God Emperor
chapter-126

Zhang Ruochen was definitely interested in Half-Saint's Essence.

Only internal students of the School of the Martial Market could gain the Half-Saint's Essence. They did this by exchanging their merits.

Even if external students obtained merits, they were not allowed to exchange it for the Half-Saint's Essence. They could only receive it when the School distributed it quarterly every year.

If the external students were eager to get the Half-Saint's Essence, they had to spend plenty of silver coins and buy it from the black market.

The Black Market was absolutely dangerous. If the external students didn't know the right person to lead the way, there was a high possibility that they could be ripped off by vicious people and lose both the money and their lives.

However, Zi Qian was an exception as she was a black market assassin. There was no one better than her to buy the Half-Saint's Essence on the black market.

Zhang Ruochen stared at Zi Qian and asked, "You have already refined five drops of the Half-Saint's Essence. This is why your cultivation has increased so much in such a short period of time. Anyway, how much does one drop of the Half-Saint's Essence cost in the black market?"

Zi Qian had always spoken the truth in front of Zhang Ruochen. She responded, "If an outsider buys it from the black market, they charge at least four hundred thousand silver coins for one drop. However, we, as the Hades Department, have our own sources. It only costs us two hundred thousand silver coins for one drop, less than half the going rate."

Zhang Ruochen nodded and handed the three hundred bottles of pills to Zi Qian.

Shortly after, Zhang Ruochen took out hundreds of Genuine Martial Arms and gave them to Zi Qian as well. He said, "Please, sell all the pills and Genuine Martial Arms on the black market and use the silver coins to buy the Half-Saint's Essence as much as you can. It would be even better if you could buy the Sacred Liquid."

"Okay! I'll be back in three days. Wait for my good news." Zi Qian glanced at Zhang Ruochen quickly and deeply. She moved 10 steps forward, stopped all of a sudden, turned around and smiled at Zhang Ruochen. "Let's split the silver coins after selling the pills and Genuine Martial Arms? 3:7 ratio?"

Zhang Ruochen knew that Zi Qian loved possessing silver coins and Spiritual Crystal and didn't too bother about the split. He smiled and nodded, "Haha! Deal!"

"Clash!"

Zi Qian turned into a beautiful purple shadow, left the Western Campus, and disappeared instantly into the mountains of Omen Ridge.

When Zhang Ruochen made his way back to Dragon Martial Temple, he entered the internal space of the Time and Space Spinel and got ready to break through the Medium State of the Black Realm.

He took out eight drops of the Half-Saint's Essence and placed them in a row in front of him.

"Ten more days until the quarterly assessment. That's equal to one month here in the Time and Space Spinel. I should have enough time to break through to the Medium State of the Black Realm."

Zhang Ruochen took the first drop of Half-Saint's Essence. An Icing air appeared in his stomach as if it was piercing to his bones. It followed the Meridians and flowed throughout every corner of his body.

This was not the first time Zhang Ruochen had taken the Essence and thus he managed to adjust his body with it shortly. In three and a half days, he had refined one drop.

Then, he started refining the second drop, the third drop...

When he finished refining the seventh drop of the Half-Saint's Essence, he finally broke through the realm and reached the Medium State of the Black Realm.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang in his body. The capacity of his Qi Lake had enlarged 13 times more while the 36 Meridians in his body were also expanding. The Genuine Qi inside the Meridians flowed even faster and it gave off a sound, as if a torrent of water was rushing down from the mountains.

After breaking through the realm, Zhang Ruochen took the eighth drop of the Half-Saint's Essence down and refined it in three days.

With the help of the eighth drop of the Half-Saint's Essence, Zhang Ruochen's realm was fully consolidated.

"I wonder how fast my speed is now that I've reached the Medium State of the Black Realm!" Zhang Ruochen could feel that his cultivation had greatly increased.

No matter the power or the speed, it had reached a much higher level.

When he had first cultivated the Shadow of the Royal Wind Dragon at the Small Success, he could dash out 57 meters per second at his fastest.

And now?

"Whew!"

He was blasting as fast as he could in Dragon Martial Temple, as if he was a strong wind. If other warriors at the Medium State of the Black Realm were here, they would probably be unable to recognize his shadow at such a speed.

After sprinting 10 laps around Dragon Martial Temple, Zhang Ruochen finally stopped. He let out an excited gasp and said, "I can reach 58 meters per second without using the Shadow of the Royal Wind Dragon or activating the blood Meridians. Yet, if I utilize both the Shadow of the Royal Wind Dragon and activate the Blood Meridians, I can explode to 62 meters per second."

The speed of the masters of the Profound Board who ranked relatively low dashed out around 60 meters per second.

Although Zhang Ruochen had never fought with any of Warriors of the Division Profound, he had confidence that he could confront with those who were fairly weaker. He could even defeat them.

It could be said that Zhang Ruochen had the elementary power to confront with the warriors of the Earth Realm.

With his current ability, even if he couldn't have defeated General Hong Ye, he could at least have stayed alive in the fight, without having to ask for Huang Yanchen's help.

"When I reach the Medium State of the Black Realm, I can demonstrate the 'Animal Spirits Fixing Arms'. Let me see what kind of soldiers I'm capable of agglomerating!"

Zhang Ruochen stood in the middle of the Palace and activated the Spiritual Blood in his body. A strand of Spiritual Blood flooded out from his pores. It covered 10 meters of space around him, as if it was a large piece of blood cloud.

An illusory image of nine combat swords appeared in the blood cloud, floating in nine different directions from Zhang Ruochen and displaying powerful Sword Breath.

"Why are there nine swords?"

Normally when warriors reached the Medium State of the Black Realm, they were all able to utilize the "Animal Spirits Fixing Arms" and a spiritual arm would appear.

As for Zhang Ruochen, he could condense nine Blood Swords at the same time. No one had even heard of or experienced this before.

Zhang Ruochen withdrew the Spiritual Blood back into his body and closed himself off in contemplation. He whispered to himself, "Perhaps I've opened up all the 36 Meridians of the Scripture of Emperor Ming's Empyrean? Is that why such a vision appeared?"

Anyhow, being able to condense nine Blood Swords was absolutely beneficial to Zhang Ruochen.

Yet, if such shocking news spread to other people, Zhang Ruochen would be in great danger again.

"I should try not to use the power of the Blood Meridians in the future," he thought.

Tomorrow was the quarterly assessment. Zhang Ruochen was pressure free. With his current ability, it would be a relatively easy task for him to acquire the title of No.1 freshman among the four campuses.

Zhang Ruochen was heading to Zi Qian to get the Half-Saint's Essence.

When he first arrived at the woman's dormitory, he caused a splash.

"Look! That is our No.1 freshman of the Western Campus. It's said that his Spiritual Power has reached level 29 and he is seen as the No.1 Genius of Spiritual Power in the history of the School of the Martial Market!" An 18-year-old female student screamed excitedly, as if Zhang Ruochen had insulted her.

Another pretty senior sister apprentice at the Completion of the Black Realm looked at Zhang Ruochen and said, "Rumor has it if he has chosen to specialize in Spiritual Power, there is a 50% chance for him to become a Saint of Spiritual Power."

Every Saint was considered superior and worshipped by countless warriors. Its apprentices were all over the commandery. Most of the warriors had no chance of ever meeting a Saint and yet, Zhang Ruochen had half a chance of becoming one. Knowing how strong and talented he was, how could the female students stay calm when they saw him?

"I want to make babies with him!" A fairly beautiful young woman said with passion.

Zhang Ruochen was surrounded by a group of female students. He could hardly move an inch. Some of the women even wanted to kiss him. Fortunately, he was fast enough to dodge from them. Otherwise, his face would be full of lip prints.

The female students were loud enough to catch Zi Qian's attention. Seeing Zhang Ruochen had been blocked in the lounge, Zi Qian jumped down next to him and pulled him out of the crowd.

"Let's go to somewhere quiet," she whispered.

Zhang Ruochen clearly understood that the Half-Saint's Essence was an important matter. He said, "Let's go to Dragon Martial Temple. Both senior sister apprentice Huang and senior sister apprentice Duanmu are not there. No one will see or hear us."

Zhang Ruochen and Zi Qian made their way back to Dragon Martial Temple and arrived at Yellow No.1.

Zhang Ruochen closed the door and asked, "Junior sister apprentice Zi, have you bought the Half-Saint's Essence for me with the silver coins?"

Zi Qian responded, "I've sold the pills and Genuine Martial Arms you gave me and received 5,800,000 silver coins. Since we agreed on the 3:7 ratio for the profit, you get 4,060,000 and I get 1,740,000 silver coins. I bought you 20 drops of the Half-Saint's Essence with your silver coins and there are still 60 thousand silver coins. Do you still want them?"

What she meant was that if Zhang Ruochen didn't want the 60 thousand silver coins, she would keep them.

Zhang Ruochen responded, "Since it's my money, of course, I want it!"

Zi Qian gave him a nasty look. She took out the 60 thousand silver coins and 20 bottles and placed them on the table.

Zhang Ruochen opened one of the jade bottles and a herbal scent wafted through the air. It was the scent of the Half-Saint's Essence.

He put away the Half-Saint's Essence and silver coins. He lifted up his head, looked at Zi Qian and asked with sincerity, "Junior sister apprentice Zi, can you leave the Hades Department in the future?"

Zi Qian's countenance turned pale. She didn't dare look him in the eye. She responded, "You don't understand how powerful the Hades Department is. If I left the Hades Department, they would have me killed within 10 days."

...

"Moreover, I'm not a Princes or Princesses. I don't have a powerful background or the support of family. If I didn't kill for them, I wouldn't have money to buy resources for my cultivation."

Zhang Ruochen understood her difficulty and stopped persuading her to leave.

"If you encounter any problems or difficulties in the future, come to find me! I'll be more than happy to help!" Zhang Ruochen said.

"Hmmm... "

Zi Qian nodded slightly and said, "One more thing. Do you know that Square Commandery and Yunwu Commandery are about to start a war?"

Zhang Ruochen crinkled his eyebrows and asked, "Is it because of the death of Prince Huo Xing?"

"Did you really get the Prince killed? You've made a huge mistake this time! It's not news that Square Commandery wants to conquer Yunwu Commandery. They just need an excuse and you've just offered them a good one!"

Zi Qian thought for a while and said, "If you wanted to kill Prince Huo Xing, I could have done it for you! Why did you have to do it yourself?"

Zhang Ruochen looked dignified and said, "Since he's dead, there's no point arguing about it."

Zi Qian continued, "Square Commandery Prince is using the death of Prince Huo Xing to force Yunwu Commandery Prince to hand you over. They are also asking for 80 million silver coins as compensation. Yunwu Commandery Prince no doubt insists he won't do it. Square Commandery has started arranging the army and station towards the border. By early next year, they will attack the Yunwu Commandery."

"How about the interior of the Yunwu Commandery?" Zhang Ruochen asked instantly.

Zi Qian replied, "It's said that the Queen and Minister Xue would prefer to hand you over so as to subdue Square Commandery. Yet, Yunwu Commandery Prince and the generals in the army disagree. The interior of Yunwu Commandery is a mess and it is not favorable for you!"