Chapter 762 – White Dragon Jade Row
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“Thanks. What is the price on this ore? I’ll give you the equivalent market price amount.” Although Lin Ming had planned on searching for wood spirit jade, the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom was still an extremely vast region. Moreover, many wood spirit jade-rich locales had been locked up by the authority of the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom. If he wanted to search for his own wood spirit jade then he would need a massive amount of time. If so, then it was best for him to buy as much as he could with his current wealth.
“Brother Lin couldn’t be planning on studying alchemical techniques, right?” Li Yifeng saw that Lin Ming wasn’t a wood-attribute martial artist, then the more likely reason he would want wood spirit jade like this would be to practice alchemy techniques. Normally, once a martial artist reached a certain boundary, it was common for them to study several auxiliary skills in order to help temper their soul. For instance, Li Yifeng himself studied array formations.
“That is my intention.”
Li Yifeng whistled, “Whew, Brother Lin, you just started studying alchemy techniques and you already want to use wood spirit jade?”
Lin Ming laughed out loud, not explaining further.
He understood what Li Yifeng was trying to say. After all, he was only 21 years old so he couldn’t possibly have studied alchemy techniques for too long. And, something like alchemy required the accumulation of experience and repeated failures. A newcomer to alchemy would have a very low chance of success, and wanting to practice creating high level medicines was simply a pipedream. And with wood spirit jade being so rare and valuable, using it to train up one’s skill was simply far too luxurious.
How could Li Yifeng have known that Lin Ming had interested the complete memories of a Realm of the Gods alchemist? These memories included alchemy skills, experiences, and all sorts of recipes. Lin Ming had already thoroughly integrated most of this knowledge together, and now his success rate for creating low level medicines was already very high.
But in that Realm of the Gods Supreme Elder’s memories, there were far too few recipes that didn’t require wood spirit jade.
“Brother Lin, if you wish to try, then I can gift you a piece.” There were pieces of wood spirit jade ore. Although they weren’t low in value, Li Yifeng was still able to give out a piece of two.
“We’ll go with the market price.” Lin Ming didn’t want to owe favors to anyone.
The two of them pushed back and forth for a bit, and finally, Li Yifeng listed the price for the four pieces of wood spirit jade. As Lin Ming heard this, he was actually shocked. Altogether, these four pieces of wood spirit jade were 600 spirit essence stones.
A low-grade spirit essence stone’s value was equivalent to a top grade true essence stone’s, which was the same as over a million low-grade true essence stones.
600 spirit essence stones were worth more than 600,000,000 low-grade true essence stones. When Lin Ming had dug up the buried treasure of the third-grade Moon Seizing Sect, besides some pills and 12 Shattered Heart Demon Crystals, there were also around 7000 to 8000 medium-grade true essence stones. If those were all traded in, that wasn’t even enough for one million true essence stones.
The entire buried treasure deposit of a third-grade sect wouldn’t even be enough to buy a small lump of wood spirit jade. Lin Ming also estimated that Li Yifeng was quoting him a price on the lower end. To a character like Li Yifeng, not to mention a low-grade spirit essence stone, but perhaps even a medium-grade spirit essence stone didn’t mean much to him.
Like this, 600 top grade true essence stones disappeared. Not accounting for the treasures that Lin Ming hadn’t exchanged for spirit essence stones yet, Xuan Wuji’s wealth had shrunk by 10%.
If things continued at this pace, then Lin Ming would be broke in no time.
‘Do I really have to sell that heaven-step Demon God Bone?’
As Lin Ming thought about this, he walked into his own room and began to start his first alchemical recipe using wood spirit jade.
The memories of that Realm of the Gods alchemist had been extremely complete without many holes. His skill, technique, and experience in alchemy had been incomparably profound and complex, far more complex than the inscription techniques Lin Ming had learnt before. If it wasn’t for the fact that Lin Ming’s cultivation had rapidly risen since then, wanting to study these alchemy techniques would have been nothing but a dream within a dream.
It required a massive amount of resources to raise an alchemist. The reason that nearly all of the alchemists in the entire Sky Spill Continent were concentrated in the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom was that they had adequate resources.
In other words, they were filthy, disgustingly, sickeningly rich.
And putting aside the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdoms, the other three Divine Kingdoms probably couldn’t produce a top class alchemist. This was because the consumption of resources was too high; the gains weren’t equal to the losses. Also, their alchemy technique inheritance was far too lacking.
But for Lin Ming the alchemy techniques he studied were on an unbelievably higher level than what any alchemist grandmaster of the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom could ever hope to reach.
If it were said that the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom needed to use 100 jin of wood spirit jade to train an alchemist grandmaster, then for Lin Ming to study alchemy by himself might require several thousand jin of wood spirit jade.
This estimate already included the fact that Lin Ming had inherited the foundation of Realm of the Gods’ alchemical techniques as well as an immeasurable amount of experience.
What he wished to refine was miracle medicines capable of opening the Eight Inner Hidden Gates and the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace. The lowest level materials for these types of medicines would be ingredients like the profound gold divine fruit and other such heavenly materials. As for the requirements of wood spirit jade, not only did he need quantity but he also needed quality. In the memories of the Realm of the Gods Supreme Elder, top medicines frequently required top quality wood spirit jade that was aged for several million years, or even tens of millions of years.
This had already surpassed the understanding of any alchemist within the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom.
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A month later, Lin Ming and the group made their way through countless large and small transmission arrays, finally arriving at the central region of the Sky Spill Continent. As Lin Ming looked down from his spirit boat, he saw that right beneath him was actually a vast and desolate desert.
“Are we close to the four Divine Kingdoms?” Lin Ming asked, a bit stunned. In his imagination, the four Divine Kingdoms were incomparably lively lands with grand Holy Lands everywhere. But currently, they had been flying through a seemingly endless desert for days now. And before this desert there had been nothing but more deserts upon deserts.
“Haha, we are indeed, we’re almost at the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom.” Li Yifeng had already guessed what Lin Ming was thinking. He continued, “Don’t look down on this desert below us. This area is called the Thatch Region. West of here is the Northwest Great Desert, which is also Wang Yichan’s domain. The Thatch Region is a place where good and bad exist, with bandits and desert pirates everywhere. The reason for this is because there is wood spirit jade produced here, and this area also isn’t under the jurisdiction of the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom.”
“I see!” Lin Ming was suddenly enlightened. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, or perhaps even millions of years ago, this desert beneath them had once been a great and lush forest with incomparably rich origin energy and all sorts of heavenly materials growing within. However, because of various geological changes, the spirit veins had withered away and the forest had eventually turned into a desert. The spirit trees and spirit plants had also been buried underground over the passage of time, slowly becoming a land filled with buried wood spirit jade.
Li Yifeng sighed as he reminisced over the past, “For this desert, there have been countless wars fought with rivers of endless blood flowing over the land. Ultimately, no one was able to take sole control of this land and thus it became a free land where all the major powers entrenched themselves. There are also a great number of wood spirit jade transaction sites here with all sorts of wood spirit jade carvings and accessories. These items change hands all the time; that is, this place is a sinkhole for a massive amount of spirit essence stones!”
Wood spirit carvings and accessories had to have a history of several thousand years as well as stemming from the hands of a famous craftsman in order to earn the recognition of being called an ancient jade treasure by someone like Li Yifeng.
The Realm of the Gods alchemist had several memories related to these things. In fact, that alchemist had actually been a wood spirit jade carving grandmaster. Carving wood spirit jade was also a method for alchemists to exercise their focus and precision, helping them in a small way to temper and perfect their own soul.
That Realm of the Gods alchemist had also collected a massive amount of ancient carvings and accessories. Of course, these treasures had a history of at least 60,000 to 70,000 years, with some being hundreds of thousands or even millions of years old. It was far from anything that the Sky Spill Continent could compare with.
“Brother Lin, I’ll take you to a place today. This is a good place, with far too many good things inside! I will take you to open your eyes!” As Li Yifeng spoke of that place his eyes began to fill with excitement.
“Okay.” What Lin Ming needed the most now was wood spirit jade. He certainly wouldn’t refuse going to such a place.
“That’s right, don’t tell that Murong about this, it will just be us two brothers going. That Murong is really about to pester me to death.” Li Yifeng’s words held a very familiar tone to them. Martial artists would generally refer to each other as ‘brothers’ as a sign of politeness, but this Li Yifeng seemed to treat Lin Ming as if they were really brothers.
A day later, Li Yifeng’s spirit boat stopped at a small city in the desert. After no resting well for an entire month, he decided to have a good night’s rest here and also search for a chance to throw off that annoying Murong. Li Yifeng brought Lin Ming and Qing’er to make seven or eight circles around the entire city before finally coming upon a humble and common-looking stone building.
From the outside, this stone building didn’t have a single sign. There were only four words written above the building door – White Dragon Jade Row.
After entering the stone house, Lin Ming finally realized that there was something peculiar going on here. The interior space was much larger than he had imagined, and the furnishings were a bit… crude. Everything seemed to be formed from the rough rocks of the desert. The stone tables and stone chairs seemed to be hewn apart by a saber without even being polished down.
At the side of the room was a stone table with some tea set aside for guests. And on the other side of the room were rows upon rows of wooden shelves. Every shelf had a variety of jade carvings and accessories placed upon it, ranging from as high as a foot to as small as a ring. The collection of items was dazzling and diverse.
In front of these shelves was a middle-aged man wearing a leather hat. The man had a sturdy build and there was a thick scar on his face. It was unknown just what sort of beast skin his clothes were made from, but his collar was opened wide and his sleeves were far shorter than his arms. His clothes had heavy-looking metal buttons on them, each of them as large as a baby’s fist.
This sort of clothing had a very rugged and barbaric flavor to it; it matched very well to the desert around them.
As the scarred man saw Li Yifeng approach, he immediately smiled in welcome, “Sir Li! No wonder I heard that lucky magpie call from the gates earlier; it seems that I have honored guests visiting today.” The scarred man looked rough and cumbersome but his mouth was thick with honey – it was obvious he was skilled at kissing ass. Then he took on a tone of business and asked, “Is Sir Li here to buy something today? We have just unearthed a pair of ancient bracelets, would Sir Li like to take a look at them?”
Hearing the scarred man’s attentive introduction, Li Yifeng’s eyes brightened. His interest had really been stirred up. “Good, let’s take a look.”
Just as Li Yifeng’s voice fell, another group of people walked in from outside. The man in the lead wore a yellow embroidered dragon robe and he had a pair of green balls in his hands that he was constantly rubbing together.
These balls were actually made from wood spirit jade.
“Isn’t that the great Sir Li? Hahaha, I never thought that I would stumble into you here at the White Dragon Jade Row. This is truly serendipity. Are Sir Li’s hands itchy and wanting to buy some little souvenirs from here?” The yellow dragon-robed man faintly smiled. From the tone of his voice he obviously came from some great and influential power.
Li Yifeng frowned as he saw this man arrive. It was obvious that he and this man were not on friendly terms.