Devouring The Heavens

Chapter 23 – Deadly Finger Tips

Cloud Helmet, an upper rank spiritual instrument. It was decorated with carvings of cloud patterns. The protective spell on it gave fairly good protection to the wearer.

Armour of Floating Clouds, upper rank spiritual instrument, was made from Cloud Iron. Blacksmiths refined and strengthened the iron to a thin sheet. The armour could deflect the strength from incoming attacks and gave wonderful protection to the body.

Boots of Flying Clouds were made from the silk from cloud silkworms. Instruments makers used special tricks to carve on cloud spells of protections. The wearer could climb a rocky mountain as if the terrain was flatland and have no restrictions. It's of great help when hunting enemies or running away from attacks.

The Jade Pendant of Clear Heart was taken from the Holy Mountain of Clear Hearts. Whoever carried it would not be confused by illusions or spells. They would be able to keep a clear mind at all times.

The Commerce Centre had even better medicines and instruments, but for Xuanyuan, these were suitable for now. He was very happy with the purchase. His goal was to protect himself. After all, you only have one life and you might not get another chance. What's the use of money if don't get the protection you need to continue living?

Xuanyuan wore all the instruments. His long hair was tied up by the helmet, the armour was under his white moon apprentice robes, the boots fit him nicely and the pendant was safely hanging from his neck, giving off a relaxing sensation. His composure was changed for the better. He looked like a gentle, elegant and harmless young boy.

"They are very nice. How much does this set cost?" Xuanyuan smiled.

The man from the Commerce Centre glanced at Yan Ziyun shortly, and turned to Xuanyuan with a smile, "Since you are Miss Yan's apprentice brother, they will cost you a hundred thousand master coins." Xuanyuan nodded with satisfaction. The name of the School gave him many advantages in the city. Other merchants in the centre were jealous of the man serving Xuanyuan, he just sealed an incredibly huge deal.

There were many occupations in this world, alchemists, instrument smiths, coin minters and gemologists.

All of these occupations were essential. Alchemists refined pills, medicines and elixirs; instrument smiths could create instruments and weapons; coin minters made sure that different classes of coins were readily available in the world. Lower class coins weren't powerful, but the higher class ones possessed powers that could be used to make instruments; gemologists used their powers to search for stones, jades, crystals and even purer gems that contained special powers. They all have different and equally powerful skills. Alchemists and smiths could control a fire that ordinary people could not withstand. They mainly relied on various commerce centres to help with the selling of their products. Since the costs to make medicines and instruments were relatively low, they usually wouldn't mind lowering the price in order to sell. Although they would receive less money after the commerce centre took their commissions.

In many cities where a large practitioner school or sect was located, there was usually a commerce centre for production occupations to sell their products and practitioners to purchase. It was a perfect cycle.

Xuanyuan gave the man a small money bag from his ring and turned to Yan Ziyun, "First sister, let's go!"

She was a bit hesitant, but turned around nonetheless, but the man was exasperated, "Young master, I'm afraid this small bag is not enough to pay for everything."

Xuanyuan lifted his eyebrows, "Please look carefully."

The man opened the bag and was almost pushed to the ground by the wild force rushing out from the bag. He was astonished, "They're wild coins!"

Everyone was also astounded by this. None of them would have thought that this young boy would have wild coins. Yuehua City was a relatively small, secondary city, the main currency was fighter or warrior coins. Even master coins were rarely seen, only disciples from the school would use master coins for trading. When exchanging for higher valued currencies, for convenience's sake, people would usually add ten percent to the value to earn a profit from the higher currencies. So, if you wanted a spiritual coin, you would require eleven master coins, then for a wild coin you would require eleven spiritual coins. So Xuanyuan's one thousand wild coins were worth one hundred and twenty one thousand master coins.

Yan Ziyun rolled her eyes and said,

"You should have told me you have wild fighter coins, so we could exchange them in the School for master coins. Then you could have over a hundred and twenty thousand master coins."

The man was afraid to offend Yan Ziyun so he said quickly, "We would of course give the young master back his twenty thousand master coins of change."

Xuanyuan shook his head and said calmly, "No need for that. Give the money to my first sister. First sister, see if you need any new instruments and use the change to buy it."

Yan Ziyun was overjoyed and kissed Xuanyuan on his cheek, "What a good little brother!"

Xuanyuan was dumbfounded by the kiss and his cold and composed stature crumbled instantly.

An hour later, a cheerful Yan Ziyun walked out of the commerce centre and headed to the School of Yuehua. Xuanyuan knew that Yan Ziyun combined the twenty thousand master coins with her own savings and bought an upper rank spiritual instrument, which made her a much stronger practitioner. Yan Ziyun getting stronger meant that she would be able to protect Xuanyuan better.

Yan Ziyun was a righteous woman, so she was not as rich as Yueteng, who robbed money from ordinary people. When he arrived at the school, he would have to stay away from Yueteng.

The money he just spent was not all of his wealth. In Wu Dong's ring, there were many precious instruments and medicines. However, Xuanyuan didn't want to waste anything precious, so he chose to purchase some of his own.

They arrived at the School of Yuehua.

The school was located on a green hillside, facing a clear lake. The scenery was stunning. A round and shiny moon statue was hanging from the gate of Yuehua.

You have to climb a thousand steps in order to reach the gate. Horses were forbidden inside the school, but they couldn't scold the two people who were riding a wolf. Xuanyuan and Yan Ziyun were chatting and giggling, which was mind-boggling to the disciples who saw them. They greeted Yan Ziyun politely, but full of speculation in their mind. How could the first sister be embracing that boy?

Apparently Shi Congyu and Liu Piaoxu had already spread the news about Xuanyuan's fight with Sunzhi.

Guxing's sixty six bulls of strength allowed it to climb the long staircase as easy as walking on flat ground. Very soon, they reached the main square in the School of Yuehua.

All the inner disciples along the way were astonished. Their first sister was acting so sweetly to a young boy! Yan Ziyun didn't care about other people. She jumped off Guxing and said with a big smile, "This is the Yuehua Square, brother Xuanyuan. Welcome."

Suddenly, a cold voice said, "First sister, I wouldn't have imagined you would get so close with a young boy. That's not like you at all."

Yan Ziyun was in a good mood. She turned around and looked at the man,

"Sunwen, that's hardly your concern."

"No, it's not. My concern is that boy. He killed my brother, Sunzhi. I will take his life for it." Sunwen had a rather feminine face, looked very similar to Sunzhi. He came up to Xuanyuan and raised a fist. A shadow of dragon flew out from behind him. He'd already entered the spiritual realm, with a dragon of strength.

Yan Ziyun was just about to defend Xuanyuan, but Xuanyuan yelled,

"Let me!"

Xuanyuan didn't evade to the side. He punched towards Sunwen’s eye and white waves rushed out from his fist, the full of the strength of seventy two bulls. However, Sunwen wasn't bothered with Xuanyuan's attack. He believed that he could crush Xuanyuan's chest and destroy his heart with a single blow.

It was a fight between two powerful forces.

Just when their fists had almost reached their targets, Xuanyuan displayed his "Killing Talons of Heavenly Dragon" and released his clenched fist. Instead, he concentrated his strength to the tip of his fingers. His fingertip attack wouldn't be as strong as a punch, but the fist strike was actually a trick. Yan Ziyun couldn't have foreseen that Xuanyuan would use such a trick and suddenly open his hand and strike early with his fingers.

Sunwen punched towards Xuanyuan's chest, while Xuanyuan used his fingers to strike towards Sunwen's right eye, Xuanyuan’s strike landed first. Sunwen's eye exploded from the force of the strike. Blood splashed everywhere, followed by his pitiful scream. Immediately, his punch became a lot less powerful than before.

Xuanyuan felt the pressure on his chest, his blood and flesh was on fire underneath the pressure, but despite being pushed a few steps back, he wasn't hurt. He was wearing the armour he bought. It dissipated part of the force. It was indeed a good deal.

"I'm going to kill you!" Sunwen was furious after losing that exchange. He ranked third among all the inner disciples and was already in the spiritual realm. He had learnt how to release his fighting Qi within his attack. He would never have thought that a warrior could beat him.

There were many inner disciples in the square, and they were all amazed by Xuanyuan's attack. There were huge differences between each realm, so Xuanyuan must have defeated Sunwen with his skill instead of strength. It was going to be a great fight.

But a voice was raised, sounding cold,

"Enough."

Sunwen froze and didn't dare to move.