Jun Wu Xie nodded, seemingly not entirely interested in chatting with He Chang Le.
Undaunted, He Chang Le persisted by saying: “Since you are our new customers, and your first bid was so generous, as the owner of the Chan Lin Auction House, I would like to gift to you an emblem we reserve only for our most distinguished guests.” As he spoke, Chang Le pulled out a palm sized, gold gilded emblem. Two characters, “Chan Lin” were carved on the emblem.
“With this emblem, all of you, as our esteemed customers, would be able to gain direct entry to our private rooms when you come back to the Chan Lin Auction House, with no extra charges.”
Jun Wu Xie took one glance at He Chang Le and motioned to Qiao Chu with a wave of her hand. Qiao Chu immediately went forward to accept the emblem.
Having spent three hundred thousand at the auction, Qiao Chu’s heart was still wincing in pain. At least, with this emblem, they would not have to pay for a private room anymore next time and he was glad to accept it.
Seeing that Jun Wu Xie was willing to accept his gesture of goodwill, He Chang Le smiled as he said: “To be honest, for bidding on the piece of black rock today, our Young Master has greatly helped a friend of mine. If our Young Master does not mind it, that friend of mine would like to meet you, and thank you personally.”
Jun Wu Xie raised an eyebrow and before she opened her mouth to reply, Hua Yao took the lead to say: “If it’s sincere, let him come.”
He Chang Le nodded, and turned to fetch his friend.
Hua Yao took a step back and whispered beside Jun Wu Xie’s ear: “Black Silver is not something you can find in the Lower Realm but only in the Middle Realm. That piece of Black Jade Stone should not even be here. If that piece of Black Jade Stone is really from the bottom of the Heaven’s End Cliff, that place must be holding some secrets.”
How did something that could only be found in the Middle Realm come to appear in the Lower Realm?
Jun Wu Xie was able to immediately make a good guess.
Hua Yao and the others must be suspecting that the Black Jade Stone was somehow linked to the Dark Emperor’s tomb.
Having thought that, Jun Wu Xie need not say anything more, but…..
Hua Yao said Black Silver did not exist in the Lower Realm, so how did Fan Zhuo know about it?
Jun Wu Xie clearly remembered that Fan Zhuo was the first one to recognise that piece of rock to be Black Jade Stone, and he was also the one who said that Black Silver could be extracted from Black Jade Stone. How was it that Fan Zhuo would be so familiar with Black Jade Stone that existed only in the Middle Realm?
Jun Wu Xie frowned as she pondered on it. She sneaked a glance at Fan Zhuo and saw that he was staring at the Black Jade Stone with great interest, seemingly not to have heard the conversation between Hua Yao and her.
Volume 6
Chapter 549: “Mysterious Black Stone (6)”
After a short while, He Chang Le came back. The other man who was with him made Qiao Chu and the others stare, their eyes widened.
That man was tall and muscular, and his entire body was fully covered with bandages. Although his clothes covered up much of the bandages, it was nevertheless clear that he was fully wrapped up in them. Before he had even gotten close to the companions, the stench of blood could already be smelt in the air. Only his eyes, nose, ears and mouth were exposed while the rest of his head was fully bandaged up and those originally white bandages were tinged with blood and had taken on a slightly red shade.
He walked slowly as he approached, his huge frame bringing a slightly oppressive air. When he came to stand before Jun Wu Xie, he suddenly clasped a hand over his fist and formally bent over in a deep bow.
“My name is Mu Qian Fan! I would like to humbly thank this Young Master’s generous offer of help.” Mu Qian Fan’s deep timbred voice almost made them forget about all the injuries that covered his entire body.
Towards everything that had happened today, Mu Qian Fan was unable to put what he felt into words. If he had not been able to gather the three hundred thousand taels, he would not be able to face his brothers in arms who had passed into the afterlife and the auction today had driven him into utter despair many times over.
But Jun Wu Xie had at his lowest point, dragged him up from the pits of despair.
The three hundred thousand taels to him, were just too important!
“No need.” Jun Wu Xie said simply. The stench of blood emanating from the man made her frown slightly. She was silent a moment before she asked: “You’ve been to the Heaven’s End Cliff?”
Mu Qian Fan thought that Jun Wu Xie was doubting that the black rock had really been retrieved from beyond the Heaven’s End Cliff and he hurriedly replied: “Yes. I’ve been there. This black rock was discovered at the bottom of the cliff by my brothers and me.”
“Tell me about the Heaven’s End Cliff and I’ll accept it as your thanks.” Jun Wu Xie replied.
Mu Qian Fan was slightly surprised. When he saw that Jun Wu Xie’s group was a party of young youths, he had thought that their youthful frivolity had piqued their curiosity on the dark rumours that surrounded the Heaven’s End Cliff and he readily agreed.
He Chang Le enquired on the location of the inn they were staying at and instructed his men to sent the item over first. He then furnished Jun Wu Xie and the others with one of the private rooms for them to chat in comfort. The auction house’s servants were also thoughtfully instructed to bring them some snacks and tea.
When they were all seated in the room, Mu Qian Fan appeared a little ill at ease. He was a man past thirty and he had been used to drinking and dining with his brothers in arms who were all around his age. Suddenly thrust into a situation where he was sitting with a group of youths half his age for a chat, made him feel rather out of place.
Although Jun Wu Xie and her companions were dressed in plain clothes, the material used was of a high grade. All of them were blessed with kingly features and they carried themselves with an impressive air, looking to be from extraordinary backgrounds, which only fueled his uneasiness further.
“Big Brother Mu? Please help yourself to a little of the tea and snacks first before you can share with us a little more in detail.” Fei Yan could see Mu Qian Fan’s uneasiness and offered a cup of tea to Mu Qian Fan with a winsome smile.
Mu Qian Fan looked up and saw a charming and pleasant “little lady” smiling sweetly at him, and the hands that were holding the teacup were even trembling ever so slightly.
He hurried to accept the offered tea and gulped it down quickly. The tea helped to calm him a little and he looked at Jun Wu Xie and the others to say: “It was about half a month ago that I went to the Heaven’s End Cliff. A band of my brothers were with me. To be honest, my group of brothers and I earn our daily keep by hunting down Spirit Beasts under the commission of people. The arduous Heaven’s End Cliff is a place very well hidden. Although there are many rumours being spread about the Heaven’s End Cliff, but the exact location of the place is known to only a rare few. All along, we had never thought much about the Heaven’s End Cliff but we were offered a commission to make a trip there and that’s why we went to the Heaven’s End Cliff.”
Volume 6
Chapter 550: “Mysterious Black Stone (7)”
As his memory took him back to the period just before they had set off, every single scene that appeared in his mind cut deeply into Mu Qian Fan’s heart. The brothers who had been so close, had all left him, for good.
Mu Qian Fan and his brothers in arms had always depended on accepting commissions entrusted to them by people for a living and they would often go hunt Spirit Beasts to gather spirit stones. The band of brothers would also accept assignments as armed escorts for merchant convoys and that was how Mu Qian Fan got acquainted with He Chang Le, when he had escorted the Chan Lin Auction House’s merchandise.
Till one day, a man came to them, requesting that they go to the Heaven’s End Cliff to survey the grounds at the bottom of the clif
f. He had promised then, that if they were able to fully traverse the entire area below the Heaven’s End Cliff and produce a complete map, the men would be handsomely rewarded.
The promised reward would be more than enough for all of their families to live their lives free of worries.
Although the Heaven’s End Cliff was famed to be an extremely dangerous place since a long time ago, but very few people had actually been there. Many people did not even know where the Heaven’s End Cliff was, but everyone had heard many versions of the grave dangers the mysterious place held. But in order to grasp at the opportunity to earn that large sum of money, and to provide their families with a carefree life, Mu Qian Fan and his brothers finally decided to accept the commission entrusted to them.
That man had been rather generous. He had given them two hundred thousand taels as a deposit from the beginning. After accepting the money, Mu Qian Fan and his team were highly motivated and they readied themselves to set off towards the Heaven’s End Cliff. That man then gave them a map, that showed in detail the exact location of the Heaven’s End Cliff.
Based on the directions shown on the map, the team were on the roads for half a month before they reached the Heaven’s End Cliff.
The Heaven’s End Cliff was located within a wide circular range of mountainous peaks and the cliff began from high up upon one of the peaks. In order to even reach the cliff, they had to pass through layers upon layers of dense forests. Within those forests, many Spirit Beasts roamed, and Mu Qian Fan and his brothers used their experience to pass through the danger filled forests. And when they finally arrived upon the cliff, they began to understand why the cliff was named the Heaven’s End Cliff.
The Heaven’s End Cliff’s face looked as if it had been cleanly cut by an immense sharp blade. Beyond the cliff was an endless sea of foggy white mist and masses of cloudy fog that stretched further than the eye could see. When looking at it from the high vantage point upon the cliff, the wondrous sight made one feel as if that was where Heaven ended, stopping right at the cliff they stood upon.
When they first laid their eyes on the unbelievable view, Mu Qian Fan and his brothers in arms were all suddenly awestruck but they quickly recovered when they remembered the mission they had been entrusted with to complete. They had prepared hundred metre metal cables and carried upon their backs chains that would extend the length of the cables, showing how meticulous their preparations for the mission had been.
Climbing down the sheer cliff face alone had taken them a few days’ time and they rested and ate hanging from the strong cables.
When they reached the bottom of the cliff, every single one of them were already completely exhausted and they all collapsed upon the ground for a long period, unable to move a muscle.
“What was the bottom of the Heaven’s End Cliff really like?” Qiao Chu was getting more and more excited as the story unfolded and he unknowingly asked the question in a fearful whisper.
Mu Qian Fan’s eyes lowered, as he stared at his own two hands placed on the table before him. Bright red blood was spreading bit by bit across the bandages, and watching the white bandages gradually turning a bright red made for an extremely disconcerting sight.
“I don’t know…..”
“What?” Qiao Chu sat up, greatly surprised.
Mu Qian Fan’s voice was filled with despair and fear: “The ground at the bottom of the cliff was completely covered in a thick misty fog and we could not see anything beyond two meters away from us as they would all be enveloped by the thick fog. Under those circumstances, we were completely unable to map out anything about the area. And as we proceeded to walk in a forwardly direction, we discovered that the ground below our feet was marshland that was peppered with bottomless bog…..”
Bog holes shrouded in the thick impenetrable fog within an expanse of soft marshland were easy to miss and overlook. More often than now, people only realise the danger after they had stepped a foot into it.
Volume 6
Chapter 551: “Mysterious Black Stone (8)”
One of the men in Mu Qian Fan’s team had been completely swallowed up by one of those bog holes and they could not even retrieve his body after his death.
Besides the invisible bog holes scattered across the swampy marsh, terrible beasts hid within the misty fog. The team consisting of experienced and hardy men had lost half of their men under the attacks by the ferocious Spirit Beasts who hid within the cover of the blinding fog. More terrifying than all these dangers, was the poison within the mist that was everywhere, constantly around them. They had not noticed it in the beginning, it was not until a few of them had escaped out from under the fog and noticed that the wounds on their bodies were continuing to fester and rot after the poison had spread into their internal organs that they realised just how scary a place the bottom of the Heaven’s End Cliff was.
Within a fog so thick you cannot see your hand before your face, air laced with poison, ground filled with bottomless bog holes, ferocious Spirit Beasts, where any single one of the dangers could easily take your life.
That was when Mu Qian Fan finally understood why the client who knew the exact location of Heaven’s End Cliff had offered to pay them such an enormous sum of money just to compile a map of an area. He must have known of the perilous dangers that laid at the bottom of Heaven’s End Cliff, and the men were paying it back with their very own lives.
But it was already too late for regrets. With the lone exception of Mu Qian Fan, their team of eleven men had ten dead. Besides the piece of Black Jade Rock that they were unable to cut, they had gotten nothing.
As they had not been able to complete the map, they would not be able to receive the remaining payment from the client. When Mu Qian Fan returned, he had gone to seek out the client. But when the client got to know that Mu Qian Fan and his team had almost been totally annihilated on their expedition, they had lost all desire in continuing with the conversation and had only briefly asked Mu Qian Fan about their encounters at the bottom of Heaven’s End Cliff and chased him out quickly thereafter.
With all his brothers dead, he lived his life in fear holding on tightly to a mere piece of broken rock. In order to provide some consolation to the grieving families of his deceased brothers, Mu Qian Fan had no choice but to take the Black Jade Stone and entrust it to He Chang Le and to put it up for auction.
After Mu Qian Fan finished his story, he lowered his head completely. His tightly clenched fists were completely covered in his own blood.
The memory of every moment spent at the bottom of the Heaven’s End Cliff was deeply entrenched in his mind. The screams of his brothers as they died haunted him horribly in his dreams, like relentless demons.
“It is definitely not a good place and you should just forget all that you just heard and just treat it as a story.” Mu Qian Fan was silent for a long while before he raised his head, his eyes filled with despair and indescribable grief.
If only they had not been tempted by that reward money offered, if only they had been more down to earth and only accepted simpler missions, then his brothers would still be alive today and he would not have become just like a dead man walking.
The injuries on his body now had gotten extremely serious. He had been back for quite a period and his wounds had continued to fester and rot. The bandages he had covered himself with were not to protect his wounds but he was afraid that his horrifying looks now would frighten the people that he came into contact with.
His entire body was filled with poison he had contracted from the Heaven’s End Cliff and he knew he had not long more to live. He only wished, that before he died, he would be able to help look after the families of his deceased brothers.
Jun Wu Xie patiently listened to Mu Qian Fan till he finished, her face expressionless.
Whereas Qiao Chu and the others were looking extremely solemn.
“Did I scare all of you? Haha….. It’s not all that bad, just don’t go to that place.” Mu Qian Fan thought t
hat the youths had all been frightened by his account of his experiences and he hurriedly changed his tone and tried to make light of his words.
“Will you still remain in Chan Lin Town for a period?” Jun Wu Xie asked suddenly.
Volume 6
Chapter 552: “Mysterious Black Stone (9)”
Mu Qian Fan stared in shock and nodded his head after a moment’s hesitation.
“All of us are residents of Chan Lin Town and I will naturally still be here. If you need to locate me in the near future, you can go to the last house at the end of South Street, but…..” Mu Qian Fan looked at the bandages all over his body and said with a bitter laugh: “If you still want to hear anything else from me, you will have to hurry, my body might not last much longer.”
“Your injuries are grave?” Hearing the implied meaning behind Mu Qian Fan’s words, Hua Yao asked, his brow furrowed.
Mu Qian Fan nodded. “It’s already a miracle that I am still living.” Among the brothers who had gone with him, two of them had breathed their last hours after being afflicted with the poison. The fact that Mu Qian Fan could last till this moment greatly surprised himself.
“Let me see?” Jun Wu Xie said suddenly.
Mu Qian Fan hesitated. He looked at Jun Wu Xie, deeply concerned. “It’s rather gory, you really want to see?”
He was afraid that his disgusting wounds would frighten the young youth.
Jun Wu Xie nodded.
Mu Qian Fan sighed, and began to slowly remove the bandage on his left hand.
Flesh stuck to the bandage as it was slowly peeled off, displaying to them a bloody and gory sight as the covered wounds on his hand was once again exposed to the air.
Just one look had made all the others in the room suck in a deep breath.
Genius Doctor: Black Belly Miss Volume 6 Page 14
