Chapter 29: Chapter 29: Moon Blade Meteor Wheel

Zhou Chun’s capital was not especially abundant.

It consisted of fifty-seven Spirit Coins, along with a two-hundred-year-old Red Ganoderma, a hundred-year-old Yellow Essence, and two hundred-year-old Earth Mystery Ginsengs.

Excluding the Spirit Coins, those four types of Spiritual Medicine would amount to just over three hundred in market value.

Yet these items were at least sufficient to prove that he indeed had the means to purchase a first-grade superior Magic Artifact.

As such, after verifying the items he had brought, the pale middle-aged man said nothing more and quickly took out two wooden boxes from his Storage Pouch, opening them each one by one for introduction.

“This Magic Artifact, the ‘Moon Blade Meteor Wheel’, is crafted from Steel Silver and Profound Iron by a master of Artifact Refining; forged with pure earth fire for seven days and nights, it possesses sharpness and armor-piercing traits, can split into two for simultaneous attack and defense and may be combined into one circular blade for confronting the enemy, with a price of three hundred and seventy Spirit Coins.”

“This Magic Artifact, the ‘Wind Fire Fan’, is made from the feathers and bones of a second-stage Demon Beast Wind Fire Kite by a master of Artifact Refining; a single swing can unleash a series of wind blades and fireballs to strike at the enemy, with a price of four hundred and thirty Spirit Coins.”

Having said this, the pale middle-aged man bowed to Zhou Chun and spoke, “Esteemed guest, these are all the first-grade superior attack Magic Artifacts currently in our store’s inventory.”

First-grade superior Magic Artifacts were not easy to sell; even for a big shop like Heavenly Treasure Pavilion, it would be quite good if they managed to sell two or three within a month, which is why they didn’t typically keep a lot in stock.

But Heavenly Treasure Pavilion remained true to its reputation; among the few Magic Artifacts the pale middle-aged man produced, apart from the rather common Golden Goose Blade, the remaining items were rare treasures, each one making Zhou Chun very eager to possess.

Unfortunately, his capital limited him to choosing only one of them, and he had to exclude the two priced over four hundred Spirit Coins.

After contemplating over the few Magic Artifacts for a long while, Zhou Chun finally pointed to one of the wooden boxes and said, “That ‘Moon Blade Meteor Wheel’ then; it suits my fancy quite well, so I’ll choose it!”

Upon hearing his words, the pale middle-aged man’s face immediately brightened with a smile as he praised, “Taoist Friend Zhou has an excellent eye, this item is well-rounded in offense and defense, with your cultivation level, having this artifact on hand will even enable you to fight against Qi Refinement late-stage Cultivators!”

He then proceeded to stash the other Magic Artifacts back into the Storage Pouch, leaving only the wooden box with the ‘Moon Blade Meteor Wheel’ on the table.

Zhou Chun, seeing this, pushed his items for purchasing the artifact forward and steadily stated, “Three hundred and seventy Spirit Coins, these Spiritual Medicines and these Spirit Coins should be enough in exchange, right?”

“It’s enough, but are you sure you want to use these pure Spiritual Medicines in exchange for a Magic Artifact?”

The pale middle-aged man’s gaze flicked over the various Spiritual Medicines on the table, seemingly with some concerns.

“What, does Steward Liu worry there’s an issue with these Spiritual Medicines?”

Zhou Chun’s eyebrows rose, and then he slapped his chest in guarantee, saying, “You can rest assured about that; I, Zhou Chun, am a direct descendant of the Jiufeng Ridge Zhou Family cultivators, and these Spiritual Medicines were dug out from the Sanjue Sect’s Medicine Garden when they relocated. They are all genuine Spiritual Medicines, without a trace of Evil Qi!”

Hearing him declare his lineage and the origin of the items, the pale middle-aged man’s gaze instantly steadied, and he quickly bowed smilingly to Zhou Chun, “So it turns out Daoist Friend is a cultivator of the spirit beast Zhou Family, my apologies for the oversight.”

After finishing, he nodded and said, “If Taoist Friend Zhou can assure there is no issue with the Spiritual Medicines, then this transaction is considered complete—the ‘Moon Blade Meteor Wheel’ is now yours.”

He then pushed the wooden box with the Magic Artifact towards Zhou Chun.

Upon seeing this, Zhou Chun immediately stowed the wooden box into his Storage Pouch, and with a hearty laugh said, “Steward Liu is forthright. Until next time, let’s hope to meet again.”

“Safe travels, Daoist Friend Zhou, and you’re always welcome to visit our Heavenly Treasure Pavilion again in the future,” replied the pale middle-aged man, standing up to send Zhou Chun out.

After making sure Zhou Chun had left the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion, the pale middle-aged man returned to the quiet room and, looking at the wooden boxes with Spiritual Medicines on the table, his gaze narrowed slightly as he fell into contemplation.

After a long period of thought, he murmured to himself, “Do you think there might be more Spiritual Medicines in his Storage Pouch? Though Sanjue Sect is far inferior to our sect, it is a sect with over seventeen hundred years of lineage; even if they no longer have thousand-year-old Spiritual Medicines, those several hundred-year-old ones should be quite numerous.”

It seemed he was conversing with some mysterious entity.

Not long after his words fell, a somewhat aged voice reached his ears.

“Perhaps he does have more Spiritual Medicines in his Storage Pouch that he didn’t bring out, but those several hundred-year-old ones are definitely not among them.”

“Each of those Spiritual Medicines is accounted for, and Sanjue Sect wasn’t simply raided before they fled in disarray; unless their disciples are fools, they would not dare touch such high-level medicines under the watchful eyes of the higher-ranking cultivators in the sect,” said the voice.

Upon hearing this, the pale middle-aged man couldn’t help but nod slightly, seemingly in agreement.

Then he frowned slightly and whispered in a low voice, “So, in your opinion, should we release the news?”

“It’s up to you to decide. I know nothing at all,” the elderly voice came through his ear once again, causing him to curse in his heart.

These damn old guys, truly greedy and yet so cowardly, always want to reap the benefits without any trouble, hoping only for the good things!

But no matter how much he cursed in his heart, he didn’t dare to show the slightest bit on his face.

Instead, he lowered his head with a hesitant expression, pondering the decision he found hard to make.

After a long while, he finally shook his head with a look of regret and said, “Let’s forget about it. The Zhou Family of Jiufeng Ridge has just set roots in Lanzhou not long ago. Now is when their vigilance is at its highest. It’s hard to guarantee that the lad just now isn’t bait they threw out intentionally, to test the waters with the different forces!”

This time, however, he received no response.

This made him curse again in his heart, and it was only after gulping down several large mouthfuls of tea that he managed to suppress the anger within him.

Elsewhere, Zhou Chun left the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion, then went straight to the Marketplace Inn to open a cultivation room.

Once inside the sealed cultivation room, Zhou Chun took out the wooden box, then directly burned it with fire, incinerating the outer coat and underclothes he had worn as well.

This was naturally to prevent being marked and tracked by someone.

There were far too many methods in the Cultivation World to leave marks on objects or people using medicines, spells for tracking purposes, and Zhou Chun knew of at least a dozen himself.

Despite the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion being an old and highly reputable store, one could never be too careful.

It couldn’t be guaranteed that the pale-faced middle-aged man wouldn’t tamper with him, waiting for him to leave the marketplace before having someone find and kill him for his treasure.

These kinds of things were better safe than sorry.

Only after watching the wooden box and clothing turn to ashes, and after thoroughly examining himself with divine sense to make sure he found no anomalies, did he change into new clothes.

He then looked at the silver-black colored circular magic artifact beside him, about one foot in diameter, and immediately lifted it by the handle.

In fact, this item was not as heavy as it appeared; estimated to be less than ten pounds, Zhou Chun lifted it singlehandedly without much effort.

After examining the magic artifact, he found that it could actually be suspended and carried on the back, but that would require a carrying frame.

But carrying around that circular magic artifact, let alone those swords and blades the cultivators usually had, was something Zhou Chun seldom saw.

Thus, keeping it in the storage pouch was more suitable for everyday use.

After examining the artifact for a while, Zhou Chun began to refine and familiarize himself with the magic artifact.

The divine sense imprints and residual qi of the previous owner would be thoroughly erased from such artifacts bought from stores, cleaned up for the new owner to refine easily.

It took Zhou Chun less than two hours to familiarize himself with the artifact’s usage and refine it, feeling extremely satisfied with the new artifact’s power.

After becoming somewhat familiar with the new magic artifact’s usage, Zhou Chun, who had emptied his wallet, finally embarked on his journey home.

However, upon leaving the marketplace this time, Zhou Chun did not use the same trick again, opting not to traverse the Hongyan Mountain Range from high above using a flying artifact.

He had dared to do it previously because he was flying towards the Hongya Marketplace, where it was easy for the guards in the marketplace to spot him, and he could also sit down and recover his mana in the marketplace afterward.

But such actions had already exposed him. If he were to leave using the same method, it would be hard to ensure that those bandit cultivators, also equipped with flying artifacts, wouldn’t directly ascend to hunt him down.

Compared to that, leaving alone on foot, although risky, posed far less danger of encountering extremely powerful bandit cultivators.

Moreover, having acquired a first-grade superior magic artifact, Zhou Chun’s strength was now no less than that of two or three average mid-stage Qi Refinement loose cultivators, and ordinary bandit cultivators would likely not have the ability to take him down.