C36 Great Desolate Ancient City

The Great Desolate Mountain Range was situated in the most chaotic region in the Hundred Warring State. There was no law here, power and strength were the only rule.

For adventurers, this place was both a paradise and a hell.

Life or death depended on one’s strength.

Due to the abundance of resources in the Great Desolate Mountain Range, in these few hundred years, the Four Great Sects of the Hundred Warring State rose up separately from the east, south, west and north of the mountain range.

They were Phoenix Water Pavilion, Azure Cloud Sect, Skyfire Sect, and Dark Feather Hall.

The Four Great Sects boasted great reputation. To the Hundred Warring State, they were gigantic tycoons.

All sorts of powers and clans wanted their disciples to join these Four Great Sects so they could bring honor to their families.

In other words, the number of disciples joining the Four Major Sects often determined the future strength and prosperity of a nation.

Of course, all of these were not what Jing Yunxiao had in mind now.

The Great Desolate Mountain Range was divided into the outer, inner and core zones.

Although the inner and the core zones were both occupied by the Four Great Sects and no one was allowed to enter without permission, Jing Yunxiao still would not dare to recklessly barge into there right now since it was too precarious and dangerous.

So, for this time, Jing Yunxiao would only train in the outer area.

Three days past in a blink of an eye.

After three days, Bing Ling Sword finally took Jing Yunxiao to the territory of Great Desolate Mountain Range.

However, Jing Yunxiao was not in a hurry to directly enter the Great Desolate Mountain Range to train. Instead, he went to an ancient city outside of the Great Desolate Mountain Range. This ancient city was called the Great Desolate Ancient City. No one knew who built it, but it had a long history. The city walls were strong enough to defend against the attack of some common beasts tide.

The city was bustling with noise and excitement. All kinds of shops related to martial arts were everywhere.

Many common martial cultivators would choose to come here to rest before entering the Great Desolate Mountain Range. They would either purchase some essentials or group with some others to get into the mountain, therefore, to be fully prepared for the training.

In addition, this was also the favorite place of many famous officials and nobles. They could either buy many rare treasures here that could not be bought in a normal country, or, even if they could not, they could issue missions here and let the martial cultivators search for them.

In short, this ancient city was a big melting pot of the martial Tao. Anything related to martial Tao could be found here.

As for Jing Yunxiao, his purpose was very simple.

He just wanted to find some Soul Accumulating Spirit Medicine for Bing Ling. After all, the only ten Soul-supporting Fruits were all consumed on their way to here.

As he walked into the Ancient City, he found it filled with bustling traffic and all types of people.

Most of them were martial cultivators of Qi Martial Stage, few were martial cultivators of Spiritual Martial Stage. Most of them were common cultivators, while few were sect disciples.

As for martial cultivators of Arterial Circulation Stage, except for Jing Yunxiao himself, he had not met anyone else.

Even the peddler squatting in the corner selling all kinds of spirit medicines was at least a martial cultivator at First Level of Qi Martial Stage.

This was not strange, as most people who were able to come here needed to have a bit of strength. Even if it was just a small peddler, if he didn't have some strength, he would have no one to blame if all his merchandises were robbed by others.

Thus, when Jing Yunxiao walked onto the main street, he would occasionally attract a few people's attention. However, most people couldn't help but reveal a look of disdain, as if they were saying, “how could a brat of only Arterial Circulation Stage actually dare to come to Great Desolate Mountain Range alone? What a fool.”

Jing Yunxiao turned a blind eye to this.

At this moment, a hawker ran to Jing Yunxiao. He took a glance at Jing Yunxiao’s appearance and then smiled as if he was looking at an idiot whom he could rip off. “Hey you, young man, is this your first time in the Great Desolate Ancient City? Why don't you come and take a look at my stall? Here I have anything you wish to buy. And what’s more important, they are all cheap and of good quality.”

Jing Yunxiao was then pulled to a stall. He originally thought that there would be something good, but upon seeing them, he became speechless.

This stall was indeed filled with all sorts of things.

However, they were all fake.

A pigeon’s egg worth a few coins was actually now sold as an egg of a Third Rank Giant Pigeon, and its price was 200 taels.

And a worthless ordinary beast bone was sold as a bone of a Seventh Rank Demonic Beast, and its price was listed as unbelievably 1000 taels.

Undoubtedly, the hawker thought that Jing Yunxiao was young and had low cultivation, so it must be easy to swindle him.

Jing Yunxiao shook his head and was about to leave. But just as he was about to leave, he accidentally caught a glimpse of a big rock on which the hawker was sitting on. It was black and seemed nothing special, just like the other common stones on the main road, or even uglier.

Besides, the hawker would rather use a pigeon egg to pretend as a precious Demonic Beast egg than this black rock. It could be told that the hawker saw it as a piece of waste as well.

But when Jing Yunxiao really observed it again, his eyes flashed.

How could this stone be a waste?

Wasn’t this a very rare Purplish Gold Ore?

Even in his previous life, the biggest Purplish Gold Ore Jing Yunxiao had ever seen was only the size of an egg. He had never seen such a huge piece. And now, this huge piece of Purplish Gold Ore was being used as a useless sitting pad. What a waste!

It was difficult for Jing Yunxiao to hold his excitement within. Pointing at the Purplish Gold Ore, he asked the hawker: "How much is this stone?"

The hawker previously thought that Jing Yunxiao was someone who couldn’t see the truth value of these “merchandises”, and decided to rip him off. However, after pulling him over, the moment the hawker saw the expression on Jing Yunxiao’s face when he saw these goods, he knew that the rip-off would not work this time.

But right at that moment, Jing Yunxiao suddenly asked him about the stone beneath his butt. Especially the excited look on his face - it was like a male dog on heat saw a lonely bitch.

That hawker was completely bewildered.

Was this lad an idiot?

Why was he so interested in such a random stone I picked from the street?

However, after a second thought, a smile blossomed on the hawker's face. “Here comes my big money.”

Unable to suppress his joy, the hawker immediately stood up and started talking boastfully about the Purplish Gold Ore: "You really know something! This stone is the best of the best. I had never told anyone about it, how did you recognize with just a glance ... ”

The hawker said a bunch of nonsense before finally carefully offering a price that was extremely high in his estimation: 500 taels.

When Jing Yunxiao heard the price and saw the hawker's expression, his heart thumped for a second, and he realised that he must have manifested his excitement too obviously. Therefore, this hawker now dared to give unreasonably high price.

Immediately, Jing Yunxiao withdrew his excitement and replied. "Come on, are you kidding me? There are such stones everywhere on the road. It’s just that I am in a hurry to hone my sword and can't be bothered to look for another appropriate one. 100 taels, that’s the most I can offer. How’s it?”