This was the first time Tang Jie had had this kind of sensation.
The seller said, “Young Master, if you like, I can give it to you for two thousand.”
Two thousand coins wasn’t a cheap price.
After some thought, Tang Jie said, “Can you give it to me for any cheaper?”
The seller replied, “As the two of you bought my Soul Jade shards previously, I can give you a two-hundred-coin discount.”
“What about one thousand?” Tang Jie asked.
The seller shook his head, and no matter how much Tang Jie haggled, he was only willing to go down to fifteen hundred.
Fifteen hundred was a large sum for Tang Jie, and more importantly, he didn’t actually know what was inside the Clam Mirage Stone. Seeing that the seller wasn’t giving in, Tang Jie pondered what he should do, but he ultimately gritted his teeth and decided to take a gamble.
He also wanted to see if his newly discovered ability could bring him good fortune, so he went to find Wei Tianchong and have him buy it.
Wei Tianchong was confused, asking, “Why do you want to buy this?”
Tang Jie didn’t hide it, telling him that he suspected that there was something inside.
Wei Tianchong also grew excited when he heard that there might be some secret in this Clam Mirage Stone.
Youths were rash, and so they immediately put aside the search for materials and went to find a secluded place to research the stone.
But at this moment, Wei Tianchong realized a problem. “Tang Jie, you say there’s something inside, but how do we open it?”
Tang Jie bitterly smiled. “How else? We have to smash it open.”
Wei Tianchong froze. “No way! I spent fifteen hundred coins on this. If we mess up…”
Tang Jie firmly said, “If we mess up, we lose fifteen hundred coins, or else we wouldn’t be taking a gamble here!”
But in truth, not even Tang Jie was too confident.
Fifteen hundred coins was neither too big nor too small, but using it on cultivation was one thing and throwing it away was another. For people who had never gambled before, the outcome had always been more important.
Thus, he took in a deep breath and said to himself, “It’s fine. At worst, we’ve only lost fifteen hundred coins. It’s the young master’s money anyway.”
Wei Tianchong twitched. “Tang Jie, did you really have to say that?”
Tang Jie laughed, but just as he was about to smash the stone, he thought it over and stopped.
Wei Tianchong asked, “What are you doing?”
Tang Jie pensively said, “In truth, my luck hasn’t been that great over the last few years. When I was in the Wildgrain Plains, my home was raided by bandits and my family was killed. I ran into someone who treated me well, but he ultimately died too. When I went out to do my first mission, we ran into Divine God Luo, but the one to receive this fortune wasn’t me, but you. And when I finally got you the True Inheritor spot, True Person Changfeng wanted to take me as his disciple, forcing me to use that method to refuse him. It’s like there’s some force in the universe that makes it so that fortune is never on my side. On the other hand, you’re usually much luckier than me.”
He stuffed the Clam Mirage Stone into Wei Tianchong’s hand. “You smash it.”
“Me…” Wei Tianchong’s eyes almost popped out.
Tang Jie grabbed his hand and swung it toward the ground.
Pa! The Clam Mirage Stone broke into fragments, and Wei Tianchong trembled, swiftly drawing back his chubby hand. As for Tang Jie, he fixed his eyes on the center of the debris.
A small black pearl lay among the fragmented stone.
This pearl looked very ordinary, small and black, but when Tang Jie’s eyes fell upon it, he felt an inexplicable fear.
When it was the Clam Mirage Stone, Tang Jie hadn’t been able to see through it.
It was out now, but Tang Jie still couldn’t see through it.
Tang Jie reached out to take the pearl and immediately felt a sinister chill travel up his fingers and through his body. Tang Jie shivered and almost threw the pearl away.
Astonishingly, this chill seemed to only work on the soul, having no substance and thus not affecting his surroundings. At the very least, Wei Tianchong, who was standing right next to him, didn’t feel anything.
But at this moment, Wei Tianchong pointed at Tang Jie, looking like he had seen a ghost. “You… you…”
“What’s wrong with me?” Tang Jie asked.
“Your face…” Wei Tianchong said in a trembling voice, as if he had seen the most terrifying thing in the world.
Tang Jie hastily went over to a nearby pool and looked at his reflection. To his shock, he found that a thick black smoke had emerged around his face, and even more shocking was that in this black smoke, his face was twisting, morphing into all sorts of painful expressions, as if he was experiencing the worst pain in the world.
The problem was that Tang Jie was doing nothing of the sort.
“Dear gods!” Tang Jie jumped in fright and instinctively threw the pearl away.
A moment later, the reflection of Tang Jie’s face returned to normal.
Tang Jie felt his face and confirmed that everything was fine before exhaling.
Looking back at the pearl, he wiped the sweat off his forehead and said, “What a wicked and strange thing. It might be a demon artifact.”
“What do we do now?” Seeing how Tang Jie was behaving, Wei Tianchong didn’t dare to touch the pearl.
Tang Jie took some cloth to cover his hand and tried to touch the pearl, and the chill was somewhat lessened. Tang Jie looked at Wei Tianchong, who said, “It’s back again!”
Was not even cloth enough to stop the pearl’s intrusion?
Tang Jie thought it over and said, “This black pearl was in the Clam Mirage Stone before this. Maybe stone can obstruct its powers.”
Tang Jie didn’t have a stone box, but he did have Softscent Jade.
Softscent Jade was malleable, and though it was a stone, it was as soft as cotton.
Tang Jie took out a block of Softscent Jade and embedded the pearl in it. He then molded the jade into a ball so that the pearl was no longer visible.
Sure enough, the black pearl no longer gave off any chill.
They both sighed in relief.
Tang Jie said to Wei Tianchong, “It’s best if we don’t tell anyone else about this.”
Wei Tianchong nodded. This pearl was so weird that he knew that talking about it would cause a lot of trouble.
Wei Tianchong had a thought and asked, “So did we win or lose?”
Tang Jie bitterly smiled. “I don’t know either. I thought that the worst case would be losing fifteen hundred spirit coins, but now that I think about it, in math, besides positive and zero… there’s also such a thing as negative numbers.”
With this said, he walked away.
Wei Tianchong was utterly confused, scratching his head and saying, “Sub-spells? Spell arts can be divided into main and sub-spells? I don’t get it.”
(TN: 负数, negative numbers, and 副术, secondary art, share the same pronunciation in Chinese, hence Wei Tianchong’s confusion.)
Back at the secret market, the two of them continued to search for materials.
As daybreak approached, the secret market ended. Wei Tianchong had found all the materials he needed, so they all left.
They hadn’t gone far from the manor when they encountered someone—none other than the short fatty that Wei Tianchong had called a toad.
The man stared at Wei Tianchong and wickedly chuckled. “Kid, you finally came out.”
The short fatty shot two streams of poison liquid at Tang Jie and Wei Tianchong.
Tang Jie swung his arm, creating a gale. While the fatty’s poison was fierce, it had little penetrative power and was scattered by Tang Jie’s strike. Tang Jie said, “Haven’t you had enough? A little war of words has you holding such a deep grudge?”
The short fatty savagely smiled. “Anyone who dares to humiliate Wanderer Pentavenom is seeking death!”
He waved his hand, and a venomous scorpion flew out.
This scorpion was black and the size of a fist, and its barbed tail was black and glossy as it thrust toward Tang Jie’s neck.
Wei Tianchong and Shi Meng were just about to move when Tang Jie said, “No need; let me. Humiliating you is seeking death? You think you’re the Son of Heaven or something?”
This last sentence was aimed at Wanderer Pentavenom.
Tang Jie threw out an Energy Needle that struck the scorpion. Clang! The needle failed to penetrate the scorpion, but it did knock it away.
They had barely left the manor, and the crowds had yet to depart. As this fight broke out, those nearby scattered and then began to spectate.
Someone mocked, “I wonder which young master didn’t know what was good for him and insulted Pentavenom? He’s dead for sure.”
The scorpion turned in the air and flew at Tang Jie again. Tang Jie fired off Energy Needle after Energy Needle. The scorpion hissed, but it was unable to get close.
That Wanderer Pentavenom sneered, “With this little ability, you dare to try and mess with me?”
With a wave of his robe, he unleashed even more venomous arthropods.
Though Wanderer Pentavenom was only in the first tier of the Mortal Shedding Realm, his venomous creatures were quite difficult to deal with, and he was rather famous in the Watcher River region. He hadn’t originally looked like this, but improper handling of poison over a long period had left his body covered in welts and sores. What he hated the most was when people called him a toad. Wei Tianchong had touched upon his taboo, and he was a rather petty person from the start. Thus, he insisted on killing Wei Tianchong.
As a large number of insects flew over, Tang Jie didn’t panic. Creating wind with his palm thrusts so that they couldn’t get close, he shouted, “Does attempted murder no longer matter just because we’re outside the secret market now?”
Nobody said a word.
Wanderer Pentavenom thought that he was afraid, and laughed. “Let’s see how long you last!”
The winds prevented the insects from getting close, but they took spiritual energy, so this wasn’t a long-term solution. That Wanderer Pentavenom continued to release venomous creatures, and as the bugs filled the air, his chubby body became much thinner. Rather than being fat, he had just been hiding all these bugs on his body.
Tang Jie didn’t care, tilting his head and saying, “It seems like no one cares.”
He drew back his hand and charged at Wanderer Pentavenom, no longer caring about the bugs. The insects landed on his body, and the crowd felt like they could already see him being devoured, dying as tens of thousands of insects burrowed into his body. But a moment later, Tang Jie’s body flashed with golden light, and those bugs bounced off. Tang Jie charged up to Wanderer Pentavenom’s side and punched.
Wanderer Pentavenom savagely laughed as he thrust out his palm.
This was the Omnivenom Hand that he was so proud of, and his finest poison spell art. A bystander would instantly be poisoned if they so much as touched it, and it would only take a few moments before they died of poison.
As fist met palm, there was a boom, and Wanderer Pentavenom was sent flying. Crack! His arm was broken.
The crowd was aghast.
It wasn’t strange that Wanderer Pentavenom had been pushed back. Messing around with poison for so long had left his body a wreck, but he was still at the Mortal Shedding Realm. A punch that could break his arm was no simple punch.
Wanderer Pentavenom was shocked and furious that his arm had been broken. Not having expected this kid to be so strong, he suppressed his pain and shouted, “Brat, taking my palm? You’re dead meat!”
“Is that so?” Tang Jie chuckled. “So how long does it take for your poison to kill someone?”
Wanderer Pentavenom froze as Tang Jie opened his hand.
His fingers were still brimming with energy, showing not even the slightest sign of poisoning.
“How is that possible?” Wanderer Pentavenom cried out in disbelief.
“Your poison arts aren’t good enough,” Tang Jie coldly said. He rushed up to Wanderer Pentavenom and punched him in the abdomen, causing the man to drop to his knees in pain.
Tang Jie placed a hand on his face, and Wanderer Pentavenom shouted, “Don’t kill me!”
Tang Jie coldly said, “Actually, my young master was right… You really are a toad.”
He unleashed energy through his palm into Wanderer Pentavenom’s head, instantly killing him.