Nine Star Hegemon Body Art (WN)

Within a luxurious guest room inside the Huayun Pavilion, Long Chen was sitting with the charming Yao Niqian. He asked, “You’re the big boss?”

She laughed cutely and replied, “Am I not a ‘big’ enough boss for you?”

Along with her laugh, her chest jiggled. Long Chen had no choice but to admit she was definitely ‘big’ enough.

But he wasn’t a man who only wanted a chest. He preferred Meng Qi’s tasteful aesthetic, or perhaps Chu Yao’s grand well-bred poise.

“Why did you want me to stay behind?” Long Chen asked lightly.

Seeing that Long Chen wasn’t affected by her charm, Yao Niqian became a bit irritated. That was truly a blow; she was exceptionally confident in her seductiveness.

But just as she was about to say something, another voice rang out.

“Niqian, don’t make trouble.”

Another woman walked over. She was around twenty years old. She looked to be exceptionally plain, yet she gave off a very posh feeling.

“Hmph, what an insensitive guy. Big sis, I’m leaving. I’ll leave him to you.” Yao Niqian didn’t forget to give a glare to Long Chen before leaving the room.

“First of all, I’d like to apologize for so boldly inviting you here. This little one is Bai Ling. Greetings young master Long Chen.” That woman curtsied slightly.

“Miss is too polite.” Long Chen also chose to bow slightly.

“I know that young master Long Chen’s time is precious, so I’ll keep this short. The first reason we invited you over was to discuss the splitting of the profits. The two medicinal pills sold for a total of two billion one million gold coins. This is a sky-high number.” Bai Long couldn’t help sighing emotionally.

Although they had already had a high estimation of those two medicinal pill’s prices, they had never expected for it to draw such turmoil.

And Long Chen himself had also caused several of the auction prices to rise greatly. It could be said that he had been a huge contributor to their success this time.

“This is your portion.” Bai Ling handed him a crystal card.

There were a billion gold coins on the card, causing Long Chen to become ecstatic. He would never have to worry about money again.

Although he didn’t know how the Huayun Pavilion had calculated it, he didn’t really care about what was now chump change to him.

“Thank you.”

“The one who should be thanking the other is us. With your addition to the auction, the auction this time had the absolute greatest profit in all of history,” laughed Bai Ling.

Long Chen smiled, understanding that the main reason was because of him forcing Marquis Ying to pay more.

“No, no, without the pavilion’s support, I also wouldn’t have been able to relieve that resentment.”

Bai Ling was a bit startled. She laughed, “I think young master Long Chen has misunderstood a bit. We didn’t support you; grandmaster Yun Qi had told us to take care of you. Whatever you wanted to buy, no matter the price, he said he would pay for it.”

“Grandmaster Yun Qi?” Long Chen was extremely moved, never imagining that grandmaster Yun Qi had secretly helped him. He had obviously been closely paying attention to him.

“This time we both benefited from helping each other. With young master Long Chen’s help, our Huayun Pavilion has truly reaped an immense harvest this time. That is why to display our thanks, I will give you a gift.”

A book appeared in her hand. “This is a list of all the treasures in our storehouse. You can take one item.”

Long Chen was surprised, but he naturally wouldn’t refuse such a good thing. Having helped the Huayun Pavilion earn so much money, it was simply right for him to be able to get a reward.

Opening the book, he saw there really were quite a few good things. Although they had just completed their yearly auction, there were still countless treasures.

Long Chen didn’t even bother looking through the Battle Skills; there were no longer any Earth class ones left. They only had Mortal class ones, and he no longer needed any on that level.

Armor and weapons also didn’t suit him. But suddenly, his eyes brightened.

“Oh, Heart-Rot Grass?”

That was a poisonous grass. If refined into a poison, it would possess extremely acute toxicity.

The poisonous extract that could be refined from the Heart-Rot Grass could be applied to arrowheads. Such an arrow would be able to kill even second rank Magical Beasts.

“I’ll pick that.” Long Chen pointed to the Heart-Rot Grass.

When Bai Ling saw his selection, she couldn’t help being a bit baffled. “This Heart-Rot Grass does have high toxicity, but it isn’t very valuable. Does young master want to think it over some more?”

A stalk of Heart-Rot Grass was only worth a few hundred thousand gold coins. Bai Ling had been wanting him to select an extremely precious treasure. After all, Long Chen had helped their Huayun Pavilion make a great deal of profit; this was their way of winning favor with him.

But he only picked a medicinal grass that was worth a few hundred thousand gold coins. Naturally, that was awkward for her.

“I’m not that interested in the other things. This Heart-Rot Grass is perfect for me to study a bit,” smiled Long Chen.

“How about you also pick something else?” probed Bai Ling.

“That wouldn’t be too appropriate, would it?” laughed Long Chen.

“It’s not a problem. In the Huayun Pavilion, whatever I say counts,” said Bai Ling confidently.

That was perfect for Long Chen, as he had actually been wondering what other bizarre things they possessed. When he had almost completely flipped through the book’s contents, his heart suddenly jumped.

“Night Devil skull.”

Although his expression didn’t change, his heart was already starting to pound. This was a true treasure!

“Can I pick this Night Devil skull?” asked Long Chen.

“Of course.” Bai Ling smiled. Although the Night Devil skull was worth over a million gold coins, it was not worth making a fuss over.

In just a short time, people brought over the Heart-Rot Grass and the Night Devil skull.

The Heart-Rot Grass was packed into a sealed foot-long bottle. Although it had been tightly sealed, an extremely acrid smell still came from it. The acrid smell seemed to want to bore through their noses and set their lungs on fire.

A bright smile appeared on Long Chen’s face when he saw that strand of Heart-Rot Grass. It had definitely matured properly and its toxicity was extremely high.

As for the Night Devil skull, it was as tall as a human. It looked like an extremely frightening bat’s head.

He reached out his hand and placed the Heart-Rot Grass and Night Devil skull into his spatial ring before then thanking Bai Ling, “Many thanks.”

Bai Ling smiled slightly. “Young master Long Chen is too polite. As I said, the first reason we invited you here was to thank you. The other reason was to ask young master Long Chen if he wished to enter my Huayun Sect.”

“Huayun Sect?” Long Chen was startled.

“Correct. The Huayun Pavilion is just one of my Huayun Sect’s branch industries,” laughed Bai Ling.

“Does that mean young lady Bai is one of the sect’s branch disciples?” asked Long Chen.

Bai Ling nodded. “Bai Ling isn’t talented and is just an outer disciple of the Huayun Sect in charge of the Phoenix Cry Empire’s Huayun Pavilion.”

Long Chen was startled. So this Bai Ling was actually the branch pavilion master and an outer disciple of the Huayun Sect.

“Actually, with young master’s talent and his attainments with medicinal pills, young master will quickly be able to walk out of these uncivilized, backward lands. This is my third year in the Phoenix Cry Empire. Now with young master Long Chen’s assistance, I’ve finally reached my target. Now when I return to the sect, I will be promoted to become an inner disciple.” Anticipation appeared in her eyes. “So to repay this favor, I will shamelessly give you this invitation. If you enter my Huayun Sect, you will definitely have the best conditions to grow.”

Long Chen couldn’t help being moved and asking, “What do you mean, these uncivilized lands?”

“Haha, young master must not know, but this world is so large it is out of your imagination. The Phoenix Cry Empire is just a drop of water in the ocean. This region is called uncivilized because it is far from the cultivation world. That was why I said that with your talent, you should go to a more expansive land to grow. Only then will you not be stifled,” smiled Bai Ling.

But when it came to explaining those more expansive lands, she didn’t further say anything at all.

This was the first time Long Chen had heard of the outer world. Grandmaster Yun Qi had barely raised that subject with him.

And even Bai Ling didn’t reveal too much. Although Long Chen was curious, he didn’t keep questioning her.

He laughed, “Many thanks for your appreciation. If I ever do leave Phoenix Cry and want to see the outer world, then I will go looking for you.”

His words were extremely tactful; he didn’t agree nor decline.

Bai Ling sighed, “It looks like you don’t want to leave Phoenix Cry for now. But I will be returning to the sect immediately. How about this: If you do leave Phoenix Cry and don’t find a suitable sect, keep my Huayun Sect in mind. Here, this is my symbol. With it, you can come to the Huayun sect to find me.”

Receiving a jade tablet from Bai Ling, Long Chen said, “Then, I’ll thank young miss for her help. To tell the truth, I really am interested in that vast and expansive sky that you were talking about.”

Unfortunately, he had too many troubles that he had to resolve. And there was no way Bai Ling could wait for him, as this was a crucial moment for her to promote from an outer disciple to an inner disciple.

Although he didn’t know exactly how different the two were, he could tell that it was extremely important to her since she couldn’t conceal her excitement.

As soon as Long Chen left, a side door opened and Yao Niqian walked in. She was confused and said, “This Long Chen actually refused sister’s invitation.”

“A refusal is normal. This Long Chen is definitely not as simple as you. He is extremely shrewd; he’s definitely contemplating matters that he hasn’t revealed,” sighed Bai Ling.

“What a shame. If you could have lured him, a pill cultivator with endless prospects, into our Huayun Sect, then you might even be promoted to become a core disciple. How about I go try to charm him again? No harm right?” said Yao Niqian.

“Just give it up. Long Chen isn’t like those perverts you usually charm. You’d just be disgracing yourself. We still have to finish some preparations. Once we’re all set, we’ll have to return to the sect. The Huayun Pavilion will be left to another disciple sent here to gain experience,” said Bai Ling.

Although it was hard for her to accept this, Yao Niqian always trusted what Bai Ling said. She only quietly cursed inside. Was this Long Chen even a man?

“Achoo!”

Long Chen had just entered his room when he sneezed.

“Hmph, I don’t know whether it is Marquis Ying or Xia Changfeng who is cursing me. Or is it that idiot woman?”^[1]

Although he didn’t know who was talking about him, that person definitely wasn’t saying anything good about him.

He called over Bao-er and repeatedly warned her not to let anyone interrupt him before tightly closing the door.

“It should be time to refine the Starfusing Pill.”

^[1] It’s a common superstition that you sneeze when someone talks about you.