“Greetings, Brother Yun Tao.”

Chu Kuangren smiled gently as he said. However, Master Daoist Yun Tao and the few other elders frowned at his greeting. The few elders were especially crossed at Chu Kuangren now.

After all, Chu Kuangren was a mere being below Sage's level.

Master Daoist Yun Tao was a Sage Ruler.

Not to mention the gap in their cultivation realm, but in age alone, Chu Kuangren was nowhere close to Master Daoist Yun Tao's age even if he lived another few hundred years.

How dare he greet him as Master Daoist Yun Tao equal?!

Where did Chu Kuangren get that courage?

“Hmph, who are you calling your Brother? Rude.”

One of the elders scoffed.

Chu Kuangren glanced at him when he heard that. “What's the matter? Brother Yun Tao is the Ethereal Rapture's leader, while I am the Black Heaven Sect's leader. How was that inappropriate? Are you saying that the Black Heaven Sect is inferior to Ethereal Rapture?!”

He had already seen through the contempt that these few people had for him, and it was not in his nature to go out of his way to gain the favor of his adversaries. Since they were already unhappy about him, he did not care if they developed more hatred towards him.

“Y-you…”

That elder was speechless.

He was surprised that he could not find a word of reb.u.t.tal.

“No manners!”

That elder then flicked his sleeves angrily.

At that, Master Daoist Yun Tao spoke up, “Third Elder, let's show some respect to our esteemed guest here. What Brother Chu said isn't wrong. He, like me, is a leader of an orthodoxy. It wasn't wrong for him to greet me as an equal earlier.”

He subconsciously switched from Junior Brother Chu to Brother Chu. Since he had responded, the rest of the elders could not object even if they wanted to.

“Alright, forget all that courtesy stuff. I came to the Eternal Rapture today mainly to trade for some Celestial Chalcedonies. I wonder what's your opinion on this, Master Daoist Yun Tao?” Chu Kuangren cut straight to the point.

“It's not hard for us to offer you the Celestial Chalcedony. However, I can't help but wonder, what are you offering as your side of the trade?” Master Daoist Yun Tao asked.

“Two hundred million Top-tier soulstones for a kilogram of Top-tier Celestial Chalcedony!”

Chu Kuangren listed out his offer nonchalantly.

Chu Kuangren had already done a survey when he arrived at the place earlier. Based on the market price, a gram of Top-tier Celestial Chalcedony was valued at approximately one hundred thousand Top-tier soulstones.

The price that he offered was twice the market price.

“Heh, Brother Chu, what makes you think that we Ethereal Rapture are lacking in soulstones?” Master Daoist Yun Tao said.

“What is it that Ethereal Rapture wants then?”

“Your Emperor Techniques…”

Before Master Daoist Yun Tao could finish his sentence, Chu Kuangren had already turned around to leave.

Master Daoist Yun Tao was momentarily stunned as he did not expect that Chu Kuangren would react this way. Only when Chu Kuangren was at the exit did Master Daoist Yun Tao yelled, “Uh… Brother Chu. Come on, it's just business. We can still negotiate.”

“Business is all about sincerity, but I haven't seen any from Ethereal Rapture so far. You want an Emperor Technique for a kilogram of Celestial Chalcedony? That's the biggest joke ever.”

Did they know how valuable an Emperor Technique was?

The unknown lands aside, there was no guarantee that they would be able to find a complete Emperor Technique in all the sage orthodoxies from the outside world.

This level of technique was absolutely priceless!

Not even ten or a hundred kilograms of Celestial Chalcedony were enough to trade for an Emperor Technique, let alone a kilogram of Celestial Chalcedony!

“Heh, I was just pulling your leg. Don't be angry, Brother Chu.” Master Daoist Yun Tao smiled at him. It was high time for him to take advantage of Chu Kuangren now, so how would he let that chance go so easily?

Of course, he knew that demanding an Emperor Technique was too much as well.

However, there was nothing else that they lacked other than an Emperor Technique.

“How about this? A billion Top-tier soulstones. Does that work?”

After thinking it through in his head, Master Daoist Yun Tao decided to go for soulstones. Soulstones were a widely accepted currency throughout Firmament Star anyway. They could never have too much of it.

There was nothing else the Ethereal Rapture lacked.

Those other things they wanted from Chu Kuangren would still be too much to trade for just a few kilograms of Celestial Chalcedony. Chu Kuangren would never agree to that.

“A billion Top-tier soulstones for a kilogram of Celestial Chalcedony. Master Daoist Yun Tao, you have really outdone your calculations. Do you think our Black Heaven Sect's soulstones grow from trees?” Chu Kuangren sneered back.

That price was over ten times the market price!

This was plainly daylight robbery!

“Brother Chu, that is the lowest that we can take. If you disagree with this deal, I have no choice but to ask you to leave. I don't think it's that easy to find such Celestial Chalcedonies anywhere else on Firmament Star,” Master Daoist Yun Tao said knowingly.

He had the supply when there was demand.

That was why Master Daoist Yun Tao was so confident.

Chu Kuangren gritted hard on his teeth, cursing this old man deep inside his heart.

The Celestial Chalcedony was very important for him. It was a key material in setting up the Astonis.h.i.+ng Sea of Clouds Formation, so he could not afford to let this go.

He even began to consider trading an Emperor Technique.

He was only testing his adversary when he walked straight to the exit earlier. He could only say Master Daoist Yun Tao had over underestimated the importance of Celestial Chalcedony for him.

“Fine, a billion it is!”

Chu Kuangren gritted his teeth and pretended like he was infuriated.

Trading a billion soulstones was still better than trading an Emperor Technique. The worst he could do was to harvest them back from a few orthodoxies in the future.

“Ha, alright. Let me have some people get the goods for you.”

Master Daoist Yun Tao said.

After a while, a disciple came forth to report to him. “Sect Leader, there are not less than a hundred grams left of our Top-tier Celestial Chalcedony reserve.”

Upon hearing this, Chu Kuangren's face darkened. A cold light flashed in his eyes, and the Descendant Self Sword at his waist began to vibrate.

A terrifying Sword-based Daoist Rhyme filled the air!

Some of the elders fell silent.

That disciple who came to report had beads of sweat all over his forehead. He stared at the incredibly handsome Chu Kuangren with fear in his eyes.

“Is Ethereal Rapture toying with me?”

Chu Kuangren laughed coldly.

“Brother Chu, don't get mad just yet.”

Master Daoist Yun Tao quickly calmed him. Then, he turned to look at that disciple and questioned, “How could there be less than a hundred grams of Celestial Chalcedony left?”

That disciple's voice trembled as he explained, “Sect Leader, a few of our Daoists had been more diligent in their cultivation recently, so these Celestial Chalcedonies were consumed much quicker.”

It was the time where the unknown lands were revealing themselves to the world.

To prepare for that, their orthodoxy's disciples were all focused on cultivating. Therefore, the Ethereal Rapture's main combat resource — the Celestial Chalcedony was made available to every disciple. Hence, it was consumed very quickly.

“Oh, I see.”

Master Daoist Yun Tao came to a sudden realization. Then, he looked at Chu Kuangren and said apologetically, “Brother Chu, forgive me. I didn't expect things to turn out this way either.”

Chu Kuangren merely stared at him coldly.

He looked like he was telling Master Daoist Yun Tao to continue his petty act.

'As the leader of Ethereal Rapture, how could you not have any idea about this?'

This was clearly a pretentious act to make things difficult.

He was now intrigued to see how Master Daoist Yun Tao would fix this predicament. Since he would not get the goods, he must take those one billion soulstones back by whichever means.

Surely Master Daoist Yun Tao would not want to wage war against him like this?

“Hmm, how about this. The Celestial Chalcedony in our reserve may have run out, but there's a Celestial Chalcedony mineral vein in Ethereal Rapture. There are tons of unmined Celestial Chalcedonies there. Top-tier quality aside, there could even be Exquisite-tier ones too. As an apology, I'll allow Brother Chu to take however many kilograms of minerals you want.”

“Everything shall belong to Brother Chu, no matter what tier of Celestial Chalcedonies you can mine. What do you say?” Master Daoist Yun Tao said with a warm smile.

Chu Kuangren's interest was piqued.

Minerals?

That did not… sound bad at all!