Heaven’s Shadow

The tavern owner had brought three guides over, but the team consisting of two men and a woman clearly did not require all of them. Thus, they borrowed a quiet room from the tavern owner and started to negotiate with the three guides.

After spending a few moments inside, the tanned emaciated old man came out and squatted by a corner, smoking his tobacco pipe with an impassive expression. Neither did he leave nor was there any signs of joy on his face. It seemed as though he was waiting for the results.

Following which, the middle-aged man walked in and spent a few moments as well. He then came out and sat by the table. He ordered a pot of wine from the boss and started to drink. It seemed that he was waiting for the results too.

Then, the young man named Lu Chen went in.

The room wasn't large, but it was especially quiet. After shutting the door, almost no sound from outside could be heard. The two men and one woman from earlier were all present, and the leader of their party seemed to be a middle-aged man in his forties. The other two members stood by his side. The male member looked like he was in his early twenties and he had a rather dashing appearance. A hint of arrogance could be vaguely noticed in his eyes as he caught sight of Lu Chen. On the other side was a young girl between sixteen and seventeen. With fair skin, umber-black eyebrows so perfect that it seemed to have been delicately drawn on, and a beautiful nose, she had an outstanding outer appearance. She was staring at Lu Chen curiously, seemingly shocked that a person as young as him could serve as a guide in such dangerous terrains.

Watching Lu Chen enter, the middle-aged man flashed him a smile and said, "Brother Lu, is it? Please sit."

Lu Chen nodded his head with a smile, sitting on the empty stool in the room. Then, the middle-aged man wasted no time beating around the bush and asked straightforwardly, "We need to enter the Confounding Lands to search for a spirit material. It is called 'Dusk Mist Flower'. Has Brother Lu ever heard of it? Are you able to bring us to find it?"

Lu Chen's gaze lowered, seeming to contemplate for a moment before looking upward at the trio once again. Finally, he focused his gaze on the middle-aged man and smiled gently, "Two hundred Spirit Stones."

"What?"

Despite the middle-aged man's cultured appearance, his face was overcome with shock when he heard the number. The two youngsters behind him were startled as well, before bursting into a rage. The young man stood up in fury and pointed at Lu Chen, howling:

"You bastard, did you think that we are fools whom you could swindle? The previous two had only asked for fifty Spirit Stones!"

"Xiao He." The middle-aged man bellowed. It appeared that he had much better emotional control, but he carried an equally awful expression. He stared coldly at Lu Chen as he said, "The words my junior spoke of is the truth. This brother over here, aren't you trying to make an amusement of us by offering such a high price?"

At which, the man locked his eyebrows into a deep frown. Vaguely, one could feel an intimidating aura from him.

However, Lu Chen remained unreactive to the emotional outbursts of anger before him, maintaining his expression of calm and leisure. He leaned forward slightly, closer toward the middle-aged man, and said gently:

"Do you want a 1-mark flower or a 2-mark flower?"

The middle-aged man's eyebrows shot up. His impression of the young man changed completely and his eyes lit up brightly. "Un? You know of the 2-mark Dusk Mist Flower?"

Smiling, Lu Chen nodded his head without any words.

Countless spirit material treasures exist in the world, each of them with its own use and tier. In the world of cultivation, the value of spirit materials depends mainly on the number of spirit marks on them. A spirit material with a single spirit mark is known as a 1-mark spirit material, while a spirit material with two spirit marks is known as a 2-mark spirit material, so on and so forth. The more spirit marks a material has, the more valuable it is. In fact, in comparison to a 1-mark spirit material, a 2-mark spirit material is often worth tenfold.

In the vast lands of the Center Divine Continent, almost all spirit materials are classified as such. However, there is a bizarre and mysterious place where exceptions to this rule exist. That is the Confounding Lands, where the five elements are in pandemonium. For peculiar reasons, of the countless, naturally occurring spirit material treasures in the Confounding Lands, an extremely limited amount of spirit materials would experience mutation, causing its spirit marks to increase ridiculously.

Of course, the probability of encountering such a situation is extremely low. At the very least, in the past, such occurrences had been very rare. Just that, over the years, human cultivators had realized that in these mutated spirit materials, not only do the spiritual energy increase exponentially, the spirit material would also gain some unique capability. Putting aside the use of such spirit materials for the cultivation, sometimes, it would result in unexpected pleasant surprises when used to forge pills.

As such, these mutated spirit materials were highly valued by cultivators and its price had been rising consistently throughout the years. However, they only formed an extremely rare portion of the innumerable spirit materials in the Confounding Lands. Also, due to private and selfish desires, whenever such spirit materials were discovered, the prestigious sects would make sure to seal the news off, whereas wandering cultivators would try to obtain it for themselves for their personal consumption. Rarely did news of such precious commodity spread far and wide. Thus, there were just slightly over a dozen mutated spirit materials that were known by everyone, while the others were only known to small, internal circles.

Dusk Mist Flower belonged to that of the latter.

※※※

"Un, I know it." Lu Chen replied. It seemed as though he was simply saying an unimportant matter.

The trio, who were seated opposite him, glanced at one another. The beautiful young lady flashed a look of excitement and wonder, while the man named Xiao He frowned deeply and stared at Lu Chen warily, seeming to be in disbelief of his words. As for the leader of the trio, the middle-aged man mused for a moment before saying:

"Brother Lu is indeed knowledgeable, I am impressed. To tell you honestly, it would be best if we could find a 2-mark Dusk Mist Flower on this journey. However, this would ultimately boil down to luck. Thus, we can only hire a guide to bring us to the land where the Dusk Mist Flowers grow and search by ourselves. Brother Lu is knowledgeable, but we are unable to pay you four times of the prices offered by the other two just because of this simple statement..."

"What if I can guarantee you the 2-mark Dusk Mist Flower?" Lu Chen said.

"What? Can you really can find it?" This time, the one who spoke was the beautiful young lady. Obviously delighted, she couldn't help but stand up.

Lu Chen smiled at her before turning to the middle-aged man. "The prices of mutated spirit materials are often comparable to that of a spirit material a tier higher than them. In other words, that 2-mark Dusk Mist Flower is worth the price of a 3-mark spirit material. Furthermore, its rarity, by far, surpasses the latter. I do not think that demanding for two hundred Spirit Stones in return is too much."

The middle-aged man contemplated. However, Xiao He, the young man standing behind him, harrumphed, "Even though your words make sense, how can you guarantee that you are able to find such a rare 2-mark Dusk Mist Flower?"

Lu Chen shrugged. Ignoring Xiao He, he turned to the middle-aged man and pointed out two fingers, two hundred Spirit Stones."

"Right." He seemed to have recalled something suddenly and hurriedly added in, "I am only responsible for bringing you to the object. I will not be involved with the procuring and storing of the material, or protecting you from the attacks of demonic beasts, venomous plants, other cultivators, or other such troubles."

...