Lake of the Magical Fish, which was built decades back, could only accommodate one person at a time to practice, while Seven Star Sword Light Platform could accommodate hundreds of people to practice at the same time! This was quite the advantage.
Zen had thought that if hundreds of people could practice together at Seven Star Sword Light Platform at one time, then unlike the long waiting period in the Lake of the Magical Fish, he might not need to wait at all. Before that moment, when Zen went to Lake of the Magical Fish, he often had to wait outside for several hours altogether as someone was practising inside. What was worse, sometimes, he had to wait for many more hours, because someone else had reached before him and was waiting for a longer time.
The charge of Lake of the Magical Fish was rather expensive, but the practising effects were surprisingly good which justified the price, not to mention that hundreds of points were merely a drop in the bucket to those top noble clans, despite that it was an astronomical number to ordinary disciples.
But when finally Zen came to Seven Star Sword Light Platform, he was dumbfounded. Even here, there was a long queue of people waiting before him, and a ball park figure was that there were several hundred people waiting for their turn…
“How come there are so many people here?” Zen murmured to himself with increasing doubt and depression. Yet, it took him quite a few days to get here. So he still chose to wait and practice here. Watching the crowded place with a sad face, he slowly walked to the end of the queue to wait for his turn patiently.
The Seven Star Sword Light Platform was built six years ago by the Cloud Sect. Back then, it was said that a clan had discovered a polar magical stone in the north, 100 feet high and about 300 feet wide. After Cloud Sect discovered the stone's existence, it managed to buy it at a mighty cost.
Such a giant polar magical stone, even the great figures of Cloud Sect, could not transport all at once. Eventually, the giant stone was cut into six pieces, and each was loaded into a giant flying chariot, transported back and placed in the Seven Star Sword Light Platform.
Later, the Cloud Sect magic array masters placed magic arrays inside the Seven Star Sword Light Platform. With the added power of the polar magical stones, people could practice and greatly improve their swordplay skills there!
Although Seven Star Sword Light Platform could also act like the place for people to practice the use of all kinds of weapons including sword, spear, and stick, but it was gradually found that it had the best effect for improving swordplay skills. In addition to this, the number of people who practiced swordplay at the Cloud Sect was the largest. Gradually, the Seven Star Sword Light Platform basically became a special place dedicated to practice swordplay.
If someone came in with a saber, they would not be allowed to enter the premise.
As Zen drew closer to the crowd, he soon realised that there were two queues in front of him, one with many people while the other had much fewer people in comparison. He slightly knitted his eyebrows and wondered, 'Why two queues? Maybe it has the same rule as the entrance exam that those who got the written certificates of the noble clans would be offered privileges of waiting in the smaller queue?'
In the long queue, a rough estimation was that there were over hundreds of people, and they still needed to wait until the disciples practising in the Seven Star Sword Light Platform got out. Anyone who got a glimpse of the situation would know a long time waiting was inevitable. What was more, as the time for the launch of All Peaks Competition was getting closer, almost all Cloud Sect disciples were working hard for it. Therefore, the disciples outside would have to wait much longer than they usually did.
What Zen didn't know was that some people in the long queue had been waiting for an entire day, and some even longer!
As for the other queue, while people were also waiting in line, they didn't need to wait long before their turn, and meanwhile, there were only a dozen or so people waiting in line.
Upon realising the facts, Zen simply walked to the queue with fewer people.
“Well, my friend, may I ask why there are fewer people in line here?” asked Zen curiously.
The man Zen asked was a disciple clad in a black robe. After hearing his inquiry, he turned around, looked at him and saw that he was dressed in a white robe. With a disdainful look, he responded, “You had better line up in the other queue and stay there.”
“Why is that? Are you saying that the outer disciples in white robes are not allowed to be waiting in this queue?” Zen asked such a brazen question only because he too realised that the people in this line were wearing black robes.
The man sneered at him twice, snapping sharply, “Didn't you see the strength of the people in this queue? This queue is for those who are to enter the grade eight, nine, or even ten of the Seven Star Sword Light Platform! However, those without such strength should remain in the line over there, which is for those who are to enter the grade one to seven!”
“Oh, so that is the case! I understand now...” Zen said in a happy tone, nodding. Finally, he realised the underlying situation here.
It turned out that this Seven Star Sword Light Platform had different rules and arrangements when compared to the Lake of the Magical Fish. Since the practice grade arrangement of Lake of the Magical Fish was designed long time ago, it was not so reasonable and suitable for now. As a result, every time Zen dived into the Lake of the Magical Fish, he had to dive from the first level.
The first hundred and fifty meters of the Lake of the Sea Fish were barely helpful to Zen's practice. Thus, it would waste a major chunk of his time during every practice.
However, the situation in Seven Star Sword Light Platform was quite different, which was directly divided into several grades according to different strength of disciples.Those weaker disciples would choose the first to the seventh grade of the platform for their practice, while those with stronger strength would choose the eighth to tenth grade of the platform.
The strength of those disciples wearing black robes in the queue here was not weak, basically with the grade seven to nine of the nature level, even one with the grade consummation, the top grade of the nature level. No wonder they were waiting in line separately here.
Based on the above knowledge, it would be easy for Zen to choose to wait in which queue.
Although Zen didn't receive any training on the swordplay, and he was using the basic swordsmanship, if in terms of real fighting strength, he was not convinced that he would lose to the disciples in black standing in front of the queue. Since they chose to queue here, Zen was also able to challenge the difficulty of over eighth grade.
As a result, Zen just stood quietly behind the short queue.
After the disciple in front of Zen turned back and saw that he had not moved, he responded in a loud and serious tone, “Why don't you move back to that queue? It seems like this is the first time you've come to the Seven Star Sword Light Platform? I would like to kindly remind you that choosing the level which suits you is the most important matter in the present. Although magic array is placed in this Seven Star Sword Light Platform, the Magnetic Aurora extracted from the polar magic stone is actually very powerful, and you may even get gravely injured if your strength is not enough to bear its attacking force! Weigh and understand your strength. Think twice before you jump to a conclusion. By the way, I strongly recommend you to line up over there!” As he finished his sentences, he pointed to the long queue parallel yet distant from the short one.
His voice was so loud that it immediately drew the attention of the disciples from the long queue.
Each practice at Seven Star Sword Light Platform not only consumed 40 points per hour, but also the price varied according to different grades Therefore, it was usually not affordable for the average outer disciples.
Hence, one could assume that most of the disciples in the long queue were in black robes, while only a small number of them were in white robes, who were believed to come from rich families that could afford the cost.
They did, however, now realise that Zen was an outer disciple in white robe!
All the disciples in the short queue were in black robe except Zen, who was clad in a white robe, which made the crowds feel pretty weird and agitated, not to mention that Zen had the lowest grade of nature level among other disciples in his queue, which made the situation worse. They basically were at grade seven or eight of the nature level, even one at the top grade of the nature level, while Zen was only at grade two.
At this sight, many people were secretly and silently laughing at Zen. They thought to themselves that there were always some people in the world, who just did not know their own strengths and weaknesses; Zen, the disciple in white robe really didn't know his own grade well; after he was seriously injured upon entering the Seven Star Sword Light Platform, he then would finally learn his lesson and get a better understanding of his real grade and capabilities...
Although Zen was aware of their sneer and sly arrogance, he simply chose to ignore it. As for the disciple's “good words”, Zen just smiled ever so gently and responded on a firm tone, “I am grateful for your kind suggestion, but I still stick to my decision and want to give this a shot!”
As the disciple in front of Zen realised that his kind persuasion was not working at all, he simply gave up, shook his head and whispered in a disappointed tone, “I am telling you, you are really biting off more than you can possibly chew!”
After a while, Zen saw a group of people walking out from the Seven Star Sword Light Platform, and the strength of those people appeared quite outstanding. Every one of them was a sword practitioner, carrying his sword on the back, instead of putting it in his Space Ring.
A lot of sword practitioners, in order to be more aware of their sword intents chose to keep their swords close to them and no matter what kind of situation, they would not be separated from their swords.
Seeing that the chests of those sword practitioners were showcasing the same symbol, a kind of rune, Zen knew that they should be the elite inner disciples from a certain peak of the 33 Peaks.
After that group came out, all the people in Zen's queue began to enter the field one by one.