"Ding!"
A heavy gold coin landed on the velvet tabletop with a crisp ring.
In a secret room on the top floor of the Mittel Auction House, Ya Fei abruptly stopped toying with the coin.
"Xiao Yan has practically cleaned out Wutan City's stock," she said, tapping her fingertips lightly against the red sandalwood tabletop.
"And that young man will take mercenaries into the mountains tomorrow to find the last few supplementary ingredients. His destination is the Wolf Head Mercenary Group's territory outside Qingshan Town."
She raised her eyes, their shimmering depths holding a measure of probing scrutiny.
"Young Master Lu, this information is worth a great deal. If you need Mittel's protection, or..."
"The Wolf Head Mercenary Group has plundered the mountains for years. Do you think they might have something good hidden in their treasury?"
Lu Ze interrupted her. His voice was quiet, yet it struck like ice water poured over her head, instantly cutting off the rest of Ya Fei's pitch.
His tone was casual, as though discussing something utterly trivial.
"I'll help you clean out the Wolf Head Mercenary Group's treasury. Of the high-grade Magic Cores and valuables inside, I take seventy percent, you take thirty."
A deathly silence fell over the room. Ya Fei's breathing faltered slightly.
She stared at the young man in dark teal combat clothes before her. Clean out the Wolf Head Mercenary Group's treasury?!
Those ravenous wolves had a Da Dou Shi holding the fort, while he was just a Four-Star Dou Zhe! He wanted to snare a white wolf empty-handed and still take the lion's share?
"Deal."
Ya Fei did not hesitate. Her red lips parted slightly, a faint trace of wariness flashing through her eyes.
"But I need to see the goods first."
"Deal."
Lu Ze straightened his cuffs and rose.
He walked out through the Mittel Auction House's heavy brass doors.
Wutan City's vicious midday sun dazzled the eyes.
Shops lined both sides of the long street.
A pair of Jia Lie Family guards escorted a blood-covered member of the family down the middle of the street. The watching commoners fell silent as cicadas in winter, not even daring to breathe loudly.
Lu Ze's calm gaze swept over the clan emblems on the guards' chests, their fangs bared and claws brandished.
He turned his face slightly, hiding it in the shadows.
In this city clenched tightly in the palms of the three great families, even an orphan's breathing carried an original sin if he had no backing.
He no longer had any ties to the Jia Lie Family. The disguise he had used back then had only bought him time; he still needed to watch out for that ravenous wolf, Jia Lie Bi.
Early the next morning, at the Myriad Medicine Pavilion.
"The miasma in the mountains hasn't dispersed yet. Stay in the medicine storehouse and stabilize the Cold Poison Pill formula."
Lu Ze gave his instructions.
Xiao Yi Xian clutched the hem of her clothes, looking at the Emerald Water Sword at Lu Ze's waist, her clear eyes filled with worry.
"My lord, the mountains are dangerous..."
"It's fine."
Lu Ze turned and disappeared into the morning mist. He still needed to gather the last five Deduction Points.
The Magical Beast Mountain Range.
Ancient trees towered into the sky, and miasma filled the air.
Lu Ze stopped beneath a sheltered cliff face. A hundred feet ahead, a Greenwood Demon Ape the size of a small hill was tearing apart the corpse of a First Order magical beast.
This was a Second Order wood-attribute magical beast. Greenwood Demon Apes not only had thick hides like refined iron; more troublesome still, they could naturally communicate with vegetation and control vines.
At that moment, a faint green glow surrounded the demon ape. The vines within several dozen feet seemed to have come alive, writhing in the soil.
Lu Ze did not draw his sword. A slight force issued from his palm as he activated Suction Palm.
A gentle yet tenacious pulling force appeared out of thin air, firmly catching a thick vine beneath the demon ape's feet.
Boom!
Sensing something amiss, the demon ape roared and tugged at the vine.
Using that pull, Lu Ze swung out from behind the cliff face like a phantom, drawing the Emerald Water Sword half a foot from its sheath.
Hiss!
A thread of white light swept across the demon ape's arm, raising a spray of blood.
The demon ape roared in pain and released the vine. It uprooted the surrounding trees, and a skyful of vines swept toward him with a fierce rush of wind, moving at tremendous speed!
Lu Ze chose not to use the Great Wilderness Imprisoning Heaven Finger. For one thing, the move consumed far too much Dou Qi. If he failed to kill it instantly, he would become a lamb awaiting slaughter.
The second reason was practice: fighting magical beasts would improve his practical combat experience and technique.
Lu Ze darted aside. Moving with strange footwork, he wove through the gaps between the vines, using Suction Palm to tug forcefully at the surrounding fallen leaves and loose stones, obstructing the demon ape's vision as he dodged the vines' attacks.
With a bang, the demon ape suddenly leaped up, its enormous fist smashing into the boulder in front of Lu Ze.
Stone fragments flew everywhere. A sharp shard viciously sliced across Lu Ze's left shoulder.
His old wound tore open, and a trace of blood seeped out.
The palm gripping his sword was slick with sweat, and the web between his thumb and forefinger tingled.
Now!
He deliberately slowed his steps, leaving his left ribs completely exposed.
A savage gleam blazed in the demon ape's eyes.
Its claws came with a fetid wind, lunging straight for Lu Ze's face.
They were now only three feet apart. The Dou Qi within Lu Ze surged madly through obscure meridian pathways into the Emerald Water Sword.
Grass Character Sword Art!
A transparent strand of Sword Qi, as fine as gossamer, lightly sliced across the demon ape's chest.
Since he had not expended too much Dou Qi, how could the Greenwood Demon Ape possibly withstand this strike of the Grass Character Sword Art?
The demon ape's movements suddenly froze.
The next second, blood gushed like a fountain, and its massive body crashed to the ground.
Lu Ze dropped to one knee and swallowed the metallic sweetness in his throat. With practiced movements, he cut open the demon ape's head and extracted an emerald-green Magic Core.
"I still have too few Dou Techniques. Just two ultimate techniques aren't nearly enough."
Only when facing mindless beasts like the Greenwood Demon Ape could Lu Ze freely use the Grass Character Sword Art and the Great Wilderness Imprisoning Heaven Finger.
He was still far too lacking in practical combat experience. Lu Ze sighed inwardly. From now on, he would have to use the Grass Character Sword Art and the Great Wilderness Imprisoning Heaven Finger as little as possible.
Would the supreme immortal art, Answer to the Beggar Under the Mulberry, provide him with some Dou Techniques?
[Second Order Greenwood Demon Ape slain. Wood-attribute essence absorbed. Deduction Points +5. Current Deduction Points: 80.] [Prerequisites detected as fulfilled. Deduce "Answer to the Beggar Under the Mulberry"?]
Deduce, Lu Ze said silently.
His vision suddenly plunged into an actual mulberry grove. Withered fir trees blotted out the sky and sun, and fallen leaves fluttered down like gray snow.
A beggar in ragged clothes knelt in the mud, kowtowing heavily toward the grand, indistinct Immortal Venerable deep within the void.
That person was Duanmu Kui. The Upper Shaman lineage was an ancient inheritance from another dimension, while Answer to the Beggar Under the Mulberry was the highest-level immortal art known in that world. An immortal had bestowed the Dao-how could ordinary cultivation methods compare?
Ancient, solemnly tragic chants crossed the barriers of untold ages, rippling through Lu Ze's depths in wave after wave.
"Form a Golden Core. I will come to find you in five hundred years."
"He said I could form a Golden Core."
"Fellow Daoist, if your breakthrough fails, you will turn to ash and scatter into oblivion. If you succeed, we will have to address you as a High Immortal."
With a boom, the imprints of three great divine abilities branded themselves deep into Lu Ze's soul.
Do Not Investigate Me: conceptual concealment, deceiving divine sense.
Drinking the Blood of the People: plunder blood Qi that would otherwise dissipate and feed it back into oneself.
Earth Shaman: communicate with the earth's veins and borrow Earth Qi.
Lu Ze slowly opened his eyes. Every trace of his sharp presence had been tucked away. Now he looked like an herb gatherer with no cultivation whatsoever, blending into the surrounding vegetation.
Do Not Investigate Me had taken effect.
He rose and walked to the cliff's edge. On the mountain path a thousand feet below, a mercenary squad of more than a dozen people was slowly entering the mountains.
The black-clad youth at their head carried a pitch-black heavy ruler on his back, his expression holding some of the sharpness and pride particular to youth.
Xiao Yan.
They were a hundred meters apart. Xiao Yan looked up and happened to see the herb gatherer in teal combat clothes at the cliff's edge.
The other man gave off no presence at all, as ordinary as a stone by the roadside. Xiao Yan withdrew his gaze and continued leading the party onward.
Yet within the Storage Ring against Xiao Yan's chest, an aged soul abruptly emerged.
Yao Lao's eyelids twitched violently. His divine sense swept over like a net, yet found nothing at all, as though the person standing there truly was only a mortal.
But a mortal-how could a mortal travel through the Magical Beast Mountain Range?!
"Little Yan, pick up the pace."
At the cliff's edge, Lu Ze watched Xiao Yan's party disappear into the dense forest. He raised a hand and caught a withered leaf drifting down from the phantom mulberry tree, which turned to drifting ash.
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