C6 A Good Saber Technique

The meeting at Gale Pavilion provided Huah Yunfei with an exceptionally interesting and satisfying day.

The following day's auction at the Endless Depository in God Burial City was equally gratifying for Huah Yunfei, proving to be a resounding success.

When demand far exceeds supply, the value of items can skyrocket to incredible heights.

With the top-grade Five Elements Spirit Stone, Huah Yunfei secured thirty high-grade, upper-tier Spirit Stones, including eight Lightning Spirit Stones he urgently needed.

Typically, Huah Yunfei would only have been able to trade for about ten such Spirit Stones. But that's the allure of an auction.

After all, scarcity drives value, and demand is the ultimate decider.

"Some people ought to be content now, right?"

In the most opulent and expansive VIP room of the auction hall, Xie Yu, the girl with dimples, fixed her gaze on Huah Yunfei. "Aren't you going to thank my mistress? Without her, how could you have gotten your hands on so many high-grade, upper-tier Spirit Stones?"

Huah Yunfei was now poised to swiftly enhance his foundation level by absorbing the Lightning Spirit Stones.

Lightning spirit energy was unmatched in its ferocity. Cultivators of this energy were known for their formidable combat strength within their realm. However, the scarcity of Lightning Spirit Stones meant slower progression, making them less favorable than the highly adaptable Five Elements Spirit Stone, a cornerstone for foundation building.

The pursuit of rare Lightning Spirit Stones was one of the reasons Huah Yunfei had auctioned off his top-grade Five Elements Spirit Stone.

"What's there to thank? We're practically friends now, aren't we? Thanking a friend would be rather formal."

"You sure make yourself at home..." Xie Yu retorted with a hint of annoyance.

Xie Feiyu, always enveloped in a subtle air of melancholy, finally let out a laugh upon hearing their exchange, warming the atmosphere. "Indeed, friends shouldn't stand on ceremony."

With a wave of his hand, the Spirit Stones that had been leaping in Huah Yunfei's grasp suddenly bounded into Xie Feiyu's hands. "Consider these ten Spirit Stones a gift to my friend."

"This..."

Huah Yunfei was filled with regret, but fortunately, the eight Lightning Spirit Stones remained in his possession.

After the commotion, the three were no longer as tense as before. Seizing the moment, Huah Yunfei inquired about the oddities of the Galaxy Realm, the taboos of cultivation, and the lay of the land in terms of power dynamics. Xie Feiyu and Xie Yu were more than willing to answer all his questions.

As they were enjoying their engaging conversation, a sudden knocking at the door interrupted them.

"Who's there?" Huah Yunfei called out. The knocking grew louder, yet there was no response to his query.

It seemed the persistent knocking had caught the attention of the shop assistants at the nearby Endless Depository.

Huah Yunfei overheard one assistant outside addressing the visitor, "Excuse me, there's a distinguished guest resting in this room. If you're a friend or relative, please identify yourself. Otherwise, kindly refrain from disturbing their rest."

The knocker offered no reply, only a cold, derisive snort that echoed with a resonant force, clearly indicating a formidable presence.

This was followed by the distinctive clang of metal, a sound unmistakable to any Spirit Weapon Master: the sheathing and unsheathing of a weapon.

The action of drawing a weapon and returning it to its sheath had been executed with such speed that it almost melded into a single sound—a feat that would take an ordinary cultivator a decade of rigorous training to master.

Alarmed by the sounds and concerned for the assistant's safety, Huah Yunfei quickly lifted the seal and flung the door open.

Standing before him was a middle-aged man with a long saber slung at his waist. Clad in a dark green robe adorned with a serpentine pattern, he stood with an eerie calmness, hands clasped behind his back, and a peculiar smile on his narrow, horse-like face.

At his feet sat a shop assistant from the Endless Depository, now inexplicably bald, his small cap and tufts of hair strewn around him.

The man had drawn and sheathed his saber with such swiftness that Huah Yunfei hadn't anticipated the assistant's instant, involuntary haircut.

The challenge suddenly became several times more difficult.

"Excellent saber technique," Huah Yunfei commended with genuine admiration.

The middle-aged man with the horse-like face, however, was unimpressed. He kept staring at Huah Yunfei with a bizarre grin, "Are you Huah Yunfei?"

"Yes, that's me. May I inquire as to who you are?" Huah Yunfei asked casually. He was used to dealing with odd characters and didn't feel the need to take offense.

But the man just kept up his weird smile and said, "My apologies, I mistook you for someone else."

With that, he turned on his heel and strode away.

He collided with a group of guards on their way to apprehend some troublemakers and swiftly dispatched them, leaving them scattered and defeated.

A young man in the Foundation Establishment Realm, witnessing the unfair fight, drew his sword and lunged at the middle-aged man.

The sound of metal clashing rang out twice.

The horse-faced man's long saber flashed out of its sheath and back in an instant. The young man's sword was cleaved from his grip and embedded into the beam overhead.

More people hurried to intervene.

Yet, before they could reach him, the horse-faced man lightly tapped his toe on the ground, leaping ten meters, shattering the intricately carved window of the Endless Depository, and vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving everyone dumbfounded.

The most perplexed of all was Huah Yunfei. The man had specifically asked if he was Huah Yunfei, clearly seeking him out, only to then abruptly claim he had the wrong person.

The horse-faced man's statements were glaringly contradictory, and Huah Yunfei racked his brain but couldn't make heads or tails of his intentions. All he could do was silently close his room door again.

No sooner had Huah Yunfei settled down than a frantic knocking sounded at the VIP room door.

The knocking was accompanied by the worried voice of the page boy, "Hua An, are you there? Young Master!"

Huah Yunfei gestured to remove the room's seal, and Hua An burst in.

"What's the matter? Take your time and explain."

"They've taken the old master away!" blurted out Hua An, gripping Huah Yunfei's arm in a panic.

"Don't panic, take a sip of water and explain everything calmly. Who abducted your master? When and where did this incident occur?" Xie Feiyu offered a cup of tea and inquired.

"I have no idea who they were. Their faces were masked, and they were ruthlessly skilled, cleaving our Hua estate's head guard in two with a single stroke."

"They wielded knives?" Huah Yunfei pressed.

"Yes, they all had knives. Their blades were incredibly swift. In the blink of an eye, heads rolled, hands were severed, and Spirit Weapons shattered…"

Huah Yunfei and his companions grew even more perplexed. There were no known knife experts near the God Burial City, much less a group of them. And within Wu County, it was unthinkable to have so many skilled knife wielders.

Huah Yunfei was at a loss as to where these people came from, what their intentions were, and whether the capture of his father was deliberate or coincidental.

As Huah Yunfei's mind raced, the image of the middle-aged man with the fierce knife skills and a horse-like face surfaced in his thoughts. Could his father's predicament be connected to this man? How else could his appearance be so timely, unless he was indeed a master of the knife?

With so many unanswered questions, Huah Yunfei could only continue to probe, "What else did they do?"

"Oh, right, they also left a letter for the young master." Hua An, still visibly shaken, suddenly remembered the letter he was carrying.

The letter was exquisitely crafted, written on the finest rice paper with premium ink, each character emitting a pleasant fragrance that was refreshing to the senses. However, the message it conveyed was hideously vile: "I've heard that Young Master Huah aspires to hold the Golden Stone Token of Wu County. This displeases me greatly, for that position is mine. Anyone who covets it shall meet their end by my hand. If you value your father's life, stay out of the Golden Stone Token selection."

Huah Yunfei handed the letter to Xie Feiyu, who after reading it, looked at Huah Yunfei with concern and asked, "Young Master Huah, what will be your course of action? Will you comply with their demands?"

Upon hearing Xie Feiyu's words, Huah Yunfei couldn't help but laugh without a sound, his white teeth bared in a way that made him resemble an enraged wild beast. "Agree to their demands? They slaughtered my people at Hua Manor like animals, and you expect me to comply? They've taken my father—should I really bow down to them?"

Xie Feiyu remained unshaken by Huah Yunfei's menacing look, tilting his head back and meeting Huah Yunfei's gaze with his own, which sparkled like stars. He spoke with a gentle yet resolute tone, "Xie Feiyu means no disrespect. It's my fault that your esteemed father was captured because of the Golden Stone Token affair. I could die a hundred times and it still wouldn't be enough to make amends. If Young Master Huah refuses to yield to the enemy, then I, Xie Feiyu, am ready to stand by your side, to hunt down the true villain. I will face any adversary, be it god or Buddha, without a shred of regret, even unto death."

Moved by Xie Feiyu's earnest and valiant declaration, Huah Yunfei expressed his gratitude before continuing, "I have no idea where they've taken my father, but the prime suspect is that horse-faced middle-aged man with the knife. If we can track his movements, we might just uncover some leads."

Just then, Xie Yu, who had previously slipped away from the VIP room, called out from below in the Endless Depository, "Young Master, come quickly and see what I've found."

On the cobblestone street below, where the middle-aged man had made his escape through the window, Xie Yu stood with her Spirit Weapon drawn, her dimpled face set in determination as she compelled the onlookers to keep their distance.

At her feet lay something she had found—three tiny beads of blood, the size of rice grains, which had darkened from bright red to a reddish-brown upon exposure to the air.

"Could this be the blood of that horse-faced man?" Huah Yunfei inquired.

"It's very likely from the minor wound he sustained while smashing through the window of the Endless Depository," Xie Yu replied with a hint of excitement. "This means he won't be able to evade us any longer."

"This could very well be a trap," Xie Feiyu said with a slight frown, analyzing the situation calmly.

"We don't have any other options," Huah Yunfei replied, his laughter tinged with resolute determination and a hint of menace.

Xie Feiyu chose not to elaborate further. Instead, he produced a green gourd, unscrewed the cap, and tipped out a white grain.

At first glance, the grain resembled a piece of rice, but a closer look revealed several concentric rings encircling its midsection, reminiscent of rice weevils from his past life.

Huah Yunfei remembered an entry from the compendium of Heaven and Earth Rare Treasures describing an oddity known as the Blood Immortal Bug, a tracker of extraordinary treasures.

Once a creature's blood was consumed by it, the bug could effortlessly trace its quarry, regardless of the distance separating them.

Xie Feiyu placed the rice-sized Blood Immortal Bug on a droplet of blood atop a large green stone.

As the droplet began to fade, a bloodline emerged within the semi-transparent, jade-like body of the Blood Immortal Bug.

After ingesting the second blood droplet from the ground, the creature's body, once the color of white jade, had now fully transformed into the hue of blood jade, and it began to emit faint, blood-colored threads.

These threads enveloped the Blood Immortal Bug, weaving into an odd, sanguine cocoon.

Xie Feiyu then set the cocoon atop the final blood droplet. As the droplet vanished, the cocoon quivered.

Finally, the cocoon tore open, and a bizarre blood-colored butterfly emerged.

The butterfly made a circle around the area before its blood-hued wings vibrated, propelling it swiftly in a specific direction.

Huah Yunfei and his companions wasted no time in pursuing it.