Martial World

Chapter 771 – Heavencraft Trading Company

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When Demonshine saw the mass of blood, his shifty little eyes immediately brightened. “I want that blood!”

Lin Ming swept his mind over the blood. The blood was similar to the blood from the first level of the Cosmic Melting Furnace; both of them exuded an ancient energy. Thus, the should be blood of the Ancient Giant Demons. In terms of quality, it was far from being comparable to Ancient Phoenix Blood, but it was still extremely precious.

“Alright.”

Lin Ming wasn’t stingy. To Demonshine, who only had his soul form left, the power of this blood essence was the only way for him to recover. During the past years, Demonshine had helped him a great deal, and had even saved his life several times.

Demonshine hurriedly leapt out from Lin Ming’s spiritual sea, turned into a small red curly-haired dog, and plunged towards the mass of Ancient Giant Demon blood. He immediately swallowed it whole.

With a contented sigh, Demonshine’s dog-like face revealed an extremely satisfied expression.

After swallowing the blood, Demonshine’s entire body flushed red. Afterwards, his originally vague and distorted body became much more solid.

This continued for half an incense sticks worth of time. After it stopped, Demonshine used his paws to pat his belly, and burped loudly. “Awesome, so awesome! 10 more jin of this stuff would be great!”

Lin Ming faintly smiled, shaking his head. It was already quite good to have two taels of this blood, but this damned dog actually wanted 10 jin.

He pointed at the black demon armor floating in the air and asked, “Demonshine, can you tell me what this demon armor is?”

Lin Ming’s inherited memories from the Demon Emperor were mostly incomplete; he had no memories about this demon armor.

Demonshine licked his lips and replied, “That’s the demon armor that Master personally forged when he was still on the Sky Spill Continent. Tens of thousands of years ago, there was an epoch were countless rivals and heroes rose up in unison, with new legends being created daily. Master’s strength was unparalleled in that world, however, there were still opponents that could threaten him. For instance…the deep sea races!”

Lin Ming nodded in understanding. On this world, the boundless sea’s size was far greater than the land mass. There were an immeasurable amount of things that lived inside of the deep sea, including many diverse and interesting races. There were even races from the ancient desolate era, who had bloodline legacies far surpassing that of humanity.

In this situation, the number of deep sea race powerhouses that existed far surpassed that of humanity. If it weren’t for the fact that the deep sea races were more suited for living deep underwater, and couldn’t survive long on land, then they probably would’ve probably engaged in a never-ending war with humanity.

Demonshine continued, “Master fought with his deep sea race opponents for a long time, before eventually even this demon armor was pierced through, with Master barely managing to defeat his enemy in the face of countless dangers. Because the demon armor had been pierced, Master decided to keep the demon armor inside of the Cosmic Melting Furnace and repair it. However, the time required to repair the demon armor was extremely long. By the time that Master left this world, the demon armor still hadn’t been fully repaired. However, tens of thousands of years have passed now, and this demon armor has finally repaired itself inside of the Cosmic Melting Furnace. Not only has it been fixed, its grade is now even higher than it was in the past. That Giant Demon blood I just absorbed should’ve been left behind by master in order to help repair the demon armor; it’s simply that the demon armor didn’t use all of it up.”

“So that’s how it is…”

Lin Ming reached out his hand and grasped hold of the demon armor. Then, he discovered that there was a circular gap missing in the left chest region of the demon armor.

Such a uniform gap was clearly not caused by a weapon piercing through it. This area should’ve been where the heartguard mirror was placed.

“The heartguard mirror is missing?”

“Looks like it.” Demonshine shook his head, a bit regretful. “If it were the complete demon armor, then it’s value would be no less than the Cosmic Melting Furnace. After all, there aren’t many defensive treasures on its level out there.”

Lin Ming bluntly put on the armor. For a time, he felt a demonic energy wrap around his body, fusing with his bodily protective true essence, causing it to be even firmer and more tenacious than it was before.

“Oh? It had this sort of effect?”

“Of course. Good armor isn’t just tough, it also has a top class ability to reduce injuries. If one’s armor isn’t able to weaken an enemy’s attacks, then it’s useless no matter how solid it is!”

Many martial artists’ attacks had penetrative properties. Simply defending against the physical strike of their weapons wasn’t enough; one also needed to defend against the hidden energy behind it.

“What do you plan on doing with the Five Color Fruit and the Void Tempered Root?” Demonshine asked.

“The Five Color Fruit and Void Tempered Root are both high level heavenly materials. I plan to use them for the base of a pill I’ll make soon. I’ll also add a 200,000 year wood spirit jade, dragonspine grass, and finally skyflower stones to act as the catalyst, to concoct a Fivefade Void Pill. That should be enough for me to open the third of the Eight Inner Hidden Gates.”

“Hehe, if you reach the large success realm of your alchemy technique, then not only will it enhance your soul, but your body’s transformation progress rise will at an astronomical rate. Who wouldn’t be jealous of this? However, the Fivefade Void Pill is a pretty high ranking recipe; do you have the confidence to successfully refine it?”

“Not at the moment, but I can slowly practice until I can. I’m not in too much of a hurry. Practicing alchemy is also a way to temper the soul.”

Lin Ming’s inherited memories from the Realm of the Gods alchemist were relatively complete, including even the precious experiences and skills that he’d studied. However, just this alone wasn’t enough. While Lin Ming’s knowledge was sufficient, he still lacked coordination between his body, soul, energy, and mind.

This was akin to a zither master that had never played a zither song before. Even if they knew the music by heart, and knew perfectly well how to play the music, they still wouldn’t be able to perfectly interpret the song on their first try. This was simply because their fingers wouldn’t be able to keep up with their mind.

What Lin Ming had to do right now was constantly practice, so that his body could memorize the use of alchemical skills. Every time he touched the energy, his control of the flame... all of it had to become a conditioned reflex. He had to be able to put on a perfect performance without thinking. This was the only way for him to achieve the highest chance of successfully refining a pill.

“Where do you plan on finding dragonspine grass or skyflower stones?” Demonshine asked.

“I’ll look for Li Yifeng.” Lin Ming had already thought of this.

Li Yifeng was a Prince of the Seven Star Divine Kingdom who usually loved to make new friends; he should know all sorts of people. In addition, he had connections to many of the four Divine Kingdom’s domestic intelligence networks, so asking him for information would be both the fastest and most efficient way.

And Li Yifeng did not disappoint him. Just ten days later, he returned with news.

Ho-!

The flames of a sound transmitting talisman flashed in front of Lin Ming, causing him to immediately stop working on the pill he was currently refining. The only thing inside of the pill furnace was a pile of black ash.

He ruefully smiled. The Cosmic Melting Furnace’s heat was just too intense. Trying to practice with low level medicinal herbs that couldn’t stand up to these sort of burning hot temperatures was truly a great challenge.

During the past few days, he’d spent a third of the spirit essence stones he’d gained from the White Dragon Jade Row, all to buy wood spirit jade.

The medicinal herbs he’d been using for practice came from the medicine gardens of the South Sea Demon Region, and the Yin Yang Profound Palace. At this point, he’d used up 20% of the medicinal herbs, but the amount of successfully refined products were a pitifully low number. Usually, all he did was create pile after pile of black ash.

“If the Xing couple from the Yin Yang Profound Palace learned that their carefully grown medicinal herbs were all being used by me, just for practicing alchemy, I wonder just what sort of faces they’d make." Lin Ming shook his head, laughing at himself. He’d been rapidly burning through his money these past  days. Although he called these medicinal herbs low leveled, the truth was,  they were enough to make a martial artist go crazy with greed if they were placed in a third-grade sect.

“Lin Ming, what does the sound transmitting talisman say?” Demonshine asked.

“It’s from Li Yifeng. He told me the whereabouts of skyflower stones. Apparently, they can be bought at the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom’s Heavencraft Trading Company. As for dragonspine grass, he still hasn’t found any information.”

“Alright. Then, what do you plan on doing now?”

“We’re going to the Heavencraft Trading Company first!”

…..

The Heavencraft Trading Company was located in Witch Creek City, which was within the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom. It had a 6,000 year old history, an inheritance that surpassed most fourth and fifth-grade sects, and was able to stand on the same level as some Holy Lands.

The Heavencraft Trading Company was one of the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom’s three great trading companies, and had a very deep background.

For the Heavencraft Trading Company to have developed to this level, and in the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom at that, inevitably meant that they were inextricably linked with the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom’s royal family.

When Lin Ming entered Witch Creek City, where the Heavencraft Trading Company Headquarters were located, he didn’t even need to ask around to see the location of the Headquarters building. This was simply because it the building stood out so much.

High in the sky there was a garret that rose hundreds of feet into in the air, and was over a thousand feet wide. It was actually floating there, suspended in midair.  Around the garret were traces of faint purple smoke that shone underneath the bright sunlight; it was obvious that all of this was due to an array formation.

Keeping such a massive garret suspended in the air likely took a massive amount of spirit essence stones every year. From this alone, one could see just how deep the Heavencraft Trading Company’s wealth was.

Lin Ming quietly waved his sleeves and flew upwards. But when he did, he discovered that there were invisible fluctuations that covered the sky. These fluctuations formed a kind of resistance, hindering Lin Ming’s movements as he approached the Heavencraft Trading Company. Lin Ming was slightly miffed. If he could feel this resistance, than others certainly could as well. How did this place even do business? Did they meet with their customers outside?

The higher Lin Ming flew, the more obvious the resistance became. By the time that Lin Ming had finally reached the entrance to the Heavencraft Trading Company, he’d come to an understanding that there were stipulations to enter this trading company. A martial artist with an extreme Xiantian cultivation, or perhaps someone that had just entered the early Revolving Core, or possibly even an early Revolving Core martial artist with an unstable foundation; none of these people would be able to enter the Heavencraft Trading Company.

And, even if they could, they’d have to exhaust all of their strength to do so, thus shaming themselves. There was no way that they’d have any face to enter the trading company afterwards. What kind of store was this, where one had to fight just to enter? If just entering once was like this, it was doubtful that many people would return.

This meant that the Heavencraft Trading Company slammed their doors in front of all martial artists below the Revolving Core realm. This should also be the reason why their trading company’s headquarters was suspended in midair.

To stay suspended in the sky already gave off a lofty and grandiose feeling. Coupled with the fact that they denied to serve all martial artists below the Revolving Core realm... this was enough to establish just how high quality a business the Heavencraft Trading Company was.

As Lin Ming walked up the steps of the Heavencraft Trading Company, he saw a large black sign hung proudly above the 50 feet tall gates. There had been two highly-stylized words written on it with a large, thick brush—’Heavencraft Pavilion’.

These two words held faint traces of Concepts and Laws imbued within them. And on both sides of the high gates, there were also more accompanying words.

These words were simple:

‘Only treasures sold, no common things.’

‘Only powerhouses accepted, no entry for the mediocre. ‘

“How audacious!” Lin Ming was speechless. This Heavencraft Trading Company was really crazy. Did this mean that every single person who couldn’t enter the Heavencraft Pavilion was a mediocre person?

As he walked towards the Heavencraft Pavilion, the gatekeepers had already opened the doors, gesturing invitingly towards Lin Ming.

In the spacious lobby, there weren’t many visitors; it seemed somewhat deserted and lonely. This was also within his expectations. After all, the Heavencraft Trading Company didn’t rely on the volume of its transactions to succeed.

“This Young Hero, may I ask what requests you have?” Every visitor to the Heavencraft Trading Company would be approached by a beautiful young maid, who would then give them one-on-one service. The young girl responsible for assisting Lin Ming seemed to be around 18 or 19 years old. Her slender figure was very tall; she was only a bit shorter than Lin Ming.

“I would like to purchase skyflower stones.” Lin Ming directly stated.