Chapter 557: Fivefold Transformation Blade Gold Ingot

Not understanding the key point, Yan Buji simply stopped thinking about it; he would have a chance to figure it out later.

"Please wait, fellow cultivator." A cultivator walked over, smiling and cupping his hands: "I am Liu Yuan, Guard Commander of Frontier Blade Imperial City. Greetings, fellow cultivator."

"I am Ji Bu." Yan Buji cupped his hands and asked: "What business do you have, fellow cultivator?"

"It's like this, fellow cultivator can see that the black sand storm is coming, and the storm easily sweeps up some demon beasts; our Frontier Blade Imperial City is also drawn in, possibly facing demon beast attacks. If possible, please fellow cultivator, be sure to contribute when the time comes; the city will surely reward you handsomely!"

"Oh?" Yan Buji raised his eyebrows: "Will demon beasts come to attack the city?"

This is rather rare, because in the West Sand River Basin there are few places where living beings can survive, all occupied by humans. Even demon beasts that can adapt to the desert environment, even if they attack cultivators, cannot form a large beast tide, after all the environment does not allow them to reproduce too quickly.

"It's like this, the most troublesome aspect of the black sand storm is that the demon beasts hidden deep beneath the sand are also swept up, and those demon beasts each have sturdy bodies, unafraid of wind, sun, or falling from high altitudes, so it's possible that we here....."

Boom!

Before Liu Yuan could finish speaking, a huge beetle demon beast suddenly fell from the sky and heavily smashed onto the defensive array of Frontier Blade Imperial City.

Liu Yuan looked up, smiling and pointing upward: "Just like that."

The beetle demon beast, in pain, roared, climbed up, and began tearing at the defensive array as if trying to burrow back into the ground.

"Quickly!"

"Kill that demon beast!"

The surrounding cultivators shouted, the city guards flew into the air, passing through the array, and engaged in fierce combat with the beetle demon beast.

"If that's the case, then we'll be short-handed then; I will certainly contribute."

"Thank you, fellow cultivator! The demon beasts you slay have clear bounty notices; you may go to the City Lord's Mansion to check them yourself, and when the time comes, simply produce the beast's corpse and we will naturally pay the reward." Having said that, Liu Yuan cupped his fists and left.

Yan Buji had seen plenty of rain from the sky, but this was the first time in his life he had seen demon beasts falling from the heavens.

As Liu Yuan said, there have indeed been many more demon beasts near Frontier Blade Imperial City these past few days.

Although demon beasts lack intelligence, they still have instincts.

When facing natural disasters, they also choose to evade; hiding beneath the sand is clearly not a good option, so they set their sights on Frontier Blade Imperial City standing firm in the storm.

"Quickly! Another demon beast attack on the city!"

"Can these demon beasts not come all at once, in groups of a few, letting people rest?"

The city guards complained; at this stage the number of demon beasts doesn't seem large, but who knows how vast this black sand storm's range is, or how many demon beasts lie beneath the sand?

Yan Buji came to the inn to rest; these days the black sand storm draws ever closer to Frontier Blade Imperial City, now the sky is no longer visible, outside is nothing but black wind whipping up sand and dust, obscuring the sky and sun, and from time to time demon beasts fall from the heavens to attack.

Fortunately, Frontier Blade Imperial City has many high-level cultivators—Golden Core cultivators are a dime a dozen, Nascent Soul cultivators are also numerous. Originally these people would not deliberately gather together; they are here because of the newly discovered ore in Frontier Blade Imperial City.

Yan Buji certainly would not choose to act, after all he still needs to wait for this period to pass before speaking further.

He also did not deliberately inquire about the specifics of that ore; instead he thought it best to wait for the black sand storm to end and leave as soon as possible.

"This newly discovered ore is named 'Blade Gold Ore'; when smelted into Blade Gold Ingots, its transformation level should be Fifth Transformation. This spiritual material is soft, similar to ordinary gold. Yet it possesses excellent mana conductivity, and its ductility is also good; used to forge Accumulation Devices, it can greatly enhance a cultivator's ability to control Accumulation Devices!"

"Is it really that useful?!"

"One could say that on the market today there has yet to appear anything comparable to Blade Gold Ingots that possesses both good ductility and excellent mana conductivity."

Yan Buji listened to the surrounding cultivators' discussion and subconsciously thought it was the people of Frontier Blade Imperial City deliberately boasting, aiming to boost the reputation of Blade Gold Ingots and expand sales channels.

However, before Yan Buji could investigate further, Frontier Blade Imperial City itself proactively convened a new spiritual material appraisal meeting.

Yan Buji came over to join the fun, taking a look at the cultivators on stage.

"Everyone, thank you for assisting us in defending Frontier Blade Imperial City during the black sand storm's arrival; the entire city is deeply grateful." The Guard Commander Liu Yuan, standing above, cupped his hands and said.

His attitude was still very sincere, winning the favor of many onlookers.

Originally everyone had come for the Blade Gold Ingots, but unexpectedly ran into the disaster and couldn't leave in a short time, holding back a burst of frustration.

However, the people of Frontier Blade Imperial City are still understanding; they not only began to regulate the market from top to bottom, preventing anyone from excessively renting or selling lodgings, but also built many new houses to balance prices, so most cultivators who come here have accommodations.

Aside from those who truly lack spiritual stones, overall Frontier Blade Imperial City, when caring for these visiting cultivators, did not choose to exploit the opportunity for great profit; this is already quite benevolent.

Now hearing Liu Yuan say this, everyone's favor toward Frontier Blade Imperial City rises in a straight line. After all, I can be greedy myself, but if others are greedy I feel uncomfortable inside; Frontier Blade Imperial City does this also to gain a good reputation, so naturally everyone will appreciate it.

From a long-term perspective, many of the people here actually have unusual backgrounds, possibly also coming from other imperial cities. For Frontier Blade Imperial City, if it gains a good reputation, then it can later broaden its sales channels.

In short, the appraisal meeting has just begun, and everyone is patiently listening to the speakers above.

"Well then, no more talk—let's take a look together at Frontier Blade Imperial City's newly produced Fifth Transformation spiritual material, the Blade Gold Ingot!"

Liu Yuan took out a piece resembling a gold ingot of spiritual material—this is the smelted Blade Gold Ingot. Many ore materials, when first mined, are hard to judge their transformation level, and naturally also hard to determine their uses; they need to be smelted and purified to clearly understand the function of this spiritual material.

And like most ore materials, Blade Gold Ingots require smelting and purification before they can be made into this piece of Fifth Transformation spiritual material; the cost remains as is, and the price will certainly not be low.

"This Blade Gold Ingot was discovered in the large mine outside the city, and now much has been mined. Since this is its first appearance, everyone still doubts whether its effects are truly as we say; therefore I will now conduct experiments for everyone, one by one."

To judge whether a spiritual material is usable, cultivators naturally have their own set of methods.

Like the method Liu Yuan uses: first, refining, stretching, and shaping; second, mana permeation effect—these are the most direct testing methods.

Yan Buji looked and found that the Blade Gold Ingot's effects really are as they said, but there is a very obvious problem.

"This Blade Gold Ingot should achieve such excellent conductivity only for metal-type mana; other types of mana would not reach that level." Yan Buji frowned.

This could also be considered a small regret.

For those who cultivate metal-attribute techniques, the Blade Gold Ingot is naturally one of the best choices for forging Accumulation Devices.

But for other cultivators, its effect is not particularly great.

This is also due to the inherent nature of the spiritual material itself, so Yan Buji does not place much importance on the Blade Gold Ingot.