Chapter 19

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Chapter 19: Yellow Stone City

Three days later, a horse-drawn cart, loaded with half a cart of fine timber, moved slowly forward, pulled by two black mules.

At the end of the big road stood a tall city surrounded by a yellow wall, with the words "Yellow Stone City" written in big white letters above the wide city gate.

On both sides of the city gate, a dozen guards clad in black armor checked the people and carts coming in and out.

"Uncle Zhao, this is Yellow Stone City. It is really very lively!"

When the cart joined the city entry line, a young man jumped down from above, carrying a bundle. He had a big smile on his face. It was Wang Yu, but he was no longer in his robe; instead, he wore a rough cloth shirt, and his face was painted with colorful patterns that covered much of his features.

"Of course! Yellow Stone City has hundreds of thousands of residents. Young man Wang, be careful during your first visit to Yellow Stone City. Don’t bump into the noble people in the city, or it will cause a lot of trouble," said a thin old man driving the cart, grinning and showing his yellowed teeth at Wang Yu.

Although Wang Yu’s body was only about thirteen or fourteen years old, he was much taller than his peers due to the Bloodline Awakening and the use of Blood Refining Soup. He also had a sturdy build, and his inner maturity made others mistake him for a seventeen or eighteen-year-old young man, even though his face still showed some youthful innocence.

"Of course! I just came out from the village to see the world in Yellow Stone City. I wouldn’t offend the noble people, and thank you, Uncle Zhao, for escorting me," Wang Yu said, cupping his hands to thank the thin old man.

"Haha, I’m also going to Yellow Stone City to sell some things. Taking you along is just on the way, not a big deal at all." The thin old man was very happy to see the polite young man and urged the horse to move forward.

Wang Yu stood still for a moment, looking at the soldiers at the city gate. After seeing that nothing seemed wrong, he walked into another line of people.

Entering the city was very smooth. The soldiers only asked where he came from, and he carelessly said a name of a small town he knew. After paying an entrance fee of a copper coin, he could go straight into the city.

As he walked through the city gate, he found a smooth stone street wide enough for three horse-drawn carriages to go side by side. On both sides were rows of houses, varying in height, packed closely together. People dressed in all kinds of clothing bustled about, creating a scene of peace and prosperity.

Seeing this, Wang Yu let out a long breath, feeling a bit relieved. It seemed that the news of the City Lord of Yellow Stone City’s death had not reached the city yet; otherwise, it wouldn’t be so calm.

He had only joined the White Cloud Temple for a month or so. He had only seen the deceased City Lord of Yellow Stone City, and outside the temple, they probably did not know that Taoist Chongyun had another disciple.

Taking the risk to enter Yellow Stone City was indeed the right choice.

He slowly walked along the street towards the city center, glancing at the shops on both sides. Before long, he entered a grocery store.

After coming out, he held a map of Yellow Stone City in his hand.

Wang Yu carefully studied the map several times and finally found what he was looking for in an inconspicuous corner of Yellow Stone City, a shop marked with the word "Treasure".

He looked up at the sun, checked the direction, and then confidently headed towards the marked spot on the map.

After over half an hour, in a small street southwest of Yellow Stone City, Wang Yu stood in front of a stall, haggling with the vendor over a small bag of candy-coated snacks, insisting on a reduction of two copper coins.

Amidst the seemingly intense bargaining, his gaze casually drifted to a small shop on the other side of the street, partially blocked by a cloth curtain, with a silver character "Treasure" printed on one corner.

Finally, after the vendor’s reluctant expression, Wang Yu successfully bargained, dropped a few copper coins, grabbed the bag of candy, and walked away without looking back at the small shop.

Then he found a clothing store, and when he came out, he was dressed in a blue outfit and wore a black cloak that covered his face completely, before finding a simple inn to stay in.

A night passed.

Wang Yu stepped out of the inn with a package, wandered around Yellow Stone City, even making a special trip past the City Lord’s gate, yet he found no signs of activity and truly felt relieved.

In the afternoon, he returned to the unremarkable street, standing in front of the shop with the curtain that had the character "Treasure" on it.

After hesitating for a moment, he walked inside.

"Welcome to the Treasure Pavilion! What would you like to buy?"

The room behind the curtain was not large. Besides two old wooden counters, there was only an ordinary-looking middle-aged man, who was bowing his head to clean a bronze lamp. When he saw someone come in, he looked up and smiled, appearing very friendly.

"This is the Treasure Pavilion, right? I would like to buy a ticket to Wu Kingdom," Wang Yu asked in a low voice.

"Oh, so you want to leave here. A month from now, our magic ship will indeed go to Yellow Stone City. However, because many people plan to leave recently for reasons related to Spiritual Servants, the ticket price will be about thirty percent higher than usual. Would you be okay with that?" The middle-aged man said, slightly lowering his smile as he stopped cleaning the lamp.

"How do you know I am a cultivator? I heard that many regular people take your magic ship," Wang Yu replied, a bit on guard.

"Hehe, my friend, you misunderstood. Our tickets can be used by regular people, but only those like us can buy them. If your entrance didn’t cause my ‘Spirit Lamp’ to react, I wouldn’t have addressed you," the middle-aged man chuckled, shaking the lamp he was cleaning.

Wang Yu then noticed that this lamp had no wick or oil, yet it glowed with a faint white light. Because it was so weak, it was hard to notice at first glance.

"I see. Then give me one ticket," Wang Yu said, feeling a little more at ease.

"One ticket costs seven spirit stones or one hundred pieces of gold. If you buy five or more tickets all at once, we can offer a discount. Also, if you lack spirit stones, we can accept equivalent items in exchange," the middle-aged man said with a smile.

"Seven spirit stones, one hundred pieces of gold?"

Hearing this, Wang Yu felt a bit uneasy.

Last time, he found only two gold ingots worth about ten pieces from the corpse of that young man in white, and the other coins and silver were almost negligible.

As for spirit stones, Taoist Chongyun’s notes mentioned them as a currency used by cultivators, and he definitely wouldn’t have any.

"Could you please see how many spirit stones this item can be exchanged for?" Wang Yu thought for a moment and finally pulled out a yellow talisman from his pocket and handed it to the other person.

"Oh, a low-grade lightness talisman, it can make a person as light as a swallow; it is worth three spirit stones," the middle-aged man replied without a second thought after glancing at the talisman.

Upon hearing this price, Wang Yu felt relieved and took out two more of the same talisman from his pocket, handing them to the man.

"Three lightness talismans are worth nine spirit stones. Here is your ticket and two spirit stones; please accept them," the middle-aged man smiled as he collected the three talismans, then turned to fetch two thumb-sized white crystals and a blue paper crane from the counter behind him.

"Is this the ticket?" Wang Yu took the items and glanced at the paper crane, feeling a bit confused.

"Yes, this is the ticket. Friend, please stay within a hundred miles of Yellow Stone City for one month. When the time comes, the paper crane will naturally guide you to the magic ship. You must hurry there within half a day; the magic ship will not wait there for long." The man explained calmly.

Although Wang Yu still had some doubts in his heart, he could only nod in understanding.

"Since you are here in my shop, would you like to buy something else, like magical tools or spells?" The man continued to promote enthusiastically.

"Do you have magical tools and spell books here?" Wang Yu asked in surprise.

"Of course! While there aren’t any official cultivation manuals, we do have a couple of Qi Refining Stage magical tools and several magic tricks."

"What magic tricks do you have?" Wang Yu felt a bit excited.

"Please wait a moment, let me see. Ah, there are too few visitors here; it seems the items that record the magic tricks are…" The man muttered to himself and turned to rummage through the shelves.

"I found them! These are three magic tricks; Taoist Friend, you may want to take a look." The man said with a light call before finally pulling out three items from the messy shelves and placing them one by one on the counter in front of Wang Yu.

Wang Yu looked over; there was a short white horn, a red beast skin, and a small piece of blue bone.

"My Taoist friend, you should know that the world’s magical spells originally came into being between heaven and earth. These three items are enchanted with Spell Spirit Patterns and are gifted spirit objects found on low-level demon beasts. They correspond to the spells ‘Lightning,’ ‘Firefly,’ and ‘Water Gathering.’ If you take your time to comprehend all three with divine sense, you can learn these three magic tricks, and they are unaltered, primeval spells." The man pointed at the three items and warmly introduced them to Wang Yu.

"Primeval spell?" Wang Yu looked at the items on the counter with a puzzled expression.

"Hehe, compared to ordinary spell books, understanding spells from these gifted spirit objects is a bit harder, but once you grasp them, it means you have exceptional talent and intelligence. Major sects will be eager to take you in. Besides, their prices are much cheaper than spell books, making them perfect for you, my friend." The man explained a bit awkwardly.

"So, this primeval spell is hard to understand then. May I ask how much it costs? You know I have almost no spirit stones on me." After a few quick thoughts, Wang Yu slowly asked.

"The price is fair. Let’s do this: I can sell you these items for just two spirit stones. What do you think? It’s almost like a half gift." The man replied cheerfully.

"Two spirit stones… then I’ll take this piece of beast skin." Hearing the price, Wang Yu felt happy and pulled out the two spirit stones he had just received, placing them on the counter. He quickly grabbed the red beast skin and used his divine sense to sense it; inside the beast skin, there was a faint outline of a complete pattern made up of five bright red Spirit Patterns, which seemed real.

"Aren’t you interested in the other two magic tricks? To be honest, even in other places it’s hard to find such a low price. If you miss this opportunity, you won’t find it again. If you buy them all, I’ll throw in a basic ‘Introduction to Spells’ book for free. Though it’s simple, it’s good for you to review what you’ve learned." The man smiled and encouraged him, pulling out a thin, dirty book from below the counter, which had only about ten pages. The white cover indeed had the words ‘Introduction to Spells’ written on it.

"A beginner’s spell book? I would like to buy it, but I really don’t have any spirit stones." Wang Yu picked up the book and flipped through a couple of pages before shaking his head.

"Think about it; you might have something else to trade, such as other talismans, martial arts manuals, crafting materials, or demon beast materials. Don’t worry; the Treasure Pavilion has been around for hundreds of years, and we value our reputation. We will never disclose customer information." The man suggested enticingly.

"The material for forging tools is also collected… Let’s see how many spirit stones this item can be exchanged for." Wang Yu looked at the other two items on the counter, feeling a bit reluctant. After thinking for a moment, he took out a small iron box from his bag and handed it over to the other person.

It was the iron box that sealed the sword light that struck down the City Lord of Yellow Stone City by Taoist Chongyun. It seemed to be made of the same material as the small iron shield, as sharp swords could not leave a mark on it. It should have some value in the world of cultivation.

"This is an iron box made from Iron Essence! Tsk tsk, such a rough forging method is a bit of a pity. The box itself is not worth much, but Iron Essence is the most commonly used material for us cultivators. A large piece like this is quite rare. I can offer you fourteen spirit stones for it. This way, you can not only exchange for the other two magic tricks but also have ten spirit stones left."

"Okay."

Wang Yu silently remembered the words ‘Iron Essence’ and agreed right away.

As for the Iron Essence Small Shield, even if the other person praised it a lot, he wouldn’t take it out.

The man put away the iron box and took out ten spirit stones to hand them to Wang Yu.

Wang Yu carefully stored the spirit stones, books, and the two items from the counter, checked them quickly, and then turned to leave the shop.

At that moment, the man behind him cheerfully reminded him a couple of things.

"Friend, I almost forgot to mention. The reason these three demon beast spirit objects are so cheap is that they were taken from demon beasts a long time ago. At that time, they were not soaked properly in Spiritual Essence, so the Spirit Patterns on them won’t last long. It’s best for you to understand the spells within them within a year to prevent the Spirit Patterns from fading. But you also won’t be at a loss; this price is indeed extremely low."

Wang Yu, reaching the door, paused for a moment and silently cursed "crooked merchant" as he left the shop without looking back.

"Another little one trying to leave. Who knows how far they can go on this road? Finally got rid of these three items that are about to expire. If they had stayed with me, things would have looked bad during the evaluation. I really hope to leave this cursed place soon," the middle-aged man mumbled to himself before picking up the bronze lamp and slowly started to wipe it.