That number sent great waves crashing about inside of Meng Hao’s mind. His brain trembled, and he almost couldn’t believe it. During his entire life, he had never possessed so many Spirit Stones. He immediately began to breathe heavily.
“How much did you say?” he blurted without even thinking about it.
“Low-grade Demon Hearts range in value from several hundred to a thousand Spirit Stones….” said the old man. He didn’t seem to think anything about Meng Hao’s reaction was strange. Anyone who heard about the matter for the first time would be astonished.
“What about mid-grade Demon hearts?” Meng Hao followed up immediately.
The old man hesitated for a moment and rubbed his bag of holding, but continued on with his explanation: “Their value fluctuates too, but not too much. One mid-grade Demon heart is worth about 10,000 low-grade Spirit Stones!”
Meng Hao’s mouth went so dry that he couldn’t speak. Within his bag of holding were more than 30,000 mid-grade Demon hearts. After he calculated the number, his mind once again filled with roaring.
Now, he suddenly understood why people risked their lives to come here.
“I’m rich!” he thought. “I really am super rich!” Meng Hao couldn’t control the excitement that exploded out within him. The fact that his lifelong desire had suddenly been fulfilled caused his heart to begin to pound rapidly.
The old man looked at Meng Hao and continued, “Of course, there are even more rare Demon hearts, the high-grade variety. I’m actually not sure exactly how much they are worth, because they only appear in auctions.
“However, I do remember that at the last auction I attended, a high-grade Demon heart was sold for the incredible price of 670,000 Spirit Stones!”
When Meng Hao heard that, he went even more wild with joy. He had nearly 10,000 such high-grade Demon hearts in his bag of holding. All of a sudden, he felt as if an enormous golden ingot had fallen directly onto him.
Moments later, though, his face suddenly flickered when he remembered that among the seven or eight Demon hearts he had used to test out the duplication powers of the copper mirror, four had been high-grade Demon hearts.
He suddenly felt a twisting stab of pain in his heart.
“That means… I… yet again wasted more than 2,000,000 Spirit Stones? Fudge! That’s….” He had the sudden impulse to scream and curse. After taking a few deep breaths, he told himself that it wasn’t any worse than the matter with the 2,000 ultra high-grade Spirit Stones. After a bit of time, he calmed himself.
“Is there a type of Demon Heart even more precious than what you’ve already mentioned?” he asked. “Something similar to ultra high-grade Spirit Stones?” He happened to have exactly just such a Demon Heart in his bag of holding, the one he had acquired from the Whitebone Lily giant.
The man thought for a moment and then replied, “No such thing exists. Well, perhaps my Cultivation base isn’t high enough, or maybe I just have never encountered someone with access to such riches. However, in the Third Ring, there is something called a Whitebone Demon heart. They are incredibly rare precious treasures. Something like that would be priceless.”
Meng Hao’s heart trembled. He was almost certain that the Demon heart in his bag of holding, the one that was the size of an infant’s hand, was the Whitebone Demon heart that the old man had just mentioned.
“One more thing,” said the old man. “And probably the most important. In the Three Sects’ Seahold, most items can only be purchased with Demon hearts. That’s another reason why I value them so much.
“With this mid-grade Demon heart, I now have enough saved up to acquire Fortification Pill Powder. With that my… my apprentice can safely continue on through the Core Formation stage.” Having finished speaking, the old man backed up and bowed once again to Meng Hao.
Meng Hao gave a faint smile, and nodded. He was in an excellent mood now, and the only thing he could think about was going to Seahold to trade his Demon hearts for Spirit Stones.
“With so many Spirit Stones,” he thought, “I feel quite confident that I can… duplicate a hundred Wooden Time Swords that contain seven sixty-year cycles of Time. Then I can unleash the third form of the Lotus Sword Formation!” He took a deep breath and suppressed his excitement. He well knew that no one other than him would ever be able to possess one hundred Wooden Time Swords. Be it in the past, or in the future, it would be something completely rare, perhaps even absolutely unique.
It was only because of… the copper mirror, and its Heaven-defying duplication ability. Without that, it would be impossible to forge one hundred Wooden Time Swords. Every time he attempted to seal Time into the swords, a failure would leave the sword completely destroyed. Furthermore, the rate of failure was simply far too high.
“Actually, I might even be able to duplicate the Time Sword tip!” he thought, the brightness in his eyes growing even brighter. He was just