The old man was actually a Martial Emperor of the Seven Constellations realm!
In the empire, such strength made him an absolutely supreme expert. Apart from Jutian Sect, the backer of Firecrow’s imperial family, there should be no other existences stronger than a Martial Emperor. Judging from that, even if the old man were not a guardian of the empire, he should be someone who held great power in his hand.
But, Yunxiao pretended to be relieved and said in a relaxed voice, “Oh, so you think that array is interesting. But, before we came out, our Palace Master told us that it is the secret of our sect and asked us not to leak it to others. If we give it to you, we will be seriously punished when we get back!”
“Palace Master?” The old man asked suspiciously, “Which sect are you from? Why have I never heard of any sect that has this kind of lightning-attracting array?”
“This…” Yunxiao said hesitatingly, “I can’t tell you. Our sect is still new in Firecrow Empire, and our roots are too shallow to compare with those sects with hundreds or even thousands of years of history. If others learn that we had just sneak attacked the Xingyang family, it will bring great disaster to our sect!”
The old man quickly went through all the new sects in his head, and soon, a few suspicious targets surfaced. He deliberately darkened his face and said coldly, ” How do I know if you are telling the truth? If I let you go, but it turns out that you are spies sent here by the other two empires, it will make me into a laughingstock of all!”
Yunxiao frowned and said difficultly, “Actually…it’s possible for us to give you the array…Well, as the saying goes, money makes the mare go, if you can give us some compensation, we are willing to be punished when we get back. Right, guys?”
“Ugh… yea…”
The crowd immediately understood what he meant, and they nodded with their eyes lighting up.
“If we lost the array diagram, the Palace Master will surely severely punish us when we get back.”
“I shiver whenever I think of that extreme cold energy. If it were injected into my body, I think I would not be able to get rid of it for the rest of my life.”
“Last time when Zhang San went out for a task and lost a mystic weapon, he was beaten so seriously by the Palace Master that it took him half a year to recover.”
“Aye, unless we can get appropriate compensation, we will not hand over the array diagram even if we die!”
“Kof! Kof!” Yunxiao coughed a few times before he said helplessly, “You heard them, my lord. It is not that we don’t want to give it to you, but we have fears. As a Martial Emperor of the Seven Constellations realm, you just have to give us something you deem as junk to make us feel better.”
The old man was stunned. ‘What logic is that? I’m here to rob them, just that I can’t do it openly due to my status. How can they be so ignorant? They know I am a Martial Emperor, and yet they are negotiating with me?!’
“As a Martial Emperor, you wouldn’t think of robbing a group of juniors openly, would you?” Yunxiao frowned and said suspiciously. That immediately made the old man give up the idea of robbing them. If others knew that he robbed something from a group of juniors, including a fifteen-year-old boy, he would not be able to stay in Firecrow Empire anymore.
“Kof! Kof! Kof!”
The old man coughed violently. Then, with an angry look, he said coldly, “Who do you think I, Zhu Jin, am? Robbing something from a group of juniors like you? How ridiculous! I just find that array interesting, and I will throw it away after glancing at it. Do you think a mighty Martial Emperor like me will carry out deep research on such a low-level thing? In any case, I will not take it from you without paying. It’s your fated chance to have come across me. Well, I will just give you something good that you can use for the rest of your life.”
“I want a fifth-tier mystic weapon!”
“A sixth-tier medicinal pill!”
“A complete suit of armor, fifth-tier!”
“I want the Earth’s Ear!”
“Give me a divine ability!”
“I just want a Saint Transformation pill!”
“…”
Before Zhu Jin could offer them anything, everyone cried out noisily and excitedly.
Yunxiao said embarrassingly, “They are a bunch of ignorant people. Well, I just want two hundred thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones.”
“…”
Zhu Jin’s nostrils flared. “How dare you fool me!”
“Fool you?” There was an innocent look on Yunxiao’s face as he said in surprise, “You are a Martial Emperor! We will be digging our own graves if we dare to fool you! Ugh…are you thinking of not paying us? Or, you can’t afford to give us what we want?”
“Kof! Kof! Do you think I am so poor? Although these things are precious, they are nothing to me. But, no one would bring so many things with him all day. Besides, your shabby array isn’t worth that much. How about I give you twenty thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones and you give me that array diagram?”
“What? Twenty thousand? Superior-grade or supreme-grade? Did I hear that right?” Yunxiao widened his eyes and looked incredulous.
Zhu Jin said angrily while blushing, “One hundred thousand then! I won’t pay more than that! Your shabby array diagram isn’t worth even ten thousand!”
Yunxiao snorted. “One hundred thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones? We respect you as an expert and a senior, and yet you treat us like beggars! We prefer death to humiliation! We will live or die with the array diagram today, and we will not bring shame to our sect!”
Zhu Jin flew into a rage and could hardly hold himself back. ‘I am a mighty Martial Emperor! I can’t believe I’ve wasted so much time talking nonsense with these juniors! If it weren’t for the fact that there are other divine senses around, I would have killed and robbed them! But, someone is watching me now, and if this were to spread, the whole world would be laughing at me!’ He ground his teeth and said, “Don’t push me too far, boy! Name your price!”
Yunxiao snorted coldly. He knew what this Zhu Jin feared. It seemed that Firecrow Empire was also in constant internal strife. He held up three fingers and said, “Three hundred thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones, or you can kill us right now!”
Zhu Jin sucked in a cold breath. Although he could afford three hundred thousand, it still pained him to fork out so much in one go. But, when he thought of the array diagram that could attract lightning, his heart was immediately filled with excitement. He was cultivating a lightning-type cultivation technique, which was extremely rare and difficult to cultivate. However, if he could attract lighting at any time, he was certain that his cultivation base would take a great leap. Therefore, he had to get that array diagram!
“Fine! I will give you three hundred thousand! But, if I find something wrong with the array diagram or if it isn’t worth the price, you will taste my wrath!”
The old man briskly threw out a storage bag, which Yunxiao took over and put away without even looking at the contents. Since he was too embarrassed to rob them, he would not be dishonest now. While smiling, he threw over the simplified array diagram.
Zhu Jin’s eyes lit up as soon as he gave it a careful look, and he put it away excitedly. The pain in his heart was gone in an instant, and he said with satisfaction, “Not bad, it is indeed interesting! Take care of yourself, since you’ve just given the Xingyang family such great humiliation. Don’t think you can hide from everyone. Firecrow Empire is not as big as you think.”
Yunxiao smiled and said, “I will, if they still have the power to do anything. Thank you for the generous compensation senior. Till we meet again!”
Wasting no more time, he sent several incantation seals into the chariot, which immediately zoomed into the distance at maximum speed.
…
In the sky over the Xingyang family, Xingyang Yi and a group of elders were looking at the Outworld Dark Jade in the lightning pool. The power emanating from the stone shocked and terrified even them. Although they were all experienced and knowledgeable people, they could not recognize it, and did not know how to retrieve it from the lightning pool.
“My lord, do you think we should retrieve these twelve chariots first? The lightning pool seems to rely on them to operate.” One of the elders suggested.
“You are right. This stone should be the key to finding the culprits. They should have fled before they could take it with them. We will find them with this stone!” Xingyang Yi’s face was grave. Even if the culprits were found and chopped to a thousand pieces, the humiliation his family had suffered would not be washed away. He was certain that the whole imperial city would be talking about this incident tomorrow, and many people would be laughing and making fun of him.
At the thought of that, Xingyang Yi felt he was about to explode with anger as he threw out a palm and slapped at one of the chariots.
As his palm hit the chariot, it suddenly glowed with white light, bright like it was scorched under high heat. Then, the rest of them lit up as well. They floated in the air like twelve luminous objects, illuminating everything within hundreds of meters around them.
“This…”
Xingyang Yi was startled, and a bad feeling surged in his heart. Meanwhile, the Outworld Dark Jade in the lightning pool seemed to sense something and began to turn transparent while beams of extreme cold energy shot out of it, freezing the air.
An elder sucked in a cold breath and then bellowed in horror, “Not good! These chariots are going to blow themselves up!”
Only then did Xingyang Yi wake up from his shock. He flew into a rage instantly and roared, “Everyone, protect the members of the family! Listen up, the descendants of the Xingyang family, run for your life!”
The twelve chariots were only third-tier mystic weapons, so they could still resist the explosion, but the Outworld Dark Jade in the lightning pool gave him a deep sense of fear and shock. In the face of the cold energy emanating from it, he felt as if his soul were about to freeze. If that thing were to explode…
At the thought of that, he felt his whole body turn cold, and he could no longer calm down.
All Martial Grandmasters of the Xingyang family unleashed their trump cards and attacked the lightning pool together. At the moment when their family was facing a deadly crisis, everyone united as one and exerted their greatest strength. But…
RUMBLE!
The twelve chariots exploded, blowing apart like twelve mini suns in the sky, filling all eyes with a blinding light and shaking the world with a tremendous blast.
But very soon, a blue light broke out, devouring all of the white light as it bloomed like a huge blue lotus flower in the sky over the capital. For a moment, the whole Shangyang turned pale blue. The blue light that devoured all the other light and power did not make any sound, but it gave everyone a sense of emptiness as if the world had ended.
All the explosions quieted down under the blue light. Almost all the experts in Shangyang were terrified, and they shot up into the sky one after another to find out what had happened.
The old man was actually a Martial Emperor of the Seven Constellations realm!
In the empire, such strength made him an absolutely supreme expert. Apart from Jutian Sect, the backer of Firecrow’s imperial family, there should be no other existences stronger than a Martial Emperor. Judging from that, even if the old man were not a guardian of the empire, he should be someone who held great power in his hand.
But, Yunxiao pretended to be relieved and said in a relaxed voice, “Oh, so you think that array is interesting. But, before we came out, our Palace Master told us that it is the secret of our sect and asked us not to leak it to others. If we give it to you, we will be seriously punished when we get back!”
“Palace Master?” The old man asked suspiciously, “Which sect are you from? Why have I never heard of any sect that has this kind of lightning-attracting array?”
“This…” Yunxiao said hesitatingly, “I can’t tell you. Our sect is still new in Firecrow Empire, and our roots are too shallow to compare with those sects with hundreds or even thousands of years of history. If others learn that we had just sneak attacked the Xingyang family, it will bring great disaster to our sect!”
The old man quickly went through all the new sects in his head, and soon, a few suspicious targets surfaced. He deliberately darkened his face and said coldly, ” How do I know if you are telling the truth? If I let you go, but it turns out that you are spies sent here by the other two empires, it will make me into a laughingstock of all!”
Yunxiao frowned and said difficultly, “Actually…it’s possible for us to give you the array…Well, as the saying goes, money makes the mare go, if you can give us some compensation, we are willing to be punished when we get back. Right, guys?”
“Ugh… yea…”
The crowd immediately understood what he meant, and they nodded with their eyes lighting up.
“If we lost the array diagram, the Palace Master will surely severely punish us when we get back.”
“I shiver whenever I think of that extreme cold energy. If it were injected into my body, I think I would not be able to get rid of it for the rest of my life.”
“Last time when Zhang San went out for a task and lost a mystic weapon, he was beaten so seriously by the Palace Master that it took him half a year to recover.”
“Aye, unless we can get appropriate compensation, we will not hand over the array diagram even if we die!”
“Kof! Kof!” Yunxiao coughed a few times before he said helplessly, “You heard them, my lord. It is not that we don’t want to give it to you, but we have fears. As a Martial Emperor of the Seven Constellations realm, you just have to give us something you deem as junk to make us feel better.”
The old man was stunned. ‘What logic is that? I’m here to rob them, just that I can’t do it openly due to my status. How can they be so ignorant? They know I am a Martial Emperor, and yet they are negotiating with me?!’
“As a Martial Emperor, you wouldn’t think of robbing a group of juniors openly, would you?” Yunxiao frowned and said suspiciously. That immediately made the old man give up the idea of robbing them. If others knew that he robbed something from a group of juniors, including a fifteen-year-old boy, he would not be able to stay in Firecrow Empire anymore.
“Kof! Kof! Kof!”
The old man coughed violently. Then, with an angry look, he said coldly, “Who do you think I, Zhu Jin, am? Robbing something from a group of juniors like you? How ridiculous! I just find that array interesting, and I will throw it away after glancing at it. Do you think a mighty Martial Emperor like me will carry out deep research on such a low-level thing? In any case, I will not take it from you without paying. It’s your fated chance to have come across me. Well, I will just give you something good that you can use for the rest of your life.”
“I want a fifth-tier mystic weapon!”
“A sixth-tier medicinal pill!”
“A complete suit of armor, fifth-tier!”
“I want the Earth’s Ear!”
“Give me a divine ability!”
“I just want a Saint Transformation pill!”
“…”
Before Zhu Jin could offer them anything, everyone cried out noisily and excitedly.
Yunxiao said embarrassingly, “They are a bunch of ignorant people. Well, I just want two hundred thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones.”
“…”
Zhu Jin’s nostrils flared. “How dare you fool me!”
“Fool you?” There was an innocent look on Yunxiao’s face as he said in surprise, “You are a Martial Emperor! We will be digging our own graves if we dare to fool you! Ugh…are you thinking of not paying us? Or, you can’t afford to give us what we want?”
“Kof! Kof! Do you think I am so poor? Although these things are precious, they are nothing to me. But, no one would bring so many things with him all day. Besides, your shabby array isn’t worth that much. How about I give you twenty thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones and you give me that array diagram?”
“What? Twenty thousand? Superior-grade or supreme-grade? Did I hear that right?” Yunxiao widened his eyes and looked incredulous.
Zhu Jin said angrily while blushing, “One hundred thousand then! I won’t pay more than that! Your shabby array diagram isn’t worth even ten thousand!”
Yunxiao snorted. “One hundred thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones? We respect you as an expert and a senior, and yet you treat us like beggars! We prefer death to humiliation! We will live or die with the array diagram today, and we will not bring shame to our sect!”
Zhu Jin flew into a rage and could hardly hold himself back. ‘I am a mighty Martial Emperor! I can’t believe I’ve wasted so much time talking nonsense with these juniors! If it weren’t for the fact that there are other divine senses around, I would have killed and robbed them! But, someone is watching me now, and if this were to spread, the whole world would be laughing at me!’ He ground his teeth and said, “Don’t push me too far, boy! Name your price!”
Yunxiao snorted coldly. He knew what this Zhu Jin feared. It seemed that Firecrow Empire was also in constant internal strife. He held up three fingers and said, “Three hundred thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones, or you can kill us right now!”
Zhu Jin sucked in a cold breath. Although he could afford three hundred thousand, it still pained him to fork out so much in one go. But, when he thought of the array diagram that could attract lightning, his heart was immediately filled with excitement. He was cultivating a lightning-type cultivation technique, which was extremely rare and difficult to cultivate. However, if he could attract lighting at any time, he was certain that his cultivation base would take a great leap. Therefore, he had to get that array diagram!
“Fine! I will give you three hundred thousand! But, if I find something wrong with the array diagram or if it isn’t worth the price, you will taste my wrath!”
The old man briskly threw out a storage bag, which Yunxiao took over and put away without even looking at the contents. Since he was too embarrassed to rob them, he would not be dishonest now. While smiling, he threw over the simplified array diagram.
Zhu Jin’s eyes lit up as soon as he gave it a careful look, and he put it away excitedly. The pain in his heart was gone in an instant, and he said with satisfaction, “Not bad, it is indeed interesting! Take care of yourself, since you’ve just given the Xingyang family such great humiliation. Don’t think you can hide from everyone. Firecrow Empire is not as big as you think.”
Yunxiao smiled and said, “I will, if they still have the power to do anything. Thank you for the generous compensation senior. Till we meet again!”
Wasting no more time, he sent several incantation seals into the chariot, which immediately zoomed into the distance at maximum speed.
…
In the sky over the Xingyang family, Xingyang Yi and a group of elders were looking at the Outworld Dark Jade in the lightning pool. The power emanating from the stone shocked and terrified even them. Although they were all experienced and knowledgeable people, they could not recognize it, and did not know how to retrieve it from the lightning pool.
“My lord, do you think we should retrieve these twelve chariots first? The lightning pool seems to rely on them to operate.” One of the elders suggested.
“You are right. This stone should be the key to finding the culprits. They should have fled before they could take it with them. We will find them with this stone!” Xingyang Yi’s face was grave. Even if the culprits were found and chopped to a thousand pieces, the humiliation his family had suffered would not be washed away. He was certain that the whole imperial city would be talking about this incident tomorrow, and many people would be laughing and making fun of him.
At the thought of that, Xingyang Yi felt he was about to explode with anger as he threw out a palm and slapped at one of the chariots.
As his palm hit the chariot, it suddenly glowed with white light, bright like it was scorched under high heat. Then, the rest of them lit up as well. They floated in the air like twelve luminous objects, illuminating everything within hundreds of meters around them.
“This…”
Xingyang Yi was startled, and a bad feeling surged in his heart. Meanwhile, the Outworld Dark Jade in the lightning pool seemed to sense something and began to turn transparent while beams of extreme cold energy shot out of it, freezing the air.
An elder sucked in a cold breath and then bellowed in horror, “Not good! These chariots are going to blow themselves up!”
Only then did Xingyang Yi wake up from his shock. He flew into a rage instantly and roared, “Everyone, protect the members of the family! Listen up, the descendants of the Xingyang family, run for your life!”
The twelve chariots were only third-tier mystic weapons, so they could still resist the explosion, but the Outworld Dark Jade in the lightning pool gave him a deep sense of fear and shock. In the face of the cold energy emanating from it, he felt as if his soul were about to freeze. If that thing were to explode…
At the thought of that, he felt his whole body turn cold, and he could no longer calm down.
All Martial Grandmasters of the Xingyang family unleashed their trump cards and attacked the lightning pool together. At the moment when their family was facing a deadly crisis, everyone united as one and exerted their greatest strength. But…
RUMBLE!
The twelve chariots exploded, blowing apart like twelve mini suns in the sky, filling all eyes with a blinding light and shaking the world with a tremendous blast.
But very soon, a blue light broke out, devouring all of the white light as it bloomed like a huge blue lotus flower in the sky over the capital. For a moment, the whole Shangyang turned pale blue. The blue light that devoured all the other light and power did not make any sound, but it gave everyone a sense of emptiness as if the world had ended.
All the explosions quieted down under the blue light. Almost all the experts in Shangyang were terrified, and they shot up into the sky one after another to find out what had happened.
