Chapter 99 - Ancient Mysterious Ginseng
Under Bai Heng’s lead, Qin Nan arrived at the Treasure Vault.
Before them stood a marvelous palace, covering an area of few miles squared. It had a luxurious feeling to it, which formed an obvious contrast with the ancient looking Skill Library.
The entrance to the Treasure Vault was flooded with endless people, causing the place to be lively.
Bai Heng handed Qin Nan a badge and said, “This is your outer disciple badge. You have to register yourself before entering the Treasure Vault. Keep in mind that outer disciples are only allowed to enter the first floor. Inner disciples are allowed to enter the second and third floors. As for the fourth floor, it’s said to be open only to the core disciples.”
Qin Nan received the badge, and saw the word ‘five’ carved on it. Despite that, he did not question it; after registering together with Bai Heng, they both entered the first floor of the Treasure Vault.
After stepping into the first floor, Qin Nan’s face was filled with a surprised expression.
The hall was fully crowded with people; not only there were stalls set up by the disciples, there were also shops around selling all sorts of weapons and rare materials, as if one had just entered a treasure city.
“I never know that the disciples were allowed to set up stalls and sell stuff here on the first floor of the Treasure Vault.”
Qin Nan thought to himself, as he glanced toward one of the stalls.
The owner of the stall was an eighth-layer Body Tempering Realm disciple, whose heart skipped a beat after seeing the auras from Qin Nan and Bai Heng. He quickly let out a smile and said, “Two Misters, have a look around. These treasures were collected from the ancient ruins, I guarantee they are worth every pill…”
Qin Nan did not focus on him, but secretly unleashed his Eyes of the Divine Battle Spirit and scanned every piece of treasure on the stall, to see if there was anything extraordinary.
Qin Nan remained expressionless as he withdrew his Eyes of the Divine Battle Spirit, and went toward the other stalls.
In the midst of window shopping, Qin Nan continued to scan around with his Eyes of the Divine Battle Spirit, which caused him to be quite surprised, “What a treasure vault, the ancient sword there possesses a strong force within it; quite a nice weapon, but it’s too pricey. Not to mention that bronze mirror in that shop, which possesses some secrets, and it might be linked to something else…”
Qin Nan then shook his head. Despite the fact that his Eyes of the Divine Battle Spirit were able to see through the treasures, most of them were too expensive, causing him to lose interest.
“Even though with my Scarlet-Fanged Purple Dragon Badge, I’m allowed to enter the third, or even the fourth floor, but it seems like there’s no need for that.”
A thought came to Qin Nan’s mind. Although there were lots of treasures here, they were all too expensive. He planned to use his Martial Emperor Pills to level up his Divine Battle Spirit, thus he was unwilling to spend any of them here.
Meanwhile, Qin Nan halted in his track out of a sudden, as his eyes flickered, “Hmm?”
The owner of the stall was an outer disciple wearing a black robe, whose cultivation had reached the tenth-layer Body Tempering Realm. When he saw Qin Nan and Bai Heng approaching, he said with a calm tone, “You can observe it, but no touching.”
Qin Nan nodded his head, as he crouched down and inspected the weird object before him carefully.
It was a stalk of ginseng, but not just an ordinary one. It was totally black in color, with a few rotting spots, as if it was no longer useful.
However, with the Eyes of the Divine Battle Spirit, Qin Nan was able to detect a mysterious force enclosed within it, and he could even feel a scarce sense of something alive floating in it.
Even with Qin Nan’s knowledge, he could not interpret what kind of force it was; he could only tell that it was extremely powerful.
“I’ll buy this ginseng.” Qin Nan was slightly interested, as he rose up and said.
The man in black robe glimpsed at him and said, “One thousand Xiantian Pills.”
“One thousand Xiantian Pills?” Bai Heng was shocked at the words, “This ginseng is obviously rotting, and you dare to sell it at a price of one thousand Xiantian Pills? Are you robbing us?”
The man replied in a cold tone, “Whatever you say.”
“One thousand Xiantian Pills is it? I’ll give you ten Martial Emperor Pills.”
Even though Qin Nan was unwilling, he knew that the ginseng was nothing ordinary through his observation, thus he did not hesitate at all.
“Hmm.” The man received the Martial Emperor Pills, as his tone softened and said, “It’s yours now.”
Qin Nan grabbed the ginseng straight away and put it into his pocket.
Bai Heng was stunned throughout the whole purchase. After a while, he could not help but ask, “Young Master Qin Nan, why did you buy this ginseng? It clearly is rotting. There’s no point buying it at all..."
Qin Nan smilingly replied, “Just out of curiosity. Plus, it was only ten Martial Emperor Pills.”
Bai Heng was left speechless, who then exclaimed, Young Master Qin Nan is indeed himself, not regarding the ten Martial Emperor Pills as something precious at all.
Little did he know, that the corner of Qin Nan’s lips had been twitching continuously.
“The outer domain auction is about to start.” Bai Heng blurted out, “Let’s go and sign up, so we could participate too.”
Qin Nan nodded his head, and arrived at an auction house under Bai Heng’s guidance.
The place was crowded with people, a rough estimation of a little over a hundred outer disciples. Many of them had achieved the tenth-layer Body Tempering Realm, quite intimidating and easily noticeable among the crowd.
Qin Nan and Bai Heng registered themselves, and paid one hundred Xiantian Pills each as deposits. They then waited patiently for the auction to start.
“So you’re Qin Nan?”
All of a sudden, a prideful voice was heard by the two.
This caused Qin Nan to frown his eyebrows, before glancing in the direction of the voice. Before them, a young man wearing a luxurious robe was looking down at him with a scornful face.
Although this person’s cultivation was only at the eighth-layer Body Tempering Realm, Qin Nan could easily detect the two disciples beside him possessed tenth-layer Body Tempering Realm cultivations.
“Who are you?” Upon seeing the unfriendly approach, Bai Heng stepped forward with a cold expression.
“Piss off, none of your business.” The prideful young man glanced at him disdainfully, before staring directly at Qin Nan and saying, “Friend, I’m telling you; I’m Nangong Ershao, brother of Nangong Cheng. Listen to me now, I’m not very fond of you. I’ll not let you join the auction today. If not, you should face the consequences yourself!”
After saying this, the prideful young man let out a cold humph and raised his head, as his face was filled with a mocking expression.
However, after he finished speaking, the crowd around them exploded.
“What? Nangong Cheng’s brother? Is he really Nangong Cheng’s brother?”
“Nangong Ershao, I’ve heard of this guy before. He is extremely scornful, and in the past, harassed lots of female disciples, but they were not daring enough to expose him…”
“So disdainful? But with his identity as Nangong Cheng’s brother, it was reasonable that no one dares to confront him.”
“Sigh, seems like that kid run out of luck.”
……
After hearing the words, Bai Heng’s expression changed slightly, as he went up to Qin Nan’s ear and whispered, “Nangong Cheng is ranked first among the outer disciples within the outer domain. Not only has he a ninth-grade Huang ranked Martial Spirit, his cultivation has reached the half-Xiantian state, and he’s well favored by the First Elder of the outer domain.”
Qin Nan nodded his head without any expression after hearing this.
At that instant, Nangong Ershao could not help but be proud of himself and said, “How is that, are you scared?”
Qin Nan glanced at him, as two words came out from his mouth in a cold tone, “F**k off!”
The words served as a sudden thunderclap, which caused every disciple at the scene to be utterly stunned.
Translator: XephiZ
Editor: DOCuinn