Chapter 170: Zhou Donghuang’s Strength

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Xu Fu came from a planet where there were many Primordial Souls and where resources were vast. He had seen much. However, now as he looked at the recipe in his hands, his expression changed as he exclaimed, “Incredible! Genius! Simply amazing! These ingredients could be put together like this. This combination is indeed more effective. Amazing!”

Xu Fu reluctantly handed the piece of paper to the man in the black robe behind the table, who was Zhou Donghuang.

“Alchemist Xu, how is it?” Tuo Ku, the manager of the black market and the third elder of the Divine Light sect, looked at Xu Fu. He asked, but he already knew the answer to the question. After all, Xu Fu’s reaction had said everything.

“The recipe is real, ” answered Xu Fu seriously. “However, even if that recipe comes to me, I will need to take another ten days to half a month of studying it before I am confident of using it to produce the Qi-gathering elixir. Third elder, please buy this recipe.” Xu Fu’s eyes flashed eagerly.

“Buying this recipe for three thousand spirit stones… In the future, the other four sects will definitely want us to share this with them. Then we could accept payment of a thousand spirit stones from each of the other four sects. Even if we do not share the recipe, and just provide them with the Qi-gathering elixirs, we could easily earn three thousand spirit stones.” Xu Fu spoke seriously. “With this recipe, the Divine Light sect’s most talented Qi-gathering adepts will be able to reach the Connate stage a few years earlier!”

Tuo Ku naturally trusted every word that Xu Fu said. He looked at Zhou Donghuang and said, “Sir, regarding three thousand spirit stones … we are not able to produce that right now. I will send a message back to the sect to send the spirit stones immediately.”

“I cannot wait for so long, ” replied Zhou Donghuang. Another piece of paper slid out of his sleeve, surrounded by a faint white glow as it floated to Tuo Ku and waited for Tuo Ku to take it.

“Primal-Core-stage adept?” Tuo Ku was shocked. From hearing the voice of the man in black just now, he had guessed that the man was just twenty years of age at most. He had not expected that the other party was a Primal Core adept. Even if he was just in the early Primal Core stage, that fact was shocking.

“He really is a Primal Core adept?” Behind Tuo Ku, Liu Xuanyu’s eyes narrowed as he said, “He really is the young man who was beside the middle-aged man?”

Liu Xuanyu had already quietly confirmed the identity of the man in front of him. But now, seeing the inner Yuan appear, revealing that the man was an early Primal-Core-stage adept, he could not help but wonder whether the man in black was really that young man? A young man who was not even twenty years of age was already a Primal Core adept?

He could not believe that.

But hearing the “fake news” that he had received from his men the day before, he could not help but falter.

“The materials on the paper can be used as payment instead of the spirit stone. The prices are all indicated there, ” said Zhou Donghuang flatly. “I give you three days. After three days, if you are not able to procure the things I want, I will sell this recipe to the other sect.”

“Sir, three days is too short a time.” Tuo Ku looked at the materials written on the paper. It was clear that these materials were rare on the Ziyun planet. Since they were not able to be bought with gold or silver, they had to be exchanged for spirit stones.

“Two days, ” said Zhou Donghuang.

Hearing this, Tuo Ku’s expression changed. The two elders standing behind him also looked at Zhou Donghuang furiously.

“Lad, this black market is the territory of our Divine Light sect. if you want to leave here in one piece, you had better know your place, ” said Liu Xuanyu in a low voice.

“Threatening me?” Zhou Donghuang raised his head as he glanced at Liu Xuanyu. With a swift motion of his hand, the inner Yuan within his hands tore the Qi-gathering elixir recipe into pieces that could never be pieced back together. “One day… within one day, if the items I asked for are not ready, this recipe will never be in the hands of the Divine Light sect.”

“Also, he shall now give me a hundred spirit stones for scaring me just now with his threat,” said Zhou Donghuang as he stared at Tuo Ku, pointing at Liu Xuanyu.

“Lad, you’re asking for it!” Liu Xuanyu’s expression turned dark. He had never expected that the man in front of him would dare to cheat him. He was furious.

Zhou Donghuang ignored him as he continued staring at Tuo Ku.

“Seventeenth elder, you give him the hundred spirit stones first. The black market will cover half of it for you; later I will ask the store to hand you fifty spirit stones.” The dominance of the man in black was unfathomable for the third elder of the Divine Light sect. But he was profoundly aware that the sect had to lay its hands on the Qi-gathering elixir recipe, so he could only give in for now and accede to this man’s request, to stop him from being even more audacious.

Tuo Ku had ordered Liu Xuanyu to pay attention. If the man in black was indignant, he could remove just a hundred spirit stones from his space ring and hand it over to Zhou Donghuang. He glared at Zhou Donghuang murderously. He only needed to fork out fifty spirit stones, but that was no small amount. Although the sect distributed spirit stones to him each month, it would take more than a year for him to save fifty spirit stones.

“Sir, we will do our best to prepare your items within a day. Please wait here patiently.” Tuo Ku did not dare to bargain anymore.

“Mm, ” responded Zhou Donghuang loosely. Tuo Ku led his men to leave the wooden hut.

As the crowd outside watched, Tuo Ku returned with his men to his room in the black market.

“Third elder, that young man is simply ridiculous!” As they entered the room, Liu Xuanyu could not help but cry out. “We should just kill him straight away and take the recipe from him! Even if the news gets out, it would be worth it for us to fork out four thousand spirit stones to the other sects as punishment for breaking the rules of the black market.” Liu Xuanyu’s eyes were murderous.

“The recipe has already been destroyed by him, ” responded Tuo Ku as he shook his head.

Liu Xuanyu replied, “Then we can torture him to force him to write the recipe out again. Judging by his behavior, he knows the recipe by heart and can write it out anytime. Otherwise, he would not have been able to bargain with us even after he destroyed the piece of paper.”

“Torture him? Force him?” Tuo Ku shook his head again. “If he does not wish to be tortured and wants to die, we cannot stop him. Then we would have totally lost our chance to obtain the recipe for that Qi-gathering elixir. Your suggestion is not feasible at all.”

Tuo Ku then turned to look at Xu Fu beside him and asked respectfully, “Alchemist Xu, when you looked at the recipe just now, how much of it do you remember? Is it possible to reproduce it?”

Xu Fu shook his head. “I only saw it once. I can remember just ten or twenty percent of it. That recipe is extremely complicated; even if I saw it a hundred times, I would only be able to remember half of it unless I had a photographic memory.”

“In that case, we will have to accede to his request and prepare what he asked for.”

With the order of Tuo Ku, the third elder of the Divine Light sect and the highest manager of the black market, all the elders and disciples of the sect who were not busy at work in the black market were all sent out. They headed to all the clans of the Shenguang empire, and even some sects outside of the capital, to search for the precious and rare materials that the man in black had demanded.

It must be said that the black market was extremely efficient.

By the next dawn, more than half of the precious materials that Zhou Donghuang had requested had already been prepared. The remainder could only be acquired by using spirit stones as payment.

Inside the wooden hut, Tuo Ku asked the man in black, “Sir, the things that you asked for are here. Will you hand me the recipe now?”

On the wooden table inside the hut, beside the half-opened wooden box containing a thousand spirit stones, there was a huge variety of other precious materials laid out on the table. It was clear that they were no simple metals; rather, they were incomparable to ordinary metals.

“Yes, ” answered Zhou Donghuang as he glanced at the materials and spirit stones on the table. He nodded and looked at Tuo Ku as he said, “You can come back in a day to retrieve it. I destroyed the recipe previously, so I need to write it out all over again. No-one shall disturb me in this wooden house, otherwise you shall bear the consequences!”

“Alright, ” responded Tuo Ku as he led his men out of the door. However, Tuo Ku remained in the vicinity of the wooden hut and even called some other elders of the sect to stand in different directions outside. They watched the wooden hut, as if afraid that the man inside would escape.

“Now, he is just an early Primal-Core-stage adept, and even a middle Primal-Core-stage adept would not be able to escape from here!” Liu Xuanyu stood at a corner outside the house as he glared at it, his eyes murderous.

Inside the wooden hut.

Of course, Zhou Donghuang did not need a whole day to write the recipe. Zhou Donghuang had asked Tuo Ku to come back after a day so he could forge the spirit weapon he wanted using resources provide by Tuo Ku. “The list of items that I gave to Tuo Ku is the ingredients list of an ultimate Primal Core spirit weapon, but he did not manage to get all of it. Even then, these materials are enough for me to produce a superior Primal Core spirit weapon!”

Primal Core spirit weapons were spirit weapons used only by Primal Core adepts. Inferior Primal Core spirit weapons could increase the power of the infused inner Yuan by ten percent. Middle spirit weapons could increase the power by thirty percent. Superior spirit weapons could increase it by sixty percent. Ultimate spirit weapons could double the power of the inner Yuan!0