Chapter 330: The Right Price For Loyalty
Pointing to the three enchanting exotic girls, Ray smiled and told Zen,“They are the Yen people from the Western Region. They are still virgins. And you must have known that the virginity of Yen woman contains vigorous blood energy. If you cultivate with them, you can take their virginity and gain their blood energy at the same time.”
The blood energy had great benefits to the cultivators.
If a person was energetic and vigorous, he could quickly recover from any injuries. So, if a cultivator had vigorous blood energy, their wounds could heal at an incredible pace.
But the common way to enhance one's blood energy was through endless exercises, and it would take some time. In fact, it was as challenging as exercising the strength of soul.
The pills that could enhance the blood energy were sold at sky-high prices just like those that could strengthen the soul.
And the three girls of Yen nationality in front had such precious blood energy.
It was indeed a double benefit for a cultivator to enhance his blood energy by cultivating with enchanting beautiful women in bed. It was a temptation that almost no man could resist.
The three Yen girls had the hottest bodies that all man would crave for.
Zen looked away from the girls and was about to speak when Ray walked to a brocade box and opened carelessly. Inside that box, there were three light-red crystals emitting thick life vitality.
The life vitality of the crystals was unrefined and had to be absorbed into human bodies to replenish their life vitality.
“The supreme life vitality crystal is the currency of the Central Region. It can replenish a cultivator's life vitality in an instant. At the current exchange rate, the value of a supreme crystal is equivalent to one million cubic crystals of the Eastern Region,” Ray stated. The expression on his face was as if saying that those three supreme crystals were not the best. He was trying to hype Zen with the next boxes as if there were more valuable things in them than the supreme life vitality crystals.
The currency used in the Eastern Region was cubic crystal. The cubic crystals could buy fancy things like flying chariots and the Picture Slabs. But the energy in the cubic crystal could not be directly absorbed by the cultivators.
The cultivators of the Eastern Region could only acquire life vitality from their cultivation activities, but it would take time. If at a critical moment there was a shortage of life vitality, it would be difficult to replenish it in a short time.
But life vitality crystals such as the supreme crystal could solve this problem. It contained the purest and ownerless life vitality that required no refining and could be easily absorbed into the cultivator's body.
As mentioned before, a cultivator's life vitality didn't come from his body. It was the energy of nature. The cultivator could only borrow this energy for his own use, and ultimately, had to give it back to nature. On the other hand, Zen's demonic phantom had achieved that state where he could borrow the energy from nature without the need to return it. Even so, the supreme life vitality crystal was more powerful that it could replenish the life vitality by itself like a battery and it instantly became the currency in the Central Region.
But this kind of thing was just unimaginable in the Eastern Region.
When faced with danger, a cultivator would be able to replenish his life vitality and improve his strength and skills by using the supreme life vitality crystal. Thus, it was said that the supreme crystal was a life extension for a cultivator.
At the sight of the three high-priced supreme crystals, the guests at the third prince's banquet were astonished.
“Your Highness, I–,” Zen wanted to say something, but Ray wasn't listening to him because he knew he was about to be rejected by Zen. He went to the next brocade box and opened it.
Inside was a soft hedgehog-armor with a bronze glow glittering on its surface. At first glance, everyone noticed that it wasn't an ordinary armor.
“The soft hedgehog-armor is a low-grade fairy weapon. It has super defensive characteristics. It is made of golden silk which can isolate your body from all the forces of life vitality.” Holding the armor in both hands, Ray described the armor and showed it to the audience.
The armor was a low-grade fairy weapon used for defense. In addition to its defense feature for sharp weapons, it could also isolate the attack of life vitality.
Because defensive weapons were extremely rare, the low-grade defensive weapons were almost as valuable as the top-grade offensive weapons. Hence, the value of this soft hedgehog-armor was equal to a top-grade offensive fairy weapon.
However, in the Eastern Region, it was a priceless treasure because no top-grade fairy weapons ever existed here.
The guests looked at Zen with deep jealousy as he was being offered a priceless treasure in a golden platter.
However, there was nothing they could do but to conceal their jealousy. They were inferior to Zen in terms of strength so they could only just sit there and rot away in jealousy. In the previous battles, they took turns to fight Zen but were defeated easily. Moreover, Zen was only at third grade of the nature level, so he had limitless future potential. He was worthy of the third prince's money and attention.
To the other guests' dissatisfaction, the prizes presented to Zen were already too valuable, but the third prince was not yet done. He went on to open the next brocade box.
“Your Highness, please stop! Why are you showing me all these stuff?” Zen cut in. “Don't open the rest of the boxes! I don't want to know what's inside,” Zen made a cold remark trying to dissuade Ray from opening the rest of the boxes.
Hearing this, Ray instantly stopped reaching for the next brocade box. With a faint smile on his face, he said,“Zen, you are a smart man. I believe you know what this means.”
“I know you're trying to get me to join your camp. Am I right, Your Highness?” Zen asked calmly. His straightforwardness shocked all the guests at the banquet.
Still, with a smile on his face, Ray replied,“It isn't just to simply join my camp. I want you to help me build an empire!”
With his eyes shining with hope, he continued,“If I ascend to the throne, I will unify the far south and the northwest, which will expand the territory of the Burning Sky Empire by ten times. Above all, I will dominate the whole Eastern Region and make it a vast empire that can compete with the Central Region. Zen, your future development is unpredictable. You will certainly become a great help to me in the future. Let's work together to bring the Eastern Region into a new glory!”
Ray was a very ambitious and clever man. So, as soon as he knew that Zen wasn't interested in his treasures, he made him picture a vision to persuade the young disciple to join him.
The cultivators were just humans that hoped to mark a spot in history. And by giving them a vision, it would eventually attract them to join the cause.
It was an ultimate glorious thing to help the emperor in expanding his territory. They would go down in history with tremendous contributions that would be admired by future generations.
“I am sorry, Your Highness. I have no intention in joining any group or factions,” refused Zen.
Whatever the third prince was offering would not attract Zen into his side. Much to the prince's dismay, his plan didn't work as he wanted.
One of Zen's life goals was to pursue the ultimate of martial arts. He was determined to look down at the world from the summit of martial arts. His other goal was to protect her sister, Yan.
According to Kenneth, Yan was staying in Cloud Sect safely. But she would eventually be taken away by the man in the Central Region one day.
There was not much time left for Zen. He still needed to progress rapidly until he would be able to compete with that man. Only in this way could he change his sister's fate.
Perhaps he had one more goal at present, that was to protect Aura, Master Su of Drizzle Peak. As to the future emperor of the Burning Sky Empire, whether it was Crown Prince, Third Prince, or Seventh Prince, Zen didn't care at all.
After being rejected mercilessly by Zen, Ray's smiling face stiffened. He didn't say a word for a while.
Seeing the dismay in the prince's face, some of the guests couldn't control themselves and shouted abuse at Zen.
In their opinion, Ray favored him so much, but Zen was being too arrogant. Each of the boxes contained a precious gift and there could be more in the other boxes. Even the top seven noble clans could hardly receive such high rewards from the royal family.
“Zen, are you really this stubborn? Can't you be just grateful at the Highness' kindness? His Highness appreciates you so much, but you keep on refusing him. Who do you think you are?” “Even if you are talented, you can only compete with a cultivator at the beginning of the Illuminating Soul Realm. Any master at the high grade of Illuminating Soul Realm can easily defeat you.”
“There are many masters working for His Highness. In comparison, you're nothing but a bum.”
“Are you challenging His Highness, lad? Or you're just playing hard to get? But let me tell you, don't be too greedy. Greed often ends badly!”
The guests scolded Zen one after another.
Ray waved his hands to hushed them. His face looked quite complicated.
He realized that Zen's attitude was resolute and he had misjudged Zen's character. He thought that there was no deal in the world that could not be done with some high-priced gifts. He felt that he was inexperienced in reading people's mind.
Despite being rejected, Ray admired Zen's talent and didn't want to give up.
He puzzled himself over the matter of what Zen really cared about.
Soon, his eyes brightened with joy and his face lit up into a smile again.
He had tried to attract Zen with wealth and status that he completely forgot what Zen really wanted–his half-sister, Aura. He thought that he finally found the right price for Zen's loyalty.