Iron Winged Bird Reappears (Seeking Recommendations, Seeking Collections)

Xia Family Merchant Guild.

The largest merchant guild in Great Xia Prefecture, and also one of the guilds established by the Xia family of Great Xia Prefecture.

A five-story shopping mall on the commercial street, this is the South Origin branch of the Xia Family Merchant Guild.

The first floor deals in conventional pills, the second floor in weapons, the third floor sells cultivation techniques, the fourth floor sells miscellaneous items from the Myriad Races, and the fifth floor is for large-scale transactions.

Su Yu headed straight for the fourth floor of the Xia Family Merchant Guild after leaving his home.

He had been here before with Su Long. Su Long, after all, was a cultivator at the ninth level of Qianjun. With insufficient Qi in South Origin, he couldn't continue cultivating without external aid.

The fourth floor was divided into multiple areas: "Unknown Cultivation Technique Zone," "Monster Race Flesh and Blood Zone," "Damaged Magic Treasure Zone," "Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures Zone"...

Of course, being just a South Origin branch, most of the treasures were actually at the Qianjun level; there were almost none at the Wanshi level.

Monster Race Flesh and Blood Zone.

A beautiful young lady, trained for the job, greeted him with a professional smile and asked enthusiastically, "What do you need, sir?"

"Blood from the Iron Winged Bird tribe!"

"Iron Winged Bird..."

The female employee thought for a moment and quickly asked, "Essence blood or regular blood?"

An incredibly massive Iron Winged Bird contained a vast amount of blood.

Apart from a few drops of essence blood, the rest was regular blood. Regular blood had limited use, but essence blood was quite useful.

Su Yu wasn't sure what he needed, so he hesitated and said, "Bring both for me to see."

"Certainly!"

The female employee didn't ask further. Iron Winged Birds weren't a rare species; they were a common aerial force on the Battlefields of the Heavens. If it were a powerful flying race, South Origin might not have it in stock.

Soon, another male employee retrieved two transparent glass bottles from the glass counter.

"This is regular blood, and this is essence blood. Both are from Iron Winged Birds at the Qianjun level."

Seeing Su Yu staring at the glass bottles, the female employee explained with a smile, "If you need Iron Winged Bird blood at the Wanshi level, the South Origin branch doesn't have it. You can only purchase it in Great Xia Prefecture."

"The Qianjun level is fine!"

Su Yu had no use for the Wanshi level, and even if he did, he might not be willing to buy it.

"How much are they?"

"The regular blood is cheaper, 5,000 currency per bottle. Essence blood is much more valuable. An adult Iron Winged Bird can only yield less than 10 drops of essence blood, and each drop costs 50,000."

Su Yu frowned slightly. So expensive?

"Qianjun level cultivators are cannon fodder on the Battlefields of the Heavens; they die in droves. Is just one drop of essence blood really that expensive?"

The female employee's expression remained unchanged, and she continued to smile, "You are correct, sir. However, the cost of transporting it back from the Battlefields of the Heavens to Great Xia Prefecture is high! Extraction, preservation, sales... multiple procedures, including taxes... so 50,000 is not expensive."

She added, "If it were on the Battlefields of the Heavens, this kind of Qianjun level Iron Winged Bird would naturally not be valuable; you could easily find one by chance. But this... is not the Battlefields of the Heavens."

Su Yu fell silent.

Indeed, Myriad Races at the Qianjun level were not valuable on the Battlefields of the Heavens. The key was that when a major battle broke out, who had the time to collect them? Even if you found one, could you transport it back?

Only merchant guilds like the Xia Family Merchant Guild, backed by powerful forces, could handle transportation.

As a result, the price naturally increased significantly when it reached the rear.

"Give me one bottle of the regular blood... and one drop of essence blood!"

Su Yu felt a pang in his heart. If his father were here, and knew he had spent over 50,000 to buy this stuff right after he left, his father would probably beat him to death.

"Certainly, sir. Will you be paying by card or cash?"

"Card!"

Su Yu maintained a calm expression, but his heart was bleeding. 55,000!

He had spent one-sixth of his father's savings over many years in one go.

"I'm just guessing, but if this doesn't work... I'll have lost a lot."

Thinking of this, Su Yu quickly asked, "By the way, do you buy back Iron Winged Bird blood?"

The female employee was slightly taken aback, then quickly smiled, "We do buy it back. Regular blood is 1,000 per bottle, and essence blood is 10,000 per drop."

"I..."

Su Yu wanted to curse!

What a rip-off!

Even though the Xia Family Merchant Guild was Xia Longwu's family's guild, he couldn't help but call it a rip-off.

A buy-back price of one-fifth? What a scam.

Never mind, he wouldn't argue with them. These employees were just following procedures and couldn't make decisions; talking to them would be useless.

After swiping his card, he held a box in his hand, with two glass bottles placed inside.

One bottle contained only a single drop of golden blood. The golden blood seemed to be churning, and within it, one could faintly see a tiny Iron Winged Bird spreading its wings to fly.

This was essence blood!

These essence bloods from races with more beast-like forms could all offer some help in cultivation.

Consuming the essence blood of an Iron Winged Bird could help a martial artist in the Qianjun realm to enhance their physical strength.

After reaching the Kaiyuan realm, humans embarked on the formal path of cultivation. Those in the Qianjun and Wanshi realms focused on strengthening their physical bodies.

It was useful for the Qianjun realm, but useless for the Kaiyuan realm. Consuming these demonic beast essence bloods would actually be harmful. If it weren't for this, the incident of bathing in divine demon blood and having one's body explode wouldn't have happened.

With the Nine Apertures of Kaiyuan blocked, primal energy couldn't circulate and would accumulate in the body, becoming a deadly poison.

Heavenly Origin Fruits and other rare treasures produced pure Heavenly Origin Qi, which was relatively gentle, unlike the potent primal energy.

As Su Yu was thinking, the salesperson also reminded him, "Sir, if you haven't reached the Qianjun realm, you cannot consume the Iron Winged Bird essence blood, or it will be very dangerous!"

"I know, thank you!"

Saying that, Su Yu casually asked, "Do you have Heavenly Origin Fruits here?"

"What?"

The salesperson looked a bit confused, then quickly said, "Sorry, we don't have any. I also don't know about treasures like Heavenly Origin Fruits."

Su Yu didn't mind. There were too many Myriad Races and too many rare treasures. He couldn't expect a single salesperson to know everything. It was good enough if they knew what they were selling.

"How about Qi Liquid then?"

"We don't have that either… Qi Liquid is difficult to store and tends to dissipate. The storage cost is too high!" The salesperson quickly explained, "Great Xia Prefecture has it. We used to sell it a few years ago, but the cost was too high, and there weren't many customers, so we stopped stocking it."

"Oh, what's the price then?"

"In Great Xia Prefecture, it should be 100,000 per drop. I don't know if there's any difference now."

Seeing Su Yu asking these questions, the salesperson quickly recommended, "Sir, are you trying to speed up your cultivation in the Kaiyuan realm? Actually, we have many treasures and pills here that can help, such as Fire Boar Blood, Kaiyuan Pills…"

Su Yu rolled his eyes. I'm not some naive kid.

These things, while said to be helpful, actually only accelerated cultivation by a tiny bit. If the original cultivation speed was 100, these might increase it to 101.

He already knew about these options, but only a fool would be so extravagant to do this!

Spending tens of thousands on these things would be equivalent to cultivating an extra day per month. Did he have too much money to spend?

Of course, people did buy them, otherwise, they wouldn't be produced. There were quite a few customers, and buying in smaller quantities didn't make the price too exorbitant.

Su Yu didn't ask any more questions and left with the wooden box.

He had the items, but whether they would be useful or not remained to be seen.

If they were useless, and he didn't consume them, he could sell them. Although he would lose a significant amount in the resale, he could at least recoup some of his losses.

Downstairs in the residential complex.

Chen Hao, who was waiting for Su Yu to come down, saw Su Yu returning from outside and asked curiously, "A'Yu, where did you go?"

"Bought some things."

"Oh, then let's go to school…"

"Not going!"

"…"

Chen Hao looked utterly dejected. "Not going? You said you had to go to school before, so why aren't you going now?"

"I'm studying at home!"

Su Yu said with a smile, "You go ahead. Cultivate well and strive to reach the fourth level of Kaiyuan soon!"

Chen Hao was also at the third level of Kaiyuan. This guy couldn't get into the Civilization or Research Academies, and he couldn't get into the War Academy either. If that was the case, he'd really have to go to the Internal Affairs Academy.

"I…"

Su Yu interrupted him and, after much persuasion, finally managed to send Chen Hao away.

In the living room.

Su Yu looked at the two bottles of blood, frowning in thought.

He had the blood, but the key was how to use it.

"Swallow it?"

"Blood from the Qianjun realm shouldn't cause my body to explode, but it will definitely cause injury."

"Wait for another dream? But… it only happens once every ten years. Do I have to wait another ten years?"

Su Yu was a bit troubled. He had been excited before buying them, but after purchasing them, he felt some hesitation.

He had received a hint last night and had made up his mind to try swallowing it if necessary. But now that it came down to it, Su Yu felt a bit cowardly.

Getting injured would be very painful.

"Or smear it on my body?"

Su Yu tried it as soon as the thought occurred to him. If he didn't swallow it, there wouldn't be much of a problem.

He couldn't experiment with essence blood carelessly, but ordinary blood was fine.

Su Yu opened the bottle of ordinary blood, dipped a finger in it, and smeared some on the back of his hand, waiting for the results.

A few minutes later, Su Yu frowned. It had no effect.

The blood was slowly evaporating!

It cost 5,000 yuan a bottle, after all. If he drank a little of it normally, not the essence blood, it would still help strengthen his body.

It would be too much of a waste to just let it evaporate like this.

"Useless..."

"Then, should I take a little?"

Su Yu licked his finger on the back of his hand, tasting a tiny bit, and waited for a while longer. Still no effect.

"Ordinary blood is useless, or... is the method wrong? Or did I misunderstand it completely?"

Su Yu felt a headache coming on. This was tens of thousands of yuan.

Had he been a bit impulsive?

But that dream had tormented him for too long. He wished he could resolve it immediately. If spending tens of thousands of yuan could solve it, he wouldn't care at all.

His gaze fell on the drop of essence blood. Su Yu found it hard to make up his mind.

There was only one drop of essence blood. This thing was like a gemstone; it couldn't be separated.

So, this thing could only be swallowed. Smearing it wouldn't work.

"Am I really going to swallow essence blood? I'm only at the Kaiyuan realm. Once I swallow it, even if I don't die, I'll be severely injured. My current Kaiyuan fourth-level cultivation is already out of the question. If I get injured, let alone Kaiyuan fourth-level, I might not even be able to maintain Kaiyuan third-level."

Su Yu hesitated.

Over the years, due to the influence of nightmares, he had actually become more steady and decisive than others his age.

He wouldn't have even considered applying to the War Academy if his father wasn't on the battlefield.

But the nightmares had lasted for so many years. At this moment, he truly wanted to understand the specifics of the dream.

"It's just one drop. It won't kill me..."

"Maybe I should give it a try?"

"If I really get injured, I'll just not go to the War Academy. My chances of reaching Kaiyuan third-level weren't that high anyway."

"If I go to the Civilization Academy, there isn't much difference between third-level, second-level, or even first-level."

Su Yu examined the glass bottle in front of him. The golden blood was a bit dazzling.

After a moment of hesitation, Su Yu took out the blood. It felt slightly heavy in his hand, like a gemstone.

Su Yu clenched the blood in his hand, but there was still no reaction.

"Should I wait another day and try to have another dream? Perhaps other monsters also need Iron Winged Bird blood?"

"Or maybe the Iron Winged Bird blood is only useful today?"

The dreams changed every day, usually around midnight. If it was useless after today, when would he get another chance?

The next time he encountered an Iron Winged Bird might be never, or it might take decades.

His breathing became slightly erratic.

"Then... I'll try it!"

"At worst, I'll get injured. If I get injured, I'll just go to the Civilization Academy! If I study the Myriad Races at the Civilization Academy, I'll eventually find the correct answer!"

As for the War Academy, his chances were slim. Faced with the choice between solving the dream and the uncertain prospect of getting into the War Academy, Su Yu gritted his teeth and finally chose to try and solve the dream.

If the dream was solved, perhaps there would be some unexpected gains.

Holding the essence blood in one hand and his communicator in the other, Su Yu quickly sent a message: "Come to my place. I have something to tell you. If you knock and no one answers, break the door!"

He sent the message to Chen Hao. If he got injured or even fainted, he wouldn't have time to call for help. If Chen Hao arrived, he could take him to the hospital.

After making arrangements, Su Yu gritted his teeth and quickly put the essence blood into his mouth.

At worst, he'd get injured. Was he afraid of pain?

"Ah!"

A scream echoed out. Su Yu almost cried tears of pain. It hurt so much!

Boom!

The next moment, his head roared, and Su Yu's vision went black as he fainted.

"Moonlight!"

The colossal Iron Winged Bird, blocking out the sky, reappeared, just like last night, yet subtly different.

This was a scene Su Yu had never experienced in over ten years. Two dreams that had never repeated themselves, and today they both appeared.

The Iron Winged Bird had returned!