Nine Dragons Saint Ancestor
Chapter 194 Black Key

Chapter 194: 194 Black Key

"You really know how to pick, don’t you!"

Yun Xiao made a bitter face as he strode to the front of the big plate full of fiery red substance, first complained about it, yet he began to inspect what exactly it was.

The reason for his heartache and complaint was because the first thing Yun Xiao saw was "Three Hundred Points" written in large characters beside it. So many points were almost enough for him to exchange for the main ingredients needed to refine highly poisonous substances.

However, after getting over the heartache about its worth of three hundred points, Yun Xiao became curious. While scrutinizing, his powerful memory searched and he finally recognized what this substance actually was.

"It turns out to be a hundred-year-old Fiery Fire Ganoderma, that’s quite rare!"

With Yun Xiao’s powerful memory from his past life, naturally, it did not take much time to discern the details of the substance. Strictly speaking, it was a type of Ganoderma, and such a substance is not very useful if it is too young.

But once the age of Ganoderma reaches above fifty years, it becomes a treasure that everyone dreams of, because after being tempered by nature’s spiritual energy and combined with the Ganoderma’s inherent spirituality, if consumed by a cultivator, it would certainly greatly enhance their strength.

It’s just that Ganoderma over fifty years old was rare to find, let alone a hundred years old. Yun Xiao had reasons to believe that this plate of hundred-year-old Fiery Fire Ganoderma, as large as a millstone, must have been acquired by the Outer Sect of the Jade Pot Sect at a great cost.

Fiery Fire Ganoderma is one of the many types of Ganoderma. It grows in a special place and, over decades or even a century, it produces a very rich fire attribute inside. No wonder the Vein Demon, Chi Yan, who is also of the fire attribute, was so interested in it.

Encountering such a plate of Fiery Fire Ganoderma in the Outer Sect’s Mysterious Artifact Hall, one must say that Yun Xiao and Chi Yan were quite lucky. And after understanding the details of the Fiery Fire Ganoderma, those three hundred points didn’t seem so painful anymore.

"Wow, you little guy got quite the bargain!"

Yun Xiao spoke with a peculiar tone, while already placing his points card on the Light Shield of the hundred-year-old Fiery Fire Ganoderma. After a flash of light, Chi Yan could no longer wait and leaped off from Yun Xiao’s shoulder.

Ever since meeting Chi Yan in Yurong Mountain, Yun Xiao had treated it like a brother and a companion, hence he did not hesitate just now.

Although three hundred points were rare, if the Fiery Fire Ganoderma could truly enhance Chi Yan’s strength significantly, then it would be worth it for Yun Xiao. Having many enemies within the Jade Pot Sect, a powerful ally was undeniably a great benefit.

Swoosh!

Chi Yan jumped onto the stone platform, and Yun Xiao did not stop it, knowing some of Chi Yan’s special techniques. It was better to let it deal with such things on its own.

Chi Yan jumped onto the stone platform, opened its mouth, and then the hundred-year-old Fiery Fire Ganoderma, as large as a millstone, disappeared without a trace. If outsiders saw this, their eyes might pop out in shock.

But Yun Xiao knew that Chi Yan was a Fire Cloud Rat, and one that was extraordinary at that. It had its own space inside its body, which was much more convenient than a cultivator’s Waist Storage.

"Alright, are you satisfied now?"

Seeing Chi Yan happily return to his shoulder, Yun Xiao deliberately laughed. He had already gathered the main ingredients for his poison refining and did not need to stay in the Mysterious Artifact Hall any longer.

However, just as Yun Xiao turned around, intending to head towards the exit on this second floor, his heart suddenly stirred, and he quickly turned around, looking towards a certain place in the depths of this second floor.

"What is there...?"

Feeling something, Yun Xiao murmured to himself, then raised his right arm, and saw a blood-red crescent mark on the palm of his hand, emitting a faint bloody glow at that moment, looking extremely mysterious.

Yun Xiao now knew that this crescent-shaped mark was transformed from the Blood Moon Jade left to him by his father in this life, the mysterious figure he had never met.

This mark from the Blood Moon Jade indeed brought Yun Xiao the chance to be reborn, allowing him, whose meridians were completely destroyed, to have a strong cultivation talent once again, and even activated his first Ancestor Vein when he broke through to the Meridian Introduction Realm.

But it was precisely because of this Blood Moon Jade that the Shang Family met with disaster, and even in Yun Xiao’s heart, his mother and sister of this life were killed in that conflict by those who annihilated his clan.

Judging from these events, it was hard to say whether the Blood Moon Jade brought good or bad fortunes to Yun Xiao, but when he felt something in the depths of the Mysterious Artifact Hall triggering a reaction from the Blood Moon Jade, he still instantly became exceedingly interested.

The first time Yun Xiao entered the Jade Pot Cave, a similar situation occurred. However, the Jade Pot Cave was divided into nine levels, and the thing he sensed on the third level was out of his reach, so he could only put it aside for the time being.

But on the second floor of the Mysterious Artifact Hall, Yun Xiao had no such reservations. Sensing the warmth in the palm of his hand, he did not hesitate for a moment and headed straight for the deeper part of the second floor.

The Mortal Rank Advanced medicinal materials that were originally here already counted as part of the deeper sections of the Mysterious Artifact Hall, but as Yun Xiao swiftly walked further, he discovered some bizarre items.

These items, which were clearly what Song Tian had mentioned before, most seemed to have no use, and the points required to obtain them were even higher than those needed for the Fiery Fire Ganoderma.

Perhaps this was Jade Pot Sect’s way of testing the eyesight of Outer Disciples or maybe to let them realize that treasures can’t be attained without effort.

After all, among these oddities were genuine and fake items; without keen eyesight and luck, one might spend hundreds of points only to get a worthless stone.

At this moment, Yun Xiao held little interest in these strange items and followed the guidance of the Blood Moon Mark in his palm, heading straight to the deepest part of the second floor of the Mysterious Artifact Hall.

Here, there were many Light Shields erected, and inside one of these inconspicuous Light Shields, there was a three-inch long Black Key on a stone platform.

"Is this the item that triggered the reaction from Blood Moon Jade?" Yun Xiao murmured as he looked at the plain Black Key through the Light Shield, even noticing rust spots on it.

If it were an ordinary person, they might not even give this key a second glance, believing that those in power at Jade Pot Sect had mixed a normal key amongst a multitude of treasures in order to confuse people’s senses.

But Yun Xiao was different. The ordinary and even somewhat shabby Black Key caused an unceasing warmth in his palm, and the closer he was to the key, the thicker the blood-red light of the crescent-shaped mark on his palm.

Yun Xiao was certain that this inconspicuous Black Key was somehow connected to the Blood Moon Jade, and even to his never-met father.

Now that Yun Xiao believed his mother and sister to have vanished from the cultivational path, aside from finding his enemies, his greatest wish was to find his father, whom he had never even met, to ask why all of this had happened.

With his thoughts whirling, Yun Xiao finally moved his gaze away from the Black Key to a few small characters next to it, and upon seeing them, he couldn’t help but inhale sharply.

"One thousand points, this... this is just sheer robbery, isn’t it?"

His eyes wide, Yun Xiao had thought the key’s special quality could only be sensed by him, and that Jade Pot Sect had placed it there merely as decoration, not requiring many points.

But the "one thousand points" written there still made Yun Xiao feel like cursing. It far exceeded the category of peculiar items listed for Outer Disciples, as the most points he had seen for an item, a Fiery Fire Ganoderma, was only three hundred.

As for the other Mortal Rank Advanced medicinal materials, like the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures Yun Xiao had previously exchanged, they didn’t even cost two hundred points. So why did this broken key suddenly require one thousand points?

Previously, when Yun Xiao exchanged for several main medicinal ingredients, he spent over six hundred points, and later, exchanged a Fiery Fire Ganoderma for Chi Yan, spending another three hundred points.

It might be a coincidence, but at this moment, the points on Yun Xiao’s points card were exactly one thousand, as if fate had played a joke on him, causing him to be extremely conflicted.

If this key, like the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures before, only costed two or three hundred points to exchange, he would not be so conflicted.

Or if Yun Xiao’s points card didn’t have enough for one thousand points, he would dispel this impractical notion and decide to come back another day.

But because Yun Xiao had precisely one thousand points on his points card, and because the key gave him such a peculiar feeling, he was exceedingly conflicted at this moment.

Yun Xiao didn’t want to miss out on the Black Key that could cause Blood Moon Jade to react, but at the same time, he was extremely pained by the hard-earned one thousand points.

After all, these were points he had barely managed to grab from Feng Hang after risking his life, and to spend them on an unknown Black Key left him somewhat unwilling.

"These damn old guys!"

In this moment, Yun Xiao couldn’t help but curse inwardly. He believed this one thousand points was definitely the doing of those influential Elders of Jade Pot Sect, it was as if they were stabbing him in the heart.

If any other Outer Disciple were standing here, they probably wouldn’t be as conflicted as Yun Xiao, and might even mock his state of conflict. One broken key, what makes it worth a thousand points? This seemed like something only a fool would do.

But precisely because of the reaction from Blood Moon Jade, Yun Xiao was caught in a profound dilemma, his gaze fixed on the four characters "one thousand points" behind the Light Shield and grinding his teeth, his figure not moving an inch for a long time.