Chapter 163 - Brocade Treasure Box

A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

First, I want to thank everyone for their opinions and thoughts on how we should overhaul completed novels. We've reviewed nearly 2000 comments across multiple platforms and forum, and while we haven't responded to everything I can promise I HAVE read it all. First, I'm going to briefly go into some of the things which were discussed which may or may not work, because I don't want people to think I ignored anything. I'm putting those in 'spoiler' tags so people who don't care can skip it. Then, we'll talk...

Chapter 163: Brocade Treasure Box

At this moment, Shopkeeper Tian started to present the item in the small brocade box.

“A set of Gold Beetle Swarm Blades, with one mother blade and eight children blades. It was created from fine iron and gold. Refined by a Foundation Establishment expert for three days and three nights. So long as one holds the mother blade, one can simultaneously control the eight children blades to attack the enemy, causing the enemy to be unable to defend against these incomparably sharp blades.” He introduced the set of peculiar light gold blades while pointing to its case.

Han Li did not speak and carefully examined the handle for a moment. He nodded his head and put it down.

“Flying Dark-Iron Shield, a very scarcely seen defensive magic tool. It was refined from a large chunk of Cold Yin Earth. Not only is it incomparable solid and indestructible, it’s also embedded with a spell. It can revolve in any direction and automatically defend,” said Shopkeeper Tian while picking up a tiny shield the size of a palm. Then he passed it over to Han Li to let him carefully look over it.

Han Li took the shield into his hand and lightly stroked its decorative design. After he muttered to himself for a moment, he asked, “Can I try out the spell for a moment?”

“Of course you can. Brother Li, please do not hesitate to use it!” Shopkeeper Tian said in a relaxed manner.

Since he said as such, Han Li was not polite and slowly poured magic power into the shield in his hand.

As a result, the metal shield shined a black light. In a blink of an eye, it enlarged several times over, and it even flew out of his hand and floated in the air. Furthermore, it slowly began to circle around him. Its size seemed just enough to cover a few vital points on the body.

Han Li was pleased. After attentively controlling it for a moment, he could control its movement as he pleased, much to his expectation; it was quite nifty and agile.

After trying it out, Han Li was very pleased with that magic tool. What he was currently most lacking was this kind of life-saving magic tool. With this shield, his odds of surviving the Forbidden Trial of Blood and Fire was surely to increase quite a bit.

However, Han Li hadn’t immediately express anything. He simply returned the iron shield to the box without speaking. Then he waited for the other party to continue their presentations.

Shopkeeper Tian was not at all discontented with Han Li’s method of handling things and continued to enthusiastically recommend the next article, a blue ball the size of a pill.

“Heavenly Lightning Seed. Several hundred years ago, after a mysterious expert accidentally severed heavenly lightning, he managed to successfully condensed it. Each grain possesses great power. It is said that even if a Foundation Establishment expert resisted this lightning head-on, he was certain to turn to ash and smoke. There were originally seventy-three grains. However, after the passage of time, there are not many left. This one grain cost this store a great amount to take possession of it.”

After Shopkeeper Tian said this, he could not help expose a somewhat complacent expression. This lightning bead was clearly a precious rarity.

When Han Li heard this, he was emotionally moved. It could actually kill a Foundation Establishment expert! Something of such great might couldn’t be found by chance! If he could acquire it, then it would be equivalent to a trump card for his trip to the forbidden area. However, he feared the price would be high enough to scare people away! Why else would they not have sold it until now?

After Shopkeeper Tian presented the blue lightning bead, he spoke no further. Instead he looked at Han Li with great anticipation. Then he lifted the cup of fragrant tea and took an unhurried taste. Although the table had a tightly-closed brocade box that had yet to be introduced, he hadn’t spoken even a single word about it.

Han Li faintly smiled, fully aware of this Shopkeeper Tian’s intention. He knew this was the time that he should show the other party his own strength. Otherwise he wouldn’t be able to easily see the treasure in the final brocade box.

Before he came, apart from the two-thousand year-old spiritual herbs, he also brought along all of his spirit stones, comprising of two mid-grade spirit stones and nearly a hundred low-grade spirit stones.

However, Han Li was not likely to lightly make use of these spirit stones. He was only relying on those two spiritual herbs.

Frankly, although Han Li knew that spiritual herbs of over a thousand years of age were extremely rare in the cultivation world and that their value should be high, he didn’t know the concrete cost in spiritual stones for these magic tools. He did not have a true estimate.

However, he understood that by using the herbs to obtain that small shield and the Gold Beetle Swarm Knives, he should have some extra spirit stones left over. As for that Heavenly Lightning Seed that he further wanted to acquire, he was not very hopeful.

He didn’t suddenly take out both of his spiritual herbs. Instead, he took out a small wooden box with something seemingly precious and exceptional inside.

The reason why Han Li acted as such was because he was fully aware that “A man wants to be adorned with clothes, but a Buddha wants to be adorned with gold”. He knew that if this presentation went well, the value of his medicine herbs should somewhat increase, thereby making the chances that he would suffer losses unlikely.

Han Li did not open the lid of the small box but rather passed the case to the man in front of him.

Shopkeeper Tian had secretly paid close attention to Han Li’s actions all along. When he saw this scene, he did not speak any objections and accepted the box. After a moment of careful observation, he carefully opened the lid.

“Yi!”

Once he clearly saw what was within the box, Shopkeeper Tian was somewhat amazed. However, his expression grew displeased soon after.

“Brother Li plans to use this Yellow Essence Mushroom to exchange for this store’s treasures? How is this rare? Unless it is a great item of two to three hundred years or more, it fundamentally isn’t worth anything,” Shopkeeper Tian coldly uttered.

Han Li coldly chuckled several times and didn’t say anything else. He was studying the other party’s recent appearance at his own pace while tasting the fragrant tea that had been poured for him a moment ago.

Having seen Han Li’s fearless actions, Shopkeeper Tian was somewhat doubtful. He mustered all of his spirit and lowered his head, carefully examining the spiritual herb in the box once more.

“Xi!”

Shopkeeper Tian took a good look at it and suddenly breathed in a cold breath of air. Immediately, he stood from his chair in excitement and moved the box to a more adequately-lit portion of the room. He excessively examined it and then muttered to himself, “Impossible. Could it truly be over a thousand years old? Or is it simply resembling it?”

Han Li clearly saw the other party’s expression and heard his words, causing his heart to finally grow calm. He was now certain that the value of his thousand year-old spiritual herbs was greater than his previous estimates, not lower. In addition, it seemed that he had a good chance of acquiring that lightning bead.

After a moment of examination, Shopkeeper Tian suddenly became aware of his lack of manners and the fact that he revealed information about the true circumstances to the other party.

However, he was unable to change anything now. The object before his eyes was completely embedded in his state of mind. So long as this object were truly that thousand year-old item of the highest quality, he would overpay to have this thousand year-old spiritual herb remain in the Ten Thousand Treasures Store. Doing so would give his Ten Thousand Treasures Store countless benefits.

However, he was currently embarrassed as he had never seen a thousand year-old spiritual herb before. He only knew of its reputation, and hence, he was truly unable to be give a certain estimation of the maturity of that herb inside the box. He only knew that if the Yellow Essence Mushroom before him didn’t have a medicinal potency of a thousand years of more, it should absolutely be of seven to eight hundred years or more. It would still be a very precious object; he was certain of least that much.

“Come!”

After a long moment of inspection, Shopkeeper Tian called a young servant from downstairs.

“Go and invite Elder Ding to come. Tell him there is a valuable object here that I need him to appraise,” he solemnly ordered.

Afterwards, Shopkeeper Tian took advantage of this chance to have a completely honest chat. However, they completely avoided talking about the medicine herb, as if the medicine herb in the small box had been forgotten for the moment.

Not long after, a grey-haired old man escorted by a young servant slowly climbed up the stairs.

When Shopkeeper Tian saw this, he immediately went to respectfully greet him and offered his seat to this elder before standing to the side. It seemed this Elder Ding was truly a person of reputation.

However, Han Li had already guessed that this person was like Shopkeeper Tian, a common old man. He didn’t have the slightest trace of cultivation.

“Shopkeeper Tian, you called this soon-to-be buried old man here. Could it be that there’s something you couldn’t call someone else for?” Trembling, the old man asked after gasping several times.

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