“Boss, I’ve just learned that Jade has not only advanced to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, it seems she fought a duel with a high-ranked inner court disciple last night—and won decisively.”

  Cade was briefly stunned by the contents of King’s message.

  While Jade had reached the peak of the early stage of Foundation Establishment, she had done so fairly recently. Breaking through still required a lot of time. Unlike his own recent, nigh-instantaneous breakthroughs—courtesy of the prismatic bead—standard breakthroughs typically required wearing down the barrier bit by bit. How she had managed it amidst her assistant work and various lectures, he had no idea. Maybe she found some way of substantially weakening the barrier? He could recall the princess mentioning it’d be at least a couple of months before she broke through.

  Her rapid advancement into the inner court was also rather unexpected, but then again, he had had no contact with her for five weeks. It seemed Jade had made a full recovery after the incident. In the end, it wasn’t unreasonable that she might have developed such singular focus after being treated as an energy source. Nobody liked being used and being helpless to stop it.

  The princess had apparently decided to take matters into her own hands. Instead of allowing this experience to bring her down, she turned it into a powerful driving force. If anything, it was a testament to her unbending character. He could only respect that.

  Having finally broken through himself, Cade decided it was time to visit Oasis. Treasure Emporium, which was the main face of the Sun Trading Company, didn't limit its working hours—they were always open. He brought out all the loot from four different rings, placing it inside his red band. There were three speeders, close to a dozen spiritual artifacts, the scale, several cultivation manuals—except a couple that King wanted to keep—and many other, lesser spoils, among them a large number of pills, most of which needed identifying. Half an hour later, he departed for Tower Oasis, taking some comfort that his sixth sense had so far remained dormant.

  The flight passed without incident; the skies were calm and quiet. Flying at this time of day had one advantage—he could appreciate the beautiful sunrise over the desert, a welcome sight after five weeks of staring at diagrams in his realm of consciousness. The distance between Sword Dao Mountain and Tower Oasis was only 400 miles, fifteen minutes for an Arrow Nine flying close to top speed.

  He pulled out his Oasis token and slowed down upon entering the city grounds. Oasis was magnificent as always—an elegant combination of sleek structures built of bone-colored stone and plenty of verdant greenery everywhere. Naturally, the Tower’s titanic form dominated over everything. The city was only just waking up, and there was still little air traffic.

  Cade followed a path leading to the trade ring, directing his speeder towards a huge black and gold pagoda rising in the distance. Of course, compared to the sheer immensity of the Tower's scale, it was a pitifully small establishment, but it still stood far above all the surrounding buildings. It must have been at least fifty stories high. From what he knew, this was the second-largest Treasure Emporium on the Sun Continent. Due to it still being early in the day, a large portion of the western side of the city was buried in the Tower’s enormous shadow.

  He landed at a dedicated site not far from the main entrance, guarded day and night by half a dozen True Core experts. Most of them were older rogue cultivators who had given up on pursuing the dao and decided to live out the rest of their days in luxury, as the Sun Trading Company paid very well. The guards gave him a brief glance, but after noticing the Sword Dao emblem on his black robe, they immediately lost interest. Stealing was already fairly rare in Oasis—crime in general was—but Sword Dao’s inner court disciples were probably the least likely potential culprits, other than the monastery’s core disciples.

  Cade walked into the building, its large entrance opening into a spacious hall with dozens of attendants standing at their desks. Each customer would be assigned a personal assistant upon entering, regardless of whether they were selling, buying, or just looking around. The company strove to deliver a level of service above and beyond expectations. The pagoda rose tier by tier, built around a hollow shaft and supported by golden columns. This central void reached all the way to the top, lending the structure a sense of majesty and lavishness.

  “Good morning, Senior! My name is Thalia, and I have the fortune of being your personal assistant for the day. How can I help?” a young-looking, beautiful elven woman approached him. She was dressed in the company’s colors—black and gold attire. Her dark hair was neatly pinned up top, and she projected an image of professionalism and elegance. Her cultivation was in the ninth stage of Qi Condensation, a step away from Foundation Establishment.

  “Thank you, Miss Thalia. I’m Cade, and I have a couple of requests,” Cade smiled, and his assistant nodded politely, ready to attend to him. “First, I’ll need to see a reptile expert—the best available.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Senior Cade,” Thalia bowed her head. “Please follow me.” She led him to a transportation formation, then another, and eventually after passing through several corridors they found themselves in front of a large double door. Thalia swiped at it with her token, and the door opened. “Please, Senior," she politely stepped to the side, allowing him to enter first.

  Inside were a dozen desks with experts in different cultivation ranks, many of whom were using unknown artifacts to examine spirit beast parts lying in front of them. Thalia closed the door behind them and led him towards one of the desks, where an older female elf sat. Her cultivation was in the middle of Foundation Establishment. It was his first time seeing an older elf up close, which meant the woman was likely approaching the end of her lifespan.

  Thalia explained the situation, and the older elf smiled welcomingly.

  “It’s a pleasure to help you, sir. My name is Lierin. May I please see the object in question?”

  “The pleasure is all mine, Miss Lierin. I’m Cade. And here it is,” Cade swiped his hand over the desk, bringing out the midnight-colored scale. He paid attention to Lierin’s expression, but didn’t notice any initial reaction besides mild curiosity. Was I wrong in thinking this scale might be special…?

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  The elven expert put on a pair of white gloves and began examining the scale with the aid of several unfamiliar artifacts. Some seemed to magnify her vision; others, he couldn’t even begin to guess the purpose of. At one point, she excused herself, explaining that she needed to visit the library. When she returned some time later, she carried a very old, wood-bound book. Opening it to a marked page, she began comparing the drawings to the scale laid out before her.

  Some fifteen minutes later, Lierin finally placed the scale down—her hands shaking slightly—and lifted her gaze at Cade with an expression of wonder.

  “Initially, I thought this might be the scale of an old dragon turtle, an ordinary oceanic beast,” Lierin explained. “But a few very minor details matched another scale I remembered from an old illustration. It's fortunate that cultivators rarely forget anything, because what you have here is a truly unique treasure.”

  She gestured to the scale as she continued. “This comes from a devil king hydra, a rare ancient reptile spirit beast that roamed these lands millions of years ago. Judging by its size, it belonged to an immensely powerful specimen, one with a strong devilish bloodline and unfathomable cultivation.”

  Her voice softened, almost reverent. “You see, this is a neck scale. Those are usually quite small, so they don’t restrict the creature’s range of motion. For one to be this large, the beast itself must have been enormous. And more importantly, this isn’t just any neck scale—it’s a reverse scale.”

  “A reverse scale?” Cade frowned. He had never heard about such a thing, and he had read at least half a dozen different bestiaries.

  “A relic of ages past,” the elven expert continued. “It no longer appears in modern reptiles, as their bloodlines have thinned greatly over time. Reverse scales are reserved for the purest lineages and are saturated with powerful laws. Despite its size, it contains only a single drop of blood, and many would kill to obtain it.”

  She paused, letting that sink in. “Its value to alchemists is difficult to overstate. Even the most conservative estimate would place it between seven and ten million crystals. With its regenerative properties, true miracle cures could be created. The immensely potent blood qi within could be refined into a pill capable of pushing a body refiner from late Muscular Enhancement straight into the Soul Body Integration realm—even one who would otherwise have no hope of advancing again.”

  Cade had to sit down, his hands and knees trembling with excitement. Seven to ten million?! With such wealth, he wouldn’t have to worry about progressing his cultivation for who knew how long. But… the laws inside this drop of blood must be incredibly special. He took a deep, calming breath.

  “Miss Lierin, can you tell me a little about this devil king hydra?”

  The elven woman gave him a bright smile. “Naturally. You might know that hydras are a type of four-legged, wingless dragon. Even back then, when reptiles ruled the planet, this was an exceptional creature. Compared to other hydras, the devil king hydra was unique—it had only one head. It made up for it with immense regenerative abilities that bordered on the unnatural, and armor so tough it outclassed that of most dragons of the era. The creature this scale came from would be considered absolutely unkillable today,” she explained, her voice tinged with awe and respect.

  Unnatural regeneration? Armor outclassing most dragons? Absolutely unkillable?! He was right, he had struck gold! The only bad part was, he now had to choose between recovering the blood and using it to complete the first stage of War Form, or auctioning it for a life-redefining mountain of crystals.

  However, he knew well the value of laws contained inside beast blood. If he combined the hydra’s purest blood with Asura War Form, his defensive and regenerative capabilities would rise tremendously, and his understanding of these laws would come naturally. Cade knew all too well what it meant to have an innate comprehension of laws; without it, he’d never be able to create a single life cultivation diagram—they were ridiculously complex. The Asura already had powerful regenerative capabilities, but… What if they were enhanced, no—doubled! Or tripled, perhaps quadrupled?! Nobody could tell how powerful this drop of blood was.

  Darkheart must have had the scale examined by a lesser expert who gave it a quick glance and decided it was just an old dragon turtle scale, probably not worth much. Why the manhunter had used it as a cooking plate instead of selling or discarding it was hard to say. He must have seen some value in keeping it.

  “I need to recover this drop of hydra blood,” Cade stated with determination. He could always get more crystals. The Brighthearts were likely to keep sending their experts after him, which so far had turned out quite profitable, while at the same time placing him at constant risk. Becoming much harder to kill was exactly what he needed right now.

  “Naturally. We will attend to your needs, though I must warn you—due to the blood’s rarity and its estimated price, recovering it will be rather expensive due to mandatory insurance,” Lierin said with an apologetic expression.

  “How expensive are we talking about?” Cade asked with a resigned sigh, already feeling his purse shrinking.

  Seven hours later, he finally left the Treasure Emporium feeling mentally drained. It had been a wild ride. Inside his red band rested a precious drop of blood taken from a devil king hydra’s reverse scale, but nearly all his gains went toward paying for the service. After selling almost everything he’d looted from the rings and subtracting the outrageous fee of 650,000 crystals—practically daylight robbery—he was left with a meager 450,000. Still, it was more than he had before fighting Castien, though not by much.

  Naturally, this would be a fortune for nearly anyone at his rank, but for his purposes, it was nowhere near enough, not unless he started hunting Rank 3 beasts himself, something he planned on trying after learning the first stage of War Form.

  In the end, the drop of blood had been recovered successfully—that was all that mattered to him now, even though the process had taken several hours and left him sitting on pins and needles.

  Cade had also learned something new—the five deep blue crystals he found in Darkheart’s ring were actually mid-grade spirit crystals. Each was worth a staggering 10,000 “normal” crystals, which were the lowest grade and contained only a tiny amount of spiritual qi by comparison. Apparently, in the deep south, mid-grade crystals served as the main currency but were rarely seen elsewhere on the continent. This explained why everyone referred to low-grade crystals simply as spirit crystals.

  He didn’t know much about the south, except that past Bastion—the southernmost city belonging to the Long family—lay a vast, dangerous region stretching across hundreds of thousands of square miles. It contained countless islands, big and small, many with impressive spiritual qi density. Beyond that was the deep ocean, a place of both great risk and opportunity. Only cultivators at the Soul Avatar or Soul Body Integration realms dared to venture there—unless they had a death wish. Rank 4 sea wyrms were common in those waters, and they were far more powerful than any peak Rank 3 creature.

  Although Cade was curious about the south, he had no plans to visit—for now, it held nothing for him but plenty of risk. His thoughts were interrupted just as he was about to leave the pagoda, when his sixth sense suddenly stirred, releasing a soft but insistent pressure at the nape of his neck.

  Oh, it seems I’ve been found.

  The Asura let out a long sigh. He knew this was coming; there was no way the Duke would not send someone to investigate the disappearance of his sons. According to Jade, it was too early for Massgrave to arrive, so who else could it be? However, with so many high-ranked cultivators around, it was difficult to pinpoint where this new threat exactly was.

  Just as Cade stepped out of the building, the pressure at the back of his neck rose a level, and he instinctively released a pulse of life sense.

  At the same time, a kind, grandfatherly voice called in his direction.

  “Junior! Hold on a moment.”