Chapter 65

Chapter 65: Myriad Treasures Pavilion
Yu Zhao had the same idea as Zhou Jin Yue.

Her cultivation level had already completely stabilized. She needed some stimulation to be able to break through.

It just so happened that she also needed to forge a handy life-bound dharma artifact before the Cultivation World Grand Tournament began.

Her plan was to train herself while searching for all the artifact forging materials.

She set the end point of her training journey as Greenwood Sect.

The day she left Greenwood Sect would be the day she set out to return to Five Elements Dao Sect.

Zhou Jin Yue pulled Yu Zhao aside and carefully explained once more all the things she needed to pay attention to during her travels, then gave Yu Zhao all the spirit talismans she carried, letting her keep them for self-defense.

These were all kindly meant, and Yu Zhao did not turn them down.

After thanking Zhou Jin Yue, Yu Zhao went to Archive Tower to see Elder Gu and told him that she was about to leave.

Elder Gu did not say much. He only told her that she must come back to take part in the Cultivation World Grand Tournament.

Although the Cultivation World Grand Tournament was divided into sect competition and individual competition, everyone knew that the sect competition was much easier than the individual competition.

As long as Yu Zhao could return to the sect before the deadline and take part as a sect disciple, her chance of getting a spot would be higher.

After Yu Zhao said that she understood, Elder Gu waved his hand to send her away.

In the sect, the only people she could really talk to were those two. So after leaving Archive Tower, she did not go back to Inner Court. Instead, she headed straight for the mountain gate.

After leaving Five Elements Dao Sect, Yu Zhao traveled quickly. She chose Lantern City, where they had stayed during their previous training, as her first stop.

…

Lantern City was as bustling as ever.

At the city gate, Yu Zhao paid the entrance fee, entered the city, and casually chose an inn to stay in.

During the next stretch of time, she stayed in the inn and did not go out.

When night fell, and there were only flower lanterns on both sides of the street and no people in sight, she leaped out from the window of her room.

Walking along the street, she quickly swept her gaze over the surroundings. Before long, she found a faint yellow secret mark on a wall in a narrow alley.

Yu Zhao’s lips curved in a small smile. She lightly knocked on the brick with the mark, tapping three long and two short times.

Soon, a scraping sound came from inside the stone wall.

A hidden door silently appeared in front of Yu Zhao.

Without any hesitation, Yu Zhao pushed the door open and went in.

As soon as she stepped through, it felt like she had entered another world.

The hall inside was wide and bright, filled with light as if it were daytime.

At the entrance, two young cultivators stood on the left and right.

On the left was a curvy, enchantingly beautiful female cultivator.

On the right was a handsome male cultivator with a graceful, flirtatious bearing.

When the male cultivator saw Yu Zhao, he quickly walked over and said: “Greetings, Lord.”

His voice was not as soft as the young woman’s, but it carried a natural charm, like the teasing between lovers.

Yu Zhao’s expression did not change as she said calmly: “I am looking for Seeker Daoist.”

Myriad Treasures Pavilion was the largest trading guild in the cultivation world. On the surface, it ran shops and sold magic tools, pills, and other items. In secret, it dealt in information that could not see the light of day. That business was called Shadow Pavilion.

Shadow Pavilion was divided into three departments: Ask, Seek, and Request.

Ask was for buying or selling exclusive information. Seek was for finding people or things. Request was for handing one’s needs over to Shadow Pavilion and letting its people handle them.

By saying she wanted to meet Seeker Daoist, Yu Zhao meant that she had come to find a person or an item.

When the male cultivator heard this, he knew that Yu Zhao was not some new customer who did not understand the rules. The seductive look on his face faded away, and his voice became clear as he said: “Lord, please come with me.”

Yu Zhao was led into a separate room.

There was a partition wall in the middle of the room, with a small window at about shoulder height.

“Customer, please wait here for a moment. Seeker Daoist will be here soon,” the male cultivator said.

Yu Zhao answered lightly. As soon as the male cultivator left, the small window in the partition suddenly opened, and a wooden plaque about the size of a palm floated into the room.

Yu Zhao reached out and caught the wooden plaque.

The front of the plaque had the character “Seek” carved on it. The back was completely blank.

Yu Zhao flipped the plaque over and used her spirit power as a pen to write on it: “true essence water” and “heavenly immortal herb.”

These were the last two artifact forging materials she lacked, and both were rare in the cultivation world.

She pushed the wooden plaque back through the little window with her spirit power.

The small window shut at once.

After a while, the window opened again, and a wooden tray floated out, stopping in front of Yu Zhao.

On the tray lay a slip of paper, on which was written: “Five mid-grade spirit stones.”

That was the price Myriad Treasures Pavilion had given to take on the job.

Yu Zhao only let out a breath of relief when she saw the words on the paper.

Myriad Treasures Pavilion only accepted jobs it could do.

If it had no reliable source of information or judged that it could not complete the task, it would not accept any payment. Instead, it would even compensate the customer.

Of course, the amount of compensation would not be large, just a token of goodwill.

Yu Zhao was not short of money now. What she lacked was a life-bound dharma artifact.

She simply placed five mid-grade spirit stones on the tray and pushed it back into the window.

When the window opened again, Yu Zhao finally got the information she wanted.

As expected of the biggest information boss in the cultivation world, Myriad Treasures Pavilion gave Yu Zhao five leads in total. Three were about true essence water, and two were about heavenly immortal herb.

After reading through them, Yu Zhao picked out the places where she was most likely to obtain true essence water and heavenly immortal herb: Blackwater City in the Southern Region, and Marsh Forest in the Western Region.

She thought for a while and decided to go to Blackwater City first.

In three months, Blackwater City would hold an auction gathering, and one of the items to be auctioned was true essence water.

With the number of spirit stones she had, winning the bid for the true essence water was almost a sure thing.

So once she got the true essence water, she would head to Marsh Forest to look for water immortal herb.

The next day.

Yu Zhao set out on her journey to the Southern Region.

With her flying speed, she could reach Blackwater City in less than a month.

But Yu Zhao felt that since she was going out to train, spending all her time only on rushing along the road and searching for artifact forging materials would be too boring, and it would not help her cultivation.

So on the way, she paid special attention to whether there were any traveling merchant caravans.

If there were, she would step forward and talk to them, seeing if she could hitch a ride.

If her luck was bad, she would stay longer in cities or in mountain forests where demonic beasts often appeared, to experience the local customs.

Walking and stopping like this, another month passed in the blink of an eye.

One day, Yu Zhao wandered into a small town by chance.

There were no cultivators in the town, only commoners of the mortal realm, who worked at sunrise and rested at sunset.

Yu Zhao felt that since she had come here, it meant this place had some fate with her. So she changed into a simple set of clothes and walked into the town.

“Flowers for sale, flowers for sale! Miss, do you want some fresh and pretty flowers?”

“Miss, want a big, hot bun? It smells so good!”

“Ice sugar hawthorns, ice sugar hawthorns~”

Strolling along the street full of everyday life and cooking smoke, a memory that Yu Zhao had almost forgotten surfaced before her eyes.