A Fair Exchange

Ghu Jishi, Nadda's great grandfather and teacher, sat opposite from Yaan and Nadda. He wore a dull expression, because his facial muscles were unable to properly express his emotional state right now. When Nadda asked him for an audience with the North Ghu City Lord, he could have never predicted that it would turn into such a huge deal.

Truthfully, even Nadda didn't expect things to go this far!

"You two realise that this is completely excessive just to boost your business in an auction, right?" Ghu Jishi finally asked with complicated expression. He cast a gaze at Yaan, and the strangeness in his gaze grew stronger.

Who would have thought that this child would be able to cause the downfall of the Yuso Clan…

"Perhaps, but it's worth it for us." Yaan shrugged. "Basically all of the Undead Coffin Sect's corpse puppets were destroyed in the battle. Thanks to the rumours we spread, combined with the Ghu Clan's actions, the entire city is feeling extremely stressed right now, so people will feel more driven to splash out on means of protecting themselves in the inheritance. It will be easy for people to justify using the Yuso Clans' corpses, since the Yuso Clan almost got us all killed by attracting a beast horde with the unshielded Spirit Heart."

Swoosh…

The trio jumped in fright as a man appeared in the chair besides them almost silently. After examining this person, all three of them stood up and clasped their hands respectfully.

"Junior greets grand elder!"

"Junior greets grand elder!"

"Greetings, North Ghu City Lord. How was your trip?" Yaan was startled at first, but upon recognising the city lord, his expression relaxed.

Although this large and muscular man carried a heavy and imposing aura, Yaan didn't fear the North Ghu City Lord due to the poison oath which forbade the city lord from harming him

"Since I captured that mountain, which will become the Ghu Clan's sixth key territory, then naturally it was an excellent trip." He replied with a savage smile.

Yaan nodded enthusiastically, doing his best to ignore the city lord's imposing aura. Yaan had been subjected to the pressure from powerful auras on many occasions, but he was still not accustomed to Origin Soul Realm beings.

Origin Soul Realm cultivators were on an entirely different level. Merely standing in the vicinity of these individuals when they were not suppressing their auras would cause lower realm cultivators to feel as if they were being crushed by the weight of the world, making it difficult to even breath normally.

"You know Yaan, this little scheme of yours was quite interesting. Just how long have you been planning this for anyway?"

Hearing this, Yaan scratched his nose and coughed. Ghu Nadda also looked down and avoided looking the city lord in the eye.

"Hmm?" The savage man raised an eyebrow, feeling slightly confused by their reaction. His dark hair swayed in the wind wildly as he awaited a response, only settling down as Yaan began speaking.

"Truthfully city lord, whilst I have been considering using the Spirit Heart for profit for a few months now, it was only when Nadda mentioned the corpse puppet auction that I thought of this. That was the same day that Nadda asked Elder Jishi to grant him an audience with yourself."

The city lord stared disbelievingly at Yaan for a good while.

"You're saying that…you spent less than a day coming up with this plan?"

Ghu Jishi was sweating heavily now. Really, Yaan and Nadda had been extremely rash in his eyes. If this had failed, it could have easily ended in disaster!

No, really, even now, he didn't feel comfortable at all, knowing that these two had basically forced the city lord to accept their terms in this deal. He knew that whilst these two had seemingly pulled off something incredible, they were still playing with fire, a fire called the North Ghu City Lord, a grand elder of the Ghu Clan. The fact that the city lord had accepted their terms with barely any resistance only made him feel even more uneasy.

Since when were Ghu Clan Grand Elders so easy to wrap up in your schemes…?

After a moment of silence…

"Hahaha! To start a war between ten of the strongest cultivation factions in the province, just how much courage does a child need to possess to do something like that? How amusing!"

For the first time, the city lord roared with laughter, startling Yaan, Ghu Nadda and Ghu Jishi. However, the city lord's laughter soon ended, and he glanced at Yaan once again.

"Anyway…I'm not sure if you realise exactly how valuable the Spirit Heart truly is, to give it away so easily." The city lord spoke slowly. For a brief moment, his eyes flashed with a strange light, but nobody present noticed this look which he cast towards Yaan…

"The Spirit Heart is worthless to me, though." Yaan shook his head. "All I want is more resources to improve my cultivation."

"I see, so it's like that." The large man showed an amicable smile, sitting back in his chair and relaxing as he spoke. From his demeanour, it seemed that he really was in a good mood…

Elder Jishi sighed. Maybe he was just overthinking things…

"There are many types of people in this world, righteous, demonic, those who lay somewhere in-between…but I don't care about such arbitrary things. The most important point, is a man's ultimate ambition. Some men desire sovereignty, whilst others pursue personal power. I'm glad that you fall into the latter."

Yaan's eyes lit up for a moment and he pondered the imposing man's words carefully. After a while, he smiled and nodded, understanding the vague threat contained within those words. He was warning Yaan – do not try to start your own faction!

The city lord seemed to be satisfied. He suddenly stood up, waved his hands and created a vortex around them. Yaan was forced to cover his face for half a second, then when he opened his eyes, he found that they had somehow been transported to an entirely different location!

An involuntary gasp slipped out from Yaan's mouth and his pupils shrunk. What sort of travel speed was this…and how did he not feel their movement at all?!

"This is the ground floor of my tower in North Ghu City. I only allow certain individuals to enter this hall, such as when conducting one on one business exchanges."

From his words, Yaan was able to understand that this must be the tower at the centre of the Ghu Clan's palace headquarters. The outside of the tower was very imposing, but the inside was quite minimalistic, with not much furniture to speak of aside from a central table and two cushions.

"Mm, it's excellent." Yaan nodded, quickly calming himself down. He also preferred this sort of simple accommodation, as he had spent a long period of time in the Heavenly Path Sect, where such dwellings were commonplace.

"Now then, what is it that you want? What you have given me is extremely valuable, and as per our deal, I must give you compensation of appropriate value. Even though I followed your requests in how we managed this matter, that is far from enough to compensate you for the knowledge of the Spirit Heart's location." The city lord began.

"As I said before, I want all of the Yuso Clan corpses that your Ghu Clan is able to refine prior to the auction." Yaan replied.

The North Ghu City Lord nodded. This was part of their deal sworn under the poison oaths, naturally he would comply with this arrangement. He had also fulfilled the agreement to slaughter every Yuso Clansman, to the best of his knowledge. Of course, given the Ghu Clan's usual methods, they would have done this regardless.

Completely destroying the Yuso Clan was most beneficial for Yaan. If the Yuso Clan ever discovered that Yaan was largely responsible for their downfall, they would chase him down to the ends of the earth. It was definitely best to wipe them out completely.

After shaking his head and clearing his mind of this matter, Yaan took a deep breath and showed a serious expression. His heart started beating wildly as he was filled with hope and expectation. He knew that he shouldn't get his hopes up, but what if…

"Are you able to repair my dantian?"

"I am not. Your dantian is totally destroyed….I could try to piece it back together, but it would not be suitable for cultivation."

Yaan sighed. In the end, he wasn't surprised, but he was still disappointed. He needed to at least give it a shot, but he knew that repairing a crippled dantian was a tall asking.

"Hmm…then I suppose that what I need the most are body tempering resources."

"You mean slow release Vital Energy pills?" The old man asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, I mean pills that are specifically designed to enhanced the physical body, not Vital Energy." Yaan corrected him.

The city lord's eyes flashed.

"So, I take it that you have been learning about the inheritance site?"

"Mm." Yaan nodded. "Having a powerful body tempering cultivation base is good, but this is actually closer to 'Vital Energy' cultivation. Vital Energy isn't suppressed as much as Innate Qi in the trial, but some trials completely seal away the participants' cultivations. This sealing supposedly has no effect on the fleshly body, however."

"This is all true. When it comes to pills which can temper the flesh, the most common are the unique body tempering pills. Which of these do you need?"

"Rank 3 Organ Hardening Pill, Rank 3 Tendon Tempering Pill and Rank 3 Blood Refining Pill. And all of the Rank 4 versions. So far, I haven't found any other pills designed to target the fleshly body rather than Vital Energy. Are there others?"

"There are, but, there are no other sets like these. Anyway, I'll find what I can. Also, using the Rank 4 versions at the 3-Star Realm is equivalent to committing suicide. Really, it's not just a risk, it's certain death."

Yaan nodded slowly as he listened to the city lord. He wasn't surprised to hear this, but he wanted the pills anyway. Five Rank 4 pills was nothing compared to a treasure like the Spirit Heart, so the city lord had no problem with granting this request. Of course, he didn't have these pills on his person, he would need some time to procure them.

"I would like something that is able to hide my appearance and aura, making it so that even people who have met me before won't be able to recognise me." Yaan stated his next request as he thought about the coming inheritance.

He was likely to encounter some familiar individuals from the Northern mountain range when he attended the inheritance opening. He would prefer to avoid being identified if possible. That said, now that he was linked to the Ghu Clan, it wasn't as big an issue as in the past.

"I see, such a thing is indeed possible, but a spiritual treasure needs a power source to maintain its activation, it cannot be used without limit." The city lord didn't question Yaan's reason for wanting such a treasure, instead directly commenting on the feasibility.

In the end, Yaan settled for the city lord improving the bamboo hat. Yaan borrowed this treasure from Ghu Nadda to enter the Bloody Arena, it was able to disguise his appearance and aura without needing Yaan to activate it.

When the city lord saw this hat, his eyes narrowed. After carefully examining the hat, he explained something that even Nadda, the original owner, did not know,

As it turned out, this hat was not a spiritual treasure, but a rare item known as a 'world treasure'! World treasures could be activated without any form of energy…in fact, even mortals could utilise these treasures!

The city lord personally added a small formation to that hat. Yaan couldn't begin to understand the formation, but he was told that it would combine with the hat's own effect and last for 100 days once activated. According to the city lord, this formation would even block a Spirit Core Realm cultivator's vision! However, although it would obstruct their vision, Spirit Core Realm cultivators could easily break through this barrier.

The city lord infused his aura and signature into the treasure, which would appear should any Spirit Core Realm elder attempt to look past the barrier. Upon feeling the aura of an Origin Soul Realm powerhouse, they would understand that Yaan was being assisted by someone whom they could not afford to offend, and they would not push their investigation any further without good reason.

"These things might seem valuable to you, but in terms of actual value, this is still does not amount to a fraction of Yuso Mountain's actual worth." The city lord continued calmly.

The poison oath required the city lord to provide Yaan with a 'fair exchange' for the information regarding the Spirit Heart, meaning that he needed to compensate Yaan 'fairly'.

Yaan's eyes flashed for a brief moment. He knew that the Spirit Heart was valuable, but in terms of monetary value, he had absolutely no idea. This was why he thought of asking for a 'fair exchange'. This way, it would be more difficult for the city lord to scam him. At the same time, it was fairly vague, and gave the city lord some leeway in terms of what he considered 'fair'. Like this, they were able to come to an easy agreement.

"For now, could you take a look at this armour?"