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Immortal Freeloader 146
🕑 Added 2024-08-24 03:51:00 +0000 UTCApproaching the mystic land would have been a simple affair if I had been planning to stay hidden all the time to tweak its formation and defenses, but considering I wanted to use it as an opportunity to interact with the other applicants, it was slightly more complicated. I couldn’t simply appear in the middle of the mystic land.
Well, technically I could, but I didn’t need the suspicion it would generate.
I could do that, as, at this point, Kartpa Valley and Entsa Pavilion had reached an agreement to access, which also covered the access rights of the smaller cultivation families. Of course, it wasn’t because they were nice people willing to support the smaller families.
In fact, it was the opposite.
They didn’t even allow external access before their Qi Gathering disciples scoured the underground portion multiple times and made sure there was nothing that was truly valuable from the perspective of the major sects. Only then, did they create a perimeter that allowed the other cultivators access, but only if they were willing to pay an excessive price of a hundred low-grade spirit stones for each day they spent in the mystic land.
Though, I noted that their standardized low-grade spirit stones differed from the system, the energy it contained was less than ten strands of Qi.
It was an excessive price already, but that wasn’t all the sects had requested. The cultivators that wanted to pass needed to consent to a search, which registered every single item in their possession, and storage items were not allowed.
And, they charged triple for the itinerant cultivators.
It was an excessively punitive deal that practically refused the existence of the itinerant cultivators, and even for the family cultivators, it was excessive pricing.
It worked to my benefit. Cobbling together a few hundred spirit stones was easy. I just needed to visit the cultivator market and sell a few spiritual plants while disguised as an itinerant cultivator. However, I didn’t use the itinerant cultivator identity for one reason.
It was too attention-grabbing.
Instead, I disguised myself as a member of the Umnim family. Since I knew their signature Alchemy technique — learned from the cultivator who had carried me in his flying boat — I was confident I could disguise myself as one of them easily. However, I didn’t disguise myself as him.
If someone asked, I would act like a member of the branch family who was getting older and was trying to find something that could help him as a gamble.
It was not the most ideal disguise, but considering I was under a time crunch, I didn’t want to spend weeks trying to create a more reliable identity. I might have gone through the trouble if the Golden Core cultivators were still around, but they were long gone, replaced by Foundation Establishment cultivators from both sects.
Six outer sect disciples from each sect, to be exact, all living in a nearby residence, taking turns maintaining the entrance. Interestingly, there was also a small marketplace inside the formation, near enough to the formation entrance so that the Foundation Establishment cultivators could protect it.
Naturally, taking most of the profits from the marketplace in the process. They demanded sixty percent of the transaction cost, which was an absurd number on the face value, but the value of safely exchanging for items was a luxury that was difficult to attain under most circumstances.
Killing and robbing were a bit too commonplace for a successful market … but I couldn’t help but wonder if my most recent discovery had anything to do with it. After all, Heavenly Dao was quite biased against trade, treating the wrong moves from merchants far more harshly than actually killing and robbing.
Yet, it was another curiosity I had to leave the wayside.
Instead, I made sure my disguise was impeccable before I approached the formation, and approached the gatekeeper. Naturally, the gatekeeper was not a cultivator, but a martial artist. They stood on two sides, one belonging to Kartpa Valley, the other to Entsa Pavilion. The ones on the Kartpa Valley side, predictably, were Tiger Fist disciples, but the identity of the other side surprised me.
There was no way I couldn’t recognize Snow Blossom Essence.
It was the same form Elsana used, but it was far denser and modified significantly to deal with the drawbacks. Yet, despite all the changes, I was willing to bet that all the martial artists had been taught indirectly by Elsana, probably with two generations of disciples in between.
However, the changes in the essence were incredible. It had been almost half a year since I had last seen Elsana, and while that was enough for me to make huge jumps thanks to my System, it shouldn’t apply to the others.
Still, regardless of the mystery of the development, it was a sign that Elsana was living well, and I would take it. If only I could get the same from Aisnam. She had not sent even a message since her departure, and I was afraid that it wasn’t something she had chosen.
As much as I wanted to enter through the Entsa side and see if I could get some more information about Elsana and Aisnam, my disguise belonged to the Umnim family. And, just like how Verdant Family belonged to Entsa’s sphere of influence — discounting a small attempt to switch — Umnim belonged to Kartpa Valley.
“How long will you be here, honorable cultivator,” Tiger Fist disciple greeted me.
“Three days for now,” I said even as I passed him a pouch that held three hundred and ten spirit stones. A little tip was never a bad idea.
“Honorable cultivator,” the martial artist bowed. Then, he looked toward the tent, where the Foundation Establishment cultivators were resting. “I have to risk angering you and consent to be searched, honorable cultivator,” he said.
Even with the protection of the Foundation Establishment cultivator, he seemed tense saying that. I didn’t blame him. It was not an enviable position. A more irritable cultivator could kill him for the disrespect alone.
The Foundation Establishment cultivators at the gate would have likely killed the one daring enough to challenge their authority, but it was hardly a comfort.
“Go ahead,” I said, not wanting to create a commotion as he patted my body, then used an artifact to examine my Qi signature to see if I wasn’t hiding anything.
I wasn’t, as anything I wanted to smuggle, I already brought inside. While the Foundation Establishment cultivators thought that they were the ones who controlled the area, it couldn’t be further from the truth.
Once the martial artist finished checking my pouches, he passed me a piece of metal plate, which was an artifact linked to the formation the sects had built.
“Please don’t lose it. It’ll measure the time you spend inside and will send an alert if you exceed the time. If you continue to stay inside, you have to pay triple the entrance fee as the penalty for each day,” he said.
“Thank you for the warning,” I said even as I entered into the area, and examined the place. Other than the Foundation Establishment cultivators assigned to the place as guards, every single cultivator inside was the Qi Gathering realm.
Right at the gate, there was the large marketplace that had been established. Some people were selling their gains from the ruins — mostly various talismans I had placed inside, though during the last time, I repaired the place, I added a few pills, spirit plants, and other miscellaneous rewards thanks to my increased capabilities — but others were selling items they had brought from the outside.
Every transaction was observed and recorded by martial artists for taxation purposes.
Unfortunately, the market didn’t hold any useful reward for me. I had already checked. The thing I needed most was the advanced techniques, particularly ones that extended to Nascent Soul. I didn’t need them to be complete. Just a fragment would have been enough.
Unfortunately, no cultivator would have been stupid enough to sell such a technique under the nose of the two major sects. I still checked through formation, but the results weren’t satisfactory.
Instead, I examined the cultivators walking around. The majority of the cultivators I could see were actually from the cultivation families, with only a minority belonging to the two major sects. But, those that I could see, without exception, belonged to the outer sect.
However, that didn’t prevent them from walking around like royalty, not afraid of anything, and easily entering into conflict with the family cultivators.
The few itinerant cultivators that managed to enter the place were treated like dirt by both groups.
Such a nice crowd, I decided even as I moved toward the mystic land itself.
It was the safest place to convince someone to insult me.
Hopefully.
