Blue Star Anomaly

Bai Zheng had expected that she wouldn't get his agreement right away, but she hadn't expected that he would make a business proposition.

"What does the young master have in mind?"

Jiang Yue took a sip of tea, and after putting his cup down, he turned his attention to Bai Zheng.

It was true that she had attacked him, but he did not have a bad impression of her and since she was the young lady of a major clan, he felt that she could help them solve the gold coins problem that had been troubling them for a while.

"Let's say I have something that I want to sell, but I don't want to be known as the seller…"

They still had a thousand drops of stone milk, and after their first use, it was clear that they didn't need that much for themselves.

However, stone milk was a rare heaven and earth treasure and letting people know that they had such an amount could only bring trouble to themselves.

Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue had planned to find a discrete way to sell the excess amount and the appearance of Bai Zheng was a lucky encounter.

For as long as she believed that they would join her third peak, she would probably help them sell the stone milk.

"We may not be the most powerful in Fengying city, but my Bai family still has some influence. Unless what you want to sell is too precious, there shouldn't be any trouble with meeting your request."

Jiang Yue thought about it for a moment and then nodded in acceptance of her words. Stone milk was rare, but it wasn't so precious that it would attract trouble for the Bai clan.

It was only dangerous for Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue because they were too weak and lacked the ability to protect their belongings.

"What is the going price for a drop of one hundred years stone milk?" Jiang Yue asked as he stared at Bai Zheng to catch all her little reactions.

However, he need not have been so vigilant because she was only surprised for a moment before her expression returned to normal.

"The price for a single drop is about twenty-five thousand gold coins."

Jiang Yue shook in surprise when he heard the price, but he was careful not to show his excitement. When he thought about it, he should have expected such a price since a drop was equivalent to a combination of peak grade silver rank body tempering pill and meridian strengthening pill.

It also helped to expel impurities from the body and because it was a heaven and earth treasure, it didn't have any impurities which made it superior to pills that always had a few impurities.

"If I was selling, how much would you buy for every drop?"

Bai Zheng didn't immediately answer this time around. Instead, she frowned and seemed to be immersed in her thoughts before she finally spoke.

"It depends on the quantity."

"Let's say I have ten drops…"

"Twenty thousand for every drop."

"Fifty drops…"

"Twenty-two thousand…."

"How do you think of one hundred drops for twenty-four thousand per drop?" Jiang Yue suggested and Bai Zheng took a moment to consider.

Normally, their elixir shop wouldn't buy stone milk at more than twenty-three thousand per drop, but it was rare for a hundred drops to appear at once.

Even if she agreed to twenty-four thousand for every drop, her family would still profit by one thousand for every drop. A profit of one hundred thousand gold coins was a significant amount even for a major clan like her Bai family.

This business could also count as a favour to the two boys, which would tilt the odds of them choosing her third peak after the selection.

It was a win-win situation, and after she agreed to the deal, Jiang Yue removed a bottle from his right sleeve and pushed it across the table.

"It has one hundred and five drops; five are a gift to your Bai family." He said.

Bai Zheng was shocked for a moment and when he saw it, Jiang Yue was glad that they had previously apportioned the stone milk in preparation for sale.

It was not a guarantee that Bai Zheng would not turn hostile if she knew that they had a thousand drops.

After she calmed her expression, Bai Zheng reached for the bottle, and it was then that Jiang Yue saw the bronze-coloured star on the inside of her right wrist.

"I have a grade four aptitude for my origin." She said matter-of-factly when she saw Jiang Yue's gaze. However, her words only served to confuse Jiang Yue.

'What does aptitude have to do with it?' He wondered as he looked at his bare wrist.

Bai Zheng chuckled when she saw his actions, "with your talent, you should be able to break through to the origin forging realm in the next year or two."

Her words didn't explain anything but from them, Jiang Yue could deduce that the star was something that appeared when one broke through to the origin forging realm.

As he thought of this, he suddenly remembered the strange phenomenon that had happened on their way to Fengying city. He was thinking of a way to bring it up when Bai Zheng brought it up on her own.

"Our Fengying city is lucky to produce two people with grade four aptitudes within ten years, but it is nothing compared to the Beast Region."

She sighed before she continued, "did the two of you take advantage of the blue-star anomaly?"

"It was an unexpected fortune." Jiang Yue answered and Bai Zheng nodded in agreement.

"Only a grade ten aptitude can cause a blue star anomaly when they break through to the origin forging realm. "

Jiang Yue felt his heart beat faster when he heard the words, but he kept his shock to himself.

Old man Cang had previously told them that the strongest person in the Cangxing world only had a grade six aptitude, but it turned out that his knowledge was limited.

Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue weren't complacent, but at the deepest parts of their hearts, they had the arrogance that their potential was superior to everyone else in the Cangxing world.

Bai Zheng's words were like a wake-up call and Jiang Yue realised that they would need to work extremely hard to ensure that the other talents would not eclipse them in the future.

"It is said that the grade ten aptitude is a young girl from the Beast Region."

There was unconcealed envy in Bai Zheng's voice and Jiang Yue raised his eyebrow in question.

"It has been such a long time since a grade ten aptitude appeared that people had almost forgotten about it." Bai Zheng sighed and looked at her wrist.

Her bronze star was a mark of pride, but when compared to a blue star, she could only despair.

Jiang Yue didn't understand the world's star system and since he didn't want to expose his ignorance of what seemed like a well-known fact, he made a note to speak to Yu Nianzhen and do some research about it.

It appeared that having a blue star was something to be envied and Jiang Yue did not want to assume that a grade ten aptitude would automatically allow them to gain the blue star. It was better to comprehend the situation and take whatever measures were necessary to ensure that they would get a blue star when they broke through to the origin forging realm.

After making plans to collect the gold coins from the sale of stone milk, Jiang Yue left the tea house, but he was no longer in the mood to explore so he returned to the Three Boars Inn.

Yu Nianzhen had yet to return so Jiang Yue took out, the hourglass and began to examine it.

He ran his fingers on the wooden frame and jade body, but no matter what he did, he couldn't see or feel anything strange.

'Whatever.' He thought as he put it away.

He guessed that either his cultivation level or knowledge were too low to notice the hourglass' oddity, but there was also the possibility that the sand within was the suspected treasure.

Without knowing anything, it made no sense to break the hourglass to check the sand so he left the problem for Yu Nianzhen to figure out.

"It's about time to break through to the eighth level of the meridian awakening realm. I will take advantage of Azhen's absence to get ahead of him." Jiang Yue chuckled cheekily and immediately sat cross-legged to begin his cultivation.

'This qi gathering array makes cultivation a lot more efficient.' He thought as he easily absorbed the abundant water qi from the heaven and earth qi mixture.

Soon after, a popping sound could be heard from his body as his qi broke through the last divine acupoint on the seventh meridian, and rushed to the first acupoint on the eighth meridian.