Chapter 147 - Demonic Blood Essence

“Blazing Thunder Crystal?”

Liu Lan’s cherry-colored lips were agape, looking shocked. “Since when did the Dawn Trading Alliance have Blazing Thunder Crystals? They’re extremely rare in Yuanling County! They probably got them from somewhere else.”

Long Chen didn’t expect the Dawn Trading Alliance to auction off Blazing Thunder Crystals either.

He had stolen more than forty crystals from Zhao Tianfang, so based on that, the Dawn Trading Alliance definitely had a lot of them.

Even the most powerful cultivator only needed a maximum of one hundred Blazing Thunder Crystals. Therefore, any faction that possessed large quantities of them could enjoy a huge boost to their strength.

Ling Xi had mentioned before that the Dawn Trading Alliance might have a Blazing Thunder Crystal mine.

If that was really true, it would make them much wealthier and more powerful. They might even be as powerful as the Lingwu family and the Beast Soul Palace. Even the Lingwu family would be envious if they really had a mine.

“We have a total of ten Blazing Thunder Crystals. If you merge with all of them, you will become a Blazing Thunder Warrior and succeed in cultivating the Blazing Thunder Combat Body, which is an intermediate Black-tier Body Tempering Combat Technique, or maybe even more powerful than that. I’m sure everyone here knows what effects they bring, so I won’t elaborate further. The starting price for these ten crystals is twenty thousand divine jades! Every bid must increase by at least a thousand divine jades!”

A portion of the esteemed guests erupted into discussion when the Blazing Thunder Crystals were displayed. Although they were not extremely expensive or valuable, they were still rarer than the average item.

Excitement spread across the crowd.

Liu Lan turned and looked at him inquisitively, “Long Chen, what do you think of the Blazing Thunder Crystals?”

As far as she was aware, Long Chen was a Beast Warrior, meaning he could enjoy a great boost in strength within a short period of time if he cultivated an intermediate Black-tier Body Tempering Combat Technique. That way, he might stand a chance at the qualifiers.

The difference between Blazing Thunder Crystals and techniques was that techniques required large amounts of time to cultivate, while cultivators only had to merge with the crystals.

If only she knew that Long Chen had already merged with thirty Blazing Thunder Crystals. The look on her face would be fun to watch.

𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Long Chen would always need more Blazing Thunder Crystals because he aimed to attain the Level Two Blazing Thunder Combat Body, or maybe even Level Three.

However, the problem now was that he only had enough contribution points to get four thousand divine jades from Liu Lan. The amount of money he had was negligible in this case. Just the starting price alone was far more than four thousand divine jades.

He hadn’t expected something Ling Xi had stolen at the cost of two Soul Nourishing Fruits to be this valuable. When he realized that he’d spent a hundred thousand divine jades just like that, his heart bled ...

Long Chen had no money to buy the Blazing Thunder Crystals, so he ignored her.

Liu Lan wasn’t angry. The audience had been bidding for a while, and she called out her own bid without hesitation among the chorus of voices. “Thirty-five thousand divine jades.”

Her cold, clear voice rang across the vast plaza.

The current highest bid was only at thirty-one thousand divine jades. After Liu Lan’s abrupt bid at thirty-five thousand, no one else offered a higher price.

Thirty-five thousand divine jades for ten Blazing Thunder Crystals was not a reasonable price. Usually, one could buy a Body Tempering Combat Technique with about ten thousand divine jades without the risk that the Blazing Thunder Crystals bore.

When Liu Lan won the bid, she grinned smugly at Long Chen, as if challenging him.

“I’m going to make this clear. You wanted to buy this on your own; don’t blame it on me.”

Honestly, she was attractive, but Long Chen understood that she was like a rose. Although she was fragrant and beautiful, tempting every man who approached, whoever came too close would get pricked by her thorns.

She was deliberately trying to do him a favor today, but while Long Chen did want the Blazing Thunder Crystals, he wanted to avoid a situation like this.

“Do you think I am begging for your forgiveness?” Liu Lan was getting increasingly embarrassed and angry at Long Chen’s nonchalant attitude. She composed herself and warned darkly, “I’m here helping you prepare today only because I am worried you’ll be killed by Chu Yunxi at the qualifiers. It’s going to be the first of the eleventh month soon; if you refuse my offer because you’re sulking, it will only mean that you’re an idiot. A true idiot.”

Long Chen was indeed not confident he could leave the inner family qualifiers alive. “I’ll take the Blazing Thunder Crystals. As for the thirty-five thousand divine jades, I’ll pay you back after the auction,” Long Chen said curtly right after she finished speaking.

“Oh?”

He doesn’t have money now, but will he have it after the auction? What does that mean?

Liu Lan could never figure this brat out. She wanted to see how he would pay up after the auction ended, so she nodded. “And I shall await your payment. If you can’t pay up, don’t blame me for laughing at you then ...”

“Whatever.”

After the Blazing Thunder Crystals were sold, someone soon brought them to their booth. Long Chen received the crystals, then the rich lady Liu Lan took out the money for payment. The Dawn Trading Alliance staff member had a strange look.

When he left, Liu Lan looked at Long Chen flirtatiously. “Did you recognize the look on his face?”

“From his perspective, you are a rich lady and I’m the sugar baby you use to satisfy your lonely heart. Did I guess it right?”

Liu Lan broke into a beautiful smile.

After the two exciting items, the Seven Colored Glass Steel and the Blazing Thunder Crystals, the auction slowly approached its end.

About two hours had passed, and the more valuable items started to appear. There were three penultimate items to be auctioned: the first was an advanced Black-tier attacking combat technique, which was sold for eighty thousand divine jades. In reality, eighty thousand divine jades were definitely not enough to purchase a truly impressive advanced combat technique. Some of the truly formidable combat techniques sold for a million, or even multiple millions. The price differences showed that the values of different skills could differ so much even though they were in the same category.

An advanced Black-tier combat technique was probably only a little more powerful than an intermediate Black-tier one. It was even possible that there were intermediate Black-tier combat techniques more powerful than advanced ones.

There were few Heavenly Core Realm masters within Yuanling City, and all of them held significant status. Earthly Core Realm cultivators were considered special guests at an auction division like this one, while Human Core Realm cultivators were ordinary participants.

The last item was an advanced Black-tier spiritual herb with a starting price of two hundred thousand divine jades. However, it was not very useful to Long Chen. He was instead completely drawn to the second to last item.

“The Demonic Blood Essence. This is the Demonic Blood Essence of a Category Eight Black-tier demonic beast. If one is strong enough to control and cultivate this, it will boost a cultivator from the initial Human Core Realm to the mid Human Core Realm, or from the mid Human Core Realm to the late Human Core Realm!”

The pretty host’s voice echoed across the plaza.

“Demonic Blood Essence?” There was a hint of excitement in Ling Xi’s voice. She quickly whispered, “Long Chen, you should get the Demonic Blood Essence.”

“What’s it for? It might be useful to other Human Core Realm cultivators, but I don’t think it’ll be effective for me.”

“When a demonic beast’s blood and flesh remain wrapped around its demonic core for more than a century, sometimes its blood is not lost but rather condensed into Demonic Blood Essence. The power of the demonic core and its blood are mixed within the Demonic Blood Essence to form a peculiar spiritual power that can be absorbed in small quantities by cultivators. This is very similar to the Ascension Fruit.”

“What do you mean?” asked Long Chen.

“The Ascension Fruit can boost a cultivator into the next cultivation level in a short period of time, helping them reach the Human Core Realm without any negative side-effects. The Demonic Blood Essence is the same. This one contains power equivalent to the late Human Core Realm. If an initial Human Core Realm cultivator consumed it, they could just straight to the late Human Core Realm if they absorbed the whole thing.”

Because Ling Xi was talking, Long Chen deliberately turned and leaned his body towards the edge of the booth.

Ling Xi’s voice could be considered to be emitted from her soul directly to Long Chen’s soul, so although it was soft, he could hear her clearly. Liu Lan would normally be able to hear Long Chen loud and clear though, it was just that his voice had been covered by the loud announcements outside.

“Blood Transmutation is impressive because it converts fresh blood Qi into your own Qi. The Demonic Blood Essence is even more useful to you because while other people mostly absorb the demonic core’s power, you would be absorbing more of the blood’s power. With this, I think you can break into the Earthly Core Realm.”

Long Chen heard her say “Earthly Core Realm” loud and clear. It was the cultivation level he had been dreaming of.

He couldn’t defeat a Category Five beast at the moment, and he’d need to kill a certain number of Category Four beasts in order to reach the Earthly Core Realm.

The inner family qualifiers were close, and it was inconvenient for Long Chen to travel around due to the rumors related to Liu Lan. That was why it was currently very difficult for him to attain the Earthly Core Realm.

Even with a tool like Blood Transmutation, it’ll be difficult for me to increase my cultivation level. Plus, using it too often isn’t good for me.

Long Chen thought about it.

After Ling Xi’s explanation, he knew that the Demonic Blood Essence would determine whether he lived or died.

That was why he absolutely had to get his hands on it.