King of Creation
Chapter 258 - 255 Qingluo City

Chapter 258: Chapter 255 Qingluo City

"Sect Leader, Elder Zou Zhi... he... he has fallen!"

On the main peak where the Sect Leader Yuruhai of the Sword Origin Sect resided, Elder Zhii Sheng, who sought to meet with the Sect Leader, wore a face of deep sorrow!

His white robes scattered, Sect Leader Yuruhai, who was boiling tea, suddenly raised his head and looked fixedly at Zhii Sheng. His stable and strong hands could not help but tremble slightly, not even noticing as boiled water splashed onto his feet.

The air seemed to freeze at that moment.

Sect Leader Yuruhai quietly watched Elder Zhii Sheng, trying desperately to detect something different, even though he knew it was unlikely, he still hoped that he had heard wrong.

Zhii Sheng, seeing the hope in Yuruhai’s eyes, still shook his head cruelly.

"Sect Leader, this is... Elder Zou Zhi’s head! I am incompetent, and after searching tirelessly within a thousand miles, I failed to find Elder Zou Zhi’s... body!"

From a storage bracelet, he retrieved Zou Zhi’s head and gently placed it on a small table in front of Sect Leader Yuruhai.

Due to the Blood-sucking Vine, Zou Zhi’s head had been drained of all flesh, making it resemble a skull wrapped in skin at first glance, with eyes wide open in death.

As this sight entered Sect Leader Yuruhai’s view, his face suddenly turned pale, and his chest heaved violently a few times, turning his face a sudden crimson red as if stained with blood.

"Pfft!"

A jet of blood suddenly spurted from Yuruhai’s mouth, staining the boiling green tea as well as the front of his white robe.

"Sect Leader!"

Zhii Sheng cried out in alarm and moved forward to support Yuruhai, but he was stopped by a hand gesture from Yuruhai, who just kept staring intently at Zou Zhi’s dried-up head.

No one knew how deeply the death of Zou Zhi struck Sect Leader Yuruhai of the Sword Origin Sect, besides Sect Leader Yuruhai himself; others were utterly unaware of how significant Elder Zou Zhi’s fall was to the Sword Origin Sect.

There were no few elders in the Soul Sea Realm of the Sword Origin Sect. Counting the newly advanced one, there were nearly twenty. During the battle for the War Soul Blood Flag, five sect elders had fallen, an event that had always been a pain in Sect Leader Yuruhai’s heart.

But compared to the fall of those five elders, Zou Zhi’s death caused Yuruhai even more heartache and was a greater loss to the Sword Origin Sect.

The reason was simple: the higher the cultivation of a martial artist, the more immersed they became in cultivation and the less they managed worldly affairs. This phenomenon was particularly severe among the elders of the Sword Origin Sect.

Zou Zhi was one of the few elders who ran errands for the sect’s worldly affairs. Most importantly, Zou Zhi was extremely tactful and good at diplomacy; he managed all of the Sword Origin Sect’s external affairs.

Zou Zhi’s death was akin to Sect Leader Yuruhai losing a right-hand man!

How could Yuruhai not feel heartache and vomit blood?

Yuruhai’s gaze remained fixed on Zou Zhi’s head, as invisible evil qi suddenly surged forth.

Hiss!

A burst of sword energy suddenly shot out from Yuruhai, scattering across his body, making it seem as though tens of thousands of sword lights were rising and converging around him.

Hiss!

Elder Zhii Sheng drew a sharp breath.

He understood, this was the Sect Leader in true fury, anger reaching its zenith.

"Where is Ye Zhen now... any movements?" Yuruhai spoke slowly, anyone could hear that he was desperately suppressing his anger.

"Reporting to the Sect Leader, his whereabouts are still unconfirmed. However, based on my speculation, although I do not know how Ye Zhen managed to kill Elder Zou Zhi, he must have been frightened by it. I think, it’s very likely that this scoundrel, Ye Zhen, has already returned to his country," Zhii Sheng added another sentence, "If it were me being pursued by an existence two realms higher, I would definitely be scared."

"Go investigate!"

These two words burst forth through Yuruhai’s teeth, "If Ye Zhen’s whereabouts are found, notify me immediately, I will personally take action to slay this fiend, to avenge Elder Zou Zhi... for this blood feud!"

"I will heed the Sect Leader’s command!"

"Issue my decree, let the whole sect wear mourning attire, hang spirit banners, and commission the best craftsmen to carve a jade effigy and an entire set of bones for Elder Zou Zhi’s funeral!"

Dong!

Dong!

Dong!

....

Before long, thirty-six mourning bells rang from the top of the Sword Origin Sect’s peak, and once again, a half-year after the fall of the five elders, the entire Sword Origin Sect was draped in white.

....

Qingluo City, the second largest bustling city in the Phantom Divine Empire, following the Divine Capital.

People bustled about, traders flowed incessantly, exceptionally busy.

At this moment, Ye Zhen was standing in the hall of a shop named Gu Treasure Pavilion in Qingluo City, which specialized in martial artist business and sold martial artist cultivation resources, waiting for the shopkeeper to come and attend to him.

Traveling abroad had truly broadened Ye Zhen’s horizons; it was not without reason that Black Water Kingdom was known as a barren land within a radius of tens of thousands of miles.

Not to mention anything else, just the population was far behind that of the Black Dragon Domain’s strongest country, the Phantom Divine Empire.

In the Royal City of Black Water, where a million people lived, the shops that specialized in martial artist business were not crowded, and it was considered lively if there were two or three customers at the same time.

But, within Qingluo City, not even a royal city of the Phantom Divine Empire, a very ordinary place called Gu Treasure Pavilion swarms with people. In just this brief time, more than a dozen Martial Artists have come and gone, and another dozen are waiting, with six Shopkeepers struggling to keep up.

Since entering the Phantom Divine Empire, Ye Zhen had felt one thing clearly: There were indeed many Martial Artists!

The guards escorting the caravans he encountered on the road, any of whom pulled apart, were in the True Essence Realm. The head of the caravan guards would at least be at the Peak of the True Essence Realm.

Moreover, almost every caravan had Martial Artists from the Spirit Summoning Realm stationed, and some of the larger caravans that stretched for dozens of miles had Martial Artists from the Spirit Transformation Realm in charge.

The Martial Fortune of the Phantom Divine Empire, the strongest nation in the Black Dragon Domain, was indeed flourishing.

"This honored guest, my surname is Niu, known as Shopkeeper Niu. Feel free to ask for anything you need for normal cultivation; there’s nothing that my Gu Treasure Pavilion doesn’t have." A Shopkeeper with a slick tongue approached Ye Zhen eagerly.

"Do you have Green Jade?" Ye Zhen asked in an accent native to the Phantom Divine Empire.

"Green Jade?"

"Yes, Green Jade...."

"Not just any Green Jade, but Green Spirit Jade that accompanies the Spirit Crystal Vein," Ye Zhen clarified.

"Green Spirit Jade, we have that, but, it’s quite expensive!"

"What’s the price?"

"Our shop sells Green Spirit Jade cut and polished to the size of a palm, 100 taels of Gold each piece!"

"Good gracious, that’s the same price as a Low Grade Spirit Crystal!"

"Honored guest, I’m not exaggerating. In terms of value, Green Spirit Jade is even more precious than Low Grade Spirit Crystals! You know, around ten Spirit Crystal Veins, you might not even find one vein of Green Spirit Jade...."

"How much do you have? I’ll take it all!"

"All of it?"

Shopkeeper Niu suddenly appeared startled, "Honored guest, our store does have quite a lot of Green Spirit Jade, roughly fifty thousand pieces, you want all of them?"

"All of them!"

"Ah, please come upstairs, honored guest, upstairs please!"

Shopkeeper Niu was thrilled. Fifty thousand pieces of Green Spirit Jade meant a transaction of five million taels of Gold. The commission he would earn from this deal was a considerable amount.

"Shopkeeper Niu, what about Red Spirit Jade, do you have that?"

"Red Spirit Jade?"

"We don’t have that; Red Spirit Jade is dozens of times rarer than Green Spirit Jade, extremely in demand, and very rare on the market. Such precious gems are beyond our reach."

"Oh...."

....

An hour later, Ye Zhen left the Gu Treasure Pavilion, satisfied. He tossed fifty thousand pieces of Green Spirit Jade into his High Grade Storage Ring, which measured a thousand meters in length, width, and height. He also paid out four million, five hundred thousand taels of Gold.

Shopkeeper Niu gave him a 10% discount on such a large transaction.

Of course, for Ye Zhen given his current wealth, this amount of Gold was negligible.

Green Spirit Jade was the primary material needed for cultivating the First Stage Jade Battle Body of the Shattered Jade War Body.

To cultivate the First Stage Jade Battle Body, one needed to absorb the energy contained in Green Spirit Jade and temper one’s body. According to the Secret Manual, the consumption of Green Spirit Jade was massive, and whether the fifty thousand pieces Ye Zhen had bought today were sufficient was uncertain.

Ye Zhen could confirm that the consumption for cultivating the Shattered Jade War Body was enormous, and calling it burning gold wasn’t an overstatement. However, there was also good news for Ye Zhen.

That was, he could start tempering the Acquired Spiritual Body ahead of time.

Normally, tempering the Acquired Spiritual Body required massive consumption of Spiritual Power; a Martial Artist needed to form a Spiritual Power Seed and connect to the Innate Bloodline, which could then draw on vast amounts of Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi to temper the body.

But after a careful study of the Shattered Jade War Body, Ye Zhen realized that the tempering in this method involved activating the special energy in the Green Spirit Jade for tempering, making the presence of a Spiritual Power Seed rather irrelevant.

If Ye Zhen’s speculation was correct, he should be able to temper the Acquired Spiritual Body ahead of time, although he wouldn’t be able to increase his cultivation level.

After leaving the Gu Treasure Pavilion, Ye Zhen did not stay in Qingluo City but headed towards Qingluo Mountain, a hundred miles away from the city, where the Phantom Divine Sect, the second greatest Sect of the Phantom Divine Empire, sat.

Previously, Luluo, who had shared hardships with Ye Zhen, was at the Qingluo Sect, and Ye Zhen’s visit was to find Luluo.

Originally, because of the relationship between Bu Changtian of the Phantom Divine Sect and the Thousand Illusion Eagle King, Ye Zhen had to tread carefully in the Phantom Divine Empire, avoiding any acquaintances.

However, it was Liao Feibai’s instruction to find Luluo.

Of Qiyun Sect, only Sect Leader Guo Qijing, Liao Feibai, and Caiyi knew about Ye Zhen’s expedition. Furthermore, Liao Feibai was aware of Ye Zhen’s intention to head to the Phantom Divine Empire.

When he departed, Liao Feibai had specifically instructed Ye Zhen to head to the Qingluo Sect to find Luluo as soon as he arrived at the Phantom Divine Empire. With Luluo’s help, Ye Zhen could handle matters in the Phantom Divine Empire more conveniently and avoid much trouble!

Ye Zhen thought similarly, as having a local always makes things more convenient and info more accessible.

As for safety, Liao Feibai had only one thing to say — unless a great power used the legendary Soul Searching Technique, Luluo would absolutely not reveal Ye Zhen’s true identity.

This made Ye Zhen quite curious about what kind of strong bond Liao Feibai had with Luluo.

For a moment, Ye Zhen’s thoughts wandered!(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it at Qidian (qidian.com), and your support will be my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)