The Avalon Of Five Elements

Kang Ding arrived at his appraisal shop as usual.

He put on a silvery black working apron that was made out of a cowhide from a three-year-old sharp-horned ink cow. After going through a unique sewing process, it gave off a silvery black metallic lustre. The most valuable part of a sharp-horned ink cow was its cowhide. The cowhide was covered with natural vein patterns that flowed with a thin layer of elemental energy. This thin layer of elemental energy allowed the cowhide apron to protect its wearer from reactive and dangerous materials.

This working apron costed Kang Ding one hundred and fifty essence elemental energy beans.

Currently, elemental energy beans and essence elemental beans were much more valuable than they were two years ago.

There was practically no trade route between Wilderness and Jadeite Forest. In Wilderness, one had to grow his or her own elemental energy beans and essence elemental beans.

This made it harder for mankind to obtain elemental energy in Wilderness.

As Kang Ding’s prestige increased, his workload increased sharply as well. However, he still insisted on handling all his work by himself. After all, his customers’ wealth and his own reputation were on the line.

He began his work proficiently and appraised the items in the order they were sent to him.

Once Kang Ding started to work, his facial expression became unusually focused. Every movement he made was meticulous. He was filled with passion towards his job. As compared to being a disciple of a smith, this job was much more interesting and offered him a greater sense of achievement. He felt very grateful for this job. Thanks to this job, his life had become better. The respect and reverence from everyone made him understand how valuable he was.

The passionate Kang Ding had developed many new and odd appraising methods and formed his own appraising system.

His movements were natural and smooth-flowing like water, aesthetically pleasing to whoever was watching him work.

Right now, he was a reputable appraiser with rich experience. He had appraised a lot of unknown materials from numerous goods owners and vendors.

After one hour, more than half of the materials on the table had been appraised.

Suddenly, a package waiting to be appraised caught his attention.

He first saw a piece of flaming bone. Even though it looked slightly different from the ordinary flaming bones, he could still recognize it at one glance. He took out the piece of flaming bone and examined it carefully.

Flaming bones were the bones of scarletfire flying foxes and they were considered a pretty good type of fire elemental material. However, the most valuable parts of a scarletfire flying fox were its scarlet fire and fire sack. Flaming bones were its most worthless part.

However, this piece of flaming bone had been tempered before and its base level had increased. The person who tempered it was pretty high-leveled and the flame he used was perfect. The performance of this piece of flaming bone had clearly been upgraded without any lingering damage.

He wrote down "C-Ordinary" on the appraisal grading slip.

The ordinary flaming bones were mostly graded as "D". This piece of flaming bone was given a grade of "C" due to the excellent workmanship on it.

The old grading standards for materials were no longer suitable for the current times as the world had changed too much. Every appraiser’s grading standards were different. Up until now, a unified grading system had not been formed yet.

Kang Ding appraised a material based on two things, its physical nature and its elemental nature. Physical nature referred to physical characteristics such as toughness, weight, durability etc. Elemental nature referred to elemental characteristics such as elemental energy capacity, elemental energy purity level, special elemental effects etc.

From the best grade to the worst grade, there were four grades, A, B, C, and D. Each grade was further classified into "Excellent", "Good", and "Ordinary".

Kang Ding estimated the selling price for such a piece of flaming bone to be, at most. fifty elemental energy beans, and that was given the fact that fire elemental materials were in scarcity nowadays.

For the other party to have brought a piece of flaming bone to be appraised, they must have a huge amount of them.

Was it possible that they wiped out an entire clan of scarletfire flying foxes?

Kang Ding was somewhat curious. After all, his conjecture wasn’t baseless. Whether it was flaming bones, fire sacks, or the more expensive scarlet fire, they were in scarcity on the market.

Groups of scarletfire flying foxes spelled disaster.

He thought of a regular customer who often purchased low-level fire elemental materials in bulk. This kind of flaming bone was suitable for him. He did not immediately notify that regular customer, but merely noted it down.

Due to Kang Appraisal Shop’s prestige and authority, many enterprises kept their eyes on it. If there were any good materials, they would get the news first-hand. Kang Appraisal Shop had connections with many huge enterprises. This was why so many people got their goods appraised at Kang Appraisal Shop, so that their goods could be recommended to those huge enterprises.

Of course, Kang Ding was only in charge of appraising materials and setting up connections between sellers and buyers. He would definitely not interfere with the price negotiations.

These issues came after the appraising stage. He regained his focus and opened up the second package.

There was a thumb-sized transparent bamboo bottle. Inside the bottle, there was a crystal-clear liquid.

Kang Ding’s eyes lit up.

The transparent bamboo bottle was made up of colorglass bamboo. The body of a colorglass bamboo was bright and colorful like a piece of colored glass, extremely gorgeous. Colorglass bamboos that were colorless and transparent were considered to be top quality. Colorglass bamboos were usually used to make containers. These containers could not be damaged by fire or water easily and they would not affect the nature of the substances they were holding as well. Colorglass bamboos were the best material for making containers.

However, colorglass bamboos took very long to cultivate and they were very costly. Generally speaking, colorgrass bamboo containers were mostly used to hold valuable substances.

Boom. When he took off the lid of the colorglass bamboo bottle, a mass of red-colored, blazing cloud gushed out of it.

Just as the mass of blazing cloud was about to hit Kang Ding, his cowhide apron suddenly gave off a layer of faint glow and blocked the blazing cloud.

Kang Ding remained calm as a look of amazement swept across his eyes. Such a powerful aura of fire elemental energy!

Taking off the lid already produced such a weird effect, what exactly was the crystal clear liquid in it?

Given his experience, he could roughly guess that it was a kind of fire liquid. Fire liquid was a necessity for fire elementalist to train with. Most of the fire elementalists would carry a container-like vat or calabash to hold the fire liquid.

The most commonly-seen fire liquid was lava. A lot of types of fire liquid used by elementalists were concocted using special methods. There were many types of fire liquid and most of them had high viscosity. Kang Ding had never seen such a crystal clear fire liquid before.

This was a brand-new type of fire liquid!

Kang Ding’s eyes lit up. As an appraiser, there was nothing more exciting than coming across an unknown material.

…..

The market of Clearwater City.

Han Li’s gaze had never left that beautiful and frosty girl. Even though she was most likely from an influential family, he had not shown any fear at all. An infatuated look was upon his face. The girl did not talk much but her ice-cold nature had a deadly enticement over him.

When he thought of conquering a girl like this, his heart was blazing with flames.

Han Li’s partner noticed his odd behaviour.

His partner had a common-looking face and there was nothing special about his body. If he stood among the crowd, he would be practically unnoticeable. However, at this moment, his eyes were flickering with wariness. He lowered his voice and reminded Han Li, "Don’t cause any trouble, we are not here to have fun."

"Why would I cause trouble in front of such a beautiful girl?" Han Li chuckled.

After finishing his sentence, Han Li walked towards his prey.

His partner felt helpless and he could not do anything to stop Han Li.

Shi Xueman bent down and pointed to a blue pearl in the stall and asked, "Can I pick it up and take a closer look at it?"

The vendor was a boorish man. When he saw such a goddess-like girl, his face turned bright-red. He stuttered, "You… you can."

Shi Xueman picked up the blue bead and looked curiously at it. This was the first time she’d seen such a pearl. The pearl was around the size of a thumb. It was sparkling and translucent, resembling a sapphire. She could sense a strong aura of water elemental energy within it. Initially, she thought it was some kind of elemental elixir from a fish-type dire beast. However, she rejected this conjecture very soon. She had a water elemental elixir back at home, therefore, she knew that a water elemental elixir was of a higher base level and contained more vigorous water elemental energy than this pearl.

"I will buy this pearl."

Suddenly, a male voice came from behind her.

Everyone’s eyes turned around at the same time. The voice belonged to a tall, young male who was around twenty-seven years old. He smiled at Shi Xueman and gave a light bow, "Miss, is it possible for you to part with this pearl and let me have it?"

Ai Hui glanced at the sword in the man’s hand and withdrew his gaze.

Shi Xueman’s gaze stopped at the man’s face for a second before turning to the vendor and asked, "How much is this?"

Upon hearing this, the vendor quickly replied, "Fifty essence elemental beans."

"I’m not going to sell it to him, I’m selling it to you," the vendor added on.

Shi Xueman felt that the vendor was rather cute and smiled, "Thank you, Boss."

Shi Xueman’s invigorating smile looked as if it could melt ice and snow. Even Ai Hui’s eyes lit up.

A blank look flashed across Han Li’s face. Han Li was suffocating, appearing as if his heart had been assassinated by Shi Xueman’s smile. However, he regained his composure very soon. There was a voice screaming in his heart, ‘You must get her!’

Just as Shi Xueman was about to pay for the pearl, Han Li threw a pouch at the vendor, "I didn’t know there was such an alluring smile in this world. Miss, you are a once-in-a-lifetime beauty. It’s my luck to be able to witness such a beauty like you with my own eyes. This pearl shall be my small gift to you."

Shi Xueman did not bother to look at him. Suddenly, Ai Hui blurted out, "It’s merely fifty essence elemental beans. Do you think we need you to pay for it?"

Han Li was shocked. He was still afraid that the other party would ignore him. As long as the other party ignored him, things would be easier. He continued, "Brother, you’re right. Fifty essence elemental beans are not enough to represent my feelings. What else does your mistress want to buy? I will buy everything for her!"

Your mistress...

Zhao Boan was stunned.

Ai Hui was stunned as well. However, he quickly returned to his senses and replied, "There are still a lot of things that my mistress wants to buy. Since you want to court her, I shall give you a chance. But I’m afraid that your wallet might be too small and can’t handle what she wants. Or are you a miser?"

Han Li replied with confidence, "There is an old saying, all the gold that a man spends can be earned back again. Wealth is merely a worldly possession, I will do whatever it takes to see your mistress smile. Brother, don’t worry, I am rich enough to do that."

Shi Xueman knew Ai Hui was up to no good and she decided not to say anything.

"Really? Lou Lan, do you still remember all the good things that we came across just now?" Ai Hui put on a doubtful look on his face.

Lou Lan nodded his head obediently and replied, "I still remember them, Ai Hui."

Ai Hui?

Han Li found this name somewhat familiar. However, he soon put his doubt aside. After all, this fellow was just a servant.

"Let’s go and witness the sincerity of this mister," Ai Hui said and smiled.

Han Li smiled. Like a gentleman, he replied sincerely, "I am truly sincere towards your mistress. Heaven and earth can vouch for my sincerity."

Deep down, Han Li was delighted and sneering. You can spend all my money. The more the merrier. Do you think you can get my money so easily?