A Robbery On The Way
The devil’s territory was a vast region without any boundaries, with several cities along its flanks. Jiu You city was just one of those cities.
The closest entrance point of the Devil’s territory was about two thousand miles away from Ting Feng valley, but with the help of divine essence seals, this distance could be covered in two days’ time.
However, without the use of divine essence seals, this distance would take about sixty seven days or so to cover on foot.
Bi Fan had decided to spend the night in Ting Feng valley and planned to leave in the morning. He spent the night studying about the various types of animals and creatures that he could encounter inside the Devil’s territory.
There were said to be a lot of beast, and demonly creatures inside the devil’s territory. Some even had the ability to poison people, and then there were goblins, which often attacked people, and some unhappy spirits that Bi Fan would have to deal with, but this would require him to maintain his composure at all times.
That evening Bi Fan also spent some time looking at the Jade book.
The book spoke about various methods to refine and increase body strength, and was very detailed in nature. A lot of methods had striking similarities with those of ‘blood devil’ methods, and some seemed even better to refine strength.
The jade book only had ten pages in it, the first one was missing, but the next six seemed fully intact. The first page must have been the index to the rest of the book. The pages two, three and four talked about methods of practicing martial arts, whereas the next two spoke about the various methods in which someone could refine their body.
Bi Fan didn’t practice the teachings of the book, mainly because he had no time.
He read the book carefully a couple of times, and then spent some time trying to figure out the differences between these methods and those of ‘blood devil’ and estimated that these new methods could bear pretty good results as well.
Bi Fan decided the he would practice the teachings and techniques in the jade book once he had the time for it.
Early next morning, Bi Fan exited the Ting Feng valley and set out in the direction of the Devil’s territory entrance.
People entered at exited the Devil’s territory almost every day, and a lot of these people visited the Ting Feng valley before entering the Devil’s territory in order to make their preparations.
In fact, it is thought that Ting Feng valley’s origination was due to this reason it self. The people, who set the place up, took it into account that its proximity to the Devil’s territory would attribute to its prosperity.
There were a lot of other young men walking on the same path, and were probably travelling to the entrance themselves.
Most people didn’t know each other, and seemed a little cautious of striking up a conversation with the others.
“You, the boy in front.”
Bi Fan looked behind him, to see that there were three guys walking behind him, who were trying to catch up to him, and shouting all the while, not in a polite manner though.
Bi Fan turned around and looked, but there was no one else in the immediate vicinity, so he asked in an undertone: “Are you calling me?”
“Yes you boy. Don’t peep around.” The voice called out again, and Bi Fan was finally able to identify the source clearly.
Bi Fan turned to face in that direction and said angrily, “You’re looking for me?”
Even Bi Fan’s anger was quite tender due to his usually calm headed personality.
“Yes Boy, don’t play dumb. We saw you yesterday at Ting Feng valley. You bought a lot of Sunset Jade purifier Dan pellets, hand them over to us. And you also have quite a lot of magical instruments in your possession, surrender them to us or we will kill you.” A white clothed boy who seemed to be heading this trio stated.
Bi Fan himself had been eyeing other people in the Ting Feng valley, so he wasn’t were surprised that these people wanted to rob him.
This wasn’t overly unusual in the Tian Yu world, when it came to acc.u.mulating valuables, many disciples of the Buddhist ways resorted to robbery, same as the devil’s disciples.
Bi Fan was sure that the three young men standing in front of him were followers of the Buddhist ways as they didn’t stink of evil auras.
“So, you want to rob me huh? Well, that depends on whether you the ability or not.” Bi Fan said in a cold voice.
His light ray sword in firmly in his hand, Bi Fan stood facing his three opponents with an air of confidence about him.
The young man dressed in white, awe fully stared at the sword in Bi Fan’s hand, and his facial expression exposed a shade of greed: “Nice sword, looks like a top grade magical weapon, I guess that one is mine!”
“Yours? Well, you must have death wish.” Bi Fan stood there proud, br.i.m.m.i.n.g of self-confidence.
After the encounters of the previous few days, Bi Fan’s strength had seen a significant rise, which was a key factor in contributing to this new found confidence of his.
He had even managed to overcome opponents, who were in the brave layer, so he wasn’t even remotely afraid of these guys. The strongest of the three was the one at the back, and even he was only in the ‘inner organs’ layer, whereas the other two hadn’t even reached the ‘inner organs’ layer yet.
“Boy, if you have any sense then surrender the Sunset jade purifiers as well as the weapons you possess, and you might be able to avoid your death. Our friend, Jiang Sheng, is the student of the ‘rising sun’ school, and he’s someone you cannot afford to offend.” A tall youngster standing behind the one in white warned.
Bi Fan could make out that these youngsters where somewhat afraid of going through with their plans as they were trying to use the names of their backers to threaten him.
Unfortunately for them, they had run into Bi Fan, who wasn’t moved by their, rather persuasive robbery tactic, even if they were trying to threaten him with the name of ‘rising sun’.
Bi Fan had no idea who this Jiang Sheng was, as he had never heard of his name before. Moreover, Bi Fan was already p.i.s.sed with this Jiang Sheng for attempting to rob him.
“’Rising sun’ disciples are really good, very difficult to deal with. I must add, also quite fearless in the face of danger. Resorting to robbery? Probably comes from the excellent teaching that they receive.” Bi Fan laughed heartily as he mocked them.
The complexion of the youngster in white changed: “Watch your mouth!”
Bi Fan’s mockery seemed to have made the white clothed youngster realize that if the knowledge of this robbery incident ever found its way back to the ‘rising sun’ school, then they could get into trouble.
As long as one has strength to loot, the person could get away with it, and keep the plunder. But to fight under the banner of ‘rising sun’ school, that would bring disgrace to the name of the school, consequences of which could be very severe for the accused.
This was an unwritten rule in all the schools.
The youngster at the back, stood tall and proud, and hadn’t made any move yet.
He must be the one they call Jiang Sheng, and he had started making his way to front of the pack, slowly.
‘Fufeng Double-edged sword’
Bi Fan put his sword to use.
“Pop……”
For a few seconds, there were unceasing sounds of ripping; the two youngsters in the front were relieved of their clothing, thanks to Bi Fan’s sword play. However, their bodies weren’t scarred or bruised in any manner, as Bi Fan demonstrated his expertise.
They trembled, probably even wet their pants, but didn’t dare to move fearing Bi Fan and his sword.
Jiang Sheng, who was still in the process of coming to the front, after watching this, ceased in his stead.
He found himself drawing a comparison, even if he was capable of beating his two companions; he was still no match for Bi Fan.
His eyes clearly indicated that, he knew he was no match for Bi Fan.
However, Jiang Sheng hadn’t retreated yet; he just seemed to be caught in a state of dilemma.
Jiang Sheng was a.n.a.lyzing Bi Fan’s skill and strength in his mind, step by step, and knew it, right down to his core that he couldn’t beat Bi Fan, no matter how hard he tried.
Jiang Sheng, started becoming a little nervous and started taking a few steps back slowly.
Both his companions started begging for mercy: “Please let us go, spare us……”
“Relieve yourself of all your belongings, spars, Dan pellets, and everything else. If you try to hide any items from me, I will kill you.”
The two youngsters in front of Bi Fan were reluctant to follow his command.
Jian Sheng snapped at that moment: “Boy, you dare to threaten us! Know this; my eldest brother is ranked second in Qianlong list. Fear for our revenge, and let us go, unharmed or there will be consequences.”
“I have never heard of the Qianlong list. And let’s a.s.sume that your brother is very strong, but if I kill the three of you here and now, no would ever know that I was behind this.” Bi Fan replied, his voice as cold as ice.
Both of Jiang Sheng’s companions started relieving themselves of their belongings, as soon as the heard the word ‘kill’, fearing for their lives.
Jiang Sheng’s complexion changed to resemble those of his comrades, his legs started trembling, and it looked like he too, would start begging for mercy soon.
“Hand over all your valuable items and I’ll let you leave, or else….hmmmm!” Bi Fan said with a smile.
This time, Jiang didn’t hesitate, and he started putting his valuables on the ground.
Perhaps Jiang Sheng’s brother was a rather strong man, as Jiang Sheng was even carrying a Yin Yang pouch.
Bi Fan quickly gathered all the items that were laid out on the ground, and stepped away from the scene, leaving those three pathetic youngsters behind.
As he was leaving, Bi Fan turned around to take a look at Jiang Sheng, and gazed into his eyes, which were br.i.m.m.i.n.g with poisonous sentiments.
“Brother, we need to find out who this guy is. We need to avenge our pride.”
Jiang Sheng’s voice stunk of hate: “Let him enter the devil’s territory. I want him to die in there. Draw a picture of him, and make sure it’s as realistic as possible….”
“A picture? Why, what are you up to?”
“Are you stupid or something, we are obviously going to put a bounty on his head. We will have someone kill him for us!”
“Let’s go, we need to make our way to entry point.” Jiang Sheng said.
Even though Bi Fan hadn’t planned on robbing someone on the way, the yield of this robbery seemed pretty decent.
Out of the three, only Jiang Sheng had good quality items, the other two only had low-grade things. The most precious of all the items he had managed to loot was the Yin Yang pouch.
The Yin Yang pouch even contained some Dan pellets and approximately a thousand spars, making the bounty even sweeter.
Humming a tune, Bi Fan continued on his way, and he didn’t even use the divine essence seals to speed up his travel. He was very relaxed, and wished to enjoy the scenery.
The rest of the journey was uneventful, as Bi Fan got closer to the entrance, the number of people on the path increased.
The devil’s territory wasn’t just an area where martial artists could train, but it also contained several spots where people could excavate ores, and several other precious and rare items.
In addition to this, the venom extracted from those devilish creatures was of an even higher value in some cases.
As a result of this, the area around the entrance to the devil’s territory had taken the shape of a small town, always busy as many martial artists entered and exited the region every day. Majority of the people staying in this town were from the Jiu You city and surrounding regions.
This small town was called Xi Guan (Western pa.s.s), and even though it was a very small town, its atmosphere was more like that of a small city.
Xi Guan was enclosed in two meter high walls, standing guard, were capable of withstanding attacks by wild beasts. The city had a total of eight gates in all directions to facilitate easy access to people.
As Bi Fan strode in and around the town, he saw that there were a few vendor stall in here as well, just like Ting Feng valley, but much lesser in number.
All one could see here, was streets lined with stalls, equipped with various kinds on commodities. Every street was unusually busy and noisy.
The town’s trading mainly revolved around venoms, corpses of wild beast, various herbs and Panacea amongst other specialty items found in the devil’s territory. Weapons and Dan pellets were also being traded in large numbers, especially purifiers. However, the same items were being sold here at a much higher price, so much so that the cost of a single Sunset Jade purifier Dan pellet was about two hundred spars.
Bi Fan was regretting that he hadn’t bought extra purifiers; otherwise he could have made a profit by selling them here.
Bi Fan was in no hurry to enter the devil’s territory, so he continued to stroll around the city, trying to find out the value of various items, especially those that were specific to the devil’s territory, as he would factor their worth when acc.u.mulating them inside the devil’s territory.
He knew that this trip into the devil’s territory was going to be a rare one, and he couldn’t afford to go back empty handed from it.
Many stores were selling items like horns, skins, meat, Panacea and other herbs, mineral ores, and most of these items were priced very high.
Bi Fan figured that the prices of the items were linked to their purity, which was divided into various levels.
Even low cost items collected from corpses of creatures inside the region could sell for as high as ten thousand spars, so it was no surprise that so many people were willing to risk their lives by venturing into the devil’s territory.
However, only the stronger demon’s remains had much value and the stronger the demon, the higher the bounty.
Also some items were rarer than others, so skill wasn’t the only way to make money here, one would also need luck. Even the speed with which a demon is killed was a factor.
If the demon was killed very slowly, then the quality of the extracts would degrade to a huge extent, reducing its market value.
Bi Fan spent almost half a day wandering around the streets, and even though he was quite tired, he fancied that he could make some money.
On his way back, Bi Fan purchased a few animal extracts and herbs which were particular to the devil’s territory, as he figured that their prices were a lot cheaper here than outside.
Even though Bi Fan knew that these items were available in the outside world, their price here was much cheaper, and anyway, the Tian Yuan ring had a lot of s.p.a.ce, so he knew that filling it up wouldn’t be easy.
If it weren’t for the limited amount of spar that Bi Fan had in his possession, he would have made some big purchases.
Bi Fan, since his birth had always had a humble financial condition, he knew the importance of spars and the rarity with which he came across any. If there was a chance to earn some more, Bi Fan would certainly not let to go of it easily.
Due to the limited amount of resources that Bi Fan had, he decided to only buy items that he was sure of being able to sell for a profit once he returned to Ting Feng valley.
Within half a day, Bi Fan had spent almost all his spars buying items he could trade later, and the Tian Yuan ring had a heap of new additions inside it.