Chapter 280: Cloud Manor
Divine Judgment Hall, Phoenix Sun City Branch.
Jiang Li and a few higher-ups of the Great Mountain Alliance walked into a magnificent white building.
It was located in the core area of the entire city. When they arrived, there were clearly many cultivators, but even the air began to calm down.
Basically, no one dared to make a commotion here.
Due to the difference in time perception between cultivators and mortals, and because those who came to the Divine Judgment Hall all had important matters, ordinary forces might not even come once in decades.
Therefore, the hall was still quite empty. There was no need to line up.
Jiang Li looked at the hall on the first level. Even the tiles were made of expensive spiritual jade materials. The other items had even reached the level of artifacts.
It was at the level where one could knock away a flying sword with just a bench.
This Divine Judgment Hall was simply much wealthier than the scene of spirit stones covering the ground in the Yin Burial Coffin.
“Gasp! If these pillars are refined into artifacts, it’s not impossible for them to become Earth-rank!”
An elder could not help but cry out.
Only then did Jiang Li discover that it was three jade pillars that were like white jade that supported the entire Divine Judgment Hall.
Even he was surprised to see it.
The material level of that pillar was extremely high. Any random piece from it could create an Earth-rank coffin nail for the coffin.
However, that was not what surprised him.
Instead, the patterns on the three jade pillars were respectively the Cloud Pattern, Flame Pattern, and Wave Pattern.
Jiang Li had seen that strange cloud pattern not long ago.
Temporarily suppressing his thoughts, they came to an empty counter.
“Hello!”
The female cultivator behind the counter also emitted the aura of a Core Formation cultivator.
When she saw Jiang Li, she smiled professionally and greeted him.
“On behalf of the Great Mountain Alliance, I want to join the Divine Judgment Hall and come here to claim a defensive area.”
Jiang Li directly stated his purpose for coming.
“The Divine Judgment Hall welcomes you.”
After hearing Jiang Li’s request, the smile on the female cultivator’s face became even more obvious. The situation had been a little tense recently. Several sects had suddenly perished for unknown reasons, and now was the time to urgently recruit new blood.
“Please show me the token of your Great Mountain Alliance.”
Jiang Li handed over his Great Mountain Alliance Leader Token.
The female cultivator reached out to take it. She placed the Alliance Leader Token on a white stone slab and began to record the identification information of the Alliance Leader Token.
“Please tell me what environment you’re good at fighting in. We’ll try our best to arrange suitable terrain.”
“If your esteemed sect plans to claim an area above medium-sized, you can also prioritize selecting the defensive encampment left behind. This is the terrain map of several defensive encampments. You can take a look first.”
The female cultivator quickly worked behind the counter to verify the situation of the Great Mountain Alliance before handing a stack of cowhide blueprints to Jiang Li.
Jiang Li took it and glanced at it before handing it to the higher-ups behind him.
The encampment on the map was all along the coast of the Eastern Region. The Armored Trolls that needed the entire Eastern Region to resist should be from the sea.
These empty bases were the sects that had participated in the war but were ultimately destroyed.
This kind of encampment was only born from war and did not have much production ability. However, as long as the overlapping array formation was repaired, the defense performance was indeed not bad!
However, the size of the medium-sized area was three to five times that of the small areas. Although these areas could obtain a decent foothold from the beginning, the pressure they endured would greatly increase.
Jiang Li and the others actually had a target long ago.
He had the Thousand Mechanisms Sphere in his hand. The mechanical city left behind after Ink Sect was destroyed should be the most suitable choice for them in many areas.
In addition, although guarding the medium-sized area was more pressure, it could also accumulate merit points faster.
The current Great Mountain Region could not wait long.
“Everyone, this is your merit token. Please head to the designated area within seven days. In the future, you only need to bring the Armored Troll’s mask to the local Divine Judgment headquarters and exchange it for merit points.”
Jiang Li nodded. The Divine Judgment Hall was very efficient, or rather, that female cultivator seemed to be afraid that Jiang Li would go back on his words.
She completed the procedures as quickly as possible.
Jiang Li took the merit token. It was different from Ink Sect’s token. The number on it was a bare zero.
The awkward thing was this. If the Great Mountain Alliance already had around 500,000 merit points, it would not be a problem to transfer the merit points.
However, if they obtained 630,000 merit points through annexation instantly from 0 points, it would undoubtedly be an abnormal situation that would attract quite a bit of attention. Even if they had Ink Sect disciples as witnesses, they would still need a long time to verify it.
After putting away the merit token, Jiang Li suddenly asked the female cultivator behind the counter.
“Miss, may I know what the cloud patterns, flame patterns, and wave patterns on the pillar mean?”
The female cultivator behind the counter glanced at the pillar Jiang Li pointed at and immediately understood what he meant.
“Ah, it’s normal for you guys not to know.”
“Those are the three divine pillars of our Divine Judgment Hall: the Cloud Manor, the Flame Dynasty, and the Sea Palace. They have not appeared for a long time, so very few young cultivators know about them now.”
“However, they have been protecting the three pillars of our Eastern Region’s cultivation world for thousands of years.”
When the female cultivator spoke of these three organizations, her expression revealed worship.
Only then did Jiang Li learn that there were three divine pillars above the top-rate forces of the Divine Judgment Hall.
In that case, didn’t that mean that the token came from the Cloud Manor?
However, it was unknown how the people of the Cloud Manor paid attention to him.
He sat at the tea table in the hall for a while and waited for the appointed time before walking into the hall that was specially used to deal with the merit points.
It was time for the staff to change shifts.
After the young cultivator left, a fat middle-aged cultivator appeared.
After reaching the Foundation Establishment realm, cultivators had a certain degree of ability to adjust their appearance.
Therefore, unless one cultivated a special cultivation method, cultivators with such an image were rare.
After the others left, Jiang Li stepped forward and said, “You must be Madam Yu. Shopkeeper Jiang introduced us.”
The cultivators’ ears were sharp. The fat woman clearly heard it, but her eyes drooped as she flipped through the papers on the table, as if she did not have the time to look at Jiang Li and the others.
Everyone from the Great Mountain Alliance exchanged glances. In the end, an elder stepped forward and placed ten medium-grade spirit stones on the other party’s counter.
The fat cultivator called Madam Yu glanced at the spirit stones on the table from the corner of her eye. After she skillfully put them away, she reluctantly raised her head to look at everyone.
“You’re that small faction called the Great Mountain Alliance? Old Jiang told me about it. What do you want to do with me?”
This person’s attitude was quite vile, but they had a favor to ask and could not attack in the Divine Judgment Hall. They could only endure it for the time being.
“Our Great Mountain Alliance has recently gained a new ally. We hope to merge our contributions and prioritize our Great Mountain Alliance.”
“I heard from Shopkeeper Jiang that Madam Yu is reliable in her work. Please help me out a little. I’ll naturally give you a generous gift later.”
It was Jiang Li who stepped forward and placed the two merit tokens on the counter.
Madam Yu glanced at it again. After discovering the number on the merit board, her small eyes suddenly narrowed.
She placed the token on a special stone slab and quickly learned what sect the token belonged to.
The matter of Ink Sect was not small. How could this fat woman not know?
She tapped her fingers on the counter, thinking about something.
A moment later, she looked up.
“This matter is not easy to deal with.”
She used the professional term for bribery, meaning that she wanted to raise the price.
“Give us a number and we’ll try our best to make up for it.”
The Foreign Affairs Elder went forward and handed over another bag of spirit stones. The inside was filled with powerful spiritual qi fluctuations. This time, it contained high-grade spirit stones.
This small bag represented an entire 500,000 low-grade spirit stones!
Madam Yu tapped her fingers and continued to knock on the table.
Clearly, this was not enough.
Jiang Li’s expression was already as black as the bottom of a pot. He stood at the back, and the Foreign Affairs Elder with the best mental fortitude stepped forward to negotiate.
One bag after another bag, a total of 150 high-grade spirit stones were placed on the table.
This number was already enough to purchase several good items in the Myriad Sun Building’s auction.
However, this Madam Yu still did not have any intention of relenting.
The Foreign Affairs Elder was hesitating when Jiang Li stepped forward and pressed down on his hand.
“Madam Yu, our Great Mountain Alliance is a small sect. There’s no need to trouble you.”
As he spoke, a wisp of aura seeped out and was about to retrieve the three bags of spirit stones and two merit tokens.
The fat middle-aged woman reached out and pressed down on the spirit stones and tokens.
She glanced sideways at Jiang Li, and then she took everything back into her arms.
“Leave it to me. Retrieve it in seven days.”
After saying that, she waved her hand and chased them out.
“Madam Yu, the process of this matter shouldn’t be long. Ink Sect’s token elders are all here. Why don’t we do it today to avoid any unnecessary trouble?”
Jiang Li frowned. After receiving such a huge sum of money, the other party still wanted to stall for another seven days.
“Don’t you believe me? I’ll do what I promised!”
Madam Yu’s fat body began to release an aura, but to the higher-ups of the Great Mountain Alliance, this aura was actually nothing.
They still stood where they were.
Although they did not say anything, the meaning was obvious.
Are we very close with each other? Why should we believe you?
After a moment of silence, she changed her gaze and restrained her aura.
“Give me the proof as well. Wait outside for four hours before looking for me.”
The Great Mountain Alliance and the others could barely accept this result of waiting four hours.
Although he hoped that the other party could settle it on the spot, he still agreed. He walked out of the office and quietly waited.
However, when Jiang Li left the Merit Office, he inadvertently touched his hair.
A strand of tough hair fell down and was stuck in the gap.
The door closed, completely isolating the voices inside and outside.
Jiang Li sat on the chair at the tea table in the hall, still a little worried.
That so-called Madam Yu’s cultivation was actually very ordinary. She only had the strength of the Void Core stage.
However, it was said that she had a good husband and a good son, which was why she got such a good job in the Divine Judgment Hall.
Due to their status and strength, as long as she did not go overboard, no one would care about her.
Therefore, over the years, she had been abusing her authority for personal gains, deliberately delaying the affairs of other sects and factions to obtain spirit stones and treasures.
The continuous success made her braver and more unscrupulous.
This was nothing. Even if they were cheated out of 1.5 million spirit stones, they had to endure this anger. At the very least, they had to join the Divine Judgment Hall.
However, looking at the fat woman’s expression, Jiang Li felt a little worried.
He sat on the chair and closed his eyes to rest.
The Bodhisattva Heart Sutra had already begun circulating silently.
The sound world gradually covered all his senses. When he reached a certain limit, it was as if his soul had left his body.
In the Divine Judgment Hall, if one used active probing methods like divine sense probing, they would be discovered immediately.
However, Jiang Li only strengthened his hearing and received sounds passively. This was not easy to discover.
His voice and perspective quickly moved, and he quickly arrived at the entrance of the Merit Office. However, he was blocked by the soundproof door.
Fortunately, Jiang Li was prepared. The hair stuck in the middle was not broken, and it could still transmit a faint tremor.
The voice went out of the office along with the hair. Everything inside was very blurry because there was too little sound to hear.
“I… have… a huge deal… come here at… those fools are still here… wait… three million… hurry up…”
The intermittent voice sounded, causing Jiang Li’s anger to involuntarily rise.
Human greed would never disappoint.
That fat middle-aged cultivator was planning to take benefits from both sides.
After receiving the spirit stones from the Great Mountain Alliance, she did not do anything and wanted to use her position to sell these 630,000 merit points to others.
She felt that with her status, what was done was done. As long as she did not admit it, a small faction that was lucky could not do anything to her.
As long as this deal went through, 1.5 million would become 4.5 million. Why not?
“Hmph! The one from the Great… Alliance… kid… is so disrespectful… this is also… a small punishment for them.”
After putting down the communication spirit stone, this fat Madam Yu actually found a reason for herself.
However, if Jiang Li had not stopped her at that time, the outcome now would probably be her taking away three million spirit stones and being sent away for seven days.
If they came to find her after seven days, she might not even meet them!
Shopkeeper Jiang was right. This person was too greedy.
Jiang Li undid the Bodhisattva Heart Sutra and regained his senses. After that, he walked over to the female cultivator who had helped them register for the defensive encampment.
Then, he took out the cloud-patterned token from his storage bag. With a wave of his hand, he undid all the seals and placed it on the counter.
“Hello, I want to see the person in charge.”