Elder Qian sat cross-legged on the ground, stroking his chin with a troubled expression...
Evaluating the value of a beast skin generally boiled down to three factors.
First was the species.
Second was the realm.
Third was the bloodline.
The species determined its use—whether it was for medicine, armor-making, or decoration...
The level of the realm determined the skin's strength or weakness, as well as whether it was rare or common.
The bloodline directly determined the upper limit of its value...
As for its appearance and integrity, those were separate bonus factors.
Regarding the snake skin before him, the species was clear at a glance. It resembled a snake but wasn't a jiaoyu. Among beast beasts, it was considered a relatively common race.
Leathers from snake and jiaoyu types were generally used for making soft armor or cut into strings for bows.
However.
He was somewhat uncertain about the realm; he couldn't see through it!
His divine sense could not pierce it, and by touch, the skin was extremely hard. Its realm during life must have been at least at the beast king stage or higher.
But logically, a snake or jiaoyu above the king stage shouldn't be this small.
As for the bloodline...
He told himself that in the several hundred years he had handled skins from beasts above the king stage, he had never encountered a similar species.
It had to be extremely rare!
Being unable to make a certain judgment for a moment, he remained silent.
Seeing his expression, Xu Xian felt a pang of doubt. Could it be that this white snake skin wasn't worth much?
"Elder Qian..."
"Elder Qian..."
Elder Qian snapped back to reality and looked at Xu Xian.
Xu Xian hurriedly asked, "Don't just stare at it. Say something, will you?"
Elder Qian gave a bitter smile and admitted frankly, "Forgive your martial nephew's lack of insight, but I truly cannot tell what species this is. I wouldn't dare to give a reckless valuation!"
Xu Xian said solemnly, "If I told you this is the skin of the Xiushe, an ancient exotic beast, would you believe me?"
Elder Qian locked eyes with Xu Xian for several seconds before saying sincerely, "If Martial Uncle says it is, then I believe it!"
Though he said so, the skepticism in his eyes was plain to see.
Xu Xian didn't hide anything and briefly recounted the truth of the matter.
How the snake came to be.
Why it was a white snake.
Why the snake was only this size.
He even specifically emphasized that it was a female snake.
Elder Qian listened with constant amazement.
"To think such a thing actually happened?"
Xu Xian waved his hand. "To be honest, if your martial uncle didn't have an immortal sword, I really wouldn't have been able to skin it. Although that Xiushe had regressed to a common second-grade vicious beast at the time, its defense—and I'm not boasting—would require even a common nascent soul stage cultivator to use every ounce of their strength just to cut it open."
Elder Qian reached out to touch the snake skin and agreed, "Indeed."
To increase his credibility, Xu Xian also revealed, "I'll tell you the truth. The reason I could reach the core formation stage in such a short time is because I swallowed this snake's gall and blood raw."
Elder Qian's eyes widened, and his throat bobbed. He said half-doubtingly, "Raw?"
"That's right!"
Elder Qian scanned Xu Xian up and down, his eyes filled with absolute disbelief.
Ancient exotic beasts were called such because their bloodlines were incredibly powerful.
In the world of beast beasts...
Aside from realms...
They were also divided into ranks.
From low to high: mortal beast, spirit beast, holy beast, auspicious beast, ancient ferocious beast, ancient exotic beast, and ancient divine beast...
Ancient divine beasts were existences at the very top of the pyramid.
In the current Fanzhou, those still in existence could be counted on one hand, and every single one was a demon god of their generation.
Next were the exotic beasts and ferocious beasts, which were roughly equal.
Most of them were the descendants born from the god beasts' less-than-discreet private lives.
Among beast beasts, they were jokingly called half-breeds.
Yet they were still second only to the god beasts.
In the world today, even holy beasts were extremely difficult to encounter.
Ancient exotic beasts were naturally even rarer.
To consume the snake gall and blood of an exotic beast raw and still be alive and well... the Little Grand-Uncle was truly a miracle.
He offered sincere praise, "Little Grand-Uncle truly has extraordinary talent to come out of that unscathed. Your constitution is... incredible!"
Recalling the scene from that time, Xu Xian couldn't help but feel a lingering fear and shivered. Putting the bad taste aside, it was truly hot.
His internal organs had felt like they were burning. If not for the suppression of his immortal power, he probably would have lost half his life, if not died outright...
He quickly changed the subject. "Let's not talk about that. To business—how much is this snake skin worth?"
Elder Qian didn't hesitate. After a brief contemplation, he spoke. "If it truly is the skin of an ancient Xiushe, and a white one at that... although the area isn't large, it is complete, and both its quality and presentation are excellent. This could absolutely go on the auction stage of the Rare Treasure Pavilion."
Pausing, Elder Qian held up a single finger and waved it in front of Xu Xian, continuing:
"By my conservative estimate, it can sell for this much."
Xu Xian was overjoyed. "One hundred thousand spirit stones?"
One hundred thousand spirit stones was ten million merit points. That was quite a lot.
After all, not everyone could be like him, carrying two million spirit stones—and top-grade ones at that.
Elder Qian smiled slightly and shook his head. "It is one million."
Xu Xian was instantly stunned. Was he being short-sighted? Was his perspective too small?
One million?
That was one hundred million merit points.
He felt it was somewhat surreal.
He stared at Elder Qian, his throat bobbing. "For real? I'm young, don't try to fool me."
"What are you saying, Martial Uncle? How could I possibly fool you?"
Xu Xian confirmed once more, "Is it really worth that much?"
Elder Qian explained patiently, "Little Grand-Uncle might not be aware. The reason 'ancient' is added before exotic beasts, ferocious beasts, and divine beasts is to prove something—it proves they simply do not belong to our era."
"These existences not only live for an extremely long time, but they are almost extinct. Every single one is unique. Even if they produce offspring, the bloodline power can only reach the level of a holy beast at most. When one dies, there is one less in the world."
"Most importantly, their skins are the primary materials for forging armor for immortal weapons."
"Think about it. Among the exotic beasts still alive today, which one isn't a provincial lord? They are either at the beast emperor stage or the beast god stage. If you want to skin them, you have to subdue them first."
"In a battle of that level, setting aside whether you can win, even if you do, how many pieces of good skin would be left on their bodies?"
"This one of yours, Little Grand-Uncle, is complete. Most importantly, the ancient Xiushe was once an existence that infinitely approached the level of a demon immortal. Even if its realm fell, that has nothing to do with its skin."
"So one million is truly not expensive; that's just a conservative estimate. If it can actually be used to forge a soft armor for an immortal weapon, that would be a sect-protecting treasure. The price could double..."
Listening to him explain it like that, Xu Xian also felt that one million was truly not expensive. After all, it was a seller's market.
With this snake skin, you wouldn't even need to refine it. You could just have a junior in your sect drape it over themselves, and a core formation stage cultivator could hack at them all day while they just stood there. Even a nascent soul stage would have to be given three free moves.
It was natural material for earth weapon armor.
People said that immortal swords were rare in the world, each one a family heirloom.
But they didn't know that immortal armor was even rarer.
Adding them all up wouldn't even fill a top-ten list.
A complete beast skin had a high probability of creating immortal armor.
A high price was only natural.
"In that case, it really isn't expensive. So, Elder Qian, how much do you plan to pay me for it?"
Rate on N.U.
