About half an hour later, footsteps sounded from within the gate once more.
Nan Shui Shui returned, the hesitation gone from her eyes.
No elders followed behind her.
Apparently, the discussion inside had ended with the decision being left to her alone.
"Your Excellency." She stopped before Mu En and bowed slightly.
"Earth Dragon Sect is willing to make this deal with you."
The smile in Mu En's eyes deepened slightly, as though he had expected this all along.
"Sect Master Nan is refreshingly straightforward."
With a light sweep of his sleeve, two streaks of light flew out and hovered before Nan Shui Shui.
On the left was a bone roughly the size of an arm bone.
Its surface was covered in fine dragon-scale patterns, with faint crimson light flowing through the depths of those markings as though it were a living creature breathing.
Before anyone even touched it, a scorching, weighty pressure had already spread through the air.
"This is a thirty-five-thousand-year left arm bone."
On the right was a palm-sized jade box of cold jade.
Before its lid was opened, a cool and unusual fragrance was already seeping from within. Merely smelling it made one's Soul Power stir faintly and one's mind grow tranquil.
Nan Shui Shui took a deep breath, raised both hands, and solemnly accepted the two items.
"Thank you, Your Excellency." She stored them in a specially made storage Soul Tool within her robes, then bowed again. "Please follow me."
Nan Shui Shui led them to the rear courtyard of Earth Dragon Sect.
It was a large garden, with a well located deep within it.
"This is the secret realm passed down through our sect. Inside is a cold spring, and beneath it lies a cave dwelling filled with many strange ores."
"One of our