Chapter 238: Chapter 157: The Man Who Killed You Is Cao Wunian of the White Bone Sect

The exchange meet continued.

In the second round, Xiao Chen took out fifty bottles of Blood Piercing Pills.

Once again, he drew the astonished gazes of the crowd.

Because it could enhance one’s combat capabilities, this elixir was also restricted.

Furthermore, like the Iron Bone Pill, it was a new type of elixir whose recipe had only been cracked a few months ago. There were no previous stockpiles of it.

Currently, the only official channels to acquire it were through the Lingyuan Sect, the Li Huo Sect, and the Four Seas Sect.

The gazes fixed on Xiao Chen were filled with curiosity and confusion.

They couldn’t fathom how he had managed to obtain so many of these new elixirs.

"The Blood Piercing Pill is also an elixir from the Divine Fire Sect. It can stimulate a Cultivator’s potential during battle, temporarily increasing their Magic Power by ten to twenty percent for one hour."

"The price is the consumption of one’s own Vitality, after which they will be plunged into a state of weakness for nearly six hours."

Xiao Chen stated his condition with a smile, "I’m still looking to trade for various Cultivation Spiritual Objects."

This time, however, only two people offered Spiritual Objects for trade.

Top-tier Wood Element Spiritual Objects were rare to begin with, and with eight portions having already been traded away, everyone’s stockpiles were depleted.

"Xiao, I have about three taels of Flame Light Spiritual Sand here. I wonder if I could trade them for three bottles of Blood Piercing Pills."

Just as the atmosphere was about to turn awkward, a tall, slender, masked Cultivator suddenly spoke up, proposing a new trade.

This was one of the unique features of the exchange meet.

Participants could negotiate with each other and offer different items as bargaining chips. As long as they could persuade the other party, a deal could be made.

Xiao Chen’s eyes lit up when he saw the familiar Flame Light Spiritual Sand.

Ever since obtaining the Advanced Cultivation Technique for the Luotian Profound Fire Crow, he had been thinking about finding more Flame Light Spiritual Sand to facilitate his cultivation of the next three Realms.

Especially now that he had the Yang Fire Seal, the power of his Fire Element Skills had increased tremendously, making them an absolute priority to practice.

He simply hadn’t had the chance to gather Red Flame Spirit Sand before.

Since he had encountered it here, he naturally couldn’t pass up the opportunity. "Of course, no problem. I happen to need some Flame Light Spiritual Sand myself."

Seeing this, the others quickly took out other items to trade.

Even though Xiao Chen emphasized that he was only accepting Flame Light Spiritual Sand, the remaining dozens of bottles of Blood Piercing Pills were also snatched up in an instant.

After all, Blood Piercing Pills were the kind of thing that was useful to have, even if you only traded for a single bottle to keep as a backup.

And as it happened, Flame Light Spiritual Sand was one of Hezhou’s specialties, so many of those present had at least some in their possession.

Three more rounds of exchanges followed.

However, after the previous two rounds, there was nothing left that Xiao Chen wanted to trade for.

So, he simply retrieved two Earth Level Magic techniques and a complete set of talisman-making tools from his Storage Bag—all of which were enthusiastic contributions from Lu Wuqiang.

He set the price in Spirit Stones and held a simple on-the-spot auction.

He successfully traded them for 2,900 Spirit Stones.

By the time the final round of the exchange meet was over, it was already half past midnight.

Qiu Qichen invited everyone to stay and rest in the guest rooms, and he made special arrangements to give Xiao Chen a brand-new room.

This room was situated by a pond, with half of the structure suspended over the water.

Through the latticed floor inside, one could see koi fish swimming in the pond below.

Besides offering a fine view of the night scenery, the room’s greatest feature was that it was not easily flammable.

The next morning, Xiao Chen went to the central courtyard’s living room early, intending to bid farewell to Qiu Qichen.

To his surprise, he found everyone gathered in the courtyard, engaged in a heated debate.

"It must be the work of the White Bone Sect! They have a history of this." 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"Not necessarily. The White Bone Sect has practically vanished in the last year. If you ask me, it’s the Divine Fire Sect trying to stir up trouble."

"Sigh... regardless, for something like this to happen during the New Year festival... these are truly troubled times."

...

Xiao Chen inquired further and learned that a major heist had occurred just last night in the Black Flame Mountain Range.

The Black Flame Mountain Range was located at the border between the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers and the Lingyuan Sect’s territory. The mountains were rich in an ore called Flame Crystal Stone.

This material wasn’t particularly valuable; it was a very common raw material for Fire Talisman Making.

There were many other places that produced it, but they were all rather scattered.

Normally, it wasn’t something worth a Foundation Establishment Cultivator’s time, but Flame Crystal Stone had a unique characteristic.

It was unstable and could be detonated by an attack from Fire Magic, releasing the Fire Spirit Power stored within.

Furthermore, when one Flame Crystal Stone exploded, it could trigger a chain reaction, causing any other Flame Crystal Stones within a one-chi radius to detonate as well.

If a sufficient quantity of Flame Crystal Stones were piled together, they could be used to create a massive, violent explosion.

For this reason, the Lingyuan Sect had stationed a seventh-level Foundation Establishment Cultivator there, specifically to guard the warehouse where the Flame Crystal Stones were stored.

As it turned out, last night at 7 p.m., a Demon Cultivator suddenly broke into the Spirit Ore mine, killed the guardian Cultivator, and blasted open the warehouse, stealing all the Flame Crystal Stones stored inside.

A late-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator had been killed in battle, and the whereabouts of a massive quantity of Flame Crystal Stones were unknown.

This bombshell news spread throughout the entire Lingyuan Sect’s territory overnight.

Some observant people immediately recalled that a similar incident had occurred more than eighty years ago.

That time, also during the New Year, a Demon Cultivator from the White Bone Sect had raided the Spirit Ore mine and stolen a large amount of Flame Crystal Stones.

Then, on the day before the Lantern Festival, he buried all of them inside a city and detonated them.

The blast directly obliterated the entire city’s mortals, along with its Qi Refining Cultivators—tens of thousands of people in total—reducing them all to ash.

The sole survivor, the Foundation Establishment Clan Leader of some minor family, was also beheaded by the Demon Cultivator, his head impaled on an iron pole and displayed in the very center of the sea of fire.