10: Chapter 10 The First Pot of Gold

In the center of the Underground Black Market, Jubao Pavilion.

This was a large three-story retro building. Two three-meter-tall mechanical stone lions stood at the entrance, their eyes glowing with infrared light. It was an industry secretly controlled by the largest chaebol in Jiangnan City, and also the most heavily guarded money pit in the entire black market.

The lobby was brightly lit, the floor paved with bone fragments from high-tier exotic beasts, and the air was filled with the faint scent of calming incense. Several uniformed security guards stood at various posts, their Qi and blood restrained; they were all true Martial Artists.

Su Chen stepped through the open alloy doors. His tattered black cloak and the mud-stained black bag in his hand looked completely out of place in such a luxurious environment.

"Halt."

Su Chen was stopped by a receptionist dressed in a tailored suit, looking like an apprentice. He scanned the person before him with a critical gaze, making no effort to hide the disdain in his eyes.

"This guest, did you take a wrong turn?" the receptionist said with a fake smile. "Our Jubao Pavilion only handles high-end appraisals and auctions, we don't accept scraps. If you want to sell trash, turn left when you exit; there's a recycling center at the end of the road where they weigh things by the catty."

Su Chen stopped, ignoring the receptionist's mockery. He walked straight to the marble counter, threw the bag on the floor, and reached in to pull out the broken hilt.

"Thud!"

The hilt slammed heavily onto the smooth marble countertop.

"Cut it open." Su Chen's voice was raspy, emitting a cold aura through his mask. "Call your best appraiser here."

The receptionist looked at the piece of rusty iron covered in black mud on the counter, his expression changing.

"You're here to cause trouble, aren't you?" The receptionist pressed the communicator on his waist. "Throwing a pile of trash on the Jubao Pavilion counter—I think you're tired of living! Security!"

Two Martial Artist security guards immediately stepped forward, their hands resting on the spiritual energy stun batons at their waists.

"If you delay my business, you can forget about having those dog eyes of yours."

Su Chen didn't even turn his head, coldly dropping the words.

Beneath the mask, his scarlet Single Tomoe Sharingan immediately locked onto the receptionist's eyes.

There was no explosion of Qi and blood, but a tangible mental pressure, mixed with cold Killing Intent, pierced directly into the receptionist's brain along with his gaze.

The receptionist felt as if his heart was being tightly gripped by a hand. His mind went blank, his legs gave way, and he knelt on the floor. Cold sweat instantly soaked his back, and he looked at the black-robed person wearing the Shura mask in terror, as if looking at a monster ready to devour him.

"Go... go get Elder Zhao!" The receptionist scrambled toward the back, his voice trembling. "There... there's a distinguished guest who wants to cut a stone!"

The two security guards who had intended to act exchanged glances. After feeling the suffocating aura on Su Chen, they stopped and dared not step forward.

In less than half a minute, hurried footsteps came from the back.

An old man with white hair and thick reading glasses walked out, surrounded by a crowd. He was Elder Zhao, the chief appraiser of Jubao Pavilion.

"Who is making such a racket out here? I am currently appraising a B-grade Spiritual Plant!" Elder Zhao walked to the counter, his face full of displeasure.

The receptionist pointed at Su Chen, then at the iron lump on the counter: "Elder Zhao, this guest insists on cutting this stone."

Elder Zhao glanced at the hilt, which was covered in rust, and immediately frowned.

"Nonsense! Isn't this just a piece of rusty scrap iron? It doesn't even have a trace of spiritual energy fluctuation!" Elder Zhao turned his head sharply to look at Su Chen. "If Your Excellency is here for fun, you've come to the wrong place."

"Whether it's scrap iron or not, we'll see after it's cut." Su Chen stood where he was, his voice devoid of any emotion.

"Fine, I'll cut it for you today! If it's ruined, you won't pay a single credit less than the one-hundred-thousand star coin appraisal fee!"

Elder Zhao snorted coldly and reached out to grab the hilt.

The moment he touched it, Elder Zhao's movements froze abruptly.

"So heavy..."

The hilt was only half the size of a palm, yet it weighed over ten catties! Ordinary scrap iron couldn't possibly have such density.

The anger on Elder Zhao's face vanished, replaced by suspicion. He immediately beckoned and said: "Bring the high-precision laser stone cutter over! Quickly!"

Several apprentices hurriedly pushed over a piece of precision equipment half a person's height.

Elder Zhao put on anti-glare goggles, fixed the hilt onto the operating table, took a deep breath, and pressed the start button.

"Zzz—"

The blue laser beam hit the outermost layer of brown rust accurately.

As the rust was stripped away layer by layer until it was completely removed, an extremely terrifying cold aura, mixed with a blinding blood-red light, shot up from the cut without warning!

The temperature in the entire Jubao Pavilion lobby dropped by over ten degrees instantly, and a thin layer of frost even formed on the marble floor!

"Woo—! Woo—! Woo—!"

The spiritual energy alarms in the four corners of the lobby spun wildly, emitting alarm sounds representing the highest level of energy fluctuation!

"Clang."

Elder Zhao's cutting tweezers dropped to the floor, and the anti-glare goggles on his face slid down as well.

He stared fixedly at the metal fragment on the operating table that had shed its disguise; it looked like a mixture of flowing magma and blood, emitting a bone-chilling cold.

"This is..."

"Abyss Crimson Blood Gold?!"

Elder Zhao screamed, his voice becoming high-pitched with excitement: "My god! It really is Abyss Crimson Blood Gold!"

The alarm sounds and Elder Zhao's screams quickly alarmed the entire Jubao Pavilion. People nearby crowded around, stretching their necks to look.

"Elder Zhao, what is Crimson Blood Gold?" The apprentice nearby was stunned.

"Shut up! What do you know!" Elder Zhao was incoherent with excitement, staring fixedly at the blood gold. "This is an indispensable core material for forging S-grade and above divine weapons! This kind of thing only co-exists in the third layer of the abyss rift where King-level exotic beasts lurk! Just by adding a fingernail-sized amount into a weapon, it can grant the weapon the 'Blood Weeping' attribute that ignores defense!"

Elder Zhao turned around abruptly, staring fixedly at Su Chen, his eyes red: "This material has been extinct on the market for five years! Your Excellency... where did you get this?"

There was dead silence in the lobby, and everyone's eyes were focused on the black-robed person wearing the Shura mask.

S-grade material! From the third layer of the abyss!

What did this mean? It meant that this inconspicuous stone was a priceless treasure brought back from the brink of life and death by those high-tier Martial Marquis or even Martial King-level powerhouses!

Facing Elder Zhao's near-hysterical questioning, Su Chen just stood there indifferently, calmly spitting out two words.

"None of your business?"

Elder Zhao's breath hitched, and he immediately realized he had asked a major taboo of the black market.

"Elder Zhao, what's going on? Why did the alarm go off?"

A fat man wearing a Tang suit and covered in sweat ran down from the second floor. This was the resident manager of Jubao Pavilion.

Elder Zhao grabbed the fat manager's collar, his voice trembling: "Manager! Crimson Blood Gold! About three hundred grams! Clear the area quickly!"

The fat manager glanced at the red light on the operating table, his small eyes widening abruptly, and he gasped.

He immediately turned to roar at the security guards behind him: "Clear the area! Close the doors immediately! Jubao Pavilion is closed for today!"

Within seconds, the idlers in the lobby were quickly ushered out.

The fat manager wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and trotted over to Su Chen, bowing at a ninety-degree angle.

"This lord!" The fat manager's tone was respectful to the extreme. "The lobby has too many eyes; please move to the highest-level VIP secret room on the second floor. Let's discuss it in detail!"

Ten minutes later, in the anti-eavesdropping secret room on the second floor of Jubao Pavilion.

Su Chen sat on the leather sofa. On the table, the Abyss Crimson Blood Gold had already been placed in a specially made explosion-proof, constant-temperature glass case.

The fat manager personally poured Su Chen a cup of tea made with high-tier exotic beast milk.

"My lord." The fat manager rubbed his hands and spoke tentatively, "Although this blood gold is small in size, Elder Zhao has examined it; the purity is extremely high, with almost no Impurities."

"Name your price." Su Chen didn't waste words, his voice still raspy.

The fat manager gritted his teeth and held up three fingers.

"We, Jubao Pavilion, are willing to offer three million star coins! Plus a Supreme Black Card from our store. From now on, all your transactions with us will be fee-free. Consider it making a friend; what do you think?"

Three million.

For an orphan from the slums, this amount was enough for him to immediately buy a luxury villa in the inner city and live a stable life.

But there was not a trace of fluctuation in Su Chen's eyes.

He was waiting.

"Fine." Su Chen nodded.

He reached out and placed his hand casually on the induction lock of the explosion-proof glass case, tapping lightly with his fingertips.

In the eyes of others, he was just touching the traded item.

But in Su Chen's mind, the System notification sound was ringing frantically.

"Ding"

"Detected high concentration of abyss source residue..."

"Performing lossless extraction..."

"Extraction successful!"

"Absorbed residual ownerless Origin, obtained [origin points +800]!"

Su Chen, wearing the mask, curled the corners of his mouth upward.

This was the Heaven-Defying aspect of the System. It extracted the high-dimensional energy of the abyss source, while the physical properties and spiritual energy characteristics of the blood gold would not be destroyed. This stone was still a priceless S-grade material.

Killing two birds with one stone.

"Is the money ready?" Su Chen withdrew his hand and asked.

"Transferring immediately! Just give me an anonymous account!" The fat manager beamed with joy; Jubao Pavilion could sell this to a chaebol and make at least a million in profit from the price difference.

"I won't take all three million in cash." Su Chen interrupted him.

The fat manager was stunned: "Then what do you mean?"

"Immediately get me a Tier 2 premium Medicinal Pill—[ice heart jade marrow pill]." Su Chen stared into the fat manager's eyes. "Transfer the remaining money into that black card."

The fat manager was shocked.

ice heart jade marrow pill? Although this Medicinal Pill was only Tier 2, it was extremely difficult to refine and specifically used to purge tyrannical fire toxins. It was priceless and hard to find on the market.

"This... my lord, to be honest. We do have one in our store's warehouse, meant for the grand finale of next week's large auction. The market price is around 1.5 million..."

"Then count it as 1.5 million. Put the rest of the money on the card. Immediately."

Su Chen's tone was unquestionable.

The fat manager looked at the red-glowing eyes inside Su Chen's mask and dared not haggle anymore, immediately nodding: "Fine! I'll go get it right now!"

Twenty minutes later.

A cold wind blew across the wilderness outside the air-raid shelter, and Su Chen's large black cloak fluttered in the air.

Su Chen walked in the pitch-black alley, with the bustling and noisy Underground Black Market behind him.

In his left pocket, he carried a white jade box emitting a cold chill. Lying inside was the very [ice heart jade marrow pill] that could save Jiang Feng.

In his right pocket was an anonymous black card, containing a massive sum of 1.5 million star coins lying quietly inside.

But what made Su Chen's blood boil the most was the dark red System panel on his retina.

[Current origin points balance: 900]

From 0 to 900, it only took one night.

Su Chen stopped and looked up at the dim starlight obscured by the energy barrier. A smile appeared on the handsome face revealed beneath the mask.

"Fatty, your life is saved."

Su Chen clenched his fists, feeling the violent power within his body that could be detonated at any moment.

"Next... it's my turn to upgrade my cheat."