Battle Through the Heavens

The convoy whizzed down from the mountain peak. Ten minutes later, they approached the dark, black city gate. Their speed gradually slowed before they finally queued behind the long line of people and quietly waited for their turn to enter the city.

Standing in front of the horse carriage, Xiao Yan lifted his head and studied the dark mass that was the enormous city wall. His gaze swept across the three large words ‘Black Mark City’ which had been placed right in the middle of the city gate. Moving his sight slowly downward, he finally paused on the ten plus darkly-dressed men at the city gate. They appeared to be the guards of a city in the outside world. However, in this place, anyone who wanted to enter had to hand over quite a large amount of city entrance fees. It should be known that if this kind of city entrance fees were placed in the environment like the Jia Ma Empire, it would likely directly cause a commotion. However, in the ‘Black-Corner Region’, something like this was commonplace.

“Get lost, stop leaping around in front of me.” Just as Xiao Yan was observing the city which had a special serving of the ‘Black-Corner Region’, a curse, which was filled with irritation, suddenly sounded at a spot not far in front of him. Xiao Yan shifted his gaze. It was actually a bald, large man. Perhaps it was because he was impatient from all the waiting, but he lifted a skinny, weak-looking man in front of him with a grab of his palm.

“Ah.” The words of the bald headed large man had just fell when the skinny, weak-looking man who had been lifted by him abruptly turned around. A dagger was swiftly pulled out from his sleeve. The dagger drew out a cold glint and violently stabbed toward the throat of the bald headed large man. However, it was fortunate that the latter’s reaction was nimble. His neck hurriedly pulled back and the the dagger was misaligned and pierced at a spot half an inch below the throat. Immediately, fresh blood soared wildly and a sharp, horrible shriek sounded from the mouth of the bald, large man.

After seriously wounding the bald, large man with one strike, the skinny weak looking young man swayed his body and he was like a loach as his body contracted and withdrew out of his clothes. After which, he rolled into some bushes by the side and disappeared.

“Bastard. I will kill you!” The bald headed large man’s eyes were crimson as he pulled out the dagger. He lost his sense of reasoning as he also charged into the bushes. A long while later, a scream that was similar to the horrifying shriek from earlier was transmitted out from the bushes. It was a long while later before it gradually disappeared.

Xiao Yan stood on the frame of the carriage and was somewhat stunned as he watched the bushes. When he heard that final blood-curling scream, he knew that the bald headed large man would have difficulty keeping his life. However, what caused him to be stunned was that bald head large man’s strength should be around that of a two star Dou Shi while that skinny weak looking man was only at the Dou Zhe class. The gap between the two was this great, yet that skinny, weak-looking man’s murderous blow was actually so crisp and there was not even the slightest bit of hesitation. This kind of vicious scheming really left one speechless. People who could survive within the ‘Black-Corner Region’ were indeed no ordinary characters. It was only now did Xiao Yan truly understand this saying.

“Ke ke, Mister Yao Yan, do not judge a book by its cover in this ‘Black-Corner Region’. This is because the corpses of those who have died in the ‘Black-Corner Region’ because of underestimation could nearly fill an entire city.” Duo Ma smiled as he spoke.

“Ah.” Xiao Yan nodded slightly. The scene which he had witnessed with his own eyes allowed him to completely understand the rules of the ‘Black-Corner Region’.

The fight between the two people earlier was like a short interlude and merely gave the people who were queuing up some entertainment. However, there was hardly anyone who wasted any emotion over this.

The queue slowly moved forward. After waiting for nearly half an hour, it was finally the convoy’s turn. When the convoy reached the city gate, Duo Ma handed over a large bag of gold coins in an extremely swift manner. Xiao Yan’s eyes were sharp. He could clearly see that there was a small bag hidden in Duo Ma’s hand when the latter handed over the large bag of gold coins.

That indifferent black-clothed man received the gold coins and carelessly weighed it in his hands. His expression was a little gentler, but he did not say anything unnecessary. He waved his hand and allowed Duo Ma’s merchant group into the city.

“Ke ke, Mister Yao Yan, where do you plan to go next?” After entering the city, Duo Ma’s convoy stopped and he inquired along with a smile.

“I plan to walk around the city. Oh right, may I know where I can find the largest number of medicinal ingredients in ‘Black Mark City’?” Xiao Yan leaped down from the horse carriage, lifted his head, and asked.

“Medicinal ingredients huh? That will naturally be the ‘Thousand Medicine Place’. As long as you have a sufficient amount of money, you will be able to purchase rare medicinal ingredients that one would have difficulty finding outside of this place.” Duo Ma smiled as he replied.

“Ah, thank you very much. Since it’s like this, let’s part ways here. We will chat in the future if we have the chance.” Xiao Yan cupped his hands toward Duo Ma. He did not wait for the latter to say any courteous words he turned his body and squeezed into the human flow. After which he disappeared.

“Yes, hopefully we can really meet again. However, among the people who die in the ‘Black-Corner Region’ every year, the number of deaths among the new people is the highest. This is especially so for those young people who have some strength. They are filled with youthful energy and do not know how to hide their edge, clearly looking like they will have a short life. However, this little fellow is much better. If his methods were even more vicious, he might really be able to adapt to this kind of place and make a name for himself.” As he eyed Xiao Yan’s back which had disappeared, Duo Ma laughed bitterly before waving his hand and led the convoy toward another street.

Xiao Yan slowly walked along the street. His gaze repeatedly swept across the shops on the two sides of the street. However, what really caused Xiao Yan to be speechless was that before he had finished walking this short street, which was not even a hundred meters long, he had seen no less than ten brawls. There were even situations like drawing one’s knife to have a bloody fight. With regards to this kind of city, there was only one word to appropriately describe it. That was : Chaotic!

Xiao Yan avoided some bloody all out fights, and passed through two street corners. He walked for nearly twenty minutes before his scanning gaze finally stopped on the signboard of a shop which occupied a wide space. Written on that pale-red signboard were three large, ancient-looking words, ‘Thousand Medicine Place’.

“This should be the place, right?” Xiao Yan softly muttered in his heart. He increased his speed and walked into this medicinal shop with an extraordinary atmosphere. Immediately, the mixture of over a hundred different medicinal scents pounced over, causing him to involuntarily have an impulse to sneeze.

The size within the medicinal shop was big. Crystal counters were placed vertically and horizontally within the shop. There were different kinds of medicinal ingredients being placed within the transparent counters. At this moment, there were quite a number of people who had paused their footsteps in front of these counters. The noisy chattering sound repeatedly reverberated within the shop.

Xiao Yan’s footsteps slowly ferried him toward the crystal counters. His gaze swept across its interior and surprise flashed across his eyes. It was just as Duo Ma had said. The medicinal ingredients within this ‘Thousand Medicine Place’ were indeed difficult to find in the outside world. He really did not know how they managed to get such a large amount of unique medicinal ingredients.

Xiao Yan sighed in surprise as he shook his head. His gaze swept across the prices indicated below the medicinal ingredients and involuntarily became stunned. A high ranked ‘Wood Spirit Three-Pin Flower’ may be rare in the outside world, but its selling price was at most around fifty thousand gold coins. However, the price here was raised by nearly three times that amount.

“One hundred and seventy thousand for one. These fellows might as well go and rob others directly.” Xiao Yan was speechless as he shook his head. With his current fortune, it appeared that he could not even afford to buy one ‘Wood Spirit Three-Pin Flower’.

Xiao Yan laughed bitterly. His gaze once again slowly swept over the crystal counter. A long while later, he stood at the final counter with a somewhat numb expression. From his observation earlier, he had indeed found all the medicinal ingredients to refine one ‘Spiritual Recovery Purple Pill’. However, after his calculations, if he were to purchase all of these medicinal ingredients, he would need at least one hundred and seventy thousand gold coins.

“Unscrupulous shop ah, unscrupulous shop. It would be good if Old Hai were here. With him being the great-Elder of the Primer clan, it would definitely not be a problem taking out this amount of money.” Xiao Yan softly muttered in his mouth. Xiao Yan suddenly felt a little distressed. In the past, he had never bothered about matters related to money. Now, he actually began to be vexed over money when he had just entered the ‘Black-Corner Region’.

“Teacher, what do we do now?” In his helpless state, Xiao Yan could only smile bitterly and ask in his heart.

“Hee hee, I have already told you that you will have difficulty moving even an inch within the ‘Black-Corner Region’ if you don’t have money.” Yao Lao teased, “What else can you do? If you don’t want to exchange items, then you should first forget about that ‘Spiritual Recovery Purple Pill’. Use your remaining money to buy two sets of medicinal ingredients to refine ‘Three-Lines Green Spirit Pill’. After which, go to the auction house and auction off the medicinal pills which you have refined. Otherwise, you will definitely be unable to obtain those medicinal ingredients.”

“Ah, we can only do this.” Xiao Yan sighed and began to turn around to search for the medicinal ingredients to refine the ‘Three-Lines Green Spirit Pill’. It was fortunate that the ‘Three-Lines Green Spirit Pill’ was a tier four medicinal pill. Therefore, the medicinal ingredients that it required were far less costly than what was needed to refine the ‘Spiritual Recovery Purple Pill’.

“Oh that’s right, I have almost forgotten to tell you an important matter. Although this matter will compound the problem that you have on your already poor finances.” Yao Lao gloatingly said with a smile, causing Xiao Yan to feel a little uneasy.

“Since you plan on getting your hands on that ‘Fallen Heart Flame’, you will need to complete all the necessary preparation work just like when you swallowed the ‘Green Lotus Core Flame’ back then.” Yao Lao smiled before continuing, “When you swallowed the ‘Green Lotus Core Flame’, you relied on the protection of the ‘Blood Lotus Pill’ in order to greatly increase your chances of success. However, that ‘Fallen Heart Flame’ is ranked fourteenth on the ‘Heavenly Flame Ranking’. That is far stronger than the ‘Green Lotus Core Flame’ which is ranked nineteenth. Therefore, your preparation this time around must be even more complete.”

“Ugh, I had almost nearly forgotten about that.” Xiao Yan was startled before he immediately came to a sudden comprehension. If it was not for the assistance of the ‘Blood Lotus Pill’ the last time he swallowed the ‘Green Lotus Core Flame’, there would have been no certainty in whether or not he would finally succeed.

“Then what do we need to prepare this time around?” Xiao Yan asked uncertainly.

“A tier six medicinal pill, Ground Spirit Pill. Not many medicinal ingredients are needed to refine it. There are only four of them. Flame Core ‎Ganoderma, Asparagus Ice Fire Fruit, Green Wood Celestial Vine, and a rank 6 water type Monster Core.”

The faint words caused Xiao Yan’s moving footsteps to suddenly falter. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly. Even not mentioning the three medicinal ingredients’ name, which he had never even heard of, just the very last one was sufficient to give him an impulse to act in a flustered and exasperated manner. A rank 6 monster core? Did he need to go and kill a rank 6 super powerful Magical Beast which could contend with a Dou Huang? Even if he wanted to seek death, he need not use such a method, no?