Chapter 414
“The NanShen is one of the Four Great Battle Gods of the Vermillion Blood Clan. He is called You TianNan and he controls the South battle squadron. It is a famous and impressive battle squadron in the South Continent that goes on expeditions everywhere for the Vermillion Blood Clan and has attained many heroic contributions. Speaking of that, I also have another piece of news. NanShen of the Four Great Battle Gods died at some unknown person’s hand. His position has already been replaced by someone else.”
You XiaoMo blushed with shame as he interrupted his words, “Xiong-dage, first tell us whether we will be able to inquire about this matter.”
“Sorry, my personality is just like this. I cannot help but talk non-stop when speaking of these matters.” Xiong Xiao embarrassedly laughed, and then he firmly said, “It’s not that you’re not able to inquire about what you’re speaking of. It’s just that the difficulty is too high and it’ll take quite some time.”
“How long?” Ling Xiao asked.
Xiong Xiao raised a finger, “A conservative estimate would be at least three months.”
You XiaoMo exclaimed, “So long?”
Xiong Xiao earnestly stated, “This time frame is already considered short. For reasons unknown the Vermillion Blood Clan suddenly carried out a major purge within the internal clan a few years ago, specifically targeting the main family. Many spies from the Cang Alliance were either plucked out or were sent away under some random cause. So now it’ll be three to four times harder than before if we want to gain information about the Vermillion Blood Clan.”
You XiaoMo knew of this point. If there were no more spies, new ones needed to be put in place and it was a very difficult process that needed a long time, “Xiong-dage, since it’ll take so long, why not help me to inquire about news regarding two other people in passing?”
“Sure, who are they?”
“One of the two is called Yin Ge, the other is called Zhan YuXuan.”
Xiong Xiao muttered to himself irresolutely, “Do they have any distinctive traits other than their names?”
You XiaoMo replied, “Yes, Yin Ge has a head of brilliant silver hair. Zhan YuXuan has black hair. One is cold, the other is gentle. They’re very easy to recognize.”
Xiong Xiao smiled, “It’ll be easier to handle this with such obvious traits. However, I am a businessman. Even if we are friends I cannot help you for free.”
You XiaoMo just knew that there would not be such a cheap matter and immediately said, “All right, what remuneration do you want? I’ll declare first that you can forget about the Metal Swallowing Beast and the Elemental Essence.”
Xiong Xiao burst into loud laughter, “What you say is really interesting. You can be rest assured that I won’t do such things like taking advantage of someone’s difficulties. For the second item, you can just take it as a free gift. As for the first item, the Cang Alliance will not be taking spirit gems as payment due to the great difficulty. Instead, you can take out some valuable thing and exchange it for the information. If the value of the item is not enough, you can use spirit gems to make up for the shortage.”
You XiaoMo stared blankly, there were many treasures in his dimension and most cannot be taken out.
Ling Xiao leaned over and whispered in his ear.
You XiaoMo’s eyes brightened, “Oh yes, there’s that thing.”
With that, he took out a small piece of the ice sculpture that had been left unused in his dimension and passed it to Xiong Xiao, “Is this thing all right?”
Xiong Xiao accepted it and immediately felt a cold chill from it. He was momentarily surprised, “You can refine spiritual liquid from this. How much do you have?”
You XiaoMo, “How much do you want?”
Xiong Xiao thought over it for a moment, “At least twenty one to two meter tall ice sculptures. Although spiritual liquid can be extracted from this thing, but to refine spiritual liquid of nearly a hundred percent purity, only three drops can be extracted from each ice sculpture.”
You XiaoMo was startled. He remembered that the first time he auctioned the spiritual liquid, fourteen to fifteen drops of spiritual liquid could be refined from one ice sculpture. When he came here, it was only three drops instead.
You XiaoMo did not worry that Xiong Xiao would defraud him. A spiritual liquid with a purity close to a hundred percent would practically be the same as the spiritual water from his dimension. It would need to be refined many times to achieve this kind of level and the spiritual liquid attained in the end would naturally not be more than a few drops. Furthermore, those ice sculptures had just been left there and he did not have much use for them.
Both parties finally reached an agreement. You XiaoMo gave him ten ice sculptures on the spot. The remaining pieces would be paid when the Cang Alliance had the information.
Xiong Xiao still needed to look for a birthday gift for his xiao shidi, so he bid them farewell and left first together with the people from the Cang Alliance. Seeing that the matter had been resolved, the people spectating also walked away one by one.
The people from the Beast Transfiguration Guild were still waiting for You XiaoMo and Ling Xiao.
Seeing that they had finished their discussion, Qiao WuShuang asked, “May I know what you two have to discuss with us?”
Ling Xiao unhurriedly replied, “I’ve heard that the Beast Transfiguration Guild is famous for its Beast Transfiguration Techniques. How can they be learned?”
Qiao WuShuang had never imagined that what they wanted to ask was about this. They seemed to be interested in Beast Transfiguration techniques from their words and his gaze could not help but move to You XiaoMo. It looked like the one who wanted to learn was him.
HuangFu Li stroked his beard, “There are three methods you can learn the Beast Transfiguration of the Beast Transfiguration Guild. The first is to accept a mission announced by the Beast Transfiguration Guild. The rewards for some missions are related to the Beast Transfiguration technique. The Guild will decide which category of Beast Transfiguration Guild technique to award based on the difficulty of the mission.”
Based on the meaning of this, it seemed that only a couple of techniques would be awarded for each mission. But there should be many Beast Transfiguration techinques and one would have to continuously do missions to get all of them.
“Then what about the second method?”
“The second method is to join the Beast Transfiguration Guild and become a disciple or an honored guest. But there are strict requirements and you need to swear an oath of loyalty to the Beast Transfiguration Guild. Only by doing this can you get techniques of a higher level.”
“This feels quite troublesome too, the third method ne?”
Qiao WuShuang smiled, “Elder HuangFu, let me explain this. The third method is more unusual. You need to go to Zhong Tian to do it. That is, you need to sign up and join the XiaoYao Institution established by the Tong Tian Palace Hall and become a student of the XiaoYao Institution.”
You XiaoMo blinked his eyes. The XiaoYao Institution established by the Tong Tian Palace Hall?
Qiao WuShuang nodded, “That’s right, it is rumored that the two presidents who established the Mage Guild and the Beast Transfiguration Guild were both from the Tong Tian Palace Hall. The XiaoYao Institution was established ten thousand years ago. On the surface it was established by the two presidents, but in fact the Tong Tian Palace Hall merely borrowed the hands of the two presidents.”
“The role of the XiaoYan Institution is to nurture talented people. However, they only recruit mages, because no matter whether it is the Mage Guild or the Beast Transfiguration Guild, the most important for them is the power of the soul. Therefore, the XiaoYao Institution would recruit a batch of students every year and they will check if those that pass their tests are more suitable for the path of refining pills or beast taming. Of course, there are some geniuses who have both the aptitude for refining pills and beast taming, but that kind of talent is quite rare.”
You XiaoMo continued, “So your meaning is that you can learn all the Beast Transfiguration techniques at the XiaoYao Institution?”
Qiao WuShuang nodded, “This is theoretically true, but you won’t be able to learn it for free. The complete Beast Transfiguration techniques has several grades and you need to depend on your own strength to obtain it.”
You XiaoMo, “This is natural.”
There is no free lunch in this world!
“Please carefully consider which method you are going to choose.” HuangFu Li injected.
You XiaoMo looked at Ling Xiao. Actually, he personally preferred the third method. The first was clearly very troublesome as they needed to continuously do missions. The second would restrict them, so there was only the third left.
Ling Xiao frowned. Since it was established ten thousand years ago, he knew nothing of the XiaoYao Institution as that was just when he happened to leave the Tong Tian Continent. After pondering a little, he asked, “If we join the XiaoYao Institution, must we join the Mage Guild or the Beast Transfiguration Guild in the future?”
Qiao WuShuang was not surprised by his question. In actual fact, most of those who joined the XiaoYao Institution asked the same, “No, the XiaoYao Institution is very democratic. They will not force you like you don’t wish to join the two big guilds. But there’s a point you have to take note of. You must have a religious belief in the Tong Tian Palace Hall.”
You XiaoMo was not worried about this point as it was only just a religious belief. His mind was his own, no one would know even if he did not have such a belief.
“When will the XiaoYao Institution be recruiting students?” Ling Xiao indifferently asked.
Qiao WuShuang calculated the time, “It should be a month later. However, it’s best for you to set off now. It takes nearly two months to travel from the Southern Continent to Zhong Tian. But if you have the One Leaf Boat, you can cut down the travelling time by half.”
You XiaoMo immediately rejoiced in his decision to buy that leaf from the XiaEr Clan at that time.
Soon after, HuangFu Li took out an object that resembled a card and passed it to them, “This is a recommendation card belonging to this old fellow. With this, you can dispense with the rest of the procedures and directly head to the XiaoYao Institution to register. But even if you have this old fellow recommending you, you will have to pass a few evaluations in the XiaoYao Institution to become a student.”
You XiaoMo accepted the recommendation card. Sure enough, HuangFu Li’s name was written on it, “I can only repay the kindness from the both of you in the future.”
HuangFu Li grinned, “There is no need to stand on ceremonies. This effort is only the exertion of lifting one’s hand.”
t/n: the exertion of lifting one’s hand is an idiom that means a very slight effort.
You XiaoMo laughed out loud, “Then I’ll not stand on ceremonies and accept this hand.”
HuangFu Li’s smiling expression froze for a moment, why did these words sound particularly odd?
Qiao WuShuang was finally able to figure out that this You XiaoHa was actually a person with no head. What he said was very amusing, but one was also able to tell that You XiaoHa was just joking. He was such an entertaining person.
Afterwards, the people from the Beast Transfiguration Guild took their leave too. Instead, the ones who were still there were You XiaoMo and the rest. In addition, there were also SheQiu and the few who had secretly slipped away yet had no choice but to once again run back... ...