Emperor of Nine Suns - Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Spiritual Herb Incident

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“Where did little brother find this spiritual herb from? It’s an ominous item that carries destructive properties. If you don’t handle it well, it might endanger your life!” A fearful look had flashed in the eyes of the old store owner. 

Chu Chen’s heart immediately tightened, then vaguely felt that something had been amiss. Upon having read the situation closely, he noticed a hint of trickery in the eyes of the old store owner.

He immediately understood the nonsensical destructive properties. It must have been the only thing that had been good enough to move the old fox’s heart and he took the chance to lowball him, having tried to take advantage of a newbie like him.

It seemed that this stalk of spiritual herbs had been even more valuable than he had imagined.

He had expected that the spiritual herbs that grew on the ancient celestial mountain had been better than the regular spiritual herbs, after having been exposed to the unique circumstances, or having been affected by the spiritual energy of those ancient godly demons.

However, he had never expected it to have been this rare to have triggered the store owner’s greed.

That had just been the spiritual herbs that were found at the outermost edge of Black Fog Valley. Chu Chen had a feeling that he was about to be rich. At the same time, it reaffirmed Chu Chen’s determination to learn the art of elixir refining.

One should know that the training to have been an elixir refiner would have consumed large amounts of spiritual herbs. Although the cost could have been recuperated from the elixirs produced, the investments before one had reached the master level was as good as none.

That was why most disciples of the major sects had been interested in refining some elixirs, but they had rarely thought of going the path of being an elixir refiner. The financial burden had been overwhelming.

Normally, only the disciples who were nurtured by the sect or those with affluent families would have chosen to be an elixir refiner.

For someone who had sole access to Black Fog Valley, he naturally had an abundance of spiritual herbs for refinement, having given him the hope to embark on the path of an elixir refiner.

“Owner, since these spiritual herbs carry destructive properties, I should keep it to myself then. I rather not let it harm others.”

“Don’t be like that. What if I took the risk and paid you 30 spirit stones? Little brother, sell it to me please.” Having seen that his business deal had been going south, the old store owner had quickly put on an even friendlier smile and his tone changed to a sickeningly sweet one.

“What about this. I do remember that all the sect’s elixir stores allow auctions. I’ll leave it to you to auction it and 10 percent of the profit goes to you. The auction time limit will be set to 24 hours.”

Chu Chen calmly stated his conditions.

“The auction bid will start at one spirit stone. Little brother, you better think this through. If the highest bid is lower than 30 spirit stones when your 24 hours is up, you’ll have to sell it to him and pay me 10 percent as an administrative fee. You’ll technically be losing out”.

“That’s fine. I still have similar spiritual herbs in stock. You don’t have to worry.”

Chu Chen casually rejected the old fox’s ‘kindness’ and insisted on having him auctioned it. In the end, he only wanted to find out how much the spiritual herbs he could easily have found in the Black Fog Valley would have been worth.

“Alright, little brother. This is your auction ID.”

Seeing Chu Chen’s insistence, the store owner gave up his plans to have hogged it for himself. He then took out a blue-colored spirit jade amulet, passed it to Chu Chen and carefully received Chu Chen’s purple spiritual herbs before having safely stored it.

Although it had been the first time Chu Chen had auctioned something, he knew that as long as he knew his auction ID, he could have easily gone through the sect’s trading system to find out about its latest price.

Under a normal circumstance, as long as the sect reached a certain scale, it would have definitely had a trading system of its own. The Crystal Spring Sect had no exception.

To put it simply, it had been a trading network system. All the sect’s disciples would have had a communication jade tablet. The disciples stayed connected to each other through it.

At the same time, one could have used the communication jade tablet to have posted directly on the sect’s trading platform, using the platform to have inquired about the treasures that were sold and even to have made a direct offer.

The sect’s trading system had technically been a huge information delivery system.

After having kept his spirit jade tablet at home, Chu Chen had not paid it much heed and headed straight to the Hidden Frost Valley. After all, Elder Ling Xin had not been so easy to handle. If he wanted to to have trained and learned under her, he needed to have been more alert.

As for the purple spiritual herbs, he had just left it there for sale. After all, it had been something that he could have easily obtained, which is why he did not really care much for it.

This time, Chu Chen had made sure to arrive two hours earlier. It had turned out that Elder Ling Xin who had appeared on time, had not given him new missions, but instead had him do basic chores like having fanned the flames or washed the herbs. 

Regardless, Chu Chen dared not mess things up. He carefully completed all the tedious tasks.

After an entire day, his physical body had once again undergone tempering by the lingering medicinal energy, having strengthened and stabilized his body slightly.

Chu Chen carried his exhausted body, a small bottle of spirit gathering elixir and headed back home.

Just as he was about to lie down and sleep, he suddenly recalled something. With that, he laid on his bed and took out his communication jade tablet. He had only used that tablet once in the past. It was because the energy within it needed to be refilled using spirit stones once it had been depleted.

That was why he dared not touch it in the past. Having activated the communication spirit tablet, he connected to the trading platform. The tablet that had been the size of his palm and it immediately projected a 3D screen of light.

There were all sorts of trading information that had been running through the light screen, for example [ID00159 auctioned defensive armor with fire properties, sold for 7 spirit stones.]

[ID00741 auctioned Soul Thread Sword, sold for 12 spirit stones.]

Chu Chen entered [ID01578] into the search. The red-colored figure that had been shown to him almost gave him a heart attack.

[ID01578 auctioned unnamed purple spiritual herbs, current highest bid at 74 spirit stones.]

Chu Chen doubted his own eyes, having rubbed it and cross checked it multiple times. Suddenly, he noticed the red figure went from 74 to 75.

‘What is this? The first stalk of spiritual herbs that I simply picked from the outer edges of Black Fog Valley could actually sell for 75 spirit stones? If I had these spirit stones to buy spirit gathering elixirs to boost my cultivation speed, then my snail speed cultivation method still has hope!’

The elated Chu Chen decided to check out all the comments he had seen on the screen.

[This purple-colored spiritual herb should be level-2 mid grade. I’ve already offered 20 spirit stones. Please let me have it.]

[Senior brother, you’re trying to hog the level-2 purple cloud grass with just 20 spirit stones? Don’t take us for fools! Do you think it’s this easy to make a fortune?]

[Level-2 purple cloud grass? It can’t be!!! I’ve been looking for it for a long time. I’ll head to the elixir store to check it out in person right now. Dear disciple brothers, please hold your hands from raising the price rashly. My pocket is shallow.]

[Purple cloud grass is a prized spiritual herb that can raise one’s mental strength. I can’t afford it. To be honest, the final price should be around 80 spirit stones.]

Chu Chen did not read all of them as there had been too many comments. Most of the comments had been expressing their willingness to buy the spiritual herbs he collected from the Black Fog Valley, as though they had been the final buyer.

A few disciples who had given counter offers had even devolved into threats and tirades. Some were even on the verge of having met in person to have fought for it.

The most interesting one had been a buyer who offered 50 spirit stones and had immediately turned out to be the old store owner that auctioned the herb through his jade tablet’s ID. That immediately drew ire from a group of disciples and had claimed it to be an inside job.

From then on, the cunning elixir store owner wisely stayed away from the bid. With much experience under his belt, he played dead to let the storm pass.

Chu Chen had been a little baffled by how these people fought over a random stalk of spiritual herbs he had harvested from Black Fog Valley. He could have only lamented their lack of exposure.

However, faced with the ever rising red-colored numbers, Chu Chen felt that he would have understood, no matter how high a price they offered.