A short moment later, Han Li woke up from his amazement and he looked at the young woman with narrowed eyes. He laughed and said, “I heard that your Tian Peng Race’s current holy master has already perished, and now there is no one in your race that can inherit the Kun Peng True Blood. It is also said that the Flying Spirit Tribe is possibly removing your race from the seventy-two branches. Could this be true?”
“How do you know about that?” The young woman’s face slightly changed and the image of a golden bird appeared behind her.
The phantom simply unfolded its wings, but Han Li felt an immense pressure on his shoulder, and he soon heard his bones begin to crack.
With a thud, Han Li’s legs sank a half foot deep in the stone floor.
Han Li’s complexion also turned incredibly pale.
But at that moment, the young woman frowned and the bird phantom disappeared.
In the blink of an eye, the young woman restored her calm and said, “I don’t know how you came across this information, but I hope you’ll keep it secret for the time being. I don’t wish for the holy city to fall into chaos. Also, there is a mistake in your words. We do have two holy disciples that can inherit the true ancestor blood that we’ve kept concealed. However, their cultivation is still too low to succeed in the trial placed by the various races. That is why I’ve invited you to join our clan.”
After shifting his eyes, a thought quickly went through his mind and he smiled, “The grand elder means that I’ll be standing in the two holy disciples’ place as their protector?”
Chapter 1420: The Trade Hall
The young woman calmly said, “That’s right. Although you do have the qualifications to join our Tian Peng race, you are a human after all. Even if you pass through the trial, it is impossible for you to become our race’s holy master. However, Fellow Daoist Han can provide support to the other two holy disciples as a fellow holy disciple and help them pass the trial. If you agree, I won’t treat you unfairly. Not only can you fuse a bit of Kun Peng True Blood into you, but we’ll thank you in other ways as well.”
Such fortune would cause an ordinary person to rejoice and promptly agree, but Han Li simply blinked and didn’t immediately answer.
The young woman didn’t urge him and simply remained seated as she stared at him.
In the time it took to finish a cup of tea, Han Li eventually said, “For the matter of being a holy disciple, Senior would have an outsider like me enter your race. The trial must be quite dangerous. Could you first give me an explanation?”
“It is true the trial is quite dangerous. The various race’s disciples have a sixty to seventy percent chance of failure and injury. Furthermore, the holy disciple’s cultivation must be at the level of a Flying Spirit General, what is known to you humans as the Deity Transformation-stage. But now, our Holy Master has unexpectedly perished, and our holy disciples are only early Spirit General-stage. They still aren’t prepared.
If they attempt the trial, they will most likely fail. Although I don’t know much about your abilities, since you were able to cross most of the Tian Yuan Continent over here, your strength should be significant. Even with the danger in the trial, it shouldn’t be a problem for you.”
Han Li’s eyes stirred and he solemnly asked, “They are only at the stage of a Spirit General?”
“Don’t worry, I won't trick you.” The young woman smiled.
With a moment of thought, Han Li eventually said, “I’ll need some time to consider it.”
The young woman appeared calm as if having expected this answer. “The matter is extremely important, so consideration is expected. How about this? I’ll give you three days before I expect your answer. During this time, you are free to roam the city and no one will come to bother you. Furthermore, I’m named Jin Yue. Remember that name.”
Han Li uttered a word of thanks and bid farewell without any hesitation.
When Han Li left, he blurred and vanished without a trace. Jin Yue smiled and sipped the teacup that was on the table.
“Grand Elder, did you truly release him?” Grey light flashed from the wall and two Tian Peng beings appeared.
Jin Yue glanced at a tall red-bearded old man and asked, “What? How did you think I’d treat that person?”
The lofty red-bearded old man rubbed his hands and said, “There is no need for us to pass off the foreign being as our holy disciple. Wouldn’t it be better to force him to leave behind the wings and select someone better to inherit the true blood?”
The young woman sneered and bluntly answered, “If it were that easy, why would I go through the trouble of saying that to a foreign being. I would just kill him and take the wings away.”
The petite beautiful woman standing at the old man’s side hastily fixed her jacket and respectfully said, “Then the Grand Elder means...”
Jin Yue pondered for a moment and explained, “I hold the most understanding of humans among the entirety of the Tian Peng. The humans are different from us in which their body’s powers are common and most of their abilities lie in the treasures they’ve refined. Furthermore, they can temper their treasures for long periods and thoroughly refine them with themselves. We can take it away and possess it, but it will be difficult to rid the treasure of the original master’s markings in a short amount of time. Furthermore, the treasure’s might will greatly decrease from when it was used by its original owner. I’ve already inspected the treasure to verify this. With the information I have and the trial of the holy disciple soon being imminent, we don’t have the time to seize his treasure and bestow it to our kin.”
The red-bearded old man shook his head. “So it was like that. But even so, must we hand over the True Ancestor’s Blood to this outsider? This isn’t some small matter.”
A clear glint shined from the young woman’s eyes, “Elder Xu, are you confused? If our race doesn’t pass the trial of the holy disciple, the entire race will be absorbed by the other branches. Giving him some true blood is minor in comparison. Besides, we can consider other options to prevent this from happening.”
The dainty middle-aged woman was startled for a moment and smiled, “Hehe, the Grand Elder’s words are reasonable. After this outsider helps us through this calamity, this Spirit General-grade existence will be completely at our mercy.”
Jin Yue coldly glanced at the beautiful woman and emotionlessly said, “We cannot kill him. Even if he is a foreign being, he’s fused Kun Peng True Blood into his body and can be considered half our kin. Our Tian Peng vows will restrict us. Furthermore, he will be our benefactor if he truly aids us through calamity. If it isn’t necessary, we mustn't harm him, but we’ll be able to restrict him in other ways. From now on, he won’t be able to leave the holy city.”
The red-bearded old man said, “So that’s the case. Should we inform the gatekeepers or send people to follow the outsider in secret to keep him from escaping?”
Jin Yue aloofly said, “There is no need for Elder Xu to worry. I’ve performed a small trick on his wings. If he wants to escape the city, I’ll immediately know about it.”
The beautiful woman’s eyes brightly lit up and she grinned, “It seems we’ve been worrying too much.”
“That isn’t so. Our clan has five grand elders and only three of us are in the present. The matter concerning our clan’s existence is something that we must deliberate. I wouldn’t have secretly called you over here otherwise. Do either of you have any objections?”
“No, the Grand Elder’s method is reliable.” Both the beautiful woman and the old man readily agreed.
The young woman nodded in response.
From the very beginning, none of the three Tian Peng elders had even considered that Han Li would refuse.
This came as no surprise. After all Han Li was only a Deity Transformation-grade outsider. How could he refuse their request?
At that moment, hundreds of kilometers away, Han Li was flying at a low altitude.
Although his expression was
ordinary and he appeared at the various buildings below him with interest, he was inwardly pondering about his dilemma.
He had carelessly exposed his identity and found himself in a bad situation.
With his rich experience, he figured that no matter if he completed the young woman’s request, the result definitely wouldn’t be good for him.
A bold refusal definitely wouldn’t be possible.
As for immediately escaping, the thought had already surfaced in his mind several times.
But after he swept his spiritual sense past his wings, he could only wryly laugh.
The Tian Peng Grand Elder had brazenly placed a marking on the wings. Within a certain area, she’d be able to find him without a doubt.
And he wouldn’t be able to erase the mark at his current cultivation. At the very least, he’d need to spend many days. The Grand Elder could find him countless times during the duration.
It appeared his only option would be to negotiate a few conditions to protect himself.
Otherwise, it’d be better to take the risk to flee than to become the holy disciple of foreign race.
As for the conditions, he would properly deliberate them once he understood the general circumstances surrounding the Tian Peng Race.
Fortunately, he’s already encountered danger countless times and managed to keep calm even under such a dilemma.
As Han Li slowly flew, thoughts quickly flickered through his mind.
After some time, Han Li arrived at a lofty bookstore in the holy city.
He spent an entire day looking through a small half of the books there before departing with a tired expression.
When he returned to his residence, Han Li shut himself in the honored guest lodge until the morning of the third day. He departed with his objective being the large trade hall that he wanted to go from the very start.
He hadn’t encountered any trouble along the way.
As Han Li flew, he eventually arrived at the edge of the holy city and stood in front of a strangely constructed building.
The building was constructed next to a three-kilometer-tall mountain cliff, and in the cliff, a huge rectangular plaza was carved out of it. At the end of the plaza, there was a three-hundred-meter-tall arched gate embedded on top of the mountain wall.
To either side of the arch, a dozen armed guards were standing in formation. Between them, countless Tian Peng beings rushed to and fro the gate.
Han Li simply examined them from a distance for a moment. Then, his wings stirred and he flew among them in a ball of azure light.
A guard in front of the gate noticed Han Li. His expression faintly changed before he gave Han Li a deep salute.
Han Li nodded to him and boldly walked through.
He walked through and saw the space before him brightly light up.
There seemed to be an entirely different world past the gate.
At a glance, he saw long passages that seemingly had no end. There were also lines to lofty buildings that appeared to be walls. Under closer examination, the halls seemed to have over ten stores with each story being a hundred meters tall. And every three hundred meters in width, there would be a thirty-meter tall hall entrance.
Countless Tian Peng beings were flying back and forth, up and down. It appeared this was where the Tian Peng Race traded.
Chapter 1421: Azure Shifting Fruit
Han Li immediately followed a wave of Tian Peng beings toward a certain shop close to the second level.
After withdrawing his wings, he entered through the door as if he really were a Tian Peng being.
After entering through the door, Han Li was immediately greeted by a lively and bustling scene.
He had arrived at a small plaza with an area of several thousand feet, and shops of different sizes stood around the entire plaza. At present, there were several hundred Tian Peng beings filing in and out of those shops.
At the exact center of the plaza stood a bluestone pole that was over 100 feet tall. Light was shimmering atop the pole, and there seemed to be something engraved on the very top.
There were around a dozen people looking up at the pole and discussing quietly among themselves. Han Li made his way over to them with curiosity in his eyes.
At the foot of the pole, he discovered that its surface had been split into two halves down the center. Both halves were riddled with text, and one side was shimmering with a red color while the other half gleamed with a green hue.
Han Li focused his gaze on the two different texts to find that they were all names for items, some of which were very familiar while others were quite alien.
Furthermore, these lines of texts surfaced and vanished intermittently. There was also a middle-aged man who appeared to be a guard seated at the foot of the pole with his eyes half-closed.
At this moment, a man suddenly forced his way out of the crowd, then strode forward and offered a few spirit stones to the guard sitting by the pole.
The middle-aged guard opened his eyes before nodding and handing over a short red stick to this man.
The man picked up the red stick and rapidly swished it toward a certain blank patch on the stone pillar.
Even though the man was moving extremely quickly, Han Li was able to glean his actions using his spirit eyes.
As the short stick swished through the air, a few shimmering red characters appeared before vanishing into the stone pillar in a flash.
Moments later, those red characters surfaced on that same spot.
Han Li was rather surprised to see this.
After a while, someone else strode forward. However, that person completely ignored the middle-aged guard. He merely spread his wings and flew up several tens of feet, then tapped a finger against a few green characters on the stone pillar.
All of a sudden, those characters began to glow with a green light, then quickly disappeared into his finger, making his entire body shimmer with brilliant spiritual light.
Meanwhile, the Tian Peng being that had traced these characters with fingers cocked his head to the side with narrowed eyes, seemingly receiving some kind of information. After a while, he withdrew his finger and turned before flying directly toward the entrance of the hall.
After that, a few more people emulated the first two, either inscribing something on the stone pillar or directly flying toward the pillar to trace the red and green characters.
Han Li stroked his chin upon seeing this, and he finally figured out what was happening.
In order to confirm his speculation, he strode forward and extended a finger toward a line of green text that appeared near the bottom of the stone pillar.
Green light immediately flashed from those characters as a cold sensation traveled straight into his mind, bringing with it a line of information.
"Selling first-grade Flowing Light Wood, no purchase limit per person, each block costs 30,000 spirit stones, find me on the fourth level, fifth hall, 31st shop." Han Li's lips twitched and he moved to the other half of the stone pillar, then placed his finger over a line of red text.
A similar string of information appeared in his mind.
"Seeking the complete carcass of a Phoenix-Tailed Beast, price will be negotiated face to face, find me on the ninth level, second hall, 10th shop!"
A peculiar look appeared on Han Li's face.
He didn't think that the Tian Peng Race facilitated transactions in such a manner.
It was quite clear that the lines of text on this stone pillar were all essentially advertisements for people selling or seeking precious items.
As such, the pillar acted as a universal directory that made things a lot more convenient for both buyers and sellers.
Furthermore, this setup didn't appear to be very difficult to replicate, and there was no reason why it couldn't be implemented in human markets as well. With that in mind, Han Li took a few steps backward and began to carefully inspect the green lines of text, which were advertising items that were being sold.
; He was planning to read through this information to see if there were any items that were appealing to him.
Due to the differences between the human and Tian Peng races, many items were referred to as different names here compared to in the human race. However, for some reason, most of the precious items were still known by the same or similar names. In particular, some materials that were extremely valuable to both races were referred to with identical names.
This came as quite a surprise to Han Li when he had first mastered the language of the Flying Spirit Race. However, even though he found this to be rather perplexing, he naturally wasn't going to go around searching for an answer.
He merely appraised the stone pillar in silence, looking for anything that caught his eye.
All of a sudden, Han Li focused his gaze on a line of green text that had just appeared on the stone pillar, and his heart rate abruptly accelerated.
"Azure Shifting Fruit! Who would've thought that something like this would be sold here?" An excited flush appeared on Han Li's face. This fruit was the main ingredient, for a legendary pill, the Heavenshifting Pill, and it was most definitely among the spirit fruits that were most sought after to Han Li.
This spirit pill wasn't as extraordinary as the Black Flame Pills, but three of those pills could improve the probability of a breakthrough for late-Spatial Tempering cultivators by several tens of percentage points. As such, they were most definitely more valuable than Black Flame Pills in the eyes of the majority of high-grade cultivators, including even some powerful beings at or above the Body Integration Stage.
Consuming the Heavenshifting Pill alone could naturally assist a Spatial Tempering cultivator in breaking through a bottleneck, but in reality, most people wouldn't use this spirit pill in such a manner. Most of the people who were seeking this spirit pill intended to consume it in conjunction with other spirit medicines.
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