Chapter 51: The Whereabouts of the Millennium Ice Essence
The outcome was naturally predictable. After downing three cups of wine, he hadn’t even started shouting, nor had he lasted a second before collapsing onto the table. Snoring immediately filled the air, resonating so loudly that it could be heard even from downstairs.
Long Xuan shook his head helplessly. What a drunkard, willing to risk his life for alcohol.
Anyone knowledgeable about alcohol knows that mixing different kinds of alcohol can make one drunk faster. Even drinking one kind can be dangerous, and yet, he mixed them. Truly stubborn.
No wonder he’s known as the Wine God. Impressive! Truly impressive!
Long Xuan was in awe, completely floored by the spectacle.
Not long after, the waiter began serving dishes. The rich aroma whetted Long Xuan’s appetite, and he started devouring the food with great enjoyment.
It's worth noting that the food and meat in this world contain spiritual energy, making their flavors far superior to anything from his past life.
Moreover, he had ordered all the signature dishes.
How expensive can the signature dishes of this world be?
Incredibly expensive, without an upper limit.If you use rare natural treasures and high-grade spirit beast meat, the price of the dish can skyrocket.
The legendary dragon liver and phoenix marrow could easily sell for billions of spirit stones, but dragons and phoenixes went extinct in this world tens of thousands of years ago, making them impossible to obtain.
Due to the poverty of this marketplace and the limited quality of ingredients available, the table full of signature dishes Long Xuan ordered only cost fifty thousand spirit stones.
That’s still a significant amount, considering Long Lie drank one thousand spirit stones worth of wine, and Long Xuan ate fifty thousand spirit stones worth of food. Quite fair.
After eating and drinking to his heart’s content, Long Xuan burped and immediately jumped out of the window to leave.
Don't misunderstand; he wasn’t trying to dine and dash. After all, there was someone else inside.
The rule of the paying world is simple: the last one to stay pays the bill.
Little did Long Xuan know that the restaurant staff, fearing Long Lie might skip out on the bill for such an expensive meal, guarded him for three days and nights. He slept for three days and nights straight, almost being mistaken for a corpse and carried out...
Meanwhile, Long Xuan, after leaving the restaurant, continued towards the direction of Great Stone Village. However, a sudden change blocked his path home again.
He patted his storage bag and took out a communication talisman. The back of the talisman was covered with strange symbols, and lines of small characters began appearing on the front.
There are four highly lucrative special professions in this world: alchemists, weapon refiners, Formation masters, and talisman masters.
This communication talisman is a product of talisman masters, used for long-distance communication.
However, communication talismans are expensive and single-use, so they are only used for important matters.
Long Xuan had a small circle of friends and only exchanged communication talismans with the wealthiest rogue cultivators in the marketplace, such as the Formation master Di Xin.
The purpose was to facilitate barter exchanges since rogue cultivators are elusive and hard to track down.
The communication talisman that suddenly vibrated was given to him by an artifact refiner named Jin Zeng, also known as Master Jin, whom Long Xuan's fire clone had met at a trade fair.
Master Jin is one of the three scatter cultivators in the marketplace selling high-grade Gu insects, making a fortune from selling Vajra Gu.
Long Xuan didn’t expect Master Jin to contact him now, as their relationship was purely transactional and not deep.
Looking at the words on the talisman, aside from the pleasantries, the gist was that Master Jin had prepared food and drink and wanted to invite Long Xuan over. Recently, he had found something that looked like Millennium Ice Essence in the Snowy Mountains and wanted Long Xuan to appraise it, with the payment ready.
Long Xuan's eyes lit up instantly.
Millennium Ice Essence had been difficult to find, but finally, there was a clue today?
Long Xuan couldn't help but clench his fists. With Millennium Ice Essence in hand, he could immediately refine the Divine Ice Flame, a flame capable of releasing cold air. Just thinking about it excited him.
So, Long Xuan immediately sent his fire clone home to fetch the money.
This time, he only brought a small portion of his belongings. The wealthier he was, the harder it was to fit everything into his storage bag.
It was already difficult to fit a billion spirit stones, let alone other treasures. He still had several storage bags of fossils from the fossil mine with nowhere to store them.
Therefore, on each trip, he could only leave most of his wealth at home and carry less than ten percent of his possessions with him.
Now, hearing that Master Jin had Millennium Ice Essence, Long Xuan immediately arranged for his fire clone to fetch treasures suitable for Master Jin.
"Just had a big meal at Qian's Restaurant, and now my stomach is full. How can I eat anything else? Master Jin's timing is really off."
Long Xuan rubbed his rounded belly and sighed helplessly. Although he couldn’t refuse Master Jin’s invitation, the most important thing was that he must get his hands on the Millennium Ice Essence. He could only symbolically eat a few bites.
He thought about sending his clone in his place, but considering the clone lacked the golden finger for appraisal, he decided to endure the fullness and go himself.
Master Jin, being a rogue cultivator with no fixed abode, had made a cave dwelling in a nearby mountain rich in spiritual energy. It wasn’t far from the marketplace, so Long Xuan arrived quickly.
Seeing a cave with a stone door ahead, Long Xuan knew it was Master Jin’s residence.
Long Xuan found it intriguing that many rogue cultivators chose to live in caves.
One reason was that the mountains had more spiritual energy, far surpassing the crowded marketplaces.
Another reason was the peace and quiet, allowing for undisturbed cultivation.
Most importantly, it was cheap. Renting in the marketplace would be a significant expense.
However, living in the mountains alone had its disadvantages, like being vulnerable to demonic cultivators seeking to rob and kill.
This reason alone made Long Xuan hesitant to live in a cave.
Master Jin had purchased a powerful protective Formation from Di Xin; otherwise, he wouldn’t have had peace either.
"Senior Long, you’re here. My master is waiting inside."
As Long Xuan arrived at the door, a young boy waiting there greeted him respectfully.
It was Long Xuan’s first time being called a senior, and he feared being considered old.
Yet he did fit the senior title. He was already a late-stage Spirit Gathering Gu Master, relatively average among rogue cultivators.
"Is it true that your master found a piece of Millennium Ice Essence?" Long Xuan casually inquired.
The boy replied immediately, "We rogue cultivators have limited knowledge. Even if we see a treasure, we may not fully recognize it."
"Millennium Ice Essence is extremely rare. My master has never seen it and can only judge based on book descriptions. Its authenticity requires your appraisal."
Long Xuan nodded, "Then I’ll take a look. Lead the way!"
---------------
• CHAPTER LIST
• Hey guys, as we've reached chapter 50 please take a movement to rate and review this novel at NovelNext. I appreciate any and all invaluable feedback.