Nie Tian grew bored of Liu Yan’s lecturing, and thus tried to change the subject. “Uncle Liu, how much did you spend on the animal bone that you brought to the Lot-drawing Convention when I was one year old?”
Surprised by his question, Liu Yan didn’t even think before answering, “Ah, that animal bone, I think it cost me several dozens of spirit stones. Why do you ask?”
He had never once attached any importance to the animal bone, and had only taken it out to ensure that enough items were presented.
“Several dozens of spirit stones...” Nie Tian glanced at the Flame Dragon Armor sticking out of the cloth bag and asked, “Was that animal bone refined by an equipment forger of the Treasure school?”
Liu Yan shook his head. “Nope.”
It had been too long, but after a moment of pondering, he continued, “As I recall it, that animal bone seemed to share similar origins with the Flame Dragon Armor you bought today.
“When I bought it, the equipment forger of the Treasure school who sold it to me told me that a severely injured foreign Qi warrior showed up in our realm with men trying to hunt him down.
“He seemed to be in a desperate situation and in urgent need of spirit stones, so he sold the animal bone to the Treasure school.
“He took the spirit stones and disappeared, never to be seen again.
“However, I heard from the Qi warriors of the Treasure school that after he sold the animal bone to the Treasure school, he asked them to keep it for a while, as he would come back to redeem the item at a higher price.
“Unfortunately, he didn’t show up within the agreed time.
“Plus, that animal bone wasn’t exactly valuable, so it wasn’t long before the Treasure school put it up for sale.”
After explaining the origins of the animal bone to Nie Tian without leaving out any details, Liu Yan asked, “Why do you want to know? As I recall it, your spiritual power didn’t resonate with it at all. Why are you so interested in it?”
With a smile, Nie Tian said, “Just curious, that’s all. Uncle Liu, can you please help me carry this armor up into my room?”
“You stubborn kid... I simply don’t understand why you had to buy it,” Liu Yan complained, as he picked up the sack holding the Flame Dragon Armor. “It’s really heavy! Such heavy armor... even I wouldn’t be able to move about freely in it. Not only would it not increase my battle prowess, it would even hold me back!”
After feeling the Flame Dragon Armor’s weight, he stared at Nie Tian again and said, “You’d better go buy a bracelet of holding tomorrow. Otherwise you won’t be able to carry things like this.”
Nie Tian’s eyes lit up. “Do they also sell storage spiritual tools?”
He had long since heard about the convenience of having a storage spiritual tool, but he was also aware that they were very expensive. Qi warriors with a low cultivation base would never be able to obtain such a rare item, unless they were born with extraordinary family backgrounds.
Liu Yan thought for a moment, and then said, “Yes, they do have a few. Originally, considering your current cultivation base, you wouldn’t possess many items. Hence, a bracelet of holding would be a waste. However, now that you’ve bought that Flame Dragon Armor, which you can’t even carry around by yourself, you’ll probably need one of those.
“Plus, after spending such a long time looking around, it appears you haven’t found anything else you like. You’ll need a bracelet of holding in the future anyways, so you might as well buy one now.”
Nie Tian’s spirits rose immediately, and he said, “I’ll go buy one tomorrow.”
With these words, Liu Yan helped Nie Tian carry the bag up to his room. He simply put the sack down on the ground, turned around, and left, not saying anything else.
After he left, Nie Tian closed the door and gently opened up the sack.
The prominent outline of the dark-brown, slightly dilapidated armor gradually appeared.
Upon taking a closer look, Nie Tian saw a hole in the central chest plate of the armor, which from the look of it could fit a certain object, yet it was empty now.
Seemingly, the hole in the armor would blatantly expose the heart of the user.
The heart was the most vulnerable part of the human body. Even though it was an amazing protective set of armor, if it couldn’t protect the heart, the value of the armor would be greatly reduced.
It seemed that if the missing object were to be reattached, it would not only make up for the deficiency, but also restore the armor to its original state.
Only then would the armor become truly intact.
“If my speculations are correct, the missing item should be the dragon bone.”
After staring for a good while at the hole, Nie Tian quietly took out the dragon bone from his pocket and held it close to the hole.
Only a moment later, he was convinced that his guess had been correct.
He could see that the dragon bone matched the hole perfectly, not leaving the slightest crack in between. As long as he pushed it in, the armor would return to its original, intact appearance.
He was on the verge of pressing it down when he suddenly stopped.
“No, I can’t...”
It suddenly occurred to him that just the dragon bone alone had disrupted s.p.a.ce, and cracked open countless s.p.a.cial rifts.
If another major event happened once he made the Flame Dragon Armor whole, then all of the Qi warriors currently present at the Spiritual Treasure sect would instantly notice.
Therefore, he chose to temporarily suppress his exceeding curiosity and not act rashly while he was still in the Spiritual Treasure sect.
He stroked the dragon bone for a long time while staring at the Flame Dragon Armor, before finally putting the dragon bone back into his pocket. He decided to take his time to study the secrets of the Flame Dragon Armor and the dragon bone after returning to the Cloudsoaring sect.
That night...
Nie Tian sat cross-legged next to the Flame Dragon Armor and took out a spirit stone to start his daily cultivation.
Before long, he felt the dragon bone in the pocket at his waist gradually become warm.
Noticing the anomaly, he quietly unleashed his psychic awareness to scan his surroundings. Immediately, he discovered that millions of fine strands of energy, invisible to the naked eye, were dispersing from the pores all over his own body.
When he sent out his psychic power to track down the trivial energy strands, he found that they were gradually flowing into the Flame Dragon Armor right next to him!
“The energy...”
Silent and unmoving, he combed through his thoughts. He suddenly realized that the source of the energy was his own blood!
According to his master, all living creatures cultivated three kinds of power: spiritual power, bloodline power, and soul power.
The bloodline power, also known as the flesh power, was the kind of power that lay within the blood, flesh, and bones.
Only alien clans that possessed special bloodlines and valiant giant beings would be born with this kind of power, and be able to cultivate it to the peak.
The vast majority of the human race would never be able to obtain bloodline power that could match those special races, even if they spent their entire life cultivating it.
Hence, most human cultivators would prioritize their cultivation of spiritual power, and only after they had reached a certain stage would they start to study the mysteries of the soul power.
Back when he was in the Green Illusion dimension, Nie Tian had already realized that the energy he absorbed from the spirit beast meat was different from spiritual power, since the currents of warmth had all dispersed into his flesh and bones.
Later, after hearing his master’s lessons, he was convinced that the power had definitely been flesh power.
At this moment, the flesh power hidden deeply in every part of his body slowly surfaced and began floating into the Flame Dragon Armor.
“Dragon bone!”
He suddenly realized that the dragon bone seemed to be silently urging and mobilizing his flesh power towards the Flame Dragon Armor.
He was therefore even more certain that the dragon bone was a part of the Flame Dragon Armor!
“The dragon bone is channeling my flesh power into the Flame Dragon Armor. Is it good or bad for me?” He contemplated, but couldn’t find an answer. “Ah, forget it.”
Without reading too much into the dragon bone or the Flame Dragon Armor’s small little trick, he continued to use the spirit stone to cultivate. Quite a while later when he finished, he felt exhausted.
Opening up his eyes, he looked towards the Flame Dragon Armor with rapt attention, and found that, after absorbing his flesh power the dark-brown Flame Dragon Armor was somehow more radiant, with a rosy l.u.s.ter appearing on its surface.
“Flame Dragon Armor…”
He didn’t take out the dragon bone, but rather extended his hand and placed it on the heart of the armor.
The moment he made contact, he suddenly felt a wondrous feeling reflected into his heart.
It was as if there was some kind of mysterious connection between himself and the armor...
This was completely new to him, as he had felt nothing but the unbearable weight when he had touched the Flame Dragon Armor earlier in the stone pavilion.
“Can it be that nouris.h.i.+ng the Flame Dragon Armor with my flesh power enables me to resonate with it? Does it work in the same way as the dragon bone... it also requires enormous amounts of energy to display its true power?”
He suddenly remembered that when he had first encountered the dragon bone, it had also appeared as nothing but ordinary and unimpressive.
It wasn’t until the dragon bone had absorbed flame power from the flamecloud gems, that it started to show its miraculous features. Only after it had drained the whole mine of its flame power, did the bone condense a drop of blood within itself and become even more incredible, teleporting him to an unknown mysterious land which ended up bringing him a great fortune.
The dragon bone needed flame power, while the Flame Dragon Armor seemed to need flesh power.
He muttered, while pondering, “It seems that if I want to understand the mysteries of the Flame Dragon Armor, a price must be paid. It’s probably the best if I don’t expose it very often; I really need a bracelet of holding.”
Therefore, early the next morning, he went to Liu Yan to tell him that he wished to buy a bracelet of holding as soon as possible.
Having temporarily stored the Fire Dragon Armor in Jiang Lingzhu’s bracelet of holding, he was ready to move out, when he suddenly saw Pan Tao standing outside the building, looking discontent.
“Nie Tian, how come you are in the Spiritual Treasure sect and didn’t come see me?”
Nie Tian laughed embarra.s.sedly. “Umm, it’s just that there’s been a lot going on in the past couple of days.”
“Yeah, I heard about you taking An s.h.i.+yi as your sworn sister.” With sigh, Pan Tao said, “An s.h.i.+yi is An Ying’s elder sister, so I also wanted to help, but…”
He shook his head and stopped talking, seeing the others from the Cloudsoaring sect approach.
“Let’s go! I’ll show you around. After all, which of them can possibly know the Spiritual Treasure sect better than I do? No matter what it is you want to buy, I know better than any of them where to find it!”
Pan Tao dragged Nie Tian and left, without bothering to talk to the others from the Cloudsoaring sect.