Chapter 09 - Carving Knife, Life Gold

4 months have passed since Mo Xie registered in the Battle Arena.

After Mo Xie defeated Crazy Bull, he found a few companions to participate in 2v2 and 7v7 battles, in which all of his opponents were at Soul Grandmasters level and above.

With constant struggles and his personal training, he finally reached Rank 20 and entered the second stage of Natural Qi Refinement after 3 months and spent his fourth month stabilizing his cultivation and accumulating spiritual energy for his advancement to Soul Grandmaster.

The second stage consisted of the accumulation of natural energy to make a complete body metamorphosis, raising it to an even more perfect and powerful level than the tempered body of the first level. Mo Xie deduced that he would need to accumulate energy up to at least the peak level of Soul Elder or the initial level of Soul Ancestor to make his metamorphosis.

His combat skills have become increasingly refined, with the greatest progress being in the Yin-Yang Sword. However, he avoided using absolute ice and fire in public so as not to draw too much attention to himself. After all, a person who can use two absolute elements has never been seen on the mainland and it would be dangerous if he were chased by experts while he was still weak.

He also managed to make a small fortune for himself with the rewards of his victory in the arena and some bets made on himself. His fortune reached an incredible 150,000 gold coins, so he decided to buy a ring-shaped soul storage tool with a 10 cubic meter space so he could store his items and money. This ring alone cost 30,000, leaving him with only 120,000 gold coins.

Now he wanted to confirm some things he knew about the original history of this world. He remembered that in the first continental tournament that Yuhao participated in, he managed to find a knife made of Life Gold at the Star Luo City auction house. His plan was to try to find and get that carving knife for himself since he was close to her.

Walking for a while on the main city road, he soon arrived at the Star Luo Auction House while wearing a different mask than the one he wore when entering the arena.

It was a large, beautifully decorated building and took up a large amount of space. Entering the great hall, one of the receptionists approached him with a smile.

"Dear guest, welcome to our auction house. Would you like to buy something or put an item up for auction?"

"I would like to make a specific purchase." Mo Xie replied calmly.

"What specific item is this distinguished guest looking for?" A gleam appeared in the receptionist's eyes.

"I heard the auction house owner failed to auction off a cursed carving knife several times. So I would like to know if he is interested in doing a private sale." The receptionist froze for a second in surprise but quickly returned to normal.

"Dear guest, please follow me to the waiting room while I call the owner." She bowed a little and led him to a room on the second floor of the building.

It didn't take more than 10 minutes for a middle-aged man, wearing a white robe with the auction house symbol on his chest, to arrive.

He looked at Mo Xie for a moment and sat across from him pouring some tea.

"Before we start, let me introduce myself. I am the owner of this auction house and go by the name of Yan Ping. How can I address this guest?" Yan Ping was really curious about this person who was interested in that cursed knife. After so long trying to get rid of it, someone finally came along and wanted to buy.

"Just call me Lang Du." Mo Xie decided to use the reverse name of old Du.

"All right. May I know why you are interested in this carving knife? All the people who knew she had a curse tried their best not to get close to it, so the willingness to buy it left me very surprised." Yan Ping asked curiously.

"My master is a Soul Engineer and at the moment he needs a special kind of knife so he can finish his project. Although he knows the knife is dangerous, he's out of options as only a classified knife is indispensable in carving the cores of the soul tool." Mo Xie replied as he drank some of the tea.

Yan Ping nodded and continued, "So it's like that. However, does your master have any way to stop the curse? After all, everyone who used the knife ended up dying a horrible death."

"It's not that he has a way to stop the curse, it's just to hold out for a while until the core formation is complete. I will not lie to you. My master has a relatively pure light-type attribute, so he can use it to resist the curse for a while. After all, I think only someone with an absolute light attribute would have any way to undo the curse." Mo Xie spoke while shaking his head sadly.

And before Yan Ping could speak, Mo Xie continued, "Oh, and you don't have to worry, thinking my master is an evil spiritual master." Mo Xie released some of his absolute light elements. "No evil spiritual master would leave a person with a light attribute alive if he found it."

Yan Ping felt that pure light element and nodded.

"Now regarding the price, how about 90,000 gold coins?" Mo Xie asked with a smile behind the mask.

Yan Ping shook his head in denial.

"It's not possible, even though it's a cursed knife, it still belongs to the rank of classified carving knives. As a token of gratitude, I will lower her price to 130,000 gold coins." Yan Ping had a fox grin on his mouth.

"This is still very expensive and even if you put it up for auction again, you still won't be able to find buyers." Mo Xie directly refused.

'Not until Yuhao bought it at Electrolux's request', he thought.

"I won't take advantage of your auction house, so why don't we close the price at 110,000 gold coins? My master will still be risking his life with this purchase, so that price is still right for you." Mo Xie proposed.

"Hmm, although she's worth more than that I don't think it can be helped. There would be no buyers even if we put a price of 100,000 gold coins, so we'll go with your offer." Yan Ping nodded in satisfaction.

He called the receptionist who attended Mo Xie and asked her to fetch the knife.

Five minutes later she returned holding a box made of a special wood and handed it to Yan Ping.

Mo Xie received it and opened the box to check. The moment he opened it, he felt a dark current attack his mind as a feeling of death could be felt from the knife that was in the box.

Mo Xie quickly protected his spiritual sea and used his absolute light element to restrain the knife for a moment and close the box.

He took a deep breath and felt a cold sweat on his back.

'This knife is really dangerous in its current state. After getting my second ring, I will try to cleanse it.' Finishing his thoughts, he turned his attention to Yan Ping who was watching him.

Yan Ping couldn't help but be surprised.

'It seems that this boy has a very pure light element to be able to resist the curse even for a moment.' he thought.

Mo Xie nodded and took 110,000 gold coins from his ring and passed it to Yan Ping.

"You can count them if you want."

"It's not necessary, I'll trust your character." Yan Ping simply kept the coins in his own ring. "Okay, accept this VIP card from our auction house. With it you can have access to a private room just one level below royalty and you can get discounts on your purchases." a black card appeared in Yan Ping's hand and he passed it to Mo XIe.

Mo Xie also had no reservations and just accepted it. After a few more greetings he said goodbye to Yan Ping's house and left the auction house.

He used his Shadow Steps and ran through several alleys and when he decided that no one was following him, he removed his mask and changed his clothes before heading back to the orphanage.

"I can't leave the knife in my storage ring because of the curse, so I'll hide it in my room until I get my second ring." Muttering to himself, Mo Xie hid the box in a secret compartment under his bed.

After that he went back to training.

The next day.

"Brother Chen, did you prepare everything?" Mo Xie asked the young man beside him.

"Yes. I put everything I needed in my bag yesterday." Bai Chen replied.

On this trip to Tar Dou Forest, Mo Xie would help him get his first ring and then go out in search of his second ring. Although he can't get a ten-thousand-year spirit ring, he could still try to get a ring with a 9,000-year limit.

'Unfortunately I don't have anyone who can hunt a 10,000 year old spirit beast for me, otherwise I might try to absorb one. Even though my physique has not yet reached the standard of a Soul King I still have a 50% chance of succeeding.' Mo Xie sighed.

Sometimes he couldn't help but envy these great families. He would just have to stand by while the work was done by the experts.

Shaking his head, he started walking with Bai Chen towards Star Dou Forest.

This time, he will be in the forest for a long time.