“This sounds rather good, doesn’t it? Is the price simply too high? Beastman corpses are precious, true, but there shouldn’t be that many people who need one. If the price is excessive, even fewer would be willing to buy,” Lin Yun said.
The beastman corpse auctioned at the previous Heart City treasure appraisal fair was a perfect example. There might have been quite a few interested buyers, yet once the bidding soared too high, most gave up.
Even though every part of a beastman powerhouse’s body was treasure, if the cost was astronomical, it simply was not worth it for ordinary cultivators.
“I have already spoken with him. The issue is not the price being too high or too low. He does not want Haoyue crystals at all. He wishes to trade the corpse for something else,” Zou Dongsheng explained.
“Oh? What does he want?” Lin Yun pressed.
“To be precise, he wants a formation. His condition is this: whoever can travel to his beastman territory and set up a powerful formation around his lair will receive the corpse. He will purchase all the materials required for the formation himself,” Zou Dongsheng said.
“I see.” Lin Yun suddenly understood.
It made sense when he thought about it. Beastmen had no knowledge of formations whatsoever. If they wanted one arranged, they could only turn to humans.
“Unfortunately, our Infinite Heavenly Palace does not specialise in formations. Among those of us still alive, not one is proficient in the art, and his requirements for the formation are quite stringent,” Zou Dongsheng continued.
The Infinite Heavenly Palace had always focused on the physical body. Every major power had its own speciality, and usually only one. Trying to master too many paths at once made true excellence impossible.
Lin Yun himself was no formation expert either.
“In that case, we can spend money to hire a highly accomplished formation master to go and set up the formation for him. Problem solved,” Lin Yun suggested.
“Young Master, it is not that simple. To build the formation for him means travelling into beastman territory, deep into beastman territory at that. I already tried going through the Myriad Treasures Pavilion to hire a formation expert, but none are willing to go to the beastman lands. The risk is simply too great,” Zou Dongsheng said helplessly.
Hearing this, Lin Yun finally grasped the real difficulty.
There were not many formation masters capable of constructing such a large-scale, high-level formation in the first place. Those who could were all grandmasters with profound attainment in the dao of formations, and such people were rare and hard to find.
Moreover, formation masters of that calibre were almost never short of money. They earned enormous wealth simply by building formations for others or crafting formation treasures. Formation grandmasters were invariably extremely wealthy.
Under those circumstances, they naturally would not risk their lives and leave human territory just for payment, especially to venture into beastman lands.
If they went and the beastman powerhouse played any tricks, or if countless other unknown dangers appeared, they might never return.
“Do you have any ideas, then?” Lin Yun looked at Zou Dongsheng.
“For now, I have none. We can only keep the task posted and raise the reward again, hoping some formation master will finally accept,” Zou Dongsheng replied.
“Can we negotiate with him again, ask him to accept payment in crystals instead, or trade for other resources?” Lin Yun asked.
Zou Dongsheng shook his head helplessly. “I already went to speak with him twice. His attitude is firm and absolute. There is only this one method. He even said that if I cannot find a formation master willing to build it for him, I should stop bothering him.”
“I see.” Hearing this, Lin Yun also felt the situation was truly thorny.
“The beastman powerhouse corpse in his hands is genuinely of exceptional quality. The essence blood it contains would be enough to support Young Master opening two divine veins, with even a little to spare. We waited so many years to encounter a corpse of this calibre. To give up now would be terribly unwilling,” Zou Dongsheng sighed.
“Yes, we really have waited far too many years,” Lin Yun nodded with the same feeling.
Of course Lin Yun did not want to let it go. He had already waited so long. If he missed this chance, who knew how many more years, or tens of thousands of years, he might have to wait.
“Young Master, I also heard that the Nether Palace wants this corpse as well. Yet they too lack expertise in formations, so they are also trying to contact formation masters,” Zou Dongsheng added.
Lin Yun’s gaze sharpened. “If they manage to obtain it first, that would be an even greater pity.”
Lin Yun was well aware that the current Nether Palace far outstripped the present Infinite Heavenly Palace, both in overall strength and in financial resources.
