Submit

“Very well, two hundred it is.”

Chu Liang accepted the price, then added, “I still have two other things. Could you waive the appraisal fee for those?”

“No problem,” Wen Yulong said with a smile.

It was clear that he was not happy merely because of the forging fee. He genuinely loved refining artifacts. Having good materials and magical items to work on was, for him, a source of real joy.

Chu Liang took out the half-burned piece of cloth and asked, “Take a look at this. What is it?”

“Oh…”

This time Wen Yulong identified it very quickly. He pinched it between his fingers and said at once, “This is breath-concealing gauze, a material used to hide one’s presence. If you make a robe out of it and wear it, you won’t leak even the slightest aura when you move. Put that together with the blade forged from black meteor iron just now... isn’t this practically an assassin’s set? Looks like you got all this from some high-level assassin.”

His judgment was precise. Chu Liang only smiled and said nothing more, then asked, “Is it worth anything?”

“This kind of material is valuable only when made into clothing. Yours is already down to half a piece, so it can’t really be sold as a finished product, and if you sell it as raw material, that would be a bit of a loss...” Wen Yulong thought for a moment, then said, “I’d suggest you simply add a bit more money and buy the rest of the breath-concealing gauze. If you have the material, I can help you forge a complete robe out of it. That way it’ll actually be usable.”

“Hmm...”

Chu Liang fell into thought and decided the suggestion was not bad.

The Golden Core demon cultivator he had dealt with before had used a similar art, obscuring his face once he donned the robe. A little concealment technique like that was almost essential for anyone traveling the martial world.

But merely blurring one’s face was only so useful. True experts sensed a person’s aura. If he could have a robe made from this breath-concealing gauze, it would make both combat and anything shady and unsavory much more convenient.

“Can the Sword Transmission Hall buy it?” he asked. “How much would it cost?”

“We don’t have this on Mount Shu,” Wen Yulong said immediately. As a member of the Sword Transmission Hall himself, he naturally knew very well what materials they did and did not have. “If you want it, I can contact a friend at the Glutton’s Pavilion and ask around. They’ll probably have some. But the price won’t be as friendly as it is inside Mount Shu. I’d estimate... if I buy it for you and convert it into sword coins, it’ll be at least five hundred.”

“So the prices inside Mount Shu really are that reasonable...” Chu Liang muttered under his breath in complaint.

He still remembered the flying swords on the racks in the Sword Transmission Hall and the considerable impact their prices had made on his then-not-yet-formed worldview.

But after spending a long time out in the world, he had come to understand a little. What the Sword Transmission Hall sold to the disciples of Mount Shu was, in truth, quite fair.

For those unconventional cultivators roaming the martial world, most transactions were barter. If they needed something urgently, they had to pay a much steeper price to get it, and the whole process was full of scheming and maneuvering. More often than not, what tormented them was not even the high price, but the simple fact that even with money, the item could not be found at all.

Compared with that, Mount Shu really was a kind of greenhouse.

After thinking it over, he still agreed. “All right, then please ask around first. Once you have a definite price, let me know. Sorry to trouble you.”

“Of course.” Wen Yulong made a note of it as well.

Then Chu Liang took out a small gourd and asked, “Can you appraise pills too?”

“You’ve certainly had a fruitful haul,” Wen Yulong exclaimed. Taking the gourd, he smiled. “You’ve come to the right person. I actually started out studying alchemy, and only later switched to artifact refinement.”

“Why?” Chu Liang asked with a smile.

“The Alchemy Cauldron Hall said that if you make even a slight mistake while refining pills, you can poison someone to death. The pills I made would never dare be eaten by anyone. Artifact refinement is better at least—it doesn’t have to go into anyone’s stomach.” As he spoke, Wen Yulong’s tone carried a hint of bitterness.

Chu Liang nodded silently.

Indeed.

With this fellow’s technique, making artifacts with a bold style or odd quirks was one thing; such things might even bring surprises. But alchemy... no matter what, he would never dare eat anything this man made.

Wen Yulong poured out one of the small pills from the gourd, frowned at it for a while, and said, “I don’t recognize this pill. I’ll look it up later. If I still can’t find anything, I may have to take a sample and test its effects, which is a bit troublesome. Leave one with me, and I’ll tell you once I have an answer.”

“All right.” Chu Liang left one behind and put the gourd away.

That was perfectly normal. After all, pills were not the same as artifacts or materials. If you did not recognize a magical item, you could inject true energy into it and figure out what it did. But if you did not recognize a pill, no one would dare lick it or taste it.

With everything settled, Chu Liang rose to take his leave.

Wen Yulong waved him off with a smile, his attitude entirely different from the last time Chu Liang had visited.

Chu Liang could not help smiling as well.

So that was how it was. Once there was money to be made, the service attitude improved.

...

After leaving the Sword Transmission Hall, Chu Liang went next door to the Guardian Hall.

Its business was much poorer than that of the Sword Transmission Hall and the Alchemy Cauldron Hall. After all, supernatural arts were not like magical artifacts or pills, which people had to buy if they wanted them.

If I buy one supernatural art, I can pass it on to ten people, then a hundred. Everyone does not need to pay separately. And everyone has a master... aside from a few unlucky fellows, there are actually not that many people who truly need to buy supernatural arts.

In practice, the Guardian Hall on Mount Shu was more like a library. Its main function was to preserve inheritances.

Thus, it also accepted supernatural arts and techniques handed in by disciples, striving to accumulate as many inheritances as possible.

Compared with the bustling Sword Transmission Hall, this place was much quieter. There were no many private rooms for receiving guests, only a small desk. Behind it sat a young disciple in a blue robe and square face, reading a book.

So this must be the library administrator...

Chu Liang stepped up before the square-faced youth and called out, “Senior Brother?”

“Oh?” The youth looked up. His eyes were small, and his gaze seemed a little blank, giving him an oddly... dazed look.

His features were simple and honest, with a righteous air about him.

He studied Chu Liang for a moment before asking, “What supernatural art do you want to buy?”

“I’m not here to buy. I’m here to hand in a supernatural art,” Chu Liang said.

“Hand in?” the square-faced youth said. “Show it to me first. It has to be something not already in the Guardian Hall’s collection. Only then is there a reward for submission.”

“Here.” Chu Liang took out the jade slip containing the Seven Kills inheritance and handed it over.

The square-faced youth took it, sent his divine sense in for a quick scan, and nodded. “So it’s an inheritance of a stellar secret art, the Seven Kills lineage... it has not appeared in the world for a long time. It is indeed rare.”

His gaze toward Chu Liang also became more solemn.

It seemed he had not expected a junior disciple with such modest cultivation to obtain such a valuable inheritance.

Chu Liang’s own gaze shifted slightly.

He had originally thought this was just a duty disciple who stood guard at the door, but the square-faced youth had identified at a glance that the Guardian Hall did not already possess this inheritance. That meant he knew exactly what was stored within the hall.

The Guardian Hall’s supernatural inheritances were vast as the sea. If he truly kept all of them in his head, that would be rather frightening.

“This inheritance is indeed precious, but we offer rewards for submitted inheritances; we do not purchase them,” the square-faced youth said. “Even this Seven Kills inheritance can only earn a reward of one thousand sword coins.”

“That’s fine,” Chu Liang said without concern.

He knew that if he were to sell this inheritance in the wider world of cultivation, and happened to find a buyer who wanted it, the return would absolutely be more than this. But that would be too troublesome, and not necessarily safe.

An inheritance of this ambiguous, halfway righteous and halfway wicked sort—how could one know whether the person buying it was of upright character? If someone mastered it and became an assassin, committing countless killings, then he himself would inevitably bear some responsibility.

Handing it over to the Guardian Hall meant Mount Shu would merely store it. Perhaps it would not be of much use, so it could not be counted as a purchase price. That was understandable.

One thousand sword coins was not a small sum for him now either.

Aside from the gourd of yet-unidentified pills, this inheritance was actually the most profitable part of his haul this time, since the other two items were both damaged.

This money was just enough to leave for Wen Yulong’s forging fee and material costs.

“These are your sword coins. Count them. Because this inheritance was submitted by you, you may come to the Guardian Hall and consult it free of charge in the future, whether or not you keep a copy. My name is Yuan Zhuo. If anything comes up later, you can always come to me.”

The square-faced youth registered the inheritance in the records, handed Chu Liang the sword coins, and gave him a few more reminders.

“All right.” Chu Liang accepted the sword coins and thanked him with a smile. “Much appreciated, Senior Brother Yuan.”