Chapter 36：8th Stage Of The Body Tempering Realm (1/2)

Duan Ke appeared in the elaborate and large courtyard. She crossed the streams and rivers to reach the manor that was standing at the end of the courtyard. Her eyes looked around for her grandfather but could not find him nearby.

Finding that her grandfather was not outside, she went up the steps of the manor and entered through the large twin doors. The inside of the manor was so luxuriously decorated that it would even put a king's palace to shame.

Duan Ke walked towards the left and entered an enormous library. There were more books than one could count in the library, along with a multitude of scrolls, bamboo slips, and jade slips kept on different shelves.

At the centre of the library, one could see a table and a few chairs. Unlike the rest of the manor, the table and chairs did not look luxurious or expensive, rather they looked very simple and could be found at any commoner's house. Duan Ke walked up to the table and saw her grandfather sitting at it on a chair.

The old man was reading a book that looked like it would wither and break any moment. The book was old and damaged, yet the old man was able to flip its pages with no problem. Once Duan Ke came up to the side of her grandfather, Jing Wei spoke without moving his eyes from the book.

”Did you find anything?”

Duan Ke waved her hand in response to her grandfather's words, making twelve corpses appear. These corpses belonged to both fierce beasts as well as spirit beasts. Even though the corpses belonged to different types of beasts and had different physiologies, they all had one thing in common. They were all pitch black in colour and emitted an unnerving aura.

Duan Ke then carefully withdrew a box that looked to be made of glass. In that box, a pitch-black blob the size of an orange was kept. The pitch-black blob was emitting an even greater unnerving aura, it was at least 10 times the intensity of the aura emitted by the strongest beast corpse.

Jing Wei turned to look towards the glass box in Duan Ke's hand.

”So, it was that 'thing' indeed.” Jing Wei said.

”I found these twelve beasts in the northern forest. They were mostly spread around the deeper regions of the forest, but some of them were even present at the outer parts of the forest, with one wandering around near the edge of the forest.” Duan Ke said.

Duan Ke stayed silent and let her grandfather examine all the beast corpses. Jing Wei looked around at the corpses for half an hour, after which he finally came up to the glass box.

”Where did you find this piece of that 'Thing'?” Jing Wei asked Duan Ke.

”I found it near the centre of the northern forest. It was lying inside a small pond and had tainted the water.” Duan Ke replied.

”That pond was the source of the mutations then, no other traces anywhere?” Jing Wei questioned.

”Yes, that's likely it. I could not find any more traces of it, only this.” Duan Ke answered.

Jing Wei nodded upon hearing Duan Ke's answer.

”Destroy it.” Jing Wei declared.

Duan Ke did not speak a word before pointing to the black blob inside the glass box, which then started to burn. It burned for a minute, after which not even ashes were left behind.

Once the black blob was destroyed he turned to his granddaughter and spoke,

”Did that boy come back?”

”He came back just before me. I passed the meat of a 9th stage body tempering realm beast to him. Though he did not ask for money in exchange for the materials.” Duan Ke replied and took a pause.

Jing Wei raised his eyebrows in question.

”He wanted more weapons in exchange for the materials. I let him choose some weapons from the shop. He picked a large variety of them.” Duan Ke added.

Jing Wei sat down on the chair and placed his hand on his chin. He thought for a minute before asking,

”Did he not like the short sword?”

”He liked the sword. He said he wanted the weapons in case he ever lost the short sword during a fight.” Duan Ke replied.