Chapter 135: Preparation
Chapter 135: Preparation
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh
Early in the morning, having his cultivation base for the Source of Fire Chapter suddenly leveled up to Embryonic Breath tier of Xiantian realm, Wu Qi left the mansion with a beaming energy.
The bracelet which Lu Buwei had thrown away was now lying quietly underneath his left sleeve. After all, Wu Qi had rejected the present last night, and it was Lu Buwei himself who discarded it. So, even though Wu Qi had fished it out with the thought of recycling the waste, it still did not look good to wear it openly. Thus, he did not put it on his wrist, but instead, hid it inside his sleeve.
As it was a gift given by Lu Buwei, a man infamous for achieving high position by unscrupulous scheming, there were a total of seven layers of space inside this bracelet. The space in each layer was double the size of that storage ring given to Wu Qi by Princess Zhang Le. Within these seven layers of space was contained a flying sword of upper tier each, and each of these seven swords contained the energy of Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Ice, and Thunder. For the cultivators of Heaven Breaking Sword Sect, regardless of which sword techniques they were cultivating with, they could use one of these seven flying swords.
Besides these seven flying swords, the bracelet also stored a mountain each of gold coins, silver coins, copper coins, iron ingots, emeralds, white jades, and crystals. The value of both gold and silver coins was worth at least tens of millions, while the weight of the copper and iron was at least two to three million kilograms. As for the mountains of emerald, white jade and crystals, each of them weighed at least five thousand kilograms.
It was truly a gift given by a merchant who had his businesses found in every kingdom and empire under the heavens. It was such a heavy gift, and should be more than enough to establish a friendship with Wu Qi, the Marquis Tianyun of Great Yan Dynasty, who did not have a solid foundation. If Lu Buwei hadn’t met with Wu Qi, who was a weirdo in this world, this handsome gift could definitely win the heart of any man, who could be put to good use in his future planning.
"It is a pity that I am not like Lu Chengfeng and some other guys. I've killed the elite clan member of that old fellow, and burned the corpse to destroy the evidence. Then, the immense amount of money the old fellow gave me was used to purchase something in the market. Why do I have such a good feeling about it?" While riding on a single-horned deer, Wu Qi wagged his head and whistled a small tune. He arrived alone at the Market of Four Seas.
After asking a few agents who were strolling near the entrance to the market, Wu Qi found the agent who had helped him in the purchase of Merman's oil last time, Hai Yuntian.
From afar, Hai Yuntian ran towards the entrance, and then saw Wu Qi. His face instantly bloomed into a bright smile. While still at a far distance, he let out a loud shout, "Are you here to find treasures again, Marquis? Please forgive me for not welcoming you earlier!"
Wu Qi smilingly threw a glance over at Hai Yuntian and leaped off from his mount, then casually tossed a long list over to Hai Yuntian and said, "Save your breath, do your job properly and you'll earn what you are supposed to. Have a look at the items on the list, you should be able to find all of them in this Market of Four Seas. Although the required quantity is rather large, they are not rare items. Put in your efforts and gather all of them for me, I need them today."
Hai Yuntian hastily took over the list and quickly glanced through the couple dozens of materials written by Wu Qi: essences of iron which had been tampered for one hundred times, one hundred years old dark iron, thousand years old freezing iron, essence of iron from thousand years old lava rock, and many others. They were all sorts of metal materials. The list contained a couple dozens of various metals, and the required quantity of each was at least several million kilograms. Just as what Wu Qi had said, he needed a lot of them, but these were not rare materials.
Like a new upstart, Wu Qi forcefully slapped on the left sleeve of his, laughing out loud and said, "Get them ready as soon as possible. You must deliver all of them to me by today. Don't you try to save money for me... Hahaha, I've nearly forgotten that I am a Marquis now. Hmm, I've struck a pot of gold recently, so you just have to deliver all these goods to me. You've to fulfill the required quantity on the list, but if you can find more, that'll be better."
Hai Yuntian had his face melted in a smile. Without hesitation, he led Wu Qi into the Market of Four Seas and to the tea house that they came during the previous visit. After that, he rushed out anxiously from the tea house, and off he went to gather the goods required by Wu Qi. He ran so fast that his legs were nearly kicking his own head. As a matter of fact, the merchants in Market of Four Seas really loved to strike a deal like this, as those metal materials were precious yet not rare in quantity. If a client requested a huge amount of them, the profit from such deal was simply jaw-dropping.
In the previous deal, Wu Qi had purchased the oil of Merman and some other items, which were all expensive products and rare in quantity. Although their prices were high, the profit was actually lesser than selling these rather not so rare materials due to the insignificant quantity. In the current deal, Wu Qi had requested the quantity of at least a few million kilograms each, and even told him that the more, the better. It was a business that was worth every single effort of Hai Yuntian.
Wu Qi tossed the storage bracelet onto the table, sat himself down and slowly sipped on the tea. Through the window, he peered down into the street, looking at the streams of merchants and customers bustling through the market. Occasionally, some merchants would bring strange and rare goods into the market. Wu Qi did not pay any attention to those non-living products, but his horizon was greatly widened by all the rare fowls and strange animals. This world was filled with abundant species, and peculiar and weird objects emerged in an endless stream.
He had spent the entire morning drinking tea, and soon, afternoon arrived. When the sun was already westering, Hai Yuntian finally returned with sweat all over his body, together with a couple of merchants behind him, who too had their bodies soaked with sweat. Without saying anything, they came into the tea house, each wearing a great smile on their face. Then, they removed a storage ring from their finger and placed before Wu Qi.
Using his divine sense, Wu Qi scanned each of these rings, then nodded in satisfaction. The quantity of each material was way beyond Wu Qi's request, at least ten times more than what he had listed down. He transferred all the goods in these storage rings into the storage bracelet with enormous storage space. After that, he asked Hai Yuntian for the total price. Finally, he paid them with gold and silver without asking for any discount.
Weighing the bracelet in his hand, Wu Qi smiled briefly and said, "It seems the quantity for the essence of iron and a few other materials is a little bit lesser?"
Hai Yuntian's face was blooming with a smile. Yet, what Wu Qi said made his face fall instantly. With a distressed expression, he looked at Wu Qi, breathed out a long sigh and said, "As the essence of iron and a few other materials can be used to forge all kinds of military gear, they are controlled by Great Yan Dynasty. More than half of the supply is actually in the hands of Wei Merchant. Thus, it is rather difficult to find a lot of it in Market of Four Seas. However, as the current person in charge for Wei Merchant is young miss Wei Xiaoxiao, she is not an easy person to deal with."
Great Yan Dynasty had enforced a strict control on the supply of essence of iron and some other similar materials. On the contrary, they did not set any limit on those materials which ordinary people would never use and could only be used by cultivators, such as iron from thousand years old lava rock. That was the reason why these couple dozens of merchants could only gather an extra of several thousand kilograms of iron essence, unlike other materials used in cultivation, whose quantity was at least a few times more than the requested quantity.
Wu Qi nodded his head, smiled and said, "Understood. You've done well. If I need anything in the future, I'll come looking for you again." He paused for a brief moment, then fished out an identity token and tossed it to Hai Yuntian. "I need you to monitor the market for me. If you find any good materials that could be used by cultivators, or any materials of five elements, or some strange things that you cannot identify, bring them to me in Duke Yan Le's Mansion."
Hai Yuntian was so excited that his face simply blushed. He hastily took over the identity token, and could hardly utter any words. With this identity token, he had become the official agent for Marquis Tianyun, and his status in Market of Four Seas would definitely take a great leap. In addition to that, not only had he established a solid connection with Marquis Tianyun, he had also connected to Duke Yan Le at the same time. With that, the rapid promotion of his wealth was just around the corner.
Carrying a bracelet-full of various metal materials, Wu Qi left the Market of Four Seas and rode towards the direction of Mount White Sun.
While stroking the silky smooth and cold surface of the storage bracelet, Wu Qi had his mind filled with endless delight. With these metal materials, he could start the refining of 'Minor Universal Alloy' using a secret technique he learned from Scroll of Stealing. It was an alloy combined from a couple dozens of rare metals, a material used in crafting upper tier magical treasures. Of course, the main purpose of this alloy was used to craft the 'Disc of Universal Teleportation Array', which was the foundation of a short-distance teleportation array.
Together with the Spatial Breaching Spirit Gold that he obtained recently, and the huge amount of energy stones given to him by Princess Zhang Le, he could easily produce several hundreds of such discs, and eventually construct a closely connected teleportation network which belonged solely to himself. With this network of teleportation arrays, he could launch an assault or fall back to defend anytime he wanted. Then, after he built a few secret Immortal Caves and burrows, he would finally have the confidence in keeping his life safe in this world.
No matter it was Lao Ai, Lu Buwei, the Four Lords of Warring States[1], or Ying Zheng, the first emperor, and Bai Qi, the Human Butcher… as long as Wu Qi had the network of Minor Universal Teleportation Arrays controlled in his hands, he could ignore all of them. Although these teleportation arrays could only allow him to teleport within the planet, and the furthest distance allowed was not more than ten million miles, but it was more than enough for Wu Qi. With the distance of ten million miles serving as his strategic shift, who could catch him?
While letting a loud laugh into the sky, Wu Qi rode on the single-horned deer and rushed out from Ji City, pressing towards Mount White Sun at the quickest speed possible.
At the moment when he left the city, he could clearly sense a few unfriendly glances coming from his back. Roughly, he knew where these people were coming from. The things that he had done in recent days had stirred the muddy water of Ji City into an even messier state. Thus, many people were casting a watchful eye on his back.
Among these people, only a handful of them were known to Wu Qi, that came with hostility.
He sneered, unleashed his innate Wood energy and injected into the body of the single-horned deer, while at the same time reading out an incantation. As Wood element could produce wind, a large clump of greenish wind suddenly burst out from all four hooves of the deer. Whistling noises of wind breaking rang out, as the deer rode at top speed, eventually arriving at Mount White Sun using 1/3rd of the time it usually took.
Looking over his shoulder at the dark shape of Ji City on the horizon, a strange expression emerged on Wu Qi's face.
"Whether you're going to bring me a howling wind or torrential rain, I'll pay no attention to them. Now, as long as I can find the energy of innate Gold element, I'll be able to completely gather all five elements. Heh, once I complete my cultivation in the Seven Foundation Establishment Technique, and have all my seven meridians formed with Gold Cores, my overall strength will be comparable to Earth Immortal of Nascent Soul realm. At that point in time, I'll then settle all the scores with you!"
He jumped off from the deer, forcefully stomped his feet and murmured under his breath, "Since I've come to this world, I'll have to live a wonderful life. Yet, the wonderful life of mine would have to be built atop many people's sorrows! Wei Longfeng, you poor fellow, do you have any idea how much of effort you've saved me? Aye, speaking of that, it has been a long time since I last met Qin Xuewen. If I can steal all the source energies in his Gold Core, hehe!"
Pulling the deer, Wu Qi went past the gateway of Mount White Sun, paying no attention to those apprentices of Heaven Breaking Sword Sect along the way, and came straight underneath the main peak of Mount White Sun.
He patted on the back of the deer and let it go ahead to graze in a nearby field. Then, raising his head upwards, Wu Qi let out a loud shout, "Master, Patriarch, are you here? Your disciple, Wu Qi, is here to see you! I have some good news for you!"
A white beam suddenly shot down from the top of the cliff, coiling up Wu Qi and bringing him back up onto the cliff.
On top of the cliff, not knowing from where, Nie Yaonu had transplanted a new batch of aged pine trees before the entrance to the cave of Sword Stems From The Mind. In addition to that, a few more stone blocks and a stone table were placed underneath these pine trees. Nie Yaonu and Nie Baihong were now sitting beside the stone table, with a pot of tea placed on it. It looked steaming hot, and was diffusing out a strong scent.
Upon seeing Wu Qi, Nie Baihong frowned and said, "How is the progress of your cultivation in Qi Circulating Technique of Five Elements? You ought to know that you can't practice our sword techniques without having it reach the complete stage of Xiantian realm. Why are you bustling all day? I never see you carrying out any decent business."
Wu Qi did not answer Nie Baihong, but instead, he told Nie Yaonu while wearing a smiling face, "Patriarch, I wish to use the sword techniques of Mountain-crumbling and Sky-burning to exchange with the sword techniques of Azure Water, Green-thunder, and Striking-thunder. Also, I want to borrow the best-quality crafting room, as there is something that I need to process!"
In an instant, both Nie Yaonu and Nie Baihong sprung to their feet and cried out at the same time, "What? Sword techniques of Mountain-crumbling and Sky-burning?"
[1] The Four Lords of the Warring States were four powerful aristocrats of the late Warring States period of Chinese history, who exerted a strong influence on the politics of their respective states in the third century BCE. They were Wei Wuji, Zhao Sheng, Huang Xie, and Tian Wen.