So now that you have confirmed your friends safety, I hope we can start discussing the terms of you handing me my thing back, what do you say ? .
Not wasting even a second after the signal was given, that guy directly brought up that topic back directly forcing me to tense slightly and become completely focused .
" I believe that we are ready to continue discussing the terms indeed, well since you are this excited, I would like to state my terms directly .
" First, I want you to promise that you would no pursue what happened here any longer after we part, meaning that you won't threat me nor my friends after getting what you wanted, do you agree to that ? .
He smiled behind the crow mask on his face and nodded his head, I already know what he was thinking and that he won't honor his promise, but I still needed to make this kind of play to make him lower his guards even slightly .
" Second, I had spent quite some effort to acquire that Elixir Bath of yours, so I believe that I should be compensated, how about you give me something of equal value to compensate me for my losses .
" Oh and don't try to say that you are willing to give me some of the Elixir, even though you said that it had quite the Magical effect on me, I still don't want to use such a cursed item to increase my strength, so I want money, other resources, pills, herbs, Martial Arts, anything that can help boost my strength and elevate my life .
After I said this, I tried to reach for another vial similar to the ones I withdraw before, but this time nothing came out of the Pouch, I understood clearly what this meant, even though the owner of the pouch was embezzling resources, he didn't dare to steal more than 3 vials .
I looked at the guy opposite to me and already understood that I didn't have any capital to threaten him anymore, that forced me to become a lot more restrained in how I deal with that guy going forward .
Looking at him, I saw that he nodded his head slightly and began withdrawing one item after the other from his Pouch, Books, Herbs, Pills Bottles, swords that seem to be of superior quality compared to the ones I have on me excluding Blood Sucking Sword
.
All items were laid bare in front of me, he really seemed to be not holding anything back, from the items on the floor, I saw some exotic herbs that were 100 years old .
These herbs would be labeled as treasures of Heaven-earth, even though they were quite low in rank, but for the current me and even the future me they would provide a great tonic, but seeing them in front of me like this made me realize that I should always refrain from becoming too greedy .
This was after all nothing but a honey trap, he was using all that he can to lure me into his webs and let me lose my guard too, I was certain of that because he was actually putting all the items near his position, once I get too greedy and marsh forward to obtain an item recklessly, he would then strike .
" This brother here is quite generous, my eyes are absorbed in the brilliance of these items of yours, but sadly I'm not well-informed on the worth of most of these things, so I hope you could enlighten me today and I would very much accept your advice on which things to take .
Little brother doesn't need to be so serious, since you ask me to help you in appraising these items then of course I would lend you a hand .
He said this ambiguously but I was completely certain that he would indeed try to play some tricks, so I will first see what might he try to do, enhancing my eyesight, not only was I able to see the Medicinal Energy inside the herbs, age, but I was also able to see a black smoke surrounding these herbs, so there must be something wrong with them, but what exactly, I can't tell .
But I was able to discern one surprising thing, with my Blood Qi increasing, I'm actually able to enhance my senses even more than before, which confirmed the potential of this unique method of mine, so that was a surprise .
The herbs in front me are judged by me to be 100 years old due to recalling the details of them from the book uncle Li gave me in the Dojo, it came quite handy in this situation, it seem that no matter the world I'm in, knowledge is still quite important, as for the age of the herbs, this was completely explained to me by Senior Brother .
The age is related to how many life cycles had passed on the herb and how much potent had the energy inside it had become, 10 years old, 50 years old, 100 years old .
Any older than that and the herb would began to enter the Spirit Grade, reaching 500 years would mark it officially becoming a full fledged Spirit Grade Panacea with shocking effects .
After I heard about this from Senior Brother I couldn't help but marvel at how old can a person be able to live to see one mature in front if him, he shook his head at me and explained that the mature of such herbs require a patient cultivating and other harsh requirements, one would die before even managing to cultivate one in his entire life .
Also, the age of the herbs didn't mean how old had it been living for, it's related to how many life cycles can appear on its leaves, roots and any parts of it, the age in plants is a different term compared to us humans .
That was the thing he said that made me almost drool at that time, these new things were quite amazing to know, but then he crushed my dream and told me that Century Years Old Herbs and Resources are labeled as existential treasures by the 3 Academies in the capital, so try not to dream so high .
Yet, here I'm looking at 2 of these treasured herbs here, how can I be not taken aback, in fact I even wanted to pinch my hand to see if this was a dream, soon I reminded myself in where was I and what kind of situation I was still in and was finally able to regain my clarity back .
I regained my clarity just in time to hear him present those herbs for me, he introduced me to :
Blood Ginseng that was 50 years old, Blood Ganoderma of 50 years as well, both can help me warm my Blood Qi and increase vitality, with a 50% chance of letting me breakthrough to the next layer .
Blood Qi Berries, 30 years old, can help regulate the breath, clear the mind, recovering Blood Qi .
Thunder Purple Leaf, 10 years old can temper the body, but the effect is minimal, the pain which it induce into the body was unbearable, better to used to make pills .
Blood Leaf Grass, 10 years old, suitable to be added into a pill, can boost the Blood Qi slightly, but the effect is minimal due to being filled with toxin and almost impossible to digest without being processed thoroughly .
Yin-Heart Leaf Grass : 100 years old, heart Quenching herbs, also can enhance the body resistance to ailments, but the body would exude a fool smell for some time after using it, prosper in places with rich Yin Heaven-Earth energy, graveyards or battlefields .
Sword Leaf Grass, 100 years old can enhance the comprehension of sword techniques and gives the opportunity to improve mastery over the swords, swallowing the root can allow the sword energy to temper the body and help in quenching the organs and cleansing the marrow, direct consumption will result in painful consequences .
Those were the herbs he introduced me and a few other more, but he didn't mention their negative effects, but I was still able to recall that most of the effects he mentioned were indeed correct, after seeing the Yin-Marrow Leaf Grass, I become more certain that these herbs were abnormal .
That Yin-Heart Leaf Grass actually was the most contaminated by this dark wisp of dark smoke like energy, knowing more details on it than what was mentioned by him, I was able to understand that all these herbs here had been most likely got cultivated in the same place and were sharing the same origin .
Those wisp of smoke had evil Yin energy attached with them, they were contaminated by resentment, with the cruel methods these guys use, it wasn't that difficult for me to understand that these items were all soaked in blood, but even though that was the case I still wanted to aquire them .
After he finished speaking he looked at me and said with a bit urgent tone :
So what do you think of my collection, they should be more than enough to satisfy you, I didn't expect to face such a situation, so there is more left at home, if you wish you can come with me and I'm certain that you will be satisfied .
" No need, these herbs I accepted them, but I still wanted to earn a few silver taels or gold from this trade, so I hope you can understand .
Wanting me to go back with him to his home, ha, who was he trying to fool, not to mention whether I would be able to escape going there, the fact that I no longer have the item he wanted was enough to make him kill me a thousand times over .
I wanted to ask him to introduce the martial arts books in front of him, but in the end I still decided not to, the reasons were simple, I was afraid of the temptations, not to mention these methods were beyond evil, so they didn't suit me .
As for weapons and pills, the first was usless, it was also asking for trouble if I were to try and sell them, the latter was... um.., well, the only Pills that he was showing me were either ones with foul smell, or completely poisonous, so they weren't appealing to me much .
I'm also sure that even though he had withdrawn quite the number of items, I believe that his Pouch which was many times spacious than my two pouches combined must still have some other valuable items, but since I already got enough compensation, I didn't care much about that .
All I cared about now was to stall him for a few more minutes and if possible get some money out of him, that's why I asked him to hand over some of the money he have on him .
I saw that his expression become a bit dark, but he still withdraw a 1 gold tael and 30 silver taels and tossed them to me with reluctant in his eyes, he did look quite desperate to part with this much wealth, but I couldn't help but look down upon a guy with such assets, yet he still care about this amount of money .
I accepted the money and saw that his voice was now carrying a threatening tone to it as he said impatiently :
Now I believe that you should hand over the Elixir vials and I will hand over the herbs to you .
Even though he was about to erupt like a volcano from anger and I was able to clearly see that, I still shook my head and before he start spouting a bunch of curses, I said :
" You should be at least in the 1st layer of Organ Quenching Realm, so unless you wanted me to die with you and spill all the content of the vials on the ground, I suggest that you hand over the herbs first and after that I will hand over the items you wanted .
He punched a hole through the ground beneath him in anger, but still said :
Fine, fine, here you go .
With a wave of his hand, the herbs with their boxes directly flow in my direction, I collected them in my newly acquired pouch, then I instantly shot towards him holding an empty bottle, he seemed to have thought that this was me going to hand him the Elixir, so he opened his hands .
But just as our hands were about to cross, I directly feinted to the side and with the Blood Sucking Sword and the Life-Severing secret skill together with Dragon-Tiger Transformation pushed to its utmost limit, with my full strength completely unleashed, I swept my sword to the right aiming for his neck directly, surprisingly I did actually succeeded in attacking him .
I saw that a head fell down, but as if I was hallucinating, both the head and the body dissipated as if they never existed, an afterimage, my attack just now fell on an afterimage, while trying to assess the situation, I was shocked to hear his voice sounding from behind me saying :
What's the meaning of this ? .
Then without a second delay he reached towards both of my pouches, I responded with yet another slash towards his hands stopping him in tracks, he jumped back in retreat, but then he raised his leg and tried to kick the sword from my hands while saying :
What kind of resentment are you holding against me that could make you even burn your Blood Qi and Life Force just to injure me, didn't we have a deal ? .
After he said this, we finally clashed again, he was trying to kick me and I was using the speed that my secret Skills and Techniques gave me to try and parry his kick with the sword, I thought that by doing this I might able to stand a chance in stopping his attack .
I was wrong, not only was I unable to parry successfully, but this time I wasn't merely pushed back by the sheer strength of his, but I was directly sent flying backwards, luckily I had already came behind him before, why I consider this as luck was because, him launching like this actually worked in my favor .
I completely not giving out to the numbing pain that I was beginning to in my hands and arms, I took advantage in being launched towards the woods where we came through and directly twisted my body in the air not caring in the slightest about how painful doing something like this was, I currently had one chance to pull this stunt of mine, if failed, then I will really be in a dire situation .
Urging Crouching Tiger as it the best suited in this kind of terrain, I directly tore through the air and like an arrow that had left the string, not caring to even spare a glance to check whether I was still being followed or not, all my current focus was on escaping this place and heading back to the city .
I kept making a few turns and shuttling from one direction to another creating quite the loud noise and alarming many beasts on my way, I didn't do it intentionally, but seeing that it had already happened, I hoped that this trouble that I stirred will be able to buy me some time, as for how many will die, well everyone will die someday, so there was no need to feel bad about this .
Sadly after covering quite a long distance on my way back, the momentum of mine began to slow down and I found myself almost swarmed by Black Fur Wolves that were bigger than lions in my previous world and one other notable characteristic regarding their appearance, they all had red eyes and the Blood Qi in the air around them was quite fierce .
One of them jumped at me seemed to be testing the water, I used Blood Sucking and ducked under him and cutting his stomach wide open, his movements couldn't be any slower in my eyes .
After I did this, I seemed to have triggered the anger of this Wolf Pack by killing their kin, so I was suddenly swarmed by all of them, at least that what they thought, but taking advantage of my ability to see their moves clearly, I let them indulge in a fierce fight among themselves and fled the place in a hurry .
Even if I were to indulge in a fight with these guys and triumph, I will be at risk of losing my advantage and allow that guy to close the distance between us or even catch me directly, just as I thought like this, a hand suddenly covered my whole face and directly crashed the back of my head into a tree .
I almost lost conscious, but a gush of pain suddenly assaulted me and with its appearance, I was able to come back to my senses, I saw only a dark shadow appear before my head was being shoved into a tree, even though a big piece of the tree trunk broke apart at the impact, the tree was still standing .
As for me, my face was completely burning due to how many cuts it suffered, I can only grit my teeth and force myself to open my eyes, opening my eye and seeing who attacked me I wanted to close them back, the person in front of me was no one but the Evil Tigers group member from before saying :
Where to, little mouse, aren't you forgetting something, like for an example My Elixir .
" ..... .