Even though he did not know the exact properties of the Godblood Rock, he did have a deep understanding of immortal beasts.
Since this artifact had the name ‘Godblood’, it must have something to do with the blood of the gods. If so, even the more terrifying of beasts on the continent would instinctively fear it due to bloodline suppression.
This was a method that he had learned from the libraries of the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion.
Over the past thousand years, there was not a single immortal beast that had dared move in close proximity of the Sword God Hall due to the aura that it emanated. The reason for that was the aura of the gods from the half character that the founder had snatched from the Hall of Gods.
“This… I’ll go look for some right now!”
This method sounded feasible and logical, and it was not too difficult to carry out. Boss Hu and Elder He glanced at one another, and the former nodded slightly before quickly taking his leave.
He was extremely anxious to verify whether the artifact was truly the Godblood Rock or not.
If it was truly Godblood Rock, even if he would make a huge loss, he would not dare put an artifact associated with the gods up for auction.
After all, there was no amount of money that he could earn that would save him from the wrath of the gods.
An hour later, Boss Hu returned with several jade bottles in hand.
“These few bottles are filled with the blood essences of High Immortal realm beasts,” Boss Hu said.
There were not many High Immortal realm beasts in the world, so it was impossible to find one on the spot. However, if it was just acquiring their blood, there were still some channels for it on the market.
The blood of High Immortal realm beasts harnessed an incredible amount of energy, making them treasures to raise one’s cultivation. As long as one was able to fork out the money, it was still possible to acquire some from the markets or the Ethereal Hall.
“This bottle is filled with the blood of a mature Inktiger Immortal Beast, which is known to possess the cultivation of Heavenly High Immortal,” he explained as he dripped a droplet of blood on the Godblood Rock.
Even though it was just a single droplet, due to the overwhelming amount of spiritual energy it harnessed, it was as heavy as gold. Even as it dropped, one could hear it compressing the air with a sharp wheeze.
Hu!
Just as it was about to fall on the rock, it suddenly diverted away and flew aside. It was as if it had encountered something that it deeply feared, forcing it to flee.
This sight caused Boss Hu’s face to stiffen.
If he had still harbored some doubts in the past, at that moment, he was already almost certain that Zhang Xuan’s words were right. Of the various bottles of immortal beast blood that he had bought, the Inktiger Immortal Beast was the strongest of all.
On the off case that it might just be an exception, Boss Hu carried on experimenting with the other bottles of blood, but all of them reacted in the same manner. Before reaching the Godblood Rock, they would flee away, as if they did not dare taint its divine presence at all.
This was more than enough to show that the Godblood Rock harnessed some kind of might that commanded the deference of those immortal beasts!
Other than the gods, there was really no other existence that they could think of that would induce such an extreme reaction!
“This proves what you said. It’s indeed the Godblood Rock,” Boss Hu remarked with a deep sigh before raising his gaze to look at Zhang Xuan.
This young man was able to infer that the rock had something to do with the blood of the gods without using any tools at all. This showed that his eye of discernment was frighteningly powerful.
“Regarding this artifact… do you have any information on when it was acquired, and what was the exact location of its procurement?” Zhang Xuan asked.
“When I bought it, that person only mentioned the Ocean of Exiled Stars. He didn’t reveal too much information aside from that,” Boss Hu replied.
“Well… is it possible for you to get in touch with the man who sold you the stone now? There are some questions which I would like to ask him,” Zhang Xuan asked.
“I’ll give it a try!” Boss Hu took out his Communication Jade Token and attempted to send the other party a message. However, after waiting for a while, there was still no response. Thus, he could only shake his head helplessly and say, “He isn’t replying. I haven’t seen him around in the city since acquiring the rock, so it might be hard to get in touch with him.”
Hearing those words, Zhang Xuan sighed deeply.
He had thought that he would be able to question the other party to find out more about the matter, but from the looks of it, it was not possible at the moment.
Zhang Xuan proceeded to ask a few more questions, but he was unable to receive any useful clues regarding the issue, so he could not help but feel a little disappointed.
“Then… Do you know how long it has been since the other party acquired that rock?” Zhang Xuan finally asked.
“It has been roughly a month since I bought the rock, and I recall the seller saying that the rock had been with him for almost a month. All in all, it should be roughly two months since this rock was first found!”
“Two months?” Zhang Xuan did a swift mental calculation, and slowly, his hands tightened into fists.
All in all, it was roughly a year and four months after Luo Ruoxin left the Master Teacher Continent that he entered the Azure.
Going by the 1:10 ratio between the time of the Azure and the Master Teacher Continent, a year and four months translated to roughly five hundred days, which was equivalent to fifty days in the Azure. It had been ten days since he arrived in the Azure, so that would add up to a total of two months!
This evidence seemed to suggest that the Godblood Rock had something to do with Luo Ruoxin.
Of course, whether that was truly the case or not, he would have to personally make a trip to Starchaser Palace to verify it for himself.
Coming to understand all that, Zhang Xuan exhaled deeply before moving on to the other matter at hand. “Boss Hu, do you have any True Immortal realm cultivation technique manuals here? If possible, could you allow me to browse through your collection? I just need to take a rough look at them, and I can assure you that I won’t copy or take them away with me.”
This was the primary reason he had come here to appraise the artifact. If he wanted to continue tracking Luo Ruoxin’s footsteps, it was of the utmost importance for him to raise his cultivation!
Only upon becoming a True Immortal would he finally have the strength to protect himself in this world.
“True Immortal realm cultivation technique manuals?” Hearing the request, Boss Hu pondered for a moment before nodding. “I do have some here. They are copies that I have made prior to the auction. If you wish to take a look, Brother Zhang, I would be more than delighted to share them with you!”
Considering how the young man was able to identify something as rare as this, his eye of discernment could be said to be truly formidable.
If he could convince the young man to work at their market, it would surely be a huge boost to their reputation and business!
As such, he agreed to the request right away.
Besides, the young man was only having a quick browse instead of copying or taking anything away. This was a request that would not hurt him in any way.
“Thank you, Boss Hu!” Receiving the other party’s approval, Zhang Xuan heaved a sigh of relief. He took one last look at the crimson rock and advised, “Boss Hu, the Godblood Rock is deeply linked to the affairs of the gods, so it would be best for you not to auction it. Use a formation to seal it, and ensure that no one else learns of its existence. If, by any chance, I unearth the way to use the Godblood Rock, I’ll come back and inform you!”
“I’ll be troubling you then, Brother Zhang!” Boss Hu replied with a nod.
Even if the young man had not said such a thing, he would have done the same. Even if one inflated his guts tenfold, he would not dare do something as disrespectful as auction something with the blood of the gods!
While his cultivation had reached Half-High Immortal, he knew that the Hall of Gods could easily destroy everything that he possessed. It would be wise not to risk crossing those experts.
More importantly, even if the Hall of Gods chose not to interfere in this matter, the existence of the Godblood Rock would surely draw the attention of the Six Sects.
He was just a merchant. He did not want to get involved in the dangerous politics of the continent.
Since that was the case, the only option left for him was to seal all news.
After arranging for his men to seal the Godblood Rock away, Boss Hu led Zhang Xuan over to the market’s book collection vault.
True to its name, there were many valuable manuals placed on its shelves. While its collection could not compare with the libraries of the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion, it could still be considered impressive.
There are only seventy books here… Zhang Xuan shook his head and sighed deeply.
To be exact, there were more than seventy books in the vault, but only seventy of them were True Immortal realm cultivation technique manuals.
It did not seem too likely that the seventy books would be enough to fix the seven remaining flaws in the Heaven’s Path Divine Art.
Compile! Zhang Xuan willed as he placed the seventy books he had collected together with the compiled Heaven’s Path Divine Art.
He did not bear too much hope regarding the matter, but when he flipped open the pages of the newly compiled Heaven’s Path Divine Art, his eyes lit up in excitement.
To his astonishment, the seven remaining flaws had actually been resolved. The True Immortal realm Heaven’s Path Divine Art had been perfected!
“This…” Zhang Xuan could hardly believe his eyes.
He had been thinking that seventy books would only be enough to fix a flaw or two, but they had actually resolved all of the problems at once! Why would that be?
Surprised, he quickly browsed through the seventy books that he had just compiled, and soon, he widened his eyes in realization.
Naturally, the books sold at auction were not as formidable as the ones available in the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion. However, most of them went down an unorthodox route that strayed from the typical path that most cultivation techniques followed.
It was also because of this that these cultivation technique manuals could be sold at such a high price, and countless cultivators wanted to acquire them.
The six hundred books from the sect were orthodox whereas these seventy books were unorthodox. In a weird way, they complemented one another and covered whatever the other was lacking. As a result of that, all the flaws were resolved.
“Brother Zhang, may I know if there are any cultivation technique manuals that you are particularly interested in? I can fetch them for you,” Boss Hu said with a smile.
“It’s fine, I am done browsing through the books. Thank you for your generosity.” Zhang Xuan clasped his fist.
“You are already done browsing through the books?” Boss Hu was stunned.
The two of them had just entered a minute ago, and the young man had only shot a sweeping glance over all the books, but he was already done browsing?
It was almost as if he was leaving before the main show had even started! Was this not a little too fast?
Are you sure that you are here to browse through the books?
Unbelievable!
“I recently encountered some issues in my cultivation that I was unable to make sense of, so I wanted to look through some books in the hope that it would give me some inspiration. However, the books you have over here don’t seem to fit me too well, so rather than confuse myself further with them, I think that it would be better for me to steer clear entirely,” Zhang Xuan explained with a smile.
“This… Well, I can understand what you mean. These cultivation techniques do stray a little from the orthodox cultivation techniques that the disciples of the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion practice.” Boss Hu nodded in agreement, seemingly accepting Zhang Xuan’s excuse.
Cultivation was not a field where one would be able to advance further simply by accruing more knowledge. It was a field of knowledge that was too vast for a human to fully understand, so reading too many books that portrayed contrasting views might just lead one to be unable to discern truth from falsehood, thus resulting in one’s cultivation going berserk.
“Brother Zhang, I’m indebted to you for sparing me from a possible calamity. This is a small token of my gratitude, and I hope that you won’t turn me down…”
Before leaving the room, Boss Hu passed a sachet of Ethereal Coins over. It seemed quite heavy, such that there were probably more than a hundred coins inside.
To offer so much money at once, it seemed like he was really determined to pull Zhang Xuan over to his side.
“Boss Hu, you are too generous. I’m just accomplishing whatever is expected of me.” Zhang Xuan waved his hand, not accepting the money at all.
He did love money, but this much money was not enough to draw him in. He did not really want to get too deeply involved with Boss Hu.
Besides, he had much more efficient ways of earning money.
“Farewell. May we meet again in the future!” Zhang Xuan said before making his way out of the market.
The reason he had gone to the Wuhai Market was to find True Immortal realm cultivation technique manuals to perfect his Heaven’s Path Divine Art, and he had accomplished what he had gone there for. Since that was the case, it was about time for him to return to start advancing his cultivation once more!
As long as he could raise his cultivation to the Heavenly True Immortal realm, with the Tongshang sword in hand, he would be able to put up a fight even if his opponent was a Heavenly High Immortal. By then, he would need not worry too much about his safety when he went to the Ocean of Exiled Stars in search of Luo Ruoxin.
It was only after leaving the Wuhai Market that Zhang Xuan realized that the sky had already darkened. A brilliant moon hung against a backdrop of twinkling stars. The surroundings were extraordinarily peaceful and quiet.
Walking along the streets, Zhang Xuan slowly made his way over to the Ethereal Hall branch. However, barely after taking a few steps, his eyes suddenly narrowed.
“Who is it?”
Turning around, Zhang Xuan saw the street ahead of him distorting. All the buildings around him seemed to have vanished in an instant, and before he knew it, he was already standing in the wilderness. The next moment, several figures suddenly appeared before him.
