Chapter 73: Eighty Per Hammer, Mutated Fire Dragon Source
Chapter 73 – Eighty Per Hammer, Mutated Fire Dragon Source
Hearing this, Chen Changsheng scrutinized the massive boulder before him and said.
“Only a thousand pounds? Is that not a bit cheap?”
“This rock must weigh at least four or five thousand pounds!”
Hearing this, the overseer sneered disdainfully and replied, “In theory, exchanging this stone would indeed require four to five thousand pounds of God Source.”
“However, considering how ‘sincere’ of a guest you are, I naturally must offer a discount.”
Ignoring the overseer’s sarcastic venom, Chen Changsheng carefully scrutinized the stone signboard once more.
After thoroughly sweeping it with his Divine Sense, Chen Changsheng nodded.
“The price is fair. However, I only have three hundred pounds of God Source on my person. Could you offer a brief grace period?”
“I will go gather the remaining funds and return to purchase it. Would that be acceptable?”
As soon as these words left his mouth, the overseer’s face darkened into a thundercloud.
“Esteemed guest, I fear that arrangement will not suffice.”
“Today, you leave with only two choices. First, produce one thousand pounds of God Source and buy this stone.”
“Second, we throw you out.”
Sensing the mounting killing intent, a crowd of onlookers swiftly gathered around.
After all, witnessing a public humiliation was always an entertaining diversion.
As for the threats spat by the Kunlun Stone Workshop’s overseer, Chen Changsheng paid them no heed whatsoever.
He had stood face-to-face with countless supreme entities; a few insignificant ants could not shake his Dao heart.
He held his temper entirely because he wished to avoid unnecessary friction.
Besides, arriving at a merchant’s doorstep only to demand their grand signboard was indeed a rather brazen provocation.
Just as Chen Changsheng prepared to rummage through his spatial storage for a cheap artifact to use as collateral, a crisp voice rang out.
“I will cover the one thousand pounds of God Source.”
Turning his head, he saw the Saintess of the Purple Mansion stepping forward.
Recognizing the Saintess’s arrival, the workshop overseer’s hostility instantly melted into an obsequious smile.
“Wang Defa pays his respects to the Saintess.”
“Dare I ask, Saintess, is this Daoist a friend of yours?”
“No.”
Hearing this, Wang Defa’s expression immediately twisted into one of troubled hesitation.
“Saintess, the Purple Mansion Holy Land has always shared deep karmic ties with the Kunlun Holy Land.”
“Given our amity, why extend your hand to a troublemaker seeking to disrupt our operations?”
Facing Wang Defa’s interrogation, the Saintess replied with an indifferent tone.
“A stone workshop exists to sell stones. Any rock placed here is for sale. I wish to purchase this boulder. Is that forbidden?”
“Of course not! Since the Saintess desires it, eight hundred pounds of God Source will suffice.”
Smack!
The Saintess tossed a heavy beast-skin pouch into the overseer’s hands, but Chen Changsheng, standing to the side, frowned in displeasure.
“Hold on, what are you all playing at?”
“I never said I was abandoning the purchase. This is overstepping, isn’t it?”
Hearing Chen Changsheng’s words, Wang Defa shot him a frosty glare. “Brat, do not be blind to heaven’s grace.”
“If the Saintess had not intervened to break the siege, you would not be walking out of the Kunlun Stone Workshop alive today. Beg her pardon and offer your thanks immediately!”
While Wang Defa spat his venom, the Saintess glided gracefully toward Chen Changsheng.
“This stone is yours.”
The Crowd: ???
Chen Changsheng: ???
This abrupt shift in fortune not only left the surrounding onlookers completely dumbfounded, but even Chen Changsheng found himself submerged in a fog of confusion.
“Miss Saintess, searching my memories, I do not recall us ever crossing paths.”
“Why gift me this boulder? Eight hundred pounds of God Source is no meager sum.”
“Converted to standard measurements, that equates to a staggering eight million Spirit Stones!”
Meeting his suspicion, the Saintess’s luminous eyes did not ripple in the slightest.
“Eight hundred pounds of God Source is trivial.”
“If you are willing to swear loyalty to the Purple Mansion Holy Land, I will gladly offer eight thousand pounds of God Source.”
Hiss~
Hearing this price, the entire hall sucked in a collective breath of frigid air.
Eight thousand pounds of God Source—that staggering sum could purchase the severed head of a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator!
“Eight thousand pounds of God Source is a bit stingy; that price is not quite enough to buy my path.”
“I would rather pay you eight hundred pounds for this stone.”
With that, Chen Changsheng boldly grabbed the Saintess’s delicate hand and slapped his own beast-skin pouch onto her palm.
“Here are three hundred pounds of God Source. I will owe you the remaining five hundred for a moment. I will settle the debt shortly.”
Chen Changsheng then reached behind his back and retrieved a massive, crude iron hammer, spitting into his palms for grip.
“Eighty!”
Boom!
The five-thousand-pound boulder violently shuddered as a massive corner was obliterated by Chen Changsheng’s strike.
Witnessing this barbaric display, Wang Defa’s complexion turned pitch-black.
Because this thuggish brutality completely violated the delicate art of extracting God Source. While the crystallized essence was incredibly dense, a strike so tyrannical could shatter the treasure within.
This bastard was deliberately here to smash their signboard. Once the Saintess departed, Wang Defa swore he would grind his bones to dust.
Accompanied by Chen Changsheng’s bizarre, rhythmic shouts, the Kunlun Stone Workshop’s signboard was battered into ruin.
After exactly nine hammer strikes, the originally colossal boulder was reduced to a mere washbasin-sized fragment.
By this point, almost every onlooker was absolutely convinced Chen Changsheng was a lunatic seeking death at the Kunlun Stone Workshop.
But the Saintess’s gaze alone remained utterly impassive.
She had observed this man at the teleportation array.
At that time, while the surrounding prodigies gaped at her manifested vision in awe, he alone remained unfazed.
To be precise, his eyes lacked that profound reverence of the weak.
Such hollow indifference stemmed from only two possibilities: either his cultivation far eclipsed hers, or he had slaughtered beings far more terrifying than her.
In either scenario, this individual was worth binding with karmic ties.
Eight hundred pounds of God Source—this investment was not expensive in the slightest.
……
After the ninth strike, Chen Changsheng channeled every ounce of his physical might, bringing the iron hammer down for a final, earth-shaking blow.
“Eighty!”
As the chant hit the floor, a sinister, bloody radiance erupted from the cracked stone.
Some veteran gamblers who haunted the stone workshops instantly screamed, “A hit! The stone surged!”
Seeing Chen Changsheng successfully unearth God Source, not only did Wang Defa stand paralyzed in shock, but even the Saintess betrayed a flicker of surprise.
The stones in the workshop had all been rigorously appraised by a Master; the probability of missing a concealed core was incredibly minuscule.
For this man to actually squeeze God Source from a discarded slab of waste rock proved he was absolutely no ordinary entity.
Peeling away the final layers of dead crust, Chen Changsheng dug his fingers in and extracted two blazing, mutated God Sources.
These two chunks of God Source differed in size; the larger one matched a grown man’s fist, while the smaller resembled a bird’s egg.
Weighing them in his palm, Chen Changsheng turned to the Saintess and spoke.
“I am not well-versed in the market value of mutated God Source. The Purple Mansion Holy Land oversees its own gambling dens; perhaps the Saintess would care to appraise this haul?”
Hearing his request, the Saintess swept her gaze over the blazing crystals in his hand and said.
“The Kunlun Holy Land once excavated a small mountain of raw ore from the Sacred Ruins.”
“From its depths, they finally extracted a crimson core shaped like a coiling dragon. Thus, this specific mutated lineage was crowned the Fire Dragon Source.”
“One pound of Fire Dragon Source commands the price of one hundred pounds of ordinary God Source.”
Nodding in satisfaction at the price given by the Saintess, Chen Changsheng casually tossed the egg-sized Fire Dragon Source to her.
God Source is terrifyingly dense. Even a fragment that small weighed a solid five or six pounds.
Converted to standard rates, that tiny crystal perfectly settled his debt.