Chapter 184: Stunning Zuo Xiuzhen

The people in the central area were many times more than normal and many people walked around with their friends to gaze at the great beauty of the central area.

The main attraction to these people was the Blacksteel Decennial Refinement Competition that was only held once in ten years.

Any artificer or alchemist below the Eternal realm could join the competition and attempt to become the Child of Aptitude for the next ten years.

Even though the competition was held every ten years, myriad people from all over Western Plains would come to watch the competition. Many also participated because of the tempting rewards.

By merely making it past the preliminaries, they were guaranteed to walk away with hundred thousand vital stones. The competition had five stages and the top twenty could become external disciples of Blacksteel Association, a position many people clamoured for.

External disciples could watch talented artificers and alchemists as they worked and even get indirect training from Grandmaster artificers. It was certain that the external disciples could become great artificers and alchemists in the future.

The top ten would become internal disciples and would receive direct tutelage from Grandmaster and Great Grandmaster artificers and alchemists. They would receive thousands of vital stones every month and all sorts of refinement materials would be within their reach.

In other words, they were guaranteed a good life.

The winner of the competition was ensured a better life. The person would become the Child of Aptitude for the next ten years and would be recruited by one of Blacksteel Association's Seven Great Elders. They were Great Grandmaster artificers and alchemists that had spent all their lives dedicated to refining all sorts of artifacts, pills, formations and talismans.

The Child of Aptitude would receive hundreds of thousands of vital stones every month and would become an Elder after ten years had passed. In the future, if any of the Seven Great Elders died, the Child of Aptitude would become one of them.

From this, one could see how tempting it was to join the Blacksteel Decennial Refinement Competition.

Lu Zheng shook his head as he thought: "Frankly, I can't say I'm not interested in participating in this competition again"

…..

Two women walked leisurely through the streets of the central area. The two women were extremely beautiful even among female martial practitioners that had perfect faces due to the presence of Qi in their bodies. Anyone that passed by them would always turn back to catch another glimpse at them.

As direct disciples of Blacksteel Ancestor, these two women, Burning Ash Demonness and Pink Lotus Butterfly, were in charge of the decennial competition.

Seeing the two fairies walking side by side made many men turn back to steal second glances even when they were with their dao partners. There were also some men that had dared to attempt to assault the two fairies sexually but they died before even knowing what happened to them.

As the women chatted merrily, Burning Ash Demonness suddenly stopped walking, not even speaking again.

"Ash, what is the matter?" Pink Lotus Butterfly asked. Even though many men were ogling her, Burning Ash Demonness hadn't stopped to give them a beating despite her fiery nature, but now, she was staring at some random Void Passage realm expert.

After a short while, Burning Ash Demonness retracted her gaze: "No, it's nothing. I thought I saw someone familiar"

Pink Lotus Butterfly gazed at the man who was entering a trading firm before shrugging her shoulders helplessly. He was very appealing to the eyes but there was nothing special about him.

"Hmm, let's be quick. The competition will soon begin"

Meanwhile, Lu Zheng who was ignorant of the two beauties that had stared him down currently walked into a trading firm.

The trading firm was very large and many glass cases that displayed various artifacts filled the place. Lu Zheng knew that the glass cases were not simple and were protected by strong formations. A Sky realm expert would be unable to break them even if he attacked them all day.

Lu Zheng ignored them and walked towards the woman in charge of the trading firm.

"I would like to sell some things" Lu Zheng smiled as he revealed the two spatial rings he had gotten from Yong Shuai and Cassey in the fight in the outer void.

The two spatial rings were small and were mostly filled with important artifacts and pills required by martial practitioners to travel long distances.

One of these artifacts was the rank two Spirit Grade artifact in Cassey's spatial ring, drink water cup. It was a water path artifact that would produce water when Qi was infused into it.

There were similar artifacts like flowing wine bowl and berry juice gourd and Spirit Grade Pills like fasting pills and fragrant rice pills. They were mainly related to food path.

As martial practitioners broke through the realms of cultivation, their dependence on Qi would increase and their dependence on mortal items like food and water would reduce drastically. Lu Zheng was at the peak of Void Passage realm and barely slept or ate anymore. Those types of artifacts were generally useless to him.

Only high ranking beast meat could serve as food for him.