Chapter 175: Furiously Procuring
"I'm not sure about this. I have always felt that this child keeps too many secrets!" The First Lady shook her head while helplessly chuckling and said, "The reason why he is afraid of ShuiJing is probably because of this!"
"You're saying that ShuiJing knows his secrets?" The sect master hurriedly asked.
"I have an 80% guarantee. With 2 spiritual artifacts to help her, ShuiJing is able to calculate everything accurately. I don't believe that SongZhong is able to escape from her!" The First Lady replied.
"Then should we invite ShuiJing over to ask her?" The sect master said.
"It's useless. ShuiJing has already received so many benefits from Little Fatty. 2 Mystical Spiritual Fruits is more than enough to seal her lips!" The First Lady then said with a smile, "Forget it, these children will naturally have their own fate and we do not need to care about it too much. Even if SongZhong stays behind, Daoist HuoLong will not go too far and will definitely let him have a path to survive on account of the fact that we took a step back. It is best to let nature take its course. Let us not bother about it anymore!"
"That's good also!" The sect master nodded and said nothing else.
When Little Fatty left the inner court, he immediately arrived at his own home and jumped into his Natal Artifact. He excitedly took out the lightning talisman which he had just gotten to study it.
Of course, what he wanted to study was not the process of refining the divine lightning but instead the Lightning Congregating Station. But it is a pity that such a precious treasure from the ancients was not something that a greenhorn like Little Fatty could comprehend. Without months of effort, he would not be able to even touch upon the complicated refinement process.
If it was in the past, Little Fatty would not have any choice and would only be able to sigh helplessly. But now, things were different. Even if he was helpless, there were still the nine beauties in the Nine Beauties Painting which could be of a.s.sistance to him! A FenShen cultivator who had lived for thousands of years would definitely have some ability at the very least.
After spending days poring over it, they finally came to a conclusion. Because of Little Fatty's advancement, they also had a large increase in their strengths and had now unlocked the strength of a mid to late foundational stage cultivator. Under such conditions, they were definitely able to refine a low grade Lightning Congregating Station.
It is just that the amount of materials the Lightning Congregating Station required was just too frightening. Even the lowest grade station amongst the 5 elements would be able to wipe out all of Little Fatty's acc.u.mulation over the 10 years. This was all of his savings, not just what was disa.s.sembled by his Natal Artifact, but including Tu QianCheng's items as well.
Even if that was the case, the amount of high grade materials would still be insufficient. He would still have to buy some using his five element pure water or middle grade spiritual stones.
Despite the large amount of resources required, Little Fatty still decided to refine 5 of them in the end. This could only be attributed to the convenience of having a Lightning Congregating Station. Every station, after absorbing a certain amount of spiritual Qi, would be able to form 2 divine lightnings, one negative and one positive. According to the density of the surrounding spiritual Qi, the speed at which the divine lightning condenses would also differ. If sufficient Qi was provided, a single day would be enough. Judging by the thick density of spiritual Qi in Little Fatty's Natal Artifact, he would definitely be able to condense 2 divine lightnings in less than a day.
Furthermore, if the situation was urgent, he could supplement it with spiritual stones. Although it would exhaust a great amount of spiritual stones, he would definitely be able to obtain a large amount of divine lightning in a short period of time.
Adding to that was the fact that Little Fatty had an affinity with all 5 elements. This would allow him to be able to use all 5 types of divine lightning at once. With the 10 fold increase in the strength of the divine lightning when combined, it was more than enough to pose a threat to JinDan cultivators. Once the 5 Lightning Congregating Stations are completely a.s.sembled, it would allow Little Fatty to increase the number of divine lightnings he held on hand and survive a fight with a JinDan cultivator.
In order to achieve this goal at the shortest possible time, Little Fatty resolutely decided to refine all 5 Lightning Congregating Stations at the cost of burning up all of his hard-earned savings. However, how is a giant magical artifact like the Lightning Congregating Station something that can be completed so easily? Even with his nine beauties working hand in hand, it would still take a time frame of at least a year to complete. Thus, once Little Fatty set his heart, he did not hesitate further and asked the nine beauties to start work immediately, using the materials he had on hand to begin the refinement.
As for Little Fatty, he tidied himself up and snuck to Firmament City on a bright sunny afternoon.
At this moment, Little Fatty was no longer a XianTian rookie anymore. Being a foundational cultivator, he had earned the rights to go into the middle level of Firmament City. Apart from high grade shops here, there was an extra Treasure Trading Pavilion.
The Treasure Trading Pavilion was a large building which was hundreds of feet high and took up thousands of feet. In the centre of it, there was a jade wall which was tens of feet high and 300 feet wide.
This jade wall is actually a auxiliary type giant magical artifact, able to display and constantly update news on itself. On the left, was the things people wanted to buy. On the right, was the things people wanted to sell.
If there was something which a cultivator wanted to buy or sell, he could register it at the management of the Treasure Trading Pavilion. After paying the spiritual stones needed as tax, one would obtain a jade tablet which allows you to display information on the jade wall. If someone was interested in your information, they could use it to find you. If you do not want to meet with the other party, you can also leave your treasure in the Treasure Trading Pavilion to allow them to trade for you. They would have a professional person to identify the treasure and would definitely not allow you to suffer a loss. If they were to make a mistake, then they would take full responsibility and compensate your loss.
Because the Treasure Trading Pavilion was a property of the Firmament City, it had prospered here for thousands of years and had an extremely good reputation. Thus, cultivators from all over were all willing to place their items here to sell. Plus, cultivators who had a need would also be glad to shop here. Today, Little Fatty came here for that reason.
There were not many people in the Treasure Trading Pavilion, only a few dozen customers that were loitering around. Most of them appeared with their real appearance but some took the effort to conceal appearance. Little Fatty also wanted to change his looks to conceal his appearance, but with his frightening built, there was just no way to hide himself. Helpless, he could only come here with his real appearance.
Typically, the cultivators who came to the Treasure Trading Pavilion on the middle level were all towards the higher end. It's either they were JinDan cultivators, or they were at the late foundational stage. The prices of the treasures here was just too high; just posting a piece of news on the jade wall would require a fee of over 10,000 spiritual stones. Thus, the cheaper items would usually not appear here, if not one would only incur a loss. As for those who just entered into the foundational stage, they would usually not have the wealth to shop in a place like this.
Thus, the moment a fresh foundational cultivator like Little Fatty appeared, he immediately captured the attention of everyone present. Seeing his large built, a few devil cultivators could not help but want to mock him.
In contrast, a few of the sharper people had already guessed his ident.i.ty based on his size.
"This guy can't possibly be SongZhong right?"
"Which SongZhong?"
"Fool, the one from Mystical Sky Yard. It is said that during the Mystical Spiritual Fruit hunt 2 years ago, he worked together with Han Bing'er, killing 2 JinDan cultivators, even injuring a YuanYing cultivator!"
"Goodness, that's him? Why doesn't he seem fierce? He just looks like a darn fatty to me?"
"Darn fatty? Cheh, you don't understand, this darn fatty which you are talking about had created many miracles. He first killed Tu QianCheng, and shocked the world. Then, he fought a dozen of cultivators with similar cultivations to his. Engaging them in a bitter battle for a night, he still managed to protect Han Bing'er. Following that, he unleashed his might at the finale, killing 2 JinDan and injuring a YuanYing cultivator. In that single attack, he forced the devil cultivators to retreat! Because of this, his bounty is a 5th grade magical artifact!
"Woah, that means that we can get a 5th grade magical artifact by killing him?"
"That's easy to say, but difficult to do! It is said that he has an extremely close relations.h.i.+p with the sect master. He may even be the son-in-law of the sect master. There will be an endless stream of trouble if we were to kill such a person!"
Even when everyone was discussing about him discreetly, Little Fatty simply walked up to the jade wall, pretending that he did not know what was going on while viewing the treasures listed on the wall.
This Treasure Trading Pavilion indeed lived up to its reputation. In just a short while, Little Fatty had already found a dozen of the high grade materials which he needed. Some of these materials required spiritual stones, while the others required him to use a magical artifact or other high grade materials to trade for.
Little Fatty first used a large amount of spiritual stones to buy 3 of the materials. Then, he started to look at the other materials which he did not have the corresponding item to trade with. At this moment, another advantage of the Treasure Trading Pavilion surfaced, cross trading.
For instance, despite the fact that Little Fatty did not have the required materials, he was able to use the five element pure water to get those materials from another person before trading for what he wanted. Through this, everyone would be able to get what they want. Of course, not everything can be obtained so easily. Some items needed to be traded for over 10 times. Sometimes, there just isn't a way to trade for the items because of one or two missing items in the chain.
Finally, after half a day of work, Little Fatty had obtained 80% of what he needed, with only 5 or 6 materials left un.o.btained.
At least something like that would not trouble Little Fatty too much because of the popular five element pure water he had on his hands. This was something which most high grade elixirs required if one wanted to improve the success rate of the elixirs. Due to the difficulty of making it, rarity of the item and high volume of usage, the five element pure water is extremely popular. He did not need to worry that it would not be sold, and was a much better bargaining chip than spiritual stones.
With this item, Little Fatty had the ability to contact the various parties through the Treasure Trading Pavilion. He was willing to use the five element pure water to trade with them, and even offered them a price which was up to twice the market rate.
Facing such a good bargain, all these cultivators naturally agreed quickly. In just 4 to 6 hours, Little Fatty had already gathered all of the materials he need. In fact, most of time was wasted on the time taken to send and receive information.
Although Little Fatty splurged greatly this time, he did not feel the heartache. Anyway, he could obtain the five element pure water so easily, so he did not feel much of a heartache about it.
Another point worth mentioning was that all trades conducted within the Treasure Trading Pavilion was done in a private room upstairs. Apart from the people in charge of the Treasure Trading Pavilion, no one else knew that Little Fatty took in so many goods all at once. Thus, as long as the Treasure Trading Pavilion did not spread the news, Little Fatty's secret could still be safe.
With the reputation of the Treasure Trading Pavilion, they would not be bothered to plot against a foundational rookie like him. Thus, Little Fatty was still rather a.s.sured about his own safety.
Besides that, there was another small surprise which gave Little Fatty an unexpected surprise. The Treasure Trading Pavilion displayed their interest towards Little Fatty because of his large spending today and gave him a VIP pa.s.s.
With it, the fee charged for listing information would be decreased by 20%. Furthermore, he would have the chance to partic.i.p.ate in the auction which happens every decade. Usually, only after spending a certain amount will the Treasure Trading Pavilion hand out such privileges.
Although Little Fatty did not hit that amount today, from the way he appeared to be so calm and indifferent towards handling those high grade materials, the Treasure Trading Pavilion immediately determined that he was a fat sheep for them to fleece. Thus, they decided to make an exception to give him a VIP pa.s.s.
This unexpected gain of course excited Little Fatty, but he did not allow them to bait him any further. He carefully rejected their request to continue shopping here but walked towards the transportation portal of Firmament City, preparing to go back to take a nap.
However, just before Little Fatty reached the transportation portal, he was stopped by a middle aged man. This guy was even stronger than Little Fatty, at least of the mid foundational stage. He looked to be extremely pale and had a cunning look on his face, making anyone who see him feel disgusted.
After stopping Little Fatty, he let out crafty laughter and said, "Is this junior brother the famous SongZhong from the Mystical Sky Yard, the Lightning Finger?"
"You're too kind, it is I, SongZhong!" Seeing how polite the other party was, it wouldn't be good for him to be too rude. Thus, he also asked, "I wonder who senior brother is?"
"Haha, I am just a loose cultivator, a n.o.body. If junior brother wish to, you can call me fellow daoist Han!" Senior brother Han immediately said with an apologetic laughter.
"So it is fellow daoist Han, I've been rude!" Little Fatty cupped his hands before asking in a frown, "I wonder why senior brother Han is blocking my way, do you have anything to want to bestow upon me?"
"Hehe, I have nothing that I can bestow you with. I only want to make a business deal with junior brother!" Senior brother Han said with a cunning laughter.
"I'm sorry, I am not a merchant and do not do business! Farewell!" The moment Little Fatty heard that, he immediately rejected it without hesitation. Now that he was so high profile, he was careful to make sure that he would not attract trouble to himself. How would he make a business deal with a person of unknown origins? Thus, he immediately rejected it without a second thought.
Finis.h.i.+ng his words, Little Fatty was about to walk around him. But, he never expected that this senior brother took a step to his side and blocked Little Fatty again, "Hehe, junior brother Song, why are you leaving before hearing me out? This business deal is something which you are definitely interested in!"
"Impossible!" Little Fatty replied coldly, "I am not interested in any deals right now!"
"Really?" Senior brother Han sneered and said softly, "Don't tell me you are not interested in the remains of your parents?"
"What?" As Little Fatty heard that, he was immediately startled. His parents had been missing for 20 years already and there was completely no news of them. But today, a stranger mentioned this matter. Naturally, he was startled as he hurriedly asked, "Where are the remains of my parents?"