Chapter Fourteen: Night Raid

  "Ugh, it's that broken thing again. Every time they bring it out for auction, it never sells." The cultivator in the Qi Refining stage four couldn't help but complain.

  Ishikawa couldn't help but interrupt: "Excuse me, fellow Taoist, what exactly is this thing?"

  "That thing, it's just a toy to fool kids. It's said to be from some ancient ruins, and can summon four golden puppet warriors. But those puppets only have the strength of a first-level Qi Practitioner. Isn't that laughable?"

  "It's just that if it were cheap, it would be fine, but Jin Baozi had to say that the owner of this thing wants to exchange it for refining materials, and he opened his mouth so wide, only a fool would trade with him." Another cultivator seemed to have seen this before.

  "So that's how it is, thank you both." Isogai said, but in his heart he was already calculating.

  For Ishikawa, materials like Xuan Tie and Jing Jin are available in abundance. Moreover, they're not even being used up by Ishikawa now, so it's a waste to just leave them there.

  In addition, the special material of this golden book attracted Ishikawa. Ishikawa thought that if he threw the golden book into the earth mother stone, would it decompose some special refining materials? If he could get a little rare material, it was worth exchanging all his refined gold and mysterious iron for it.

  Thinking of this, Ishikawa said loudly: "I have a liking for this thing, dare I ask how much Xuan Tie can be exchanged for?"

  The entire hall fell silent in an instant, and Ishikawa's words, which were not loud, made them dare to believe their ears. Especially Jin Baozi, for a whole year, this golden book had been ignored by everyone, but under the pressure of his old friend's face, he still took it out every time to occupy a auction position.

  "What does this little friend want?" Jin Baozi was overjoyed "Eighty taels of top-grade Xuan iron will do."

  "Eighty taels of top-grade Xuan Iron!" The crowd erupted, eighty taels of Xuan Iron should be the size of a fist, worth several thousand pieces of spirit stone. With so many spirit stones, one could buy an excellent magic tool, who would spend that much on something useless?

  "This is expensive!" Ishikawa's face showed a difficult expression, not that he couldn't afford it, but rather he was considering how to take out such a large piece of high-grade dark iron without arousing suspicion.

  "How much can you offer for it? Let's discuss the price." Jin Baozi asked hastily, in fact, he also wanted to get rid of this hot potato as soon as possible.

  "I thought a few taels of spiritual iron would be enough to exchange for it. This thing is just for fun anyway." Ishikawa said with an innocent face.

  Everyone burst out laughing, no need to ask, most people took Ishikawa as a cultivator who didn't understand the price.

  Jin Baozi's face turned blue and white with anger, saying: "This little friend, isn't he deliberately teasing me? If I don't get an explanation from you today, I won't let you off."

  "Hmm! Xuan Tie, I really don't have that much, and there are still over 200 pieces of spirit stone left. I wonder if it's enough." Shi Chuan muttered with a pretended tone of grievance, "Who knew this thing was so expensive? Besides, do we have to buy it just because we asked?"

  "Hmph!" Jin Baozi coldly snorted. "According to the rules here, whoever participates in the auction must win it, otherwise don't even think about leaving this place."

  Everyone made a show of being excited and waited with bated breath for Ishikawa's joke.

  Ishikawa thought that the timing was about right, if they delayed any further, it would probably cause discontent among the crowd.

  "But I really don't. Or should I exchange this for a favor, it's said to be quite valuable." Ishikawa took out something the size of a grain of rice and walked forward to hand it over.

  Jin Baozi's short and stout fingers pinched together, and as he looked at the candle flame, his eyes almost sparkled with stars.

  "Is this Secret Silver?" Jin Baozi asked in a disbelieving tone. Although Jin Baozi was knowledgeable, he couldn't believe that Ishikawa had taken out a piece of extremely precious Secret Silver. Even if it were the size of a grain of rice, it was an extremely rare treasure.

  "This piece of Secret Silver is mine, name a price, little friend." A Foundation Building cultivator sitting in the VIP seat said quietly.

  "You said you would if I did, and I still want to." Another foundation period monk immediately said.

  The two immediately put on a posture of not taking it down and vowed not to give up.

  ……

  "Secret Silver, is it really Secret Silver?" The crowd erupted into waves of astonished cries.

  Ishikawa didn't think that such a small amount of Secret Silver would attract so much attention. Earlier, Ishikawa thought that if he took out a large piece of high-grade Xuan Iron, it would definitely be suspected by others.

  But taking out such a small amount of Secret Silver only shows that it was obtained by luck, and won't reveal one's wealth. However, looking at the current situation, this small amount of Secret Silver has actually driven Foundation Building cultivators crazy, and Shi Chuan still underestimated the rarity and preciousness of Secret Silver. If he had known earlier, he might as well have taken out a piece of Xuan Iron instead.

  "Two seniors, this piece of Secret Silver is something that this young friend and I exchanged for a Golden Book. If you're interested, we can discuss it privately. Shall we continue the auction?" As for these two seniors, Jin Baozi didn't dare offend either one of them, and no matter who he gave it to, it would definitely make the other Foundation Establishment cultivator lose face, so handling this matter privately was the most suitable.

  Two foundation period monks nodded ambiguously.

  The other Qi-refining stage cultivators all lowered their heads, and the two Foundation Establishment stage seniors took notice of them, so they didn't have a share.

  After getting the golden book, Ishikawa lost interest in watching the auction below, because as it went on, the prices of the items being auctioned off became more and more expensive.

  He took out the golden book and began to study it carefully. The intricate patterns on the cover seemed more like a special array than ordinary decorations. In the junk warehouse, Ishikawa had seen many discarded magical tools, including several that held arrays, but the complexity of the array on the golden book was several times greater than those on the tools.

  This is enough to show the extraordinary nature of the Golden Book.

  On the title page of the Golden Book, it describes how to use the Golden Book. It's very simple, just infuse a little spiritual energy and you can summon four first-level golden puppets in the Qi Refining stage. The method of manipulation is also very simple. As for the nine pages behind, they are all blank.

  No need to ask, it's definitely possible to summon even more advanced puppets later on. However, Ishikawa suddenly thought that if he could think of it, everyone else could too, and the owner of the Golden Book hadn't discovered the secret of the last nine pages either. Maybe there was some kind of prohibition in place, or maybe certain conditions needed to be met before it could be unlocked.

  The difficulty will never be too low, otherwise the owner of the Golden Book would not sell it.

  However, it is enough to prove that this golden book has more than just this little ability.

  The puppet on the first page has the strength of the first layer of Qi Refining Stage, so what about the tenth page? Does it have the strength of the tenth layer of Qi Refining Stage?

  Ishikawa couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement, no matter how valuable the secret silver was, as long as some high-level broken artifacts were decomposed, they would be obtained, but such a treasure with development potential was really hard to come by.

  However, on one condition: Ishikawa must be able to unravel the secret of this treasure.

  Half an hour later, the auction came to an end, and people began to take out their own treasures for exchange. Ishikawa also exchanged some elixirs with small pieces of mystic iron and some self-refined artifacts. Apparently, in the first exchange, everyone was very cautious, so the effect was not good, and most people just looked around without taking out any treasures for exchange. Before long, there were hardly anyone left in the hall.

  Ishikawa glanced at the time and it was getting late, so he hurriedly headed in the direction of the Water Spirit Gate.

  All the way, Ishikawa always had a special feeling, as if someone was following him. In order to shake off these people, Ishikawa deliberately detoured through several dense forests, but the speed of the followers behind seemed not slow, and Ishikawa's heart tightened involuntarily.

  In his heart, he was somewhat puzzled. Apart from the piece of secret silver, Ishikawa didn't show off his wealth, and besides, Ishikawa had just made it clear that the piece of secret silver was only something he occasionally obtained. The few hundred pieces of spirit stone on him wouldn't attract the attention of other cultivators, would they?

  Just as he was thinking about it, Ishikawa vaguely saw a figure in front of him.

  "Kid, you can really run fast, almost got away. Hand over the storage bag and I'll spare your life."

  Ishikawa fixed his gaze and found that it was a cultivator of the fifth layer of Qi Refining. His face was covered with black cloth.

  Just as Ishikawa hesitated, the few people following him from behind caught up, two men and one woman. All three of them had cultivation at the fourth layer of Qi Refining stage.

  Ishikawa suddenly shouted in pain and met four people at once, Ishikawa also had no grasp.

  And Ishikawa wouldn't naively think that throwing the storage bag over would allow him to leave easily, these people must have had a plan beforehand.

  "The storage bag is here, I hope this fellow will make it convenient." Ishikawa handed over the storage bag.

  "You're quite sensible!" A sly smile spread across the face of the fifth-level Qi Refining cultivator.

  "Know your limits, I'll let you lose face." Just as the cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining reached out to take the storage bag, Ishikawa suddenly drew a dark-colored treasure sword and swung it down towards his wrist.

  One of his hands was chopped off and fell to the ground. The pain caused the fifth-layer Qi Refining stage cultivator to let out a loud shriek.

  This sword was forged from pure black iron by Ishikawa, although it doesn't have any magic attached to it, its sharpness is exceptional, and if taken to the market, it would be worth a handsome price.

  The most important thing is that this sword is all black, and it's very inconspicuous at night.

  None of the four had expected Ishikawa to strike suddenly, especially since the one with the highest cultivation among them had his palm cut off by Ishikawa in an instant.

  "Kill him for me!" The cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining shouted, covering his severed arm.

  Those two cultivators of the fourth layer of Qi Refining immediately charged forward with swords in hand.

  Ishikawa continued to attack the cultivators at the fifth level of Qi Refining, while releasing four golden puppets from the Golden Book. Although these puppets were only at the first level of Qi Refining, they were enough to hold off the attack for a while.

  In this besieged situation, Ishikawa decided to break through one by one. If he could kill the Qi-refining fifth-layer cultivator, he could also suppress them mentally.

  The cultivator of the fifth layer of Qi Refining was no match for Ishikawa, having lost one arm. In his panic, the talismans and magical instruments he threw out were unable to exert their proper might, and he didn't even have a suitable instrument in hand to withstand the Xuan Iron Sword. For a time, under Ishikawa's fierce attack, he was on the verge of collapse.

  "Two junior brothers and sister, come quickly to save me! Kill this little brat, and all the treasures in his storage bag will be yours." The cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining shouted for help.

  Those two male cultivators in the fourth layer of Qi Refining were attacking the four puppets at a steady pace, seemingly completely ignoring his cries for help.

  As for the female cultivator, she didn't move at all.

  These three people seem to be intentionally letting their guard down. Ishikawa also realizes this, but in a situation like this, Ishikawa doesn't have time to think too much about it - killing one would mean one less threat.

  Half a time later, Ishikawa pulled the Xuan Tie sword out of the chest of a fifth-level cultivator in the Qi Refining stage and turned to face the three people.

  The appearance of the four puppets had been destroyed beyond recognition by two male cultivators in the fourth layer of Qi Refining. Even their internal skeletons and frameworks were exposed.

  But without Ishikawa's orders, these four puppets still persisted stubbornly.

  "Friends of the Tao, leave your storage bags behind and you can leave safely; otherwise, don't blame us three for being impolite." One of the Qi-refining fourth-layer cultivators said in a calm tone.