The Divine Nine-Dragon Cauldron
Page 10Chapter 10: Duke Xianyu
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Having heard what the young lady said, Senior Qin had a dull face and laughed lightly. "The young man was saving the young princess and not harming her. According to the agreement, I can only protect her when she is in danger, otherwise I would not interfere.
"Anyways, even if I were to take action instead, I could only use that indecent method to suck out the snake's poison. Young lady, would you have preferred this old man use this mouth of his to touch the young princess's priceless body?" Senior Qin laughed lightly as usual.
The young lady was left speechless. She then bit her teeth. "Then, do you remember what that young man looked like?"
Senior Qin lightly shook his head. "No, I do not. That kid's movement was very agile. My angle was not good; from my perspective, I could only see his back view and his silhouette after he disguised himself."
The young lady was furious. She could not help but feel worried. "We are dead now, Duke Xianyu will definitely be as angry as a thunderstorm…"
Returning to the outside world, at a town in the Xianyu prefecture, a shadow of light flashed through the people's eyes. Su Yu covered his face with a veil and went to a dark alley.
In the martial arts training institute, he heard that in the alley, there were black merchants who bought materials that came from unknown origins through illegal sellers.
The fire snake's materials were very valuable and could fetch a very good price. However, he understood that if he sold these materials openly, he would get himself into trouble. As the young lady was at Level Three Lower Tier of the Martial Path, he could not reveal himself.
"Old man, do you want materials?" Deep inside the alley, when Su Yu saw an old man holding a toad-shaped smoking pipe, an idea flashed through his mind.
The old man twitched his eyelids and said, "You have found the wrong person."
"I will sell my illegal materials to you at a cheap price." Su Yu's mouth wore a smile. He understood that the old man was being cautious, causing him to be blunt. Su Yu then took out a piece of the fire dragon's poisonous fangs.
The old man's eyes shone brightly and he spoke with a soft and amazed voice. "Demonic beast materials!"
He was astonished; the young man in front of him was only at Level Two, how was it possible for him to kill a Level Three demonic beast? As he thought about the illegal materials, he understood that they came from a questionable origin.
"Follow me!" The old man opened a small, inconspicuous door and brought Su Yu into a secret compound.
As Su Yu could tell that this old man had been buying illegal materials for a very long time, he was not afraid of the old man plotting something against him.
"Is that really the fire dragon?" As the old man with the smoking pipe looked at the 20 meters long gigantic snake skin, his eyes filled with excitement.
The old man with the smoking pipe quoted Su Yu a price after calculating for a while. "For the gallbladder, I will give you 50 taels of silver; for the poisonous fangs, I will give you 100 taels of silver; for this length of snake skin, I will give you 500 taels of silver; the total will be 650 taels of silver!"
Su Yu laughed coldly. "Old man, on this bright and sunny day, you have a black and evil heart; are you not scared that you would be struck by lightning on this sunny day? You are only willing to give me 650 taels of silver for materials that are worth 1,200 taels? If that is the case, then I will look for other people; within the Xianyu prefecture, there are many others that are willing to buy illegal materials and not just you alone."
Su Yu thought to himself, from 1,200 taels of silver, the price had dropped by 25 percent and it was not worth it.
However, these were the prices in a black market.
"Deal! However, you have to give me a bit of the snake skin as I want to make armor out of it." Su Yu's eyes were filled with wisdom as he tried to bargain with the old man.
The head of the old man shook his head as though it was a rattle-drum. "No way! That would be too much of a loss for me!"
Su Yu smiled and said, "How about if I bought a few spirit elixirs from you? This way, you would not take any losses!"
The spirit elixirs sold by black merchant were 10 percent cheaper than the market price. For a low-grade spirit elixir, it would cost 100 taels of silver in the normal market. However, it would only cost 90 taels of silver here. It was a good that one could not find easily. Silver students came here regularly to buy the cheaper spirit elixirs.
The eyes of the old man with the smoking pipe shone brightly, "How many spirit elixirs do you want?"
"Three low-grade and one middle-grade!" Su Yu said. For a middle-grade spirit elixir, it would cost 500 taels of silver normally. But here, it would only cost him 450 taels of silver. Combined with the four low-grade spirit elixirs, the total cost will be just 900 taels of silver.
"Haha! Deal!" The old man took out two jade bottles, filled with low-grade and middle-grade spirit elixirs respectively.
After confirming that the spirit elixirs were real, Su Yu removed a length of the snake skin and left.
Right before he left, the eyes of the old man shone brightly and gave Su Yu a token. "Haha, kid, old man likes people like you who are straightforward. Take this token, go to the town's biggest Donglin artisan shop and look for Master Zhang Ze; he will make you the perfect armor."
"Take it as an additional reward from this old man. When you have first class goods, please sell it to me again in the future." The old man smiled and closed the door.
Su Yu looked around his surroundings. When he reached the end of the street, he threw the token away. After which, he removed his disguise and disappeared.
After two hours, the old man was happily making an inventory of the components of the fire dragon.
Bang－
His door was kicked open and 20 murderous-looking black-armored soldiers who had all achieved the frightening realm of Level Five dashed into the compound! They stood at both sides of the doors respectively, as though they were welcoming a person with very high status!
On the chest of the black-armored soldiers, there was a totem of a hawk carved on each one of them. Only people belonging to the imperial family possessed this totem; it was their symbol!
Moreover, in the Xianyu prefecture, there was only one person authorized to bestow the totem onto the armors of the soldiers, Duke Xianyu! He was the most powerful person in the Xianyu prefecture!
After the respectful welcome of the black-armored soldiers, a handsome and dignified man with a gloomy expression entered the compound with his hands clasped behind his back. He saw the scarlet snakeskin on the floor.
Beside the young lady, a beautiful lady wearing a light yellow dress had hazy eyes full of tears to the extent that they were red and swollen. She kept on sobbing, as though she had experienced a great grievance.
Having heard what the middle aged man had said, the beautiful lady took the lead and looked. At the same time, she started to cry again, angry and embarrassed. "This is it! As expected, that scum had brought the materials to the black market to sell them!"
"Who sold this to you? Where is the guy?" The middle aged man gave off a powerful and frightening vibe, intimidating the old man with the smoking pipe and causing his face to turn pale.
The old man's knees turned soft. His eyes were filled with fear and shock. He got on his knees and groveled repeatedly, "Duke, please forgive me! A commoner like me didn't know that these materials' origins were connected to your people! I deserve to die, I deserve to die!"
The middle-aged man clasped his hands behind his back and stood up. His face was calm, but his eyes were burning with anger. "Answer me! Who sold this to you? Where is the guy?"
The old man said, "It was a young man; he put on a disguise, hence I could not get a good look."
Suddenly, the trembling old man remembered something. As though he had found his last hope, he said, "Oh yes, I gave him a token. Perhaps, he had gone to Donglin artisan shop to make his armor!"
The old man was quick witted; he knew that he was smart to give Su Yu that token.
"Investigate the Donglin artisan shop now! Bring this old man away and continue to interrogate him!" Duke Xianyu's eyes were burning with extreme anger.
When his daughter was unconscious, she was taken advantage of! As her father, how could he not be angry? He understood that the guy who saved his daughter had good intentions. However, to his daughter, this was a matter of chastity and he needed to capture the man to give his daughter an explanation!
The black-armored soldiers marched mightily towards the Donglin artisan shop and did a thorough investigation.
"Duke, no one has come here before!" One of his soldiers gave him a report.
In no time, another soldier was holding a token. "Duke, this token was found at the corner of an alley. The guy must have been very cautious and threw this token away!"
Duke Xianyu's face turned very sour and slammed the table angrily. "What a cunning kid!"
Firstly, he brought the materials to the black market and sold them. Even so, he did not forget to disguise himself!
Next, he was crafty enough to throw away the token and not reveal himself at the Donglin artisan shop, preventing anyone from finding out who he was when they followed the clues.
This guy was very cunning; he hid himself profoundly which made himself untraceable!
As of now, there were only two pieces of information regarding him. Firstly, his fist and leg techniques were good. Secondly, from the prediction of the fire dragon's dead body, this guy's archery skills were top-notch and he had the ability and accuracy to hit the tip of another arrow!
"Go and find out who the young geniuses are who possessed excellent archery skills!" Duke Xianyu stared at a distance with anger; he would not give up until the matter had been resolved!
At a teahouse close to Donglin artisan shop, Su Yu had changed into a clean and new robe that was completely different from the one he wore when he was in the mountain range. Even if Li Minghai were standing in front of him, he would still be unable to recognize Su Yu.
He leaned against a railing, quietly drinking his tea and secretly waiting for people to start looking for him.
He wanted to know who the two ladies and the man were. In addition, he also wanted to know whether they had the abilities to easily find out about the old man with the smoking pipe and track him all the way to Donglin artisan shop. From this, he could secretly find out whether he had offended someone with frightening power so that he would not need to worry about future consequences.
However, he witnessed a scene which made him gasp.
"Duke Xianyu!" Su Yu's body started to tremble in fear, and his forehead was completely covered with cold sweat.
That two ladies and the man were actually related to Duke Xianyu!
To be able to alarm Duke Xianyu and him to come out personally to settle the matter, the beautiful lady who was crying had to be someone who had very close relations to Duke Xianyu. There was even a possibility that she was the princess of the Xianyu prefecture!!
Thinking that the person he touched was actually the daughter of Duke Xianyu, Su Yu had thoughts of suicide. Su Yu regretted his decision to save the beautiful lady. Be it in his past life or in his current life, anyone who saved people out of kindness might not end up with a good ending.
"I am done with this. It will be difficult for them to find out my identity. Hopefully they treat it as a misunderstanding. In the future, I will live in seclusion and the chances of my identity being exposed would be low." Su Yu sighed and returned to the training institute.
However, he did not return to his dormitory. Instead, he entered the training institute's training room. Entry to the training room was permanently free, and to a poor student like Su Yu, opportunities like this were rare.
However, the training room was split into different classes as well, lower class and upper class.
At the upper class training room, there was a better environment and a spiritual pool. By training in the spiritual pool, the practitioner's inner strength and body would become even stronger.
Sadly, there were only 10 of these rooms. Only the rumored 10 demon students as well as privileged students were allowed to use them. For poor students like Su Yu, they could only gaze at them and lament at their own insignificance.
Creak－
"Eh, it's you? What are you training?" A voice that was pleasant to the ear and sounded as though it was indifferent to fame and gain could be heard.
Su Yu tilted his head and cupped his hands in gratitude. "I have seen you before, fairy."
In his mind, Su Yu felt strange. Could it be that the celestial beauty was also a student of the training institute? In addition, she came out from the upper class training room. Could she be one of the ten demons? Or was she one of the highly privileged students?