Chapter 703, Earth Fire Core
Despite the many years Tong Xuan Realm had existed and the countless cultivators who sought out these hidden Mysterious Small Worlds, there were still many places that had yet to be discovered. These Mysterious Small Worlds were uncultivated virgin land and any one of them may contain incredible wealth.
The Alchemist behind this stall and his companion were obviously very lucky to have found such a space.
This alone was enough to make the crowd envious.
After a while, another middle-aged man came over and, just as the Alchemist before him, he began taking one rare herb after another from his Universe Bag.
Every time he took something out, it would lead to a flurry of people trying to snatch it up.
Those who had come to the Trading District to find herbs generally had higher vision than average buyers, so they naturally would not miss such a great opportunity.
The scene was so lively that the Alchemist and his companion had to split the work, one of them handling the sales while the other received Crystal Stones, keeping the both of them quite busy.
The two men were also quite honest and upright and didn’t take this opportunity to sell their wares at an inflated price, instead only selling them for slightly more than the market value. This increased all of the buyers’ enthusiasm and willingness to participate.
Yang Kai had been paying attention the whole time but was in no hurry to purchase anything.
Although these herbs were all rather precious, he had yet to see something he really needed.
Suddenly, the Alchemist’s companion took a fiery red orb that resembled a small burning fireball. As soon as this thing appeared, the surrounding air took on a scalding heat. Everyone felt this change and realized the potency of the medicinal properties contained within this thing, quickly noticing that there were even a lot of dense lines atop its surface which resembled a cultivator’s meridians.
Yang Kai eyes light up the moment he saw this and quickly reached out his hand!
At the same time, many people who were able to judge the quality of this item also stuck out their hands. In an instant, more than a dozen big hands grabbed towards this red herbs.
Fei Yu silently stamped her foot on the ground and an invisible wave of air centered around her suddenly spread out.
This stealthy eruption of a Third Order Transcendent power forced all of the rivals Yang Kai was competing against to stumble backwards.
In that instant, Yang Kai and Fei Yu exchanged a glance, both of them smiling lightly in understanding.
The next moment, Yang Kai’s hand caught the round fiery herb, but what he had not anticipated was that there was another hand that caught hold of it from the opposite side as well.
Of everyone present, only Yang Kai and this challenger had not been affected by Fei Yu’s little trick.
Looking up at the owner of this hand, Yang Kai’s face couldn’t help showing an astonished look while Fei Yu was also quite surprised.
This person was actually the young man who had bought the Ice Heart Snow Lotus with ten Saint Pills earlier. The opposite party also grinned back at Yang Kai when he noticed who his competitor was.
After everyone else regained their balance, they all shot bad looks towards Fei Yu, but upon seeing the opposite party was actually such a beautiful woman, all of the anger in their hearts failed to materialize.
“Heh heh, looks like there’s going to be a good show,” Someone who saw the dispute between Yang Kai and the young man couldn’t help laughing.
Everyone else’s attention was also drawn towards this standoff, each of them guessing who would be the one to win this precious herb in the end.
“Friend, we meet again,” The young man smiled at Yang Kai and showed a dazzling white smile.
“Indeed,” Yang Kai also laughed, his brow rising slightly, “Do you also want this thing?”
“I believe I said earlier that everyone wants good things.”
“There are so many good things around, you shouldn’t need to keep grabbing the same things as me, right?” Yang Kai said in an easy-going manner, seemingly wanting to persuade this youth to give up.
The youth however just shook his head, “There are certainly many good things here, but nothing I want, I only want this Earth Fire Core.”
“What a coincidence, so do I.”
“Then what should we do?” The young man frowned, he also hadn’t anticipated encountering such a situation so he turned to the seller and asked, “Shopkeep, do you have another Earth Fire Core?”
The seller slowly shook his head, “There’s only this one, the two of us exhausted all our strength searching that small world and only found this after digging several thousand meters down.”
Earth Fire Cores would only appear underground in places with significant amounts of flame energy, and even in such environments they would still be a rarity. It was called a fire core because it was formed by gathering a great deal of subterranean flame essence and had many wondrous uses.
It also happened to be one of the herbs Yang Kai needed to refine the Saint Pill for the Ancient Demon Clan, but although he didn’t know what this young man needed the Earth Fire Core, it was obvious he wasn’t willing to give up on it.
“Hey, friend, you should lighten your grip, if you use any more force, this Earth Fire Core just might break,” The young man’s expression changed as he noticed that unlike last time, Yang Kai’s attitude was quite determined, feeling things had become somewhat difficult.
“You as well!” Yang Kai smiled lightly, hesitating for a moment before saying, “You bought that Ice Heart Snow Lotus a moment ago so you’ve already made a big gain today, why compete with me of this Earth Fire Core still?”
“This and that are two different things,” The other party kept shaking his head, “How about this, if friend is willing to take a step back, I can compensate you for your loss. How about I offer you a price equivalent to this Earth Fire Core?”
Yang Kai shook his head firmly and said, “If you are willing to take a step back, I can compensate you instead.”
“Heh heh!” The young man laughed somewhat hollowly, a look of helplessness appearing on his face.
“You two, arguing like this is bad for my business, can you please decide who is going to buy it already?” The seller was also a bit embarrassed and tried to move the situation along.
“Wait a moment, I’ll try again to convince this friend to give way,” The young man said lightly.
But before he could open his mouth to continue persuading Yang Kai, someone suddenly pushed his way through the crowd and after shooting everyone a disdainful glance, stuck out his hand and grabbed towards the Earth Fire Core, arrogantly saying, “You two don’t have to fight anymore, this Earth Fire Core now belongs to this Young Lord.”
Yang Kai and the young man’s faces both changed simultaneously. In order to compete for this Earth Fire Core, both of them had use the largest amount of strength it could withstand, if anyone were to add any more strength to their grasp, the Earth Fire Core would be immediately ruined.
As such, before this newcomers hand had even reached the Earth Fire Core, both Yang Kai and the young man took action at the same time, both of them using their free hand to send out a punch.
The newcomer was also a young man, but from the expensive robes he was wearing it was clear he had a superior identity and strong background.
After being knocked backwards, the new young man became angry and grinned fiendishly, “You two dare attack me? Your courage isn’t small! Don’t you know who I am? No one dares fight with me in this Floating Clouds City!”
“I don’t give a damn who you are, if you dare stick your hand out again, I swear I’ll chop it off.” The young man who was competing for the Earth Fire Core with Yang Kai suddenly said savagely. Regarding his contest with Yang Kai, he could still remain calm as both of them relied on their own strength and methods, but this person suddenly showing up and butting in made him somewhat unhappy.
Yang Kai’s eyes also flashed; he didn’t speak any words but his aura became dangerous.
The gathered crowd of people suddenly became agitated upon seeing this.
“Two little brothers,” The seller’s face changed greatly after he glanced over at the newcomer and whispered, “This is Young Master Nie Cong, you can’t afford to offend him.”
“Does he have some kind of strong backer?” Yang Kai asked offhandedly, he had already noticed that many people around him were giving him looks of pity when they saw Nie Cong arrive. Many had also started to distance themselves.
The cultivation of this Nie Cong wasn’t high having only reached the Immortal Ascension Boundary Sixth Stage, nothing to fear, so it must be that the power behind him was worth caring about.
The seller’s face became somewhat flustered as he quietly looked over at Nie Cong and saw the other side wearing a smug look, apparently not having any intention of stopping him. Seeing this, the seller immediately realized that Nie Cong wanted him to report his identity to these two little brats who didn’t know the immensity of Heaven and Earth so they would take the initiative to withdraw and apologize.
The seller let out a long breath and began explaining, “Two little brothers should have recently arrived in Floating Clouds City so it is not surprising you are unaware. Floating Clouds City has one City Lord and two Vice City Lords, all of them Saint Realm masters; one of the Vice City Lords is called Zhou Liang, a master from the Human Race and he had a favoured woman named Nie Chu Feng, who is also a First Order Transcendent. This Young Master Nie Cong is the nephew of Nie Chu Feng.”
“I see,” Yang Kai nodded at the same time as his competitor. Behind this Nie Cong was a Saint Realm master who was also an overlord of Floating Clouds City, no wonder he was able to act so arrogantly in front of all these people without any fear.
Now that his identity had been revealed, Nie Cong sneered dismissively and said, “Do you now know who this Young Lord is? Since you know, hand over the Earth Fire Core, if you put it down now, I’ll be generous and allow you to leave safely.”
Yang Kai asked back blankly, “Isn’t fighting forbidden within Floating Clouds City?”
The seller wore a bitter expression as he stuttered, “Little brother must be joking, this place not allowing fights is true, but such rules only apply to most people, there are still a small number of people who are outside this rule.”
As he spoke, he glanced over at Nie Rong intentionally or unintentionally.
This Nie Cong obviously belonged to the latter category.
“Do you know how grave your situation is now?” The young man Yang Kai was competing with suddenly said, “If you know, you should let go of this Earth Fire Core, otherwise, if you stir up this Nie Cong’s anger, I’m afraid you won’t be able to leave here safely.”
“Then why don’t you let go first?” Yang Kai turned his eyes back to the pretty youth and smiled.
The young man just grinned back at him, “Why you… I really don’t know if you know how to write the word dead?”
“I don’t know if I’ll be the one to die first, or if it’ll be you?” Yang Kai didn’t back down.
Fei Yu’s beautiful eyes shimmered as she kept a close watch on the quickly evolving situation, secretly condensing her True Qi in case she needed to take action.
As the two youths argued, Nie Cong’s expression became quite ugly. He found that these two kids didn’t fear him at all even after learning about his identity and background and were instead still fighting over ownership of the Earth Fire Core while ignoring him.
This made him very sullen.
Stepping forward, Nie Cong firmly declared, “I don’t care where you brats come from or what kind of background you have, but in this Floating Clouds City, only I have the last say.”
Saying so, he once again reached out for the Earth Fire Core, his True Qi gathering in his hand, apparently holding the mentality that it would either belong to him or be destroyed.
Yang Kai immediately became angry and did not hesitate to punch towards the outstretched hand.
At the same time, the youth opposite Yang Kai also sent out his own attack.
Nie Cong suddenly froze in place, his face filled with disbelief.
In the next instant, with a great splash of blood, Nie Cong’s hand was severed from his wrist and before it could even fall to the ground had burst into a bloody fog.