Chapter 1461: The Second Level Of The Merit Pavilion

“Around the corner?” Responding to Duan Ling Tian, Elder Huo replied, “You’re too confident. The reason the third level of the Seven Treasures Exquisite PaG.o.da could be repaired by 60% with just these few materials is all thanks to the Nuwa Stone fragment. Among them all, just the Nuwa Stone fragment alone can boost the repair by 40%.”

Elder Huo’s words were like a bucket of cold water that was poured on Duan Ling Tian’s head as it completely overpowered the excitement and joy in his heart.

So, it turned out that the reason these materials could repair it by that extent was all thanks to the Nuwa Stone fragment.

At once, the Nuwa Stone fragment in Duan Ling Tian’s heart skyrocketed right away.

“Elder Huo, I’ve heard of a legend before. It says that Sun Wu Kong, the Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, was actually born from the five-colored stone that had fallen when Nuwa was repairing the Heavens. You also seemed to have said before that Sun Wu Kong wasn’t a native to Planet Yan Huang, but was transformed from the Nuwa Stone of the Ancient G.o.ddess Nuwa. Is the five-colored stone really that extraordinary to the point that it could give birth to such a freak as Sun Wu Kong?” Duan Ling Tian asked curiously.

“Of course, an ordinary five-colored stone wouldn’t have been able to give birth to such a freak as the Horse Protector. The part that gave birth to him was the most valuable part of the five-colored stone which is also called the Five-colored Chalcedony. Through the creation of Heaven and Earth, along with the place that was endowed with the fine spirits of the universe, a freak such as the Horse Protector could finally be born,” Elder Huo replied.

“Oh, I see,” Duan Ling Tian finally understood before asking again, “Then, in this case, is the five-colored stone fragment that I obtained just now just an ordinary five-colored stone fragment?”

“Yes,” Elder Huo replied.

“Elder Huo, since this five-colored stone is so extraordinary, would it be any help to me?” Duan Ling Tian could not help but ask again.

The moment he thought of how powerful this five-colored stone was, he also hoped that it would be able to bring some benefits to himself. In that case, it would be better than using it on the Seven Treasures Exquisite PaG.o.da.

“If it’s an intact five-colored stone, then without a doubt, it would be a great help to you. However, if it’s only a fragment of the five-colored stone, it’s no help to you at all.”

Upon hearing this, Duan Ling Tian became slightly disappointed.

Now that all of the materials he needed had been bought, Duan Ling Tian left the first level of the Merit Pavilion and proceeded to the second level. “The second level of the City Governor’s Estate of Mound Hill City houses the Saint Grade Martial Tactics, so I wonder if it’s the same case too here on the second level of the Merit Pavilion of the Moon Illumination Sect.”

Duan Ling Tian entered the second level of the Merit Pavilion and discovered that this was not the place that housed the Saint Grade Martial Tactics.

The second level of the Merit Pavilion was a place where they could exchange their Merit Points for a variety of materials.

The different materials could be used in refining weapons and pill. Some could even be used for inscribing Dao Talismans and Saint Inscriptions.

Of course, the materials that could be placed in the second level of the Merit Pavilion were all valuable. In the Moon Illumination Sect, n.o.body would be willing to use their Merit Points in exchange for ordinary material.

After all, the Merit Points were far more valuable than the Saint Stones in the Moon Illumination Sect.

“Of all these various valuable materials on the second level of the Merit Pavilion, I wonder whether there’re any that could be used to repair the Seven Treasures Exquisite PaG.o.da.” The moment Duan Ling Tian thought about this, he began to look forward to it.

Right then, the third level of the Seven Treasures Exquisite PaG.o.da could be deemed to have already been repaired by 70%. With just another 30% more to go, it would be completely restored.

There was a counter by the entrance of the second level of the Merit Pavilion with an old man sitting behind it. The old man appeared to be dozing off, but he gave off a peculiar sense of feeling.

When Duan Ling Tian pa.s.sed the counter, he even had a feeling that he was being monitored.

At once, he glanced at the old man warily and realized that although he appeared to be dozing off, he was actually wide awake, much more so than anyone else.

Just as Duan Ling Tian looked at the old man vigilantly, the old man opened his misty eyes and instructed nonchalantly, “Leave your Spatial Ring behind, then only can you go in.”

Duan Ling Tian nodded his head before taking his Spatial Ring off and placing it on the counter.

He knew that the feeling of being monitored that he had earlier must have been the old man using his powerful Spiritual Energy to check on the Spatial Ring on his body. He was probing to see how many Spatial Rings he had. Fortunately, the Seven Treasures Exquisite PaG.o.da was not something that the old man could detect using his Spiritual Energy.

Duan Ling Tian was not worried about placing his Spatial Ring on the countertop as well.

That was a Spatial Ring that had had a Blood Owners.h.i.+p Claim performed on it. Unless he died, it would be useless even if someone else took it as he would have no way of performing an owners.h.i.+p claim on it at all.

Of course, Duan Ling Tian was not surprised by the rule of having to hand over the Spatial Ring in the second level of the Merit Pavilion.

It was obvious that there were no other people guarding the second level of the Merit Pavilion. There were only a few people over there picking their materials.

If they did not hand over their Spatial Rings, it would be hard to avoid people from sneakily placing materials into their Spatial Rings and intentionally sneaking them out through the ring to save their Merit Points.

After Duan Ling Tian walked into the second level of the Merit Pavilion, he motioned to Elder Huo. “Elder Huo, please have a look whether there’s any material here that you could use to repair the Seven Treasures Exquisite PaG.o.da.”

Usually, if he did not take the initiative to signal Elder Huo, the latter would not look at the surroundings outside.

Duan Ling Tian was very pleased with this. At the very least, Elder Huo would not take a peek at his privacy.

Elder Huo was still quite sensible when it came to this.

Now that Duan Ling Tian was the owner of the Seven Treasures Exquisite PaG.o.da, he would be able to instantly find out if Elder Huo looked outside through the Seven Treasures Exquisite PaG.o.da.

He knew that Elder Huo was not looking now, so he took the initiative to signal him.

After going around the second level of the Merit Pavilion, Duan Ling Tian managed to find more than ten items that could be used to repair the Seven Treasures Exquisite PaG.o.da. However, even if all of these items were added up together, it could only repair the third level of the Seven Treasures Exquisite PaG.o.da by 10%.

“It seems like I really lucked out when I was on the first level of the Merit Pavilion,” Duan Ling Tian lamented to himself.

The materials on the second level of the Merit Pavilion had their price clearly marked with no bargaining allowed.

The ten-odd items that Duan Ling Tian found cost a total of 15,000 Merit Points — ten times more than what he spent on the first level of the Merit Pavilion.

Duan Ling Tian could not help but be filled with all sorts of emotions as he thought about this.

Of course, he knew that there was no point in comparing.

With the Nuwa Stone fragment that was the most valuable being a gift on the first level of the Merit Pavilion, there was no need for him to spend a single Merit Point at all.

After he returned to the counter and took out the Crystal Card straightforwardly to swipe 15,000 Merit Points from it, Duan Ling Tian slid the Spatial Ring back on his finger again before storing away the items that he had bought from the second level of the Merit Pavilion.

“Thank you, elder.” Before Duan Ling Tian went to the third level of the Merit Pavilion, he thanked the old man behind the counter.

This old man had powerful Spiritual Energy that surpa.s.sed every other person that he had come across before. Of course, every other person there was everyone who had demonstrated their Spiritual Energy in front of Duan Ling Tian before.

As for those who had not, Duan Ling Tian had no idea either just how strong their Spiritual Energy was.

It was also for this reason that he suspected that this old man must be an inner court elder.

“I wonder whether Elder Dongfang is more powerful than him or not?” Duan Ling Tian thought to himself.

Elder Dongfang was Dongfang Quan, the grand elder of the outer court district of the Moon Illumination Sect. Duan Ling Tian had gone to find him before and had met him once.

However, he did not use his Spiritual Energy to probe Duan Ling Tian, so the latter had no idea just how strong his Spiritual Energy was.

That time, he had used a fourth-grade Saint Stone and ten pieces of fifth-grade Saint Stones to ask Dongfang Quan to make a statement. That very statement was released just a few days before the Death Duel between Feng Fan and him.

Many were taken aback by this then.

It had never crossed his mind that the grand elder of the outer court, Dongfang Quan, would release a statement to become the witness for the bet that Duan Ling Tian set up and was willing to help him carry out his promises had he been killed.

Many people tried to speculate the relations.h.i.+p between Duan Ling Tian and Dongfang Quan.

However, they would never be able to guess that Duan Ling Tian actually relied on these eleven Saint Stones to forge this relations.h.i.+p with Dongfang Quan.

Of course, it was mostly because of the meaning these eleven Saint Stones implied.

Usually, the Saint Stones that were mainly circulated around the surrounding districts of the Moon Illumination Sect and even the entire Nine Sect Alliances’ district were sixth-grade Saint Stones. These sixth-grade Saint Stones could only be produced in a small number in an ordinary seventh-grade Saint Stone reserve.

As for the fifth-grade Saint Stones, even if they managed to enter the Nine Sect Alliances’ district, very few people would take them out to use.

Most of them would use it for cultivation instead.

As everyone knew, the higher grade Saint Stones would not affect the cultivation speed, but the if the Saint Stone was of a high grade, high-intensity closed-door cultivation could then be maintained for a longer period of time without the need to be interrupted halfway to change the stone. Many Martial and Dao Cultivators had missed the golden opportunity to make a breakthrough because they had to keep changing Saint Stones halfway.

Therefore, a higher grade Saint Stone would always be sought after by a Martial or Dao Cultivator who had a high cultivation base.

For Martial and Dao Cultivators who had a high cultivation base, their closed-door cultivation would usually take up to several years long. It was not possible for some to have closed-door cultivation of up to several dozen years or even up to 100 years.

Of the eleven Saint Stones that Duan Ling Tian gave to Dongfang Quan, ten of them were fifth-grade Saint Stones while one was a fourth-grade Saint Stone.

A fifth-grade Saint Stone would need to be produced in at least a sixth-grade Saint Stone reserve that a sixth-rated force controlled. It was very scarce in the Nine Sect Alliances’ district but the chances of coming across one were not entirely zero.

The fourth-grade Saint Stones, on the other hand, were extremely rare in the Nine Sect Alliances’ district.

This was because it needed at least a fifth-grade Saint Stone reserve that was controlled by a fifth-rated force for it to be produced.

Unless the people from the Nine Sect Alliances’ district went to the central district of a district controlled by a fifth-rated force to get the possibility to exchange for a fourth-grade Saint Stone, it was basically impossible for anybody from the Nine Sect Alliances’ district to possess a fourth-grade Saint Stone.

Of course, there was another possibility, which was if somebody from the central district of the district controlled by the fifth-rated force came to the Nine Sect Alliances’ district and left a fourth-grade Saint Stone behind.

This fourth-grade Saint Stone that Duan Ling Tian took out was more than enough to keep Dongfang Quan from guessing his ident.i.ty.

That was also Duan Ling Tian’s purpose.

It was also why Dongfang Quan would have gone along with him so straightforwardly.

Otherwise, as only an outer court disciple, what basis did he have to let the awe-inspiring Dongfang Quan help him?

“There’re not many polite little fellas like you now these days.” The old man smiled, never expecting Duan Ling Tian to take the initiative to thank him.

In fact, usually, the people who came to the second level of the Merit Pavilion would leave right away after they had exchanged their materials. Who would give a d.a.m.n about this old man like he did?

“Little fella, what’s your name?” The old man asked kindly.