Nine Star Hegemon Body Art (WN)
chapter-277

“Absolutely not!”

Elder Sun’s expression was ugly as he looked at that page. “There’s not even some of these in the entire monastery! You’re clearly just trying to rip me off. How am I supposed to get this many medicinal ingredients?!”

Long Chen’s page had hundreds of precious medicinal ingredients listed on them. Some of them were ones that Elder Sun had never even heard of.

And if it was just these medicinal ingredients, then that would be one thing. The main point was that the amounts Long Chen wanted of each one was too shocking. Most of the time, medicinal ingredients were measured in terms of grams.

But Long Chen required pounds of them! He wanted a hundred pounds for each medicinal ingredient. In total, he was asking for tens of thousands of pounds of precious medicinal ingredients.

“Aren’t you just wasting words? If I could find them, why would I ask for an idiot like you to do it for me? Don’t bother wasting your time. Will you do it or not?” snorted Long Chen.

This list contained ingredients for the Alioth Pill as well as another couple medicinal ingredients he needed for various pills. There were also various ingredients that were common secondary ingredients for a large number of pills.

This time Long Chen really had been ruthless. He asked for a hundred pounds of each of those. You want my life? You want my technique? Then let me help you out.

“But then you also don’t need this much! A hundred pounds of each of them? Do you think these medicinal ingredients are just cabbages?” raged Elder Sun.

“What do you care? Even if I wanted to use these medicinal ingredients to use as firewood, it wouldn’t have anything to do with you. If you want to accept this trade, then accept. If you don’t, then that’s fine too,” sneered Long Chen.

“You…! No, it’s too much! With my merit points, there’s no way I could buy this much. You have to cut it down. At most, I can only get you half of this amount.” Elder Sun shook his head.

Long Chen icily snorted and ignored him, going to leave.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Elder Sun hastily called out.

“I’m going to go have a talk with Elder Tu Fang. I wonder whether I can obtain the things I want by offering my cultivation technique to the monastery?” Long Chen wondered as he walked.

“Hey, hey, wait a minute! Let’s keep discussing!”

“There’s nothing to discuss,” said Long Chen decisively.

Elder Sun grit his teeth. “Fine, I’ll accept!”

Long Chen smiled and directly handed that black zirconium to Elder Sun.

“Stop dreaming. This cultivation technique of mine is split into upper and lower portions. This is just my advance payment so that you know it’s not a fake. If you want the lower portion, you better gather up everything and give it to me.

“Of course, if you want to try and be smart you can try and experiment to figure out the lower portion. But let me say this one more time: it’s not that I want to look down on you, but I really look down on you.”

After he finished speaking, Long Chen left, leaving behind a furious Elder Sun holding that black zirconium.

When Long Chen finally disappeared, Elder Sun’s fury was replaced with absolute delight.

“Fuck, if I had known it would be this easy, why would I have bothered with targeting him?”

Elder Sun was delighted by how easy this had been. Although Long Chen’s requirements were very high, it was still within the limit that Elder Sun could accept.

He carefully examined this black zirconium. It was the size of an egg, and here was a diagram carved on top of it. However, that diagram wasn’t complete.

But even though it was just a portion, he could see that it was a diagram of a person’s meridians. There were lines showing how to circulate energy.

Elder Sun stared at it for half a day, becoming more and more delighted. He found that this way of circulating energy was extremely profound and complicated. Although this was still just a portion of it, it was enough to awe him.

“What a powerful cultivation technique! This time I’ve really struck gold!” Elder Sun couldn’t hold back a laugh. He confidently said to himself, “For such a powerful cultivation technique to be obtained by a little Blood Condensation amateur really is a waste. Once I obtain the full technique, I’ll definitely be able to advance to Meridian Opening. Hehe, then I’ll easily kill Long Chen. Who cares if I have to betray the Xuantian Monastery? The heavens are so large. As long as I don’t run into any Xiantian experts, who would dare block me?”

Elder Sun seemed to envision a scene of him advancing into Meridian Opening, travelling freely throughout the heavens, arrogantly looking down on all.

Only after a long time did he come back to his senses. He continued examining that black zirconium. On the front side was that partial diagram, but there was also an ancient character on the back.

Elder Sun examined it for a while before recognizing it to be the character for Rebel. But the character was written in an extremely odd archaic manner, and not the standard ancient form.^[1]

“Looks like this cultivation technique is extremely ancient. That brat Long Chen must definitely have some heaven-defying luck,” sighed Elder Sun.

He continued examining the diagram for a while, but he found that this technique was extremely profound, and there was no way that he could figure out the whole thing just by relying on this portion. Of course, that was also why Long Chen had given it to him so easily.

However, obtaining this black zirconium did fill Elder Sun with greater confidence. It seemed Long Chen really did want to go through with this trade.

As for why Long Chen had chosen him to trade for those things, that did make him suspicious. However, given how much Long Chen had asked for, his worries were lessened a great deal.

Let alone Long Chen, even Elders who had worked decades in the monastery wouldn’t be able to buy all the medicinal ingredients Long Chen had requested.

However, Elder Sun had worked in the monastery for a very long time, and he had also had the lucrative position in charge of the Xuantian pavilion for decades, so he had a great deal of savings.

Long Chen’s request would be extremely painful for him to fulfill, but he could still do it. However, half of all his savings would be gone.

But more importantly, most of these medicinal ingredients could not be found in the monastery. He had to make a trip to the supermonastery to buy them.

That very day, Elder Sun left to go to the supermonastery, purchasing all the ingredients listed on Long Chen’s list.

Elder Sun’s actions were completely in Long Chen’s expectations.

Although he knew that coming to find him at this time would definitely raise his suspicions, Long Chen was sure that by proposing such a high trade request and by also giving him half of his reward at the beginning, that old fellow would definitely take the bait.

Once he left Elder Sun’s immortal cave, Long Chen saw that everyone had already awakened from their drinking contest and had secluded themselves.

That huge battle had been extremely beneficial to them. Since Long Chen had returned and their hearts had been steadied, they all secluded themselves in order to absorb all the benefits of that battle.

Returning to his immortal cave, he saw that Tang Wan-er and Qing Yu were both in a meditative state, and so he didn’t bother them.

He then went to go find Wilde, but found that he and Little Snow had disappeared. After asking some workers, he found out the two of them had gone hunting with Cang Ming.

Wilde had been starving the entire time during these past few days. Ordinary Magical Beasts were unable to allay his hunger.

As soon as he had returned to the monastery, he had gone to see his master to get some food. Little Snow was similar to him in that he required meat to cultivate, and so Wilde had naturally brought Little Snow along as well.

Seeing everyone in seclusion, Long Chen didn’t even know what he should do. He was still waiting for news from Elder Sun.

He trusted Elder Sun would be even more impatient than him. He was probably gathering the medicinal ingredients as quickly as he could.

After thinking about it for a bit, Long Chen decided to go visit Guo Ran. Guo Ran’s immortal cave was the most isolated of all the immortal caves. As soon as Long Chen approached, he heard loud clanking and banging, the sound of forging, coming from within.

Entering his immortal cave, he saw the entire ground was covered with junk. Iron fragments were everywhere, as well as a couple failed items.

Even though Long Chen had arrived, Guo Ran’s head was still down. He was constantly beating something on his huge forging table.

That forging table was exceptionally large. It was covered with all kinds of forging utensils. From a distance, it almost looked like a beast made of ironware.

It was no wonder Tang Wan-er had grumbled to him that Guo Ran was spending more and more. He had constantly been asking for more points from her.

Most likely, Guo Ran was planning on changing profession to become more of a forger than a cultivator. Seeing him so focused on what he was working on, Long Chen sighed. Even this little fellow can be serious sometimes.

As he got closer, Long Chen saw Guo Ran was using a set of pliers to hold a nine inch steel nail.

That steel nail had only just been taken out of the furnace beside him. His right hand held a hammer that was smashing down over and over, sparks flying.

That steel nail’s head was gradually turning black as it was struck by the hammer. Long Chen saw that dense lines covered the top of the nail.

Although Long Chen didn’t understand much about forging, he knew that a single line would appear after that steel nail was tempered once.

Within Phoenix Cry, the majority of weapons had only gone through a single tempering. That was because Phoenix Cry’s forgers were just ordinary blacksmiths, and were unable to temper their weapons a second time. They weren’t skillful or strong enough, and so when they tried to let their weapons undergo a second tempering, they would automatically burst apart.

That was why ordinary weapons were only tempered once, and only had one line when created. After it cooled off, that line would fade, but professionals would all be able to tell just how many times a weapon had been tempered.

Furthermore, it was said that good weapons were all tempered at least ten times. The more times a weapon was tempered, the less impurities it would contain.

It was said that steel could be tempered up to one hundred times. Although steel was just a very ordinary metal, after being tempered a one hundred times, its hardness would be absolutely shocking. That level of steel was capable of even piercing through the armor of a third rank Magical Beast.

The steel nail in Guo Ran’s hand had tens of lines, showing how many times it had been tempered by him.

Guo Ran had remained focused this entire time. When the nail’s color had changed to a certain level, he immediately threw it into the water bucket beside him.

The water boiled for a moment before quickly calming back down. Guo Ran carefully took out the steel nail and examined it.

But when he went to examine it, he also saw Long Chen standing in front of him.

“Boss- ah!”

Guo Ran was given a fright, and his hand loosened for a moment, dropping that nail onto his foot. But he was fortunate that the nail landed on its side, otherwise with how sharp he had made it, his foot would have acquired a new hole.

However, that nail, which was only the thickness of a single finger, was still dozens of pounds. Having it smash on his foot still made him yelp in pain.

“Looks like if you ever leave the monastery, you’ll still be able to feed yourself by being a blacksmith.” Long Chen laughed.

Guo Ran rubbed his foot vexedly. “Boss, if you discriminate against me, you’ll be discriminating against a future crafting god! You have to apologize.”

Long Chen couldn’t help laughing. “Fine. If you can show me any of the style of a crafting god, I will apologize.”

Guo Ran brightened. “Hehe, boss, don’t eat your words. I’ll let you see what is called a grand masterpiece.”

^[1] 逆 Ni