Chapter 97: Three Conditions

Innate martial constitutions are born with an exceedingly low probability and are vanishingly rare.

Liu Xingchao possessed only the most ordinary of innate martial constitutions. Even so, with blood and vitality twice that of a normal man, he was hailed as the greatest talent in the Liu family’s history.

But the Liu family was, after all, merely a marquis-tier martial house. Across the six prefectures of Eastern Ridge, there were hundreds of marquis-tier houses and more than a dozen grandmaster-tier houses. Against such a vast backdrop, innate martial constitutions were still by no means uncommon.

Especially when both parents possessed innate martial constitutions, the chance of their offspring inheriting one rose even higher.

Though an innate martial constitution boasts abundant blood and vitality and formidable combat power, driving that blood and vitality into the bones to give rise to bone strength is far more difficult than it is for ordinary people.

For a normal warrior who has broken through the limits five times, as long as he tempers his blood and vitality until it is both supple and resilient, and then takes the mutated nine-segment heart meat, he has a fifty percent chance of breaking into the marquis realm.

But an innate martial constitution is different. Even for someone as ordinary as Liu Xingchao, when combined with mutated nine-segment heart meat, the success rate is at most thirty percent.

And for those stronger innate constitutions, such as triple blood and vitality, quadruple blood and vitality, quintuple blood and vitality...

The odds are lower still.

That was why Beast King Bone-Guarding Soup was especially important.

For someone like Liu Xingchao, if it were taken together with mutated nine-segment heart meat and Beast King Bone-Guarding Soup, the success rate could immediately rise to over seventy percent.

For the stronger innate constitutions, the rate could be raised substantially as well.

Thus, every time jade-bone tigers were put on sale to outsiders, they drew a flood of noble houses.

There were marquis-tier houses and grandmaster-tier houses alike.

Even those houses whose innate martial talents had not yet reached the point of breaking through could buy one in advance. Even if they did not know how to raise it, they could slaughter it, preserve the bones by special methods, and save them for future use.

Aside from purchasing from the Gao family, there were two other ways to obtain a jade-bone tiger.

First: you had to be an innate martial constitution, and then enter the Gao family by marriage.

If you did, the Gao family would give you a jade-bone tiger for free.

Second: you did not have to enter by marriage, but you had to mate with a woman chosen by the Gao family and produce offspring with an innate martial constitution. Only then would the Gao family gift you a jade-bone tiger.

If you failed to produce an innate-born child, then you would keep on producing until you did.

Lu Yan read this with speechlessness written all over his face.

Both conditions, in the end, served exactly one purpose: to help the Gao family produce offspring with innate martial constitutions, to work for the glory of the Gao bloodline and manufacture high-quality heirs.

Was this not simply using people as breeding stock?

Lu Yan did not want either option.

Entering a great noble house like the Gao family by marriage—would there be any freedom or dignity left?

To mate with another for breeding, to bear one’s own children and hand them over to others, to have them become someone else’s war tools?

Lu Yan could not accept it.

He could not accept it, but that did not mean others could not.

The first condition, entering the Gao family by marriage, was probably unacceptable to many noble houses. After all, sending one’s own promising descendants to the Gao family—what would be the point of breaking into the marquis realm then?

But the second condition might well be accepted by some.

In this world, there were warriors who did not place much importance on offspring.

Yet the second condition had one problem: you never knew when, or whether, an innate martial constitution would be born. What if ten years passed, or eight, and still nothing? What if a lifetime passed and still nothing?

Would that not be a waste of one’s years?

So most people would still prioritize buying a jade-bone tiger. Only if they truly could not obtain one would they consider the other conditions.

But to buy a jade-bone tiger, one first had to obtain the qualification to buy it.

Like the previous time, three years ago, when the Gao family released only two jade-bone tigers. Only two people were able to qualify for purchase.

This time, the Gao family had not yet announced how many they would sell, nor how the qualification would be obtained.

Lu Yan had Li Quan keep a close watch.

After Li Quan withdrew, Lu Yan picked up a dried piece of martial ration and chewed on it as he began his training.

Now that his blood and vitality were already overflowing, there was no need to accumulate more. He trained only to refine and temper what he already had.

After all, the more pure and thorough the refinement of his blood and vitality became, the less pressure would be placed upon his bones when that force entered them. Even the slightest difference could determine success or failure at a critical moment.

The energy from the martial ration was all used to enhance Blood Shadow Saber.

As the days passed one by one, the noble houses of South Barbarian City gradually grew more numerous.

Some of them had even come from thousands of miles away.

Li Quan learned that as many as four grandmaster-tier houses had arrived this time.

Members of the Li family of Herb City had also appeared.

South Barbarian Prefecture had three grandmaster-tier houses.

Herb City lay in the north of South Barbarian Prefecture.

The Gao family of South Barbarian City was at the far southern edge of South Barbarian Prefecture.

To the east of South Barbarian Prefecture there was another grandmaster-tier house: the Tuoba family of North Crossing City.

The Gao family and the Tuoba family had fought one another for generations and were sworn enemies. Naturally, they could not have sent people here.

As for the Li family of Herb City, they had always remained neutral. Their main business was cultivating spiritual medicines, and they did not take part in the struggles of the two great houses. They had no enmity with the Gao family, and the two sides did business with one another from time to time, so their appearance here was not surprising.

Ten days before the sale date, the Gao family held a banquet. Anyone interested in buying a jade-bone tiger could attend, and at the banquet the Gao family would announce how many jade-bone tigers were being sold this time, as well as the conditions for obtaining purchase qualification.

Lu Yan naturally had to attend.

The banquet was held in a very large estate.

Lu Yan disguised himself as a burly man in his fifties, mingled with the crowd, and took a seat at a table near the edge.

More and more people arrived, until dozens of tables were filled.

Of course, not everyone there had come for the jade-bone tiger; some were merely there for the spectacle. The Gao family did not care. They were not short of the money.

Only ordinary food was served, not martial rations.

After a short while, the Gao family arrived.

An old man took the seat of honor.

After exchanging a few polite words with everyone, he went straight to the point.

“The jade-bone tigers being sold this time, just as three years ago, are still two.”

“Only two?”

Many hearts sank.

This time, four grandmaster-tier houses had come, and at least a dozen marquis-tier houses. So many people competing for only two jade-bone tigers—the difficulty was self-evident.

“How do we obtain the qualification to buy them?”

Someone asked.

“More than five hundred li south of South Barbarian City lies the seashore. There, on a steep cliff, there is a ruin from before the Great Antiquity. Within that ruin lives a strange creature called shellfish. This mission is to enter the ruin and search for shellfish. As long as you find more than one hundred jin of it, you will obtain preliminary qualification.”

“Of course, if more than one person reaches the one-hundred-jin mark, then only the top two will be chosen.”

The Gao family elder explained.

“What exactly is shellfish? What does it look like?”

Someone continued to ask.

“Simple enough.”

The elder from the Gao family had clearly come prepared. He produced a food box and took out a sample from within it.

Lu Yan looked over.

“It really does resemble an abalone, though much smaller,” he muttered to himself.

This so-called shellfish bore a great resemblance to abalone, but it was about the size of a small clam.

The difference was that the flesh of the shellfish was a vivid red.

“To be frank with you all, one of the second-tier martial foods of my Gao family uses shellfish as an extremely important auxiliary ingredient. Since you are going to search for shellfish, if you fail to meet the standard for buying a jade-bone tiger, my Gao family will not let you suffer a loss. We will purchase it at one hundred taels of silver per jin.”

“One hundred taels per jin. That price is many times higher than beast meat.”

Lu Yan clicked his tongue inwardly.

It was not only more expensive than beast meat, it was even more expensive than the second-tier martial food itself. Presumably, when cooking it, they did not add it by the jin, but only in small amounts.

“Senior, the ruin you speak of—could it be the one at Clear River Cliff? I have heard that it is fraught with danger, that it contains willpower patterns left behind before the Great Antiquity, and that even a marquis might die inside if his luck is poor.”

Someone in the crowd spoke up.

The expressions of the others changed.

Even a marquis could die inside?

Then would those below the marquis realm not be dead for certain?

“You are right, it is indeed Clear River Cliff,” the Gao elder said. “But it is not as dangerous as you make it sound. There are indeed willpower patterns within, but after so many years, many have weathered away and dispersed. Only a small portion remains. If one uses a living creature, or even blood, to open a path, it is easy to find the locations of the willpower patterns and avoid them.”

“That does not sound so easy. To my knowledge, Clear River Cliff has long since been occupied by the Gao family. Since the Gao family needs shellfish so badly and there is supposedly not much danger, why not send your own people in to search? Why rely on outsiders and pay one hundred taels of silver per jin?”

The earlier speaker raised another question.

This man was likely speaking under the instruction of some grandmaster-tier house.

Ordinary people, when asking favors of the Gao family, would not dare to question them so repeatedly.

The others, including Lu Yan, had the same doubt.

If they could simply mark the locations of the willpower patterns, would that not allow free movement in and out?

This matter could not possibly be as simple as the elder from the Gao family made it sound.

As though he had expected this all along, the elder remained composed and did not hide the truth.

“Because the willpower patterns inside can change position. They may be here this year, there next year, and sometimes they can shift from one moment to the next. My Gao family has suffered greatly for this reason. While searching for shellfish, we lost many warriors who had already broken through the limits, and even marquis-level experts have fallen there.”

“Of course, the chance of a pattern shifting from one instant to the next is not high. Usually, it changes only once every few months at most.”

“But there is certainly danger in this trip. If there were none, my Gao family would not need to borrow other hands. Whether you go or not is entirely up to you. If you wish to go, you may set out tomorrow.”

Having said that, the elder said no more.

He had every confidence.

If they wanted a jade-bone tiger, they had to go whether they wished to or not.

If they did not go, then they would remain in the Gao family and breed for them.

Lu Yan sank into thought.

A ruin from before the Great Antiquity? Could it be similar to the one in Longwind Mountain?

Was there any dao food inside?

Could the Dao Book warn him in advance?

Lu Yan decided to go first and have a look at the outer perimeter. If the Dao Book could issue a warning, then he could venture in and try.

If the Dao Book gave no warning, then he would leave it alone.

It was not worth gambling his life for a jade-bone tiger.

He would simply think of another way.

The crowd had no heart for eating or drinking either. After dealing with the banquet perfunctorily, they all rose to take their leave.

Lu Yan returned to the inn. After having Li Quan inquire about the exact location of Clear River Cliff, he set out alone the very next day.

He had painted the blade of his Scarlet Blood Saber black, so that it looked like an ordinary blade of black iron.

Its appearance was simply too distinctive, and that made it difficult for him to conceal his identity.

Black iron blades, by contrast, were everywhere.