Another Fragment

Another fragment of the Immortal Realm's Sacred Tree had appeared. To others, it was nothing more than a piece of useless trash, impossible to refine without the profound Muyen Esoteric Art and the Wood Emperor's Nether Power. But to Jiang Feng, it was an incomparable treasure—a supreme gem capable of producing vast amounts of resources every day! The fragment of the Immortal Realm's Sacred Tree stood as tall as a man; Jiang Feng could hardly imagine what a tremendous amount of worldly spiritual energy he would absorb once he fused it into his own Sacred Tree sapling, nor how much strange nether power he could refine in a single day.

Within Great Mystery Town, there was this distinct advantage: with a sufficient amount of medicinal pills, one could purchase whatever items they desired, along with all sorts of heavenly treasures and rare materials, sparing them from running around searching everywhere, engaging in bloody battles, and exhausting their heart's blood.

People across the world, whether of the righteous path, the demonic path, or even the beastly path, alongside hundreds of rogue cultivator sects, all required massive quantities of medicinal pills whenever they established a sect or foundation.

To acquire vast quantities of pills, one had to bring various treasures to trade in the markets of Great Mystery Town. Thus, an untold number of heavenly treasures rolled endlessly into the markets of Great Mystery Town every single day. The collective purchasing power gathered by millions of cultivators was something no individual's fortuitous encounter could ever rival.

Why, if you possessed hundreds of millions of medicinal pills, purchasing a white Nether sacred artifact like the "White Emperor Glazed Tripod" was by the far not impossible.

Had they not seen the Desolate Demonic Emperor, one of the Seven Demonic Emperors of the Demonic Path, come to trade a supreme-grade white Nether sacred artifact for pills? Even masters of the Nether Void Realm had to leverage the advantages of the "Xuan Tao Pavilion" to secure what they required, let alone cultivators in the True Nether Realm?

Truth be told, Jiang Feng's chance encounter with the treasure-selling convention of the "Xuan Tao Pavilion" this time was purely to take a look at what treasures might be available, without holding any high expectations. To cultivate and elevate his own realm, he needed to find the Five Elements Spiritual Roots. Yet, he never expected to encounter a fragment of the Immortal Realm's Sacred Tree! And such a massive piece at that!

"Four hundred thousand!"

Jiang Feng called out the number without a moment's hesitation, his eyes scanning the area as he sought to see who was daring to compete with him for this item. Logically speaking, even masters above the fifth stage of the True Nether Realm—existences on par with Fang Yichen, who had once troubled him—recognized the fragments of the "Immortal Realm's Sacred Tree" quite rarely. Ordinary people had no reason to waste a massive amount of pills to buy a useless object.

Unless they simply had far too many pills and bought it back merely for collection.

The person in the VIP room competing with him was a middle-aged man wearing a white crane-feather cloak and a star crown, radiating an imposing and majestic aura. Seeming to sense Jiang Feng's gaze upon him, the man waved his hand, and instantly a thick mist surged within that VIP room, completely blocking Jiang Feng's sight.

"Five hundred thousand!"

Just as Jiang Feng was about to shout out this figure, another person in the opposite VIP room preemptively called out the price. The person in that VIP room was an elderly man gently stroking a seven-inch-long miniature sword that flashed with dazzling lightning. His eyes were fixed firmly on the fragment of the "Immortal Realm's Sacred Tree," his brows twitching slightly as if he were weighing the true value of the item.

"Lü Xia, who are these two people?" Jiang Feng flicked his fingers, producing a jade bottle. The bottle contained several dozen crystal-clear, finger-sized medicinal pills resembling tiny infants, which he handed over to Lü Xia.

"Nether Infant Pills!" Lü Xia's expression shifted in shock, but she quickly steadied herself and put away the jade bottle. "That middle-aged man is a cultivator from the Voidless Cave Heaven, and that elder is an elder of the Sun and Moon Sword Sect. Both are senior experts above the fifth stage of the True Nether Realm."

"Sixty thousand!"

At that moment, the young man in blue raised the price. Clearly, he had no idea what the "nameless divine wood" actually was, but he was willing to throw away money just to buy it back and study it.

"Seventy thousand!"

The voice of the masked woman in red remained completely steady, sending a chill through Jiang Feng's heart.

"Eighty thousand!" Jiang Feng waved his hand, feeling extremely tense. His funds were far from abundant; two million plus pills might seem like a vast fortune, but compared to some of the mega-tycoons of the cultivation world, it was not worth mentioning. One only had to look at the masked woman in red to know: she hadn't batted an eye when spending two million five hundred thousand medicinal pills to purchase the "Sea God Pearl."

"Ninety thousand!"

The middle-aged man wearing the crane-feather cloak and star crown conveyed his bid from his VIP room.

"One million!" Another dark horse suddenly burst into the fray, transmitted from yet another VIP room. In his heart, Jiang Feng wished he could rush over and slaughter everyone competing with him for this fragment of the "Immortal Realm's Sacred Tree." Yet, he forcibly suppressed the burning rage within his chest. The "Xuan Tao Pavilion" was unfathomably deep; one could not kill and seize treasures within its grounds. Setting aside his own cultivation level, even experts at the seventh or eighth stages of the True Nether Realm harbored deep reservations against the unfathomably powerful backers behind the "Xuan Tao Pavilion"!

The one bidding "one million" was a bizarre-looking man with purple-black hair, draped in a wide, loose robe and holding a white scepter whose material resembled ivory, rhinoceros horn, or perhaps even human bone. At that moment, he stood up straight, his gaze fixed directly upon the fragment of the Immortal Realm's Sacred Tree as he shook his head, then nodded, and then shook his head once more.

"This fellow is rather eccentric. I wonder what his background is?" Jiang Feng thought to himself.

"He is also a rogue cultivator, though his origins are unknown," Lü Xia hurriedly replied.

"One million one hundred thousand!" Jiang Feng increased the bid without hesitation. Down below, a number of cultivators began to murmur in discussion, never expecting that a seemingly useless object could fetch a price of a million spiritual pills.

"Could it truly be a fragment of a Nether divine artifact?"

"I'd say ten to one! Otherwise, the major bigwigs in the VIP rooms up there wouldn't be fighting over it like this."

"What a pity we don't have such deep pockets. Millions of spiritual pills tossed around at every turn—only experts above the fifth stage of the True Nether Realm, who can set up grand formations and refine spiritual weapons to sell, are capable of making such massive fortunes. Integrating just a single material into a grand formation multiplies its value a hundredfold. True Nether Realm experts are truly formidable."

"One million two hundred thousand!" The bizarre man holding the scepter made his counteroffer, causing Jiang Feng to clench his teeth slightly.

"Jiang Feng, that man is a demonic fiend at the sixth stage of the True Nether Realm! His nether power is extremely formidable; I fear he has already condensed a Demonic Cultivator Nether Power Pill, or perhaps something even stronger!" Jue warned him explicitly, "However, since he isn't a demonic fiend of the Empty Void Realm, he surely won't recognize the fragment of the Immortal Realm's Sacred Tree. Not even an Empty Void Realm fiend could recognize it, unless they were an ancient fiend of the most archaic sort. Yet, those primordial heavenly demon gods would be Nether King-level entities or higher; if one descended into the Eastern Nether, it would cause a massive sensation..."

"One million three hundred thousand!" Jiang Feng ignored Jue's words, determined to win the item at all costs.

At this moment, Jiang Feng's eyes were completely bloodshot. He even felt that the atmosphere here was even more blood-boiling than engaging in a life-or-death battle with an enemy.

"One million five hundred thousand!" Almost immediately after Jiang Feng's voice fell, the masked woman in red made her bid, directly raising it by two hundred thousand. She too wore an expression of absolute determination, which made it difficult for Jiang Feng to gauge her bottom line.

"Two million!" Jiang Feng gritted his teeth and abruptly hiked the price by another five hundred thousand! This was his final desperate gamble, a do-or-die attempt.

True enough, this sudden leap to two million instantly shocked the other competitors. The elder from the Sun and Moon Sword Sect cast a perplexed look at Jiang Feng, shook his head, and gave up. The blue-robed youth also deemed two million pills an excessively high price and dropped out of the bidding as well.

Only the middle-aged man in the crane-feather cloak and star crown from the Voidless Cave Heaven added, "Two million one hundred thousand!"

Meanwhile, the man holding the scepter, suspected to be a sixth-stage True Nether Realm fiend, simply shook his head and made no further bids.

"Two million five hundred thousand!" The masked woman in red maintained her calm composure, uttering an astronomical sum without changing her expression or missing a heartbeat. She seemed to know that this was right around Jiang Feng's absolute limit.

"Three million!" Jiang Feng clenched both fists so hard they cracked and popped, his face twisted in a grimace as he slowly forced out those three words. Even Thirteen Ladies was slightly startled upon hearing this, for she knew that Jiang Feng seemingly did not possess that many medicinal pills on hand.

"Senior! You!" Lü Xia knew that Jiang Feng's total assets amounted to no more than two million three hundred thousand medicinal pills.

"Do not panic! I still have a vast quantity of Life-Prolonging Golden Pills on my person, along with several other treasures! Their value will definitely not fall short of three million medicinal pills!" Jiang Feng declared fiercely. Indeed, he still had over ten thousand Life-Prolonging Golden Pills left on him, which, if converted into "White Sun Pills," would solidly amount to well over a million. Thus, he was fully capable of producing three million medicinal pills.

No one could have anticipated that an anonymous piece of wood could fetch the astronomical price of three million medicinal pills.

"Hmm?" Upon seeing Jiang Feng call out a price of three million medicinal pills, the veil of the masked woman in red from the Xingtao Cave Heaven seemed to flutter slightly. She appeared to hesitate over something, but ultimately refrained from shouting a higher price.

Jiang Feng let out a massive sigh of relief. He knew that not a single person present truly recognized the item's true worth; had there genuinely been someone who knew its value, he would never have been able to secure this precious fragment.

Even trading a white Nether sacred artifact for this fragment would have been entirely worth it!

Before long, Thirteen Ladies led people to bring this man-sized "nameless divine wood" directly into the VIP room, placing it right before Jiang Feng. Meanwhile, Jiang Feng returned the crystal card containing two million three hundred thousand to Thirteen Ladies, and additionally produced a full seven thousand Life-Prolonging Golden Pills, packed tightly into seven or eight large gourds.

Seeing Jiang Feng pull out such a massive quantity of Life-Prolonging Golden Pills, Thirteen Ladies and the others exchanged glances of profound astonishment. Logically speaking, even the direct-line disciples of the Langya Chamber of Commerce would never carry such a staggering amount of "Nether Infant Pills" casually upon their person.

Jiang Feng paid no heed to their looks of shock. With a wave of his hand, a surge of nether power enveloped the massive fragment, causing it to instantly vanish from sight as it was dragged straight into the Jiangshan Bottle to allow his nether soul power to scour away the lingering impurities and chaotic mental imprints.

The Immortal Realm's Sacred Tree had been shattered for goodness knows how long, and all its fragments were tainted with the unclean aura of heaven and earth. They had to be cleansed with nether soul power—this was precisely why many powerful experts had been unable to refine them.

Nether soul power, the Wood Emperor's Nether Power, and ideally the addition of the Nine Yang Sacred Water... only with this multitude of conditions met could the Immortal Realm's Sacred Tree be revitalized and sprout new buds. After cleansing the fragment with his nether soul power, Jiang Feng shifted his mind slightly. The sapling of the Immortal Realm's Sacred Tree seemed to sense the homologous vital energy, and countless roots abruptly plunged straight into the massive fragment.

Crack, crunch...

The colossal fragment abruptly transformed into a massive surge of chaotic wood-type vital energy, which was greedily absorbed by the sapling's root system. The two fused together completely and utterly.

In an instant, the sapling resting between Jiang Feng's brows swelled violently!

Originally, no matter what he tried, the sapling refused to grow; it wouldn't have grown even an inch taller in ten thousand years. Yet, upon absorbing the homologous fragment, it began to grow at a frenzied pace. Jiang Feng immediately felt an endless torrent of worldly spiritual energy pouring down—surpassing anything from before by more than a hundredfold!

He hurriedly guided the flow, channeling the vast torrent of worldly spiritual energy directly into the Jiangshan Bottle!