Chapter 517: Exorbitant Prices

'Dragontail Decimation? That sure is an impressive sounding name,' John mused as he read over the name. His thoughts shifted to the Lightning Dragon that he had seen before, and couldn't help but think back to the incredible power it displayed.

John's thoughts shifted back to the Jade piece in his hand, and his divine sense washed over the initial description of the battle art.

"Channel a heavenly avatar of a Lightning Dragon's tail, which crashes down upon the desired target."

The description was incredibly brief, and John sent his divine sense a bit further into the Jade piece to inquire more about it. Upon doing so, he realized that the attack was slightly different than initially expected, but even more desirable now.

'Its a channeled attack, meant for War Mages...this is exactly what I need at the moment!'

While John was not a legitimate War Mage in terms of channeling talent, he was able to brute force his way forward due to his incredibly compressed Dantian. With his Dantian being twenty times more compressed, although he was not as good at compressing and storing Qi for an attack at other War Mages, his overall essence Qi quality and quantity brute forced through that deficiency.

From an outside perspective, there would be no difference between what John did and what other War Mages were capable of. At the moment, John had many powerful quick use skills, but did not have any powerful channeled battle arts.

Channeled battle arts were the hardest to use as they required a long channel time, but their destructive power was unmatched. It was exactly what he was looking for, and he knew he needed to obtain this battle art.

John set the Jade piece down and looked towards Caz, who sat there calmly while sipping tea.

"How much for these three battle arts?" John asked as he took Lightning Disintegration, Thunderbody Flash, and Dragontail Decimation.

Caz glanced at the three Jade pieces John had picked, and nodded his head in approval at his choices.

"Good choices," Caz replied. "Although I'm a bit surprised to see you pick Dragontail Decimation. Are you a War Mage?"

"Something like that," John replied while scratching his cheek.

"Regardless, these are all top tier battle arts. You have a good eye for quality it seems," Caz replied. "In regards to price, the price for Lightning Disintegration is three million spirit crystals, Thunderbody Flash is three million...and Dragontail Destruction is twenty million."

"So expensive!" John couldn't help but blurt out in response to the prices he was hearing, especially Dragontail Destruction. Twenty million spirit crystals was an absurd amount of money for a single battle art, which gave John pause for a moment.

Caz noticed this hesitation, and decided to elaborate further on the prices.

"The prices for these battle arts are this expensive for two reasons," he said to John. "First, for battle arts at the Heaven Tribulation or above, most must be stored in Jade pieces due to their complexity. As I'm sure you noticed, the information is given a bit differently through the Jade pieces as opposed to written battle arts."

John nodded his head at Caz's words, as it was indeed the truth. Battle arts written on scrolls and books detailed the flow of Qi, which meridians to utilize, and other easy to explain things. However, Jade pieces included the 'feeling' of the battle art, its essence, and was much more complicated than written battle arts. However, it allowed the battle arts to be much more profound and powerful, which was a necessary trade off.

"Written battle arts can be copied any number of times by anyone, reducing their value. However, battle arts contained within Jade pieces are far more complex, and can only be copied by the creator of the battle art, or someone who has fully mastered every aspect of the battle art. As such, the amount of copies out in the world are much less than written battle arts, and so Jade piece battle arts are much more expensive," Caz explained.

John thought about it for a moment before he nodded his head at Caz's words.

"That does make sense," he replied. "However, why is Dragontail Decimation almost ten times the cost of the other two battle arts?"

"That's because as far as we can tell, there is only this one copy out in the world...this one," Caz replied.

John raised an eyebrow upon hearing this, and couldn't help but ask for more information.

"Why is there only one copy?"

"This Jade Piece was found by someone in an ancient ruin, and the origins are unknown. Many have attempted to fully learn the battle art, but none have ever been able to do so," Caz started to explain. "The battle art has several incredibly strict requirements to utilize, making it incredibly hard to master. First, one needs to be a War Mage, and an incredibly talented one at that. Two, the user needs to have absolute control over the Lightning Dao, as not having full control results in the user injuring themselves instead. Lastly, the battle art places an incredible burden on the body even when utilized correctly, and while not listed as a requirement by the battle art, most agree that having an Innate Variant Body is required to fully master this battle art."

Caz paused for a moment to take a sip of tea, before he continued his explanation.

"With these three incredibly strict requirements, no one has been able to fully master this battle art, and so no one has been able to copy it to other Jade pieces, hence the price."

John listened to Caz's explanation, which made complete sense as to why the cost was so high. He could tell it was an absolutely amazing battle art, and was by far the most profound of the ones presented to him thus far.

"If that's the case, then this battle art is useless to almost everyone. Shouldn't the price be a bit lower, since no one can master it?" John asked before taking a sip of tea.

Caz smiled upon hearing John's question, as it was a good one to ask.

"A good question, and one that would be correct in most cases. However, as you know, cultivators are incredibly proud, and there is no shortage of lightning cultivators who think themselves capable of cultivating this battle art. This battle art has been sold several times in the last one hundred years, but is always sold back to us when the cultivator realizes the endeavor is futile," Caz explained.

"Ah, I see," John replied after a moment of silence. He had been hoping to get the price down, but it seems as though the Mystic Trade Hall was in no rush to sell this battle art. If he didn't buy it, someone in the near future would.

John remained silent for a moment as he thought over everything, before he decided to look at the other battle arts before him before making a final decision. His eyes locked onto the next pile of Jade pieces; the scythe battle arts.

A particularly ancient looking Jade piece caught his eye, as it was more faded in color and worn down than the others. John reached out and picked it up, and sent his divine sense into the piece. His eyes widened slightly in surprise as an ancient yet familiar language filled his mind.

"Divine Reaping Scythe"