Chapter 20: Depositing 236 High-Grade Spirit Stones!

The two Violet Palace cultivators didn’t seem to be doing well.

In the center of the valley, a purple python over twenty meters long coiled on a projecting black rock. A single horn like amethyst rose from its head, and lightning danced between its scales. Even the aura from its breathing made the nearby vegetation tremble.

【Violet Thunder Berserk Python!】

【Level: Tier three, level 6!】

【Grade: Rare!】

【Status: Wild lord!】

【Skills: Thunder Tail Sweep, Thunder-Scale Guard, Violet Lightning Breath, Horned Heavenly Thunder!】

【Overall combat power: 1086000!】

【Assessment: A lightning-element demonic beast dominating its territory. Its defenses are formidable; ordinary mid-stage Violet Palace cultivators are advised to hunt it in a group!】

An orchid glowed faint blue in a crevice behind the python. It had nine leaves, each carrying spiritual energy like moonlight.

【Moonlight Night Orchid!】

【Tier: Three!】

【Quality: Rare!】

【Effect: Nourishes the soul and dispels yin-cold poison. A principal ingredient of the Moonlight Soul-Guarding Pill!】

At the valley entrance stood a flying boat marked with a golden copper coin. Beside it was a young woman in a pale gold dress: Su Mingyue, daughter of the president of the Wanjin Merchant Guild in Kaiyang City.

Her mother’s soul had been injured and afflicted by yin-cold poison. A tier-three alchemist in Kaiyang City had told her that only a Moonlight Soul-Guarding Pill made with the orchid as its principal ingredient offered a chance of curing her. After a long search, Su Mingyue had learned one grew in this valley. Unfortunately, a mid-tier-three Violet Thunder Berserk Python guarded it. She had hired two Violet Palace cultivators to help gather the herb, but only after the fight began did she realize how difficult the python was to handle.

“Scarlet Fire Heavenly Wheel!”

A red-robed cultivator at the sixth level of Violet Palace formed hand seals. Red true essence gathered into a rotating wheel of flame over ten meters across, warping the air with heat. He pointed. “Go!”

The wheel struck the python with a thunderous burst. The creature moved back less than half a meter. When the flames cleared, not one purple scale had broken.

“How are this beast’s scales so hard?”

The other cultivator, an old man at the fourth level of Violet Palace, sent dozens of golden sword-qi strikes at it. They rang against its body, leaving only white marks.

The python was enraged. “You ignorant humans dare covet my spirit herb?” It turned, sweeping its enormous tail amid violet lightning. Before the tail came close, a bolt hundreds of meters long swept across the valley, splitting a nearby hundred-meter hill in two. Rocks collapsed and the whole valley shook.

Both cultivators retreated, but the python’s horn blazed. Lightning gathered, then a purple pillar as thick as a bucket pierced the sky.

“Damn it!” The red-robed cultivator’s protective treasure shattered on contact. He no longer dared fight. Crushing an azure escape talisman, he called, “Miss Su, this python is far stronger than expected! The Wanjin Merchant Guild’s spirit stones aren’t worth my life! I’m off—I earned my pay fair and square!”

Azure light surrounded him, and before he’d finished speaking he vanished toward the horizon.

“Senior Wei!” Su Mingyue hadn’t expected him to flee so readily. In a moment only she and the guild’s retained cultivator, Lu Chengshan, remained. Lu gritted his teeth and stepped in front of her.

“Miss, run! The python is enraged. If I burn my blood essence, I can hold it for a little while!”

Her face changed. “Uncle Lu, what about you?”

“I’m a retainer of the Wanjin Merchant Guild, and your mother once did me a great kindness. If you escape alive, this old life will be worth spending!”

His blood essence burned. His pale face flushed, and his aura forcibly rose from the fourth to the fifth level of Violet Palace. He formed seals, sending golden true essence into a giant shield dozens of meters high in front of them.

The python looked on with contempt. “A mantis trying to stop a chariot!” It raised its tail again, violet lightning gathering rapidly around it. Lu Chengshan watched the growing light in despair. He knew he couldn’t withstand this blow.

Just then, azure sword light flew in from the sky.

“That’s a big snake. One meal could keep Xiao Hei fed for days, right?”

Lu looked up, startled. A young man with two women and a puppy in black shorts had stopped above the valley. Xiao Hei stood at the front of the flying sword. “If I ate as much as I wanted, I could finish it in one meal!”

Lin Yang glanced at Xiao Hei’s belly. “Aren’t you overestimating your appetite?”

“Nonsense!” Xiao Hei puffed out his chest. “I used to eat a true dragon in one sitting!”

“Holy crap! Who taught you to brag like that?”

Lu Chengshan was bewildered by their exchange. “Young friends, run! This is a mid-tier-three beast king. You can’t handle it!”

“It’s fine,” Lin Yang said. “I came for it. Move aside so you don’t get caught in the attack.”

Lu wanted to say more, but the python roared. “More humans coming to die! No matter how many arrive, you all die today!”

“Good, good,” Lin Yang said. “I like that spirit.”

At a thought, his tier-two epic Pure Yang Sword appeared. Its red-gold light illuminated the valley. He stepped off the Verdant Wood Radiance Sword, hovered in midair, and pointed his blade at the python.

“Splitting Sword Shadows Art!”

Vast primal true essence flooded the sword. One red-gold shadow formed before him, then split in a fan: one became nine, nine became thirty-six, and thirty-six became 108. All 108 hovered above the valley, each over ten meters long.

They didn’t resemble ordinary phantoms made from spiritual power. Each was extraordinarily solid, comparable to a tier-three treasure weapon, with every pattern on its blade clearly visible. Terrifying sword qi pressed down from the sky, cracking countless rocks throughout the valley.

Lu Chengshan stared up at the 108 sword shadows, stunned.

Lu Chengshan’s golden sword qi, delivered with all his strength, hadn’t broken a single scale. Yet any one of Lin Yang’s sword shadows made him feel the threat of death. There were 108 of them! What level of sword art was this?

The Violet Thunder Berserk Python sensed the danger too. It coiled abruptly, lightning erupting from its scales to form a purple curtain tens of meters thick around it. “Thunder-Scale Guard! Stop them!”

Lin Yang pressed his raised hand down. “Slash!”

Clang! All 108 red-gold sword shadows fell at once. The foremost struck the lightning curtain, which shook violently and shattered under the successive blows in less than a second. The remaining shadows plunged through the python’s proud scales as easily as paper. Strike after strike pierced its huge body; it had no chance to escape and ended up bristling like a hedgehog. Its massive body crashed into the valley, and the violet lightning dissipated.

【Congratulations! Player has killed the tier-three level-6 wild lord: Violet Thunder Berserk Python!】

【Total cultivation gained in this battle: 68400000!】

【Distributing team cultivation!】

【Primary killer receives 80%!】

【Each of the other two members receives 10%!】

【Player Tang Yu receives 6840000 shared cultivation!】

【Player Fang Qingyao receives 6840000 shared cultivation!】

Two great waves of cultivation energy entered the women at once.

【Congratulations! Player Tang Yu has successfully broken through!】

【Current realm: Seventh level of Qi Refining!】

【Current realm: Eighth level of Qi Refining!】

【Current realm: Ninth level of Qi Refining!】

…

【Congratulations! Player Fang Qingyao has successfully broken through!】

【Current realm: Seventh level of Qi Refining!】

【Current realm: Eighth level of Qi Refining!】

【Current realm: Ninth level of Qi Refining!】

Feeling her power surge again, Tang Yu had no words. They’d been out less than two hours and risen from the first to the ninth level, only one level short of perfecting Qi Refining. “Fast” no longer did it justice.

“Amazing! We’re practically flying through levels!” Fang Qingyao exclaimed.

Tang Yu adjusted her glasses, equally shocked. “And he’s taking both of us with him. Class rep, you’re incredible!”

“That’s my guy!” Fang Qingyao added. “A little demon snake was no match!” As dedicated sidekicks, they were becoming increasingly professional at cheering him on.

【Demon-hunting points earned from this kill: 286400!】

【Current team points: 415000!】

【Current team rank: First in the Black Mountain Region!】

White, blue, and purple drops burst out beside the corpse, including a tier-three rare lord chest. Lin Yang landed and beckoned a fist-sized purple core from the python, lightning flashing across its surface.

“A mid-tier-three core! This should sell for plenty of high-grade spirit stones.” He put away both the core and the lord chest.

Xiao Hei rushed to the carcass and tore off a great chunk of meat. Rich vitality surged into his body, and his eyes lit up. “This is good! At least ninety percent of the essence remains! Your method of killing deserves praise this time!”

Lin Yang rolled his eyes. “Just eat.”

He walked deeper into the valley and dug up the moonlit Moonlight Night Orchid, roots and all. Only then did Su Mingyue and Lu Chengshan recover from their shock. Lu ended the technique burning his blood essence, clutched his chest, and came to Lin Yang with a solemn salute.

“Thank you for saving our lives, fellow cultivator! Your swordsmanship is divine. I admire it!”

Both were Violet Palace cultivators; addressing him as a fellow cultivator was already highly respectful. Su Mingyue bowed as a junior. “Su Mingyue of the Wanjin Merchant Guild greets Senior! Without your help, Uncle Lu and I would probably have died here.”

Lin Yang waved it off. “I came to kill the beast anyway. Helping was incidental.”

Su Mingyue looked at the orchid in his hand and bit her lip. “Senior, I have a request. I’d like to buy the Moonlight Night Orchid to treat my mother. I’ll pay two hundred thousand low-grade spirit stones!”

Lu Chengshan glanced at her. A tier-three rare orchid normally cost at most 120,000 or 130,000 low-grade stones. Her offer was well above market price.

Lin Yang shook his head. “I don’t accept low-grade stones.”

She paled. “You won’t sell it?”

“I can sell it.” He held up the orchid. “But at a hundred to one, two hundred thousand low-grade stones equals two thousand high-grade stones. I want high-grade.”

“Two thousand high-grade stones?” Su Mingyue hesitated. The Wanjin Merchant Guild could certainly afford that, but she hadn’t brought so many. Lu Chengshan checked his storage pouch; it held only 236 high-grade stones.

“Fellow cultivator, we left in a hurry. We have 236 high-grade spirit stones here, far short of two thousand.”

“Where is your guild?” Lin Yang asked.

“On Money Street, in the center of eastern Kaiyang City,” Su Mingyue replied quickly. “If Senior comes back with me, the guild will immediately provide the rest!”

“I don’t want to go to Kaiyang City right now.” He glanced at the pouch. “How about this? The 236 stones are an advance. Take the orchid now and deliver the remaining 1,764 to the Qingyuan Sword Sect’s Demon Beast Suppression Hall later. Ask for a handsome young man named Lin Yang.”

Su Mingyue was stunned. She’d expected him to let them take at most one leaf. Instead, he would hand over the entire orchid after receiving less than a fifth of the price!

“Senior, aren’t you afraid we’ll take the herb and refuse to pay?”

“Aren’t you the largest merchant guild in Kaiyang City?” He handed her the orchid. “Can a guild that large grow legs and run away?”

She accepted it with both hands. “Please rest assured! Once I return to Kaiyang City, I’ll prepare the high-grade stones and personally deliver them to the Qingyuan Sword Sect!”

Lin Yang took the pouch. Two hundred and thirty-six high-grade spirit stones! At last he could shop in the tier-three store. He deposited them immediately.

【Deposit successful!】

【Deposited: 236 high-grade spirit stones!】

With his billionfold price reduction, that was equivalent to depositing 236 billion high-grade spirit stones! He felt wonderful. This money should at least carry him all the way to perfected Violet Palace.

Once the remaining seventeen hundred-odd high-grade spirit stones arrived, Core Formation would no longer be a dream either!

They boarded the Verdant Wood Radiance Sword again. After leaving the valley, Tang Yu was still uneasy. “You gave them the Moonlight Night Orchid outright. Aren’t you afraid the Wanjin Merchant Guild won’t pay the balance?”

“Why worry?” Lin Yang was unconcerned. “If they pay, I’ll accept the remaining 1,764 high-grade spirit stones. If they don’t, once I’ve completed the main quests and can leave the Qingyuan Sword Sect, I’ll visit Kaiyang City myself. By then, they may have to pay more than that balance.”

Fang Qingyao narrowed her eyes. “You’re planning to raid their home?”

“I’m a very reasonable person.”

Behind them, Xiao Hei nodded while gnawing on the python’s tail. “I can vouch for that. Before he attacks, he always talks and talks.”