Devouring The Heavens
chapter-22

Xuanyuan didn't understand at first, but when he looked at the bracelet on the old man's stall, he immediately realized it was similar to his own rusty dagger.

"Hahaha, you surely are deeply connected to the devouring emperor. The bracelet of devouring comes to you without any effort. This is one of the keys to the Palace of Devouring left by the emperor. There are incredible treasures hidden in the palace. If you can open it, you'll definitely be able to resume the glory that used to conquer the whole world of martial arts!"

Xuanyuan's heart started to beat faster when he heard that. Clearly the greedy old bugger wouldn't play with him about such a topic, so he pretended to look over a few things nonchalantly. In the end, he rolled his eyes and said in contempt,

"Old man, do you think that your broken things are worth a few thousand coins?"

The old man flushed red from Xuanyuan's comment, "Take it all then. These are all I've got. I haven't got any money. Just take all of it and we're settled."

Xuanyuan snorted,

"Trying to scam me? These things are all crap. That's not fair."

Seeing how insistent Xuanyuan was, the old man knew that he had gotten a really good deal, but he really didn't have anything more to give the boy.

Xuanyuan shrugged and sighed when he saw the old man was embarrassed that he really had nothing else,

"Whatever. It's hard for you, old man. Let's say the extra money is my gift to you."

Xuanyuan shoved everything from the stall into his ring like shoving garbage into a dump.

Then he threw the elixir directly into Guxing's mouth and he swallowed it immediately.

The old man was petrified by what Xuanyuan did and screamed,

"Do you want to kill your wolf, boy?"

Immediately, there was a wild and frightening power radiating outwards from Guxing. The skin hidden by its fur was torn apart little by little. The wolf's eyes grew murderous and bloodthirsty as it started to increase in size. All this scared Xuanyuan. The old man jumped up and pushed a light into the wolf to stop the power of the elixir from expanding any further.

Yan Ziyun was relieved, "Brother Xuanyuan, you were being ridiculous. Elixirs are the distilled essence of a beast's life. They are extremely powerful, they also contain the spirits of the beast. It's fortunate that it's an elixir of a Spiritual Wolf and not a particularly strong willed animal. Otherwise, Guxing might have died. Or worse, its soul would have been devoured by the beast and lost its mind. The Spiritual Wolf would be reborn through Guxing's body."

Xuanyuan's blood went cold when he heard Yan Ziyun. He practiced the devouring technique so he could absorb anything. He didn't think Guxing would be different, and his mistake almost killed Guxing.

The old man was quite a strong practitioner. With the lights from his palm, he controlled the power of the elixir inside Guxing and turned it into something that the wolf could absorb. Its strength surged.

Twenty eight bulls...

Thirty eight bulls...

Forty eight bulls...

......

Sixty six bulls!

It stopped when Guxing's strength reached sixty six bulls. There was still two fifths of the elixir's power left and it was sealed inside Guxing. Its eyes, which were bloodthirsty, had now cleared up. It grew in size as well. It was now almost five feet tall and eight feet long. It was more like a small horse.

"What a bad deal, a bad deal." The old man was gasping for air and very sweaty. It cost him a great deal of strength to control the elixir.

"Thanks a lot, old man." Xuanyuan nodded to him sheepishly. He felt a bit sorry for him, since he only gave him a few thousand coins in exchange for the key to the palace of devouring. That bracelet was invaluable, not purchasable even with a few thousand emperor coins and the old man even used his strength to save Guxing.

"Nevermind, nevermind......" The old man packed the carpet stall and grabbed the bear elixir and left.

Xuanyuan and Yan Ziyun grimaced at each other and laughed. Xuanyuan said, "First sister, is there any place that has better medicines for sale?"

Yan Ziyun was impressed by Xuanyuan's bargaining skills. She smiled and said,

"Of course, but you've probably spent all your money. So if there's anything you want, I can buy it for you."

Xuanyuan shrugged and jumped back onto Guxing. Guxing's fur was even softer and shinier, its torso more muscular. All these changes delighted him. He wouldn't give up Guxing no matter what. He straightened up his body and took out a few bags filled with warrior coins from his ring and smiled wickedly,

"I still have around two thousand eight hundred warrior coins, I have only spent fighter coins, that should cover the things I want. Please lead the way, first sister."

Yan Ziyun rolled her eyes. She didn't expect that her new brother disciple would actually be so rich.

"Let's go then, the commerce centre should have some good stuff. Medicines, stones, instruments and techniques... they have everything."

Yan Ziyun led the way and they soon arrived at a shop a hundred square metres in size.

In front of the shop, there were two boys greeting the guests. They both had nine bulls strength, at the peak of the fighter realm.

"Miss Yan, welcome!"

The boys bowed when they saw Yan Ziyun, and she nodded to them. Xuanyuan jumped off Guxing. Together, they followed Yan Ziyun into the Yuehua Commerce Centre.

It was packed with people. All kinds of medicines, elixirs, stones, instruments, weapons and some unrecognizable things were displayed. Xuanyuan didn't know where to look.

People frowned at the sight of the giant wolf going inside, but they kept their dismay to themselves when they saw Yan Ziyun who was standing next to Xuanyuan.

A man with a big smile rushed over to them. He said enthusiastically, "Miss Yan, what brings you here today? Just tell us what you need, and we will prepare it for you."

She smiled at him, "I'm not the one who is looking to buy. It's him, my brother disciple."

The man was unsure of how to react, since he recognized most of the inner disciples of the school, but not Xuanyuan.

"I need some of the best healing medicines, the top antidotes for poisons, and the best strength replenishing pills." Xuanyuan said straightforwardly.

The man nodded and tried to determine his buying power, and said patiently,

"The best medicine is we have is called 'liquid heart', and we have three of those; the best kind of antidote, 'Hundred Herbs', we also have three of those. Each of those costs five hundred warrior coins. As for strength replenishing, young master, third grade pills would be enough for you. They cost two hundred warrior coins each."

Yan Ziyun's eyebrows came together disapprovingly, the man knew what she meant immediately. He said with great enthusiasm,

"Since you are the brother disciple of Miss Yan, I will give you a discount, all of those only costs thirty thousand fighter coins, or three thousand warrior coins."

Xuanyuan nodded and smiled,

"How about two thousand, eight hundred and thirty warrior coins?"

The man wanted to tear up from Xuanyuan's bargaining. Yan Ziyun's lips tightened and she was trying hard not to laugh.

"Well, sure. You were brought here by Miss Yan herself, after all." He gave the order to one of the boys to prepare the merchandise, and kept his enthusiastic tone, "Can I help with anything else, young master?"

"Do you have any spiritual class instruments for protection, like armour, boots, helmets or pendants? How much do they cost?" Xuanyuan kept on asking.

The man was slightly stunned, he thought the boy had run out of money when he said such an exact figure, but he still gave his explanations, "Well, for spiritual class instruments, the lower rank would be about five thousand master coins, middle rank would cost ten thousand, upper rank thirty thousand, and top rank would be a hundred thousand."

Xuanyuan didn't realize the price would differ so much for each rank. He could only afford to buy one top ranked spiritual class instrument. However, if he settled with the upper rank, combined with the strings Yan Ziyun could pull for him, he would be able to purchase a whole set.

From reading "The Record of the East", he learnt that when martial arts families would cast a whole set of instruments, the set usually included a weapon, armour, helmet, boots and ornaments such as jade pendants. The pearl given by Yun Zhenluo was also a protective ornament.

Once you started using Earth class instruments and beyond, they required the bearer's power to sustain them, but the lower class instruments, such as the ordinary sacred instruments and spiritual class, they could give adequate protection just by wearing it. Especially jade pendants, they are powerful in unexpected encounters.

"Then prepare a full set of upper class spiritual instruments for me, including armour, helmet, boots and a pendant. Remember to get the best quality ones suited for protection. Don't try to trick me with any second grade products."

His order astonished everyone, including Yan Ziyun. She only had one upper rank spiritual weapon and four middle rank instruments. Even Yan Ziyun, only got two thousand master coins each month from the school. It took her a long time to save her monthly earnings and she even had to hunt during her free time, she still only managed to buy a single upper rank spiritual instrument. Did Xuanyuan really have that much money? Many people also showed their surprise. He was only a young boy, how could he afford that?

An upper rank spiritual instrument set would cost a hundred and twenty thousand master coins, which could be exchanged to a million and two hundred thousand warrior coins, and twelve million fighter coins! That's a colossal amount of money!