"Elder Qi, are these pots for sale?"

Holding an Ascension Pot in his hand, Su Xuan smiled at Elder Qi. "If this pot is as powerful as you claim, I'd like to buy all of them."

"Huh?"

Elder Qi, Zhao, and Wei were all stunned.

What would someone of Su Xuan's status want with something like this? Is he planning to defend the borders or go fight terrorists?

"Are you selling or not?" Su Xuan asked again.

He genuinely wanted to buy them. In the past, he could have easily handled opponents like Du Zilong. Recently, however, he had encountered some truly formidable individuals, like the icy woman who could scale buildings and the boy who manipulated Dark Smoke. The latter had even managed to escape from Zhong Huilan, and who knew when he might show up to cause trouble. I need to get my hands on some powerful items, just in case. It's always better to be prepared.

At the same time, he could use the pretense of doing business to settle his accounts with the Five Poisons Sect.

Elder Qi, Zhao, and Wei exchanged a glance.

Elder Qi asked Su Xuan, "What price are you offering?"

Selling the pots wasn't out of the question. He hadn't come here intending to actually harm Su Xuan; his main goal was to get some money to report back to the sect. If Su Xuan made a reasonable offer, this deal was certainly possible.

Su Xuan gently placed the pot on the tea table. "Price isn't the issue. The key is, how powerful are these pots, really?"

"Their power is beyond question!" Elder Qi sat down at the table, placed the rest of the pots on its surface, and adopted a serious, business-like demeanor. "These pots are the culmination of our entire sect's efforts. We forge them using rare poisons collected from harsh mountains and dangerous waters. Once shattered and exposed to the air, it will self-detonate. Not only is the explosion formidable, but the resulting toxic cloud will spread, killing any human or animal who breathes it in!"

Su Xuan nodded. Just as he was about to speak, Elder Qi seemed to guess his thoughts and said, "This is the city. I'd advise you to dismiss any ideas of testing one. You'd kill a lot of people! I have no reason to lie to you."

Su Xuan shrugged. "What's your price?"

Elder Qi, who had just offered a discount down to two hundred million, thought for a moment. "Five pots. One hundred million."

Su Xuan shook his head. "We're talking business now, not settling grievances. Stop beating around the bush and just give me your rock-bottom price."

"Please wait a moment."

Elder Qi stood up and called Zhao and Wei aside to confer.

Growing bored while he waited, Su Xuan lifted his hand, and the pot on the table flew into his grasp. He began toying with it.

Elder Qi caught a glimpse of this from the corner of his eye, and a flicker of deep wariness showed in his expression.

A moment later, Elder Qi sat back down. "Five million for one pot, so twenty-five million for all five. This is genuinely our cost price. Our entire sect can't even produce a handful of these in a year."

"And," Elder Qi added before Su Xuan could reply, "there's one more condition for this deal. You must give me another twenty-five million as compensation for Zhai Defeng."

Zhao and Wei also secretly shot Su Xuan a look, indicating that this was their final offer.

"Done."

Su Xuan didn't haggle further. To someone with a net worth of nearly 700 billion, fifty million is pocket change. Besides, I can't help but wonder why Elder Qi suddenly dropped the price so drastically. I thought his bottom line would be at least one hundred million.

Then Su Xuan proposed his own condition. "However, I'll only pay a ten million deposit for now. Once I've verified the pots' power, I'll pay the rest."

"No problem," Elder Qi readily agreed.

"Elder Qi, let's forget the deposit, shall we?" Zhao and Wei whispered to the elder. "Su Xuan has lent us money before and even found us profitable work. Asking for a deposit feels too formal. Besides, with his resources, would he really fail to pay us?"

They said this hoping to repay their debt of gratitude to Su Xuan. People of the martial world fear owing favors more than anything.

Elder Qi listened and pondered for a moment. He glanced at Su Xuan's villa. Since I know where he lives, a deposit really isn't necessary.

He then turned back to Su Xuan. "Since we're doing business in good faith, let's waive the deposit. After you've tested the power of the Ascension Pot, I'll simply ask you for the fifty million directly."

"Have some tea," Su Xuan said, refilling Elder Qi's cup.

Elder Qi calmly picked up the cup, took a noisy sip, and asked, "When do you think you'll be able to test the pot's power?"

Su Xuan thought for a moment. "Tomorrow. I'll find a deserted place to test it myself."

"Good." Elder Qi nodded, then took out a few pencil-like objects and handed them to Su Xuan. "These are delay fuses. When you run your test, you can insert one into the pot. No need to light it; the pot will detonate on its own after five minutes, which is more than enough time for you to get to a safe distance."

"Got it." Su Xuan glanced at Elder Qi and accepted the fuses.

"Um..." Elder Qi, who was about to leave, suddenly turned back. "When you took the pot from me just now, you used Telekinesis, didn't you? You can manipulate objects from a distance?"

"You could say that," Su Xuan replied.

"Oh, that's truly been an eye-opening experience!" Elder Qi's tone was now far more respectful. He cupped his fists at Su Xuan and said, "We have no other business, so we won't impose any longer. Farewell!"

With that, Elder Qi stood up, and with Zhao and Wei in tow, left Su Xuan's home.

Su Xuan personally saw the three of them out the main gate.

Once outside, Elder Qi let out a long breath, his entire body relaxing.

"I never would have thought..." Elder Qi glanced back at Su Xuan's gate and muttered inexplicably, "He actually comes from *that* place. No wonder he's so accomplished at such a young age!"

"Huh? What place?" Zhao and Wei asked, confused.

"Never mind." Elder Qi waved his hand and disappeared into the deep night.

Just as they left, Su Xuan received a phone call. It was Chu Hongfang from Yike Corporation.

"Boss, you just asked me about Chongming Park today, and tonight, they dug something up!" Chu Hongfang's voice was electric with excitement. "It's two suits of armor! Red armor!"

"Wait for me!"

Without another word, Su Xuan got in his car and sped toward the Chongming Park construction site. Before setting off, he casually placed an Ascension Pot in the vehicle.

Chongming Park was far from the city. Even with smooth traffic at night, the drive still took him nearly fifty minutes.

"Boss, look!"

Inside the makeshift command center at the site, Chu Hongfang presented the two suits of armor to Su Xuan.

The moment Su Xuan laid eyes on them, a strange ripple went through him. It was as if, in the great unseen, his consciousness had forged a connection with two unusual entities.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.