novelraw Chapter 372: Self-Creation of the Golden-Hooped Staff
Chapter 372: Self-Creation of the Golden-Hooped Staff
"Does the young friend still have any peak-grade Spirit Fire?" someone in the crowd asked reluctantly, seeing that the peak-grade Spirit Fire had already been traded.
"No, given the rarity of peak-grade Spirit Fire, having two is already quite fortunate. How could there possibly be more?"
"But I do have many high-grade and middle-grade Spirit Fire on hand. You might want to consider those," Long Xuan replied with a smile.
In truth, he did have one more peak-grade Spirit Fire, but he had no intention of trading it. It might prove useful in the upcoming alchemy competition.
Hearing this, the person showed a disappointed expression and sat back down.
Shortly after, all kinds of Spirit Fire on Long Xuan’s table were quickly snatched up. Spirit Fire, after all, were highly sought after at an alchemist trade fair.
Long Xuan received a large number of treasures in return. However, he regretted not finding any divine beast essence blood or peak-grade wine during this trading session.
Though there were high-quality wines available, none were of the peak grade required for the evolution of the Wine Gu.
Wine is categorized into low, middle, high, and peak grades. To trigger the evolution of the Wine Gu, at least a peak-grade wine is needed, and it cannot be an ordinary peak-grade wine.
Since peak-grade wine wasn’t available here, Long Xuan could only try his luck elsewhere. After all the Spirit Fire on his table were cleared out, he still wasn’t willing to give up. He said, "If no one has peak-grade wine, does anyone have information about its whereabouts? I am willing to trade for a middle-grade Spirit Flame."
This statement immediately stirred interest among the crowd. Trading a single piece of information for a middle-grade Spirit Flame was undoubtedly a great deal. Soon, someone raised their hand.
"I know the whereabouts of a peak-grade wine."
"Just a piece of information for a middle-grade Spirit Fire? Are you telling the truth?"
The speaker was a skinny old man, who looked at Long Xuan with expectant eyes.
Long Xuan smiled. "With so many third-grade alchemists here to witness, how could I go back on my word?"
"I’d think not!" The skinny old man chuckled and quickly used soul transmission to tell Long Xuan the supposed location of the peak-grade wine.
However, after just a few words, Long Xuan’s expression darkened.
To avoid being deceived, Long Xuan had kept a small opening in his insect pouch throughout the trading session. Inside, a Integrity Gu was crawling.
At this moment, the Integrity Gu grew furious and was about to crawl out of the pouch. Long Xuan quickly pressed down on it to keep it inside.
"Enough! Your information is entirely fabricated. Do you truly take me for a fool?" Long Xuan said, his face dark as he glared at the man.
Hearing this, the skinny old man’s expression changed drastically, his eyes filled with disbelief.
Indeed, he had intended to use fake information to obtain a middle-grade Spirit Fire. What he didn’t expect was for Long Xuan to see through his lie so effortlessly. He was now at a loss, wondering how his deception had been uncovered.
But unwilling to accept the loss of his reputation, the old man immediately shouted:
"How dare you! After hearing the whereabouts of the peak-grade wine, you refuse to honor the deal? To save a single middle-grade Spirit Fire, you’ve accused me of lying. Such cunning!"
"So that’s why you were willing to trade a middle-grade Spirit Fire for information! It turns out you never intended to give it away in the first place! How shameless!"
The skinny old man’s voice grew louder, his eyes red with anger as he pointed at Long Xuan, his finger trembling. His performance was so convincing that many alchemists in the crowd were taken in, looking at Long Xuan with skeptical eyes.
Faced with their doubts, Long Xuan laughed in exasperation. He knew that if he couldn’t prove himself, no one would dare trade with him again.
Though he had initially intended to keep the Integrity Gu a secret, he realized he had no choice but to reveal it.
"Such nonsense! If I lacked the means to verify the truth of the information, how could I dare to conduct such transactions?"
With that, Long Xuan opened his insect pouch, and a small head of the Integrity Gu emerged, its gaze full of fury directed at the skinny old man.
Long Xuan quickly pressed the Gu back into the pouch, not allowing the crowd to see it fully. Then he turned to the skinny old man and sneered:
"What do you have to say now? Are you going to claim that the Integrity Gu of the Qian Clan Chamber of Commerce can be deceived?"
As expected, the crowd’s suspicion quickly dissipated. The alchemists now looked at the skinny old man with disdain.
Those closest to him even moved their chairs away, unwilling to associate with him.
The truth was now clear: the skinny old man had intended to deceive Long Xuan with fake information.
Many alchemists felt a lingering fear. Some of them had also considered using false information to trade for treasures but were now glad that the skinny old man had "stepped on the mine" first. Otherwise, their reputations would have been ruined.
Seeing the Integrity Gu, the skinny old man turned pale. Cursing internally, he thought, Why didn’t he say earlier that he had a Integrity Gu? If I’d known, I wouldn’t have dared to lie!
Now, he was utterly humiliated. With everyone glaring at him, he realized his reputation was thoroughly ruined.
Unable to endure the scornful gazes, he angrily flicked his sleeves and fled in disgrace.
"I can’t believe he stooped so low. I misjudged him. You mustn’t misunderstand; I barely know him."
"Hmph! I always suspected there was something off about him. Who knows how many times he’s done this before? I bet many people who bought his pills were scammed."
"Truly, you can never know someone’s true character. I feel deeply ashamed for having doubted the young friend."
Inside the room, a group of people began to speak sarcastically, their words filled with disdain for the thin and frail elder.
This was just a small interlude. Just as Long Xuan was about to step down, a female spiritual voice transmission echoed in his mind:
"Master, please wait. I happen to have information about a peak-grade spiritual wine, though obtaining it might be a bit challenging."
"You have the Integrity Gu. You can easily determine whether I’m telling the truth."
Hearing this, Long Xuan stopped in his tracks, his gaze faintly directed toward a beautiful third-rank alchemist in the corner.
"Go ahead. As long as the information is genuine, I’m not concerned about the difficulty or the danger for now," Long Xuan replied through a spiritual voice transmission, anticipating the news she was about to share.
"Alright! Then I’ll tell you. I can say with absolute certainty that in the Ten Thousand Monkey Mountain, those monkeys have brewed a substantial amount of Monkey Wine."
"Among them is a rare quantity of Ten-Thousand-Year Monkey Wine, which even the Monkey King is reluctant to drink."
"Ten-Thousand-Year Monkey Wine ranks among the top-tier spiritual wines. It is said to have a miraculous effect of slightly enhancing wisdom if consumed regularly, perfectly meeting your requirements."
"However, I must warn you, there are fourth-tier Spirit Monkeys on the Ten Thousand Monkey Mountain, and not just one or two. The Ten-Thousand-Year Monkey Wine is their most cherished treasure. Obtaining it will undoubtedly be extremely difficult and perilous. Otherwise, humans would have taken it long ago."
"If you’re planning to target the Ten-Thousand-Year Monkey Wine, you’d better think it through."
The beautiful alchemist kindly reminded Long Xuan via spiritual voice transmission.
Long Xuan channeled his spiritual energy into his insect bag. Seeing that the Integrity Gu showed no reaction, he knew the information was true and immediately felt delighted.
It seemed that after the alchemy competition, he would need to make a trip to the Ten Thousand Monkey Mountain. Long Xuan made a mental note.
"Very well. My Integrity Gu tells me your information is genuine. Here’s a mid-grade Spiritual Fire for you."
Long Xuan took out another mid-grade Spiritual Fire from his storage ring and tossed it to the beautiful Gu cultivator.
The beautiful Gu cultivator caught it with a smile, checked the fire in the bottle, and happily stored it in her bag.
Long Xuan stepped down from the platform. The third person to take the stage was the beautiful Gu cultivator.
When she reached the table, she took out a damaged fourth-grade Artifact Blueprint from her pouch and said with a smile,
"This is a damaged fourth-grade artifact blueprint of peak quality. Unfortunately, the name is missing from the damaged part, so its name remains unknown."
"However, from the illustration, it’s clear that this is a staff-type spiritual artifact."
"Approximately less than 10% of the blueprint is missing. Artifact blueprints are easier to repair than pill recipe. If handed to a skilled artifact refiner, this blueprint could definitely be restored."
"To prevent anyone from memorizing the blueprint, I’ll only display half of it."
"I’m looking to trade it for a third-grade pill recipe. If more than one person is interested, the higher-value recipe will take precedence. Who would like to trade?"
The beautiful alchemist looked expectantly at the audience.
However, she was destined to be disappointed. After she spoke, no one responded for a long time. The silence was so pronounced it felt like crows flying by, leaving the atmosphere somewhat awkward.
She blushed slightly, not expecting her first treasure to fail so completely. It was rather embarrassing.
At this moment, the Ninth Prince finally broke the silence with a laugh:
"You’ve come to the wrong place. I remember you’re proficient in both alchemy and artifact refining, right? But this is a special exchange for alchemists. Everyone here is an alchemist. Who would care about an artifact refiner’s materials?"
"Moreover, what you’ve brought is a damaged blueprint. Such items are hard to verify as genuine. Anyone could scribble some materials on paper and call it a damaged blueprint."
"Besides, what you’ve taken out is an artifact blueprint, already beyond the expertise of the alchemists here. No one can verify its authenticity, so who would dare trade with you?"
Many alchemists nodded slightly. Although artifact blueprints were of no use to them, a fourth-grade peak-quality blueprint was rare. It could be traded with a fourth-grade alchemist for valuable items.
What truly held them back wasn’t that it was an artifact blueprint but their inability to confirm its authenticity, leading to the awkward silence.
The only one capable of verifying this blueprint might be Long Xuan.
When Long Xuan saw the progress bar on the blueprint, he knew it was authentic.
He wasn’t particularly interested in artifact blueprints, but the staff drawn on this blueprint resembled the Golden-Hooped Staff, making him pause.
An audacious idea suddenly struck him.
In this world, the birth of a heaven-defying spiritual artifact could trigger tribulation lightning.
Could he replicate the Golden-Hooped Staff from his previous life, complete with its extraordinary abilities to grow or shrink at will—small enough to become a needle, large enough to pierce the heavens, and weighing thousands of pounds? A single strike would be fatal or crippling.
Such a heaven-defying artifact should be able to summon tribulation lightning, right?
If it could summon the Ninth Tribulation Lightning of Reincarnation, perhaps his Tribulation Gu could devour it and undergo a second evolution.
Although he used knife instead of stick, the Monkey King of Ten Thousand Monkey Mountain would surely love the Golden-Hooped Staff.
What if he disguised himself as a fourth-grade artifact refiner and used the Golden-Hooped Staff to trade with the Monkey King for the Ten-Thousand-Year Monkey Wine?
An open trade would be much safer than stealing it. Besides, he had no chance of stealing it from a group of fourth-tier Spirit Monkeys.
Using the Golden-Hooped Staff to exchange for the Ten-Thousand-Year Monkey Wine might indeed be an excellent choice. It would allow him to evolve both his Tribulation Gu and Wine Gu, achieving multiple goals at once.
With this thought, Long Xuan decided to acquire the damaged artifact blueprint.
Creating the Golden-Hooped Staff would require some reference material, and the blueprint for a peak-grade staff artifact in the hands of this beautiful alchemist would undoubtedly be of great use.