“The Greater Mountains are very dangerous.”
The JieDan stage expert had a very warm smile, but he stretched out his hand, trying to grab Yang Chen’s wrist:
“Didn’t your sect’s elders tell you that?”
With one movement, a portion of spirit power rushed out from his hand. The JieDan stage expert was acting as if this had nothing to do with him and calmly said:
“Not knowing how you died is also a kind of blessing in some situations. If you want someone to blame, you can only blame yourself for not hiding your treasures!”
After he had finished speaking, the JieDan stage expert revealed a shocked expression. He had initially expected that this youngster would squirm in pain, but he was completely calm without any change in expressions.
“Want to kill me?”
Looking at the astonished face of the attacker, Yang Chen revealed a smile:
“Then you must not blame me.”
The JieDan stage expert was just about to take his hand back in great alarm, but a pain suddenly appeared in his hand and soon afterwards it became even more painful. It was already too late to let go.
Bowing his head to look where he had grabbed Yang Chen’s wrist, he immediately saw a blood red vine on his wrist. At this moment, the vine had already given birth to very small, thorn-like roots, which had directly entered his skin.
This was also not important, the crucial point was that the thorns which had entered his body were spreading through his entire body, following his veins. With just a moment’s effort, it had already drilled through his arms and shoulders and entered the pit of his stomach.
The JieDan stage expert was scared to death on the scene, what is this thing? So evil! He could not think of anything to use and the thing which had drilled through to his stomach was definitely not some nourishing medicine. Just a moment ago he wanted to oppress Yang Chen using the spirit power in his body, but now he discovered that all of the spirit power in his body had already been sucked out by this blood colored vine. Not even a tiny bit was left.
Cold sweat, which he had not experienced in a long time, covered his forehead. The JieDan expert looked at Yang Chen, who was smiling while standing in front of him, as if he was looking at a demon.
“Originally I only wanted to ask you for directions, but since you wanted to kill me, I also don’t mind giving a lesson to you.”
Yang Chen said while continuing to smile:
“Now, can I ask you for directions?”
The JieDan expert couldn’t think of anything he could do aside from nodding his head again and again. That Yang Chen had asked this question gave the old man some hope, maybe there was still a chance to redeem himself. According to Yang Chen’s words just a moment ago, he seemed quite mild and was only talking about teaching him a lesson.
“Where is the closest market from here?”
Yang Chen retreated a few steps to find a place to sit and then asked.
“It’s in that direction, approximately two days away from here.”
The JieDan expert didn’t dare to be neglectful and although his body was still shivering, his hand pointed in a direction with lightning speed:
“There is the Cut Cloud Valley, where everyone gathers to do business.”
“Has some kind of incident occurred near the market recently, like looting of some treasures or killing someone.”
Even after finding this person, Yang Chen certainly did not think that his luck was so great that he had directly found one of the people he was looking for, therefore he did not care to reveal his purpose in the least.
“This kind of thing happens nearly every day, so it is nothing noteworthy.”
The JieDan stage expert said that with a bitter laugh, unable to deal with the fact that his body had already become somewhat limp, he carefully replied:
“Do you want to find someone or something? I am relatively familiar with this region, maybe I can assist you.”
In fact, in the Greater Mountains, killing people and looting things was indeed very common, even just a moment ago, weren’t Yang Chen and that JieDan stage expert doing the same thing? While the result had been different, this really was not a big deal here.
“I am looking for Red Sun Metal Soul, where can I find it?”
Previously Yang Chen had only heard that it was very chaotic here, but since he hadn’t seen it personally, he hadn’t expected it to be so brazen. But this was also good for him, he would have no apprehensions when doing his work.
“Red Sun Metal Soul?”
The JieDan expert began to tremble and at the same time also began to ponder. After thinking for a good moment he slapped his head as if he had thought of something. Trying to curry favor with Yang Chen, he said:
“Two months ago, I heard that they were going to auction some and afterwards a mysterious woman bought it. If you are interested, I can take you to the market to inquire.
A mysterious woman had bought the Red Sun Metal Soul? Yang Chen’s heart jumped, could it be that this mysterious woman was his master? She had bought the Red Sun Metal Soul but was attacked by people who wanted to rob her? This more or less confirmed what Yang Chen had thought.
“Which market? Where is it?”
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Yang Chen calmly asked:
“Where can I find that mysterious woman?”
“She already left the Cut Cloud Valley.”
The JieDan expert saw that Yang Chen was interested, so he was also excited, thinking that his chances of survival had increased, he pointed in another direction and said:
“In this direction, there is the Devil Flame Valley. There are many devil cultivators and demon beasts over there and the number of treasures is large. But if you don’t have the strength you must not go.”
The Devil Flame Valley… Yang Chen firmly committed this name to memory. Looking at the JieDan expert who was facing him with extreme respect, he thought of something and suddenly asked:
“In the recent days, has there been someone in the surroundings who was chased to death? Have there been people who have been looking around for someone’s whereabouts with great fanfare?”
The JieDan stage expert began think, Yang Chen had asked this so clearly so he could be almost certain that Yang Chen was looking for someone and the one he was trying to hunt down was moreover not the one who was being hunted. There was no need to ask, this was certainly a vendetta.
But with Yang Chen’s strength at the initial Foundation stage, wanting to behave atrociously in the Devil Flame Valley was certainly not possible. Just as he was about to advise him, he suddenly remembered something: his life and death was still in Yang Chen’s hand, so he also did not dare to say any unnecessary words and could only rack his brains, trying to find more such information which could give him higher chances of survival.
After thinking for long, he couldn’t remember anything big that had happened in the surroundings so he could only shake his head:
“There hasn’t been.”
After he said this, afraid that Yang Chen would kill him, he hastily added:
“Are you looking for someone? I can lead the way!”
“You will guide me?”
Yang Chen sneered, then softly said:
“We are total strangers and I just wanted to ask you for some directions when you tried to kill me, so why you trying to guide me now, do you want to lead me to a nest of demons?”
“No, I just want you to spare my life!”
The JieDan stage expert had heard Yang Chen’s words which were not too encouraging, so he quickly begged for forgiveness.
But Yang Chen had never intended to give him any opportunity to live, the Blood Phantom Vine which had already entered the JieDan expert’s body suddenly began to crazily absorb blood.
“For every grievance, someone is responsible, for every debt there is a debtor, you wanted to take my life first, so don’t blame me.”
The JieDan expert only vaguely heard Yang Chen’s last words before disappearing into complete darkness.
One JieDan expert was not a big problem for the Blood Phantom Vine which had already absorbed the blood of someone who was almost a Da Cheng stage expert. Within a short moment, the JieDan expert turned into a heap of dried bones.
From here to the Devil Flame Valley would at least take half a month even if he used the Flying Shuttle, but Yang Chen was using a common flying sword, so the time would change to at least one month.
The JieDan expert’s qiankun pouch was collected by Yang Chen, but he didn’t really look at the things inside. Right now, Yang Chen’s was filled with rage to the bottom of his heart because of Gao Yue’s injuries, so how could he think of paying attention to these small spoils?
Yang Chen didn’t intend to completely believe that JieDan expert’s words, but he still intended to first stop at the Cut Cloud Valley and take a look at the circumstances there and only then move forward. In any case, it was only two days away from his current location, so Yang Chen would not be hindered much.
The Cut Cloud Valley was a small market which was at the edge of the Greater Mountains. That’s why there were more human cultivators than demon cultivators, no matter if they were cultivators of the dao or devil path cultivators.
The valley was very warm, apparently someone had arranged a small Spring Spell Formation. This spell formation was not very useful, but regardless of what season it was at the Cut Cloud Valley, it could maintain a constant temperature inside. Simply speaking, all four seasons were like spring there.
Although there were not many people, according to what Yang Chen found, there were at least three devil cultivators. One had a black coloured zombie following behind him, another one had red eyes, as if worried that other people would not see that he had killed a lot. There was still one more, a woman who was extremely charming. Even at this public place, she was throwing coquettish glances everywhere without worry. When looking at Yang Chen, she also threw a flirtatious smile at him.
In another place not far away, there was also a demon cultivator, his strength was at least at the peak JieDan stage, but he was not concealing his demonic presence and was just calmly sitting on the ground.
Furthermore, in another place, three dao cultivators of some sect were also sitting calmly, absolutely not worried about being attacked by others.
Although the Greater Mountains followed the law of the jungle, using force was strictly prohibited in these markets. These were everyone’s place of rest, so everyone followed these rules without exception.
There was no need for anyone to make them forcefully follow these rules. As long as anyone broke these rules, they would be the target of a multitudes of arrows. Who would dare to bring everyone’s wrath on themselves? That’s why everyone could only obediently comply with the rules.
But when Yang Chen entered the Cut Cloud Valley, it still gave rise to everyone’s attention. Any person coming here had at least the strength of the initial JieDan stage. A rookie like Yang Chen who was just at the Foundation stage had never come there before.
But there was nobody who felt pity or sympathy with him. Everyone who matched gazes with Yang Chen looked at him as if they were examining a prey. Even on the way to the Cloud Valley, Yang Chen had sensed many greedy gazes in the surroundings.
“I am looking for Red Sun Metal Soul, do you know where can I find it?”
Yang Chen did not pay any attention to those and directly went to the biggest store in Cloud Valley and asked the shopkeeper, offering him a few catties of low grade spirit stones.
Although he was only a shopkeeper, he was still a peak Foundation stage expert. After looking at Yang Chen, he looked at the spirit stones in front of him and then faintly shook his head, saying:
“These are not enough for the information you want.”
Without paying any attention to him, Yang Chen took a Profound Yang Fruit out of the Medicine Garden and placed it on top of those spirit stones. Looking at the Profound Yang Fruit, a shine passed through the eyes of the shopkeeper, then he looked at Yang Chen with a smile that was not a smile and said:
“A few days ago, I heard that one batch appeared in the Devil Flame Valley, but it had already been auctioned and sold.”
“Is there some place where I can buy it?”
Yang Chen was not very surprised at this information. He knew that the unknown JieDan expert which had died in his hands would not lie in the binding of the Blood Phantom Vine, but he wanted some more information:
“I am ready to pay a high price.”
The flying sword which Yang Chen was using was originally an extremely high grade flying sword which was given to him by Elder Wu. If he added on the Red Sun Metal Soul, it’s grade could be increased again. This shopkeeper’s eyes did not miss that point, so there was no reason for him to doubt that Yang Chen had another purpose.
“The Red Sun Metal Soul is very rare. Only a piece is found every few decade, so if you want to find it, you must find that customer.”
The shopkeeper had also only been at the Greater Mountain for a short while, so he stayed at this market. His knowledge and experience was also not that extensive and he had only recently found out the market prices. He immediately shook his head.
“I want to find information about that customer, is there any way you can help me?”
Yang Chen slightly scowled and asked.
“There is no way!”
The shopkeeper shook his head again:
“The auction market of the Greater Mountains strictly prohibits releasing any buyer’s information, but….”
This one line raised Yang Chen’s attention and he immediately asked:
“But what?”
“If you really want to, then you can try your luck at the auction market and leave a notice there. If they receive some information about what you want, they will notify you.”
The shopkeeper pointed out a direction to Yang Chen:
“But for such information, you must be ready to invest a high price.”
“En!”
Yang Chen nodded without making any comment. Soon afterwards he raised his head:
“One final question, is there any auction that had happened here one or two days ago?”
“Your luck is too bad.”
The shopkeeper shook his head:
“This Cut Cloud Valley is very small, usually people only buy things necessary to restore their strength. The genuine treasures can only be found in a big market. The Devil Flame Valley is going to have an auction in the future, you can try your luck there.”
Yang Chen did not ask anything more and merely extended his hand to point towards the things for the shopkeeper to take them. The shopkeeper happily accepted the Profound Yang Fruit and those low level spirit stones and turned around to leave.
But after he had turned around, the shopkeeper remembered something, and turned around again, happily saying:
“Looks like you are a first timer, so I have some advice for you: These Greater Mountains are unlike your sect mountain. There were killings everywhere, if you have some good treasure, you must conceal it carefully, otherwise you won’t even know what killed you.”
“Many thanks for the warning!”
Yang Chen was slightly surprised at the shopkeeper’s good intentions, but he did not care too much about other people’s warnings.
“You should have elders at your sect, so if you need anything from here, it would be better to send them.”
The shopkeeper again said:
“With your cultivation it is very dangerous here. Take note of my advice and leave the Cloud Valley immediately, using your quickest speed to leave and return to your sect. Perhaps it is not too late.”
After speaking, he immediately turned around and left.
“I am really looking forward to someone attacking me!”
Yang Chen lowered his head and faintly mumbled to himself, so nobody other than him heard it.