Battle Through the Heavens - chapter-387

The convoy whizzed down from the mountain peak. Ten minutes later, they
approached the dark, black city gate. Their speed gradually slowed before
they finally queued behind the long line of people and quietly waited for
their turn to enter the city.

Standing in front of the horse carriage, Xiao Yan lifted his head and
studied the dark mass that was the enormous city wall. His gaze swept
across the three large words ‘Black Mark City’ which had been placed
right in the middle of the city gate. Moving his sight slowly downward,
he finally paused on the ten plus darkly-dressed men at the city gate.
They appeared to be the guards of a city in the outside world. However,
in this place, anyone who wanted to enter had to hand over quite a large
amount of city entrance fees. It should be known that if this kind of
city entrance fees were placed in the environment like the Jia Ma Empire,
it would likely directly cause a commotion. However, in the
‘Black-Corner Region’, something like this was commonplace.

“Get lost, stop leaping around in front of me.” Just as Xiao Yan was
observing the city which had a special serving of the ‘Black-Corner
Region’, a curse, which was filled with irritation, suddenly sounded at
a spot not far in front of him. Xiao Yan shifted his gaze. It was
actually a bald, large man. Perhaps it was because he was impatient from
all the waiting, but he lifted a skinny, weak-looking man in front of him
with a grab of his palm.

“Ah.” The words of the bald headed large man had just fell when the
skinny, weak-looking man who had been lifted by him abruptly turned
around. A dagger was swiftly pulled out from his sleeve. The dagger drew
out a cold glint and violently stabbed toward the throat of the bald
headed large man. However, it was fortunate that the latter’s reaction
was nimble. His neck hurriedly pulled back and the the dagger was
misaligned and pierced at a spot half an inch below the throat.
Immediately, fresh blood soared wildly and a sharp, horrible shriek
sounded from the mouth of the bald, large man.

After seriously wounding the bald, large man with one strike, the skinny
weak looking young man swayed his body and he was like a loach as his
body contracted and withdrew out of his clothes. After which, he rolled
into some bushes by the side and disappeared.

“Bastard. I will kill you!” The bald headed large man’s eyes were
crimson as he pulled out the dagger. He lost his sense of reasoning as he
also charged into the bushes. A long while later, a scream that was
similar to the horrifying shriek from earlier was transmitted out from
the bushes. It was a long while later before it gradually disappeared.

Xiao Yan stood on the frame of the carriage and was somewhat stunned as
he watched the bushes. When he heard that final blood-curling scream, he
knew that the bald headed large man would have difficulty keeping his
life. However, what caused him to be stunned was that bald head large
man’s strength should be around that of a two star Dou Shi while that
skinny weak looking man was only at the Dou Zhe class. The gap between
the two was this great, yet that skinny, weak-looking man’s murderous
blow was actually so crisp and there was not even the slightest bit of
hesitation. This kind of vicious scheming really left one speechless.
People who could survive within the ‘Black-Corner Region’ were indeed
no ordinary characters. It was only now did Xiao Yan truly understand
this saying.

“Ke ke, Mister Yao Yan, do not judge a book by its cover in this
‘Black-Corner Region’. This is because the corpses of those who have
died in the ‘Black-Corner Region’ because of underestimation could
nearly fill an entire city.” Duo Ma smiled as he spoke.

“Ah.” Xiao Yan nodded slightly. The scene which he had witnessed with
his own eyes allowed him to completely understand the rules of the
‘Black-Corner Region’.

The fight between the two people earlier was like a short interlude and
merely gave the people who were queuing up some entertainment. However,
there was hardly anyone who wasted any emotion over this.

The queue slowly moved forward. After waiting for nearly half an hour, it
was finally the convoy’s turn. When the convoy reached the city gate,
Duo Ma handed over a large bag of gold coins in an extremely swift
manner. Xiao Yan’s eyes were sharp. He could clearly see that there was
a small bag hidden in Duo Ma’s hand when the latter handed over the
large bag of gold coins.

That indifferent black-clothed man received the gold coins and carelessly
weighed it in his hands. His expression was a little gentler, but he did
not say anything unnecessary. He waved his hand and allowed Duo Ma’s
merchant group into the city.

“Ke ke, Mister Yao Yan, where do you plan to go next?” After entering
the city, Duo Ma’s convoy stopped and he inquired along with a smile.

“I plan to walk around the city. Oh right, may I know where I can find
the largest number of medicinal ingredients in ‘Black Mark City’?”
Xiao Yan leaped down from the horse carriage, lifted his head, and asked.

“Medicinal ingredients huh? That will naturally be the ‘Thousand
Medicine Place’. As long as you have a sufficient amount of money, you
will be able to purchase rare medicinal ingredients that one would have
difficulty finding outside of this place.” Duo Ma smiled as he replied.

“Ah, thank you very much. Since it’s like this, let’s part ways
here. We will chat in the future if we have the chance.” Xiao Yan
cupped his hands toward Duo Ma. He did not wait for the latter to say any
courteous words he turned his body and squeezed into the human flow.
After which he disappeared.

“Yes, hopefully we can really meet again. However, among the people who
die in the ‘Black-Corner Region’ every year, the number of deaths
among the new people is the highest. This is especially so for those
young people who have some strength. They are filled with youthful energy
and do not know how to hide their edge, clearly looking like they will
have a short life. However, this little fellow is much better. If his
methods were even more vicious, he might really be able to adapt to this
kind of place and make a name for himself.” As he eyed Xiao Yan’s
back which had disappeared, Duo Ma laughed bitterly before waving his
hand and led the convoy toward another street.

Xiao Yan slowly walked along the street. His gaze repeatedly swept across
the shops on the two sides of the street. However, what really caused
Xiao Yan to be speechless was that before he had finished walking this
short street, which was not even a hundred meters long, he had seen no
less than ten brawls. There were even situations like drawing one’s
knife to have a bloody fight. With regards to this kind of city, there
was only one word to appropriately describe it. That was : Chaotic!

Xiao Yan avoided some bloody all out fights, and passed through two
street corners. He walked for nearly twenty minutes before his scanning
gaze finally stopped on the signboard of a shop which occupied a wide
space. Written on that pale-red signboard were three large,
ancient-looking words, ‘Thousand Medicine Place’.

“This should be the place, right?” Xiao Yan softly muttered in his
heart. He increased his speed and walked into this medicinal shop with an
extraordinary atmosphere. Immediately, the mixture of over a hundred
different medicinal scents pounced over, causing him to involuntarily
have an impulse to sneeze.

The size within the medicinal shop was big. Crystal counters were placed
vertically and horizontally within the shop. There were different kinds
of medicinal ingredients being placed within the transparent counters. At
this moment, there were quite a number of people who had paused their
footsteps in front of these counters. The noisy chattering sound
repeatedly reverberated within the shop.

Xiao Yan’s footsteps slowly ferried him toward the crystal counters.
His gaze swept across its interior and surprise flashed across his eyes.
It was just as Duo Ma had said. The medicinal ingredients within this
‘Thousand Medicine Place’ were indeed difficult to find in the
outside world. He really did not know how they managed to get such a
large amount of unique medicinal ingredients.

Xiao Yan sighed in surprise as he shook his head. His gaze swept across
the prices indicated below the medicinal ingredients and involuntarily
became stunned. A high ranked ‘Wood Spirit Three-Pin Flower’ may be
rare in the outside world, but its selling price was at most around fifty
thousand gold coins. However, the price here was raised by nearly three
times that amount.

“One hundred and seventy thousand for one. These fellows might as well
go and rob others directly.” Xiao Yan was speechless as he shook his
head. With his current fortune, it appeared that he could not even afford
to buy one ‘Wood Spirit Three-Pin Flower’.

Xiao Yan laughed bitterly. His gaze once again slowly swept over the
crystal counter. A long while later, he stood at the final counter with a
somewhat numb expression. From his observation earlier, he had indeed
found all the medicinal ingredients to refine one ‘Spiritual Recovery
Purple Pill’. However, after his calculations, if he were to purchase
all of these medicinal ingredients, he would need at least one hundred
and seventy thousand gold coins.

“Unscrupulous shop ah, unscrupulous shop. It would be good if Old Hai
were here. With him being the great-Elder of the Primer clan, it would
definitely not be a problem taking out this amount of money.” Xiao Yan
softly muttered in his mouth. Xiao Yan suddenly felt a little distressed.
In the past, he had never bothered about matters related to money. Now,
he actually began to be vexed over money when he had just entered the
‘Black-Corner Region’.

“Teacher, what do we do now?” In his helpless state, Xiao Yan could
only smile bitterly and ask in his heart.

“Hee hee, I have already told you that you will have difficulty moving
even an inch within the ‘Black-Corner Region’ if you don’t have
money.” Yao Lao teased, “What else can you do? If you don’t want to
exchange items, then you should first forget about that ‘Spiritual
Recovery Purple Pill’. Use your remaining money to buy two sets of
medicinal ingredients to refine ‘Three-Lines Green Spirit Pill’.
After which, go to the auction house and auction off the medicinal pills
which you have refined. Otherwise, you will definitely be unable to
obtain those medicinal ingredients.”

“Ah, we can only do this.” Xiao Yan sighed and began to turn around
to search for the medicinal ingredients to refine the ‘Three-Lines
Green Spirit Pill’. It was fortunate that the ‘Three-Lines Green
Spirit Pill’ was a tier four medicinal pill. Therefore, the medicinal
ingredients that it required were far less costly than what was needed to
refine the ‘Spiritual Recovery Purple Pill’.

“Oh that’s right, I have almost forgotten to tell you an important
matter. Although this matter will compound the problem that you have on
your already poor finances.” Yao Lao gloatingly said with a smile,
causing Xiao Yan to feel a little uneasy.

“Since you plan on getting your hands on that ‘Fallen Heart Flame’,
you will need to complete all the necessary preparation work just like
when you swallowed the ‘Green Lotus Core Flame’ back then.” Yao Lao
smiled before continuing, “When you swallowed the ‘Green Lotus Core
Flame’, you relied on the protection of the ‘Blood Lotus Pill’ in
order to greatly increase your chances of success. However, that
‘Fallen Heart Flame’ is ranked fourteenth on the ‘Heavenly Flame
Ranking’. That is far stronger than the ‘Green Lotus Core Flame’
which is ranked nineteenth. Therefore, your preparation this time around
must be even more complete.”

“Ugh, I had almost nearly forgotten about that.” Xiao Yan was
startled before he immediately came to a sudden comprehension. If it was
not for the assistance of the ‘Blood Lotus Pill’ the last time he
swallowed the ‘Green Lotus Core Flame’, there would have been no
certainty in whether or not he would finally succeed.

“Then what do we need to prepare this time around?” Xiao Yan asked
uncertainly.

“A tier six medicinal pill, Ground Spirit Pill. Not many medicinal
ingredients are needed to refine it. There are only four of them. Flame
Core ‎Ganoderma, Asparagus Ice Fire Fruit, Green Wood Celestial Vine,
and a rank 6 water type Monster Core.”

The faint words caused Xiao Yan’s moving footsteps to suddenly falter.
The corner of his mouth twitched slightly. Even not mentioning the three
medicinal ingredients’ name, which he had never even heard of, just the
very last one was sufficient to give him an impulse to act in a flustered
and exasperated manner. A rank 6 monster core? Did he need to go and kill
a rank 6 super powerful Magical Beast which could contend with a Dou
Huang? Even if he wanted to seek death, he need not use such a method, no?