◎She’d sell the common stuff for some local currency, and of course hoard the rest.◎
Nangong Yu picked up the willow branch and tossed it into her space.
A spiritual root was the foundation of a cultivator. Replacing one meant shaking the very foundation of the cultivation world. This was clearly an important clue, but the time to trigger it had not yet come.
She wasn’t in a hurry. Instead, she strolled leisurely along the streets.
The flying ship had been in the air for a full two days before finally arriving at a city. This cultivation-world instance had an enormous map! She needed to get her hands on a map.
“Ten-Thousand Treasures Merchant Association.”
Nangong Yu stopped in front of a shop and looked up at the signboard, her eyes lighting up.
Judging by the name alone, this was obviously the cultivation world’s equivalent of a supermarket.
“What would you like to buy, honored customer?” A young shop assistant immediately came over to greet her after she entered.
However, the mortal aura Nangong Yu exuded quickly dampened his enthusiasm.
“Do you accept pills, heavenly treasures, talismans, and magical treasures?” Nangong Yu asked.
The shop assistant’s expression warmed slightly. “What are you selling?”
He looked Nangong Yu up and down, but when he failed to spot a storage pouch on her, he frowned.
Nangong Yu asked, “Can you appraise them here?”
“Please come inside, honored customer.” The shop assistant withdrew his gaze and turned to lead the way.
He brought Nangong Yu to a private room on the first floor.
“Take a look.” Nangong Yu didn’t waste any time. She took out a pile of pills, talismans, heavenly treasures, and even a longsword from her space.
They had all come from Zhou Yun.
“Please wait a moment.” The instant the shop assistant saw her produce the items from thin air, he realized he had misjudged her. How could she be a mortal? She was clearly a cultivator who had concealed her cultivation extremely well.
He examined the items one by one. “Spirit-Replenishing Pills, twenty spirit stones per bottle. Spring-Return Pills, one hundred spirit stones per bottle. Five-Element Talismans…”
He quoted each price in turn.
Nangong Yu memorized every one.
Selling the items wasn’t her primary objective. She needed to know what exactly was inside Zhou Yun’s storage pouch.
Wasn’t this a free encyclopedia?
The shop assistant continued identifying the items: spirit herbs, vermilion jade fruits, starlight stones… The things stored in jade boxes were especially good. Even the cheapest could be sold for eight hundred spirit stones.
“Let me calculate the total for you. Altogether, these are worth—”
Before he could finish, Nangong Yu interrupted him. “Don’t sell those. I’m only selling the pills.”
“Honored customer, you…” The shop assistant was stunned.
Nangong Yu said, “Calculate it.”
She’d sell the common stuff for some local currency. The rest, of course, she would hoard.
Seeing how firm she was, the shop assistant had no choice but to recalculate the pills alone. “The total is two thousand six hundred and forty spirit stones.”
“Just those, then.” Nangong Yu put the other items away.
The shop assistant took the pills and handed her a pouch of spirit stones.
There were so few that they didn’t even need to be stored in a storage pouch. Nangong Yu casually tossed the ordinary cloth bag into her space.
“Do you have maps?” she asked.
“We do. What kind would you like?” The shop assistant’s spirits lifted as he began introducing them. “We have regional maps, secret-realm maps, complete maps, basic maps, high-level maps…”
Nangong Yu asked, “What’s the difference?”
“I’ll bring them all over for you to see!” The shop assistant was suddenly very enthusiastic. Before long, he brought several maps and placed them on the tea table in front of Nangong Yu.
The basic map needed no explanation. Once unfolded, it was roughly a meter long and wide, displaying the outline of the continent. It was then that Nangong Yu learned that this world was called the Canglan Realm.
There were nine continents in total, scattered across regions of extreme cold, ancient wilderness, vast seas, and the fertile inland.
“If I want to go to the Purple Sun Sect, how do I get there?” Nangong Yu glanced over the map before raising her head.
“This map is too basic. Take a look at this one.” The shop assistant enthusiastically picked up a palm-sized map. This was the high-level version he had mentioned. After channeling a thread of spiritual power into it, the area of Taihua Province lit up instantly.
A red dot appeared on the map. A winding red line extended from it, pointing straight toward the Purple Sun Sect.
The shop assistant urged the spiritual power again, and the map came alive, projecting a three-dimensional image. “Please take a look.”
Nangong Yu was currently in Luoxia City. To reach the Purple Sun Sect, she would have to pass through three cities, cross several mountain ranges, and travel through one forest after another before arriving at the sect’s territory.
After looking it over, Nangong Yu found that the old village chief had been right. The route did indeed lead eastward.
“How much is this one?” Nangong Yu pointed at the basic map on the tea table.
“Honored customer, this one is more suitable for you.” The shop assistant held the high-level map in his palm and said meaningfully, “Since you’ve already looked at it, there’s no reason not to buy it. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Trying to force a sale?
Nangong Yu looked away, casually picked up a spirit fruit from the fruit plate, and walked toward the exit while eating it. “I’m not buying it.”
She didn’t even want the basic map anymore.
Her optical brain had already scanned it.
Seeing her walk straight out, the shop assistant’s expression darkened. He lightly tapped the jade token at his waist with his finger.
Nangong Yu had not yet reached the main hall when a manager-like man blocked her path.
The man wore a false smile. “What did the Ten-Thousand Treasures Merchant Association do wrong to make an honored customer leave empty-handed?”
Nangong Yu had a spirit fruit in her mouth and couldn’t speak, so she equipped a title instead.
【Why Did You Have to Mess with Her: After equipping this title, characters within a five-hundred-meter radius have a certain chance of avoiding you.】
In an instant, for no discernible reason, the hairs on the back of the manager’s neck stood on end. An ominous premonition washed over him.
Years of experience in the rough-and-tumble world allowed him to react immediately. He shifted to the side, clearing the way, and plastered a smile across his face. “Please take care, honored customer.”
Nangong Yu cast him a glance and walked out.
“Stop!” The shop assistant tried to chase after her, but the manager grabbed him and held him back.
When the shop assistant turned around, he saw beads of sweat along the manager’s hairline. He froze. “Uncle, why did you let her go? I’m still short of my sales quota for the month…”
The manager smacked him over the head. “Don’t pick fights with just anyone.”
The shop assistant said aggrievedly, “Isn’t she just some lousy rogue cultivator?”
Nangong Yu’s title did not work one hundred percent of the time. Some players and NPCs simply didn’t care.
For example, the penniless.
“Forget it.” The manager’s lingering unease remained, though he couldn’t explain why. “There’s still time. Think of something else.”
The shop assistant unwillingly glanced toward the entrance, but Nangong Yu’s figure had already vanished. He reluctantly looked away.
After leaving the Ten-Thousand Treasures Merchant Association, Nangong Yu removed the title.
The title could help her avoid certain troubles, but in exchange, she might miss out on certain clues and quests.
For example, if she had been wearing the title, the NPC who wanted to replace her spiritual root would never have called out to her.
Nangong Yu spent three days wandering around Luoxia City, exploring every corner of it.
Apart from the Ten-Thousand Treasures Merchant Association, the city also had a Heavenly Secrets Pavilion and a Linglong Residence. Both had good reputations and offered a wide range of services.
The Heavenly Secrets Pavilion sold pills, talismans, magical treasures, and the like, but its specialty was selling information. It could even take spirit stones in exchange for killing people.
The Linglong Residence primarily sold beautiful and ornate robes, jewelry, accessories, and other such items. Its target customers were female cultivators.
At the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, Nangong Yu spent two hundred spirit stones to open the storage pouch belonging to the middle-aged male cultivator she had found at the city gates.
There were quite a few things inside. Nangong Yu sold some of them, took advantage of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion’s free encyclopedia service, and tossed the rest into her space.
She then bought five bottles of poison pills, slapped Qi-Replenishing Pill labels on them, and put them in the empty storage pouch, which she hung from her waist.
After leaving the Heaven’s Secrets Pavilion, Nangong Yu strolled through the streets.
Having no cultivation was terribly inconvenient. Even when she picked up a storage pouch, she still had to ask someone else to open it for her.
Doing it once or twice was no big deal, but if it happened too often, it was not only troublesome—it would also cost her a considerable sum.
But if she wanted to become a cultivator, did she even have a spiritual root?
Nangong Yu had a feeling that her spiritual root probably wasn’t very good. Otherwise, the black-robed NPC wouldn’t have called out to her.
But she wouldn’t know for sure until she had it tested. The steward of the Heaven’s Secrets Pavilion had told her that testing spiritual roots required a spirit-root testing stone, and that the materials and techniques for making one were monopolized by the major sects and aristocratic clans.
The Heaven’s Secrets Pavilion did have a low-grade version that could determine whether someone possessed a spiritual root. However, it couldn’t identify the number of spiritual roots, their attributes, or the person’s talent rating.
Even this low-grade testing stone cost two hundred thousand spirit stones.
“Why don’t you wait a while, miss? The Violet Sun Sect hasn’t recruited disciples in over a decade. I imagine it won’t be long before they send disciples here to recruit new ones,” the steward suggested.
Nangong Yu asked, “Are there any aristocratic clans in Sunset City?”
“There are,” the steward replied.
Not only were there aristocratic clans, there were four of them—the Shi, Lin, Huang, and Mei clans.
Nangong Yu walked into a teahouse and sat down.
Cultivators came and went, chatting among themselves.
“I heard that Miss Lin Qi has reached Foundation Establishment.”
“Isn’t she only seventeen? What incredible talent!”
“That’s nothing. Back then, there was a disciple of the Soaring Heavens Sect who formed her core at sixteen.”
“You mean the one who formed her core at sixteen, only to have it shattered by a jealous senior sister—and later had that senior sister’s core dug out and given to her by her own master?”
Huh?
Nangong Yu’s ears perked up at this juicy bit of gossip.
“That’s the one.”
“Geniuses really do invite jealousy,” someone sighed. “It’s been fifty years. She should be close to forming her Nascent Soul by now, right?”
“How could it be that fast? You think anyone can form a Nascent Soul before they’re a hundred?”
“It’s not as if there’s never been anyone who did. Didn’t that Daoist Lord from the Sword Sect form a Nascent Soul before he was a hundred and become a Deity Transformation cultivator before he was two hundred?”
“You mean Daoist Lord Azurefrost—the one who cultivated the Ruthless Dao, went to the mortal realm to undergo tribulation, married a mortal woman, and then massacred an entire minor sect after they abducted her?”
“That’s the one. You don’t have to describe him in such detail, fellow cultivator. Be careful that word doesn’t reach the Daoist Lord’s ears, or he might come looking for you.”
“That’s right. Someone who cultivates the Ruthless Dao is not to be trifled with.”
“He doesn’t even listen to half a sentence before drawing his sword and cutting someone down.”
That was intense.
Nangong Yu listened with great interest, though the top of her head felt a little cold.
She understood even more clearly now why not a single one of the system’s 99,999 slots had been restricted.
This was a ridiculously dangerous world!
“Speaking of geniuses, Yu Zhizhi of the Violet Sun Sect is no slouch either. She formed her core a little late—at seventeen—but she possesses a wind spiritual root, a mutated spiritual root!”
The Violet Sun Sect?
At the familiar name, Nangong Yu perked up again and listened even more closely.
“Her master took her as his final disciple and dotes on her. He gave her an entire set of magical treasures.”
“I once saw her in the wilderness. The wind spiritual energy around her was incredibly sharp. Our little senior sister is talented, hardworking, and extremely skilled with spells.”
“She’s a good person, too. She never hogs the spoils—everyone who’s there gets a share.”
“Her senior brothers and sisters all adore her. Even her junior brothers and sisters protect her.”
“I heard she ran off with the demon race. Is that true?”
The demon race? There was a demon race here too?
Nangong Yu was so engrossed in listening that she forgot to drink the tea in her hand.
“That, I’m not sure about. But she really was quite close to the demon race. Didn’t you hear? Three years ago, one of her senior brothers became jealous of how close she was to the demon race. He flew into a jealous rage and went berserk, killing thirty or forty innocent disciples within the sect. He was thrown into the Profound Ice Cliff, where they say he’ll remain imprisoned until he dies.”
