Volume 1, Chapter 389 – A Transaction

Shi Lan sat at the table by the window without getting up.

The man before her gave her an extremely peculiar feeling. At first glance, he looked utterly ordinary, yet in some hazy, indefinable way, he also carried the weight of facing the vast starry cosmos itself.

After glancing sideways at Tianbai beside Shi Lan, the middle-aged man looked at Shi Lan with an unreadable expression, then slowly walked over and sat down in front of her.

“You were the one who sent the invitation.”

Shi Lan did not ask. She stated it as a fact.

“Chu Hanzhou.”

The man nodded and introduced himself.

The name was unfamiliar to Shi Lan. She had never heard it before, so she shook her head.

“I’ll spare myself the introduction. I assume you already know more than enough about me. Please, get straight to the point.”

If he had merely wanted to see her, there would have been no need to go to such lengths.

“Chengtian Domain, Ancient Phoenix City.”

At Chu Hanzhou’s words, Shi Lan’s brows drew together slightly. Back then, in Ancient Phoenix City, she had absorbed that pool of phoenix blood under the noses of a group of martial experts. Now it seemed something had clearly gone wrong somewhere, and she had left traces behind.

“You came for that pool of phoenix blood?”

“The phoenix blood is not important. A blood phoenix at the Starfall Realm is not worth this much trouble from me.”

Chu Hanzhou shook his head.

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“In that pool of phoenix blood, you should have obtained something else as well.”

A flicker passed through Shi Lan’s eyes. From Chu Hanzhou’s mention of the Starfall Realm, she made a few guesses. It was probably, like the Sun-Moon Realm, a realm beyond Emperor level.

He did not even place a Demon Emperor in his eyes. This man before her was at the very least a Human Emperor.

Now that she had a rough measure of him, Shi Lan stopped beating around the bush. She directly took out a cherry-red phoenix jade pendant and pushed it in front of Chu Hanzhou.

“This jade pendant was the only thing in the phoenix blood.”

There was no point using tricks or schemes in front of a Human Emperor. It would be meaningless.

Even after obtaining this jade pendant, she had never managed to figure out any clue to its function.

“There are not many young people with your kind of temperament.”

Chu Hanzhou seemed somewhat surprised by Shi Lan’s frankness.

He reached out, picked up the jade pendant, studied it for a moment, and said,

“This jade pendant is called the Divine Phoenix Heavenly Secret Jade. Aside from masking heavenly secret perception, it has little use in itself. However, it is a key to opening a treasure.”

“A treasure?”

Shi Lan’s heart stirred. Any treasure that could move a Human Emperor was bound to be extraordinary.

“The tomb of a demon emperor from the Middle Ancient Era, Huangze. Even among those in the Emperor Realm, Huangze was no ordinary figure. He once killed a Venerable of the devil race.”

Perhaps because of Shi Lan’s frankness, Chu Hanzhou seemed inclined to say a little more.

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“The Divine Phoenix Heavenly Secret Jade comes in two pieces, one yin and one yang. I asked the Xuan Yang branch of the Daoist line to expend great effort divining it, and they only managed to calculate the location of one yin jade. The whereabouts of the other remain unknown, though it is most likely in the demon domain or the devil lands.”

Both the Boundless Demon Domain and the Boundless Devil Caverns were protected by supreme treasures that suppressed and guarded their fortune, greatly hindering the human race’s attempts to probe heavenly secrets.

A flash of insight passed through the depths of Shi Lan’s mind. She recalled a peerless face, and she already had a rough idea where the other yang jade might be.

Chu Hanzhou glanced out the window. Thousands of carriages were arriving one after another, and under the guidance of Yunlai Immortal Palace’s disciples, they were settling into the various towers and pavilions.

In the plaza not far ahead, it was already packed with disciples of Yunlai Immortal Palace. For many of them, this was a chance to leap through the dragon gate.

The top ten in the grand competition would all receive rewards. More importantly, outer disciples could be promoted to the inner sect, and inner disciples to true inheritance. It would be a leap in status.

If they could distinguish themselves in this grand competition and catch the eye of some great figure, they could rise to the heavens in a single step.

“These are all the future of the human race.”

Chu Hanzhou suddenly let out a soft sigh.

“Unfortunately, they are still too young. Who knows what year or month it will be before they grow up.”

Looking at those bright, vigorous faces in the distance, Shi Lan did not quite understand why Chu Hanzhou was sighing.

Noticing the confusion in Shi Lan’s expression, Chu Hanzhou spoke indifferently.

“Taishi has placed the future of the human race on you prodigies. Among you, perhaps one will ascend to the position of ruler of the Imperial Court in a few hundred years.”

“For that position, he has not considered a single Human Emperor, not even a peak expert at the absolute limit of Emperor level.”

Chu Hanzhou’s words made Shi Lan’s eyes widen slightly in surprise.

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What surprised her was not that Taishi intended to pass on the throne to one of the younger prodigies, but that from Chu Hanzhou’s words, Taishi seemed to have at most only a few hundred years of life left.

For a Supreme, a few hundred years was almost negligible, enough even to be described as standing at death’s door.

If this news got out, it would send the entire Vast Land of Shenzhou into upheaval.

“Shi Lan, would you be willing to make a transaction with me?”

Chu Hanzhou suddenly asked.

A transaction?

Shi Lan’s eyes instinctively shifted to the Divine Phoenix Heavenly Secret Jade in Chu Hanzhou’s hand.

Chu Hanzhou smiled and pushed the jade pendant back in front of Shi Lan.

“With this yin jade, it is already enough for me to send a few people into the tomb when it opens. When the time comes, I will notify you.”

“The fact that you were able to obtain this Heavenly Secret Jade is proof enough that you possess fortune. At that time, I can give you one slot. The transaction I am speaking of has nothing to do with that.”

In Chu Hanzhou’s eyes, Taishi had always been a very clear-headed man. Chu Hanzhou had never once doubted any decision he made, and this time was no different.

Although he could not understand the significance of Taishi’s actions, that did not stop him from wanting to follow suit.

Since Taishi believed that an immeasurable miracle would arise from the younger generation, then that miracle might as well be one he grasped for himself.

“Shi Lan, your rate of growth is very fast. Perhaps you entered some small world where time flows differently, or perhaps it is because of something else. I do not care about any of that.”

At this point, Chu Hanzhou’s eyes gained a little more light.

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“If you can step into Emperor level within two hundred years, I will put you on the throne!”

“What do I have to give in return?”

If Shi Lan claimed she felt no stirring at all from Chu Hanzhou’s words, that would have been a lie.

The Imperial Court was the hegemon of the Vast Land of Shenzhou. Its ruler stood at the pinnacle of the human path in the Lingyang Realm.

But since this was a transaction, she naturally had to pay a matching price.

“In exchange, when that time comes, you must use the Human Race Annals to do one thing for me. Of course, all of this depends on your stepping into Emperor level. Otherwise, it is all empty talk.”

“And before that, what do I get?”

Shi Lan asked about the immediate benefits. Empty promises meant nothing to her.

Chu Hanzhou did not hesitate and answered directly,

“You have no great force backing you. I can prepare some cultivation resources for you, but I will not give you a protector. Your road is one you must walk yourself.”

For him, this too was a highly risky wager. The first impression Shi Lan had given him had planted this idea in his mind.

Shi Lan thought for a long while, then slowly nodded. She took out a blank jade token from her Qiankun Bracelet and pressed it to her forehead.

Using her divine sense as a pen, she inscribed a great amount of information about spiritual materials into the jade token.

She did not hold back in the slightest, directly listing all the spiritual herbs and spiritual materials required for the second and third layers of the True Martial Undying Body, including quite a few immortal roots.