novelExperts Are What We Lack the Least
| ← Ch.1187 | Ch.1189 → |
A murderous intent flashed in Xiao Chen's eyes as he executed the Thunder Dragon Steps. With each step, more than one hundred electric dragons shot into the sea.
He swung his saber with each step, sending out a figure of him. After three swings, the three figures merged back together. He used the Thunder Dragon Chop to chop the three heavily injured people in half.
This place was already quite near that group of islands, so many cultivators passed through this area.
When these people saw Xiao Chen's actions, they did not show any fear. They were all skilled and bold people, pointing and discussing his earlier attacks in whispers.
"What a powerful bladesman! I don't think I've seen him before; he is probably new."
"A Great Perfection quasi-Emperor who displays the strength of a Consummation quasi-Emperor, he is indeed strong."
"That is nothing. Experts are what we lack the least in this Dragon Grave Sea. This is not really strange."
Xiao Chen sheathed his saber. Not bothered by this small incident and the discussions of the onlookers, he rushed towards the islands.
After arriving at a small island, he bought a sea chart at a shop. Then, he spent some Black Astral Coins to obtain information about the Dragon Grave Sea.
As its name showed, Dragon Grave Sea took its name from the Distant Sea Dragon Grave, one of the eight great forbidden lands.
The Distant Sea Dragon Grave was somewhat similar to the Dragon Burial Mound of the Savage Battlefield, a mysterious land where dragons were buried.
However, instead of it being on land, it was underwater.
Aside from the famous great forbidden land, the Distant Sea Dragon Grave, there were also other dragon graves of varying danger in this sea region.
These dragon graves contained the remains of True Dragons that were worth cities, and all sorts of natural treasures grew there. Any one of them would be massively profitable.
Furthermore, such dragon graves in the sea often contained extremely precious burial items.
It was like these ancient True Dragons were a race with its own society and culture. Among the burial items would be all sorts of Secret Treasures, divine materials, and even Martial Techniques.
Hence, there were many quasi-Emperors from other places in this group of islands. All of them came for the sake of exploring the dragon graves, wanting to look for their own fortuitous encounters.
Xiao Chen felt excited. It was not that he was interested in these dragon graves.
However, he suspected that since there were so many dragon graves, then there would definitely be a lot of unearthed Secret Treasures with dragon souls and all sorts of natural treasures.
Xiao Chen was in constant need of Secret Treasures with dragon souls. Now that his Azure Dragon Body Nourishing Art reached a critical point of the second layer, he urgently required some Secret Treasures with dragon souls to make a breakthrough.
Furthermore, the Flower of Life that he sought might be among the many natural treasures.
Since the Death Fruit was part of the Thunder Emperor's inheritance, he did not have to worry about it. However, the Flower of Life was still problematic.
Normally, the Flower of Life could only be found in the Human-Demon Sea. Furthermore, it was extremely rare and had not been seen for many years already.
There was little hope of finding the Flower of Life here. However, he might as well try his luck here. If he came up empty-handed, he would just go to the Human-Demon Sea to figure a way out.
"Boss, are there any black markets in this place?" Xiao Chen asked the owner of the shop.
Places similar to this island would have such a market, which would provide a convenient location for people who managed to obtain treasures from the dragon graves to sell them.
Furthermore, if one wanted to find good things, one would have to go to the black market. After all, many good items were obtained by killing others and could not be sold openly.
In order to sell such items quickly, one could only resort to the black market.
Although the owner of the shop was not a cultivator, he ran a business and naturally understood this need. He answered, "Our island is too small. We do not even have a market here. Naturally, there is no black market, either. The black market of the Dragon Grave Sea is on Treasure Dragon Island. You can go there to ask around."
"Many thanks."
Xiao Chen smiled faintly and expressed his appreciation before flying towards Treasure Dragon Island.
According to the sea chart, Treasure Dragon Island, where Treasure Dragon City was, was the largest island of this group of islands. It was in the very center and gathered all sorts of foreign experts who came to adventure.
Xiao Chen casually walked around Treasure Dragon Island. When he glanced around, he immediately saw a group of quasi-Emperor cultivators.
Furthermore, even the weakest one of the group was a Great Perfection quasi-Emperor. There were no Small Perfection quasi-Emperors around at all.
The island was extremely chaotic. Fighting and killing could be seen everywhere.
Xiao Chen was not surprised at this. The cultivators in the Dragon Grave Sea moved around frequently.
Aside from some merchant associations that would remain over the long term, no sects or clans were based here. Hence, there was no way to establish any sort of rule.
The largest city in Treasure Dragon Island was naturally Treasure Dragon City. In regard to area, it was no smaller than Black Water City, which Xiao Chen had seen before.
However, the atmosphere here was no comparison, appearing very ordinary.
There were no guards at the city gates.
In fact, there was no need for guards. No one used the city gates; everyone just flew in without fear.
Xiao Chen thought to himself, This place is extraordinarily chaotic. I should quickly leave after finishing what I have to do.
It was not hard to find the location of the black market. The entrance was in a restaurant in the city.
The ones backing the market were the merchant associations belonging to the strongest few factions in the Dragon Grave Sea. No one dared to cause trouble there, and the market maintained a pretty good environment for trade.
After paying, he received access to the narrow secret passageway in the restaurant and arrived at the black market.
The black market was made up of several streets used for business. Wealthy cultivators could rent a shop lot to sell their treasures.
Most cultivators choose to set up stalls on the street.
Many people moved about on the streets. The things found on the main street were rather messy; everything could be found there. However, the smaller streets all showed some specialization by Secret Treasures, natural treasures, Medicinal Pills, or secret manuals.
Xiao Chen first went to the area selling Secret Treasures and browsed around. The street was bustling with many cultivators like Xiao Chen shopping leisurely.
The Secret Treasures in the stalls all looked very special. They all looked ancient and gave off an aged aura. Some of the Secret Treasures had scripts with a surfeit of ancient charm that gave the impression of a different race.
After casually chatting with one of the stall owners, Xiao Chen found out that these were Dragon Race Secret Treasures from an extremely distant era.
"Dragon Race? I've heard of True Dragon, but what's up with the Dragon Race? To think that they could even refine their own Secret Treasures, " Xiao Chen asked, finding the concept strange.
The stall owner was also bored, so he chatted with Xiao Chen. He smiled and replied, "That is a matter of the Distant Distant Era. No one can speak accurately about it. It was probably millions of years ago."
The current period was the Post Ancient Era. Before this era was the glorious Prior Ancient Era. Before that was the Desolate Ancient Era, and even earlier was the Distant Ancient Era.
[Note: Before this, everything before the Post Ancient Era were simply classified as the Ancient Era and was not clearly defined or explained. Upon looking at the raws again, I found that some of the references were specific to the Distant Ancient Era, which was mainly the era when the Holy Beasts and dragons still existed. ]
Too much time had passed. Right now, only the peak era of the Martial Epoch, the glorious Prior Ancient Era, was better understood. The little was known about the Desolate Ancient Era and even less about the Distant Ancient Era—especially since few Remnants remained.
Xiao Chen thought about it and agreed. Since the end of the Immortal Epoch, there were too many mysteries in this world. Thus, it was not really strange for there to have been a glorious Dragon Race in the Distant Ancient Era.
"Friend, are there any Secret Treasures containing dragon souls here? I would like to purchase some. Do you know what place would have it?" Xiao Chen asked about his purpose in coming here as he put down the Secret Treasure in his hand.
"Secret Treasure containing dragon souls?"
The owner of that stall smiled and said, "In that case, you've come to the right place. All the Secret Treasures here more or less contain dragon souls. After all, their original owners were Dragon Race cultivators. In theory, the Spiritual Mark they left behind are dragon souls."
"Is that so?"
This reply piqued Xiao Chen's interest. He casually picked up a Secret Treasure and sent in his Spiritual Sense to find the Spiritual Mark that the original owner left behind.
After a while, Xiao Chen sensed the strand of Spiritual Mark and could not help feeling disappointed. It was indeed a dragon soul, but it was too weak. To him, it would not be effective at all.
"This is somewhat pushing it, right?" Xiao Chen smiled and put down the Secret Treasure.
The owner of the stall did not refute him. He smiled and said, "It is indeed barely pushing it. You are probably cultivating some kind of Cultivation Technique that requires the aid of dragon souls. In that case, it should be sufficient for you to purchase high-quality King Grade Secret Treasures. What you picked up was just a low-quality King Grade Secret Treasure."
When Xiao Chen heard that, he tried another one. Indeed, it was as this person said. The Spiritual Mark in a high-quality King Grade Secret Treasure was an extremely strong dragon soul.
Thinking about it, this probably had something to do with the original master's strength. The stronger the original master was, the stronger the Spiritual Mark left behind.
"Great. I'll buy all three high-quality King Grade Secret Treasures that you have here."
Since the other party was proven right, Xiao Chen paid up happily, spending two million Black Astral Coins to buy all three high-quality King Grade Secret Treasures.
A smile filled the stall owner's face as he watched Xiao Chen go to other stalls to continue his search. He muttered, "I wonder, which Noble Clan's Young Master is he? He is really straightforward, closing the deal without bargaining."
After this, Xiao Chen tested the theory out again. Indeed, it was as the first stall owner said: as long as it was a high-quality King Grade Secret Treasure of the Dragon Race, it contained a strong dragon soul.
However, Xiao Chen did not buy these openly with great fanfare. There were too many witnesses in this place, many of which were experts. If he was careless, he might end up getting targeted.
He chose a cautious method to make his purchases, spending two days to acquire all the high-quality King Grade Secret Treasures without drawing attention.
Xiao Chen was pretty lucky; he even managed to find a peak-quality King Grade Secret Treasure. The dragon soul in there was terrifyingly strong. Although it had lost its intelligence, its ferocity remained, even injuring his Spiritual Sense.
Purchasing everything used up a significant chunk of the seventy million Black Astral Coins he had on hand.
After that, Xiao Chen went to the street where natural treasures were sold to ask around for news about the Flower of Life.
In the end, he was not that lucky. His inquiries came up blank, which was within expectations. After all, the Flower of Life was on the brink of extinction, and it had never appeared in the Dragon Grave Sea before.
Xiao Chen was not overly disappointed. After he left, he went to a restaurant to rent a good room to cultivate the Azure Dragon Body Nourishing Art.
Having already reached the peak of the Azure Dragon Body Nourishing Art's second layer, he was just short of sufficient divine materials to allow himself to break through.
Now that Xiao Chen had so many Secret Treasures containing dragon souls, he made an easy breakthrough, reaching the Azure Dragon Body Nourishing Art's third layer.
After doing so, he still had a large number of Secret Treasures containing dragon souls left over, so he simply continued cultivating in a spurt of energy, stabilizing the Azure Dragon Body Nourishing Art's third layer.
In hindsight, this Azure Dragon Body Nourishing Art could not be cultivated by an ordinary person. The resources required were incredibly huge.
Up to now, Xiao Chen had spent close to hundreds of millions of Black Astral Coins. Even so, he only reached Small Perfection of the Azure Dragon Body Nourishing Art's third layer. There were still six layers beyond this, each layer requiring more resources than the one before it.
Furthermore, this was after he had figured out a trick, that he could cultivate faster with Secret Treasures containing dragon souls. If not for this shortcut, the expenditure would be even higher.
However, the benefits were clear to see. After materializing the Azure Dragon Battle Armor, his physical body was even comparable with the Heavenly Spiritual Body of a Fiend Race genius.
| ← Ch. 1187 | Ch. 1189 → |