Chapter 00133: Lan Xiaobu Can't Be Deceived (Seeking Subscriptions)
# Lan Xiaobu Can't Be Deceived (Seeking Subscriptions)
Chapter 133
Novel: Abandon The Universe
Chapter 133: Lan Xiaobu Can't Be Deceived (Seeking Subscriptions)
After Lan Xiaobu generously gifted a Kunxun Jade Token to the city lord of White Feather Immortal City, Meng Ao, the crowd became even more stirred.
Although there were still some people lingering around Zou Zheng's treasures, not many were willing to gather close.
Everyone understood that there were no more Kunxun Jade Tokens to be had.
The top ten spots had already been filled, and apart from Lan Xiaobu, the others were all disciples from major sects.
For these sect disciples, ten spots were simply not enough to satisfy their needs.
As for the eleventh to the one-hundredth places, there were only two spots available.
Who would give up their chance?
While the competition was fierce for Lan Xiaobu's tokens, he actually had five spots available.
Now that Lan Xiaobu had appeared, everyone was waiting for him to speak, eager to know how the Kunxun Jade Tokens would be sold.
With one fist clasped in the other, Lan Xiaobu spoke loudly, "Fellow Daoists, the Kunxun Jade Token was something I fought hard to obtain. Using it to trade for spirit stones would be too mundane and greedy. I initially aimed to exchange it for cultivation methods. However, thinking of how many of those methods are secret treasures of large sects, that plan seems infeasible as well. Yet I cannot just give this away for free; even if I wanted to, it wouldn't be fair. Who should I give it to?"
"Just name a price, we can compete based on our own strength!" someone in the crowd urged impatiently.
Lan Xiaobu raised his voice, "Alright then, let’s stick with the idea of exchanging for cultivation methods. Although, to prevent the core methods of various sects from leaking, I only require the refining gas techniques. As for the techniques from major sects, I am not interested..."
Before Lan Xiaobu could finish, the crowd erupted in excitement.
Truth be told, even the five-star sect's refining gas techniques were not completely confidential.
For instance, the main cultivation method of the Western Kunlun Sect is the Grand Mystic Scripture.
While the Grand Mystic Scripture is indeed valuable, its refining gas portion can even be cultivated by outer disciples.
If an outsider were to cultivate that portion, they would effectively be trapped at the Foundation Establishment stage, unable to advance to Pill Formation.
This restriction isn't due to the inadequacy of the Grand Mystic Scripture but rather because they would never acquire follow-up techniques.
Every major sect places great importance on their methods.
Since refining gas techniques are foundational for outer disciples, they aren't considered overly significant and can typically be passed down.
However, for higher stages like refining qi into spirit or refining spirit into void, only a few disciples have access to that, and most will spend their lives unable to reach that level.
Thus, many disciples of major sects prefer not to practice their sect's primary cultivation methods and instead find more general techniques that allow for ongoing advancement.
Now that Lan Xiaobu was only requesting the refining gas portions, this made it much easier.
No matter which sect you were from, he could arrange to acquire it for you.
What’s more, even if they were from five-star sects, revealing merely the refining gas technique would not compromise any important secrets.
The first one they would investigate would be Lan Xiaobu, not the person involved.
This was the thinking of all the merchants wanting the Kunxun Jade Tokens from Lan Xiaobu.
The fact that he said he didn't want methods from major sects was merely a joke to them.
These words from Lan Xiaobu suggested that the refining gas portions of major sects were relatively easy to obtain, but easy access doesn’t mean it’s okay to pass around casually.
While the five-star sects have simpler means of gaining refining gas methods that outer disciples can practice, under no circumstances are they permitted to distribute them.
If they do, the sects would not genuinely investigate, but they would still run checks.
At this moment, it seemed Lan Xiaobu didn’t care about such matters, and who could blame him?
"I have five-star sect methods here, please take a look, Sect Master Lan..."
"I also have..."
"I possess the refining gas method from the Fog Sea Immortal Sect..."
Lan Xiaobu interrupted, calling out, "Whoever has the refining gas method from the Fog Sea Immortal Sect, please step aside. How could I, from Thousand Clouds Immortal Sect, accept your sect's methods? I will not engage in any transactions with you. Also, those with methods from five-star sects, please leave, for I will not trade with you either. The remaining ones holding general methods, please present them; I will discern who has the best quality and quantity."
Although he knew there would undoubtedly be some lower-tier methods mixed among the major sect methods, that was also part of his plan.
This kind of transaction could only be inferred, not explicitly stated.
Even if lower-tier methods weren't deemed significant by major sects, publicly trading them posed a problem for him as he was the sect master of Thousand Clouds Immortal Sect.
Some merchants thought Lan Xiaobu genuinely wouldn’t dare to take the five-star sect methods, immediately stashing their powerful sect techniques away and instead presenting more mediocre ones.
Lan Xiaobu’s divine sense swept across, summarily dismissing them.
Were they not using their heads? Some things don’t need to be stated; actions speak louder.
"Sect Master Lan, I have a few scattered cultivation methods, including the Ever-Green Technique and the Wisdom Truth Formula..."
A sudden voice caught Lan Xiaobu's attention.
He directed his divine sense and quickly scanned the methods the merchant possessed—there were not only the Ancient Star Sect’s Ancient Star Technique but also the Tianyuan Sword Sect’s Lilan Sword Path.
He noted that there were also five or six methods from four-star sects.
While they were all basic refining gas techniques, this was exactly the kind of smart merchant Lan Xiaobu sought after.
Without hesitation, he took out a Kunxun Jade Token and handed it to the merchant, saying, "Very good! I have heard much about the Ever-Green Technique, it's a fine method highly favored by scattered cultivators; let’s make a deal!"
As he spoke, Lan Xiaobu quickly collected all the techniques from the merchant's hands, while the jade token was promptly given to him.
"I also have the Ever-Green Technique..." came disgruntled cries from the crowd.
Lan Xiaobu replied apologetically, "Oh no, he arrived before you..."
Hmm, that sounded familiar.
Some sharp-witted merchants began to grasp the underlying reason.
Soon, various methods like Breathing Techniques and Dragon Tiger Methods emerged.
All these methods were collected by Lan Xiaobu, who knew that while these merchants may list them as low-tier techniques, many were actually hiding five-star and four-star sect cultivation methods.
In the end, Lan Xiaobu even managed to acquire the Grand Mystic Scripture of the Western Kunlun Sect, but again, it was only the basic refining gas portion.
As more and more people surged in, Lan Xiaobu eventually had to say, "I'm sorry everyone, all five Kunxun Jade Tokens have been traded. There are no more available. Please disperse."
Upon hearing that the tokens were gone, people reluctantly began to leave.
Trading the Kunxun Jade Tokens had been a novel experience.
Even though Lan Xiaobu spent a considerable amount of time trading his tokens, the participants in the Four Seas Universe Bag had yet to fully emerge.
While there were not many five-star sects in Yuan Continent, there were countless sects below three-stars.
The number of individuals entering the Four Seas Universe Bag exceeded six or seven thousand.
Zou Zheng announced loudly, "The first thousand spots have all been filled; the rest will be eliminated."
After his declaration, a group of people was teleported out, and the Four Seas Universe Bag was taken by Zou Zheng.
"Why hasn't Zuo Subo come out?" A panicked voice rang out.
Lan Xiaobu’s gaze swept over to see that the person’s clothing resembled that of the disciple performing the Wave Shield technique within the Four Seas Universe Bag, and he immediately understood the implication.
It turned out the unfortunate soul trapped inside was Zuo Subo.
Regrettably, it seemed he would never emerge again.
To his surprise, Zuo Subo was also a disciple of the five-star sect, Blazing Immortal Saber Sect—truly a monumental risk for Jiuzhou Mountain.
"My disciple Yan Xinjian of Tianyuan Sword Sect also hasn't emerged," another voice chimed in, indicating yet another five-star sect.
Lan Xiaobu didn’t know Yan Xinjian personally, but he vaguely recalled the name, remembering that Yan Xinjian seemed to follow Zuo Subo closely.
If his guesses were correct, Yan Xinjian had likely witnessed Zuo Subo’s demise and was then silenced thereafter.
In the strange deaths occurring within others' cave treasures, the nature of this death was evidently deliberate.
"Zou Xianren, why did my disciple Zuo Subo perish? His strength far surpassed his peers, and there’s no way he should have fallen!" The elder of Blazing Immortal Saber Sect could no longer hide his ire towards Zou Zheng, his tone filled with accusation.
Zou Zheng frowned slightly and replied indifferently, "There's much danger within my Four Seas Universe Bag, including various monsters and fiery marshes. I've stated before that if you are concerned about perishing, you are free not to enter. For fairness in this assessment, I cut off my connection to my cave treasure during the selection."
Lan Xiaobu sneered to himself, You just wait and see.
"That's your cave treasure; you could easily save Zuo Subo."
The elder's face flushed red.
Zuo Subo was a direct disciple of the sect leader and was slated to inherit leadership of the Blazing Immortal Saber Sect.
The fall of an heir of a five-star sect was a monumental blow to them!
"Hmph! If you can’t face losing, stall your disciples in the sect! Coming out only to worry and fret; why not bring along a nanny?" came a mocking voice from the crowd.
Upon hearing this, Lan Xiaobu recognized the speaker as someone from the Ancient Star Sect.
He knew this meant that the Ancient Star Sect had some sort of agreement with Zou Zheng.
It was unlikely they would dare confront a five-star sect member directly at this moment.
Blazing Immortal Saber Sect could only swallow their anger and respect the situation, unable to challenge Zou Zheng openly.
Zou Zheng chose to ignore Blazing Immortal Saber Sect and continued on the platform, "The Kunxun Secret Realm will open in one day's time. Normally, the opening duration lasts for a year. After one year, the Kunxun Secret Realm will close, and everyone will gather at Kunxun Plaza for a great medicinal exchange."
Despite the loss of a few disciples from five-star sects during the process, the majority were still thrilled and excited.
After all, the Kunxun Secret Realm was renowned throughout Yuan Continent and held the title of the premier secret realm in Yunzhao.
Anyone who could enter would surely reap benefits.
Lan Xiaobu instructed Shan Qianyue and the others not to roam around before entering Kunxun, urging them to stay at their base camp since they also held Kunxun Jade Tokens.
Even if someone was planning to target Thousand Clouds Immortal Sect, they wouldn’t dare to breach their defenses openly.
As for Lan Xiaobu, he engraved all the obtained techniques onto the Seven Sounds Model.
If this weren’t Kunxun Plaza, he would have brought out even his one-meter-long low-grade spirit vein to assist the Seven Sounds Model in completing the method's modeling urgently.
At this moment, he desperately needed a cultivation method; without it, he was stuck at the Pill Condensation stage, unable to progress.
(First update delivered)
(End of Chapter)