Chapter 543 - 494: Ruins, Ten Thousand Souls Banner

Chapter 543: Chapter 494: Ruins, Ten Thousand Souls Banner

Eight thousand miles northwest of Bazhou City, a Sky-Breaking Flying Boat floated, concealed within a Void Gap.

Inside the Flying Boat’s cabin, the faint aroma of tea lingered as steam gently rose. Three people sat around a table, the atmosphere as tense as ever.

"Sister, if I remember correctly, you met Elder Chu because of my injury, right?"

Sensing Xie Yu’s anxiety, Zhao Yu spoke up, subtly shooting a look at Zhao Shuang.

Zhao Shuang paused for a moment, then glanced at the silent Xie Yu. She nodded instinctively and began to explain, "Yes, it was because your Divine Soul was injured that I met Elder Chu. He refined a Soul Cleansing Pill for you, and then there was the matter with the Secret Realm..."

"Later, in Jingmen, when Zhao Yu was captured, it was Elder Chu who stepped in to help..."

As she spoke, Zhao Shuang couldn’t help but look at Xie Yu, saying tentatively, "Xie Yu, you don’t need to worry so much. Elder Chu..."

Before she could finish, Xie Yu, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke up. "I’ve heard of this Elder Chu before."

"Don’t forget, Elder Chu once served my clan in Jingmen."

Xie Yu shook his head. "I’m not worried that Elder Chu has malicious intentions."

"If he really meant us harm, he wouldn’t need to be protecting us like this..."

Zhao Shuang asked tentatively, "Xie Yu, are you worried about the inheritance?"

"We’ve already missed the best opportunity. From here on, I’m afraid we won’t be able to succeed with our Cultivation alone."

"If we were to ask Elder Chu for help..."

Xie Yu hesitated.

Zhao Shuang spoke slowly, "In our previous dealings with Elder Chu, he has always been very trustworthy..."

"For this matter, if we’re going to ask for his help, it would be best to lay everything out in the open and settle the terms beforehand. Judging by his current attitude, he should still be willing to consider our past relationship..."

"Sigh... I hope so..."

Xie Yu shook his head and sighed, his brow deeply furrowed.

Seeing this, Zhao Shuang opened her mouth to speak but then stopped, ultimately saying no more.

Silence fell over the cabin once more. The Array Prohibition on the Flying Boat continued to circulate, isolating it from the outside world and cutting it off completely.

In a True Understanding booth at the Overlord Saber Alliance Auction House, the rich aroma of wine filled the air. Chu Mu drank alone, watching the Magic Technique projection before him with great interest.

The projected image shifted, showing every detail of the Sky-Breaking Flying Boat, both inside and out.

Right in the center of the image was the scene inside the Flying Boat’s cabin. Every minute change in the trio’s expressions, every word they spoke, was clearly displayed on the projection.

’Ruins... an inheritance?’

Chu Mu took a sip of Spirit Wine, a thoughtful look on his face.

This fact wasn’t hard to deduce.

Ever since he arrived in Bazhou City, even without deliberately asking around, he had heard countless rumors about that piece of Nine Heavens Profound Gold.

He had only needed to wander around the city for a short while to get a clear picture of what had happened.

The whole affair began with the Overlord Saber Alliance’s annual auction.

Or rather, it began with one of the auction’s finale items: a Tier Four Forbidden-Breaking Talisman!

According to the rumors circulating in Bazhou City, the three of them had come for that very Tier Four Forbidden-Breaking Talisman.

And it was to purchase that Tier Four Forbidden-Breaking Talisman that the piece of Nine Heavens Profound Gold had appeared.

What happened next was a matter of course.

For mere Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators, possessing such a large piece of Nine Heavens Profound Gold was a crime in itself.

In a situation like this, no power in the Cultivation Immortal Realm would have let Xie Yu and his companions leave safely.

The Overlord Saber Alliance was naturally no exception.

But the question was, what was so alluring about that Tier Four Forbidden-Breaking Talisman that it would make the three of them willing to take such a huge risk?

The answer was undoubtedly clear as well.

Breaking Charms, whether Low Tier or High Tier, have only one function: breaking prohibitions!

And as the name implies, their effect is naturally used to break through Array Prohibitions.

The space-breaking Jade Talisman that the True Demon had given him back in the East Lake Secret Realm was, in fact, also a type of prohibition-breaking item.

With a Tier Four Forbidden-Breaking Talisman, if one could find the right node in an array, and if that Grand Array was unmanned, it wouldn’t be impossible to break through even a Tier Four Array.

Considering their conversation just now, the most likely possibility was that they had information about the location of ruins containing an inheritance.

So-called ’inheritances from ruins’ mostly refer to the remnants left behind by Ancient Cultivators.

Take the current chaos in Great Chu, for example. Countless factions have been destroyed. While the Longevity Sect has likely plundered the vast majority of their wealth and resources, there are undoubtedly remnants left behind.

Over the long course of time, these remnants become forgotten, giving rise to countless legends of lucky individuals in the Cultivation Immortal Realm.

And any such remnants would obviously have necessary protective measures, be it Array Prohibitions or even a separate pocket dimension. Whatever the case, it’s highly unlikely that mere Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators could break into the ruins and obtain the inheritance.

Anything that a mere Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator *could* break into would not have survived through the long ages.

That’s precisely why they were so desperate to obtain that Tier Four Forbidden-Breaking Talisman...

’Interesting...’

Chu Mu looked at the projection again, the corners of his mouth lifting into a faint smile.

A moment later, he waved his hand, and the projection vanished. His gaze shifted, settling on the auction floor below.

The auction had been underway for a long time. One rare item after another, seldom seen in the outside world, appeared and was sold for prices that most could only dream of.

Although most of the items had little to do with the Low Tier Cultivators in the audience, as it was primarily Foundation Establishment and even Golden Core Cultivators who were bidding, the parade of rare treasures and their extraordinarily high prices had whipped the auction floor into an indescribably fervent clamor.

"Next is the ninety-eighth item of this auction: the Top Grade Treasure, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner! Its Main Soul is a Tier Three Perfect Tiger Shark Soul, and it was refined by gathering the souls of ten thousand Cultivators and Demon Beasts..."

The man lifted his hand, and a massive, jet-black Giant Banner, seething with Yin Qi, materialized before him. As Magical Power flowed through it, a terrifyingly Mighty Power emanated from it, growing stronger as the man spoke.

"This treasure was consigned to our alliance for auction by a Perfected Person. The starting bid is five thousand Upper Grade Spirit Stones. Other Spiritual Objects may be used as payment."

Finally, a shockingly high price was announced. But even this terrifying figure did nothing to dampen the heated atmosphere of the auction floor.

The instant the man announced the starting bid, several offers rang out one after another: six thousand, seven thousand...

At this moment, Upper Grade Spirit Stones, which were precious even to Golden Core Cultivators, seemed to have become as worthless as scrap paper!

Even Chu Mu sat up a little straighter, looking somewhat stunned.

He had seen plenty of Hundred Souls Banners, Thousand Souls Banners, and even Ten Thousand Souls Banners.

But this was the first time he had ever seen a Ten Thousand Souls Banner that was also a Top Grade Treasure!

Given the cruelty of the Cultivation Immortal Realm, creating a Soul Banner with not just ten thousand, but a hundred thousand or even several hundred thousand souls was not difficult.

But to refine a Soul Banner into a Top Grade Treasure, it was about more than just the number of souls.

It required not only quantity, but also quality!

For a Top Grade Treasure like the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, every single Divine Soul used in its creation must have belonged to someone who had reached at least Tier One Perfect Cultivation in life!

Ten thousand Divine Souls meant the deaths of ten thousand Cultivators or Demon Beasts, all of whom were at least at Tier One Perfection.

And that was just the basic requirement for refining a Top Grade Treasure like the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.

The refining process also required a massive number of additional Divine Souls as forging material to nourish the ten thousand main souls and make them corporeal, only then could the Soul Banner’s Mighty Power be guaranteed!

To forge this Top Grade Treasure, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, would have required an ocean of blood and a Corpse Mountain Blood Sea!

Chu Mu silently watched the fervent atmosphere of the auction. As he saw the bidding prices far exceed the normal value of a Top Grade Treasure and even start to become absurd, his initial flicker of interest died down.

He had only been tempted by the ten thousand Divine Souls within it, forged from countless bloody massacres. If the price was too high, then even though ten thousand souls were rare and precious, they were not essential for him.

In the end, the Top Grade Treasure, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, perhaps because of its special nature, was sold for the sky-high price of over thirteen thousand Upper Grade Spirit Stones.

A million, or even several million, Lower Grade Spirit Stones might not be much to any Golden Core Cultivator.

But over ten thousand Upper Grade Spirit Stones...

Even for a Nascent Soul Great Power, that was likely no small sum.

Staring at the final, almost terrifying price, Chu Mu couldn’t help but be flabbergasted.

He had spent years aggressively accumulating wealth in the Demon Suppression Islands, and to this day, he had only managed to gather several thousand Upper Grade Spirit Stones.

And now, this single Magical Treasure was worth more than several years of his efforts.

The price was absurd compared to a normal Top Grade Treasure, but when considering the banner’s refining process, it almost seemed a bit cheap.

The fall of at least several hundred thousand living beings, a Corpse Mountain Blood Sea to forge this one Ten Thousand Souls Banner... and its final value was a little over thirteen thousand Upper Grade Spirit Stones. It was both cheap and absurd.

"Due to certain developments, the auction for the Nine Heavens Profound Gold, one of our finale treasures, will be temporarily suspended. As a replacement, and to express our alliance’s sincere apologies, a Supreme Elder has specially offered one of his personal treasures as an additional finale item."

"The ninety-ninth item of this auction: the Cyan Lotus Earth Core Flame..."

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