Chapter 179: A Marine Map

　　Yunxiao thumped his teacup on the table and sneered, “Do you take me for a fool? The sea is boundless, and sea beasts near the land are at most second-tier. To find a fourth-tier sea beast, we need to venture at least a thousand miles out, but we don’t have a marine map. Even if we did, it will only help us in navigating around and not find a poisonous fourth-tier sea beast in the vast water! Not to mention the odds of running into some high-level creatures and get ourselves killed is extremely high!”

　　Duan Yue found it very difficult to deceive this boy. ‘How could he know so much at such a young age? It’s like he has been to the sea before…’ He knew he had to use another method. So, he took out an old beast skin from his ring and spread it out flat in front of Yunxiao while speaking, “Have a look at this!”

　　Yunxiao squinted at the skin. A few times thicker than a common demon beast skin and still springy to the touch, it appeared to be the skin of some large sea beast. A marine map was delicately drawn on it, and there was a red triangular symbol at one of the corners, on top of which was written ‘Kunwu.’

　　His pupils constricted abruptly, and his palm clenched unconsciously, grabbing the whole beast skin in his hand as he blurted out in shock, “Kunwu Divine Tree?”

　　That startled Duan Yue, and he found the young man in front of him more and more mysterious. “You know about the Kunwu Divine Tree as well?”

　　Yunxiao realized that he had forgotten himself. If he learned the news at another time, he would not care or be so agitated. But, Meng Wu was in deep sleep right now, and she needed a Soul Nourishing Wood, which was the branch of a Kunwu Divine Tree that had absorbed a large amount of sea beasts’ life essence.

　　“I’m an alchemist, and there are few materials in the world I don’t know about. Kunwu Divine Tree is just one of the precious plants. What’s so strange that I know about it?”

　　He spread out the map and carefully studied it. “Judging from this map, it should be about a thousand miles out from Skyfragrance’s coastline. It is not far, but since there is a Kunwu Divine Tree, there must be some high-level sea beasts guarding the area. The odds of finding a few poisonous ones are indeed high.”

　　After remaining silent for a moment, Yunxiao returned the map to Duan Yue and gave him an indifferent look as he said, “Be frank with me, what do you want me to do? Tell me everything, including all the terms and benefits.”

　　Duan Yue was stunned. He did not expect Yunxiao to guess his intention and be so direct with it. ‘This boy is too scary! Did I really find the right person? I won’t be conned by him instead, will I?’

　　“What? Don’t play stupid in front of me!” Yunxiao mocked. “There must be something I can do for you. Otherwise, why would you be so kind as to share it with me if you could take the benefits all by yourself? If you don’t want to be honest with me, I’ll pretend I’ve never heard of this before.”

　　Gulp!

　　Duan Yue swallowed hard as he smiled wryly and said, “I wonder if there’s a sly old fox hiding inside you. Yes, I need your help. In fact, my visit to the Alchemist Association was to find an alchemist. Initially, I picked Bi Qianjin, but now it seems that he is not strong enough.”

　　Yunxiao sneered, “So, you’ve picked me, because you think I’m young and my soul power is strong, so I’m easy to deceive and will work very hard for you?”

　　“This…”

　　Duan Yue paused a moment, and then he shook his head and said vexedly, “That’s what I thought in the beginning, but I am really worried now that I’ve found the wrong person. Had I known you are so smart, I would have looked for other higher-tier alchemists. It is for fear of being conned that made me look for a younger and less experienced one…”

　　“Don’t worry, I’m only fifteen years old and don’t have much experience,” said Yunxiao with an honest and sincere look.

　　“…”

　　The old man was speechless. If he had not known Yunxiao slightly through their previous conversation, he would have believed that just by looking at his expression. But, he would definitely not believe that statement now, and he began to explain the situation in detail.

　　The Skyfragrance Empire was adjacent to the South Sea and had an astonishing wealth of sea resources. Near the sea was a town called Qinghai. Small and with not big a population, it was one of the most bustling places in the south of the Heavenly Martial Realm. Its floating population was hundreds to a thousand times more than its permanent residents, all of which were businessmen pouring in from various places.

　　In addition to normal merchants, these visitors included representatives of various powers and different members of the Commerce Alliance, who had all established their bases in Qinghai for its great wealth of sea resources. There were also numerous hunters coming from different places, hunting sea beasts all years round for a living and in exchange for all kinds of resources.

　　Duan Yue was one such hunter, and a famous one at that. He was strong, and he always hunted alone. Moreover, he could kill sea beasts of a higher level than other ordinary hunters. That was how he had earned his reputation.

　　The distribution of beasts in the sea was similar to what Yunxiao described earlier. Within a thousand miles from the coast, second-tier sea beasts were the strongest, which were equivalent to Martial Masters. But, sea beasts had a unique advantage over humans in the water, so if a hunter wished to successfully kill a sea beast, he could only look for one that was one tier lower than himself. In other words, it required a Great Martial Master to hunt a second-tier sea beast.

　　Generally, with adequate preparation and by avoiding unfamiliar sea areas or going further out into the water, there would not be much danger. But, because of this, sea beasts had almost run out in safe waters. As a result, large numbers of hunting groups risked going into deeper waters for higher yields. People had died because of that, but since the yield was so lucrative, many groups still took the risk.

　　By chance, Duan Yue rescued a dying hunting group, and to thank him for saving their lives, the leader gave him the marine map as a token of gratitude. He did not take it to heart at first, but the more he looked at it, the more shocked he became, because he found that it was a marine map of a rainbow fog.

　　The so-called rainbow fog was a very strange phenomenon in the sea. It was a rainbow-colored fog that suddenly appeared over the water, enveloping the sky and the sea. Within it, the visibility was extremely poor, and even divine sense could not travel too far.

　　There were two types of rainbow fogs: The first one appeared at random, unpredictable locations, and the second type at fixed locations. The only thing they had in common was that once a rainbow fog appeared, the sea area was no longer the same place. The fog could produce a space tunnel effect, transporting those who entered it to another unknown sea area.

　　A randomly generated rainbow fog would lead to a random sea area while a fixed rainbow fog would lead to a fixed sea area. Therefore, a fixed rainbow fog had great exploration value, and was regarded as a treasure vault. That made a marine map marked with a fixed rainbow fog like this an invaluable treasure, too precious to be priced.

　　The four seas were vast, at least many times larger than the land. It was impossible for an average warrior to visit all of them even if he spent his whole life trying to achieve that, while the imperial clans of the seas might not know all the details in the territories under their jurisdiction. So, owning a marine map of rainbow fog was like having an independent treasure land. Its value was simply astonishing. Of course, the risk that came with it was huge as well, because it would be a tragedy if it led to the habitat of some high-level sea beasts.

　　When he had finished listening, Yunxiao immediately knew what Duan Yue needed from him.

　　Generally, where a rainbow fog was generated, there would be an accompanying substance called pink crystal dust. It had a pale pink hue, no odor, and was scattered within the fog. The dust was not poisonous, but a person would hallucinate if he inhaled it and eventually die in the sea. It could not be dispersed with Primordial Qi, and the only way to repel it was with strong soul power.

　　Yunxiao took a sip of tea and said leisurely, “You need me to disperse the pink crystal dust for you?”

　　Upon hearing that, Duan Yue, who was sipping his tea to moisten his lips, spat out a mouthful and coughed violently. He kept slapping his own chest, and his eyes were filled with shock. “You…”

　　He was utterly shocked. “Are you really just fifteen years old? Even hunters who hunt all year round in the sea may not know about pink crystal dust, and only experts of a certain level know about its existence. You are just fifteen years old, but you are already a third-tier alchemist and a one-star Great Martial Master, and you even seem to know everything. Tell me, which power has cultivated a monster like you? If I have sons and grandsons in the future, I will send them there to be cultivated.”

　　Yunxiao smiled and said nothing. In fact, not only did he know about rainbow fog, but he had experienced one before.

　　Legends had it that he slaughtered all the members of the sea clans within eight thousand miles and turned the whole sea blood-red, but it was just rumors spread by humans to make themselves look better. The truth was that he was chased by the sea clans for eight thousand miles. However, he did kill countless of them along the way and turned a large part of the sea blood-red.

　　When he was forced into a dead end and he thought he was about to be killed, a rainbow fog appeared suddenly and transported him to another sea area, which saved his life.

　　Yes, he was a mighty warrior, but even if all the top ten experts of the Heaven and Earth Power Chart were there at the same time, they would also be killed by the tens of thousands of experts from the sea clans, among whom, hundreds were as strong as Martial Sovereigns. After that, the common sovereign of the four seas, the Bo family, failed to find him, and under the pressure of the imperial sea clans, it brought tens of thousands of experts to besiege the Holy Realm. But, even the Divine City dared not to fight them and had put up a board of truce. After besieging for months to no avail, only then did the sea clans leave.