Chapter 129: The Mad Dragon Squad

Yi Tian and his companions returned to Desolate Qin City. By then, three or four months had passed since the forces of Gulan City had attempted to ambush them and seize the Blood Bodhi Fruits they carried. Until their return to Desolate Qin City, they had not encountered any interference from the Lan Family of Gulan City.

Perhaps the Lan Family had assumed that Yi Tian and the others had already left.

Upon arriving in Desolate Qin City, Yi Tian and his companions headed straight for the trading district.

When Yi Tian saw the trading district, he found it filled with countless stalls built of jade. Each stall displayed treasures radiating powerful fluctuations of primordial energy. Magical treasures shone with brilliant light, while jade boxes held precious spirit herbs and bottles of spiritual pills.

The trading district was crowded and bustling, with people constantly coming and going. Every person there exuded a powerful aura as they haggled ceaselessly with the stall owners.

Some stalls were enormous, occupying the space of more than a dozen ordinary stalls. Their vendors were uniformly dressed in the robes of various sects and were selling talismans, magical treasures, spiritual pills, and other wares on behalf of their sects. Every item was a rare and exquisite treasure.

The disciples of those sects, however, were all rather arrogant. Whenever anyone came to inquire about their goods, they responded only with cold indifference.

Even so, the sect stalls still attracted large numbers of cultivators eager to purchase their treasures. If not for the exorbitant prices, those goods would probably have been sold out long ago.

The trading district was far livelier than the mission district.

Large numbers of teams that had returned from completing missions with abundant resources gathered here to conduct their trades.

In the mission district, one could earn points by completing missions, and those points could be exchanged for Dragon Crystals. However, the vast majority of cultivators did not exchange their points for Dragon Crystals, Primordial Crystals, or other cultivation resources.

After all, points could be exchanged for Dragon Crystals and the like at any time, whereas Dragon Crystals could not be exchanged for points.

Thus, points were extremely valuable.

The problem was that completing point missions required a great deal of time and effort. In the eyes of many cultivators, it was not worth the cost. Given the same amount of time, they could venture outside to explore and obtain far more resources.

Yi Tian and the others went to the main hall of the trading district and rented an ordinary stall for one day at the price of a single Dragon Crystal.

In the trading district, goods could be sold only from a rented stall. Anyone who conducted private transactions would not only forfeit the protection of Desolate Qin City but might also receive a warning from the city—or even be expelled.

The members of the Samsara Battle Team soon found their stall.

They placed a small portion of the Golden Armor Fruits on display and marked them with a price.

“Captain, you’re selling more than a thousand Golden Armor Fruits all at once for a thousand Dragon Crystals. Isn’t that far too expensive? Won’t it scare everyone away?”

When Yi Feng and the others saw the price of one thousand Dragon Crystals, they were utterly bewildered.

Their captain had actually set such an outrageous price. A thousand Dragon Crystals was a sum that very few factions could afford.

“If this were before, I wouldn’t dare sell them at such a price,” Yi Tian said. “But after coming here, I discovered that although Dragon Crystals are still rare, they aren’t in short supply. There are far more of them than Primordial Crystals. Therefore, the foundations of some factions are not as shallow as we imagined.”

Yi Feng, Yi Li, and the others thought it over and realized that he was indeed right.

Near Desolate Qin City was an ancient crystal mine still being excavated. It had been formed from the vital essence of an ancient heavenly dragon and was a mineral deposit that gave birth to Dragon Crystals. The quantity produced each year was probably immense. Even after being divided among the various sects and organizations, each received a considerable share.

While Yi Tian and his companions waited for buyers to arrive, a small team of three approached. Their eyes swept across Yi Tian’s stall, and the golden sheen of the Golden Armor Fruits made them pause.

“Golden Armor Fruits!”

The three-man team came to a stop in front of the Samsara Battle Team’s stall. One after another, they examined the golden fruits displayed there. Their color, size, and fragrance were all identical to those of genuine Golden Armor Fruits.

“There are actually Golden Armor Fruits here! Wonderful! Our Snow Lion Team is going to the Ten-Thousand Bee Nest to harvest Bee Essence Nectar. With Golden Armor Fruits, our defenses will be absolutely secure!”

A young man of twenty-seven or twenty-eight could not conceal his delight.

“Golden Armor Fruits are incredibly rare. I never expected us to come across them here. A single Golden Armor Fruit is enough to condense a layer of golden armor over our bodies, and it can last for half an hour. That should be more than enough for this operation.”

A burly man beside him smiled, his dark face breaking into a grin.

The final member of the Snow Lion Team, however, stared in astonishment at the price marked on the stall.

“O-one thousand Dragon Crystals!”

He could hardly believe his eyes.

A Golden Armor Fruit normally sold for no more than several hundred or perhaps a thousand high-grade Primordial Stones.

In the trading district of Desolate Qin City, the official exchange rate for a single Dragon Crystal or Primordial Crystal was one hundred thousand high-grade Primordial Stones. As for mid-grade and low-grade Primordial Stones, almost no one used them for transactions here.

The other two men finally came to their senses. When they saw the price marked on the stall, they too were badly startled.

The price was simply outrageous.

“Wait. It says that one thousand Golden Armor Fruits cost one thousand Dragon Crystals!”

The leading man noticed the detail. But when he saw the quantity of Golden Armor Fruits, he was even more shocked. The stall owner was actually offering more than six thousand Golden Armor Fruits for sale.

Impossible!

This man had lived in Desolate Qin City for several decades. Relying on his strength as a peak Human Rank expert of the Primordial Law Realm, he had built the Snow Lion Team with his own hands. In Desolate Qin City, it was already considered a formidable force.

Yet even here, the largest sale of Golden Armor Fruits in several decades had amounted to no more than a hundred or so.

That single appearance of more than a hundred Golden Armor Fruits had even sparked a bidding war among disciples of several sects.

The effect of an individual Golden Armor Fruit was not particularly impressive. It merely allowed a cultivator to cover their body in golden armor for a short period, granting them formidable defenses. Once the time passed, the medicinal power would gradually fade.

The more Golden Armor Fruits one consumed, the longer their effects would last—even for several months or several years.

Once more than a hundred Golden Armor Fruits were refined together, they could transform the body into an elementary Golden Armor Body, granting permanent defensive power comparable to that of an ordinary low-grade magical treasure.

If a thousand Golden Armor Fruits were refined together, one could cultivate an intermediate Golden Armor Body, comparable to a transcendent-grade low-grade magical treasure.

To cultivate a truly perfected Golden Armor Body, one needed at least several thousand or even ten thousand Golden Armor Fruits. Once the Golden Armor Body reached perfection, even a peak-grade low-grade magical treasure would find it difficult to injure the body.

Golden Armor Fruits were merely the lowest-grade spirit fruits. If not for their ability to create a Golden Armor Body, the primordial energy they contained would hardly qualify them as even low-grade spirit fruits.

The three Primordial Law experts of the Snow Lion Team were utterly stunned.

Then they hurriedly departed.

Before long, news of six thousand Golden Armor Fruits appearing in the trading district swept through the entire Desolate Qin City like the wind.

The news was tremendously shocking to all Human Rank experts.

More than six thousand Golden Armor Fruits was an enormous quantity. Their sudden appearance created an immense disturbance.

Soon, a group of people arrived at Yi Tian and his companions’ stall.

“You want a thousand Dragon Crystals for these Golden Armor Fruits? Isn’t that far too expensive?”

The group consisted of more than a dozen people. Every one of them possessed a powerful aura, and nearly all were cultivators of the Primordial Law Realm. Among them were even three peak Human Rank experts of the Primordial Core Realm.

After receiving the news, they had rushed over immediately.

Yet when they saw the asking price, they could not help being shocked. A thousand Golden Armor Fruits cost a thousand Dragon Crystals—an astonishingly expensive price, equivalent to one Dragon Crystal for each fruit.

Ordinarily, a Golden Armor Fruit sold for only four or five hundred high-grade Primordial Stones.

The Golden Armor Fruits in Yi Tian’s possession had thus risen in price by more than a hundredfold.

“The Berserk Dragon Battle Team is here!”

Some nearby cultivators watching the scene recognized the dozen or so newcomers and called out in hushed voices.

“Of course the Berserk Dragon Battle Team couldn’t sit still after several thousand Golden Armor Fruits appeared at once. If they manage to obtain those fruits, they may gain several more Primordial Core-level combatants. At that point, the Berserk Dragon Battle Team could very well break into the top three battle teams in Desolate Qin City.”

Yi Tian heard the surrounding martial artists discussing the Berserk Dragon Battle Team and already knew something about them.

Apart from solitary experts, Desolate Qin City was home to many powerful cultivators who had joined together to form small teams, battle teams, and even battle corps numbering dozens or hundreds of people.

The Berserk Dragon Battle Team was renowned throughout Desolate Qin City and ranked among the top ten of all battle teams.

Compared with the Berserk Dragon Battle Team, Yi Tian’s six-man Samsara Battle Team was far inferior in both reputation and strength.