Chapter 56: Securing the Ice Spirit Cold Spring

Chapter 56: Acquiring the Ice Spirit Cold Spring

Leaving the Alchemist Guild, under Otto's guidance, Xiao Se arrived in front of a strange and secluded building near the southern part of Black Rock City.

"This is the residence of that fellow Guter. He clearly possesses decent talent as an alchemist, yet he remains obsessed with collecting all sorts of rare heavenly treasures. As a result, his alchemist rank has stagnated at the third tier; I really don't understand him. But having said that, throughout the entire Jia Ma Empire, he is most likely the only one who might possess the Ice Spirit Cold Spring. Let me remind you once more, before you go in, you had best prepare to suffer a heavy financial loss." Gazing at the bizarre building before him, the corners of Otto's mouth twitched slightly as he turned his head to smile at Xiao Se.

Hearing this, Xiao Se smiled bitterly and nodded. He wasn't entirely certain whether Guter had actually obtained the Ice Spirit Cold Spring at this point. If worst came to worst, he would simply have to run over to Medusa's territory and try his luck.

Xiao Se vaguely remembered that in the original story, Medusa had collected a full large pool of it in order to devour a Heavenly Flame and break through to the Dou Zong realm. Now, with time having advanced by several years, he had no idea whether Medusa possessed any yet.

Following closely behind Otto, the moment Otto pushed open the front door, Xiao Se felt a fierce rush of wind-breaking vital energy carrying white powder drifting toward them.

"Master Otto, quickly step away from that spot!" The sudden burst of powder made Xiao Se frown. As he leaped backward to evade it, he called out to warn Otto.

"Just some cheap parlor tricks!" Hearing this, Otto curled his lip as if he were already entirely accustomed to such sights. With a wave of his large sleeve, he whipped up an even fiercer gale that blew the white powder right back.

"Let's go. Be careful; this old fellow is as crafty as they come." Smiling, Otto stepped into the room. However, before he could even feel pleased with himself, the wooden floorboards beneath his feet suddenly collapsed, revealing a bottomless pit. Otto stepped into empty air, his bulky body plunging straight down as he let out a miserable shriek: "Ah—!"

Witnessing this scene, Xiao Se's mouth twitched. He immediately activated his system's perspective vision, and upon seeing that the bottom of the pit was merely a pool of foul-smelling water, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. Stinky though it was, Guter still knew where to draw the line and hadn't crossed the bottom line.

Taking a deep breath, and guided by his perspective vision, Xiao Se took in every single mechanism within Guter's entire building at a glance. After deliberately triggering a few mechanisms to dodge them, he finally reached the uppermost floor of the building.

"Hehe, not bad, kid! You actually managed to dodge all my mechanisms. Come on in; there are no more traps here." An elderly, eccentric laugh suddenly echoed from the room at the far end of the top-floor corridor, making Xiao Se feel somewhat creeped out.

Xiao Se nodded slightly, though he did not let his guard down in the slightest. His perspective vision swept the surroundings, and only after confirming there were no hidden mechanisms did he step into the room. There, he was greeted by a thoroughly eye-searing sight: a slovenly old man, barefoot, standing there while picking his nose.

Suppressing his nausea, Xiao Se forced himself not to look away. When his gaze inadvertently swept past Guter's crotch, the corners of his mouth twitched once more.

Good grief!

To hide his treasures, the man had actually tied his storage ring to *that* thing!

"Senior, I have come to trade items with you." Xiao Se cupped his fists in a salute and said.

"Don't give me any of that superficial nonsense. I only let you in because you seemed to know a thing or two about mechanisms. Want to make a trade? I don't have anything here, and you don't have anything worth my interest either." Guter tossed his bird's-nest-like hair and said impatiently.

"What a pity then. To think I even asked my teacher for a bottle of Amethyst Winged Lion King's Companion Crystal Source. Since you don't have it here, I suppose I'll go trade it elsewhere." Xiao Se feigned a troubled expression, shook his head, and turned to leave.

Companion Crystal Source?

Upon hearing those five momentous words, Guter instantly sprung up from his filthy, cluttered chair as if energized by chicken blood. In a flash, he appeared right in front of Xiao Se—a speed that left even Xiao Se slightly startled.

"Hehe, little brother, don't be in such a rush to leave! I just heard you say you have Companion Crystal Source. I wonder if that's true or false?" Guter chuckled, rubbing his grime-covered palms together as he drooled with greed.

Seeing Guter take the bait, the corners of Xiao Se's mouth curved upward slightly. He put on a guarded expression and said, "Naturally it's true. However, I'm sure you know the value of Companion Crystal Source. If you want to trade for it, it has to be the Ice Spirit Cold Spring. Do you have the Ice Spirit Cold Spring?"

"Who says I don't... Mmph!" Before the words "Ice Spirit Cold Spring" could fully escape his lips, Guter hurriedly clapped his hand over his mouth. After remaining silent for a long moment, he rubbed the back of his head and laughed awkwardly. "Little brother, although I don't happen to have the Ice Spirit Cold Spring, I have other wonderful things! Look at the Fire-attributed Seven-Leaf Grass, Blood Crystal Grass, and Blue Rock Heart Stone on the shelves in this room—every single one of them is a peerless treasure!"

"Since Senior does not have it, this junior will take his leave." Xiao Se had already looked over the medicinal herbs in the room; they were indeed extremely precious, with a few even being ingredients for sixth-tier medicinal pills. Unfortunately, the one thing he lacked the least was medicinal herbs. During that half-year in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, using the green liquid of the Heavenly Manifestation Bottle to accelerate their growth had left him with a whole pile of millennium-old herbs. He had even gathered most of the ingredients for the Dou Ling Pill and Huang Ji Pill; all he was missing were simply the monster cores.

Guter's truly good items were actually hidden away in the storage ring attached to his crotch.

Seeing that Xiao Se was genuinely about to leave, Guter could finally no longer hold back and shouted out, "Wait..."

Hearing this, Xiao Se turned around and said calmly, "What is it? Has Senior found the Ice Spirit Cold Spring?"

"Let me ask you, do you really have Companion Crystal Source?" At this moment, Guter was fighting an intense internal struggle. He had only acquired the Ice Spirit Cold Spring a few months ago and hadn't even had time to warm it up yet; he truly didn't want to trade it away. But the Companion Crystal Source was far too rare—even he had never laid eyes on one, and if he missed this chance, he might never see one for the rest of his life.

"Naturally I do." With a wave of Xiao Se's hand, a faint glow emanated from his storage ring, and a jade bottle radiating a warm aura materialized out of thin air in his palm.

When he uncorked the bottle, a wisp of purple vapor drifted from the rim, and within a split second, the temperature throughout the entire room rose noticeably.

"This is the Companion Crystal Source? It's truly identical to what that obnoxious fellow described!" Seeing the purple, scorching vapor rise, Guter's aged eyes instantly flashed with golden light, and he made a move to snatch it directly from Xiao Se's hand.

Xiao Se grinned, plugged the bottle back up, and executed the first layer of the Ethereal Smoke Movement technique, instantly flashing behind Guter.

"Hey, Senior Guter, you haven't shown me your Ice Spirit Cold Spring yet. If you don't have the Ice Spirit Cold Spring, I'm leaving right now." Xiao Se spoke without a trace of politeness, making a motion to put the Companion Crystal Source back into his storage ring.

"Wait... I have it, I have it..." Seeing that Xiao Se was dead set on the Ice Spirit Cold Spring, Guter finally yielded to his overwhelming desire for the Companion Crystal Source and agreed to the trade.

Carefully cradling the newly acquired Companion Crystal Source in his hands, then glancing at the Ice Spirit Cold Spring in Xiao Se's grip, Guter felt a sharp pang of heartache. He pointed a trembling finger toward the exit and roared angrily, "Get out! Get out of here! Take your Ice Spirit Cold Spring and get out, and don't let this old man ever set eyes on you again!"

Xiao Se chuckled, saying nothing further as he turned and walked away. His objective had been achieved, and lingering here any longer was entirely meaningless.

Before long, Xiao Se stepped outside the building. Seeing Otto struggling to climb out of the deep pit, covered head-to-toe in filth, he smiled and asked, "Master Otto, are you alright?"

"That damned bastard actually dug a pit straight into a septic tank!" Hearing Xiao Se's words, Otto felt his rage flare up all over again, and he cursed furiously.

Suddenly, the scolding voice of Guter drifted down from the top floor of the bizarre building. Otto froze for a moment, looking bewildered as he asked, "Did you really manage to trade for the Ice Spirit Cold Spring?"

"I was fortunate enough to obtain it." Hearing this, Xiao Se nodded slightly.

*(Translator's Note: Chapter 1/3, asking for monthly votes and recommendation votes.)*

*(Author's Note: Some readers have mentioned that recent chapter plots are quite similar to the original work, but this is merely a transitional phase for now; please bear with it.)*

*(Fan-fiction of Battle Through the Heavens inherently has this limitation: it's impossible to pass up known fortuitous encounters and refuse to pick them up. The protagonist's most pressing need right now is to strive to become stronger before the main plot officially begins. As for those tropes where someone becomes a Dou Wang in one year, a Dou Huang in two years, and a Dou Zong or even Dou Zun in three, I won't be writing those—making the cheat too overpowered hurts the pacing.)*