Book 8 - Chapter 19: Underground Trading

Shihu was just standing next to Lei Xinfeng when a clump of magma flew toward him. He hurried back up a few steps. “Be careful!”

Lei Xinfeng laughed. “I know. Don’t worry, there’s a Purple Crystal inside!”

“How do you know?” Shihu asked.

Still smiling, Lei Xinfeng took out a basin of water and poured it on the clump. When the liquid hit the water, it exploded in a puff of white steam as it boiled. Through the steam, Shihu could detect a glimpse of purple light. “Whoa, it’s really there!”

When the rock was hard, Lei Xinfeng broke it apart.

This catch was big. A Purple Crystal the size of an apricot remained among the shattered rock. “Not bad. This is the biggest Purple Crystal I’ve found so far. Let’s continue!” When he first found the crystal, he’d put it on the same level as the Biyasi, and was fine with only finding a few. However, now that he knows that even a Monarch wants it, he’s going to get as many as he could.

Shihu was a little miffed inside. He’d already fished up seven or eight clumps of rock, but none of them contained even a trace of Purple Crystal. He believed that he vision should not be inferior to Lei Xinfeng’s, but after watching Lei Xinfeng picking out crystals from two out of three clumps he fished up, he felt life wasn’t fair.

Lei Xinfeng stared intently at the magma. Although he could see many purple glows flowing past him, it was too far from him. He couldn’t fly, so he could only watch as those purple glows pass by him without being able to attempt getting it.

Watching those precious pieces of purple crystals drifting by, Lei Xinfeng felt his heart ache. It was something that even Monarchs desired and he was just passing it by like that. He thought about this problem for a bit. He saw that Shihu was randomly fishing about in the magma, and he thought of an idea.

“Uncle Hu, I’ll tell you where the crystals are, and you can fish it up,” he suggested.

“Of course,” Shihu replied. He was getting impatient. Anyone would. If he couldn’t get a single crystal, of course he’d be mad.

“Be careful when you fly above the magma. When I throw a rock, fish up the magma under the spot i throw it. Be quick and scoop it from below,” he said. “Let’s try.”

Shihu nodded. He liked this idea. He only had to listen to commands. If there weren’t any crystals, it wasn’t his fault.

Lei Xinfeng had long had his eye on a particular spot. It was close to the opposite side of the magma flow, and the glow was the size of several palms, shining brightly. He threw a piece of the shattered stones from previous harvests. “Uncle Hu, quickly!”

Shihu’s eyes were on Lei Xinfeng’s hands from the start, and when he threw the rock, Shihu’s eyes instantly tracked the rock. When the rock landed, he stabbed the spear into the magma, stirring as he gathered the magma into a ball, and then tossed the clump toward Lei Xinfeng.

Lei Xinfeng backed up a step, just in time for the clump to land at his feet.

“Haha, two Purple Crystals, top quality…”

The two crystals were both the size of apricots, both extremely valuable. Seeing the catch, Shihu became excited. “Again! Haha!”

Like they agreed, Lei Xinfeng directed while Shihu harvested. Lei Xinfeng didn’t rush to cool the magma clumps and instead waited until they had a dozen or so before cracking them all at once.

On the other side, Xin Zhaolun had much worse luck. Like Shihu, he couldn’t see any glows, but instead, he targeted the spots that seemed different and managed to get some crystals through sheer luck.

At that moment, Lei Xinfeng realized that his eyes were different from the others’. His eyes could see light that others couldn’t find. It was especially apparent when mining for ores within the walls.

In the span of three days, Lei Xinfeng gathered over three hundred Purple Crystals of the highest quality. He gave the smaller ones that didn’t meet his expectations to the others, including over a hundred fingertip sized crystals to Xin Zhaolun. Xin Zhaolun was so happy and he kept saying that he was glad he brought Lei Xinfeng along, or they wouldn’t have gotten nearly as much materials.

As for Jin Daya, Lei Xinfeng agreed to trade some of his crystals with other kinds of ores. Jin Daya brought out some newly mined ores, as well as some extremely rare ones that he’d found. Lei Xinfeng only gave him a few dozen Purple Crystals, and in return received a large amount of ore and some already processed materials.

Chuizi and Futou also mined a lot of ores. Aside from gifting much of it to Xin Zhaolun, they also traded the other ores with Lei Xinfeng and Jin Daya for food. They especially liked Lei Xinfeng’s stewed and bacon. In this trade, Lei Xinfeng profited greatly. He still had a lot of food in his Hidden Wheel space, enough for a decade of eating.

Of course, it’s not like Chuizi and Futou had a choice. They didn’t have a Hidden Wheel space, so they couldn’t transport the ores themselves. Even for the trade, they had to first give the ore to the the practitioners and receive the meats when they return to Hanya Castle.

One day, when Lei Xinfeng was still sitting by the magma flow, directing Shihu, Xin Zhaolun walked over.

“Ah Feng, it’s almost time to go. Heavens, how many are you planning to take back with you?”

Lei Xinfeng laughed. “I can trade this with the founder for Yin Rings that Fengying and Shihu need. I also want to save some for the future.” Using Yin Rings, he could empower his subordinates.Without strong subordinates, how will they go out into the Outer Worlds to gather material?

Xin Zhaolun nodded. “You finally realized what is most important. Haha, with what you already have, you can already trade for a large amount of Yin Rings. Even if Master and Founder can’t use all of these, they can trade with other Monarchs for items. Now, we’re going to leave tomorrow. For today, gather to your heart’s content!”

Secretly, he was frustrated. No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t even compare to the amount that Lei Xinfeng was gathering, so much that he gave up and went back to mining other ores.

Of course, he was happy that Lei Xinfeng gave him quite a bit of Purple Crystals. Brothers should help each other. If he hadn’t asked Lei Xinfeng to come, he never would’ve been able to come here. This resource spot was found by Xin Zhaolun; without permission, Lei Xinfeng wouldn’t be allowed to come.

Lei Xinfeng laughed. “If we could come in the future, I wouldn’t be putting in so much effort.”

“As long as there are Purple Crystals, we can still come. I was so lucky to have brought you with us. I never wouldn’t thought that we’d find so many Purple Crystals,” Xin Zhaolun said.

There was something that Lei Xinfeng could never understand. “Why don’t we bring Master over? If it was him, he would definitely be able to gather more than me.”

Xin Zhaolun grimaced. “Neither the Founder nor Master will ever come here.”

“Why not?”

“Because… suppression. If Master came here, his power would be suppressed until it’s about equal to mine. Because of that danger, they won’t come here. It’s enough if their disciples go. In here, the strongest a person can be is the equivalent of a Ninth Ring Sage,” Xin Zhaolun explained.

Lei Xinfeng had another question. “Do all Outer Worlds suppress your power?”

“No. In some Outer Worlds, you can be stronger than you are normally, so they’re all different. Also, you can’t remain in Outer Worlds for too longer. For longer ones, you can stay for a few year, and for the shorter ones, only a hundred, or your body will sustain great damage,” Xin Zhaolun said.

Lei Xinfeng was surprised. “Wha…there’s such a drawback? Fine, I understand.” He was still lacking in knowledge and experience. But now he understood. If he became a Ninth Ring Sage, as long as he did not have to fight multiple enemies at once, he’d be fine in this world.

Xin Zhaolun wasn’t finished. “There was one time, when I went to an Outer World, even my power was suppressed. That damn place is best suited for Eighth Ring Sages. When you reach Sixth Ring, you can go visit some places. You’ll find some tough beasts to find.”

“Beasts? You mean we can go hunting?” he asked.

Xin Zhaolun nodded. “Yes. The beast there have excellent meat. Not only is it delicious, it’s also beneficial to your body. Not only that, you can train your combat senses. Hunting, gathering, and battling all in one. People from many secret sects go there.”

Lei Xinfeng gathered crystals until it was time to leave, and he hurriedly ran to where the rest of the group was gathered.

“We must hurry back. The weather is about to get colder. We should get back to Hanya Castle before then,” Xin Zhaolun said.

“It’s too hot here. We need to wear more when we get to the cave entrance,” Lei Xinfeng commented. He was only wearing a shirt and thin pants.

“It’s cold!”

When he came out of the cave, Lei Xinfeng felt what freezing truly meant. Even though he wore so much he was practically a ball, the wind still reached him, the chill piercing into his bones. Even the coats he wore started to harden from frost.

It forced him to continuously arc lightning over his body. Except for Chuizi and Futou, everyone else were glowing slightly. If they didn’t, they’d probably freeze to death.

Even Chuizi and Futou had a grim expression on their face. Even though they were both resistant to such cold, Chuizi said, “Let’s hurry. We can’t stop, or we’ll freeze.” He began to move even as he spoke.

“Let’s go!” Xin Zhaolun agreed.

A rope connected the seven of them, and they hurried toward Hanya Castle.

The wind grew stronger.

The howling wind was like a flute with sounds that pierced their ears painfully. Lei Xinfeng couldn’t hold back and cursed. “This damn wind is going to kill someone!” No matter how good his eyesight, he still could not see more than ten meters in any direction.

Lei Xinfeng held in his hands a shield that blocked the wind and reduce the bone chilling cold.

Snow smashed against the shield with sounds like metal impacting, sounding constantly.

Yay, I got a new record of an hour and ten minutes! Cheers for improvement. I feel my Chinese getting better, though not as fast as Ah Feng’s ascension.

Look for an editor that can check my work for mistakes. Email or ping me on Discord please.

Thanks for reading!

PS: It seems there’s finally some action in the next chapter!