The Post Sky Tipping Era
Chapter 522 - 372: Red Gold

Chapter 522: Chapter 372: Red Gold

Xiu Xiang saw the silver-colored mutant fruit passed by Li Yi, couldn’t help but show a hint of surprise: "This is a Divine Fruit, grown only in the burial grounds of the divine, borne by an unknown ancient tree that has absorbed the power of divine remains. Consuming it can grant a bit of the vitality of life, and it is said that some Divine Fruits can even awaken one’s Divine Bloodline."

"However, the Divine Fruit grows in forbidden lands, and even though I often pass by the Divine Canyon just outside Shoushan Village, I dare not step into it, fearing it might provoke the wrath of the divine and lead to endless calamity."

He was experienced and recognized the origin of the mutant fruit in Li Yi’s hands.

However, for Merchant Master Xiu Xiang, the Divine Fruit was not considered particularly valuable. In Beihuai City, such a Divine Fruit would only be worth ten gold coins, but if it could help awaken someone’s Divine Bloodline, then it was precious, worth more than ten thousand gold coins—a true treasure.

Because awakening a Divine Bloodline meant there would be an additional Divine Blood Family, passed down through generations.

The one given out by Li Yi was just an ordinary mutant fruit, certainly not the larger kind that could awaken bloodlines, but his gesture of kindness made Xiu Xiang very happy.

This showed that Li Yi was someone who was eager to repay kindness.

For Merchant Master Xiu Xiang, he liked dealing with such people, because it meant that his support would never be in vain.

"Alright, Da Yi, I accept your goodwill."

Xiu Xiang took the few silver-colored mutant fruits, then gestured for a servant to come over, and took a brand-new leather armor from the hands of the servant: "As compensation for my inability to help you this time, I hope you can take this piece of leather armor."

The leather armor was covered with black dragon scales, layered and indestructible, and it looked very familiar—it was the same one previously bought, made from the skin of an 800-year-old Jiao dragon.

"I have already received much kindness from you, how can I accept more of your valued possessions?" Li Yi shook his head in refusal.

Xiu Xiang said, "This is compensation for a Merchant Master’s broken promise, please be sure to accept it. Moreover, this isn’t something particularly precious, please take it."

After saying this, he sincerely passed the leather armor over.

Seeing that he could not refuse, Li Yi accepted it. In this man called Xiu Xiang, he sensed a kind of ancient quality and cultivation, and his interactions made him feel that Xiu Xiang was a trustworthy person. In this world, it seemed that merchants greatly valued their promises.

This was entirely different from Earthlings, who often broke their word.

Seeing that Li Yi had taken the armor, Xiu Xiang was pleased and then invited Li Yi to visit his home.

He who takes a person’s gift is obliged to them.

Li Yi could only nod in agreement.

"Let’s go, home," Xiu Xiang instructed the servant, preparing to leave the market mounted on a mutant beast.

Meanwhile, as they were leaving, Li Yi was still on the lookout in the market for the slaves being sold, trying his best to find traces of Jiang Mingtian and the others.

Unfortunately.

He was too late, and after a round of searching, he still couldn’t find them.

Instead, just before leaving, he saw a few slave masters dragging a few slaves for sale by the roadside. Li Yi was initially not very attentive, but the modern-style clothes worn by one of the men immediately caught his eye, even though they were ragged and bloodstained, they were distinctly Earth’s style of clothing.

Although the man was disheveled and covered in blood, his physique was also completely different from the people of Beihuai City.

"That’s a Cultivator from Earth," Li Yi stared for a few glances, almost certain in his heart.

However, he did not recognize the man, who was a stranger.

After thinking for a while.

Li Yi suddenly dismounted from his mount, then quickly approached the slave merchant and said, "I will take this person."

"One hundred cents," the merchant immediately said.

Li Yi didn’t have any money and didn’t want to bother Xiu Xiang, nor did he want to expose the items he carried that didn’t belong to this world, so he had to take out one of the smallest silver-colored mutant fruits and passed it over: "Trade with this."

The merchant’s eyes lit up when he saw the silver-colored mutant fruit, then quickly took it and handed the slave’s chains to Li Yi: "Trade."

Li Yi knew he was at a disadvantage, but he couldn’t be bothered to haggle over it; he had hundreds of these silver-colored mutant fruits, not missing one or two. He then pulled on the chains and walked away briskly.

Seeing this, Xiu Xiang only smiled and said nothing more.

At that moment, the Cultivator’s expression was somewhat numb, being led away without the will to resist, evidently having been severely ’educated’ by the slave merchant.

"What’s your name, and why did you come to Beihuai City?" Li Yi asked as he walked.

But the Cultivator still kept his head down, not speaking.

Li Yi lowered his voice and said, "Did you also cross over from Earth?"

Hearing this, the man suddenly raised his head to look at Li Yi: "You, you are a Cultivator from Earth too? My name is Qin Gang, from Tianning City."

"Qin Gang? Are you friends with Zhao Fangji?" Something came to Li Yi’s mind.

The man replied with some surprise, "You know Zhao Fangji? That’s so great."

"A while ago, Zhao Fangji said that a Cultivator named Qin Gang led a team deep into a dangerous area, but we couldn’t find any trace of you when we got there. How are you guys doing?" Li Yi asked.

"We encountered a terrible mutant beast before we even reached the place to gather the fruits. Some died, some fled. I survived, but I lost my way. By the time I emerged from the forest, I found myself in an unknown world. I thought to follow the large mountain, but I encountered a troop on the way. I lost the fight and was captured, then after drifting from place to place, I ended up here," Qin Gang said, looking down, recounting his miserable experience.

The only bit of good fortune was that he appeared short and frail, making it difficult to sell him as a slave.

Li Yi had no way to sympathize with him, because he himself was also unlucky, almost perishing in this world, so in the end he said, "Qin Gang, I am now too powerless to help you any further. You should leave Beihuai City and head toward the Divine Canyon where the gods are buried, and then follow the path back from whence you came."

He unlocked the shackles on Qin Gang, granting him his freedom.

The two were strangers to each other, and Li Yi felt that by doing this, he had already fulfilled his duty to the utmost.

Qin Gang hesitated before speaking, "Can I follow you? In my current state, even if I leave Beihuai City, it will be difficult to make it back to Tianning City safely."

"No, I have my own matters to attend to. Here’s what I can do: I’ve tamed two mutant beasts near the Divine Canyon. Find Good Wings and explain the situation; it will take you back to Tianning City. This is the token. Feed it this Divine Fruit when you arrive, and it will believe you."

After thinking it over, Li Yi then handed a silver-colored Divine Fruit to Qin Gang, mounted his ride, turned, and left.

However, Qin Gang didn’t immediately leave Beihuai City with the Divine Fruit; instead, he made his way back to the previous slave trader and began whispering something to him.

The slave trader, not knowing what he heard that provoked him, became enraged and burst Qin Gang’s head with a punch, splattering blood everywhere.

The slave trader then quickly took Qin Gang’s corpse and chased after Li Yi.

Li Yi was startled upon seeing this scene.

But to his surprise, the slave trader threw Qin Gang’s body on the ground, bowed in apology, and said with shame, "This slave sought to entice me to ambush a guest outside Beihuai City. Just after the guest had granted him freedom, he showed no gratitude and even plotted betrayal. Such a person is more venomous than jackals and wolves; hence, I killed him. As compensation, please accept this one hundred cents."

With that, he handed over two silver-colored Divine Fruits and a red metal twinkling with varied luster.

Li Yi fell silent upon hearing this, and then he nodded, accepting the compensation without uttering a word, and left.

After Li Yi accepted the compensation, the slave trader breathed a sigh of relief but then turned furious again when he saw Qin Gang’s corpse, almost desiring to whip the dead body.

Once Li Yi had left the slave market,

He fiddled with the luster-enriched coin in his hand and couldn’t help but ask, "Xiu Xiang, why did he compensate me with one hundred cents? That’s no small sum of money."

"One Divine Fruit is valued at ten cents. Until leaves the slave market, the master is responsible for any issues with the slave. But since he killed your slave, he had to compensate tenfold. If he refused, or you didn’t accept the payment, the master would have his hand chopped off and be expelled from Beihuai City," explained Xiu Xiang.

"I see," Li Yi understood, not expecting such rules to exist here.

"I saved Qin Gang, yet he repaid kindness with malice, actually seeking cooperation with the slave trader to ambush me," Li Yi couldn’t help but shake his head at this thought.

In his many travels between worlds, he found Earth to have the lowest moral standards.

It seems one should interact less with Earthlings in the future; even in the Otherworld, Earthlings still think of infighting, scheming against each other, an incomprehensible concept.

Now Li Yi understands the regrets mentioned in Sword Coin even more.

Indeed, Earthlings are deeply malevolent by nature, irredeemably wicked, with an extremely flexible moral baseline and a self-destructive and harmful mindset, betraying their own people, which would cause an upheaval of values in other worlds, worse than villains, and evil beyond understanding.

Qin Gang thought his actions were normal, but in the eyes of the slave trader, they were unforgivable. He killed the wretched slave, willing to pay ten times the compensation, hoping a lifetime could be redeemed by this single action.

Soon Li Yi stopped dwelling on the matter.

His attention was captured by the red gold coin he held.

This coin was quite peculiar; it appeared a faint gold in the shadows and blood-red under the sunlight, shimmering with an exotic sheen, very special indeed.

"Xiu Xiang, from where does this red gold originate?" asked Li Yi, unable to hold back his question. Yet, his query was clever, avoiding direct mention of what red gold is, to prevent arousing suspicion.

"Most red gold comes from Kunwu Mountain; hence, red gold is also known as Kunwu Stone, capable of Refining Divine Weapons," replied Xiu Xiang. "Some Merchant Masters also say that red gold, resembling blood, is formed from the spilled blood of gods congealing into the earth, thus among all metals, red gold is the most precious."

"Refining Divine Weapons?"

Li Yi stared at the coin, calculating in his mind. To forge a sword, at least thirty Kunwu Stones would be required, and considering that people in this world favor large weapons like axes and big knives, the consumption is likely to be tenfold higher.

At least three hundred Kunwu Stones would be needed to forge a Divine Weapon.

And one Kunwu Stone equals one hundred cents.

Meaning a Divine Weapon is worth at least thirty thousand cents.

Additionally, the refinement of the weapon would inevitably require purification of the red gold, which would likely increase the consumption; if other auxiliary materials and costs for forge-working were included, the expense would be astronomical.

However, a Divine Weapon forged as such would certainly be extremely powerful.

After all, in this high martial power world, what is termed a Divine Weapon is definitely not an ordinary item.

With these thoughts in mind,

Soon, Xiu Xiang brought Li Yi to a residence within the city.

The houses of this world were not ornate; constructed with large wooden beams, bronze columns, stone-paved floors, and devoid of unnecessary colors, they were very simple and functional, yet exuded an aura of ancient charm.