Chapter 460: Astral Iron
“I have not slept so comfortably for so long. Unexpectedly, I have slept until noon. It’s about time I go and find a Fist Technique.”
Xiao Chen went to a restaurant and ordered some food. Then, he called over a waiter and tossed a bag filled with hundreds of Inferior Grade Spirit Stones to him.
“Do you know how to get to the Ancient Desolate Underground Market?”
When the waiter felt how heavy the bag was, he immediately smiled and said, “Young hero, are you going there to sell or buy?”
Xiao Chen placed down his wine cup and asked, “Is there a difference?”
The waiter replied, “There is no difference actually. The location is the same. However, if you are going there to sell, you need to go and register at the Heavenly Extermination Union first. You look like this is the first time you are in Desolate City, I was afraid that you will end up making a pointless trip.”
Xiao Chen said, “That’s not a problem, I am not selling anything. You can just tell me how to get there.”
The waiter said, “After you leave the restaurant, just keep heading west. You will reach a lake in the middle of the city. We call this lake the Hidden Dragon Lake. The underground market you want to go to is under the lake.”
After Xiao Chen finished eating, he left the shop and immediately headed west.
There were many cultivators travelling in the air. Occasionally, Xiao Chen would see some cultivators who were rushing around crash into each other.
Xiao Chen did not want to attract any unnecessary trouble. So, he raised his flying height to a thousand meters. There were much less people there.
The higher one flew, the more Essence would be exhausted. Unless there were any urgent matters, regular cultivators would not fly higher than a thousand meters.
Now that Xiao Chen’s vision was not obstructed, and he was at a better vantage point, he suddenly discovered a tower in front of the many buildings in the distance.
Below the tower, there were five sharp horns sticking into the air. At the tip of the tower, a formless Spiritual Energy was rushing into the air, scattering the clouds and forming a large vacant area.
Xiao Chen muttered, “Is this the Ancient Desolate Tower?”
Unfortunately, Xiao Chen did not have a lot of time now. Otherwise, he would have definitely gone and checked it out. It was unknown what exactly was in this legendary and mysterious tower.
After one hour, a lake with Spiritual Energy extending throughout it appeared in Xiao Chen’s vision. The surface of the lake was calm, without any ripples.
However, there seemed to be a deep undercurrent within it. If one listened carefully, one would be able to hear the faint roars of a dragon.
“So this is Hidden Dragon Lake. Could there really be a dragon hidden within this lake? Or was it just casually named like this?” Xiao Chen smiled gently and landed on the water surface.
“Boom!”
Just at that moment, a loud roar came from under the lake. The water suddenly blasted apart, creating large splashes. A horrifying aura extended out in a circular manner into the surroundings .
“Xiu! Xiu!”
Under the suppression coming from the aura, circular walls of water rose up on the surface, growing continuously larger.
After a while, they arrived before Xiao Chen and passed through him, travelling to further places.
Xiao Chen’s clothes instantly became wet, turning him into a soaked chicken.
[TL note: Soaked chicken (落汤鸡): Refers to a person who looks drenched and bedraggled.]
Strange, it felt like something had startled me and caused me to freeze up. I clearly could have dodged that, yet I was unable to even move my Essence. Xiao Chen thought as he used his Essence to dry his clothes. At the same time, he felt curious about the roar he had heard earlier.
“How unlucky, what did I do to deserve this? This old ancestor had not acted up for several years already.”
“Let’s stop speaking about it and go down first. We are merely drenched. You can use your Essence to dry yourself.”
A cultivator nearby cursed in a whisper. He had suffered the same fate as Xiao Chen.
Xiao Chen did not bother to continue thinking about this problem though. After all, he would not be able to figure out the answer anyway. He covered himself in an Essence shield, took a deep breath and sank down into the lake like the other cultivators around him.
Under the water, several cultivators could be seen moving around. Xiao Chen followed the crowd and slowly sank deeper into the water.
Ten minutes later, Xiao Chen saw a bright, white light in the center of the lake. Before he could react, a strong suction force pulled him down.
By the time Xiao Chen reacted, he found that he was already floating in mid-air. Above him was a transparent barrier, keeping the lake water away.
Underneath was a bustling market with lanterns lighting the place up. There were many people moving below and the place was full of the sound of people bargaining.
Xiao Chen hesitated for a while before slowly floating down to the ground. Soon, he disappeared into the crowd.
The market was covered in streets lined by merchants, so it ended up, looking like a dense spiderweb.
Xiao Chen walked on one of these streets, looking around interestedly. Indeed, it was as Xia Xiyan had told him. There were all sorts of people here. For example Demonic Cultivators, who were normally rarely seen, could be seen in significant numbers here.
The cultivators who set up stores seemed to sell almost everything. There were all sorts of Spirit Beasts corpses, materials from Demonic Beasts, Spirit Cores, Demonic Cores, Medicinal Pills, secret manuals, Cultivation Techniques, Spirit Weapons, and Secret Treasures.
There were so many items, that they were uncountable. Furthermore, these were just the regular items. What was more surprising were the extremely strange and evil items.
For example, there was a live girl placed at a store and had a price tag attached to her. After asking about it, Xiao Chen found out that this girl had a rare Absolute Yin Body. Evil cultivators would use her as a cultivation cauldron.
Then there was the Ten Thousand Blood Demon Pearl which was refined from human souls. Ten thousand Martial Saint cultivators had to be killed in order to refine it.
All sorts of evil items could be found here. Along the way, Xiao Chen saw many cultivators with deep cultivation.
Thus, he carefully withdrew his aura. In here, he was considered as nothing. Those strong people could easily squish him to death with one finger.
However, there was no need to worry about someone killing you in the market. No one dared to disobey the rules of the Heavenly Extermination Union.
The only problem was that it would be hard to say what would happen after you left the market.
Suddenly, Xiao Chen stopped at a store. His gaze was fixed on a black stone about the size of a human head.
“This is raw Astral Iron. After refining it, one could obtain a palm-sized piece of Astral Iron,” Xiao Chen said, feeling excited.
Astral Iron was a meteorite. It could be used to fix strong and ancient Secret Treasures. It was also an important material for refining Secret Treasures.
Xiao Chen had obtained a small piece of Astral Iron in the past. He used it to repair the Eastern Emperor Bell. Unfortunately, the Eastern Emperor Bell was ranked too highly. That small bit of Astral Iron was insufficient to completely repair it. This resulted in the Eastern Emperor Bell becoming a piece of scrap metal once again.
The owner of the stall seemed to barely be an Inferior Grade Martial King. He did not appear to recognize this as Astral Iron.
Xiao Chen’s expression remained calm and unchanging. He squatted down and picked up a Rank 7 Demonic Core that was beside the Astral Iron. he asked, “How much is this going for?”
When the owner of the stall saw that there was some business, he immediately smiled and answered, “This is a Demonic Core from a Rank 7 wind-attributed Demonic Beasts—the Green Hummingbird. If you embed it into a Spirit Weapon, you will be able to increase the attacking speed of the Spirit Weapon. If you are a wind-attributed cultivator, you can use the Turbid Cloudy Water to draw out the evil aura of the Demonic Beasts. Then, you will be able to absorb the energy of the Demonic Beast. You can also use it to refine medicine…”
Seeing the owner of the stall introduce the item in an unending manner, Xiao Chen interrupted him. He said, “I know all this. What I am asking is, how much is it. Not what can it be used for.”
The owner of the stall smiled embarrassedly. He said, “It is not expensive. If you are paying in Inferior Grade Spirit Stones, it will be twenty thousand. If in Medial Grade Spirit Stones, then one hundred.”
Xiao Chen took out twenty thousand Inferior Grade Spirit Stones and tossed it over to the other party. He said, “I will be taking this Demonic Core.”
“How straightforward. This Demonic Core belongs to you then!” The owner of the store revealed a smile and tossed the Demonic Core to Xiao Chen. Clearly, he had not expected him to be so straightforward.
Xiao Chen caught the Demonic Core and played with it. The expression on his face indicated that he was very happy.
The owner of the stall instinctually felt that Xiao Chen might be a big customer. He might even be the disciple of a big sect. Given that he was so generous when purchasing the Demonic Core, the owner could not bear to miss out on this opportunity.
When he saw that Xiao Chen was preparing to leave, he quickly said, “Young Hero, would you like to continue looking around. I still have some good items that are not displayed.”
Xiao Chen turned around, appearing to be interested. “What good things?”
The owner of the stall chuckled and took out some Secret Treasures from his spatial ring. He laid them on the ground in a orderly fashion, one by one.
Xiao Chen picked them up and felt them carefully. He could not help but feel somewhat disappointed. They were all some lousy Secret Treasures.
They might have been useful to Martial Saints but were completely useless to Martial Kings. There were merely of the same grade as that jade pendant he had obtained in the past.
Xiao Chen’s expression remained unchanging as he nodded. He said, “These are good things. I want them all. How much are they? Don't give me all that nonsense, introducing all of them. Just tell me the price.”
When the owner of the stall heard this, he was mildly stunned. After a while, he rejoiced in his heart. It seemed like he had met one of those legendary rich heirs.
He clearly did not understand anything but pretended to be an expert. He even called a bunch of rubbish good things.
Secret Treasures were valuable but not all Secret Treasures were worth a lot. To them, as Martial Kings, such low-quality Inferior Grade Secret Treasure were just a pile of rubbish.
Seeing the owner of the stall remain silent, Xiao Chen said somewhat impatiently, “How much? If you are not going to tell me the price, then I will be leaving.”
The owner of the stall recovered his wits. He clenched his teeth and said, “If paying in Inferior Grade Spirit Stones, it will be two hundred thousand. As for Medial Grade Spirit Stones, it will be one thousand.”
Xiao Chen remained silent and did not say anything.
The owner of the stall realized that he over exaggerated the price. He quickly said, “150,000 Inferior Grade Spirit Stones will do.”
Xiao Chen appeared as though he had just recovered his wits and said, “150,000 Inferior Grade Spirit Stones? Very well, it’s a deal.”
When the owner of the stall heard this, he could not help but feel like vomiting blood. It turns out that this fellow did not hear what he had said earlier. It was him who overthought things, causing him to lose fifty thousand Inferior Grade Spirit Stones.
The owner of the stall was now filled with regrets. When he looked at Xiao Chen, who had paid up and was preparing to leave, he felt dissatisfied. He said, “Wait for a moment, Young Hero. There are still some more good items.”
Xiao Chen smiled and said, “There are still good items? Take them out for me to see!”
Good items…good items…. The owner of the stall looked around his store, trying to find something that he could pass off as an good item.
Suddenly, he spotted that dark and swarthy raw Astral Iron. His eyes lit up and he smiled, “It’s this item. Let’s see, how do I explain this…”
The owner of the stall was instantly placed into a difficult spot. He did not even recognize this item. He only felt that it could be useful and displayed it at his stall.
Now that he needed to introduce this, he really did not know how to do it. He felt very anxious. He hoped that Xiao Chen would say once again, ‘cut the crap and just tell me the price.’
Xiao Chen showed a doubtful expression and asked, “What is this?!”
“Haha, Young Hero does not know what is this?” The owner of the stall laughed embarrassedly. Then, he said, “You must know what this is, should I just tell you the price?”
Xiao Chen shook his head and said, “I really do not know what this is. Isn’t this just a black piece of rock? What use does it have, tell me more.”
The owner of the stall felt very anxious. He did his best to search for words to describe this black rock. However, even after thinking for a long time, he could not find any.