Chapter 599: Spirit of the Barrier (One)

“Shopkeeper Ochire, thank you for your information.” Jian Chen cupped his hands in gratitude. “But where might this yearly auction house take place? There are plenty of auction houses in this city after all.”

“Perhaps you are not as familiar to Mercenary City as I thought if you know not even this, my lord.” Ochire spoke in between a small burst of laughter. “Then, please allow this servant to explain. There are indeed plenty of auction houses within Mercenary City, but those are all privately owned auction houses. There is only a single auction house that is regulated by the entire Mercenary City. As long as my lord makes the proper inquiries, you will learn of the place almost instantly.”

“It is how this auction house is run and what it sells that marks it different from the others. With Mercenary City itself running the auction every year, many extremely rare objects can be seen from it, ergo the ten thousand year old heavenly resource. They have always been sold off by this auction house.”

“Relevantly, the ten thousand year old heavenly resource that my lord wishes for will always appear here. But each time they appear, it has always been a fight of money to purchase it. If my lord is adamant on purchasing it, then you must prepare yourself to use a large sum of purple coins to purchase it.”

“Indeed, thank you for your warning.” Jian Chen replied gratefully.

The shopkeeper smiled, “My lord, you are far too polite. This is nothing that could warrant your thanks. The future patronage of my lord would be more than enough to keep this servant happy.” She spoke before handing the purple coins back to Jian Chen after processing it. Taking out a exquisite Space Belt, she handed it over to Jian Chen, “My lord, here is your purple card and the heavenly resources are within this belt. Please hold it well.”

Obediently taking the purple card back into his own Space Ring, Jian Chen took the Space Belt and inspected the inner contents to ensure everything was there. Smiling, he stored it away into his Space Ring and left the pavilion after bidding farewell to Ochire.

Freely walking up to the windowsill, Ochire watched as Jian Chen walked further and further away into the streets. With furrowed eyebrows, she began to mutter to herself, “Just who is that person? It is strange to think that he is familiar to me, as if I’ve seen him somewhere before. But I have never left Mercenary City as of late, and the amount of acquaintances I have is very few; where could I have possibly met a youngster like this before…”

　　……

Taking the Class 3 Magical Beast mount for a ride, Jian Chen held a radish shaped heavenly resource for the tiger cub to munch on. With bright and spirited eyes, the cub devoured the entire thing happily.

Heavenly resources for the tiger cub were an extremely rare and delicious delicacy. They were the most delicious and blessed objects in the world to the cub.

Eying the cub with a small trace of adoration, Jian Chen could not help but smile fondly. In the short period of time the cub had been in Jian Chen’s care, it had managed to worm its way into his heart so to see the tiger cub so happy had made him feel equivalently happy.

By asking the people of the city, Jian Chen had managed to find out the auction house Ochire had been talking about.

At the center of Mercenary City, this auction house was extremely large and stood at about thirty meters tall. Grand and impressive in its architecture even in comparison to the mighty city it was in, this auction house was very distinguishable like the head of a beast out in the open plains.

Right as Jian Chen was about to take another step, Ziying’s voice suddenly popped into his mind, “Ah! Master! This is stardust! Master, we’ve found some stardust!”

Repeating Ziying’s words, Qingsuo spoke up excitedly, “Master, quickly now! Take the stardust with you, that is a priceless item needed to forge the sword!”

Ignited by the words of Ziying and Qingsuo, Jian Chen could feel a joyous smile appear on his lips. He knew that in order to craft the Azulet swords, he would need a specific amount of materials. And as long as he had those materials, he would be one step closer to forging the said swords.

Excited by the two spirits, Jian Chen began to question the two, “Ziying, Qingsuo, where is this stardust located?” He had no idea what stardust looked like and so if it were not for the two spirits, he would simply never be able to distinguish it from the entire city.

Right away, a strange but mysterious sensation began to pull at his mind as he spoke. In this moment, he could feel a strange attraction as if some sort of magical connection was drawing him to a very specific location.

When Jian Chen’s eyes hovered over the auction house run by Mercenary City in front of him, a response from within his head could be felt. With this sensation, he could more or less surmise a general approximation that the stardust would be located within this auction house.

“Master, you must take the stardust! As long as stardust is added to the swords when being forged, the quality of the blade will go up to a completely different level. It is far away from being a weapon for a god, it can still be considered an ultimate magic weapon.” The excited voice of Qingsuo reverberated through Jian Chen’s mind.

“Stardust is a material used for weapons of the Immortal level, I never would have imagined that they would appear even here. Master, no matter what the cost, you must obtain them!” Ziying spoke urgently. It would appear that stardust was an extremely important item to it.

Seeing just how much Ziying and Qingsuo was putting emphasis on the stardust, Jian Chen could feel himself growing serious. His eyes fixated themselves onto the auction house and immediately dismounted from his magical beast mount to enter.

This stardust might have been in the auction house, but the actual house had not yet started any of their auctions and was thus unavailable to the audience. It would be at least another two days before it would start, perhaps the stardust would appear then.

Afterwards, Jian Chen had spent the rest of his time walking the streets. Going from one drugstore to another, he purchased another fifty or so thousand year old heavenly resources and spent well over two million purple coins.

The stab in his wallet had not been a stab to his heart however. The growth of the tiger was far more important than money, and since the tiger required an exponentially large amount of time to grow, heavenly resources were the only way to expedite this procedure.

Jian Chen wasn’t short on money either since he took the purple coins from the Space Rings of the Heaven Saint Masters he killed along with any other valuable item. There was still the money from the treasuries of both the Pingyang Kingdom and the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom that he had not yet exhausted along with the monster cores. These alone were enough to make Jian Chen into a mobile treasury with the raw amount of value he had on him.

It was only until dusk that Jian Chen finally stopped his window-shopping spree through the streets and settled in one of the inns to wait for the auction two days from now.

There would undoubtedly be heavenly resources over the age of several thousand years old at this auction house as well as the stardust needed to forge the Azulet swords. This meant that the upcoming auction event would definitely be an event that Jian Chen couldn’t afford to miss. In the same vein, this meant that Jian Chen would have to delay his trip to Longevity Valley for another two days.

Later that evening in his own grand room, Jian Chen sat on top of his bed in the midst of concentration. He had wanted to try his best to come to understand the energy of the world along with the piece of a Saint Tier Battle Skill to become a Saint Ruler as soon as possible. By his side, the tiger cub wolfed down three heavenly resources and quickly fell into a deep slumber to process it into energy.

The candle wick within the room had long since gone out, leaving the entire room in pitch black darkness. Even if one’s hand were in front of one’s face, the fingers would not be visible at all. But in this darkness, the room was exceptionally quiet so that even a needle could be heard if it were dropped onto the ground.

In the skies above Mercenary City, the gigantic barrier that had spanned across the entire city pulsated once. Shortly afterwards, a single girl’s voice could just barely be heard from the skies.

“This, this is master’s scent! But, didn’t master leave this world already? Why do I smell his scent then. Did master return then?”

This clear voice had been clear in the dark skies over the city, but even with the peacefully quiet city, the sound did not travel far.

“Yes, this is master’s scent. But it’s faint. Very faint. Did master really return?” The clear voice reverberated through the skies. From the voice however, the tint of excitement could be heard. Soon enough, the wave of excitement sped into the city and caused everyone to feel slightly odd, but no one could pinpoint the reason why.

“I’ve found it! It’s here! Master’s scent is definitely coming from here! Hee hee, master has to have returned, this must be his way of testing me. Hee hee, how good my nose is. No matter how faint master’s scent is, I will definitely always be able to find it.” The voice spoke, this time closer to the city. It had already traveled to the inn Jian Chen was in and phased into the building.

From within his room, Jian Chen’s ear twitched slightly and caused his eyes to open suddenly. At the same time, two bolts of light flew out from his eyes and illuminated the candlewick in the room to light up the room.

Jian Chen’s eyes swept across the room vigilantly. The darkness was not a problem to him since he could see everything clearly.

“Who’s speaking?” Jian Chen asked seriously. He had heard that clear voice earlier, but his presence had told him no one was around at all, causing him to be extra vigilant.

Even if Mercenary City was extremely safe, he could not afford to drop his guard.

“It’s faint. Very faint! Master’s scent is here.” This time, the strange voice could be heard originating from the same room Jian Chen was in. It had been extremely clear to hear, but no matter how much Jian Chen looked around, he could not see just what human or ghost was speaking.

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