At Ya Fei's arrangement, two days later, at dusk, Yao Chen agreed to meet Hai Bodong in a VIP room at the Miteer Auction House.
The main reason was that the System Panel had issued him a new quest.
He was required to exchange the medicinal ingredient Sand Mandala for the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame Fragment Map in Hai Bodong's possession.
[Current Quest: Exchange Sand Mandala for the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame Fragment Map.] [Quest Reward: Two Red Chests.]
Yao Chen pushed open the door and entered. Dressed in a black robe, he took a seat in the VIP room.
Hai Bodong had already been waiting there for quite some time.
As soon as he saw Yao Chen enter, Hai Bodong stood up and spoke to him.
"Mr. Yao, the Fifth-grade Pill you sold last time—the Heavenly Nourishing Gold Pill—was indeed very potent. It restored a great deal of my strength."
"So I came especially to thank you, Mr. Yao. That's why I asked Ya Fei to arrange for us to meet today," Hai Bodong said.
As an angel investor, Hai Bodong had initially been somewhat displeased with Yao Chen's arrogant attitude.
But after taking the Heavenly Nourishing Gold Pill, he discovered that his Dou Ling strength had surged straight to Dou Wang.
Although the effect hadn't been as pronounced as that of the Sixth-Grade Pill, the Obstacle Breaking Pill, it ultimately hadn't restored him to Dou Emperor strength.
Still, he had recovered from the Dou Ling realm to the ranks of a Dou Wang expert.
Now that he could use Qi Wings, Hai Bodong was already very satisfied.
In the tiny backwater that was the Jia Ma Empire, someone like Yao Chen, a Fifth-grade Alchemist, was well worth befriending, no matter what anyone said.
Perhaps if Yao Chen advanced to become a Sixth-grade Alchemist someday, he might even help him refine an Obstacle Breaking Pill.
Whether he could ever regain his peak strength might well depend entirely on this Mr. Yao.
Hai Bodong had a keen eye, after all. He was the foremost angel investor on the Dou Qi Continent.
After sitting down, Yao Chen looked at Hai Bodong. Suddenly, he took a medicinal ingredient from his Storage Ring and said,
"This is Sand Mandala, one of the essential ingredients for refining the Obstacle Breaking Pill."
"What! Mr. Yao, you actually have Sand Mandala?" Hai Bodong was stunned. The ingredient he had searched so long and hard for was in Yao Chen's hands.
At once, excitement lit up Hai Bodong's face.
If Mr. Yao was willing to give him the ingredient, then he would have everything he needed to gather the ingredients for the Obstacle Breaking Pill.
All he would need to do after that was find an Alchemist willing to refine a Sixth-Grade Pill for him.
Yao Chen watched the fervent look in Hai Bodong's eyes and spoke.
"I know you have a mysterious fragment map. I'd like to exchange this Sand Mandala for the fragment map in your possession. What do you think?"
Hai Bodong was stunned, his face full of confusion.
He had spent so many years alone in the desert, and no one knew about the mysterious fragment map he had obtained.
Not even the Mittel Family knew.
Yet today, he was meeting Mr. Yao for the first time. How had he found out?
Hai Bodong was utterly perplexed, but he had no time to dwell on it just now.
He now had two choices before him.
The first was to refuse. He didn't know what use the mysterious fragment map had or what secrets it held.
But it was certainly no ordinary thing.
Keeping it might prove useful to him in the future.
The second was to agree, trading the fragment map in his possession for Mr. Yao's Sand Mandala and completing the collection of ingredients required for the Obstacle Breaking Pill.
That would fulfill the necessary condition for restoring his Dou Emperor strength.
After weighing his options, Hai Bodong finally chose the second.
"Although the secret behind this mysterious fragment map must be extraordinary,
"with my current situation, I can't afford to worry about that. Restoring my Dou Emperor strength is what matters most to me right now," Hai Bodong thought.
Then he took out a mysterious fragment map and handed it to Yao Chen.
In exchange, he received the Sand Mandala.
"Wonderful! It really is Sand Mandala," Hai Bodong said excitedly, looking at the ingredient in his hand.
What puzzled him, though, was where Yao Chen had gotten the Sand Mandala.
If nothing unexpected had happened, it should have been in the Snake People Tribe's holy city in the Tagor Desert.
But then again, Queen Medusa was a true Dou Emperor expert, even stronger than he was now.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have ended up sealed and fallen to the Dou Ling realm, trapped in his current predicament.
So Hai Bodong wondered: if Yao Chen had obtained the Sand Mandala, did that mean he was a Dou Emperor expert too?
That didn't seem right.
Even Pill King Gu He, a Sixth-grade Alchemist, was only a Dou Wang expert.
Could Yao Chen really be a Dou Emperor expert?
As Hai Bodong looked at Yao Chen, countless doubts and questions surged through his mind.
After the trade between Yao Chen and Hai Bodong was complete, Yao Chen looked at the System Panel. It displayed a message confirming the quest was complete, along with his reward.
[Quest complete. The host has received two Red Chests as a reward. They have been deposited in the System Panel.]
Yao Chen immediately opened the two Red Chests.
[The host opened two Red Chests and drew the following rewards: 40 points, which can be used to exchange for premium items in the shop.] [Received 100 proficiency points in alchemy. 999,999 proficiency points remain until reaching the Ninth-grade Alchemist level.]
Seeing the system notification, Yao Chen realized that he still needed that many proficiency points to reach the Ninth-grade Alchemist level.
He couldn't help but exclaim inwardly, Well, would you look at that.
But then he remembered that he was already an Eighth-Tier Alchemist.
If he advanced one more level, he would reach the Ninth-grade rank.
Naturally, the proficiency required was far greater than he had imagined.
After claiming the quest rewards, Yao Chen left the Miteer Auction House.
Hai Bodong came out with him as well.
Wanting to make a good friend of Yao Chen, Hai Bodong spoke up.
"Mr. Yao, if you ever need my help, just say the word. I, Hai Bodong, will be glad to assist you."
"And the Mittel Family behind me is willing to give you its full support as well, Mr. Yao."
No wonder he was an angel investor. Yao Chen merely smiled, but to be realistic, with his own Dou Sheng strength, he didn't take Hai Bodong, the Mittel Family, or even the entire Jia Ma Empire seriously.
The strongest in this empire was only at the Dou Zong level.
To them, a Dou Zong expert might already seem terrifyingly powerful.
But in the Central Plains, Dou Zong experts were nothing more than watchdogs, beneath notice.
Just as Yao Chen was about to leave, he spotted several mercenaries from the Wolf Head Mercenary Group.
In the street, they were tearing at a young woman's clothes as she screamed in fear and anguish.
The mercenaries had all come from the Magical Beast Mountain Range. The dangers of venturing into the range had left them full of resentment, pent up and restless.
After coming out, they wanted to find a woman to fool around with and have a drink or two. That was the sort of fun they enjoyed.
"What scum." Hai Bodong was about to step in and deal with the mercenaries.
It would be the perfect chance to test his restored Dou Wang strength.
But then he saw, to his astonishment, a flame appear in Yao Chen's hand, burning with searing heat.
Yao Chen raised his hand, and the mercenaries before them instantly turned to ash.
Hai Bodong's face froze in shock. "This is... a Heavenly Flame?"