Chapter 119 – It's him!
The man drinking his wine saw this lady and stood up in surprise, as he seemed to want to speak. The lady calmly walked in and seated herself across the man, her eyes sweeping across the leaving Su Ming without paying him much heed.
"Is it okay?" The man worriedly spoke without taking a seat, his voice extremely soft.
"You are not qualified enough, but I managed to fight for 1 day's worth of time for you to prov yourself."
Su Ming continued to leave, his ears picking up on these few words which did not seem much of a secret. However Su Ming did not want to be part of this matter and although he could vaguely guess what was going on between them, it truly did not have anything to do with him.
After spending another night in silence and dawn arrived, Su Ming opened his eyes from his meditation and he straightened his robes before leaving the room. Early in the morning in Han Mountain City, there was a thin layer of mist which left Su Ming with quite a strange feeling.
After yesterday's observation, he had understood the affairs of the city much more. As he walked along the streets he raised his head and looked towards the mountain, the city had four levels and he currently was on the fourth as well as the largest level.
Heading to the third level required some cultivation, if one's cultivation was insufficient, it would be impossible to head up, as for the first two levels, only people with some status could enter.
"Above the first layer on the peak was the city's Star Seizing Tower where only awakened realm powerhouses and patrons of the three tribes could enter." Su Ming gazed at the mountain peaks for a long time before retracting his gaze and headed to the various herb stores in the fourth level of the city.
Su Ming did not go buy the herbs required for the Southerner's Pill. This first time coming to Han Mountain City was to try and find a map towards the Western Union, as well as herbs required for the spirit seizing pill. He spend the whole morning visiting the all the herb stores in the city, although the prices here were much higher than in the Feng Zhen Tribe, he thankfully had quite some money from Fang Mu's patronage.
"I am still lacking five of the herbs for the Spirit Seizing Pill……" At noon, Su Ming walked towards the third level while in deep thought, similarly there was a large door at the entrance, lights flashing at the tens of people at the entrance making the scene seem extremely lively.
Su Ming saw several local Mán-Cultivators successfully walk past the door as well as many whose cultivation was insufficient and rebounded out from the door. Although their expressions were unhappy and desperate, they no longer tried to pass, rather they turned to the crowd and seemed to buy something before passing through the door.
After observing the situation, Su Ming picked up the pace and approached the gate. As he arrived, the surrounding people excitedly looked towards Su Ming whose expression remained calm as he stepped into the light. But all of a sudden he felt a powerful force press down on him forcing him back, preventing him from entering.
"The restriction is at the eighth level of blood condensation……" Su Ming frowned as he retreated while determining the requirement to enter the third level.
"Another one without capabilities yet still coming to try, hey you just come over." The surrounding people shouted towards Su Ming.
Su Ming coldly gazed over, the person who shouted was only a person at the fifth level of blood condensation, seeing Su Ming coldly glanced over, he stared back revealing a white medallion hanging from his waist.
"Hey, since you are stubborn, this passage medallion which costs one thousand coins will only be sold to you at one thousand three hundred coins!" The youth coldly shouted as he took out a palm sized stone from his robes.
Su Ming retracted his gaze as he ignored the youth, rather he looked back at the flashing gate and walked towards it once more.
This action not only arouse the laughter of the youth but also the attention of the surrounding people selling the passage medallion as they all laughed.
"It has been several days since seeing someone like this, Fang Ling, it is not so easy to sell at a thousand and three hundred coins!"
"This person actually caught Fang Lin’s notice, how lucky, if it were me, without two thousand coins he can forget about entering, who told him to have such a lacking cultivation."
These ten plus people were clearly very familiar with each other as they seemed to laugh out of tacit agreement, none of them would undercut each other as they worked together to raise prices.
Their laughter caught the attention of the other surrounding people, especially those who too could not pass the gates whose expression were sympathetic.
Su Ming approached the gate but did not step into the door, rather he extended his right hand towards the light and once more tried to fell the resisting force.
"Two thousand coins, if you take out two thousand coins this old one will sell you the passage medallion, just for your information, you are not the only one looking for this, if you don't want it, according to our rules the next time you come, even if I am not here, you would have to pay even more coins…" The Eastern Sanctuary youth shouted, and before he finished he abruptly shouted.
The surrounding people were also shocked as they no longer laughed out loud as shock filled their faces.
Su Ming was clearly standing there without moving, his right hand pressed onto the light barrier, but the barrier was violently flashing as an invisible force seemed be pressing down on the layer as it curved inwards as if unable to bear the pressure.
This scene made the people of the three tribe who were selling the entry medallion suck in a breath, the youth's expression was even more pale as from the many years of selling here he had seen all sorts of people, and he had seen the light barrier warp like this dozens of times, and each time it happened was due to an awakened cultivator.
When an awakened cultivator walked past the gate, the barrier light will warp before ultimately tearing.
In their silence, the barrier of light before Su Ming suddenly tore and Su Ming retracted his right hand before calmly stepping into the crack which eventually restored itself.
It was silent outside the gate, the middle aged man pretended to be calm as the surrounding people of the three tribes remained stunned for a long time before sympathetically gazing at the man.
"Provoking an awakened cultivator?…..Fang Mo you are on your own."
"I didn't expect that he was actually an awakened cultivator, how old did he look?"
"I have never seen this person before, this senior must have just recently come yo Han Mountain City."
The middle aged youth was feeling slightly flustered, although he looked calm, his worry prevented him from continuing his business today. Hurriedly, he took his leave as his heart was filled with regret, he normally would not make a mistake like this, he clearly saw Su Ming being rebounded by the barrier the first time and managed to guess Su Ming's cultivation which gave him the guts to speak up like this. Never did he expect to mess up like this.
"This is clearly bullying, obviously that senior could have just passed it in one go, why did you have to make things difficult for me……" The more he thought about it, the more dissatisfied he became.
Skillfully making his way into the third floor, he turned around and look another look at the barrier of light in the gates as he contemplated on the workings of the barrier. "It would seem that this nuanced control is not something that someone in the blood condensation realm can master…… by using nuanced control on my blood qi, I could easily enter, even the way it opened was different from the previous people." Su Ming pondered as he walked onward along the passageway before him. Here the number of buildings were much less, and there were even fewer pedestrians walking around, however each one of them was at least at the eighth level of blood condensation, even the buildings themselves gave off a faint aura.
Obviously within those buildings had some elites hiding within them.
Although it was noon, it was nowhere as noisy as the fourth floor, Su Ming walking outside the shops, his eyes momentarily lighting up in surprise before quickly fading back away.
It was a beast part shop where the scent of blood filled the air, inside sat an old man with his eyes shut, on his wrist were several black bells. This shop was not large, but on the right wall were nine black wooden needles pinning a spider the size of a grind wheel on the wall. This spider had a entirely purple appearance and was already dead, but, it had nine legs!
The nine legs were red, completely different from the rest of its body.
"This is one of the three ingredients to refine the Divinity Pill!" Su Ming retracted his gaze as he headed towards the store.
But just as Su Ming was about to step in, in the skies above the city, the tri-coloured mist floating in the air suddenly stirred and flared up as thunderous booms resounded.
This sudden development made the old man in the store open his eyes, if fact not only him, everyone in the third level were shocked as they turned and looked up.
As the three mists became more and more vigorous, from the Star Seizing Tower build on the first level above the mountain cavity, the sound of an ancient bell resounded in all directions.
… … Dong… …
The bell released formless ripples into the surroundings, not only attracting the attention of the people on the third level, but even the people on the fourth level got excited, the people on the second level too looked towards the source of the noise. "The bell rang thrice, this means that someone is breaking through the Han Mountain Chains!"
"It has been a long time since someone tried to breakthrough the Han Mountain Chains! Failure meant death, but success allows them to make a request from the three main tribes.
"The request is still considered secondary, if they were to succeed, they would immediately be accepted as an honored patron of the tribe whose status greatly surpassed the other patrons. I also heard that this is one of the considering factors when the Frigid Sky Sect selects a disciple!."
"I wonder which tribe's chain is this challenger going to tackle?"
The voices of discussion buzzed by Su Ming's ears, as a figure appeared at the center of the mountain peaks where the chains intersected.
"It's him!" Su Ming clearly identified the figure as his eyes turned thoughtful.