Chapter 1618 (Raw 1600): Auctioning a Slave
Inside Purple Sun City, rubble filled fifty kilometers of the dilapidated street where Idle Cloud Restaurant was. Many of the shops and tall buildings lining the street had collapsed. Blood flowed on the streets like a river, and corpses lay everywhere. A strong b.l.o.o.d.y stretch hung in the air.
"Ga! Ga! Ga!"
Red-eyed vultures wheeled in the night sky, giving off strange cries as they flapped their wings. As they circled around continuously, they stared at the corpses below, restless.
The vultures in the desert actually smelled the b.l.o.o.d.y stench and flew over. This was a first for Purple Sun City.
This clearly showed how many people had died on the streets.
Many of the corpses had scary saber wounds on them. The hazy saber intent had yet to fade away. However, even more corpses were torn apart, a gruesome sight to behold. These people were killed in such a violent fas.h.i.+on, their corpses no longer intact.
Many invisible aggrieved spirits struggled in pain, unable to scatter.
The black-clad arhat that had swept his way through the three First Elders, appearing unrivaled, was now captured and forced to his knees in humiliation.
Most of the corpses on the ground were his handiwork.
In order to kill the black-clad arhat, the disciples of the three Rank 2 sects and the Purple Cloud Pavilion experts gathered in a formation to surround him and suppress him.
However, the black-clad arhat still slaughtered most of the people, leaving the street filled with corpses.
"Let"s see how you are going to be arrogant now!"
The surviving cultivators from the Purple Cloud Pavilion and the Rank 2 sects continuously beat down on the kneeling black-clad arhat.
The black-clad arhat remained silent. He closed his eyes and suffered these blows.
Earlier, both sides went all-in. Among those who died were the friends, juniors, or seniors of the survivors. Hence, they naturally all held incredible hatred for the black-clad arhat.
The three First Elders of the three Rank 2 sects and the Purple Cloud Pavilion"s Auntie Bai could only let these people be.
"What should we do with this bald monk now? Should we kill him or imprison him?" the Ice-Snow Mountain Manor"s white-robed old man asked sullenly, a faint murderous intent flas.h.i.+ng in his eyes.
The Burning Moon Sect"s red-clad old man replied coldly, "Kill him. Keeping him will only court disaster."
"We should keep him first; perhaps he is useful to Xiao Chen. Xiao Chen would never have expected this bald monk to end up in our hands. Isn"t he very loyal to his friends? Let"s suppress this bald monk and auction him away at the Purple Cloud Pavilion. Given Xiao Chen"s temper, he will definitely rush over." The Wind Chasing Sect"s azure-clad old man came up with a solution after a short time.
Auntie Bai nodded and said, "That is a good solution. Let"s just auction him off as a slave the day after tomorrow. Now that Xiao Chen is hiding, searching for him will be problematic. Let him come on his own initiative, and we will lay traps for him."
Auntie Bai had her own schemes. Selling a Major Primal Core Venerate as a slave would greatly boost the reputation of the Purple Cloud Pavilion.
A cold smile flashed on the white-robed old man"s face. "That"s right. That"s what we will do, then. This bald monk killed so many of our people. We should at least gain something back from him. Otherwise, we will be letting him off too easy."
As the four discussed this, they did not realize that the black-clad arhat sneered as if he had heard something extremely ridiculous.
"Good, it is settled, then. We will restrict this bald monk and auction him off two days later."
---
Far away, Lan Luo saw all this and could not help shaking her head heavily.
The secret guard hiding in the darkness laughed involuntarily at the distant scene, dumbfounded for a while.
"Young Miss, that is a Black Lotus Church arhat. These people are really seeking death. To think that they actually dare to auction off an arhat of the Black Lotus Church…should we give Auntie Bai some advice?"
A cold light flashed in Lan Luo"s eyes. She replied indifferently, "There"s no need. I have finally seen her true colors. If she wants to court disaster, that"s her problem."
Previously, when Feng Buyu sought out Auntie Bai, she immediately betrayed Xiao Chen. This flabbergasted Lan Luo, who had been there, rendering her speechless.
When Lan Luo tried to advise Auntie Bai otherwise, it had been useless. Instead, Auntie Bai lectured her, saying that she did not understand business and was not experienced enough.
"I now understand why the clan gave up on her. She forgets about the clan when it comes to pursuing her own interests!"
Heavy disappointment flashed in Lan Luo"s eyes.
An Yue said softly, "Surprisingly, that Xiao Chen even managed to establish a connection with the Black Lotus Church; he is truly not simple at all. No matter how I look, I feel that he is an outstanding talent of a Great Desolate bloodline. I just cannot sense what it is."
Lan Luo was not surprised. "Of the Great Desolate bloodlines, aside from the strongest hundred races, some of the weaker bloodlines survived as well. During the Great Desolate Eon, ten thousand races contested against each other. They did not all go extinct. Some managed to pa.s.s down their bloodlines as well; it is just that they are not as famous as the Great Desolate Hundred Races."
"No wonder." An Yue nodded gently, feeling enlightened.
However, both of them got it wrong. Xiao Chen"s bloodline was that of the strongest hundred races of the Great Desolate Eon. It was just that the Azure Dragon Race had been extinct for too long already, and the world did not have much of an impression of it anymore.
---
When the sky turned bright, Xiao Chen came out of his cultivation and saw Senior Gui rus.h.i.+ng over.
When Senior Gui saw Xiao Chen, he was stunned. There was a strange charm of the Dao coming from him, as well as a powerful air. This distracted Senior Gui for a while.
How absurd! What is this? Is this the legendary Dao?
This was especially so for Xiao Chen"s eyes. They were bright and pure like gems of the Starry Heavens. They were filled with charm and appeared boundlessly deep.
With just one look, it felt like one would fall into them.
Xiao Chen had completely stabilized his Saber Great Dao at the second level, which resulted in him giving off this air of transcending the mundane.
After cultivating for one night, he had thoroughly internalized the comprehensions he gained from the huge battle at Idle Cloud Restaurant. He managed to stabilize his comprehension of the Great Dao on the second level, which did not come easily, as well as the new Fish Dragon Art Movement Technique.
This could be truly considered as being reborn.
[TL Note: Throughout the novel, Xiao Chen has been described as reborn many times already. Obviously, this is not literal. This is a Chinese way of expressing a complete change, so much so that the current self becomes unrecognizable when compared to the old self.]
However, Xiao Chen knew that this was far from sufficient. He still needed to raise his cultivation. Only then could he avoid using his trump cards when fighting Major Primal Core Venerates.
Of course, he was still far from capable of fighting late-stage Major Primal Core experts.
"Senior Gui, has Senior Liu come out yet?" Xiao Chen asked with a relaxed expression.
Senior Gui returned to his senses and replied, making a strange face, "I"m not sure. Several explosions came from his place last night. When I went over to take a look, he did not let me in. I have no idea what happened in there."
Did he fail?
That was logical and not surprising. There had never been any guarantees when refining Medicinal Pills. Furthermore, this was the Heavenly Yang Pill, a forbidden medicine that had been lost for countless years.
"Let me go take a look."
Right now, Xiao Chen still could not come to a conclusion. He calmed himself and headed to the pill refining room where Senior Liu was.
"Go on, then. The modifications to the pirate s.h.i.+p are already in the final phase. I cannot delay here for too long."
Senior Gui had a strong sense of responsibility. After accepting Xiao Chen"s Spirit Jades, he had been working hard.
When Xiao Chen arrived before the Senior Liu"s refining room, he smelled something burnt, even before he entered, seeping out from the seams of the door.
"Little Brother Xiao Chen, you are here. Quick, come in."
Senior Liu"s excited voice came from inside the room. When Xiao Chen pushed the door open and entered, complete disorder greeted him. Berserk Baleful Yang Energy permeated the air.
Dust and ash hung the air as well. Xiao Chen fanned them away with his hand and saw a charred Senior Liu wearing tattered clothes. Senior Liu"s face was also covered in wounds.
After being stunned for a moment, Xiao Chen ventured, "The cauldron exploded?"
Senior Liu appeared somewhat embarra.s.sed as he nodded. "Three times…as for the results…well, you can see for yourself."
The cauldron exploding was something that happened only with unskilled Alchemists. It was the result of improper fire control.
There would definitely be failures in refining Medicinal Pills. However, experienced Alchemists normally would not cause the cauldron to explode.
The danger and destruction from a cauldron explosion were uncontrollable.
When Xiao Chen saw the situation, he already knew what happened.
However, what was unexpected was that Senior Liu actually had the cauldron explode three times in one night.
"Senior Liu, there is no need to push yourself so hard. Are you alright?"
Xiao Chen felt that this was quite unusual. Senior Liu was pus.h.i.+ng himself a little too hard, not caring about his own life at all.
However, Senior Liu laughed loudly and carefreely. He tugged Xiao Chen somewhat excitedly and said, "It"s fine. I feel that I am close to making a breakthrough. I already refined your Heavenly Yang Pill. Look!"
Xiao Chen looked in the direction Senior Liu indicated and saw a bright white Medicinal Pill in a damaged brocade box in the corner.
The surface of that Medicinal Pill had perfect flame patterns and flickered with flowing golden light.
Occasionally, intense light flashed. The piercing light nearly prevented Xiao Chen from looking directly at it.
He could not help feeling rather excited. The Heavenly Yang Pill was truly completed. Furthermore, it was of perfect quality.
Senior Liu took in Xiao Chen"s expression with a gratified smile. When anyone saw another person admiring the pill that one made, one would feel sincerely satisfied.