The Science of Cultivation [Xianxia]

Chapter 157: The Vital Component

“Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the next lot that many have been anticipating. A set of peak Mortal-grade beast cores! Unlike the ones you can rarely even buy just one from your organization, we’ve gathered an entire set of ten beast cores from the same species of Qi beasts! That means you can attempt to craft a treasured artifact ten times, increasing your familiarity with every try to maximize your chances!” The auctioneer, Xiao Gao Mei, cheerfully announced.

A plate holding ten murky translucent cores was neatly stacked on the pedestal. They were oval with slight bumps across their surface, but for those experienced artificers in the audience, they were unmistakable beast cores.

The size of the core varied from the species it was from. In this case, each core was the size of a grapefruit.

“These cores were taken from Long Neck Turtles, and are relatively neutral in element. It’s perfect to create an adaptive type of artifact, capable of invoking any element,” the auctioneer continued. “The starting price is one thousand Qi stones!”

Many of the younger people in the crowd were instantly excited. They had little experience handling beast cores, and they offered them an invaluable opportunity. However, the elders beside them quickly reined them in.

“Be patient. This is likely not the last lot of beast cores. Also, they are neutral in elements, which makes them unsuitable if you plan to make weapons. I thought you wanted your first successful artifact to be a treasured blade instead of armor, right?”

Even Li Lang had learned enough from his artificer mentor, Tie Qian, to know the advantages and disadvantages of neutral element materials. They were adaptable, but that meant they were jack of all trades and masters of none.

Against a sword artifact with the fire affinity under the same conditions, it would likely lose even if it invoked an opposing element, such as water, because the effect produced was weaker. These neutral element materials were often reserved for defensive artifacts or other types of utility artifacts.

The young were often hot-headed, so it was understandable novice artificers often focused on weapon artifacts first. For the more experienced bunch, they wouldn’t be handling Mortal-grade cores which were known to be defective cores. It was beneath them, which led to the scarce supply of Mortal-grade artifacts.

“Three thousand Qi stones!”

“Three thousand five hundred!”

“Ten thousand!” a voice shouted, silencing the venue.

Everyone turned to find a youth with a head slightly larger than average, but otherwise a plain-looking individual.

Whispering filled the venue, as everyone wondered who he was.

“Where does that guy hail from? He’s got the Nightmoon Valley princess beside him, but he’s not wearing their robes.”

“This young man sure is bold. The equivalent of a hundred red crystals for just a bunch of Mortal-grade cores. He could purchase a genuine set of Earth-grade cores with that kind of money!”

“What’s with that arrogant smile? He looks like he believes he’s already won with that smug face.”

“Let him be, Junior. Us independent cultivators shouldn’t go looking for trouble against something affiliated with large factions.”

With the sudden large bid, many people gossiped, but no one tried to outbid it. The price range it was now at was no longer worth it. Young Energy Gatherers would normally take years to earn this amount of money, while their mentors refused to pay this large sum for them as well.

Alchemists like Li Lang earned one Qi stone per pill on average. There were difficult-to-refine pills with rare recipes that went for more, but the profits never went beyond a dozen or two Qi stones for Mortal-grade pills. Other professions were in a similar boat. One hundred red crystals were equivalent to one hundred basic Earth-grade pills!

While many cultivators carefully saved money over the years for these auctions, that didn’t mean they would recklessly spend it all away.

Within all the commotion, one person was unmistakably ecstatic about the turn of events. It was the auctioneer, Xiao Gao Mei. She glanced around the second floor where various Young Masters were for a few more seconds before she began counting down.

“Ten thousand Qi stones from guest twenty-seven. Is anyone else willing to go higher? Going once, going twice, and sold to guest twenty-seven. Congratulations!”

As the audience had suspected, the next few lots were a set of beast cores, too. From lot to lot, they differed in elements, and the bidding war for them heated up. That was unless Li Lang took an interest in them.

“Set of ten water element beast cores, sold to guest twenty-seven for ten thousand Qi stones!”

“Set of ten earth element beast cores, sold to guest twenty-seven for ten thousand Qi stones!”

“Set of ten wind element beast cores, sold to guest twenty-seven for ten thousand Qi stones!”

One after the other, Li Lang bought three additional sets of beast cores, bringing his total to four sets. No one challenged him, half owing to his high prices and half owing to the presence of Sima Xue.

As the auction finished, the group accompanied Li Lang to pick up his trophies, as it was the last auction of the night.

While they waited in a private room for the transaction to be processed, Sima Xue couldn’t help but ask about the purchase.

“Are you guys really that eager to craft artifacts? I don’t think your chances are too good, even with a set of ten similar cores. It can’t make up for the fact you guys haven’t practiced enough yet.”

“Hmm, yes and no,” Li Lang answered. “We are looking forward to creating artifacts, and I’m confident in our chances. However, we aren’t planning to rush straight into crafting with them. We plan to study them properly first.”

“Well…I guess it’s not a bad idea to buy them while you can, then. And I hate to say it, but I believe you when you say you’re confident in your chances. After all, you did the same thing with the brushweaver ink, but I’ve never heard of an alternative way of artificing before. Can you give me a hint about how you plan to go about it? They say artificers have always used similar methods throughout the years, so it can’t be an old technique, right?

“If we succeed, we’ll show you our artifacts, but for now, there isn’t much I can tell you.”

“Hmm, fine. Secrets are secrets. I’ll be looking forward to seeing the artifacts, then.”

Sima Xue shrugged before directing her attention back to the paintings plastered around the walls of their room.

While she did that, Li Lang conversed with his two companions about their ideal artifacts. He wouldn’t want to give out information about his upcoming talisman printer project, so he kept the conversation steered toward their future weapon artifacts.

As he waited in the room for his cores, his mind couldn’t help but wander toward all his plans. He couldn’t wait to have Ruby consume each of the cores, so he could use them infinitely within the artifact space.

He could fine-tune the artificing process before he made his attempt. While the challenge was said to be in how each set of materials differed, Li Lang was confident in making it work. Even when his research produced any results, he still planned to return to Emberglow City first, to obtain the guidance of his mentor before making a real attempt in reality. The wait normally would’ve been painful, but thankfully, he had Ruby.

His plans to create a printer artifact could now resume in full force.

Previously, the missing vital component was something that acted as a battery but could evoke the Qi at the same time. Qi stones and crystals could only store energy, not manipulate it, which led Li Lang a search for alternatives. Qi beast core was exactly what he needed, and according to his mentor, Tie Qian, it was a crucial component in creating an artifact.

If I can get a working talisman printer, I can build up wealth quickly. It’ll allow us to establish a nascent organization that can support more members, even without holding territory. It seems like we’ll want to recruit as many disciples as we can during this trip into the orthodox sects’ territory.

Then I can focus on creating our weapon artifacts. If Ruby can up my success rate, I can use the extra cores to create more artifacts for our future organization as well. Everything seems to be coming together!

Li Lang’s musing was interrupted when they heard knocking at the door to their waiting room. A woman entered, followed by four young teenagers behind her. Each of them held a tray that had Li Lang’s beast cores on them. They walked in and placed them on the central table as if setting up a buffet.

“Here are the lots you’ve won. Please confirm them,” the woman said.

Long Yi swiftly stepped toward the table and picked up a core to examine up close, while Wei Ping watched on with a thoughtful expression.

“They look genuine. But are they?” Long Yi directed his question to the Nightmoon Valley disciple.

“Yep. Come on, let’s finish up and have dinner.”

Hearing those words, Li Lang sighed as settled the payment in red crystals. He didn’t have tens of thousands of Qi stones in reserve, and the auction house took it just the same. In fact, they likely preferred it.

With a wave of a hand, Li Lang stowed around all forty cores into his space ring.

Judging from Sima Xue’s tone, she will probably be asking for Earth-grade tofu pudding again tonight. I’ll have to say goodbye to more of these red crystals.

While they exited the establishment, Li Lang sighed and fell into deep thought. Predictably, his thoughts quickly deviated to the beast cores now in his possession. Thankfully, he quickly caught himself before he got too deep.

He headed to Wei Ping and gave him several red crystals.

“Now then. I’ll be busy tomorrow up until when it’s time to leave. I want you to stock up our supplies for us.”

His words caused the other two in their group to grin while Wei Ping dutifully nodded.

“G-got it, boss. Don’t s-stay up too late.”

“Yeah, I’d rather not have to carry you tomorrow morning,” Long Yi chimed in.

Sima Xue added fuel to the fire by letting out her unrestrained laughter.

“...Yeah, yeah. I get it guys.”

Our journey to Vermillion Dragon hasn’t even started, and I already want it to end. Let’s hope we can get it over with quickly and uneventfully.