The Golden Armor shook his head: "This is intelligence from the division, I’m afraid I can’t discuss it in detail with you, my friend. Just trust me and leave as soon as you can."
He pointed to Chen Yan’s backpack: "I see you’ve already gathered some spoils, I have another piece of advice to offer you.
The ’Qi of Yin Sha’ from this ’Evil Land Mountain’ is, after all, a forbidden artifact explicitly prohibited by the Immortal Platform. Although it can be traded in the black market to craft magical artifacts, those black market artifact refiners do not know the true refining method of the ’Qi of Yin Sha.’ Even though the artifacts crafted from it are quite powerful, they carry significant risks.
Should it be complete, you must not craft and use it yourself.
Of course, if you just want to sell it for money, then it’s fine."
Chen Yan glanced at this ridge — he had been here many times, wandering near this ridge for countless days, only now learning the name of this mountain range. The rightful source is noᴠelfire.net
The black crystals he had gathered from the Fierce Beast Race corpses were exactly the "Qi of Yin Sha" mentioned by the Golden Armor.
"This thing, while good, is heavy with Evil Qi; if not properly neutralized, it will pollute a cultivator’s primordial spirit and fortune if used for long in crafting magical artifacts—an ominous affair!
The artifact refining masters of the Immortal Platform have only recently discovered an appropriate method to neutralize it, but if you fully neutralize the Evil Qi within, most of the primordial qi will also be consumed... So I suggest you, my friend, to take it back and sell it on the black market for money instead."
Upon hearing this, Chen Yan’s heart was moved, and he smiled: "Trading at the black market is quite troublesome, having to carry it all the way... If you are interested in this item, my friend, why not sell it to you instead."
The Golden Armor laughed heartily, nodding: "Indeed, if you want to sell it, you must first go to a big city to find the black market; small town markets suppress prices severely."
He spoke as he slowly pulled out a cloth bag and threw it on the ground, whispering: "The black market price for the Qi of Yin Sha is one tael for twenty coins. I see that the amount of spirit crystals you’ve collected should be considerable.
I have a hundred jade coins in this purse, enough to exchange for five taels of Qi of Yin Sha."
Chen Yan also took out his pouch filled with spirit crystals, weighed it, and said: "Less than five taels, so it won’t trade for your hundred coins."
The Golden Armor seemed to have calculated this already and just smiled: "For the excess money, I want to buy other items from you."
Chen Yan was silent, smiling as he looked at this fellow.
The Golden Armor pointed to the alcohol stove and pot on the ground, as well as that bag of dehydrated vegetables.
"I need to stay here for a while and am short of these supplies. How about selling them to me, just to compensate for the shortfall in spirit crystals?"
Chen Yan chuckled, generously pushing the alcohol stove and pot over, even adding a bag of solid alcohol. The dehydrated vegetable bag on the ground had already been partially consumed, and the packaging was already opened. Chen Yan pushed it over as well and took out from his backpack a bag of unopened dehydrated vegetables and passed that over too.
"I brought plenty of these, so I’ll give them all to you, my friend."
The smile on the Golden Armor’s face instantly became a bit warmer.
The dehydrated vegetables sold were the entirety of Chen Yan’s supply this time, but he was not distressed about it.
This stuff is abundantly available in the real world.
Moreover, he actually also brought a bottle of vitamin pills, so even if he gave all the dehydrated vegetables to the Golden Armor, he could cope with the vitamin pills.
After the trade, their relationship seemed to grow a bit closer.
After resting for over an hour, the Golden Armor got up to bid farewell to Chen Yan, advising him to leave early, and arranged to meet again in three months in a big city called White Jade City.
As for the meeting arrangement, Chen Yan only took it as a casual remark, not intending to go to any White Jade City three months later.
After they parted, the Golden Armor set off toward the west, likely heading to the Fierce Beast Race’s village in the Forest Monster to find Du Li.
Chen Yan hesitated for a moment and did not tell the Golden Armor the truth about Du Li’s death.
After all, saying it would have made it difficult to explain his origins.
The village, having suffered an attack from him, had lost most of its elite warriors, greatly weakening its strength, even the monster leader in the village was eliminated by him. With the strong power of the Golden Armor, there should be no danger.
After sending off the Golden Armor, Chen Yan set out to leave as well.
He headed north, walking along the base of this mountain ridge — hmm, now it should be called [Evil Land Mountain].
During their idle conversation, Chen Yan had already gathered information from the Golden Armor.
This Evil Land Mountain runs north–south, with the mountain ridge extending eight hundred miles.
If heading north, you can reach a breach in the middle of the ridge, a canyon pass hundreds of meters wide. From the canyon, you can cross the Evil Land Mountain to reach the other side of the ridge.
On that side, there is also a large woodland area; as long as you keep heading east, you can pass through the forest...
This was also the escape route Du Li had told him before. With confirmation on both sides, Chen Yan was sure the Golden Armor wasn’t lying.
After parting ways with the Golden Armor, Chen Yan traveled alone for two days, during which he made some gains.
On one night while resting, he encountered a few wild Hunting Beasts.
Chen Yan engaged in combat while retreating, fled into the woods, then climbed a tree and shot dead two of them with arrows, and then ignited a "Fiery Fire Talisman" to drive away the remaining Hunting Beasts.
Thus acquiring the corpses of two Hunting Beasts.
Not greedy, Chen Yan only cut off two hind legs, tied them with a rope, and hung them on his backpack.