Pursuit of the Truth

”How many do you want?” Tian Lan Meng asked calmly in a moderate voice.

”Lass, you must be one of the people chosen by Sky Mist’s ancestor to be one of this generation’s Mist Worshippers. Your name is Tian Lan Meng, and your elder sister is Tian Lan You.” The boy’s eyes sparkled as he spoke with a chuckle.

”The Tian Lan family has to send one of the Mist Worshippers of each generation to Freezing Sky and Western Sea, then they would choose one among the two to receive the coming of Sky Mist’s ancestor. I respect Sky Mist, so if you want these items, then I’ll give it to you for ten Sky Pearls.”

The boy’s words echoed within the dark room, though the people who heard it did not turn their gazes over. Most of them chose to ignore what was going on.

”Ten..?” Tian Lan Meng hesitated. She looked at the four items before the boy, then at the dark red ape before she fell silent for a moment. ”I can only give you two,” she stated softly.

”No can do, lassy. You need at least five Sky Pearls before they can gather together. Two isn’t enough. You can’t get any of my items with just two.

”Unless you have some rare items with you, that is. I’m especially interested in all rare items.” The boy smiled, then turned his gaze to Su Ming. He remembered that Su Ming had spoken up just now as well.

‘Rare items…’

Su Ming closed his eyes and reopened them a short moment later. Right at the moment Tian Lan Meng was about to speak again, Su Ming pressed his palm against her arm.

Tian Lan Meng offered the price because she saw the changes that occurred on him when he saw the ape. There was in no way that Su Ming would not know that. He committed her good will into his memories.

He could also tell with certainty that those Sky Pearls were incredibly valuable items. The value of those pearls were the same for Tian Lan Meng.

He could choose to give up. After all, he was not too interested in the other things brought out by the boy, but Su Ming found himself unable to turn his eyes away from the ape.

Even if it was not Xiao Hong.

”I have a rare item, but it’ll depend on you on whether you can discern the uses of this item.”

Su Ming lifted his head and looked at the boy. The difference in their levels of cultivation was incredibly great, but he was not afraid. This was a trade. At the very least in this dark room, both parties involved in the trade were in the same position.

If he became afraid, if he was stunned still by the boy’s power, then there was no need for them to negotiate anything.

”Oh?”

The boy gave Su Ming a lazy onceover, and there was a ghost of a smile on his lips. It was really hard for him to believe that the person speaking to him could really bring out anything that he would consider as rare.

He was a member of Western Sea Clan. He might not know the people invited to this auction, but if this person could sit beside Tian Lan Meng, then either he was a powerful Berserker in the Tian Lan family, or he was just her friend.

Judging by their actions, it was clear that the person who spoke was not a member of the Tian Lan family. There was only one other explanation for his presence then - he was Tian Lan Meng’s friend. By his voice, the boy could tell that he was not an old person either, so his power was definitely not very great. At most, he would only be in the Bone Sacrifice Realm.

”You can bring it out and let me take a look, perhaps it’s really something I don’t know.”

The boy did not sound too arrogant when he spoke, but that was just the way he was. It was not because he was attaching any form of importance to Su Ming.

Su Ming no longer wasted his time on idle chatter. He put his right hand into his bosom and brought out something from his storage bag. When he held that item in his hand, he hesitated for a moment, but as his gaze swept past the items floating before the old man and the ape, he swiftly brought out the item and threw it towards the boy.

It was a round object. Once the boy caught it, he brought it before his eyes and took a closer look.

With that one glance, the boy’s face instantly turned serious. He lifted his right hand and waved it before him. Immediately, the space before him became clouded. That indistinctiveness surrounded him, causing the people to be unable to see what he was doing clearly.

However, since the auction was hosted by Western Sea Clan and the specifications for this auction were very high, the possibility of someone stealing anything was practically nil. The boy’s power was also very great, and he, too, was an outstanding member of Western Sea Clan in terms of both his status and position. Naturally, he would not do something as degrading to his position as snatching a junior’s possessions right before the eyes of many people.

That was why while that space appeared clouded to the other people, it was not so for Su Ming and Tian Lan Meng. This was naturally the boy’s doing.

Su Ming could see the boy bringing that round object in his hand to sniff it. Once he did so, his expression changed once again and he stared at the item hesitantly. During that time, his expressions changed multiple times.

Su Ming looked at the item the boy held in his hands and felt a stab of pain in his heart. That item… was his Spirit Plunder!

This was the only thing he could bring out which could be considered as a rare item.

”What… is this?” The boy hesitated for a long moment before he lifted his head and looked at Su Ming.

”Can I get the things you offered?” Su Ming asked softly.

The boy looked at Su Ming and said sternly, ”You can, but that depends on the effects of this thing.”

”I don’t know the name of the item, but the effects are quite simple. It can absorb all illusionary entities, such as Berserker Marks. There’s even a Shaman’s Totem contained within it,” Su Ming stated slowly after sighing inwardly.

”So that’s how it is. I was wondering why I sensed a hint of Shaman presence when I was observing this thing… This thing might not be incredibly useful and there’s a crack on it, which can only mean that there’s a limit to how many things it can absorb and will break once it goes past its limit, but it’s indeed a rare item!

”But you can’t get all my things. How about this? Besides the Sea Marrow, you can take another one of these items along with the Fire Ape!” The boy nodded his head solemnly.

Then he cast a look at Su Ming and explained, ”I’m not taking advantage of you. It’s just that this item can only be considered rare. Because of the crack, it can only be considered as broken goods. It won’t be able to absorb many more illusionary entities. To me, it’s biggest useis for research purposes.”

”However, if you have more, then we can still talk.” Once the boy finished speaking, he gave Su Ming a profound smile.

”I only have one of it.” Su Ming swept his gaze past the items the boy offered before it eventually fell on the fire ape, then he looked away. ”My Master gave it to me,” he added, and once he averted his gaze from the items, he looked towards the boy.

”Oh? And who is your Master?” the boy asked casually with a smile on his face as he toyed with the Spirit Plunder in his hands.

”My Master is Tian Xie Zi. He’s very protective of me.”

Su Ming did not hide his identity. It was something incredibly hard for him to keep secret anyway. If Western Sea Clan wanted to know about it, learning his identity in the auction they held in this dark room was not hard.

More importantly, Su Ming had a feeling that there was something behind Tian Xie Zi’s identity. This was something he sensed when he saw him in his purple-robed form, and he grew more certain of his thoughts during the trip to the land of the Shamans.

Besides, Su Ming had also found some odd things through a few clues lying here and there in the large scale auction held during the day. First, it was the actions of Western Sea Clan’s Clan Elder, then there was also Second Young Master of the Great Tribe of Freezing Sky acting friendly with him.

Su Ming did not believe even for a moment that all of this happened because of him.

The smile on the boy’s face froze the moment Su Ming mentioned Tian Xie Zi’s name. That careless expression on his face instantly turned into one of stupefied horror. He lowered his head to look at the Spirit Plunder in his hands, then at Su Ming, then a wry smile appeared on his face.

”You’re Su Ming of the ninth summit..? Er… please send my greetings to Senior Tian Xie Zi… Ah, fine. You can choose another one of these items.” The boy shook his head.

Su Ming’s heart pounded against his chest. He was just about to speak when Tian Lan Meng let out a fake cough beside him.

”I want the Fire Ape and five drops of Sea Marrow!”

The boy hesitated for a moment before he shook his head and said, ”I can give you the Fire Ape, but I can’t give you so many drops of Sea Marrow… Three drops, and that’s only because of Senior Tian Xie Zi that I’m doing this.”

”Alright, then we’ll go for three drops.” Tian Lan Meng winked at Su Ming before she quickly spoke.

The boy no longer wasted any time with idle chatter. He lifted his right hand and grabbed the jade bottle, opened it, then with a flick of his wrist, three blue drops of liquid flew towards Su Ming. Tian Lan Meng quickly lifted her hand and an ice bottle appeared in it. The three drops of liquid accurately fell into the bottle, and the ice bottle instantly turned a deep-blue color.

The boy then waved his arm and a chain flew towards Su Ming, who caught it.

The instant he caught the chain, Su Ming’s mind shuddered. A feeling as if he could determine the Fire Ape’s life and death, which was connected to the end of the chain, appeared in his heart. With just one thought, that Fire Ape would instantly die.

”I’ll lend you that chain temporarily, but not for too long. Search for a way to control the Fire Ape as quickly as possible, and once you do, throw the chain into the sky. It’ll return to me.

”The ape is brutal, be careful.” Once the boy finished speaking, the cloudiness in the space before him vanished, allowing the others to be able to see his face and hear his voice again.

As for the dialogue between the three people and their expressions, well, no one could hear or see any of it. This was a special arrangement made by the small auction. It was a protection made in consideration of private negotiations between the parties involved.

The people on either side of the room did not pay too much heed to it. Only some of them cast a few looks at Su Ming and Tian Lan Meng, but Su Ming found it difficult to discern exactly how they were looking at him from their gazes.

After all, compared to these people, he was still a little green.

Su Ming did not join the subsequent auctions. Instead, he simply watched the people bring out rare items. Some of them made Su Ming’s heart pound in excitement, but he did not have anything in exchange for those things, and there were only few of the people who would suggest using stone coins as a method of trading. Most of them preferred using the barter system.

”I won’t be bringing out a lot of items. In fact, I’ll only be selling one thing!”

All the people there had a chance to sell something, they could also say what they wanted to trade it for. At that moment, the person who spoke was someone sitting on Su Ming’s other side.

That person’s body was blurred out and his features could not be seen clearly. His voice was not old, but instead sounded as if it was drifting. There was a certain rhythm to his speech.

As that person spoke, he lifted his right hand and pointed to the space before him. Immediately, the space which he pointed to distorted, and a small bottle floated out from within.

Once the bottle appeared, it gradually became transparent and the bottle opened up by itself. A medicinal scent spread out from the bottle and filled the entire dark room. As the body of the bottle slowly became transparent and all the people’s gazes turned towards it, they clearly saw four spherical shaped things the size of a fingernail in the bottle!

‘Medicinal pills?!’

Su Ming did not expect that there would be two things that would throw him into such huge shock in this small auction!