Chapter 231 – Location of Zhao
Wang Lin stayed at an inn inside the city for three days. During this, time many people came to visit him. He put away his usual indifferent attitude and got to know many people.
Most of these Nascent Soul cultivators weren’t from the city. They came to participate in the secret exchange. Wang Lin’s battle with the bald man caught all of their attention. After all, strength was what mattered in the Sea of Devils and Wang Lin was able to easily defeat the bald man. His display of strength was what made all of these Nascent Soul cultivators personally come to visit.
The three days passed and it was now the day of the secret exchange. That morning, a Core Formation cultivator came and politely gave Wang Lin an invitation. Then, the Core Formation cultivator led Wang Lin to the shop.
After the old man from the shop saw Wang Lin, he quickly became very respectful. He carefully led Wang Lin to a wall, then tapped it a few times. After that, the walls rippled like calm water that just had a stone dropped into it.
After doing all of that, he took out a robe and gave it to Wang Lin.
Wang Lin stood there, but didn’t step forward. He sent his divine sense inside. He found that there was a separate space inside with a very beautiful loft. There were seven or eight cultivators inside, all wearing the same robes. Some were sitting by themselves while others were talking to each other.
When Wang Lin sent in his divine sense, only a middle aged scholarly-looking man opened his eyes. No one else seemed to have noticed Wang Lin’s divine sense. This scholarly man was also the only person who wasn’t wearing a robe.
The scholarly man’s expression remained the same, but a hint of surprise flashed across his eyes.
Wang Lin was startled. When he scanned everyone with his Divine Sense, he found that everyone present was at the early stage of Nascent Soul, everyone except the scholarly man. Although the scholarly man seemed like he was at the early stage of Nascent Soul, in reality, he was already at the peak of the late stage of Nascent Soul and was only one step from the Spirit Severing stage.
Wang Lin didn’t know what technique this person cultivated, but the scholarly man’s divine soul had to be very powerful to be able to detect Wang Lin.
After withdrawing his divine sense, Wang Lin took the robe and put it on. Then, without a word, he walked into the wall. When he appeared inside the new area, he found a table to sit down at by himself and closed his eyes.
This action immediately caused the few cultivators who wanted to talk to him change their minds.
Although Wang Lin’s eyes were closed, his divine sense was keeping close track of the scholarly man. From the moment he walked into the room, the scholarly man was constantly staring at him.
After a while, several more cultivators came. All of them were wearing one of those robes to hide their faces and some were even surrounded by a black fog.
After seeing this, Wang Lin realized that these people didn’t want anyone to recognize them. If they revealed who they were, then when they showed off their treasures, it would cause them a lot of trouble.
However, many cultivators here weren’t hiding their faces. It seemed they were confident in themselves and weren’t afraid of revealing their identities.
But Wang Lin still had doubts in his mind. How could there be so many Nascent Soul cultivators gathered here, in this small shop in Lian Mo city?
He secretly looked around and saw more than 30 tables around. Could there be more than 30 Nascent Soul cultivators participating in this secret exchange?
Although he had some doubts in his heart, his expression was completely calm.
Wang Lin waited for a bit longer. After some time has passed and no more cultivators arrived, an old man that was sitting in the front got up. He coughed once and said, “This secret exchange is hosted by three cities, so there are more people than normal, but since everyone here is looking for something, I believe that you will find what you need. I’ll go first.” With that, he took out a bag of holding and dumped out several cores and magic treasures.
The treasures released large amounts of spiritual power, showing how powerful they were.
He slowly said, “These cores are from mid quality spirit beasts. As you all know, these beasts are equal to late stage Nascent Soul cultivators in strength. These magic treasure are all made from the bones of mid quality spirit beasts, especially this bell. I’ll only take spirit stones for these items.”
The items just floated before the old man. If anyone was interested, they only had to wave their hand and the item would immediately fly into their hands. No one was afraid that anyone would steal in these secret exchanges. After all, this room contained powerful restrictions. If anyone dared to steal and run, they would only be looking for death.
Wang Lin gained all of this information from the people he talked to during the past three days. The moment he heard that this exchange was hosted by three cities, he understood that this place was a special space. There must’ve been many shops spread throughout the three cities and the cultivators only had to pick one of them to enter here.
As a result, the safety of the participants would be guaranteed.
After waiting for a long time, one cultivator traded spirit stones for the bell. No one else made an offer. Soon, it was the next person’s turn.
Slowly, various magic treasures, pills, and scrolls were displayed. All of them had high prices .It just showed how precious the items sold here were.
Any one of these items could be placed at the highest floor of the treasure refining pavilion and be sold at an astronomic price. Most of these cultivators here only exchanged. The things they liked the most were pill and treasure materials. Of course, if there were complete pills and treasures, they were good too. After that was spirit stones.
If it was before the fog surrounding the Sea of Devils disappeared, then there wouldn’t be much use for spirit stones. Their value was low as they were only sometimes needed for cultivation.
After the fog disappeared and beasts begun to cover the Sea of Devils, people started to use transfer arrays more and more.
There were two types of transfer arrays. One was ancient transfer arrays, made by ancient cultivators. Only a few remained and many of them were damaged, so very few could be used. Depending on the amount of spirit stones used, they could teleport someone at least 1,000,000 kilometers away. However, to use them, you have to use a top quality spirit stone, so no one in the Sea of Devils could use them.
After all, top quality spirit stones were almost extinct. Even if someone had some, very few people would be willing to use one on a transfer array.
The other type was normal transfer arrays. These were much simpler. Their cost ranged from 10 low quality spirit stones to less than 100 mid quality spirit stones. At most, they could teleport several hundred kilometers. Because they were so cost effective, they were the preferred method of travel among cultivators.
But as a result, the consumption of spirit stones increased and so did their value.
After a number of exchanges, it was now the turn of a cultivator wearing a raincoat. His head was lowered as he said, with a hoarse voice, “I don’t have many things to sell, only some ancient texts. If any fellow cultivators are interested, you can exchange for them, but due to the nature of these texts, I can’t allow you to have a closer look.” With that, he slapped his bag of holding and seven or eight pieces of jade flew out.
The colors of these jades were all very faded and some of them even had cracks. They each released an ancient aura, showing how old they were.
Surrounding these jades was a shield of green light. Clearly, this was a technique used to prevent people from checking inside them.
“This is an ancient beast catalog. This is ancient cultivator world secret text. This is an ancient transfer array production recipe. This is… I will only take cores of mid quality spirit beasts. Five cores for one of them.” With that, he waited for the people to inquire about the texts.
All of the people in the room frowned. Even five of those jades for one mid quality beast core wasn’t really worth it, how could the reverse be true?
In reality, the man in the raincoat also sighed. He really didn’t have anything to sell besides these jades either. He found them in the cave of an ancient cultivator. The ancient cultivator was very poor and only had these jades.
The first time the man tried to sell them, he didn’t set the price too high, but after being ignored in so many exchanges, he decided to go for a sky high price. He thought that these things were useless to most people and for someone that really wanted one, they would buy it no matter the price.
In fact, he guessed correctly.
The moment Wang Lin heard about the ancient transfer array production jade, his heart started pounding. He never thought that he would find the jade about ancient transfer arrays that he had been working so hard to find here.
Without a word, he waved his right hand and broke the shield around the jade that contained information about the ancient transfer arrays and took it.
The man wearing the raincoat was shocked and his face suddenly became ugly. He knew that the green light wasn’t strong, but to so easily break it was not something he could do. He believed that not even mid stage Nascent Soul cultivators could break it so easily, meaning that the only explanation was that this person was a late stage Nascent Soul cultivator.
After taking the jade, Wang Lin scanned it with his divine sense and put it away. At the same time, he took out five cores of mid quality spirit beasts.
The man wearing the raincoat quickly caught the cores and let out a sigh. He didn’t pursue the matter about breaking the green light. After waiting for a while and seeing that no one else was interested, he put away the pieces of jade.
The moment Wang Lin acted, three other cultivators started to pay extra attention to him. One of them was the scholarly man. The other two had their coats on. Their eyes lit up when they raised their heads.
After a short period of silence, another cultivator walked up to present his items.
Soon, it was Wang Lin’s turn. At this moment, everyone became silent and turned to look at Wang Lin. Wang Lin’s actions revealed that his cultivation was not simple.
These cultivators were very curious about what Wang Lin would sell.
After pondering a little, Wang Lin slapped his bag of holding. Several mid quality spirit beast cores and a few treasures he never used flew out.
Seeing that Wang Lin only brought out some very common items, they became very disappointed. However, their expressions all remained the same. After all, each of them had reached the Nascent Soul stage. Having cultivated for so long, they were very skilled at hiding their expressions.
Wang Lin slowly said, “I’d like to trade for a map of planet Suzaku. The more complete, the better.”
The moment the words came out, the expressions of all of the cultivators became strange. After a long time, one of them said, “Fellow cultivator, with just these things, it would be very hard to trade for a map. I’m afraid you won’t even be able to trade for a map of just the Sea of Devils.”
Wang Lin calmly said, “Oh? Then what do I need to trade for a map?”
The scholarly man let out a warm smile and said, “Fellow cultivator must be new to the Sea of Devils, so I’ll explain it. Not just the Sea of Devils, but for any cultivation country, a map is very important. After all, planet Suzaku is simply too large. If you don’t have a map, you won’t know where to go.”
“As for the Sea of Devils, it is even more important. A copy of the map of Sea of Devils would cost 100,000 high quality spirit stones and no one would even take low quality or mid quality spirit stones. With just fellow cultivator’s treasures, it is simply not enough.”
“As for the map of planet Suzaku, it’s not something any individual can own. If fellow cultivator wants, I have a map of the Sea of Devils. However, it is only a low quality one with a lot of unexplored areas.”
Wang Lin pondered a little and asked, “Does fellow cultivator have a general wide area map of the countries surrounding the Sea of Devils?”
The scholarly man warily smiled as he shook his head and said, “I don’t have that kind of map.”
A cultivator in a robe sitting in the corner suddenly said, “I have one!” This was one the cultivators whose eyes lit up when Wang Lin acted earlier
Wang Lin’s gaze fell on the person.
The cultivator in the robe slowly said, “A high quality map of the Sea of Devils with the four surrounding continents, including 148 countries. What price are you willing to offer?”
The moment those words came out, all of the cultivators turned around and their eyes lit up. A high quality map was already very rare, but this one even included the surrounding four continents and 148 countries. That was almost ¼ of planet Suzaku!
The price of the map would be unimaginably high.
Wang Lin pondered a little. Currently, he had two maps in his possession. One was the one he got from Qiu Siping and other was the one he got from the Battle God’s Temple.
The map from the Battle God’s Temple only contained detailed information about the country and its surrounding areas up to the outer sea of the Sea of Devils. Farther than that, like the inner sea of the Sea of Devils, was very vague and some transfer arrays weren’t even mapped.
As for the area across the Sea of Devils, there was not even a vague mark, only the range of some mountains. When Wang Lin analysed the map, he believed that Zhao was on the other side, but it was only a guess. This was why he didn’t immediately act, but went to search for a more complete map.
Wang Lin pondered a little and asked, “What do you want?”
The cultivator sent a message via divine sense. “Fellow cultivator, if you’re not in a hurry, how about we talk about it after the exchange in private?”
Wang Lin looked at the person and nodded.
Everyone realized what happened and didn’t pay any more attention. However, they were all very curious about what Wang Lin will use to exchange for such a precious item.
An hour later, the secret exchange ended and everyone left. Wang Lin left the room and took off the robe. A beautiful female attendant was already there waiting for him.
After seeing Wang Lin, she respectfully said, “Senior, my master said he has a meeting with you, so he asked me to take you to him.”
Wang Lin’s heart shook and he became more alert, but his expression remained calm. He looked at the female. She was not a virgin and was only at the mid stage of Foundation Establishment. However, her spiritual power was every weak. She clearly reached this level through a lot of drugs.
Wang Lin’s heart already had some guesses about the situation.
Under the woman’s guidance, Wang Lin arrived at an inconspicuous residence in the middle of the city. She stopped outside the door and said, “Senior, please enter. Junior will stand guard out here.”
Wang Lin didn’t say anything pointless and walked inside. He had already sent his divine sense inside.
He saw an old man with a hooked nose wearing a red shirt. He was sitting there with a green tea pot beside him. When the old man saw Wang Lin enter, he laughed and said. “Come sit, fellow cultivator. This is a high quality tea from the country of Hou Fen. I made this tea especially for entertaining friends.”
Wang Lin clasped his hands and sat across from the old man. He didn’t even look at the tea, but started to check the surroundings. He could easily see that this old man was at the mid stage of Nascent Soul.
The old man didn’t mind and personally poured two cups of tea. He sipped his tea and said, “What is fellow cultivator’s name?”
Wang Lin smiled and said, “Wang Lin!”
The old put down his cup and gently smiled. “Fellow cultivator Wang, my name is Zhou Wude.”
Wang Lin was stunned as he looked at the old man.
The old man saw Wang Lin’s expression and asked, “Has fellow cultivator Wang heard of me?”
Wang Lin shook his head and calmly said, “No, it’s just that fellow cultivator has the same name as a friend of mine, so I lost myself for a second there.”
The old man burst out laughing, but secretly thought, “What does this person mean? Did he purposely act like this to mess with me?”
The old man couldn’t figure out what Wang Lin was thinking, but he laughed and said, “If there is an opportunity, I would like to meet this person.”
With that, he slapped his bag of holding. He took out a bag of holding and said, “Fellow cultivator Wang, this is the map I was talking about. I’ll display it to you. After you check it and make sure that there is no problem, we can talk about our deal.”
The jade released a gentle light as the old man sent out a bit of spiritual power. Immediately, the jade displayed a giant map before Wang Lin.
This map was extremely detailed. It even had detailed descriptions of the level of damage of each of the ancient transfer arrays. It also had details of the situation surrounding each area and even the names of all of the Nascent Soul and higher cultivators.
These were not the focus, but it even had detailed information of where each ancient transfer array linked to. Just this point would cause the price of this map to skyrocket.
What caused Wang Lin to be even more excited was that there were even some details about the power of each country. It even had some detailed recording of mines and lairs of wild beasts. As a result, this map was unimaginably precious.
If all of these things weren’t tempting enough for Wang Lin, then this shocked him completely. The surroundings of the Sea of Devils didn’t have only two continents like the map he got from the Battle God’s Temple, but four.
On the map, it clearly showed four continents surrounding the Sea of Devils. On the continent to the left, he could see the very small word: Zhao.
The old man casually pointed at a location on the map. The map suddenly disappeared and showed the area where the old man pointed to. The entire map looked like if someone was looking at that location from a bird’s eye view.
Then, the old man waved his right hand and the map disappeared. He put the jade back into his bag of holding and stared at Wang Lin.
Wang Lin’s gaze was calm as he looked at the old man. He already had the urge to kill this person. As long as he killed him, he could get the piece of jade and quickly return to the country of Zhao.
The old man immediately retreated a few steps and said, “Fellow cultivator, this jade is very old and will easily break. To prevent it from breaking, I have already linked it with my divine sense.”
Wang Lin’s gaze was calm as he slowly said, “What do you want?”
The old man clenched his teeth and said, “As long as you help me kill one person, I’ll give you this piece of jade.”
A cold light flashed across Wang Lin’s eyes. He asked, “What level of cultivation?”
The old man quickly said, “Late stage Nascent Soul, half a step into Spirit Severing!”
Wang Lin stood up and calmly said, “Now? Lead the way!”
The old man was stunned. After hesitating for a while, he said, “Okay. Fellow cultivator Wang, follow me.”
In the blink of an eye, the two left Lian Mo city. Three thousand kilometers from the city was a basin. After a short period of time, the two arrived at the place. Wang Lin spread out his divine sense and let out a sneer in his heart. He had already realized that something was wrong. The old man seemed to already know him very well. The female attendant immediately walked up to him when they met. He already thought that there was a scheme behind all of this.
Wang Lin purposely used the friend with the same name phrase to test the old man, and with his powerful divine sense, he noticed that the old man’s emotions flustered a little. Looking at things now, it was exactly as he predicted.
Under the basin was a formation hiding four Nascent Soul cultivators.
Wang Lin calmly said, “It is regrettable that the bald man died, or the six of you could perfectly use the No Escape Killing Formation.”
The hook nosed man’s expression suddenly changed, and at that moment, Wang Lin’s Ji Realm moved. The old man didn’t even have time to break the jade. He could only see the red light before him.