Xia Family Merchant Guild.
The largest merchant guild in Great Xia Prefecture, and one established by the Xia family of Great Xia Prefecture.
A five-story commercial building on Commercial Street—this was where the Xia Family Merchant Guild's Nanyuan branch was located.
The first floor dealt in standard pills, the second in weapons, the third sold cultivation methods, the fourth sold miscellaneous goods of the myriad races, and the fifth was for large-scale transactions.
The moment Su Yu left home, he headed straight for the fourth floor of the Xia Family Merchant Guild.
He had come here with Su Long before. Su Long was, after all, a Thousand Jun Ninth Stage cultivator. Nanyuan's qi was insufficient, and without external resources, there was no way to continue cultivating.
The fourth floor was divided into several areas: the "Unknown Cultivation Methods Area," the "Demon Race Blood and Flesh Area," the "Damaged Magical Artifact Area," the "Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures Area"...
Of course, this was only the Nanyuan branch. Most of its goods were actually at the Qianjun level; items at the Ten Thousand Stones level were almost nonexistent.
Demon Race Blood and Flesh Area.
A pretty, well-trained saleswoman approached with a professional smile and asked warmly, "What does sir need?"
"Blood from the Iron Winged Bird race!"
"Iron Winged Bird..."
The female employee thought for a moment, then quickly asked, "Essence blood or ordinary blood?"
An Iron Winged Bird was enormous, and its body contained a great deal of blood.
Aside from the few drops of essence blood, the rest was ordinary blood. Ordinary blood was of little use, while essence blood had many uses.
Su Yu was not certain what he needed either. After hesitating, he said, "Bring both for me to look at."
"Certainly!"
The saleswoman did not ask further questions. Iron Winged Birds were not an uncommon race, regular aerial forces on the Battlefields of the Heavens. If it had been some powerful flying race instead, Nanyuan might not have had any stock.
Soon, another male employee took two transparent glass bottles from a glass display case.
"This is ordinary blood, and this is essence blood. Both came from Qianjun Realm Iron Winged Birds."
Seeing Su Yu staring at the bottles, the saleswoman smiled and explained, "If sir needs Iron Winged Bird blood from the Wanshi Realm, the Nanyuan branch does not have any. You can only purchase it in Great Xia Prefecture."
"Qianjun Realm is enough!"
He had no use for Wanshi Realm blood. Even if he did, he might not be willing to buy it.
"How much?"
"The ordinary blood is cheap—5,000 coins per bottle. Essence blood is much more valuable. An adult Iron Winged Bird can yield fewer than ten drops of essence blood, and each drop costs 50,000."
Su Yu frowned slightly. That expensive?
"Qianjun Realm cultivators are cannon fodder on the Battlefields of the Heavens. They die by the fistful. Is a single drop of essence blood really this expensive?"
The saleswoman's expression did not change as she continued smiling. "Sir is correct, but transporting it back from the Battlefields of the Heavens, then transporting it to Great Xia Prefecture—that is an enormous cost! Extraction, preservation, sale... there are many procedures, including taxes... So 50,000 is not expensive."
Then she continued, "On the Battlefields of the Heavens, Iron Winged Birds at the Qianjun Realm naturally are not worth much. If you are lucky, you can pick them up anywhere. But this... is not the Battlefields of the Heavens."
Su Yu fell silent.
Indeed, the myriad races at the Qianjun Realm were worthless on the Battlefields of the Heavens, but once war broke out, who had time to pick them up? Even if one did, could one transport them back?
Only merchant guilds like the Xia Family Merchant Guild, with powerful forces backing them, could carry out such transportation.
Once that was the case, prices naturally became expensive by the time they reached the rear.
"Give me one bottle of ordinary blood... and one drop of essence blood!"
Su Yu's heart ached. His father had only just left. If Su Long found out that he had spent more than 50,000 on this thing the moment he was gone, he might beat him to death alive.
"Certainly. Will sir pay by card or cash?"
"Card!"
Su Yu's expression remained calm, but his heart was bleeding. 55,000!
His father's savings from many years had been spent by one-sixth in a single stroke.
"I'm only guessing. If this turns out to be useless... then I'll have suffered a huge loss."
Thinking of that, Su Yu hurriedly asked, "By the way, do you buy back Iron Winged Bird blood?"
The saleswoman froze slightly, then quickly smiled. "We do. Ordinary blood is 1,000 per bottle, and essence blood is 10,000 per drop."
"I..."
Su Yu wanted to curse!
What a black-hearted shop!
Even though the Xia Family Merchant Guild belonged to Xia Longwu's Xia family, he still had to call it a black-hearted shop.
A buyback price of one-fifth—what kind of scam was that?
Forget it. He would not lower himself to their level. These employees were only following the rules and had no authority to make decisions. Saying anything to them would be pointless.
After swiping his card, he had an extra box in his hands. Inside were two glass bottles.
One of them contained only a single drop of golden blood. The golden blood seemed to be churning, and within it, he could even faintly see a tiny Iron Winged Bird spreading its wings in flight.
This was essence blood!
The essence blood of races inclined toward beastly forms was generally somewhat helpful to cultivation.
After consuming Iron Winged Bird essence blood, a Qianjun Realm martial artist could gain some increase in physical strength.
After Kaiyuan, humans stepped onto the formal path of cultivation. Thousand Jun, Ten Thousand Stones cultivated physical strength.
It was useful to those at the Qianjun Realm, but useless to those at the Kaiyuan Realm. Consuming such Demon Race essence blood could instead easily damage the body. If not for that, there would not have been cases of people bathing in God-Demon Blood and exploding.
If the Nine Apertures of Kaiyuan were not opened, qi could not circulate. Accumulating in the body, it became lethal poison.
Heavenly materials and earthly treasures such as Heavenly Origin Fruit produced pure Heavenly Origin Qi, which was relatively gentle and entirely unlike tyrannical qi.
As Su Yu was thinking, the saleswoman reminded him, "Sir, if you have not reached the Qianjun Realm, you cannot consume Iron Winged Bird Essence Blood. Otherwise, it will be very dangerous!"
"I know. Thank you!"
Then Su Yu casually asked, "Do you have Heavenly Origin Fruit here?"
"What?"
The saleswoman looked somewhat bewildered before quickly replying, "Sorry, we do not have it here. I do not know of a treasure called Heavenly Origin Fruit."
Su Yu did not mind. There were too many races and too many heavenly materials and earthly treasures. He could not expect a saleswoman to know everything. It was already good enough that she knew what goods they sold.
"Then what about Qi Liquid?"
"We do not have that either... Qi Liquid is difficult to store and easily dissipates, so the storage cost is too high!" The saleswoman hurriedly explained, "Great Xia Prefecture has it. We actually sold it here years ago, but the costs were too high and there were not many buyers, so we no longer stock it."
"Oh. Then how much does it cost?"
"In Great Xia Prefecture, it should be 100,000 per drop. I do not know whether the price has changed now."
Seeing Su Yu ask about these things, the saleswoman quickly recommended, "Does sir wish to speed up his cultivation in the Kaiyuan Realm? We actually have many treasures and pills that can help, such as Fire Boar Blood, Kaiyuan Pills..."
Su Yu rolled his eyes. It was not as if he were some ignorant rookie.
Those things were said to be helpful, but in reality, they only sped things up by the tiniest bit. If one's original cultivation speed was 100, they could probably increase it by 1.
He had known about those methods long ago, but only an idiot would be so extravagant!
Spend tens of thousands on those things, and after a month, it would probably amount to one extra day of cultivation. Did he have so much money that he could not spend it all?
Of course, there were definitely people who bought them, otherwise they would not be produced. There were quite a few customers too, and buying a small amount was not that expensive.
Su Yu did not ask any more questions and left with the wooden box.
He had obtained the items. Whether they would be useful was another matter.
If they were useless and he had not used them up, he could still sell them. Though he would lose quite a bit in the resale, he could at least recover some blood.
Downstairs in the residential complex.
Chen Hao, who had been waiting for Su Yu to come downstairs, saw him returning from outside and asked curiously, "Ayu, where did you go?"
"To buy something."
"Oh, then let's go to school..."
"Not going!"
"..."
Chen Hao's face filled with grief and indignation. "Not going? When I asked whether you were going before, didn't you say you absolutely had to go to school? Why aren't you going again?"
"I'll study at home!"
Su Yu said with a smile, "You go on. Cultivate well and strive to reach the Kaiyuan Fourth Stage soon!"
Chen Hao was also at the Kaiyuan Three Stages. He had no way to apply to the Civilization Academy or Research Academy. If he could not enter the War Academy, then he truly would have to attend the Internal Affairs Academy.
"I..."
Su Yu cut him off. After much coaxing and persuasion, he finally sent Chen Hao away.
In the living room.
Su Yu looked at the two bottles of blood and frowned without speaking.
The blood was in hand, but the key was how to use it.
"Swallow it?"
"Blood from the Qianjun Realm won't make me explode, but I'll definitely be injured."
"Wait for another dream and let the Iron Winged Bird kill me? But... it only happened once in more than ten years. Do I have to wait another ten years?"
Su Yu had a headache. Before buying it, he had been full of excitement. But after buying it, he began to hesitate.
Last night, he had finally received a small hint. He had made up his mind that if all else failed, he would try swallowing it. But now that the moment had truly come, Su Yu lost his nerve.
Getting injured was terribly painful.
"Or smear it on my body?"
Su Yu immediately tried it. As long as he did not swallow it, it should not be much of a problem.
He naturally could not test the essence blood recklessly, but the ordinary blood should be fine.
Opening the bottle of ordinary blood, Su Yu dipped a finger into it, smeared some on the back of his hand, and waited for what would happen next.
Several minutes later, Su Yu frowned. There was no effect at all.
The blood was slowly evaporating!
It had cost 5,000 a bottle, after all. Drinking a small amount of it ordinarily, even if it was not essence blood, was still somewhat beneficial for strengthening the body.
It would be too wasteful to let it go to waste like this.
"Useless..."
"Then should I consume a little?"
Su Yu licked the back of his hand with his tongue, tasting the tiniest amount, then waited for a while longer. There was still no effect.
"Ordinary blood is useless, or is it... that I'm using it the wrong way? Or have I simply misunderstood it from the start?"
Su Yu had a headache too. It was tens of thousands of coins.
Had he been too impulsive?
But that dream had tormented him for too long. He wanted nothing more than to solve it immediately. If spending tens of thousands could resolve it, he would not care.
His gaze shifted to that drop of essence blood, but Su Yu could not bring himself to make the decision.
There was only one drop of essence blood. The stuff was like jade, utterly impossible to divide apart.
So it could only be swallowed. Smearing it on his body was useless.
"Am I really going to swallow the essence blood? I'm only at the Kaiyuan Realm. Once I swallow it, even if I don't die, my qi will be gravely damaged. Reaching the Kaiyuan Fourth Stage was already hopeless, and once I'm injured, forget the Kaiyuan Fourth Stage—even keeping my Kaiyuan Three Stages might be uncertain."
Su Yu could not make up his mind.
Over these years, due to the nightmares' influence, he had actually become steadier and more decisive than others his age.
If not for his father being on the battlefield, he would never have considered taking the risk of applying to the War Academy.
But the nightmares had lasted too many years. At this moment, he truly wanted to understand the dreams' exact circumstances.
"It's only one drop. It won't kill anyone..."
"Should I give it a try?"
"If I really get injured, then I simply won't apply to the War Academy. The chances of reaching the Kaiyuan Three Stages were not great anyway."
"If I apply to the Civilization Academy, there isn't much difference between the third stage, second stage, or even first stage."
Su Yu examined the glass bottle before him. The golden blood was somewhat dazzling.
After hesitating for a moment, Su Yu took out the blood. It landed in his hand like jade, faintly heavy.
Su Yu clenched the blood in his hand, but there was still no reaction at all.
"Should I wait another day and have another dream to test it? Maybe other monsters need Iron Winged Bird blood too?"
"Or perhaps Iron Winged Bird blood is only useful today?"
The dream changed every day, usually around midnight. If it became useless after today, then he would have to wait until the year of the monkey and the month of the horse?
The next time an Iron Winged Bird appeared, perhaps it would never happen again in his lifetime, or perhaps he would have to wait decades.
His breathing became slightly disordered.
"Then... I'll try it!"
"At worst, I'll get injured. If I'm injured, I'll apply to the Civilization Academy! At the Civilization Academy, I'll study the myriad races. Sooner or later, I'll decipher the correct answer!"
As for the War Academy, his hopes had never been great to begin with. Between unraveling the dream and a War Academy he might not even get into, Su Yu gritted his teeth and ultimately chose to try unraveling the dream.
If the dream was cracked, perhaps there would be some unexpected gains.
He gripped the essence blood in one hand and took out his communicator with the other. Su Yu quickly sent a message: "Come to my home. I have something to tell you. If I don't answer when you knock, break the door down!"
The message was sent to Chen Hao. If he got injured, or even fell unconscious, with no time to call for help, Chen Hao could come and take him to the hospital.
After arranging everything, Su Yu gritted his teeth and swiftly stuffed the essence blood into his mouth.
At worst, I'll be injured. Am I someone afraid of pain?
"Ah!"
A miserable scream rang out. Su Yu nearly burst into tears from the pain. It hurt so much!
Rumble!
The next moment, his head roared. Darkness filled Su Yu's vision, and he fainted onto the floor.
"Moonlight!"
The enormous Iron Winged Bird that blotted out the sky and covered the earth appeared once more. It was the same as last night, yet also somewhat different.
And this scene was something Su Yu had never encountered in more than ten years. There had never been two identical dreams before, but today, there were.
The Iron Winged Bird reappeared!
Before you continue