"The Heaven Dou Crown Prince!"
"Spirit Hall!"
"She Long!"
Dugu Bo stood in the hall, silently watching Xue Qinghe leave.
Gu Ping'an had said he had won She Long from Spirit Hall's Young Master.
Besides, they had hauled away all the most valuable resources in the Heaven Dou Imperial Family's treasury. How could the Heaven Dou Crown Prince still produce two resources with the ultimate metal and water attributes?
He had always felt that he had seen She Long somewhere before.
Now that he had seen the Heaven Dou Crown Prince, he finally remembered.
He had once caught sight of She Long driving a carriage for the Heaven Dou Crown Prince. At the time, he had assumed She Long was just an ordinary guard. (People had to eat, drink, and relieve themselves; complete seclusion was impossible. The best approach was to adopt another identity.)
"Then the Heaven Dou Crown Prince is Spirit Hall's Young Master!"
Dugu Bo's eyes flew wide. The deduction gave him a terrible fright.
Then Dugu Bo returned to his seat, his face full of conflict.
Prince Xue Xing had saved his life, and as a guest elder of the Heaven Dou Imperial Family, he ought to inform them of this.
The problem was that Spirit Hall was far too powerful.
Only after witnessing Spirit Hall surround and attack Tang Hao had he truly understood its strength.
Once he got involved, he could easily draw the flames onto himself. Then not only he, but Dugu Yan as well, would be in danger.
And Gu Ping'an seemed to have some murky connection to Spirit Hall too.
Dugu Bo abruptly raised his head.
"Right! I can go to Gu Ping'an. That kid clearly knows quite a lot.
I can also tell him about the Heaven Dou Crown Prince coming to see me. He isn't planning to hide anymore anyway."
Inside a shop in Heaven Dou City.
Gu Ping'an surveyed the shop with a slight frown.
Finding suitable whale rubber between a little over ten thousand and twenty thousand years old seemed rather difficult.
He had browsed several shops, which mostly stocked hundred-year and thousand-year whale rubber.
Even the thousand-year whale rubber was almost all under five thousand years old.
Aside from collecting a pile of strange looks, he had bought nothing.
"Ping'an, we can try the Seven Treasure shop."
Dugu Yan leaned closer, resting a hand on Gu Ping'an's shoulder.
"The Seven Treasure shop has the most complete selection of goods in Heaven Dou City.
If even they don't have it, there really isn't any to be found."
Gu Ping'an sighed softly and let Dugu Yan lead the way.
Heaven Dou City was far from the sea, and land-based Soul Masters struggled to hunt marine Soul Beasts, so older whale rubber was naturally scarce.
Nobles generally used hundred-year whale rubber. With no demand for older varieties, the high-age whale rubber found along the coast rarely made its way here.
"Here we are!"
Dugu Yan led them to the entrance of a shop called the Seven Treasure Trading Company.
"This is the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's largest shop in Heaven Dou City.
If we can't buy it here, we'll have even less chance anywhere else."
"Let's go in and have a look first!"
Gu Ping'an led the way inside.
"What would our honored guests like to buy?"
As soon as they entered, an enthusiastic female shop assistant came forward to greet them.
Her gaze swept casually over the group before she quickly lowered her head, awaiting their instructions.
"We're here to buy whale rubber. Do you have any between ten thousand and twenty thousand years old?"
Dugu Yan stepped forward to speak. She had been here before and was relatively familiar with the place.
"Whale rubber?"
The assistant let out an involuntary exclamation, then immediately covered her mouth.
Her gaze swept over the four of them again.
Apart from Dugu Yan, two of the other three looked younger than ten, while the remaining one seemed eleven or twelve.
The assistant's gaze toward Gu Ping'an gradually grew strange, carrying a touch of regret that he was already having trouble performing at such a tender age.
Seeing this, Gu Ping'an's face darkened.
The assistants at the previous shops had all looked at him the same way after he mentioned whale rubber.
"Honored guests, hundred-year whale rubber is all you need to enhance your pleasure and keep you awake all night.
Thousand-year whale rubber can only be used by certain Lord Soul Masters.
Ten-thousand-year whale rubber... your bodies might not be able to withstand it."
The assistant looked down at the floor and offered her advice with a constrained expression.
Gu Ping'an helplessly rubbed his brow.
He had known this would happen.
Although two of the previous shop assistants hadn't had suitable whale rubber, they had said much the same thing.
"We're Soul Masters. An elder in our family asked us to buy it for some medicinal preparation."
"Oh... honored guests, this way, please."
The assistant nodded repeatedly in apology and extended a hand, inviting them farther inside.
Gu Ping'an looked around as he walked.
Inside the Seven Treasure Trading Company, all manner of goods were sorted by category, with different types displayed in separate areas.
Soon, the assistant led them to an area suffused with a faint scent of incense.
An incense burner stood on either side, wisps of bluish smoke slowly rising from within.
"Honored guests, these are ten-thousand-year, fifteen-thousand-year, and twenty-thousand-year whale rubber, respectively."
The assistant took out three sealed boxes and placed them on the counter.
They really had it!
"Do you have anything older?" Gu Ping'an asked casually.
"Yes!" The assistant turned and took out another sealed box.
"This is the oldest piece of whale rubber in our shop. It's thirty thousand years old."
"Only thirty thousand at most? All right!"
Gu Ping'an put away the four sealed boxes, paid in Gold Soul Coins, and left with Dugu Yan and the others.
The assistant stared in the direction they had gone, her brows drawing together slightly.
"That face... he's the child the sect master ordered us to find over a year ago."
"I should notify the manager. This might earn me considerable merit."
After leaving the Seven Treasure Trading Company, Gu Ping'an casually tossed the box containing the thirty-thousand-year whale rubber to Dugu Yan, then handed the ten-thousand-year box to Xiao Wu.
He gave both the fifteen-thousand-year and twenty-thousand-year whale rubber to Shui Bing'er.
"We get some too?" Surprise appeared on both Xiao Wu's and Dugu Yan's faces.
"It probably won't improve things by much." Gu Ping'an waved a hand.
"When we get back, I'll teach you the Five Elements Rotation Technique. Then you can absorb and refine it."
The Five Elements Rotation Technique was the latest cultivation technique his clone had deduced.
It was completely different from the previous Basic Cultivation Method, which hadn't even had a name.
This was a complete technique. Not only could it accelerate cultivation and temper Soul Power, but it could also nourish the body to a certain extent.
Using this technique while absorbing the whale rubber should allow them to bring its effects to their fullest potential.
"Is the Five Elements Rotation Technique that colorful one?" Xiao Wu looked at Gu Ping'an, her eyes brimming with delighted surprise.
To her, that technique's greatest feature was the multicolored radiance it produced.
"Yes, that's the one." Gu Ping'an nodded.
He wasn't worried that teaching them his latest technique would result in a leak that someone could use against him.
His clone never stopped deducing improvements each day. Even if someone else obtained it, they would only get an outdated version.
"Let's go! We've had our fun and bought what we needed. Time to head back."
Gu Ping'an turned his head toward She Long. She Long shifted his gaze toward the area behind Gu Ping'an and nodded lightly.
Someone's following us!
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect?
Qian Renxue?
Or the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect?
At the edge of the Sunset Forest, more than a dozen masked figures darted out from all directions, surrounding Gu Ping'an and the others.
"Are they... ambushing us?" Dugu Yan swept her startled gaze over everyone present.
First, she was Poison Douluo Dugu Bo's granddaughter. Almost no one would risk offending a Titled Douluo to assassinate a Soul Ancestor like her.
Second, didn't these assassins gather information beforehand?
Never mind that Gu Ping'an could take them away directly with Teleportation-there was a Titled Douluo following them in secret at all times!
"Kill him. Leave the others!"
The masked leader raised his hand and pointed at Gu Ping'an!
"Interesting. They're here to kill me!"
That single gesture was enough for him to roughly guess which faction wanted him dead.
The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect!
Neither the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect nor Spirit Hall bore him any grudge. If they wanted to kill them, they certainly wouldn't single him out.
Only the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect would.
He had just offended Yu Tianheng of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect, and immediately afterward, someone had come specifically to kill him.
Once he was dead, with no evidence left behind, Yu Tianheng could continue pursuing Dugu Yan.
"What a fine idea!"
Gu Ping'an's icy gaze swept over the people surrounding them.
The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect!
I'll remember this!
Before you continue