"However, when Azure Jade Talismans like these are sold, the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion places a restriction on them. Only the purchaser can read their contents." Nangong Yuqing looked at Wei Suo with a smile at the corners of her lips. She took an Azure Jade Talisman from his hand and infused it with a stream of True Essence. Instead, the Taiji Symbol on the talisman emitted a layer of azure light, forming a small azure barrier that protected the Azure Jade Talisman within it.
"There's a restriction too?" Wei Suo stared gloomily at the Azure Jade Talisman in Nangong Yuqing's hand. "There's no way to break it?"
"As far as I know, aside from the people of the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion themselves, no one in Lingyue City has been able to break this kind of restriction. However, if you sell this intact Azure Jade Talisman back to the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion, you can still get two Low-grade Spirit Stones for it."
"Damn it, that's robbery!" Wei Suo could not help cursing. A good spell was often astonishingly expensive. Even Wei Suo's Azure Water Blade was now worth more than twenty Low-grade Spirit Stones. It was precisely because spells were so valuable, and because letting others fully understand one's spells would make one even more vulnerable outside, that Wei Suo still only knew the barely passable Azure Water Blade. Yet the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion only offered two Low-grade Spirit Stones to buy back such Azure Jade Talismans. It was practically robbing Spirit Stones in broad daylight.
"What is this one, then?" The remaining tattered scrap of cloth looked exactly like a fragment of a map to Wei Suo, but the material itself seemed exceedingly peculiar. Having learned his lesson earlier, he did not dare make wild guesses and directly asked Nangong Yuqing. What if it looked like a map but turned out to be some kind of talisman? That would be even more embarrassing.
Yet what nearly made Wei Suo fall flat on his face was that Nangong Yuqing took one look at it and said, "This should be a fragment of a map to some location in the Outer Sky Demonic Beast Wasteland. But I do not recognize the ancient characters and illustrations on it either."
Damn it, so a map fragment really was just a map fragment.
Wei Suo was rendered speechless. He felt that this only made him seem even more uncultured and embarrassing. Still, getting so many good things from Lin Daoyi alone was enough to excite him.
"Among the Ice Silk Spider's rations, there seem to be cultivators too. Why don't we thoroughly inspect them first and see whether there's anything good?" Wei Suo's gaze quickly settled on the cultivator's corpse hanging from the rock wall to one side, whose chest faintly glimmered.
Naturally, Nangong Yuqing and the others had no objections to Wei Suo's suggestion. After all, anyone who entered a demonic beast's nest would certainly search the entire lair thoroughly after killing the beast.
Wei Suo was the first to run over to that cultivator. It was his first time killing someone, so he still felt a little uneasy about looking at Lin Daoyi, whom he had killed himself. But before the lure of Spirit Stones, he was not particularly afraid of cultivators killed by Ice Silk Spiders. The Ice Silk Spider's webs were extremely tough. Even if he used Azure Water Blade, he probably would not be able to cut through them. Fortunately, the silk cocoons in which the Ice Silk Spiders hung these corpses were not tightly wrapped, so they did not hinder Wei Suo's search.
Carefully pulling aside the unfortunate cultivator's clothing, which had been frozen somewhat stiff by the chill in the spider silk around his chest, Wei Suo immediately saw a bottle of Qi Replenishing Powder slide out. Then he spotted a crimson First-grade Fire Rain Talisman covered in tadpole-like runes, as well as a white jade box.
The light Wei Suo had seen earlier came from this white jade box. But what puzzled him greatly was that the box, which had no patterns whatsoever and was merely smooth and lustrous both inside and out, was completely empty.
Disappointed, Wei Suo searched the cultivator's other belongings, but this cultivator seemed even poorer than Wei Suo had once been. Apart from those items, he had nothing else on him—not even a single Low-grade Spirit Stone.
After roughly the time it took for an incense stick to burn, the four of them had searched the entire cave. Besides the cultivator Wei Suo had noticed, there were two other unfortunate low-level cultivators killed by the Ice Silk Spiders. However, those two were either truly poor as well, or had fought the Ice Silk Spiders before being killed and exhausted some of their possessions. In any case, they only found a total of four Low-grade Spirit Stones, several stalks of Moonlight Grass worth two Low-grade Spirit Stones, and a spell scroll on the two unfortunate cultivators.
The slightly yellowed parchment spell scroll recorded an ordinary Wind Blade spell, which was even worse than Wei Suo's Azure Water Blade. Wei Suo merely glanced at it before putting it down, without the slightest interest in learning it.
The three Ice Silk Spiders, two Gray Rock Snakes, the items taken from Lin Daoyi, and the things found afterward were all piled together. The next matter was how to divide them.
"How about we split these Spirit Stones evenly first, then sell the rest and divide the proceeds equally?" At the thought of the value of everything before him, Wei Suo's eyes shone uncontrollably. The three Ice Silk Spiders and two Gray Rock Snakes alone were worth more than two hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones. Adding the Spirit Stones, Qi Replenishing Powder, Qi Replenishing Pills, and other items from Lin Daoyi and the others brought the total to over two hundred and sixty Low-grade Spirit Stones. For an ordinary Rogue Cultivator, that was already a windfall, not to mention items like the Wind Lord Treasure Talisman, which could still be used several times. Selling everything and splitting the Spirit Stones was the fairest arrangement possible.
But after Wei Suo said this, the cave, which had been bustling with excitement as they searched through the loot, unexpectedly fell silent for a moment.
"Split evenly?" Ye Xiaozheng exchanged blank looks with Ye Guowei, then repeated those two words as if he could hardly believe them.
No way. Were the three of them planning to join hands and rob me? Wei Suo's heart skipped a beat.
"If it were not for you, we would all have died at Lin Daoyi's hands. We failed to see people clearly and nearly dragged you down with us, yet you still want to split everything with us equally. I, Ye Xiaozheng, have made a friend of you for certain. You also used up so many Fireball Talismans just now. How could we possibly split these things equally with you? We came here for the Ice Silk Spiders in the first place. At most, we'll take one Ice Silk Spider." Yet Ye Xiaozheng's next words, spoken with great seriousness, left Wei Suo dumbstruck.
This big fellow was truly honest and straightforward! So he had not been planning to rob him after all. He only wanted one Ice Silk Spider?
Friends like this—the more, the better!
"I only came here after accepting a commission. We already agreed on a price of forty Low-grade Spirit Stones. No matter how much we ultimately obtain, Tie Ce only needs to give me forty Low-grade Spirit Stones." While Wei Suo was still stunned, Nangong Yuqing looked at him and spoke as well.
"They're all good people!" Wei Suo was so moved that tears nearly filled his eyes. Feeling that agreeing at once would make him look too greedy for money, he put on a somewhat hesitant expression. "This... this... wouldn't that be inappropriate?"
"Very well. If Brother Wei truly feels it is improper, then aside from the one Ice Silk Spider we want and Nangong Yuqing's forty Low-grade Spirit Stones, we can divide this unexpected Ice Mist Fruit and the cold jade beneath it equally. After all, Ice Mist Fruit can not only be used with fire-element demonic cores to refine spiritual pills, but can also greatly increase the chance of breaking through from the Fifth Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm to the Circulation Realm in one go." Ye Xiaozheng nodded as he spoke.
"I..." Wei Suo wanted nothing more than to slap his own mouth. He already knew Ye Xiaozheng was such a forthright person, so why had he pretended to be polite? Wei Suo felt like crying without tears, but he could not take back his words. He could only pretend to regard Spirit Stones as dung, with friendship first and Spirit Stones second, and reluctantly said, "All right."
After saying all right, Wei Suo turned hopefully toward Nangong Yuqing. He hoped this long-legged beauty with the fiery figure would say that Tie Ce's people meant what they said, that she only wanted forty Low-grade Spirit Stones, and that her share should still belong to Wei Suo—otherwise, if he insisted on giving it to her, she would fall out with him. But to Wei Suo's dismay, Nangong Yuqing merely smiled faintly. "If it is from a friend... a friend's gift, then it does not matter. It would not count as violating Tie Ce's rules."
Wei Suo and Nangong Yuqing stood together with Lin Guowei and Lin Xiaozheng before the Ice Mist Fruit plant.
Its dark green branches and leaves, like fern fronds, bore a jade-like luster. The four fruits, each resembling a small tangerine, emitted faint white icy mist, making the spiritual herb seem as though it stood amid clouds and fog.
Perhaps the demonic cores of the three Ice Silk Spiders had not yet reached the time for advancement, which was why they had kept watch over the Ice Mist Fruit without devouring it. Thus, it had ended up benefiting Wei Suo and the other four.
When a Sea of Consciousness Realm cultivator at the peak of the Fifth Level broke through to the Circulation Realm, if they failed to control the True Essence surging through their acupoints, it could easily cause the blood and qi throughout their body to flow too quickly, making their body temperature rise sharply. At best, this would damage the cultivator's bodily functions; at worst, they would suffer qi deviation and their physical body would burst into flames.
Besides dispelling some of the fire toxin within fire-element demonic cores, Ice Mist Fruit also happened to suppress excessively rapid blood and qi circulation. If one consumed an Ice Mist Fruit before attempting to break through to the Circulation Realm, the breakthrough would be much safer.
Ice Mist Fruit was not commonly seen under normal circumstances, and it was often something with a price but no market. When the time truly came, it would not necessarily be possible to find one quickly. Being able to keep one on hand now was naturally wonderful for a Sea of Consciousness Realm cultivator like Wei Suo, who would sooner or later attempt to break through to the Circulation Realm.
Moreover, Ice Mist Fruit always grew alongside cold jade. Wherever there was Ice Mist Fruit, there would certainly be cold jade.
Cold jade of sufficient size and grade could not only be used to refine talismans and magical artifacts, but even magical treasures!
Now it depended on just how large the cold jade within this rock wall was, and what quality of cold jade it might be.
Before you continue