Zen Pewlu had come to the exchange meet organized by Nuya to see if he could find any suitable cultivation resources for himself.
After the Lakir Family’s destruction, his days were filled with endless struggles and fights for survival. He had barely escaped getting embroiled in the Lakir family’s downfall.
Zen was saved because he was tasked with finding the whereabouts of Lian Lakir after the latter broke communication with the Lakir family. While Zen was dispatched outside Lakir City, the city was attacked, ultimately saving his life.
The Lakir City and the Lakir clan behind it were destroyed. Zen Pewlu, who used to work for Lian Lakir, had nowhere else to go. He hid his identity as a Lakir Clan subordinate for quite some time before finding his footing in the Purple River Gate.
Zen wanted to go to the Dadangar Western Front archipelago in the near future. However, he wanted to see if he could get his hands on the Advanced Greenwood Tantra before starting his journey, seeking a new beginning.
However, Zen was shocked to meet someone whom he had never expected to encounter at the exchange meeting.
Zen could never have anticipated that a certain blood bead in his possession would start emitting a faint light and vibrating as soon as he came into proximity with one of the late-stage Spirit Refiners present at Nuya’s private meet.
It didn’t take long for Zen to figure out whose presence the blood bead reacted to. He started paying close attention to Aksai after confirming through the blood bead that Aksai was the same man who had killed Nesha and her subordinates more than two years ago.
After all, Zen Pewlu had served as Nesha’s supervisor in the past. He was the same man who had tried to follow Aksai’s trail but failed to apprehend him. Lian Lakir had handed out the blood beads to many of his subordinates in order to catch Nesha’s killer.
Being one of Lian’s core subordinates, Zen was obviously in possession of the blood bead. He was part of the wide-range net Lian had cast for Aksai in which the latter never got caught within the first two years.
Zen thought of something very interesting when he looked at Aksai and identified him as Nesha’s killer. What if Aksai was also Lian Lakir’s killer?
After all, Zen knew that Nesha’s death had obviously affected his former boss Lian Lakir profoundly. As far as Zen could see, there was a possibility that Lian confronted Aksai using the blood bead just before the Wilben family launched an attack on the Lakir family.
Zen had no intention of seeking revenge on Aksai on Lian Lakir’s behalf for killing Nesha. The Lakir family was already destroyed and Lian Lakir was dead. Plus, Zen had no intentions of doing things he wasn’t paid to do. The only reason he still had the blood bead was because he had forgotten about its existence after saving it in the storage ring.
‘He… He has something I need,’ Zen thought to himself as he eyed Aksai from a distance, a hint of greed and longing flashing in his eyes.
If Aksai had managed to kill Lian, Zen estimated that Aksai also possessed the Stellar Greenwood Tantra, which was a superior cultivation technique even to the Advanced Greenwood Tantra.
As a close subordinate under Lian Lakir, Zen obviously knew that the former was considered an exceptional scion of the Lakir family and hence was given a copy of the Stellar Greenwood Tantra.
Thanks to Zen’s close association with Lian, he also practiced Advanced Greenwood Tantra. However, he only had seven chapters of the technique and the rest two chapters were missing. As such, Zen wanted to get his hands on the complete Advanced Greenwood Tantra in the meet.
After all, after the Lakir family’s destruction, there was practically nobody stopping anyone from proliferating the three versions of the Greenwood Tantra.
However, if Zen could acquire the Stellar Greenwood Tantra from Aksai, his chances of establishing his foundation would increase by an additional ten percent.
Who would deny themselves this kind of progress? Why would he look for the Advanced Tantra when he clearly had a better option?
***
A few minutes after the exchange meeting officially began.
While Zen was busy processing myriad thoughts in his head, the exchange meeting proceeded smoothly.
Many late-stage Spirit cultivators had already revealed the unique resources they possessed, while others were attempting to claim these resources by offering their own cultivation resources in exchange.
The whole process could have been chaotic if Nuya hadn’t set the rules of engagement. According to the rules, each Spirit cultivator could choose to exchange resources with anyone of their choice. As a result, everyone used this opportunity as a way to sell their items to the highest bidder.
Aksai, too, was seen exchanging various cultivation resources with others. He had revealed his possession of multiple stalks of 1st-order Twilight Spirit Fern, which attracted many potential buyers among the gathered Spirit cultivators.
Aksai used almost 50 stalks of the 1st-order Twilight Spirit Fern to acquire a 1st-order alchemy inheritance. He believed it would be the most significant takeaway he could obtain from this exchange meeting.
However, Aksai was pleasantly surprised to find out that someone had put up a 1st-order Array Formation inheritance for exchange. This Spirit cultivator wanted at least 5 stalks of certain Spirit herbs in exchange.
The allure of having an Array Formation inheritance was certainly great. After all, it was considered one of the most lucrative fields in the cultivation world. An Array Formation expert certainly earned better than an alchemy expert or a talisman expert.
This was because studying the art of array formation was definitely not an easy task for most cultivators. Getting their hands on an inheritance related to Array Formation was even more difficult. The Spirit cultivators who possessed such resources usually held onto them in private and never really brought them out.
It was only due to the recent unrest in the two counties that the late-stage Spirit cultivators were forced to bring these inheritances out in order to exchange them for something they really wanted.
Everyone wanted to get their hands on this particular inheritance, even if they didn’t have plans to study it themselves. After all, the inheritance was considered a pretty good investment.
However, the items that the owner of the inheritance wanted weren’t something everyone could produce on a whim.
This was because the inheritance owner had clearly stated that she would only exchange this inheritance for at least five stalks of 2nd-order Moonlit Lily Spirit grass or something similar.
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AN: Aksai obtains 1st-order Twilight Spirit Fern and 2nd-order Moonlit Lily Spirit Seed in chapter 40. The same chapter also describes ways to cultivate these resources.
Also, Zen Pewlu was introduced in chapter 20 as Nesha’s senior and potential backup when they confronted Aksai in an abandoned alley outside Lakir City’s black market.