Heavenly Dao Engine
Chapter 161 - 161 0169 This is the Bottom Line

Chapter 161: Chapter 0169: This is the Bottom Line Chapter 161: Chapter 0169: This is the Bottom Line The Qu Feng Equipment Store mostly sells equipment for cultivators in the Qi Cultivation Period. Even though there are occasionally items suitable for the use of Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators, they are not of satisfactory quality for Huang Liuyan.

For Qi Tian, any equipment that doesn’t catch the attention of the Heavenly Dao Engine isn’t good equipment. The Heavenly Dao Engine determines the quality of an item based on the amount of Spirit Qi it harbors. Sometimes, this method isn’t precise enough – for instance, it will not account for the priceless written content on secret books. However, most of the time, the judgment of the Heavenly Dao Engine is quite precise. After all, this is the Cultivation World, where cultivation is constantly interacting with the Spirit Qi. As for battle soldiers and battle armors, the quality of the materials used, the power of the runes they bear, and the vital essence of the cultivator imbued into them are all different forms of energy expressions that can be absorbed by the Heavenly Dao Engine as fuel.

Although the Heavenly Dao Engine is not picky about its ‘food’ right now, it still has its own preferences. For instance, Qi Tian has passed by many battle soldiers and battle armors, including top-grade spirit weapons at the heavenly level, yet the Heavenly Dao Engine didn’t react. It kept guiding Qi Tian in a certain direction.

Qi Tian noticed an interesting thing, the direction pointed by the Heavenly Dao Engine was almost the same as the direction they were heading, led by Xu Jialing. Thus, Qi Tian didn’t deliberately follow the Heavenly Dao Engine’s guidance, but instead followed Xu Jialing.

Soon enough, they arrived at an area displaying hundreds of rod-shaped spirit weapons. These rods, ranging in length and thickness, were displayed on the weapon rack one by one. Each rod bore different amounts of runes which, because they haven’t been activated, seemed somewhat dim.

“Here are all the heavenly level spirit rods that our Qu Feng Equipment Store currently has, ranging from low grade to top-grade. You can take a look and tell me which one you like, and I’ll get it for you,” Xu Jialing said.

“Qi Tian, you should pick one yourself.” Huang Liuyan said to Qi Tian, “You don’t necessarily have to choose one of higher grade, what suits you is the best.”

Qi Tian nodded and then eagerly walked towards the weapon rack. When the Heavenly Dao Engine came to this area, it became extremely excited. If Qi Tian hadn’t clenched his fists, the Heavenly Dao Engine might have jumped out from his palm, pouncing on one of the rods, like a hungry wolf.

That rod, with a thickness equivalent to that of a walnut, was as tall as Qi Tian’s eyebrows. It was completely red, with a golden hoop around both ends. There were more than a dozen runes on it, one of which was a wind rune, one an imperial rune, and the rest were power runes.

“Don’t cause trouble, I’ll feed you something good later,” Qi Tian murmured in his heart to soothe the Heavenly Dao Engine. It finally settled down. “Manager Xu, I’d like to have a look at this long rod,” he said.

Xu Jialing and Huang Liuyan came over. Looking at the rod Qi Tian pointed at, Xu Jialing said, “You have a keen eye. This Red Hoop Stick is currently the best rod-like spiritual weapon in our Qu Feng Equipment Store. It can be said to be extremely close to being a Spirit Treasure.”

Huang Liuyan also looked it up and down and silently nodded her head. Qi Tian’s choice this time was quite reliable. Although not proficient in fighting and not very knowledgeable about battle soldiers, she could still tell it was a good weapon. It was just right for Qi Tian’s current situation to use it.

Xu Jialing removed the runes restraining the Red Hoop Stick, took it off the weapon rack, and handed it to Qi Tian.

As soon as Qi Tian held the Red Hoop Stick in his hand, for some reason, he felt as if the Red Hoop Stick was about to sprout wings and fly away, as if he was holding a chicken that was struggling not to be controlled by him.

What the hell? Could a spirit weapon actually develop self-consciousness?

If this judgement was correct, then Qi Tian hit the jackpot. A battle soldier that developed self-consciousness had the rudiment of a weapon spirit and would have a great chance of giving birth to one in the future. A battle soldier that gave birth to a weapon spirit could definitely be said to be priceless. At the very least, it would be worth a major city like Zhangshui City owned by Qi Tian.

“Manager Xu, how much are you selling this Red Hoop Stick for?” Qi Tian asked casually while pretending to carefully examine the Red Hoop Stick suspected it would develop self-consciousness.

“Not expensive, just two thousand spirit stones,” Xu Jialing replied.

“How much? Two thousand spirit stones? That’s too expensive. This is just a spirit weapon and you’re selling it at a sky high price,” Huang Liuyan chimed in before Qi Tian could react, “At most one thousand five hundred.”

“Little Huang, if you haggle like that, we can’t even recover our costs. Here’s what we’ll do, since you’re a loyal customer of our Qu Feng Equipment Store, I’ll give you a discount. One thousand nine hundred, how about that?” Xu Jialing said.

“No, one thousand five hundred,” Huang Liuyan insisted.

Xu Jialing said, “One thousand eight, at most I’ll give you a War Soldier Ring on top. This is the bare minimum for Qu Feng Equipment Store.”

“Alright, deal.” Just when Xu Jialing thought Huang Liuyan would continue to haggle, Huang Liuyan had already nodded in agreement.

Xu Jialing chuckled bitterly, “Little Huang, you’re as ruthless a bargainer as ever. Had I known this earlier, I would have persisted more.”

“Alright, Sister Xu, stop complaining. With this deal sealed, your Qu Feng Equipment Store can still make a few hundred spirit stones.” Huang Liuyan said.

Xu Jialing gave a light laugh but did not respond. She took out a ring and handed it to Qi Tian. This was the so-called War Soldier Ring, a special storage type treasure that was used specifically to store combat weapons. Worn on the finger, it allowed the wearer to retrieve their weapon easily. Normally, a War Soldier Ring could only store one weapon. Back when Qi Tian first faced off against Zhao Qian, she was wearing a War Soldier Ring, which allowed her Sunset Snow Python Spear to appear and disappear at will.

Qi Tian, understanding the situation, handed over the one thousand eight hundred spirit stones to Xu Jialing while receiving the War Soldier Ring.

With the payment made and the goods in hand, the transaction was completed. Both parties were very satisfied with the outcome.

“Want to take a look at the battle armor?” Xu Jialing asked.

“Qi Tian, do you want to have a look?” Huang Liuyan looked at Qi Tian with some concern. She had always thought that Qi Tian didn’t have much money and had even prepared to pay the one thousand eight hundred spirit stones on Qi Tian’s behalf. To her surprise, Qi Tian ended up paying for it himself. Counting it all up, Qi Tian had already spent a total of four thousand nine hundred spirit stones. Such expenditure had far exceeded Qi Tian’s supposed wealth. In Huang Liuyan’s view, this must have been Qi Tian’s limit, and he might not be able to afford the battle armor that was coming up next.

“Let’s take a look.” During the Lianying Realm Stage, Qi Tian made a handsome profit selling something from Cai Qilong, the Cai Family Master. Coupled with other items, he had obtained a total of six thousand spirit stones from Zhu Ziyan. Add to that the spirit stone he purchased in the black market, the spirit stones he had won in the Lianying Trade Union auction, and some miscellaneous spirit stones collected from confiscated storage bags, subtracting some he had fed to the Heavenly Dao Engine, he still had about two thousand spirit stones left.

Of course, this did not include the spirit stone ores he had just bought from the second-hand market. If you included those, he would have even more.

Naturally, Xu Jialing was eager for Qi Tian to buy more. She quickly led Qi Tian towards the armor area.

The area displaying staves was sparse with people. After all, amongst cultivators, those who used staves as weapons were relatively few. Most people preferred swords or pole arms, hence the popularity of the staves was a bit niche.

In contrast, the armor area was bustling with activity. After all, every cultivator needed battle armor. Some were inclined towards metal armor, others preferred cloth armor, but they all had one thing in common—they loved inner armor.

In the Cultivation World, inner armor and outer metal armor were not contradictory. In fact, if you were willing, you could stack ten pieces of inner armor on your body, and then stack another set of ten pieces of exterior armor. It was possible. However, no one would do such a thing. Such a restriction would severely limit the body’s agility, and it would be very inconvenient. But more importantly, it would be unaffordable. Inner and outer armor, weapons, and other equipment, all required money to purchase. A person’s wealth was limited, it was impossible to pile up so many armors on oneself. Some poorer cultivators could only choose to purchase either inner or outer armor. Those who were even poorer simply skipped both inner and outer armor.

But even so, the battle armor area was quite lively. Given the size of Wanjie City and the many cultivators gathered from all over, there were still quite a lot of those willing to spend money on battle armor.

“These armors here are all of the heavenly level, feel free to browse.” Xu Jialing led Qi Tian to a relatively quieter area. Heavenly level armors were not cheap, so there were fewer people here.

Whether it was inner or outer armor: they were all kept on racks for potential buyers to inspect.

Qi Tian was more inclined to buy inner armor. Inner armor could not only protect vital areas of the body but also minimally impact the body’s agility.

Qi Tian spread out his hand, wanting the Heavenly Dao Engine to help identify which piece of inner armor had the densest Spirit Qi. However, he found the Heavenly Dao Engine being rather lazy and unenthusiastic, with almost every piece of inner armor getting a lukewarm reaction. It was as if a gourmet, stuffed with top-grade delicacies, was being presented with some ordinary food, not even worth a second glance.

‘Once bitten by the sea serpent, one can never appreciate the vastness of the ocean,’ a phrase popped into Qi Tian’s mind. Instead of feeling disappointed, he was even more delighted.