The Ethereal Domains

Chapter 1469: A Trap or an Opportunity?

A Trap or an Opportunity?

Cha-Eun Xiao was still waiting for the news in the inn. He didn't want to waste time doing nothing, so he started to read the books that the Dark Evil Spirit brought back to him.

In fact, those were not quite like some books, but more like some scrolls with introduction for all kinds of ranking lists in the Human Realm Upon Heavens.

There was the Heaven Ranking List.

There was the Earth Ranking List.

There was the Hongchen Ranking List.

There was the Itinerant Cultivator Power Ranking List.

There was the Medicine Ranking List.

There was the Dan Ranking List.

There was the Poison Ranking List.

There was the Beauties Ranking List.

There was the Young Lords Ranking List.

There was the Villains Ranking List.

There was the Hunted Men Ranking List.

There was the Wanted Men Ranking List.

…

All in all, there were all kinds of ranking lists–almost thirty lists in total.

It seemed everything in the Limitless Ocean that could be made into a ranking list would be made into a ranking list.

The Limitless Ocean was an extralegal area. There were no forces of any government departments in this place. There were no officials and officers. If a cultivator wanted to become famous in the world, he should work hard to get his name on some of the ranking lists.

Day after day, the ranking lists in the Limitless Ocean became more and more famous. Even in the five areas that were under the five sky kings' governs, the ranking lists still worked.

That was why the Dark Evil Spirit thought they were important.

Cha-Eun Xiao didn't pay much attention to the ranking lists of the superior cultivators, such as the Sky Ranking List, the Earth Ranking List, the Itinerant Cultivator Power Ranking List. He just scanned over them, because…

"No matter how fast I improve myself, it is impossible to get into these ranking lists. I will read these lists when I am good enough to put my name on them…"

What drew Cha-Eun Xiao's attention was some special lists, such as the Medicine Ranking List, the Dan Ranking List, the Poison Ranking List.

"These are helpful. These are very helpful."

When he got the Itinerant Cultivator Power Ranking List, which made the Dark Evil Spirit so proud to be on the number of three thousand, four hundred and eighty-seven.

Cha-Eun Xiao just went over the first page and then closed it.

On the first page of the Itinerant Cultivator Power Ranking List, there was only one man. It was the image of the man–a middle-aged man with a clean face like jade, whose eyes were half-closed, staring far ahead. On the man's side, there was a spear standing on the floor, like a poisonous dragon from the depth of hell. The spear was not sharp, but obviously powerful.

"Poisonous Dragon Spear, the king of all weapons. It was traceless, and it was difficult to resist. It helps to win the fight from a thousand miles away, and it shines the cold gloss upon the clouds. The number one cultivator on the Itinerant Cultivator Power Ranking List, the Poisonous Dragon Spear King, Mo Wen!"

Below the image, there were a few more lines of introduction about the Poisonous Dragon Spear King, Mo Wen, about the significant battles he had won, his personality, his appearance, his martial arts and techniques, his cultivation level, and so on. In the end, there was one more line saying, "Mo Wen is in different appearance, with countless disguises, so the image is only for reference only."

That was the first page of that book.

Cha-Eun Xiao smiled. 'I think the rest of these people are all introduced the same way.'

'I don't think there will be any surprise…'

So he moved on with the Medicine Ranking List.

The book of the Medicine Ranking List was a lot thicker than the other books, which had about one thousand pages, recording one thousand medical treasures in it.

Cha-Eun Xiao was captivated by it.

"I have seen some treasures in the Qing-Yun Realm back then, but when comparing to the treasures on this ranking list, those of the Qing-Yun Realm are all just junks…"

He casually opened a page, and there was an image and introduction about a medical material.

It was a flower which was in all black color, but the stamen of the flower was in seven different colors–red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue and purple. It was the Cosmic Seven Colors Butterfly.

The flower's name was Butterfly.

"Number ninety-nine of the Medicine Ranking List, this is the Cosmic Seven Colors Butterfly. It takes a hundred years to set the roots deep in the soil, one hundred years to break a sprout, one hundred years to grow one branch, one hundred years to grow three leaves, one thousand years to have a bud and became a medical material. After that, it takes one hundred years to attract the butterflies and grow out the seven-color stamen, another one hundred years to blossom, and finally became the Cosmic Seven Colors Butterfly. The blossom only appears for one night, and it will become dust and scatter in the air when the next day comes."

"The Cosmic Seven Colors Butterfly only grows with the mixture of the powers from both the sky and the earth automatically. It is impossible to plant, or transplant. It takes one thousand years for the bud to grow out, and five hundred years to blossom. The flower stays only for one night. If nobody picks it, it will disappear among the sky and earth. Only the destined ones have the chance to get it."

"One thousand and five hundred years, it only shined for one night. The blossoming Cosmic Seven Colors Butterfly was one of the most valuable treasures in the world. However, one second before it blossoms, it was just a normal plant of no use."

"When it is eaten, it fixed the broken Mai and saved the dying dantian. It calls back the leaving soul and improves the cultivation level… It was the main material to make the saint level treatment elixir, Spirit Soul Fixture Dan, which works for cultivators beyond the Divinity Origin Stage and below the second level of the Saint Origin Stage. It has no use for people beyond the second level of the Saint Origin Stage."

Cha-Eun Xiao took a deep breath after reading the page.

It was the number of ninety-nine medical material in the ranking list, but it was already this difficult to grow and collect…

It certainly had astonishing efficacy.

It surely didn't mean much for Cha-Eun Xiao, since he had a great amount of supreme dan beads with him. However, for others, even for high-level cultivators such as the Dark Evil Spirit, it was something they would scramble for. After all, having a Cosmic Seven Colors Butterfly was definitely a great help to oneself! It was incredible!

Cha-Eun Xiao had a flash of sudden inspiration, so he put down the books of all kinds of ranking lists. He started to think about the people who made these ranking lists. He was deeply interested in the organization behind these lists.

How much does it take on earth to make all those meticulous ranking lists?

To make a ranking list like these, all kinds of knowledge was required, including the art of cultivation technique, martial arts, and all kinds of things in the world.

If there were people who were so well informed and experienced, why would they spend their valuable time on such boring and useless jobs?

These ranking lists were at least useless for the people who made them!

It served all the other people in the world.

Was there a bunch of people doing boring works just because of their great virtue of human beings?

Cha-Eun Xiao absolutely did not believe there were actually such selfless people!

The greatness in Dao was long and full of dangers. One could never have enough time to crumble ahead in the path toward greatness. How would anybody spend time on meaningless things just to serve others?

Cha-Eun Xiao was confused. He looked at the title page of a book, and he was wordless.

It should be the name of the author.

There were several words–Revealing Heaven's Secret.

"Whoever made these ranking lists definitely gave away the secrets of the men on the lists… Everything about those cultivators were clearly recorded in the books…"

"Whoever wrote these books must be horrible."

"This Revealing Heaven's Secret must be an organization. It is absolutely not just one person. An individual could never be able to learn all these things about all these different areas, not even if he or she had lived for hundreds of thousands of years and spent all the time studying. It was impossible for a single person to know so clearly about all these cultivators' cultivation levels and techniques.

"I think… This organization which is called the Revealing Heaven's Secret is the actually most influential force in the Limitless Ocean… In fact, not only in the Limitless Ocean, they could be one of the most powerful forces in the entire Human Realm Upon Heavens.

"Including those royal forces…"

Cha-Eun Xiao took a deep breath.

He had a sudden inspiration and continued reading those ranking lists again with a totally different attitude.

"What is written on the cultivators ranking lists could be false, which can't be trusted. It is only for reference. If I am going to get to know these people well, I have to find another way to do it. The ranking lists only had a simple introduction about people, but the information about the Medicine Ranking List, Dan Ranking List, and Poison Ranking list must be true. I can totally believe what is recorded. These things are hardly changed. If there is any information wrong in the introduction, people would give up on these lists…"

Cha-Eun Xiao was fully immersed in these three ranking lists.

He knew that this was a good opportunity to widen his knowledge. When he knew more about the Human Realm Upon Heavens more after some days, he would become different. He wouldn't be so eager to learn as much as he could if he didn't do it now.

When he got used to the days in the Human Realm Upon Heavens, he might become just like the other cultivators, who just bought some books of the ranking lists and put them away somewhere, never read a word of them until they needed to know something particular…

However, it would waste time in a battle.

What Cha-Eun Xiao should do now was to mark down all the information he learned from the books, kept the knowledge in mind.

After having all the valuable information in his head, no matter at what level he was, no matter where he was, he could get to know how bad his allies and himself were hurt in the battle and what he should do to solve the problem.

That was some true power that he really needed.

The supreme dan beads that Erhuo made for him were capable of healing almost all injuries, but they were too eye-catching. If he didn't try to hide them as well as he could, people in the Human Realm Upon Heavens would find out his secret someday. After all, he was still too weak, so it wouldn't be wrong to do as much disguise as he could!

Time flew. Cha-Eun Xiao had spent an entire afternoon reading the books.

During the afternoon, Cha-Eun Xiao had learned one thing that shocked him greatly.

There were some rare medical materials that were recorded on the Medicine Ranking List and the Poison Ranking List that Cha-Eun Xiao had seen in the space of the Mountain of All Mountains. As he remembered, those in the Mountain of All Medicines were even in much higher quality.

Cha-Eun Xiao couldn't endure the itch in his heart as he thought of those materials, so he decided to get in the space to check.

If he was right about it, the Mountain of All Medicines must be great!

The Mountain of All Medicines seemed to be a mountain in the Qing-Yun Realm, but it was actually owned by a guy who was named the Wizard, who was definitely the most mysterious guy in the world that Cha-Eun Xiao had ever seen.

Back to the day, the stone steles that the Wizard left in the Mountain of All Medicines almost played Cha-Eun Xiao to death, but Cha-Eun Xiao didn't hate the Wizard, at least not as much as he hated the guy who was named Ji Mo. In fact, Cha-Eun Xiao respected the Wizard somehow.

Among all the people Cha-Eun Xiao had met in his life, Meng Huaiqing was the most powerful cultivator, and Zuo Wuji was the most cunning schemer, and Master Bai was the toughest with the most profound vision. However, these three people together couldn't compare the Wizard!

In fact, the three of them were too much lower than the Wizard's league.

Whoever was behind these ranking lists must be mysterious, and they surely were revealing heaven's secrets, but the Wizard was more like heaven itself!

In fact, not only the Wizard, but also the Saber, the Sword, the Dragon, the Phoenix, and Ji Mo, the man Cha-Eun Xiao utterly hated were all much more powerful than Meng Huaiqing!

The Mountain of All Medicines was created by the Wizard, which meant Cha-Eun Xiao had not yet discovered the real power of it…

'Hmm… Does it mean… that I can plant some rare species of the Human Realm Upon Heavens in the Mountain of All Medicines?'

'Absolutely! Of course, I can!'

While Cha-Eun Xiao was lost in his beautiful thoughts…

"Master, I have given them out." The Dark Evil Spirit walked in the room in high spirit. He looked like a businessman who was unbearably fat.

Cha-Eun Xiao frowned and said, "Why do you disguise yourself this way to go to the salesroom? And why do you get back with the same face? Has anybody seen you here?"

"Absolutely not." The Dark Evil Spirit seemed to be proud, and said, "I am an experienced cultivator. I have changed over twenty faces to make it there and then make my way back. I have traveled for thousands of miles… Nobody knew it was me."

Cha-Eun Xiao smiled and said, "Well, that should be cautious enough. I just want you to do one more thing though. When you come back to the inn, you should show your real face. People know that the Dark Evil Spirit lives here. A fat stranger gets into your room and nothing happened… It will be quite a big flaw if somebody thinks a little deeper about it."

"Right… That's right… I was careless." The Dark Evil Spirit nodded to agree.

In fact, he was shocked.

'Isn't the young lord absolutely new to the martial world? Listen to him… I think he is more cunning than some really experienced guys in the world. He is so prudent, so thoughtful, so careful, so cautious, so flawless… Even an experienced cultivator was not sure to be this good…'

'How did he do it? Does he have an old head on young shoulders? Is he actually a ghost who is terribly wise? Or is he something I don't know?'

"So you have given our things to the Brotherhood Alliance's salesroom, haven't you?" Cha-Eun Xiao asked, "What did they say?"

It was easy to tell whether things could be sold for a good price or not, from the reactions of the people in the salesroom. Cha-Eun Xiao had run a salesroom before, so he clearly knew about the tricks.

"The head of the Brotherhood Alliance's salesroom in the City of Chaos almost went crazy out of excitement. He was lucky to survive that excitement… Hah hah…" The Dark Evil Spirit lowered his voice and excitedly said, "He made the decision right away. The auction that should be held in ten days will be suspended because they need more time to do more advertisement, and try everything they could to sell our things for the best price."

Cha-Eun Xiao frowned and said, "Did he say anything about the money?"

The Dark Evil Spirit took out a space ring and said, "Usually, the salesroom takes ten percent. However, they are willing to give us a fifty percent discount, which means we can only give five percent as the service fee. Oh right, I asked them for some prepayment. Here… There is not a lot of money, but it is definitely enough for us to live the days here."

"What? Is this even possible?" Cha-Eun Xiao widely opened his eyes in shock.

When he ran the salesroom in the Land of Han-Yang, he would never allow such a thing to happen. No matter how precious the items were, the salesroom would never lower the charge, and that prepayment thing was definitely a joke to him. In fact, he was quite surprised that the salesroom business in the Human Realm Upon Heavens appeared to be even lower managed than the Land of Han-Yang.

"They wouldn't be so kind to normal clients. What we are selling are too rare, aren't they? Those people might not have the chance to see such precious things in their lives if not for us. How could they not give us special treatments? Besides, they are quite sure that we won't run away from this."

The Dark Evil Spirit grinned and said, "Well, truth to be told, I think they would love to see us running away with these purple spirit coins they gave us, because they could keep the money for themselves, and we are never going to claim the metals back."

"Well, that's true. How much did they give us? One thousand purple spirit coins?" Cha-Eun Xiao laughed and casually looked into the space inside the ring. As he saw what was in it, he was shocked. "Is this real? This is so much! How much money?"

"Twenty thousand purple spirit coins."

The Dark Evil Spirit seemed to be quite proud, and said, "Well, it isn't much. I guess twenty thousand purple spirit coins is roughly ten percent of the total money we can get for the sale."

"Listen, do not use the money yet. Go find a place where we can make our next move. Just find it, but do not draw any unnecessary attention." Cha-Eun Xiao blandly said.

"Master, you are new to the martial world. I don't think you know how much this really means… With ten thousand purple spirit coins, we can buy no matter what place it is we like!" The Dark Evil Spirit kept his eyes open and said in confusion.

"I guess you are even more ignorant than me! You are more like new to the martial world!" Cha-Eun Xiao said angrily, "You just got this money from the salesroom, and then a super-rich guy suddenly appeared in the City of Chaos and bought a huge piece of land and house… Guess what, the salesroom only needs to think about it carefully, and they will figure out that we own the precious metals!"

"Now, do you want me to continue?" Cha-Eun Xiao was angry. "If people know that we are the owner, do you think we can survive the midnight tonight? If I am in charge of the Brotherhood Alliance, the first thing that came into my mind was to kill whoever has the metals. They will think that we may have more precious treasures like that, and they definitely know that we have at least two thousand purple spirit coins. If we die, they can keep all the money from selling the metals in the auction!"

The Dark Evil Spirit started to shed cold sweats. His face turned colorless because of the fear in his heart. He became the Pale Evil Spirit now.

As Cha-Eun Xiao said, if they spent the money and drew attention from others, they put themselves on the opposite side against the Brotherhood Alliance. It was foolish to talk about morality with such a fierce force… They might get themselves killed before the sun rose!

"That is so f*cking scary!" The Dark Evil Spirit was scared, and said, "Master, are you sure the Brotherhood Alliance will be this vicious?"

"They are not just vicious. They just do whatever they have to stay strong. You are being careless." Cha-Eun Xiao stared at the Dark Evil Spirit and blandly said, "Old Dark, if you keep thinking and doing things this way as you did today, I am afraid…"

The Dark Evil Spirit was sweating badly.

"Master, I will remember the lesson. I won't make the same mistake again." The Dark Evil Spirit was terrified.

At this moment, Cha-Eun Xiao's gaze actually made the Dark Evil Spirit's heart strained.

It was the power of the person in the domineering position.

That invisible power made the Dark Evil Spirit feel scared.

…

The Connecting Hall of Heavens was the biggest inn and restaurant in the City of Chaos.

On the top floor, there was a room, which was the best in the inn.

Master Xiao was still wearing his white clothes. Quietly, he sat on the balcony, staring far away at the sky and rivers.

"Master, there is good news." A person walked into the room cautiously.

"Oh?"

"The three metals that you want, I have found two of them in the City of Chaos."

"Where are they? Who has them?"

"The Brotherhood Alliance"

"I see…"

"The Brotherhood Alliance just sent me a message that they have received the Brocade Steel and the Feather Bronze from a client. Two big blocks of them…"

"What?" Master Xiao slightly frowned and said, "Only these two?"

"Well, they have received more. They got the Star Trace Iron, the Great Dao Gold, and the Chaos Silver. There are five special metals. Master, you have just come to this city, and there are five rare metals showing up in the city. The heavens do bless you, my honorable master."

"I don't think it is this simple." Master Xiao frowned and blandly said, "It would cause a great stir for any one of these five special metals that appears in the world. Now, these five metals are in the market at the same time. That is abnormal. Moreover… The Great Dao Gold and the Chaos Silver are both much more valuable than the Cosmos Iron. In fact, even the Feather Bronze and the Brocade Steel are better than the Cosmos Iron. This is planned. There are people behind all this…"

"The Brotherhood Alliance got five special metals all of a sudden, but there is no Cosmos Iron, which is easier to get than the others."

"It just doesn't make sense."

"Besides, this whole thing… It just makes me feel weird. I told people that I needed these metals, and then the two of them appeared… Is there… Is there anybody plotting this? Is this a trap?"

Master Xiao's eyes showed a flash of fierce sharpness, and he said in a deep voice, "Give our men an order to check it out."

His voice turned deep, but it sounded indifferent.

The air around him was suddenly twisting. A voice suddenly sounded from nothing in the air. It was somebody responding to Master Xiao. "Yes, Master."

The next moment, the space twisted again, and everything became normal.

It seemed somebody was in the room, but now had gone. Perhaps, there was somebody in the room, but now somebody else took his place…

"However, an opportunity or a dangerous trap, my vertical bamboo flute may be finished right here in this city. This time, my vertical bamboo flute will be the world's best." Master Xiao muttered and said. In his eyes, there was the light of hope.

"As the jade vertical bamboo flute appeared, endless chaos will roll over the world." He murmured, "I guess it is telling the truth…"

There was something Master Xiao missed though. He might be able to collect all those metals he needed in this city.

However, he never was going to make a jade vertical bamboo flute.

It could be an iron vertical bamboo flute, a steel vertical bamboo flute, a bronze vertical bamboo flute… maybe a gold vertical bamboo flute or a silver vertical bamboo flute… Well, it couldn't be jade vertical bamboo flute!

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