Chapter 16: The Monkey King's Nine Transformations

  As this man died, the outcome of the battle was also decided. There wasn't a moment to spare as those evil men under Wei Jiu's command fell one after another. With the end of the battle, Wang Hai and others finally let out a sigh of relief, looking towards Meng Qiu with shock in their hearts. With the same cultivation base at the middle stage of Qi Refining, he had almost instantly killed Wei Jiu, who was at the peak of Qi Refining, with just one punch shattering the Blood Escape Symbol. This kind of terrifying strength was already enough to challenge a high-ranking expert at the early stage of Yin Spirit.

  "Brother Meng, you're really something!" Wang Haibing gave a thumbs up: "I used to think that our strengths were evenly matched, even if one of us was slightly weaker, it wouldn't be by much. But now that I take another look, the difference is huge."

  Meng Qiu smiled slightly, and Wang Haibing's flattery didn't take hold in his heart. In his view, even if he defeated the initial characters of the Dark Spirit, it wasn't anything to brag about. Many people could do that, and being complacent because of this was just narrow-minded.

  Then everyone gathered together and distributed another batch of spoils from the dead men. They searched those villains' bodies and found quite a few things, which added up to over ten thousand taels of gold.

  Then, carrying the unconscious Taoist, he returned directly to Yun Tou Shan, reported it, and after further investigation, a large sum of door contribution was finally confirmed, with Meng Qiu alone receiving over 3,000 points, almost equivalent to completing a major door mission.

  Meng Qiuxin was secretly delighted, and with the wealth he had obtained from that Taoist, this time he could be said to have made a lot of gains, making him suddenly rich. If compared to others in terms of property, among all the black-robed disciples on Yun Tou Shan, he would be one of the top two.

  However, when he arrived at Yubaozhai in Jinhua City with great enthusiasm, he found that his current status seemed not to be taken seriously.

  Yu Bao Zhai appears to be an ordinary antique shop on the surface, but in reality it is a store that specializes in doing business with cultivators. It buys medicinal materials, demon beast essence blood, broken pieces of magical instruments, heavenly treasures and earthly riches, and sells even more things, including military weapons, Taoist robes, armor, spirit talismans, various kinds of elixirs, and occasionally even low-grade magical artifacts will appear.

  Meng Qiu walked into the Yu Bao Zhai, which was not very large inside. There were many ornaments on display, but nothing seemed special. A shop assistant saw a customer coming in and immediately came over to greet him, smiling: "This noble guest, is there anything our humble store can help you with?"

  Meng Qiu knew the rules, and directly showed the token of Yun Tou Mountain. The fellow took a look and his eyes lit up immediately, saying: "So you're a senior brother from Yun Tou Mountain, please come in!" He led Meng Qiu to the back hall, then upstairs into another large hall. As soon as Meng Qiu entered, he was startled - unlike the quiet atmosphere outside, it was bustling with people, all of whom were cultivators. From their clothes and attire, many were from Yun Tou Mountain, while others were from other aristocratic families and sects, as well as some scattered cultivators.

  Because there were too many people, Meng Qiu's arrival didn't attract attention. He quietly followed the shop assistant to the front of a large counter. Behind the counter stood a middle-aged shopkeeper with a smile all over his face, extremely polite: "This noble guest, my surname is Zhang, you can just call me Old Zhang. Looking at you, I think you're one of the new talents from Yun Tou Mountain recently!"

  "Mr. Zhang is being polite." Meng Qiu smiled and clasped his fists, saying: "I've long heard that Yubaozhai is one of the top two or three great merchant guilds in the world, with countless branches everywhere. Today, I see it's indeed prosperous." After some small talk, Meng Qiu got straight to the point: "This time, I came mainly to buy some elixirs for cultivating and strengthening my physical body. Does Mr. Zhang have any recommendations?"

  "Refining body elixir?" Zhang the shopkeeper smiled slightly, rummaged behind the counter for a moment, and handed Meng Qiu a catalog: "Take a look at this."

  Meng Qiu swept her eyes over:

  Dragon Blood Easy Jing Dan, one pot ten grains, worth a thousand taels.

  Ape Demon Forging Bone Dan, one gourd ten pieces, worth a thousand taels.

  Nine-turn Blood Dan, one gourd with five pellets, worth a thousand taels.

  Wudu Liuhe Dan, one gourd with five pellets, worth a thousand taels;

  ……

  Meng Qiu looked at the list from top to bottom, and there were twenty-three kinds of Dan medicine listed on it. The most expensive Da Mo Zhuan Tian Dan was worth a thousand taels of gold per grain.

  "Good grief! This elixir is too expensive, the cheapest Long Blood Easy Elixir and Ape Demon Forging Bone Elixir cost at least a hundred taels of gold per pill. With my limited savings, I'll be penniless after just a few purchases." Meng Qiu couldn't help but smile wryly in his heart, originally thinking he had struck it rich with the sudden windfall, only to find himself still as poor as ever upon entering this Jade Treasure Pavilion.

  However, he thought about it and decided that spending money was not a problem at all. He pointed directly to the second ape demon's Bone Tempering Dan: "Give me twenty jars of this."

  Zhang was taken aback, not expecting Meng Qiu to be so generous. Originally, he didn't take Meng Qiu seriously because of his youth, but who knew that when it came to buying things, he would be so extravagant? With one stroke of the pen, two million taels of gold were spent, a sum that was no small matter, even in the Yu Bao Zhai, where such a large transaction might not occur once a month.

  Zhang's eyes widened in surprise, and the smile on his face became even more sincere. He hastily walked out from behind the counter and said to Meng Qiu, "Honored guest, please come with me to a private room to talk."

  Meng Qiu didn't stand on ceremony, after all, it was a public place, and taking out 20,000 taels of gold at once would be too showy. So he followed Zhang the shopkeeper directly into an inner chamber. Then Zhang immediately ordered his apprentices to prepare, and in a short while, two apprentices, one in front and one behind, carried out twenty jars of Yuanmo Lian Gu Dan.

  "Please check it out, sir." Zhang the shopkeeper pointed to these small porcelain bottles filled with medicine, but Meng Qiu waved his hand and said: "No need, I trust Yubaozhai's reputation."

  In fact, Meng Qiu only had a superficial understanding of pharmacology, even if he was shown it, he wouldn't be able to figure it out, so it's better to just be straightforward.

  As expected, Zhang Guan saw him being so generous and couldn't help but look up to him even more, thinking that a mere 20,000 taels of silver was nothing in his eyes. In fact, he didn't know that these 20,000 taels of gold were already half of Meng Qiu's assets, it's just that this money came easily and wasn't painful for him to spend.

  As for Meng Qiu, why he chose to take the Monkey Demon Refining Bone Dan, it wasn't a random decision. Other strengthening dan medicines may be good, but they aren't suitable for his current situation. This time, he spared no expense in purchasing the refining body dan medicine precisely because he wanted to cultivate the divine ability of the Transforming Wind and Fire Monkey, and after obtaining the Hundred Transformations Beast Technique last time, he made up his mind to cultivate it.

  However, this divine ability has extremely high requirements for the physical body. If one cannot meet these requirements and rashly cultivates it, during the transformation process, their bones will shatter and their flesh will scatter, which is essentially equivalent to suicide.

  Meng Qiu's physical strength is clearly still 108,000 miles away from cultivating this divine ability, but fortunately, there is a body-refining technique attached to this divine ability called the Nine Transformations of the Ape Demon.

  Before, Meng Qiu had long wanted to cultivate a strong body technique that could be used in conjunction with the Ten Dragon Ten Elephant Technique, but he hadn't qualified for it and hadn't obtained the technique. This time, obtaining the Ape Demon Nine Transformations was just what he needed, like receiving charcoal in snowy weather, making him overjoyed and determined to cultivate this technique, not only to master the divine ability of changing into a Wind Fire Magic Ape, but also to help his progress in cultivating the Ten Dragon Ten Elephant Technique.