Chapter 233: If You Dare
The Lightning Sword Sect.
The trade center.
“Little brother, you sold fake goods to the people of the Summer Valley! They will not simply let the matter rest,” Da Zhuang followed closely behind Zhou Donghuang and said with a worried expression on his face.
“Perhaps… we should return to the Autumn Valley. In the Autumn Valley, with our Valley Head present, they will not dare to kick up a fuss.”
“Do you think they will dare to take rash actions in the trade center?”
Zhou Donghuang appeared extremely indifferently and continued to stroll leisurely past the several stalls present in the trade center. Finally, he arrived at the corner where the bounty list was present.
The person in charge of registration at the bounty list was an outer elder, and he recognized Da Zhuang but not Zhou Donghuang. “Da Zhuang, is this man also a disciple of the Autumn Valley?”
Previously, when Da Huang had bought the fake goods that the disciple of the Summer Valley, Pan Yilin, had sold and had returned to the trade center to find Pan Yilin for an explanation, this outer elder had not been present to witness it.
That was the reason why he had never met Zhou Donghuang before.
“Yes, Elder Liu.” Da Zhuang nodded.
“Our little brother has just entered the Autumn Valley recently.”
“Young man, are you here to sell items that are on the bounty list or here to post a reward and ask for an item you desire?” Elder Liu smiled as he asked Zhou Donghuang.
“I’m here to request an item,” Zhou Donghuang replied.
Next, he began to list the names of several herbs, and these were all ingredients that he needed to curate the core drug needed for one to enter the Dharma stage.
These herbs were all rare herbs.
If Zhou Donghuang put in requests for these rare herbs, even the cheapest of the lot required 30 high-quality spirit stones. This was more expensive than the nine-ringed bamboo that Zhou Donghuang had purchased for Da Zhuang previously.
Of course, although Da Zhuang had spent 11 high-quality spirit stones, he had still only managed to gain a fake stalk of nine-ringed bamboo.
However, after taking a stroll around the trade center just now, he had managed to make a second purchase and got himself a real stalk of nine-ringed bamboo for only ten high-quality spirit stones.
“Young man, these herbs that you are requesting are not expensive by themselves… However, if you request for them on the bounty list, they may add up to about 200 high-quality spirit stones.”
Elder Liu glanced meaningfully at Zhou Donghuang and gave him a reminder.
To him, the young man dressed in white standing before him had merely just entered the Autumn Valley of their Lightning Sword Sect and was possibly unable to afford so many spirit stone veins.
“Furthermore, when you ask for items on the bounty list, you need to pay an administrative fee as well as a guarantee fee. The sect will handle the administrative fee.
“As for the guarantee fee, that’s for when someone manages to produce the item you were looking for, but you may not have enough spirit stone veins to pay them for it. In that case, the person who intends to sell you the item will then take the guarantee fee as payment.”
Knowing that Zhou Donghuang was new, Elder Liu explained the rules of the bounty list in an extremely patient manner.
“Mm.”
Zhou Donghuang nodded in acknowledgment and casually raised his hands. He took out several hundreds of mid-quality spirit stones, 380 to be exact.
Three hundred and eighty mid-quality spirit stone veins were equivalent to about 38 high-quality spirit stones.
The herbs that Zhou Donghuang were requesting for on the bounty list added up to about 190 high-quality spirit stones. Of course, one could also use 1900 mid-quality spirit stone veins to pay for them.
“This…”
Seeing as Zhou Donghuang managed to take out so many mid-quality spirit stones so casually, Elder Liu began to observe the young man before him closely.
This young man was dressed in pure white and was well-groomed as well. He gave off a confident and fresh aura and did not seem like he was of normal, average heritage… Furthermore, he had only recently joined the Autumn Valley of the Lightning Sword Sect and was yet able to produce multiple spirit stone veins, which meant that he was probably no ordinary character.
Although he was shocked, Elder Liu quickly regained his composure and took the spirit stone veins. After counting them, Elder Liu gave Zhou Donghuang a receipt for the transaction.
The inscription on the receipt told Zhou Donghuang that this sixth elder’s full name was Liu Qing.
Of course, in the course of the inscription of the receipt, this Elder Liu Qing had also asked for Zhou Donghuang’s name, and the receipt clearly mentioned that Zhou Donghuang, a disciple of the Autumn Valley, had paid 380 mid-quality spirit stones.
“This will do.”
After Zhou Donghuang put the receipt away, Liu Qing then added the names of the herbs that Zhou Donghuang had requested to the bounty list.
The placement of items on the bounty list was in descending order from most expensive to least expensive.
At the top of the bounty list, the prices could reach up to 30,000 high-quality spirit stones… Furthermore, for this very item, if Zhou Donghuang wished, he could quickly obtain it with ease sometime in the near future, and he could even do so without spending a single spirit stone vein.
These were fourth-grade returning-heaven elixirs.
Returning-heaven elixirs were separated into nine different grades. First-grade returning-heaven elixirs were only useful to Qi-Gathering adepts. Second-grade returning-heaven elixirs were only useful to Connate adepts and those below the Connate stage. Third-grade returning-heaven elixirs were only useful to those at the Primal Core stage and below… This followed suit all the way to ninth-grade returning-heaven elixirs.
Ninth-grade returning-heaven elixirs were the highest grade amongst the returning-heaven elixirs and were known to be legendary.
Ninth-grade returning-heaven elixirs were useful even to Deity’s Tribulation adepts. As long as one still had breath left in them, after drinking the ninth-grade returning-heaven elixir, one’s injuries would be able to heal within a short period of time.
“Previously, Chen Dandan had already been removed of her meridians thanks to me… However, that elder adept Zhong Ya of the Xuanyin sect had managed to gain some returning-heaven gra.s.s and created a second-grade returning-heaven elixir with it for her to drink and regain her meridians.
“Afterwards, after I killed Zhong Ya, I found six second-grade returning-heaven elixirs in his s.p.a.ce ring afterwards… Out of the six, all were made with extremely careless and subpar Internal Alchemy, resulting in the waste of those five-leaf returning-heaven gra.s.s.”
Five-leaf returning-heaven gra.s.s, in Zhou Donghuang’s hands, could be made through Internal Alchemy into fifth-grade returning-heaven elixirs… Fifth-grade returning-heaven elixirs were useful even to those at the Primordial Soul stage and were a treasure that could save a life!
“Six second-grade returning-heaven elixirs… After I enter the Dharma stage and return to training, I will be able to use Internal Alchemy and create at least two fourth-grade returning-heaven elixirs.”
Of course, although he had the confidence to at least create fourth-grade returning-heaven elixirs, Zhou Donghuang did not have much interest in obtaining the thirty thousand high-quality spirit stones that were listed as rewards on the bounty list.
This was despite the fact that if one counted all the spirit stone veins he had on him and converted them to the currency of high-quality spirit stones, he only had about fifty thousand high-quality spirit stones.
Well, this amount was actually enough for him as of now.
The spirit stone veins that Zhou Donghuang possessed were all mostly obtained from several planets within several galaxies since he still had his past life’s memories. They were all obtained before he had come to the Lightning Sword Sect.
Of course, those spirit stone veins that Zhou Donghuang had obtained were mostly mid-quality spirit stones and usually not high-quality spirit stones.
This was because the planets that he had visited were not like the Tielao planet, which the Lightning Sword Sect was located in. It was already hard enough to find or produce high-quality spirit stone veins in the spirit stone veins mine in the Tielao planet.
“There he is!”
Just as Da Zhuang had bid farewell to the outer elder Liu Qing and was preparing to leave with Zhou Donghuang, from the skies above, an enraged shout could suddenly be heard.
This shout of anger did not contain any essential core energy, but due to the sheer volume of it, it covered the cacophony of noises from the trade center in an instant.
Immediately, the entire trade center quietened down.
A few people even instinctively glanced up in the direction to where the sound had travelled from.
Under the watchful eye of the crowd, a group of nine gathered in the skies above the trade center. After they glanced around, they landed neatly as a group.
Behind these nine people, slowly and unhurriedly, two others followed; they were of course Liu Lang and Huang Long, who were here to be nosy bystanders.
“Little brother, it’s the people from the Summer Valley!”
Da Zhuang’s facial expression changed immediately.
Just as Zhou Donghuang lazily lifted his eyes to glance at the scene, the nine people of the Summer Valley had already landed and were coming towards them, surrounding Zhou Donghuang and Da Zhuang tightly.
“Brother Zhou.”
At this point, Huang Long, who had followed on the heels of the people of the Summer Valley, landed beside Zhou Donghuang and said, “Of these nine people of the Summer Valley, two are elders of the Summer Valley…”
As he spoke to this point, Huang Long could not help but swallow some saliva in his panic. He had not dreamt that this Brother Zhou would actually dare to enrage the elders of the Summer Valley!
Furthermore, he had managed to enrage not one but two elders of the Summer Valley!
These were inner elders of their Lightning Sword Sect and were both mid Primordial Soul adepts.
“Elder Li? Elder Yu?”
Zhou Donghuang and Da Zhuang were still near the bounty list, and the outer elder in charge of registration at the bounty list, Liu Qing, immediately recognized that there were two elders among the nine people of the Summer Valley that had landed. Furthermore, he recognized that they were both also inner elders of the Lightning Sword Sect.
In the Lightning Sword Sect, the two elders were above him in terms of both status and skill level.
At the same time, several other elders and disciples of the Lightning Sword Sect had also gathered around out of curiosity, and they recognized the two elders of the Summer Valley immediately as well.
“What is going on?”
“What situation is this?”
…
Many of those crowded around were actually unaware of what had previously transpired.
“Zhou Donghuang, you actually dared to cheat nine people of the Summer Valley!”
Once Fang Baiwei of the crowd of people from the Summer Valley shouted out, those watching immediately gained an understanding of what was happening currently.
This was because in the morning, they had all heard the news that nine people from the Summer Valley had somehow purchased fake goods from the bounty list as of yesterday.
They had also heard that previously, those making the purchase had not identified that the goods were fake while carrying out their transactions.
Today, many immediately drew the link between that piece of news and this confrontation:
Someone probably wanted to target the people of the Summer Valley!
Now, the people from the Summer Valley who were cheated had now appeared neatly as a group and were surrounding Da Zhuang from the Autumn Valley as well as another new disciple; it was easy to guess what was happening here.
“Did Da Zhuang and the young man dressed in white beside him target the people of the Summer Valley?”
“It cannot be Da Zhuang. Da Zhuang does not have the brains to carry out such a scheme. I’m 80% to 90% sure that it was done by that new disciple of the Autumn Valley.”
“His name seems to be Zhou Donghuang?”
The attention of the crowd quickly s.h.i.+fted to Zhou Donghuang, and he suddenly felt all their eyes on him, making him the prime focus.
“Zhou Donghuang, staying mute isn’t going to help you now!”
Seeing as Zhou Donghuang was ignoring him, Fang Baiwei, a disciple of the Summer Valley, became further enraged, and he glared hard at Zhou Donghuang before gritting his teeth in frustration.
“Believe it or not, I’ll kill you!”
“Ah?”
Zhou Donghuang then glanced lazily at Fang Baiwei in an unbothered fas.h.i.+on.
“Kill me? Do you really dare to do so?”
The Lightning Sword Sect had many strict sect rules. For those of the same sect, unless they had signed some contract with life and death conditions, they could not casually cause injury or death to someone else.
Those that went against such a rule would be dealt with a harsh punishment and be expelled.
Furthermore, if one struck out against an innocent, even if there were no injuries or death, they would receive the same degree of punishment.
If compared to the entire Infinite Universe, the Lightning Sword Sect may not be much. However, when placed within the Tielao planet’s Hengliu galaxy, it was one of the top and highest ranking sects.
They were extremely particular about their sect rules, more so than the smaller and lesser-known sects.