Chapter 670 - 265: Purchasing Intelligence, Entering the Black Market
Chapter 670: Chapter 265: Purchasing Intelligence, Entering the Black Market
Finally, Xiao Chen was left holding two special letters.
The first was so stuffed that the envelope was bulging like a ball.
The second was in a box, its lid sealed at the edges with wax.
Runes had been engraved on the wax to protect the contents within.
Xiao Chen opened the first letter.
It was from an Elder of the Cloud Sea Sword Pavilion with the surname Liu, containing instructions for one of his disciples.
Setting aside the pleasantries between master and disciple and some pointers on cultivation,
the main content was a warning: the Sect had noticed something unusual in the seas lately.
Ever since the new year,
the Spiritual Qi Tide to the east seemed to be rapidly increasing in both concentration and coverage.
Furthermore, there were reports of someone discovering traces of a massive Sea Beast in the far east.
The Major Sects had already been notified of the situation immediately.
The Sword Pavilion had already dispatched a special team to investigate and gather more clues.
For the past two months, many rumors about Sea Beasts had been circulating near the Tingtao Sea.
Therefore, if a similar situation was encountered in the Compassion Sea, he was to report it to the Sect immediately, regardless of the time or place.
The letter stressed that nothing was conclusive yet regarding the changes in the east, and the information was top secret.
He was therefore forbidden from telling anyone, not even his own family.
The Sect would make the proper arrangements when it was time to release the information.
Any leaks would not be tolerated and would be dealt with severely!
’Traces of a massive Sea Beast?’
Xiao Chen could clearly sense from the letter that the Cloud Sea Sword Pavilion was taking this matter very seriously.
But he didn’t quite understand the root of their concern.
Everyone knew the sea wasn’t just home to fish. Sea Beasts had existed since ancient times.
Squid, jellyfish, crabs, and even sea turtles were all considered Sea Beasts.
Just like with Sea Fish, once the population of Sea Beasts grew large enough, mutated bloodlines would inevitably appear, resulting in massive Sea Beasts.
Xiao Chen had seen crabs larger than an ox in the Marketplace before.
Besides, he was planning to go to Armor Dragon Island to hunt the Thousand-Year Dragon Turtle himself.
’What’s so strange about that?’
’And yet they emphasized strict confidentiality and immediate reporting.’
’Wait, could they be talking about the one I encountered before?’
Xiao Chen suddenly remembered his return journey from Wu Ling.
As he passed through that vast, snow-covered landscape, he had heard strange cries and felt the pressure of a Nascent Soul-level Demon Beast.
The wind and snow had been blinding, and he had retracted his Divine Sense, so he hadn’t seen a thing.
But judging from their cries alone, those two Demon Beasts must have been enormous.
’Ah... should I go and warn them?’
Xiao Chen felt this was probably an important clue.
The problem was, he didn’t know anyone at the Cloud Sea Sword Pavilion, which made passing on the information difficult.
Er, actually, he wasn’t really familiar with any Sect.
As far as Xiao Chen was concerned, the only Cultivator in the entire Compassion Sea region he could call an acquaintance was Su Li.
But Su Li had been self-imprisoned on Silent Calamity Island for a century; she probably knew even fewer people than he did now.
’Forget it. Why should a mere Golden Core Cultivator like me worry about this?’
Xiao Chen shook his head. ’It’s a huge, frozen wasteland. The other Sects aren’t blind. They must have discovered it long ago.’
A Spiritual Fire ignited in his palm, turning the letter to ash.
’Maybe I’ll look into it after I reach Nascent Soul Formation.’
’If something happens before then, I’ll just run for it.’
’Running away may be shameful, but it works.’
He ignored the wax seal and opened the second box directly.
Inside was a solid black token, about five inches long.
Underneath it were two pages of a letter.
Xiao Chen reached out and picked up the token. Five large words were engraved on its front: "This token represents the bearer."
’Hey, why does this look so familiar?’
He flipped it over. The back was indeed divided into two sections, an upper and a lower.
The top section bore the exact same mysterious symbol as the token he had previously seized.
The difference was that on the bottom section of this token, the character for ’Ma’ was written in Ancient Spirit Language.
’Interesting. I didn’t expect to come across this again.’
Xiao Chen picked up the letter underneath. The first page was a family letter, filled with household news and gossip.
The second page contained six very brief sentences.
Brother, the Black Market you asked me about has been confirmed to have moved again, this time into the Clarity Sect’s territory.
The time is the same as before, scheduled for the 9th day of the last month of every season.
However, they supposedly have a new leader and have issued a new batch of Identity Tokens.
Our family asked our contact in the Qi Family, but we were only able to get a single, ordinary Identity Token.
Our grand-uncle in the clan advises that it’s best not to rush over this time, but to observe the new situation first.
If you do decide to go, please be extremely careful.
’So that’s how it is.’
Xiao Chen understood immediately. The ’Yang’ token he’d obtained before must have also been an ordinary Identity Token.
He did a quick calculation. Today was already the twenty-sixth of the fifth month.
That meant the next Black Market gathering was less than twelve days away.
Considering a round trip from here to Armor Dragon Island would take at least a month,
if Xiao Chen wanted to hunt the Dragon Turtle, he would definitely miss this Black Market.
However, if he missed this Black Market, the next one would conflict with the opening of the new Relic.
In other words, he either had to go now or wait until the end of the year or the following year.
’That’s a little too late.’
After a moment of thought, Xiao Chen decided to postpone the hunt.