'The Divine Reaping Scythe! I haven't been able to use this battle art since I advanced to the Meridian Forging Realm, as the copy I had only detailed up to the Core Formation Realm. However, this Jade Piece details the Divine Reaping Scythe through the Heaven Tribulation Realm! I must acquire this!'
The Divine Reaping Scythe had been John's strongest attack for the early portion of his cultivation history, and he always felt quite depressed about the fact that he could no longer use it in combat. Its power, sharpness, and lethality was unmatched within the same realm, and was one of the reasons he was able to reign supreme in the Yuan Continent amongst all the youths.
As he sent his divine sense into the Jade piece, an incredibly powerful and realistic mental image of a lone cultivator using the Divine Reaping Scythe appeared in his mind. The cultivator had his back turned to John, making it so that he was unable to see his face.
However, just based on the way the man carried himself, John could instantly tell that he was an incredibly powerful cultivator. The man raised his scythe, and immediately slashed it outwards. A scythe image, sharper and deadlier than anything John had seen before pierced out, slashing into the void in the distance.
The image disappeared, and a barrage of words in the ancient language flooded his mind, as if telling him a story of how to comprehend the next realms of the Divine Reaping Scythe. The Jade piece seemed to be a two part process, one of studying the image of the man attacking, and the other of studying the words and their insights that flooded his mind.
John could feel his scythe Dao insights rise just by studying the attack, and desired to gaze at it until he could master it. He felt his heartbeat speed up at what he was seeing, but quickly remembered where he was and calmed himself down. He didn't want to let Caz know of his ability to read the ancient language for two reasons, or his desire to obtain the battle art.
The first was that if Caz knew that John wanted the battle art, he could potentially raise the price. While John didn't know if Caz would do such a thing, he wanted to avoid testing the theory altogether.
The second, and more severe reason was that he didn't want Caz, or anyone at all, to know that he could read the ancient language. The ancient language was a dead language in this world, and no one knew how to read it. However, there were many incredible battle arts, cultivation techniques, pill recipes, and more that existed in this language in the world, but were unable to be utilized.
If people found out he could read the language, it would most likely cause quite a few headaches for himself. Caz raised an eyebrow as he noticed John inspect the Jade piece for some time, but remained silent.
John set down the Jade piece, and a slightly confused expression appeared on his face as he looked up at Caz.
"Why did you give me this Jade piece?" John asked in a confused tone. "I can't read what's contained within."
"No one can," Caz replied after a brief pause. "However, I'm sure you noticed that when you sent your divine sense into the Jade piece, images of a scythe battle art appeared in your mind."
John nodded his head at Caz's words, as that was indisputable regardless of if one could understand the language or not.
"While no one can read the instructions for the battle art contained within, many have studied the image of the battle art, and have found their insights rise. As such, while it may not be something that you can rely on for obtaining the battle art, it can still help raise your scythe insights. That is the reason I have included it amongst the other battle arts," Caz explained.
"Oh, I guess that makes sense," John replied, doing his best to hide his excitement.
He put the Jade piece down and began going through the other scythe attacks. Although the attacks were powerful, none were nearly as potent or profound as the Divine Reaping Scythe. However, as to avoid suspicion, John chose a scythe battle art meant to fight multiple enemies at once, the Myriad Scythe Form, as well as the Divine Reaping Scythe.
After sorting through the scythe battle arts, John sifted through the battle axe battle arts. However, none of them caught his eye, which caused him to frown from disappointment. Caz noticed John's expression, and a wry smile appeared on his face.
"Apologies for the lacking wares for battle axe battle arts. Our best attacks were recently purchased by another young cultivator such as yourself, and so we find ourselves lacking in this department at the moment."
"It's alright," John replied calmly as his gaze shifted to the last pile, which was the miscellaneous battle arts that didn't fit the three categories he had initially mentioned. After perusing through the battle arts, John found that he did not desire any in particular, and that his current battle art lineup was quite full already.
He took a moment to gather the battle arts he was interested in, and presented the pile to Caz. The Jade pile included Lightning Disintegration, Thunderbody Flash, Dragontail Decimation, the Myriad Scythe Form, and the Divine Reaping Scythe.
It was an incredibly powerful lineup of battle arts, and John felt his heartbeat slightly increase upon thinking of using them, before he calmed himself down quickly once again.
"I'm interested in these…Whats the total cost for these five battle arts?" John asked calmly.
Caz glanced at the battle arts, and did a quick mental tally before relaying the final sum to John.
"The total cost is thirty five million spirit crystals," Caz replied.
John felt his heart nearly seize upon hearing the total sum, as it was nearly a third of his total spirit crystal supply. However, the bulk of the price was because of the costly Dragontail Decimation, which he greatly desired.
'Oh well, I suppose it will be worth it in the end. I'm just happy that the Divine Reaping Scythe is written in the ancient language, which greatly reduced its price. If this world could read the language, this battle art would most likely cost fifty million spirit crystals at the minimum.'
John remained silent for a moment before he nodded his head in agreement.
"Deal."
A small smile appeared on Caz's face as well as John's, as both were happy with the transaction's outcome.
"Before we exchange items for spirit crystals, is there anything else you would like to peruse?" Caz asked.
John nodded his head at Caz's words, as the battle arts were the only reason he came to this city. He still required medicinal pills, cultivation pills, and other things such as any formations or talismans that piqued his interest.
…
A week later, John found himself standing outside Mystic Cities bordering walls. He had spent quite a bit of time within the city obtaining everything he needed, and spent another few days enjoying a rare source of free time.
His gaze shifted to a distant mountain range, which was said to contain a number of powerful beasts within.
'I had a nice relaxing time obtaining everything I needed within Mystic City, but it's time to get serious again.. Let's test out these battle arts that I spent a fortune obtaining.'