Chapter 188: Lian Cheng’s Shock-01

Hearing what Lian Cheng said, Pang Hu tilted his head. Then realization dawned on him.

“Ah! You must have come from a faraway place like Jade Bamboo Province, haven’t you?”

“How did you know?” Lian Cheng asked.

“That’s because Jade Bamboo Province is the only province where none of Young Master Wei’s broadcasts have reached. And people there are not wealthy enough to buy a U-Phone,” Pang Hu explained.

“U-Phone? What’s that?”

Pang Hu smiled and shrugged, as if saying, “See?”

Lian Cheng felt a bit irritated at being treated like a country bumpkin. If he were not worried about drawing too much attention, he would have already taught this fatty a lesson.

He quickly calmed himself.

“Then may I buy some of your mined flaming crystals?” he asked. Honestly, he wanted the entire vein for himself, but provoking the Heavenly Sword Sect was not a wise choice.

Fatty Pang Hu shook his head. “Sorry, brother. I’m just an overseer of this mining camp. I don’t have the authority to decide. I need permission from the Vice Sect Leader.”

Hearing this, Lian Cheng let out a sigh of disappointment. But he could not do without these materials. If he did not want to spend centuries stuck in the lower realm, he needed these resources to forge artifacts that would support his cultivation.

Moreover, deep within this secret realm lay the tomb of the Flaming Lotus King. He needed part of that old monster’s legacy to analyze and use it to strengthen the foundation of his Sacred Forging Heart Sutra.

While Lian Cheng was considering whether to act forcefully or find another approach, Fatty Pang Hu suddenly spoke.

“Hmm… let me ask Vice Sect Leader Jian Heng,” he said, pulling out a device from inside his robe.

“Huh?” Seeing the strange artifact, Lian Cheng could not help but exclaim in surprise.

This artifact, held in the hands of this fatty, alarmed him. Such a thing should not exist in the lower realm. As a master artifact forger who had once aimed to forge his own heaven, Lian Cheng immediately recognized its uniqueness.

Unlimited communication, regardless of distance or even between realms. Whether it was the Immortal Realm or the lower realm, as long as the user had enough spiritual qi and sufficient cultivation to sustain it.

Moreover, its energy consumption had been optimized to an incredible degree. Even those with weak cultivation could communicate with the Immortal Realm for a short period.

This… this was innovation. True innovation.

And more than that, he could sense that this artifact, no, this divine artifact, possessed even more functions and mysteries that he could not yet comprehend.

Was this from the Great War era? The Demonic Dominance era? Or even the Primordial era?

While Lian Cheng stood there in stunned silence at the sight of the U-Phone 2 in Pang Hu’s hand, on the other side, Vice Sect Leader Jian Heng picked up the call.

“Yes? Disciple Pang Hu, is there something you need?” Jian Heng’s voice came through the device.

“Vice Sect Leader, it’s like this. There is a person who wants to buy some of our mined flaming crystals. I don’t have the authority to approve it, so I need to ask you,” Pang Hu reported.

“Hmm? He came to buy directly at the source? What does he look like?” Jian Heng asked. He did not want the sect’s forging resources to fall into the wrong hands.

“Ah, he looks like… a wanderer… no, more like a refugee,” Pang Hu said, glancing at Lian Cheng to confirm his appearance.

“A refugee? And he managed to bypass the guards and enter the Flaming Lotus Realm?” Jian Heng asked, suspicious.

“Reporting to Vice Sect Leader, he said he stumbled upon a hidden array in a ruin near the border between Jade Bamboo Province and our province,” Pang Hu replied.

“I see. Tell him I can sell the materials at market price, in exchange for him telling us the location of that ruin. We cannot allow unknown individuals to suddenly appear inside our mining area. Once you confirm the location, report it to me. I will send enforcers and array masters to seal it,” Jian Heng instructed.

“Yes, Vice Sect Leader.”

With that, Pang Hu ended the call and turned to Lian Cheng.

“Brother, our Vice Sect Leader said we can sell the crystals to you at market price, in exchange for you telling us where that ruin is,” Pang Hu said.

Hearing this, Lian Cheng hesitated. That ruin was one of his secrets.

But after a brief moment of consideration, he understood that even if he refused to tell them, the Heavenly Sword Sect would eventually investigate the area and discover it anyway.

In that case, he might as well trade it for the right to purchase some flaming crystals.

“Thank you, senior, for your generosity. I need about 1,000… no, 2,000 jin,” Lian Cheng said, cupping his fists.

(Author note: 1 jin is about 600 grams, so 2,000 jin is about 1,200 kilograms. Please vote if you prefer traditional units like jin or modern metric units like kilograms in the paragraph comments.)

“2,000 jin? That’s a lot.” Pang Hu thought for a moment, then nodded.

“Fine. We currently have about 2,500 jin in storage. One jin of fire crystal costs about 2 spirit stones, so that will be 4,000 spirit stones. Let me tell you, this is the cheapest market price right now. If more uses of fire crystals are discovered from the ruins, by the Unity Sage’s Archive, the price may rise again,” Pang Hu said with a heavy heart.

Recently, the discovery of Primordial Era ruins had uncovered a great deal of lost history and knowledge. Although no cultivation or combat techniques had been found yet, the findings from Unity’s Sage Archive had revealed many practical uses for materials and ingredients that were previously unknown.

For example, fire crystals were once considered nearly useless, only suitable as crude throwable explosives.

Who would have thought that when mixed with ordinary materials such as common coal used by mortals, they would transform into fire spirit coal, which burns at a much higher intensity? This allowed many forging masters to melt tougher metals and create new alloys for stronger weapons and armor.

This new application had brought fresh opportunities to the Heavenly Sword Sect. Especially after the Sword Manor shifted its main business to producing U-Phones, this new revenue stream had become highly profitable.

Lian Cheng’s face twisted with reluctance. What did they mean by uncovering secrets from Primordial Era ruins? This was absurd.

In his previous life, he remembered that fire crystals had been regarded as worthless by people in the lower realm. They had no idea how to use them properly and only threw them at each other like crude weapons.

But now… they actually knew how to utilize them?

“Senior, what did you say again? You said that the Unity Sage’s Archive has rediscovered the method to utilize fire crystals?” Lian Cheng asked, wanting to be sure.

“Yes. Weren’t you trying to buy them because you already knew?” Pang Hu replied, looking confused.

“You mean…” Lian Cheng was stunned. “You mean the Unity Sage’s Archive announced this knowledge to the world? How is that possible?”

He asked in disbelief. He remembered clearly that those knowledge misers from the Unity Sage’s Archive would rather hoard their knowledge and charge others for access than share it freely.

Knowledge hoarding was their main business, their lifeblood. Why would they give up such a profitable advantage and announce it to everyone?

For the good of the people? Ridiculous.

“Wait… you didn’t know that? I know it’s hard to believe, but those misers didn’t have a choice. They had to follow the directives of the Thousand Treasure Pavilion, because the Primordial Era ruin is within their territory.”

“I have to say, the Thousand Treasure Pavilion is quite generous. They forced those misers to announce the usage to the world so that people can enjoy better artifacts,” Pang Hu explained.

What? The Thousand Treasure Pavilion? They control a Primordial Era ruin? How is that possible?

Wait… didn’t this fatty say that the one who discovered the Primordial Era ruin was someone named Wei Chen?

Young Master Wei Chen… but he had never heard of such a person in his previous life.

Seeing Lian Cheng’s reaction, Pang Hu was confused at first, but then nodded as if he had reached a conclusion.

“Oh, I see. You must be one of those merchant types, right? The kind who buys goods for profit. And you had your eye on fire crystals? Not bad, I must say. From what I’ve heard, fire crystals may have another use besides artifact forging, although it’s not confirmed yet. You must have caught wind of a rumor and decided to gamble on it!” Pang Hu said, satisfied with his own reasoning.

Hearing this, Lian Cheng paused for a moment before deciding to go along with it.

“Ah… how embarrassing. Senior has seen right through me. Yes, I am a merchant from Jade Bamboo Province. I heard from an acquaintance about the uses of fire crystals and hoped to acquire some before the price rises. But the price of 4,000 spirit stones is a bit…”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep