17 Conflict

"These materials, including the blasting bear claw and the fur of raging flame fox amounts to a total of 200 low-grade spirit stones." Said that skinny old man, who was also the owner of the small store.

The old man had started his shop here around 50 years ago, but no one knew when exactly he started purchasing these demon beast materials. Ye Xiwen had earlier asked Ye Kongming about this old man's identity but even he didn't know anything about him. His father said that this old man had always been around, and none of the disciples dared to cause trouble around him. The old man was known for always selling goods at fair prices to the disciples without any deceit.

"Do you have any objection to the price?"

"No." Ye Xiwen shook his head, indicating that the price was reasonable. Even when sold at other places, the price might not necessarily be this high. Of course, they had to pay demon cores in exchange. These demon cores contained the true essence of a demon beast's body. He could sell the demon cores he had for at least 800 spirit stones while he already had 1000 low-grade spirit stones in his stock. That way, he would have about 2000 low-grade spirit stones in his possession.

"These are the body parts of demon beasts; you must be having a lot of demon cores in your possession as well." The skinny old man looked at Ye Xiwen and said, "If you have any, you can sell them to me. My offer price will not let you suffer a loss."

Ye Xiwen also thought that it would save him a lot of trouble, so he took out all the demon cores from the spatial ring and placed them on the table. The skinny old man looked a bit surprised because Ye Xiwen took out so many demon cores. It would be impossible even for a core disciple to take out so many demon cores at once.

"For these demon cores, I fix a price of 850 low-grade spirit stones. Is that okay with you?" The old man looked at Ye Xiwen and asked.

"Very well, thank you!" Ye Xiwen nodded in satisfaction as it was even more than he anticipated.

After receiving the spirit stones, Ye Xiwen went out of the store and while he was somewhat away from the shop, he suddenly heard the voices of people quarrelling.

"Nonsense, I didn't check out your 'celestial steps'!" Said a voice somewhat anxiously.

"Humph, if you didn't see then how do you know that this secret book is called 'celestial steps'. If everyone is like you who goes through the book but doesn't buy it,how would I run my business?" A rough voice came from the crowd: "You have to buy this secret book, there's no other option. If you don't buy the book in spite of already having a look at it, then you will have to pay 500 low-grade spirit stones as compensation."

The crowd was in an uproar. 500 low-grade spirit stones was a huge amount, which was impossible for many disciples to obtain in a lifetime. Ye Xiwen made his way through the crowd and saw a quarrel between two young men, one was fat and the other seemed strong. The fat youth was surprisingly his childhood friend, Wang Lie. And the other strong youth was a tall guy, roughly 20 years old, who looked rough and crude. He was looking at Wang Lie with a proud face, full of satisfaction. There was a look of triumph on his face.

"It's actually Ma Yan! This disciple really has a bad luck. I don't know how a fraud like Ma Yan got a hold of such a rare secret book but I heard that he asked an elder to make the appraisal (identification). That secret book turned out to be a Xiantian level power technique. Although it is an incomplete technique, still he pretends to sell the book and uses it as a bait to trap innocent people. Once someone gets interested and takes a look at the book, he forces them to pay up just for looking at it. There are many who went bankrupt after having lost everything to this fraud."

"Yes, he is too shameless but it can't be helped because his elder brother Ma Ying is said to be the most promising candidate who will one day become the patriarch of his clan and will also emerge as a core disciple. With just a strike, Ma Ying can defeat those disciples who want to go against his fraud brother, so they have no other option but to endure. Ma Yan has already cultivated to the peak of Houtian fifth stage and is said to be counted as one of the top twenty inner sect disciples."

"On the surface of your secret book, it's written 'Celestial Step'. I am not a blind person so I certainly saw that, however, I didn't read the contents!" Wang Lie said anxiously. His family was rich. His household was located below the Qing Feng mountain and his family had many hopes from him so he always had more money in hands compared to Ye Xiwen. After he broke into the fourth stage, he had come to buy a power technique. For a warrior, the importance of a technique was understandable but 500 low-grade spirit stones was a tremendous amount which he couldn't afford without going broke. That was why he wanted to leave and the result was Ma Yan trying to put false accusation on him.

"If I say you saw it, you saw it!" Ma Yan sneered. In fact, he could tell just by looking that Wang Lie belonged to a rich family. It was actually an act of extortion.

"Enough talk, give me the money or I'll destroy your cultivation!" Said Ma Yan in a cold voice.

The people standing around started shivering because he had destroyed the cultivation of a disciple in the past. This is the law of the jungle. Ma Yan's elder brother had good relations with the strongest disciple of the inner sect so even if a disciple had his cultivation destroyed, higher ups still wouldn't punish Ma Yan.

"I don't have that much money!!" Wang Lie shouted.

"Fool, you are good at taking back but I'd like to see what is tougher, your foolish mouth or my fist!" Ma Yan grinned. His fist blasted and twisted up the air making a crackling sound. Ma Yan was domineering and he was not weak either. After all, being one of the top twenty inner sect disciples was not a joke.

Wang Lie clenched his teeth, releasing his power to the limit, and assumed a stance of going all out.

"Shua!"

"Bang!"

Suddenly a shrill piercing sound came from the crowd. A small stone like a flash of lightning flew across the air and fiercely hit Ma Yan's fist.

"Ah!" Ma Yan suddenly squealed like a pig!