Monarch of Darkness

Days passed like the floating cloud and soon it was the day before the monthly hunting competition. The upper echelon of academy supressed the incident of Evan being injured. So, noone related to Evan visited him in this period. The second general of thousand swords kingdom Aaron had already returned to the capital of his kingdom and for some reason Ekon also didn't visit Evan.

Evan didn't bother about it. For him, it was good as long as no one came to disturb him during his seclusion. Only vice principal Lewis and Chester had visited him in these past few days. Vice principal Lewis had already reminded Evan to not attend this upcoming competition. But how could Evan not go. He couldn't waste more time. According to him, he had already squandered many time after he left Sylvia clan. 

Evan continued his practice on Myriad transformation art. 'Snap, snap', the facial structure of Evan got changed and now Evan was completely looking like another person.

The most difficult part about the myriad transformation art was duplicating the soul aura of other creatures and as for changing facial appearance, it was comparatively easy.

Evan took almost five days to duplicate the soul aura of the student who lived in his side room. Now no one could tell who was the real person if Evan would appear by the side of the student who was living in his side room now.

Myriad transformation art had many techniques which could only be practiced after reaching higher levels in cultivation. For now, Evan only practiced the necessary techniques required to survive in the wild.

Evan decided to visit the imperial city today. He wanted to check if he could find some suitable cultivation resources for himself. He went out when sun disappeared from the sky. He mimicked the appearance of a grade two student and walked towards the gate. He sneaked outside without alerting the guards. He was already proficient in shadow ghost dance. So, it was easy to evade the gaze of Meridian opening realm guards.

Evan approached a flaming horse carriage after moving outside the Imperial academy. Riding in flaming horse carriage was pricy because it was being pulled by level two beasts.

Evan didn't mind the cost and instructed the  coachman to led the horse towards central market area. He had already gained knowledge about the common classification of human warriors and magical beasts. Element sensing realm warriors were called level one warriors and Meridian opening realm warriors were called level two warriors. Same was for magical beasts. Magical beasts who were at Meridian opening realm called level two magical beasts.

Evan enjoyed his ride on level two flaming horses who were moving at a speed almost double from level two warriors. He was very curious about humans. So, he scanned through every person who passed along his path.

Soon, Evan reached his destination. He left the carriage and joined the crowd. Night market in the Northpeak city was bustling with customers. There were various luxurious looking restaurants and shopping streets. Evan looked around and walked towards a three storied building.

There was an eye-catching name-plate on the gate of that building. 'Greencloud treasure house' was written in a bold calligraphy. Building was made of exquisite blue rock and Evan felt amazed by the workmanship of the building.

Although the steet was crowded with people, there were very few people going inside the treasure house. Evan went inside and a large display of different objects came to his view.

"How can I help you, little brother"?, a beautiful lady approached Evan. Evan looked at her and saw the lady was wearing a green coloured robe. A word 'apprentice' was woven on top of the green robe. "It most be some kind of uniform", Evan thought inside his mind.

He learned about this treasure hall from Chester. This was a organization spread across the continent. They traded only valuable products.

"Do you have a list of cultivation resources useful in body tempering cultivation?", Evan asked the beautiful lady. The beautiful lady looked at him in confusion. She didn't underestand why this lean looking young man asking about body tempering resources. Nevertheless, she nodded her head.

She said Evan to wait for some time and walked to the first floor. There was a couch for customers in a corner of the ground floor. Evan sat on it and it felt very comfortable to him. Evan observed the people and their activities.

A wealthy looking middle-aged man was currently haggling with an attendant. Evan looked at them curiously. "How can you charge so much for a low tier earth grade pill?", the wealthy looking man shouted at the attendant. "Price can't be changed, if you can't afford it, then look for a peak tier mortal grade pill", the beautiful attendant replied indifferently.

Evan saw an irritated look on the face of that beautiful attendant. Evan knew the attendant couldn't be blamed as that wealthy looking man was acting unreasonable. Evan had already heard from Chester that price was fixed in the Greencloud treasure house. They only gave discount to some of their esteemed customers.

After some time the attendant who had left to upper floor returned. She hold a thin book on her hand. "Thanks for the waiting little brother. Take this. It has a complete list of our products", she smiled at Evan.

Evan nodded and received the thin looking book from her hand. After seeing the cost of products, his mouth produced a 'O' shape in surprise. Now he could understand the wealthy looking man's plight. Wealth means nothing here. Greencloud treasure house was like a greedy beast which could swallow others resources whole. "What is with this price!", Evan murmured absentmindedly.

Evan had enough gold coins. Before Aaron left, he had gifted a spatial ring to Evan where he stored many treasures required for Evan. But there were very few spirit stones inside it. In his previous life, Evan never lacked wealth. In this life he had no experience in buying cultivation resources. He had only seven hundred spirit stones but even a low tire mortal grade pill required minimum thirty spirit stone.

Evan had no need for low tire mortal grade pill. His minimum requirement was middle tire mortal grade pill. But a middle tire mortal grade pill required minimum three hundred spirit stones. For the first time in his life, Evan thought, "How poor am I!"