Chapter 1173: Mysterious Silver
Half of the industrial property in Ataraxia City belonged to the Zhou Clan.
The other half was controlled by a few other first-rate forces, including the True Martial Sect.
Today, the True Martial Sect's industrial property in Ataraxia City was not tranquil at all.
When the two bodies were sent there, they closed the shops. The atmosphere inside one of the shops was extremely tensed.
A sturdy middle-aged man looked at the person who sent the bodies over. His eyes gleamed with iciness as he asked in a deep voice, "Who did this?"
That person broke out in cold sweat when the middle-aged man glared at him. He quickly answered, "Young Sect Leader, I'm from the Zhou Clan's Auction Square. Your brother and this True Martial Sect's elder were killed by two of our customers in our Zhou Clan's Auction Square."
Judging from his words, one would be able to figure out that the sturdy middle-aged man was none other than Wu Jian, the other Young Sect Leader of True Martial Sect. He was also Wu Jie's blood brother.
"You killed my brother and an elder from the True Martial Sect! I, Wu Jian, will kill you in return!" Wu Jian's eyes gleamed murderously, and his body emitted a tyrannical aura that made it seem as though he wanted to devour a certain someone.
Wu Jian looked at the young man lying on the ground with red eyes before he enunciated each word slowly in his deep voice, "Brother, rest assured. I'll chop off the head of the person who killed you, and bring it back as an offering to you."
At the Zhou Clan's Auction Square.
Only a short while had passed, but five items had already been auctioned off. However, those items were useless to Duan Ling Tian.
Moreover, three out of the five items were no different from trash in Duan Ling Tian's eyes.
"The sixth item being auctioned off today in our Zhou Clan's Auction Square is an extremely rare material. According to the record in the ancient book, this is called the Mysterious Silver." On the auction stage, Zhou Ji introduced the auction item in his hand. It was an irregular round ball that was as big as an adult's fist. It appeared rough and uneven. It was extremely ugly.
"Mysterious Silver?!" When Zhou Ji's words left his mouth, Duan Ling Tian whose eyes were originally closed was shocked. He immediately opened his eyes.
His burning gaze instantly focused on Zhou Ji's hand.
There was finally something he was interested in.
Moreover, this thing held quite a significant meaning to him.
"What is Mysterious Silver?"
"Exactly! Hurry and introduce it to us. Otherwise, we won't even know what it is if we bid for it and bring it back!"
Many people asked Zhou Ji to introduce the Mysterious Silver.
Zhou Ji smiled before he continued to say, "The Mysterious Silver is an extremely valuable Inscription material. As for its function, well, one can use the Mysterious Silver to communicate and give orders to the puppet that's made from a combination of Inscription Formations and other materials! As you all know, although it's not difficult to create a puppet, these puppets usually do not take orders well. This includes the orders of its maker, the Inscription Master himself. The puppet is not sentient, it only moves according to the Inscription Formation the Inscription Master left behind on its body."
Zhou Ji continued, "However if you have this Mysterious Silver, everything will be different. Once the puppet is merged with the Mysterious Silver, it'll coordinate with a corresponding Inscription Formation and allow you to give it direct orders and control it."
The instant Zhou Ji's words left his mouth, the entire scene burst into an uproar.
"We can control a puppet through this thing?" Many people's eyes brightened up instantly.
"Wait a minute. If the puppet is merged with this Mysterious Silver, will I be the only one who's able to control it or can anyone control it as well? If everybody can control it, then it's pretty much useless," someone voiced out the worry in his heart soon after that.
"That's right! If everybody can control it, isn't that like doing all the work for someone else?" Many people voiced out their agreement as well.
Soon after, these words spread in the entire Zhou Clan's Auction Square and became the general consensus. Even Zhou Ji who was standing on the auction stage could hear the words.
"All of you, there's no need for you to worry. The Mysterious Silver can only be used to control the puppet when it's coordinated with the Inscription and Inscription Formation. Unless the Inscription Master commands it, only specific people can give orders and control the puppet,' Zhou Ji explained carefully.
The moment everyone heard Zhou Ji's words, their eyes brightened instantly. "If that's the case, this Mysterious Silver is indeed great... If it's not expensive, I'll buy it and bring it back for a try."
There were many Inscription Masters among the group of customers in the Zhou Clan's Auction Square. All of them were staring at the Mysterious Silver in Zhou Ji's hand with bright eyes.
If it was not for the fact that they were not confident they could snatch the Mysterious Silver away, they would have gone on stage to snatch it away!
The Mysterious Silver could be considered as a treasure to Inscription Masters.
Although the puppet they made was not as powerful as them and not very helpful, their hearts began to long for the Mysterious Silver the moment they imagined a puppet following them around and carrying out their orders unconditionally with just a command.
Similar to them, Duan Ling Tian also longed for the Mysterious Silver.
"With this Mysterious Silver, I'll be able to put the Inscription Formation that I obtained from Qing Feng Palace previously to use..." Duan Ling Tian's thought immediately went to the gigantic wooden puppet he encountered in Qing Feng Palace that was left behind by Martial Emperor Qing Feng in the Martial Emperor's secret treasure.
With the stone platform that was inscribed with a bizarre Inscription Formation at the core, the gigantic wooden puppet could mobilize the shattered woods on the floor and turn them into a powerful force.
Initially, Duan Ling Tian had taken the odd stone platform away with him since he really wanted the Inscription Formation on it.
After that, Duan Ling Tian tried to use the Inscription Formation to gather the Origin Energies of a group of people and turn it into a powerful force. As the saying went, 'Use a large force to defeat a small one, and defeat the strong by using a weak force!"
Unfortunately, imagination was always beautiful, and reality was harsh.
The impure Origin Energies from human bodies could not be gathered by the Inscription Formation. Only pure Origin Energies inside Origin Stones could be gathered using this kind of Inscription Formation.
In the past, Duan Ling Tian had also thought about making a huge number of puppets and gather these puppets' strength through that kind of Inscription Formation so that he could obtain a powerful force.
However, a puppet was still a puppet. Even if he was the person who created it, he still could not order or control it. Due to this reason, he had abandoned this idea.
"Perhaps, that Inscription Formation will only be useful if I obtain the Mysterious Silver." This was the idea that Duan Ling Tian had last time.
At that time, he had ransacked the Rebirth Martial Emperor's memory and discovered that if the Mysterious Silver was merged with a puppet — just a tiny bit would do — he would be able to use a corresponding Inscription Formation to order and control the puppet.
The corresponding Inscription Formation was a simple Inscription Formation. Most of the famous Inscription Masters on Cloud Continent were able to inscribe and set it up.
However, although the Inscription Formation was easy to set up, the Mysterious Silver was extremely rare. At the very least, the Rebirth Martial Emperor did not encounter any in his two lives.
"I can't believe that I, Duan Ling Tian, actually encountered the thing the Rebirth Martial Emperor had never seen before in his two reincarnations. It looks like my trip to Ataraxia City this time is not in vain." Duan Ling Tian's eyes shone as he looked at the Mysterious Silver in Zhou Ji's hand. "I must obtain this Mysterious Silver!"
An ordinary Inscription Master might want the Mysterious Silver so that he could bring the puppet out and show off, but Duan Ling Tian wanted it because he wanted to build a huge and powerful puppet!
Even if an ordinary puppet was set to move by a supreme-grade Origin Stones that were much superior to high-grade Origin Stones, the power it could unleash was still limited. It could only be compared to an ordinary Void Transformation Stage martial artist at the most.
However, with the Inscription Formation that Duan Ling Tian obtained in the Martial Emperor's secret treasure left behind by Martial Emperor Qing Feng, it would gather the strength of a group of puppets to form a greater strength.
Even a puppet with Origin Energy comparable to a Martial Monarch could be created using that kind of Inscription Formation.
'At that time, the puppet would possess strength that's comparable to a Martial Monarch after it has corresponded with the Profundity Fragment that I put in it! It'll be like a man-made Martial Monarch!' The moment Duan Ling Tian thought of this, he could not help but feel excited.
Although it was difficult for 99% of the Inscription Masters on Cloud Continent to put a Profundity Fragment in the puppet so that it would be able to cast the corresponding Profundity, it was not a problem at all for Duan Ling Tian who had the Rebirth Martial Emperor's memory.
"Currently, I have many Profundity Fragments that I've collected, and I can definitely build a puppet with strength comparable to a Martial Monarch! However, I still need to get my hands on the Mysterious Silver first before I can do all this." Duan Ling Tian's eyes were filled with longing. From the beginning until the end, his eyes did not leave the Mysterious Silver in Zhou Ji's hand at all.
If there was no Mysterious Silver, it would be absolutely useless even if he built a super powerful puppet. It would not obey his order, and he could not control it.
"Dear customers, think about it... If you bring a puppet who obeys your orders out, how will other people look at you? They'll be envious of course! They'll definitely look at you with eyes filled with envy!" Holding on to the Mysterious Silver, Zhou Ji played the item up. He praised it and described it with a colorful description.
"I must get my hands on this Mysterious Silver!"
"Hurmph! Well then, let's see who has more Origin Stones!"
"I don't lack Origin Stones at all! Try competing with me if you dare!"
...
As proven by facts, Zhou Ji's exaggeration was indeed rather fruitful. After a short period of time, people were already arguing with each other.
Although the commotion by his ears proved that the Mysterious Silver was in high demand, Duan Ling Tian was not bothered at all.
Put aside the fact that he had managed to obtain a huge number of high-grade Origin Stones from the pirates led by Gold Thug before he went to the Yin Yang Sect, after he had become the Sect Leader of Ling Tian Sect and took over everything in the Yin Yang Sect, the high-grade Origin Stones in his hands had already accumulated to several hundred thousand pieces.
Moreover, there were many supreme-grade Origin Stones as well.
The supreme-grade Origin Stones were produced by the high-grade Origin Stone Vein that used to be controlled by the Yin Yang Sect, currently known as the Ling Tian Sect. Naturally, the production number was not high, but he had collected all of them.
The value of one supreme-grade Origin Stone was equal to 100 high-grade Origin Stones!