Jian Huiyin and the sect elders stared in shock at the items placed on the negotiation table.

There were five crystals on the table, each with a different color.

Those were elemental stones of the five elements. And they weren’t just any stones — they were mid-grade elemental stones, something they had never even dared to dream they might one day see.

“Our sect will exchange these for your techniques, spells, and heritages. I imagine you can guess what they are, even if you’ve never seen them before.” Bao Hui placed his palm on the table and leaned over his arm, smiling at the people on the other side who stared eagerly at the stones, practically drooling.

Aotian was certain they had never seen such things before. Maybe not even low-grade ones had been seen more than a few times in their lives.

Jian Huiyin stepped forward, staring at the elemental stones. Even the beautiful and usually indifferent sect leader couldn’t completely hide the desire in her eyes.

She looked at Tian Zhu and asked expressionlessly:

“May I?” She pointed at the crystals with an open palm, asking permission to pick them up.

The value of these things was enormous, so she didn’t dare act rashly.

Tian Zhu simply nodded, unconcerned.

Picking up the gray elemental crystal in her palm, she could immediately feel the rich and pure elemental power, something beyond anything she had ever seen in her life.

“How is this possible?!” She murmured, stunned.

For a Golden Core sect, it was only once every few hundred years that a few rare elemental stones might fall into their hands. This showed how rare these stones were, requiring an extremely unique elemental environment to be created.

Finding an area completely overwhelmed by a single element was very difficult. Finding such a place inside a spiritual mine was even rarer.

Even then, places with such conditions, even in this massive continent, were few — and usually limited to a small area inside a spiritual mine that, through many coincidences and luck, created a natural feng shui capable of condensing these single-element stones.

Finding a mine capable of generating even one elemental stone was already an immense stroke of luck. And without exception, if more than one type of element existed in the environment, the stones formed would just be ordinary spirit stones.

Another problem was that the mines of this continent — except for those that had become spiritual veins — were all natural low-grade mines, producing only low-grade spirit stones. Consequently, the elemental stones formed were also low-grade.

Besides that, other factors contributed to the extremely small number of elemental stones.

Thus, seeing elemental stones of all five elements, and mid-grade ones at that, gathered there, was shocking.

‘What kind of sect is this Infinite Dao Sect? How did they obtain these elemental stones? Could they have discovered a way to manipulate spiritual veins without damaging them? No, that’s nearly impossible…’ Jian Huiyin secretly glanced at Tian Zhu, curious and slightly terrified by the possibilities.

Tian Zhu noticed the look but only stared back indifferently.

Aotian, through Elder Bao’s perspective, seeing the atmosphere set, smiled and spoke:

“Very well, my dear friends of the Bamboo Sword Sect, our sect proposes that we deal with this in pure monetary value and not by real commercial value.” Bao Hui said, drawing everyone’s attention to himself.

“Our elemental stones cannot be found elsewhere, just like your techniques. Even though we still come out slightly ahead in commercial value due to the rarity of our product, we’ll round things off and level the field to make calculations easy for everyone.” He continued, making all the Bamboo Sword Sect elders watch him attentively.

“For each technique, heritage, or Founder-Tier spell your sect has that ours does not, we’ll value it at 1,000 mid-grade spirit stones. Of course, it might seem strange and unfair to you that the price for all three, which vary greatly, is set at the same level.” He said, smiling, while picking up a mid-grade elemental stone from the table and swinging it back and forth in his hand.

The Bamboo Sword Sect members’ eyes followed the stone in Bao Hui’s hand like dogs eyeing a bone, but even hypnotized, they still nodded, agreeing that the price seemed unfair.

“But if we balance the injustice, everything gets better, right? The injustice on our side will be valuing each mid-grade elemental stone at the idealized price, meaning one elemental stone will be worth 1,000 times that of a mid-grade spirit stone. That way, for each jade slip you provide us, you will receive one mid-grade elemental stone. What do you think?” He said mischievously, flipping the stone into the air before catching it and knocking it against the table, snapping everyone out of their trance.

“Y-You’re telling the truth?” The Grand Elder of the Bamboo Sword Sect asked with wide eyes and a trembling voice.

Even he, the Grand Elder, couldn’t contain himself.

The value of a mid-grade elemental stone was incomparable to that of a low-grade one.

Normally, low-grade stones were useful only for Qi Refinement and Foundation Establishment cultivators, while mid-grade stones were useful for Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators.

The major problem was that for a Foundation Establishment cultivator, a much larger quantity of low-grade elemental stones was needed compared to Qi Refinement — and a Nascent Soul cultivator followed the same pattern regarding mid-grade ones.

Thus, the few existing low-grade elemental stones on this continent were never particularly coveted by Golden Core sects simply because, even though they were more effective and efficient than using spiritual veins for cultivation, their quantity was too small to be truly useful.

And now, faced with a large number of elemental stones — and mid-grade ones no less — how could they not feel euphoric?

Trembling, the Grand Elder glared at the sect elders, his face flushed red with rage.

“Why are you all still standing there?! Go fetch copies of everything we have in the library! If you forget anything, you might as well forget about continuing as members of the Bamboo Sword Sect!” He growled.

The elders widened their eyes at his words, but they were also excited, and without hesitation, they rushed off, causing quite a commotion.

Jian Huiyin said nothing about the elder’s command and tacitly agreed. This was a great opportunity for her sect, and she wasn’t going to let it slip away.

Bao Hui shook his head, amused.

“I haven’t even mentioned yet that we’ll be giving 100 mid-grade spirit stones for every Golden Core-Tier technique, heritage, or spell you bring.” He smiled at the Grand Elder, who widened his eyes and held his breath.

Quickly, the Grand Elder turned his face to Jian Huiyin with a pleading look. When it came to Golden Core-Tier techniques, he didn’t dare give orders without the sect leader’s approval.

The Bamboo Sword Sect leader felt a little embarrassed by her usually calm Grand Elder losing his composure, but she understood.

Elemental stones weren’t just a method for cultivation — they also allowed cultivators to break through barriers much faster than relying on spiritual veins.

Thus, the Grand Elder, who was stuck at the final stage of Foundation Establishment, now had a very good chance to reach the Golden Core realm with these elemental stones.

Even she could likely break through to the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm. After all, she had been stuck at her current level for years, not because of a lack of talent, but simply because the spiritual vein energy of the sect wasn’t pure or strong enough for her golden core to advance.

With her talent, she could still force her way through with inferior nourishment, but it would take a very long time and grow increasingly difficult with each level.

So she, too, was very excited about the elemental stones.

“Go.” She said indifferently.

Though excited as well, her face, trained in indifference, remained the same.

“Yes!” The Grand Elder responded enthusiastically, running off himself to fetch the items.

No one thought much about whether the Infinite Dao Sect might be lying. After all, the Infinite Dao Sect had already defeated them and had shown mid-grade elemental stones, proving they really possessed them and intended to negotiate.

Thus, without delay, jade slips after jade slips began to be sent into the hall.

In reality, for each Founder-Tier technique, Aotian was paying only 1,000 low-grade spirit stones — that is, the value of just 10 common mid-grade spirit stones.

The widely available Founder-Tier technique he had purchased back at Black Rock Mountain had cost him 500 mid-grade spirit stones. Meaning he was now paying almost nothing for these high-quality, exclusive techniques of the Bamboo Sword Sect.

As for the Golden Core-Tier techniques, he was paying 100 mid-grade elemental stones, but Bao Wuji only needed 100,000 low-grade spirit stones to synthesize that amount.

Again, the Founder-Tier technique he had previously bought for 500 mid-grade spirit stones equaled 500,000 low-grade stones — meaning he could now buy 5 Golden Core-Tier techniques for the price he once paid for a single Founder-Tier one.

‘Bao Wuji, you are my money angel!’

Aotian thought excitedly and gave himself a pat on the shoulder through Bao Wuji’s body.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep