Longevity starts with choosing Hextech enhancement

Chapter 412 Obtaining More Fragments - Inspecting the Marketplace
For the Cheng family, this ancestral fragment holds a very awkward position.

It's important, but after all these years, nobody really knows what it's actually used for.

When the clan faces danger, a talisman or even a spirit stone is more practical.

You could say it's unimportant, but it's been passed down for hundreds of thousands of years, and it even has symbolic meaning.

If we were to deny it, wouldn't that be denying our ancestors throughout history?

In particular, the Cheng family has not produced a Golden Core cultivator for thousands of years and has basically become an ordinary Foundation Establishment family.

This remaining fragment is almost the only testament to their family's glory.

For a long time, this problem has deeply troubled the current clan leader, Cheng Shi.

But in the early hours of this morning, while he was still in the arms of his seventh concubine, half-asleep, he was suddenly awakened by several sect elders who inquired about the ancestral fragments.

He immediately made a wise decision.

That is to readily admit that the matter did indeed occur, and to retrieve the fragments and hand them over as quickly as possible.

Before he could figure out what was going on, the fragment was put back into his hand.

Immediately afterwards, the group took him to the Cangming Immortal Sect and told him along the way that they would be taking him to pay respects to a True Lord.

Heaven have mercy, this is the first time in Cheng Shi's life that he has seen a living True Lord.

In the past, he had only seen these high-ranking figures in storybooks or portraits.

That's why I made those remarks about offering tribute.

"Don't be nervous, I won't take your things."

As Xiao Chen reached for the fragment, he waved his hand and said, "Cheng Shi, right? Have a seat and a drink... um, wait a moment."

He originally intended to suggest having a cup of spiritual tea.

However, the tea on the table was fourth-grade spiritual tea, and Cheng Shi's face was wrinkled, indicating that he was obviously old. If he really drank it, he would probably be too weak to handle the nourishment.

So they changed their tune at the last minute.

Then he lowered his head and carefully analyzed the fragments in his hand.

This is a fragment only the length of a little finger, completely black, without any trace of inscriptions.

It doesn't seem like part of a magic weapon; rather, it looks more like a fragment of a spirit artifact damaged in battle or an unfamiliar spirit ore.

Xiao Chen first tried to probe into it with his divine sense, but he could not detect anything unusual.

It's as if he has a rare and precious spiritual ore in his hand.

He then tried to inject his true essence into it, and initially there was almost no extra reaction; it was only able to absorb a lot of true essence.

It wasn't until Xiao Chen continuously injected about a hundred strands of true essence that this continued.

On one of the surfaces, spirit patterns faintly appeared, but since it was a fragment, the spirit patterns disappeared almost instantly.

Fortunately, with the powerful divine sense of the Nascent Soul True Monarch, he was still able to capture the pattern in time.

It is very similar to the other Stardust Wave Shield fragments from before, and is almost certainly from the same source.

No wonder no one noticed anything unusual for so many years; the requirements for detecting this thing are just too high.

It should be noted that the true essence of a Nascent Soul True Monarch is generally more than five times that of a Golden Core cultivator.

If someone like Xiao Chen possesses special methods to enhance the quality of their true essence, the effect can be more than ten times greater.

In other words, for ordinary Golden Core cultivators...

Unless he possesses more than a thousand strands of true essence, he will absolutely be unable to discover the hidden spiritual patterns within the fragment, and thus unable to confirm its true value.

This resulted in the Cheng family being unable to effectively utilize this fragment for the past hundreds of thousands of years.

But it is precisely for this reason that this fragment has been successfully preserved to this day.

"Yes, this is exactly what I've been looking for."

Xiao Chen nodded in satisfaction, then asked, "You may not have heard of my bounty before, so let me tell you again."

"If you're willing to sell me this fragment, I can offer one million low-grade spirit stones."

"Rest assured, this transaction is entirely voluntary. Even if you are unwilling, I guarantee I will not make things difficult for you."

Although it sounded a bit fake, that was indeed what Xiao Chen thought.

The main reason was that he believed the price he was asking for was high enough.

Even if the other party disregards the strength of the transaction and simply weighs the pros and cons, they will still choose to proceed with the transaction.

In fact, Cheng Shi was completely bewildered at this point.

How many spirit stones?

one million!

His eyes were first blank, then turned to excitement, and then quickly showed a hint of unease.

The amount was so large that he could hardly believe it and was somewhat at a loss.

Finally, he subconsciously turned his head to look behind him, his gaze falling on the only person he recognized, the elder in charge of internal affairs, as he tried to seek help.

How to answer this question?
However, the internal affairs elder did not recognize him and was somewhat surprised after noticing the seemingly pleading look in his eyes.

crucial moment.

Iron Fan True Monarch spoke directly: "Little Cheng, if you are unwilling to sell your ancestral spiritual artifact, no one in our sect will force you."

"If you're willing to accept this deal, then you'll have to thank Fellow Daoist Xiao properly."

"To be fair, you won't find another person in the entire Compassionate Ocean who would be willing to pay such a high price. You've really hit the jackpot."

Xiao Chen's offer was indeed very high.

Although there is no established market price for ancient magic weapon fragments, a million spirit stones is already more expensive than most fourth-tier spirit items.

For a small piece of debris, it is definitely worth many times the premium for recycling.

"I am willing, and I thank you for your generous gift, True Lord!"

Upon hearing this, Cheng Shi immediately knelt down and bowed deeply, saying, "Your Excellency is so generous; I am deeply grateful for your great kindness!"

It wasn't that he was weak-willed; it was simply that as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he had never seen so many spirit stones before.

"There's no need for these formalities."

With a thought, Xiao Chen lifted him up with his spiritual energy hand: "Then it's settled. I'll leave the things behind, and you can take the one million spirit stones."

With a wave of his hand, he created a mountain of spirit stones on the ground.

As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, Cheng Shi couldn't even fit that many spirit stones in his storage bag.

In the end, it was Iron Fan True Monarch's closed-door disciple who took the initiative to step forward and use his own storage ring to help him take the spirit stones back.

After the people below dispersed.

Xiao Chen put away the fragments and took the initiative to speak, "I have two small matters I would like to ask you for help with."

"First, I would like to ask you to send someone to spread the word about what happened today."

"Secondly, I would like to trouble you to send people to secretly watch over the Cheng family for a few years, in order to prevent any ill-intentioned individuals from entering."

Iron Fan True Monarch was originally curious. Logically speaking, Xiao Chen could have just given a token amount of 100,000 to 200,000 spirit stones. Why did he have to spend so much?
Upon hearing this, he immediately understood.

It turns out he was spending a fortune to buy horse bones, hoping to attract other knowledgeable people or cultivators who possess fragments to come and trade with him.

"Fellow Daoist Xiao, rest assured, I will have someone spread the word about today's events in detail later."

Iron Fan True Lord immediately stated: "Furthermore, as long as the Cheng family does not leave the Cangming Sea, I guarantee that they will be safe and sound for the next fifty years."

After all, there are no fourth-tier demons around here.

Simply assigning a few Golden Core cultivators to take turns secretly watching over the Cheng family would be enough to ensure their safety and prevent them from being affected by rumors.

We've sorted out the Stardust Wave Shield fragments.

Xiao Chen didn't linger and went directly to Cangming Market to investigate the situation.

In order not to affect the normal operation of the market.

He also deliberately suppressed his cultivation level and took out a bamboo hat to cover his face, disguising himself as an ordinary late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Thus, they discreetly blended into the crowd in the market, quietly searching for spiritual items suitable for making money quickly.

For Xiao Chen, possessing the special ability to travel between two worlds, earning spirit stones was not difficult at all.

However, considering the situation in the new cultivation world, especially the special existence of the Holy City.

If only the simplest reselling and dumping is carried out, it may quickly attract attention.

Therefore, to be on the safe side, Xiao Chen decided to put his eggs in different baskets, that is, to diversify his transactions.

On the one hand, they maintained their business dealings with the Reverse Immortal Alliance through Zhang Cunfu as an agent.

On the other hand, they changed their tactics and transported an extra batch of spiritual items to sell to cultivators in the wilderness, bypassing heavily monitored areas like Guiyun Market.

Such actions would not immediately alarm the blessed land and the holy city, and would also be very difficult to investigate afterward.

However, this means the items sold cannot be too expensive.

We must ensure that most of the relatively poor cultivators in the wasteland can afford it, and adopt a business strategy of low profit and high volume.

In other words, one needs to find a low-level spiritual item that can be supplied stably and where there is a significant price difference between the two.

"Hey, wait a minute!"

Xiao Chen suddenly had a flash of inspiration: "Since there are risks in dumping goods over there, why not do the opposite and bring the goods from there to sell here?"

The main goal is to earn spirit stones, and it doesn't really matter which kind of spirit stones they come from.

For example, the Qinglu Foundation Building Pill that I had heard about before, that's a really good thing!
Just one pill can provide nearly 90% success rate in Foundation Establishment. If it were brought here, it would sell like hotcakes!
Moreover, given Xiao Chen's current status in the Sea of ​​Compassion.

Even if it is sold openly and honestly, it will not attract the covetousness of others.

Of course, the best way is to work hard and resell on both sides at the same time.

This way, they can earn more spirit stones and slow down their activities in the new cultivation world, making their actions more discreet and less likely to attract the attention of the Holy City.

"In this way, I have many more options."

Xiao Chen briefly strolled around the market and quickly finalized his selection of sixty different second-tier spiritual items.

They then each purchased a share of 10,000 spirit stones, intending to take it over first to test the market.

The reason for bringing so many different spiritual items is that they are not sold individually for the highest price difference.

This is because although Xiao Chen doesn't know much about business, he knows that you can't just look at the price difference on the surface; you also have to consider various factors that may affect sales.

The best approach is to select several items and bring them over to try them out.

Then find that spiritual item that is both profitable and easy to sell.

Moreover, Xiao Chen remembered that Zhang Cunfu had said before that if too many of the same things appeared on the market in a short period of time, it would greatly affect the price.

So from the very beginning, he planned to select several types of spirit items that were both highly profitable and easy to sell.

The impact can be mitigated as much as possible by sharing the costs.

At the same time, Xiao Chen doesn't need to worry about the problem of too many kinds of spiritual objects causing confusion.

Because he also had a tool he had prepared long ago—Chen Fan.

Logically speaking, how could a dignified Nascent Soul True Monarch really disguise himself and go to sell second-tier spiritual items?

At most, I'd just go along to scout out the location at the very beginning, just in case.

Once things are on track, this matter will definitely be handed over to Chen Fan. After all, he is now a Golden Core cultivator, and he should be more than capable of handling large quantities of second-tier spiritual items in the future.

Moreover, Xiao Chen trained him precisely so that he would have a reliable subordinate to handle these trivial matters for him.

But speaking of this...

If he's going to try and sell Qinglu Foundation Building Pills here in the future, he'd better find someone to use as a tool.

Xiao Chen had originally been somewhat inclined towards the Jade Leaf Merchant Guild.

But given the current situation, we definitely need to find someone else.

To be honest, he knows quite a few people in the Sea of ​​Compassion, but excluding the True Lords or Zen Masters, the number is actually not that many.

Su Li definitely won't do.

Zhang Shouquan is already at the fourth level, so he's not easy to invite. Besides, even if he were willing to come, the cost would be too high.

Or, why don't we just go find Chu Tianze?

That kid is probably still in the Foundation Establishment stage; paying him a little extra money should be enough.

Moreover, he would most likely not refuse if I asked.

However, Xiao Chen felt it was a waste to ask him to do these trivial things, and it would be better to let him go out and take risks.

Who knows, it might bring me a surprise someday.

"That's right, I can ask him and Zhang Shouquan to help find the remaining Star Sand Wave Shield fragments!"

A thought flashed through Xiao Chen's mind: "Given their luck and destiny, they should be able to discover these ancient relics more easily than other cultivators."

"Why were we so focused on the bounty that we forgot about this?"

It is common knowledge that people like them might one day be able to buy ancient magical artifacts from a street stall.

Collecting fragments is a piece of cake; it's a breeze.

The more Xiao Chen thought about it, the more he felt that he was incredibly clever to have come up with such a good idea.

So he decided to take a detour to the Mozhang Sect later to explain the mission to Chu Tianze.

However, this also excluded him from the list.

Who else would be suitable to help me sell Qinglu Foundation Building Pills?

Xiao Chen tried hard to recall the cultivators he had encountered before, expanding his pool of potential candidates.

Why not let Master Yunya of the Cangming Immortal Sect take charge?

Or perhaps we could ask Ruan Lingchun and her family to come and help?

Or perhaps we should go find Wang Shichang, the Jianlu disciple who knows how to repay kindness?
To be honest, none of them seem quite right, but it seems like there aren't any better candidates.

"Forget it, why should I worry about the future in advance?"

Xiao Chen shook his head: "It's not too late to consider this issue after we bring back the Qinglu Foundation Establishment Pill."

If you don't think about it, there will be no worries in the world.

He turned and easily went to the Golden Silk Shop: "One hundred servings of Golden Silk Glazed Pastries... um? No, it should be one hundred servings of all flavors of pastries."

what?
The shop manager was taken aback by what he heard, and then gave him a wary look.

After carefully considering his tone, he explained, "I'm really sorry, sir, but our shop doesn't have that many raw materials, nor do we have that many portions of pastries."

"If you're willing to wait a bit, we can buy it and cook it right away."

"However, the prices of many kinds of spiritual materials in the market have skyrocketed, and we have just opened for business."

"So even if you're willing to wait, you'll have to help pay for the spiritual materials first."

"I am truly sorry that due to the limited circumstances, our hospitality has not been adequate."

He did this simply because he was worried that the masked stranger wouldn't be able to pay the bill.

However, seeing that the other person had an extraordinary demeanor, and fearing that speaking directly would cause trouble, he made up an excuse.

"No need for that trouble, the spirit stones are all here."

Xiao Chen waved his hand and paid the full price according to the notice board next to him: "Hurry up and arrange for someone to go and buy the things."

"After you're done, deliver the pastries you've made to... Let me think... I'll just deliver them to Cangming Tower over there."

"I'll say hello to them."

The manager's brow twitched upon hearing this; he immediately realized that this was a powerful figure who had concealed his identity.

It's possible that an elder from the Cangming Immortal Sect is secretly patrolling the market.

Therefore, they dared not slack off in the slightest and immediately began to mobilize manpower to prepare the pastries as quickly as possible.

What he thinks is unimportant.

After leaving the Golden Silk Workshop, Xiao Chen went to the Cangming Tower to reveal his identity and gave instructions about the pastries.

Then I left through the back door and, while making pastries, went straight to the Moshifang Market.

In the past, such a round trip would have taken at least half a month, and it would have taken only two or three days to fly out of the Cangming Sea.

However, now that Xiao Chen's escape techniques have become increasingly proficient, nearing completion, his speed has also become incredibly fast.

They arrived at Moshifang City smoothly in just two days.

First, find the market manager and explain your purpose to avoid any misunderstandings.

Immediately, a massive divine sense expanded, ignoring the warnings of the array and plundering the entire market area.

He was lucky; he soon spotted Chu Tianze in a small courtyard, where he was inscribing array patterns on the array base.

So he went straight there and knocked on the courtyard gate.

I don't know what mischief this kid was up to, but as soon as he heard the knock on the door, he pricked up his ears like a rabbit and became alert.

He put away the array base in his hand and took out an array flag in the backhand to ensure that he could command the array that had been set up in advance in the courtyard at any time.

Then, alertly, he asked, "Who's knocking?"

"This is Wu Dalu's residence. Fellow Daoist, you haven't come to the wrong place, have you?"

His voice sounded like that of a middle-aged man, completely lacking the brightness that a young man should have.

Xiao Chen was taken aback by the question. If he hadn't already seen the person with his divine sense, he would have thought he had gone to the wrong place.

He then called out directly, "Young friend Chu, it's me."

"Stop pretending, I have something important to tell you."

Chu Tianze recognized Xiao Chen's voice and immediately lowered his guard, quickly opening the courtyard gate to invite him in.

Then, curiously, he asked, "Senior Xiao, what brings you here?"

"I just picked a medicinal herb; it shouldn't be enough to alarm you, sir."

Oh wow, there's a story behind this!

Xiao Chen said, "Why is he so nervous in broad daylight? He must have done something bad!"
But that's not the point.

He looked Chu Tianze up and down.

I remember the last time we met, this kid had just broken through to the fourth level of Foundation Establishment.

Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that he had actually reached the eighth level of Foundation Establishment.

Moreover, his aura was calm yet sharp, and his blood and qi concentration was slightly higher than normal.

This rate of progress is remarkably fast, even compared to my own initial cultivation speed.

Xiao Chen increasingly felt that he could build a relationship with him and make an investment while he was still young and inexperienced.

On the contrary, it doesn't take much effort.

Thinking of this, he immediately snorted, "Hmm? Who are you calling old man? Do I look that old?"

"You're the kid I brought here, so you don't need to be so polite with me."

"You can call me senior if you want, or call me big brother if you want, it's up to you."

"But there's one thing: you're not allowed to use my name to cause trouble."

Upon hearing this, Chu Tianze's eyes lit up, and he immediately followed up by saying, "Hello, Brother Xiao!"

Xiao Chen smiled and nodded, thus concluding the reminiscing session.

He then directly stated his purpose: "I came to see you mainly because I want you to keep an eye out for a fragment of an ancient magical artifact."

To help him understand better.

Xiao Chen also gave a detailed explanation of the information about the ancient magic treasures and what exactly the Star Sand Wave Shield was all about.

Midway through the conversation, she also took out the ancient sword sheath she had recently acquired and introduced it to him.

In conclusion, "In short, many fragments are still missing."

"If you come across any other fragments of the Star Sand Wave Shield, or any other remnants related to the ancient sword sheath, please keep an eye out for them for me."

"Ideally, we could bring it back directly."

"I won't let you work for nothing."

"Whether it's spirit stones, purple-gold Bodhi fruits, or various breakthrough spirit items, everything is negotiable."

"If you're short of money, I can give you some in advance."

When Chu Tianze heard about this good news, his eyes lit up.

He immediately agreed, "It's a deal. Brother Xiao, you can't lie to me!"

In fact, collecting ancient magical artifacts is not easy, and he wasn't very confident about it.

This is especially difficult for a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

But think about the famous fourth-tier treasure, the Purple Gold Bodhi Fruit, and then think about the broken-tier spiritual treasures that ordinary cultivators fight tooth and nail for.

Chu Tianze felt that even the greatest difficulties could be overcome with a try.

After a moment's consideration, he even said, "Brother Xiao, if possible, I would like to ask you for an advance of 100,000 spirit stones."

"Then I'll use this money to improve my cultivation and refine my array techniques."

"I think that only by improving my strength can I better conduct the search next."

To be honest, Chu Tianze, as a self-taught array master, is currently worried that the huge cost of cultivating arrays is something he can hardly afford.

As a result, he made many enemies while competing for resources outside.

If I could obtain these spirit stones, it would greatly alleviate my current financial difficulties.

"No problem at all!"

Xiao Chen readily agreed and placed 200,000 spirit stones in the courtyard: "And I can give you double that."

"However, I have other things to do, so I may not have time to come over often."

"Let's agree on a secret code."

"That way I can come and take a look whenever I have free time. If you find any fragments, leave a mark for me."

The two then briefly discussed and agreed on a method for marking the target.

Xiao Chen didn't linger and set off again to return to Cangming Market.

(End of this chapter)