A divine golden light shone behind Xuanyuan. lighting up his entire body with golden checkered patterns.
A chequered pattern was also present in each of his eyes, giving the impression that everything was under his control. His pupils kept darting around, fixing itself on the shadow of the source stone.
Under the terrifying aura that Xuanyuan gave out, those present found it hard to breathe. His power was far beyond the comprehension of ordinary people.
“You have nowhere left to run! Surrender.” Smiling coldly, Xuanyuan brought down the large golden net. The spectators felt as if they were being trapped by the forces of the heaven and the earth, with nowhere left to run. The source stone could no longer bear Xuanyuan’s power. Desperately, it rushed towards the skies, trying to escape Xuanyuan’s influence.
“Haha. You wish to escape? You’re delusional.” A tear in the s.p.a.ce appeared in the middle of the sky, and out stepped the pig from the void. The markings surrounding the pig interwove to seal the entire area.
The stone roared unwillingly as Xuanyuan shouted, “Submit to me and follow my orders!”
The golden net enveloped the source stone in the middle. The source stone was as large as a water tank, and a b.l.o.o.d.y mouth gaped at the center of the stone. It was aptly named the Megamouth Stone. With no discerning features, it was priced at a mere 3 million king coins.
The source stone was unwilling to be captured, shaking violently as if it would break the net at any moment. Xuanyuan realised that if he couldn’t pacify the spiritual ice within the source stone, it would choose to kill itself, leaving Xuanyuan with nothing. If the worst came to pa.s.s, he may also perish.
“Hmph. It’s not easy to subdue such a rare treasure. Did Xuanuan think this was the same as the heterogenous energy sources, who had no intelligence of their own?” The Sage king was shocked and furious. Shocked because he had never expected Xuanyuan to find the rare treasure, and furious because he had tricked him. Just a while back, the Sage King had said that gambling required the understanding of the human heart, and now Xuanyuan had used the same against him. It was as if he had been slapped with his own words.
n.o.body thought that Xuanyuan was so cunning. His wits put even the wits of a fox to shame. Unexpectedly, he had managed to hoodwink even the Sage King. The royals looked amused.
“Haha, even someone as cautious as the Sage King fell for Xuanyuan’s trap. He gave back what he got.”
“Xuanyuan is no fool. He knew that the Sage King was a cautious man, which is why he behaved exactly as he did.”
“Admitting that he had received the inheritance of the Emperor of Acquisitions reduced the confidence of the Sage King. He was led to believe that the stone Xuanyuan had picked was the best stone present, and thus he stole it from him. It was all carefully planned by Xuanyuan, all so that he could choose this very stone without hindrance.”
“This duel is truly magnificent. If this is what a true stone duel looks like, there’s no wonder that stone refinement has been popular since the ancient times.”
“It’s easy to decipher the mysteries of nature, but the mysteries of the human heart are harder to unravel.”
“Hmph, so what if he got the source stone. Spiritual ice is not easy to control. If one provokes it, it’s p.r.o.ne to detonate itself. Since time immemorial, there have been accounts of reckless, talented masters who tried to forcefully subdue spiritual ice, resulting in their deaths along with the spiritual ice. The only way to extract the spiritual ice is to make it submit to you by pacifying it. I feel that Xuanyuan is going to meet the same end as several before him.” The eldest of the five earth masters viciously said. He hated the fact that Xuanyuan was so fortunate, receiving both the inheritances of the ancient dragon and the Emperor of Acquisitions.
“That’s right. He’s a fool for trying to forcefully subdue the spiritual ice. It’s a miracle that he hasn’t died already.”
The other earth masters nodded in a.s.sent. While the Sage King wasn’t the most skilled amongst them when it came to stone refinement, he was the most talented at reading people. They never expected Xuanyuan to be able to outwit the Sage King, when they themselves were not confident that they could do so.
While they had laughed just a while back, the royals soon realised that they would face a ma.s.sive loss regardless. Whether Xuanyuan subdued the spiritual ice, or it detonated, at the end of the day it was a ma.s.sive loss for them. They wanted to kill all the hired experts who had evaluated the stones.
While it was true that stone refinement techniques were not perfect at detecting the presence of rare treasures, the royals couldn’t think straight. Xuanyuan had spent three days trying to figure out where the rare treasure was, and he had succeeded where their masters had failed.
The surface of the stone continued to shake violently, and a terrifying energy rose, threatening to explode at any time. Seeing this, Xuanyuan still stood fearless. Clsd in gold, with the Five Elements Asura Emperor by his side, he suppressed the spiritual ice with the aura of the ancient dragon.
As expected, the moment the spiritual ice sensed the dragon’s aura, it quietened down. Xuanyuan narrowed his eyes; he knew that spiritual ice was extremely cunning. Maybe it had quietened down to lull him into a false sense of security. Xuanyuan continued to exude the aura of the ancient dragon, which caused the megamouth stone to start trembling violently again.
The spiritual ice was resonating with the G.o.dly dragon source within him. It was a powerful source that could suppress any other spiritual source, no matter how rebellious they were.
Seeing the spiritual ice submit to Xuanyuan, the five earth masters looked as if they saw a ghost. When the Sage King had unearthed the Seeing Spiritual Ice, it had taken their combined effort to suppress and subdue the spiritual ice. But here was Xuanyuan, who single handedly subdued the rare treasure.
“How is it possible. Having lived for such a long time, it must have seen all the powers between the heavens and the earth. How could it submit to Xuanyuan releasing a bit of energy?”
“It must be the aura of the ancient dragon.”
“That’s right, that’s the only explanation.”
Hearing this, everyone was relieved. It meant that Xuanyuan would not have been able to subdue the spiritual ice without his inheritance. The Sage King’s eyes turned red with fury, and a murderous aura rose from his body. He wanted to do nothing but kill Xuanyuan right then and there, but there was nothing they could do. The same was true for the other royals.
“Miss Chang’er. How much do I owe for all the stones I destroyed?” Xuanyuan smiled.
Yuechang couldn’t do anything but calculate it honestly. Her lips twitched as she realised the losses Cheng Men had faced. “800 billion king coins is the amount you owe, Master Xuanyuan.”
Throwing out the amount as if he were tossing out garbage, Xuanyuan drew his Devouring Sword and began checking all the stones.
Xuanyuan put down the energy source on the ground carelessly, atop the golden chessboard. Seeing this, everyone was shocked.
“Isn’t he afraid the energy source will escape?”
“It looks like it has been completely subdued by Xuanyuan. There’s no need for him to worry.” The royals sighed; it appeared that Xuanyuan indeed possessed the talent to become a great emperor.
The Devouring Sword turned into a shower of swords as it rained upon the megamouth stone. With a swing of Xuanyuan’s hands, the shower of swords descended upon the stone, cutting it down precisely.
With one last flicker, a beam of light erupted from the source stone. It gave off an endless energy that covered the entire Source Stone District.
The pig screamed, “That’s the Devouring Energy Source. It devours any form of energy source around it to nourish itself.”
Just a small fraction of its energy was enough to make the air around it thick with Qi. Xuanyuan frowned as he used the ancient dragon’s blood to draw several talismans. These talismans combined to form the Immortal Acquisitions Seal. He then integrated this with the golden chessboard, turning it into a deep crimson colour, which then enveloped the energy source.
The surface of the source stone slowly disintegrated into ashes, and a strange statue appeared.
“This… This is the statute of Gluttony!” The pig howled.
Everyone gasped as they set their eyes on the ferocious looking statue of Gluttony.