Hana had been standing behind a tree as soon as the conflict started.
She saw her brother win over that cultivator as if he was invincible. He hadn’t even broken into a sweat and yet was able to force the cultivator into a corner.
The cultivator then suddenly became extremely powerful and pushed her brother back. She saw the frightened expression her brother had and wanted to jump out and help but was quickly held back by Jiro who shook his head.
She could tell Jiro wanted her to stay behind this tree. Jiro then carefully moved in the shadows and quickly got in position behind the cultivator. Just as the cultivator was about to strike, Jiro appeared and shot his beak through the cultivator’s chest!
Relic then took a branch and finished the cultivator in a single move.
This all happened within a few minutes. She witnessed neither Relic nor Jiro even flinch when they took a life. It was as if they lived in a world of slaughter and was no longer fazed by the death of others.
As she looked at her hand she saw she was only shaking a little. The death of that cultivator did not faze her as much as her first time seeing death. It occurred to her that with every death she sees, she will be start to grow numb to the presence of death and will also someday be able to kill without blinking an eye.
…
“Hana, were you scared?” Relic asked.
Hana shook her head. “No, I’m fine.”
Relic nodded. He proceeded to take the spatial ring off of Tang Wu’s corpse and stuffed it into his chest pocket. He didn’t even try to look at the contents of the ring.
Spatial rings were operated by injecting small amounts of qi by the owner of the ring. This allows them to takes things in and out of their rings. However, as Relic was still a mortal he could not use it at all so he didn’t even bother.
He then retrieved the broad flying sword as well as the white sword that Tang Wu dropped and tied them to Jiro.
The trio quickly packed up their large bags and flew back up to Heaven’s Peak.
…
Relic and Hana made their way through town on top of Jiro. Behind them were all the items they retrieved all neatly tied behind them making them look like a pair of travelling merchants.
They quickly made their way towards the Moon Lit Dining Hall.
As they approached the restaurant to sell more truffles, Jiro suddenly came to an abrupt stop.
“(What is it?)” Relic asked.
“(In Front, two people, they are the Yan family.”)
In front of the restaurant were a women and man pair. They looked as if they were enjoying an afternoon tea outside. However, if you were to look closely, you would see their gazes shifted every time someone entered into the establishment.
Relic immediately frowned. “(So…they really are here for the truffles.)”
“Are they really the ones….” Relic could no longer deny the facts. In the past he did not think much of it; but now that he was here, he knew there had to have been a reason Heaven’s Peak was destroyed. The Yan family was definitely powerful enough to destroy this place and, understanding the true value of this place, Relic could see why they would.
“I won’t let this place get destroyed again!” Relic said to himself.
The trio quickly began to move towards different first class restaurants through the town.. However, no matter where they went, Jiro would always spot one or two members of the Yan family around the restaurant they went to.
“(They really want to catch the guy selling these truffles, don’t they.)” Jiro scoffed.
“(Let’s go to Heaven’s Treasure.)”
This wasn’t a place Relic really wanted to go to sell these truffles as they may try to investigate him on where he got them; but he no longer had any choice.
The three quickly headed off to Heaven’s Peak.
At this moment, inside one of Heaven’s Treasures buildings, there was a purple haired girl at the counter putting up a smile as a rough looking man was screaming at the top of his lungs.
“I’m sorry sir; at most I can offer you 34 spirit coins for your 10 years old flame sprite fruit.”
A vein bulged from his head. “I already told you this is a phoenix life fruit!” The man screamed back, “Any major city to be begging me to buy this. The price of such an item reaches into the thousands! Yet you dare only offer me 34 spirit coins?!”
“Of course, if this truly was a phoenix life fruit then we would be happy to pay such a price, unfortunately, as I’ve said, what you have brought to me is merely a 10 year old flame sprite fruit.” The purple hair girl politely replied.
Many of the other staff members were all shaking their heads at the scene. It wasn’t uncommon to see rift rafts try to pull a stunt like this. All of them knew that what the man brought in was a 10 year old flame sprite fruit. The only reason this man thought to try out this stunt was because the current boss was out and would not return until later.
The purpled hair girl was the granddaughter of the boss of this place and was put in charge while he was away. Most of them treated her with great respect while he was here but seeing her suffer now, they couldn’t help but chuckle at her. Whenever her grandfather was here she always acted carefree without any worries of the world. Many were actually happy to see her suffer like this once in a while.
“Hmph, let’s see how you handle this without your grandfather supporting you.” They all sneered.
The rough looking man did not let up. “I only brought such a treasure here because the next city from here is too far and I need spirit coins to make my next break through right now! If you make me miss my breakthrough I can promise you there will be hell for this place!” He happened to show off the hilt of his sword by his waist.
The girl went pale. If the man really did start destroying the place then what can she do? She looked for help from the others but they all feigned ignorance and were instead helping their own customers.
“If grandfather finds this man caused trouble while I was in charge he will blame me, then I will never get out!”
The girl bit her lips. She had played it cautiously the entire time. She picked customers which looked friendly and easy to deal with. She only needed one more sale and she would have won her bet with her grandfather but she got impatient in the end and was now in this situation.
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She closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh. She was just about to agree to give the man what he wanted when a little boy’s voice was heard.
“Excuse me sir, if you aren’t planning to sell your flame sprite fruit right now could you please move aside so I can talk to this miss?”
The purple hair girl let out a gasp as she recognized who this little boy was.
The rough looking man was instantly enraged. He had a large grin as he saw the purple hair girl about to give in when someone stupidly butted in.
“Listen here you bra-” He turned his head and stopped mid-sentence.
A small boy stood in front of a menacing Spirit Beast which looked at him with indifferent eyes. The man felt small and fragile in front of this spirit beast. Its eyes looked at him with cold piercing eyes and he couldn’t help but shiver.
He quickly composed himself. The mayor of this city was the law in this town and he would never allow public killings go unpunished. No wandering cultivators would dare to act arrogantly while the mayor kept watch over this town.
A bulging vein surfaced and he yelled: “What non-sense are you trying to spew here kid?! Can’t you see that this a rare phoenix life fruit? Go back to your mommy; I’m sure she is worried her brat has wondered off!” He quickly turned back to the purpled hair girl. “Those spirit coins will help me breakthrough to the sixth rank of the soulless warrior realm. I can already feel my chances slipping away with every minute passing. I don’t have time to bicker with you on price, just give me 300 spirit coins for this fruit and I will leave! ”
Relic walked up to the counter and picked up a three coloured fruit on the counter.
“Hey, put that down!” the man screamed.
“This is definitely a flame sprite fruit. The phoenix life fruit is a rare fruit which grows under extremely harsh conditions. Its name is derived from the fact it is used in the phoenix life pill and has three radiant colours which can be seen overlapping like flames making it look like phoenix fire. If one were to eat it raw, they would experience a complete rejuvenation of the body and gain increased insight.”
Relic proceeded to hold up the flame sprite fruit. “The flame sprite fruit, on the other hand, also has three alternating colours but it is much darker. Not to mention it is a pear shape while the phoenix life fruit is an oval like an egg. The effects of eating such a fruit merely increase sensitivity to fire essence for those with affinity to the dao of the fire.” He placed the fruit back down.
“This type of information is readily available in most pill making manuals. I would suggest you look it up before saying things with such certainty.” Relic looked at the man with indifference.
The man looked at Relic with a darken face. “Look kid, how do I know you aren’t pulling these facts out of your ass? I doubt you have even touched the phoenix life fruit and yet you are suddenly an expert on it? You go to be kidding?!” He turned back to the lady in the counter. “I’m beginning to think this boy works for you. Are you trying to trick your customers in order to cheat them out of spirit coins? Is this really how this place runs?! ”
“Hey, yea, now that I think about it I brought in some water essence sage grass the other day but I only go 60% of what I would get from any other towns.”
“Me too, I only got 30% of what I would have gotten for the frost gilded flower I brought in.”
Two men suddenly said.
The purple hair girl did not recognize either one of them. “It’s a trap!” She became a loss for words. She was taught many things by her grandfather when she was young and knew some of the tricks people would try to pull in order to scam their establishment. These two men were probably here to support the man in case she wouldn’t budge on the price. They were waiting for the most opportune time to jump in.
“Yea, me too, actually I brought in several heart calming pills and the price they bought it at is ridiculous!”
“I bought some black earth metal here and it costed me 15 more spirit coins than if I bought it somewhere else!”
Soon, people who were not even part of the three men also joined in, hoping of gaining something extra.
They all began to crowd over the counter demanding she repay them for the full price. If this happened anywhere else this sort of thing would never happen as the place would have a powerful backing. However, in a town like this, the only backing they had was her grandfather who was currently away.
The purple hair girl went pale. She couldn’t possible reimburse all these people. They were all demanding too much!
The man sneered to himself. “Bitch, serves your right! You only had to give me what I wanted. Now look at you! ”
Squuaaaak! Jiro roared out, immediately silencing the place.
“Since you are so sure this is a phoenix life fruit, then why don’t you eat it and see?” The boy suddenly said.
The man smiled. “Of course I can, but who will recoup me costs once I eat it? You? I need the spirit coins in order to break through to the next rank. I won’t settle for anything less than 400 spirit coins!” He spoke with great confidence.
Relic sighed to himself and took out a sword which was tied on Jiro’s back.
He waved it in the air in front of everyone’s eyes.
“This is a superior grade foundation weapon.”
The sword shined with extreme beauty. It looked as if it was freshly crafted and in pristine condition.
The eyes of all the cultivators widened and some even started to salivate. Most of these cultivators were either below or at the foundation realm. To get a low grade foundation weapon would already cost them a fortune not to say a superior grade. Perhaps only core sect members of rich families could get their hands on this type of weapon.
The man made a loud gulp.
“If it is truly a phoenix life fruit then I will give you this weapon as an offering.” Relic showed no change in expression.
“All I have to do is eat this fruit?”
Relic nodded.
“What a fool! Whether it is the phoenix life fruit or the flame sprite fruit, only the person who consumes the fruit is able to tell the benefits. All I have to do is lie!” The man had a grin. “All right, you’re on kid, just remember what you said!”
“No, you can’t offer such an expensive item.” The purple hair girl suddenly spoke. A foundation weapon was hard enough to get as it was. She didn’t want to see this boy lose it just because she couldn’t handle this man who had tricked her.
“Hey, you can’t go back on your word now.” The man had already lifted the fruit towards his mouth.
Relic saw the concerned look on the purple hair girl and smiled. “I remember you called this fruit a 10 year old flame sprite fruit. Actually, that isn’t a 10 year flame sprite fruit. It’s a 15 year old flame sprite fruit. ”
“eh?”
“The flame sprite fruit is a very unique fruit. It matures at 3 years and is still edible up until its 13 years of life. On the 14th year, it begins to shrivel and no longer possess any benefits to cultivators who consume it. However, on the 15th year it is born a new and looks as it did on its 10th year of life.
No one really knows how this fruit came to be or why its like this but if someone below the spirit realm were to consume the 15th year flame sprite fruit raw, all their insides will boil and they will combust! ” Relic spoke coldly. The crowd who hear this suddenly felt shivers down their spines.
The man who was just about to bite into the fruit halted and a single droplet of sweat ran down his face.
“Y-you, your lieing!” He yelled.
Relic looked shocked. “Please ignore what I said. I was just trying to correct this miss because it is an easy thing to mistake. Please continue.” He smiled.
“No, no, it’s just a trick. This kid is just lying to me!” The tried to calm himself.. He hesitantly lifted the fruit back up to his mouth but as it got closer he struggled. However, as he thought about it, none of the other things Relic had said were wrong. He wasn’t actually dumb enough to have believed this fruit was really the rare phoenix life fruit as he proclaimed. He just wanted to scam this place for as much as possible.
“Yvone, you eat it!” He turned and stuffed the fruit into the mouth of one of the men who was presumed to be his follower.
Under the forceful guidance of this man, the man name Yvone was forced to eat the fruit.
Cough…Cough…
Yvone fell to the ground coughing. Sweat poured down as the thought of his body combusting ran through his mind. But as time passed, he only felt a warm sensation in his stomach. The warm sensation then spread through his entire body. “I-I feel…good.” He said.
The man smirked. “See that, I knew you were wrong! Now hand me the superior grade foundation sword!” the man demanded.
“Hahaha, I feel invincible!” Yvone suddenly said. He felt a powerful force surging through his body. However, just as fast, he suddenly coughed up blood.
The coughed up blood burst into flames upon coming into contact with the air.
“Ahhhhh! HELP ME! HELP ME!” Yvone screamed. His skin started to scorch and intense heat radiated from his body. Without another pasue, his body suddenly exploded. Chunks of flesh rained down on the surrounding people.
Every one paled and screamed at the horrific scene.
“Give me that sword!”
The man suddenly took out his sword and instantly struck at Relic.
His movements did not escape Relic’s eyes. Relic chopped at the man’s wrist, severing his hands from his arms.
“Argggg!” The man screamed.
The sword came before the man’s throat. “Get out.” Relic spoke coldly.
The man paled and clumsily ran out the door with snot dripping out of his nose. Several of the people in the crowd quickly followed.
Relic was more mindful killing in such a public place.
NO longer caring about the situation he turned the purple hair girl.
“Excuse me, I have some business I would like to discuss.” He said calmly.