Meridian Opening Pill

Meridian Opening Pill

Nie Hu announced the results of the youth division of this Zhushan Arena Tournament.

Jiang Feng had naturally taken first place with an absolute advantage, the undisputed top of the Youth Ranking.

On the spot, Nie Hu handed a Meridian Opening Pill to Jiang Feng.

The pill was stored in an Ironwood box, and it felt extremely heavy in his hand. When the box opened, a golden pill the size of a ping-pong ball appeared. A faint medicinal fragrance drifted out, and one breath of it made the mind jolt awake.

Pills were powerful aids on a martial artist's path of cultivation. A good pill could help a martial artist break through a bottleneck and be reborn; it could also make cultivation twice the result with half the effort.

Just like this Meridian Opening Pill in Jiang Feng's hand. It could help a Yellow Martial Realm martial artist break through one or two meridians, saving six to ten years of time. It was extremely precious, priceless beyond measure.

And then there was the Flesh Pellet Nie Xiaoyue had taken. Though its value was not equal to a Meridian Opening Pill, it still cost five hundred gold coins.

Pills all came from the hands of alchemists. Alchemist was an extremely esteemed profession on the continent. Only a very small portion of martial artists with exceedingly high cultivation had any chance of becoming alchemists. Any alchemist was a treasure to the various vassal states and dynasties. High-tier alchemists even held extraordinary status within empires.

Jiang Feng was examining the Meridian Opening Pill when Nie Hu, at his side, began speaking in an awkward, hesitant manner. "Worthy nephew, I have an unreasonable request, but I don't quite know how to say it..."

Jiang Feng turned back and glanced at Nie Hu. He saw Nie Hu had tucked both hands into his official robe, his neck drawn in, a fawning smile on his face as he looked at him timidly, shrinking head and tail.

"Oh? Let's hear it," Jiang Feng said faintly. This Nie Hu really knew how to cozy up to people—he turned around and immediately addressed him as "worthy nephew." Back then, even when Jiang Yunhai had served as captain of the guard, Nie Hu had never addressed Jiang Feng so warmly. So, when walking in this world, strength was what mattered most!

Nie Hu let out a breath of relief. He had been afraid Jiang Feng would not even give him the chance to speak. Gathering his courage, he said, "Worthy nephew, your talent is outstanding, and now you've already reached the Black Martial Realm. This... this Meridian Opening Pill is indeed useless to you. Could you bear to part with it and sell it to me?"

Just as expected, Jiang Feng thought. This Nie Hu really was scheming for his Meridian Opening Pill.

As Nie Hu had said, the Meridian Opening Pill was only useful to Yellow Martial Realm martial artists. To Black Martial Realm martial artists, its only value was to be sold for gold coins.

At the side, Nie Xiaoyue grew extremely excited when she heard this. Clearly, if her father bought this Meridian Opening Pill, it would naturally be for her to take. With this one Meridian Opening Pill, she might be able to charge straight to the third or even fourth level of the Yellow Martial Realm. To possess such cultivation at fourteen years old—though she could not compare to Jiang Feng's monstrous abnormality—would still be enough to become a celebrated tale.

"Sure!"

They had thought Jiang Feng would put them off for a while, but to their surprise, he agreed decisively.

When Nie Hu and Nie Xiaoyue heard this, joy climbed to their brows.

"Don't be happy too early." At that moment, Jiang Feng poured a ladle of cold water over them. "I'm willing to sell this pill, but can you afford it?"

At those words, Nie Hu's expression froze.

Jiang Feng continued, "I believe there's no need for me to say much about the value of a Meridian Opening Pill—you know it very well. You must also have asked around. The market price of this Meridian Opening Pill is two thousand gold coins, and even then, there's a price but no market. If you can take out two thousand gold coins, then naturally I'm willing to sell this Meridian Opening Pill."

Nie Hu's entire body trembled when he heard this. That was right—the market price of a Meridian Opening Pill was indeed two thousand gold coins apiece. With his current financial resources, he really could not afford it! Three days ago, buying that one Flesh Pellet had cost five hundred gold coins, slicing off more than half the flesh from his body. The ready cash he could take out now was only three or four hundred gold coins. If he added in some of his private properties in town, perhaps he could scrape together two thousand, but to sell off property in exchange for a Meridian Opening Pill—he truly could not bring himself to do it.

"Well..." Nie Hu laughed awkwardly. "Worthy nephew, look, this Meridian Opening Pill would only be wasted in your hands. Could you sell it to me a bit cheaper? Eight hundred. How about eight hundred gold coins?" Eight hundred gold coins was the absolute limit of what he could scrape together now.

It was clear that Nie Hu was throwing away every scrap of his old face.

Jiang Feng smiled slightly and shook his head. "No." His words were crisp, leaving no room for negotiation.

Nie Hu frowned when he heard this. This Jiang Feng truly did not know how to read the room!

He had thought that since he had just generously agreed to let Jiang Feng enter his Jiang Family Library for half a month of seclusion, Jiang Feng would surely feel grateful. Now it seemed he had indeed been overthinking it.

Naturally, he had been overthinking it. Jiang Feng had demanded entry into the Nie Family Library merely to collect on his wager with Nie Xiaoyue. Whether Nie Hu agreed or not, he was going there. This could not become a basis for Nie Hu to play the sentiment card.

Toward Nie Hu, Jiang Feng would never feel even the slightest bit of gratitude.

Nie Hu seemed to realize this as well. When he spoke again, his tone carried a few more traces of force. "Worthy nephew, you had best think this through. Looking across the entire town, there are not many people capable of buying your Meridian Opening Pill. With one word from me, even if they wanted to buy it, they wouldn't dare." The implication was obvious: aside from selling this Meridian Opening Pill to him, Jiang Feng had no other choice.

Jiang Feng had not intended to bother much with Nie Hu, but Nie Hu actually said such words, and that truly angered him.

"Is that so?" Jiang Feng gave a light smile. Just as Nie Hu had said, looking across all of Zhushan Town, there really was no one who dared offend him, the town mayor. Back when Wei Changqing was still alive, perhaps Wei Changqing could have dealt with him for a while, but now that Wei Changqing was dead, in the short term, no one in Zhushan Town could defy Nie Hu's will.

Jiang Feng suddenly changed the subject. "To tell you the truth, I never planned to sell this pill."

When Nie Hu heard this, he froze for a moment, then pressed, "Never planned to sell it? If you're not selling it, what are you keeping it for?"

Jiang Feng looked at Nie Hu and smiled. "To give away!"

Nie Hu was truly shocked. He asked in disbelief, "Give... give away?"

He had indeed been stunned by Jiang Feng's words. A Meridian Opening Pill, a treasure worth two thousand gold coins, and Jiang Feng actually planned to give it away.

What kind of concept was two thousand gold coins? A soldier in the martial guard earned only fifteen gold coins a year. He would have to go 134 years without eating or drinking to save up two thousand gold coins!

Who could possibly bear such a heavy gift?

Nie Hu seemed to suddenly react, and he burst into loud laughter. "Haha, worthy nephew, how thoughtful, how thoughtful of you."

As he spoke, he called to Nie Xiaoyue at the side, "Xiaoyue, hurry and come thank him!" Then he turned back to Jiang Feng and cupped his fists. "The Meridian Opening Pill is priceless beyond measure. For worthy nephew to bear parting with it and present it as a gift, this town mayor is endlessly grateful!"

The people nearby had all heard the exchange between Jiang Feng and Nie Hu just now, and at this moment, they began sighing in amazement one after another.

"This Jiang Feng really does have some brains. By giving a Meridian Opening Pill he has no use for to Nie Xiaoyue, Nie Hu will owe him an enormous favor. In the future, if the Qi Family blames him over Wei Changqing's matter, Nie Hu will surely put in a good word for him."

"That's right. Nie Hu is the town mayor of Zhushan Town. If he steps forward to plead on his behalf, it might have some effect."

"Still, this Meridian Opening Pill is far too precious. To give it to Nie Xiaoyue just like that—we can only sigh in admiration at Jiang Feng's grand gesture."

Just as everyone was discussing it noisily, Jiang Feng shook his head and laughed, then said, "I think you have misunderstood, Town Mayor Nie."

Nie Hu was stunned, then asked in return, "Misunderstood? Could it be... could it be that you don't intend to give this Meridian Opening Pill to Xiaoyue?"

Jiang Feng nodded without the slightest courtesy.

In an instant, Nie Hu could no longer keep his face up. With a swish, his expression sank.

The discussions among the crowd at the side all stopped at once, and everyone froze.

"Not a gift for Nie Xiaoyue?"

"Exactly. Besides Nie Xiaoyue, who else in all of Zhushan Town could bear such a heavy gift?"

Nie Hu's face was as cold as ice as he said, "Jiang Feng, do you know what you're saying?"

Jiang Feng smiled and said, "Of course I know what I'm saying. My going into closed-door cultivation in your Nie Family's library was merely the wager I won, that's all. Surely you don't think I would present a Meridian Opening Pill as thanks, Town Chief? Putting all that aside, I don't think my Jiang Family and your Nie Family have any particularly deep ties, either. Not enough for me to take out such a precious gift to curry favor, right?"

Since Jiang Feng had laid things out so clearly, he naturally had no fear of offending Nie Hu.

Nie Hu was a hypocritical, fickle man who trimmed his sails to the wind; he truly was not worth befriending.

"Good, good, good!" Nie Hu was left with no way to refute Jiang Feng's words. His three repeated "good"s, however, revealed the endless hatred in his heart. "Then today, I'd like to see just who in Zhushan Town dares accept this Meridian Opening Pill of yours!"

He practically roared the latter half of his sentence, his purpose being to make sure everyone heard it—whoever accepted Jiang Feng's Meridian Opening Pill would be openly making an enemy of him, Nie Hu!

The Meridian Opening Pill was precious, but if it meant offending Nie Hu, it was probably not worth the loss.

In Zhushan Town, offending Nie Hu practically meant being unable to continue surviving here!