Chapter 112: A Money-Making Expert Beast
Because there was a little radish on the sword, Zhu Yao’s flying speed evidently slowed down. Her current speed, which was even slower than the speed of the celestial ark she rode earlier, could be compared to a turtle’s crawl.
And, she had even changed her direction at the spur of the moment, as she planned on first heading to Azureflight to enroll the little radish to school.
Chen Ning, the shameless beast, once again wanted to use the reason of ‘it’s along the way’, and pester her.
However, not long after they left the forest, they bumped into a person.
It was an Azoth-stage deity practitioner!
Chen Ning seemed to recognize him. Looking at him from afar, his brows began to furrow, and his expression turned aggressive.
“Milord.” That person hugged his fist and bowed towards Chen Ning. He didn’t even bat an eye at Zhu Yao beside him, and a faint sense of pride could be faintly seen from his face. “The Treasure Inspection Conference this year has been prepared. Milord, are you going to head immediately to Treasureview Island?”
“Not going.” Chen Ning coldly replied with these two words.
That person seemed to not have expected Chen Ning to give such a reply, and was momentarily dumbfounded. He only regained his senses a moment later, and persuaded. “Milord, you have always been the one who personally oversees the Treasure Inspection Conference of the previous years. Many different types of people will be attending, if milord isn’t going to be there, I’m afraid that the Treasure Inspection Conference this time will turn chaotic, and it would be impossible to continue hosting it”
“Then, don’t host it.”
That Azoth-stage practitioner stiffened, as though he did not dare to believe his own ears. With a stunned look, he stared at Chen Ning, that every inch of his expression looked as though it was shouting out as such.
Milord, what happened to you? What happened, milord? That has always been your most loved activity.
“Enough, if there’s nothing else, hurry and leave.” Chen Ning looked as though he chasing away a fly, as he swatted his hands at him.
That person was completely dumbfounded, and no matter how he thought about it, he could not come to a conclusion. How did milord become like this just after a single stroll out of his territory? He couldn’t have been taken over, right?
“What’s this Treasure Inspection Conference?” Zhu Yao could not help but ask.
Chen Ning smiled towards her, and said without a mind. “It’s nothing. It’s just a place that sells some small items.”
“A commercial meeting, is it?” Zhu Yao asked. She had been in this world for such a long time, yet, she never had the chance to have a nice stroll.
“This isn’t a regular commercial meeting.” Seeing that she was confused, the Azoth-stage practitioner could not help but raise his head, and say with a prideful look. “It’s an auction that is only hosted once every hundred years by our Qiwu Pavilion. Everything that goes onto the auction will be rarely seen treasures. Rare herbs, various types of high-grade Mystic Tools, and even scrolls of ancient Mystic Arts could be obtained as long as you have the Spirit Stones.”
“Oh.” So it was an auction, and it seemed to be really high-class as well. Zhu Yao turned to look towards Chen Ning. “Since you have matters to attend to, then go. There’s no need to send me off.”
When he heard this, Chen Ning’s face, instantly sank to the deepest pits. Earlier, she still did not have a reason to shoo him away at all. Turning his head, he glared at the culprit, and layers of killing intent emitted out continuously.
That Azoth-stage human practitioner was instantly covered with cold sweat. He was simply speaking the truth, just which words of his caused him to step on a landmine? Only then did he turn to look at the two people at the side who were currently looking at his lord.
It could be seen with a single glance that the child was a mortal. The girl at the side however, he actually couldn’t see through her cultivation, and from the looks of it, she must be at least a Nascent Soul practitioner. Seeing how his lord was treating her with such importance, could she be a Demigod?
At that moment, he seemed to have come into realization. It seemed that his lord wished for the other party to stay. Bringing out his persuasive heart, he hurriedly began to remedy the situation. “The Treasure Inspection Conference is very lively. Fellow Daoist, why don’t we head over together to take a look?”
“I have matters to attend to.” Although she was a little curious, it was very inconvenient for her to bring along a little radish.
“The main branch of the Qiwu Pavilion is right in front, it won’t take much of your time.” He continued with his persuasion. “After all, there’s many treasures that are being showcased. Not only are there unique treasures, there’s abundance of records of ancient Mystic Arts.”
“Records of ancient Mystic Arts?” Zhu Yao was startled for a moment. She suddenly recalled that strange shadow behind Mu Meiyan.
“That’s right, inside the Record Hall of Qiwu Pavilion, there’s various records of ancient Mystic Arts. It contains the most complete collection of records in the entire cultivation world.”
Mu Meiyan’s and Yue Hanxin’s separation war, would officially start a hundred years later. Right now, both parties were in the training phase, accumulating their strength, where they would occasionally have verbal conflicts.
Regarding these, Zhu Yao would not intervene at all. She couldn’t possibly run a thousand miles to stop them from arguing, right? Also, Zhu Yao had already sufficiently dealt with the preparations she needed to do. Hence, in this hundred years, for a moment, she had no idea what to do with it.
Why not investigate that shadow which had been giving her pretty bad vibes?
Zhu Yao hesitated for a moment, and looked towards Chen Ning at the side, whose face was filled with expectations.
“The information that whatever Record Hall holds, is it really that complete?”
Chen Ning hurriedly nodded with all his might. “As long as it exist in this world, the Record Hall will have a record of it. The top floor especially, has several Mystic Arts and ancient texts that had yet to be exposed to the world.”
“Except for milord, isn’t the top floor a place that no one else can enter?” That Azoth-stage practitioner suddenly muttered out.
Chen Ning instantly turned around and gave him a glare. Once again, in an instant, he shut his trap. Milord today is so scary. At that moment, he became even more curious of the identity of the person next to him.
“Let’s go then.” Zhu Yao finally nodded, and flew towards the direction where the Azoth-stage practitioner came from.
“Lord, wait for me.” Chen Ning immediately followed after her happily.
As for the Azoth-stage practitioner behind them, he was stunned by how Chen Ning addressed her. Lord? When had there ever been another ‘lord’ above him? He had been the manager of the Qiwu Pavilion for so many years, how could he not have known about it? Wasn’t the Qiwu Pavilion founded by milord?
The manager felt that his brain was going haywire.
A tenth-ranked demonic beast could transform, and the lifespan of a demonic beast had always been longer than a human practitioner’s. However, it was hard for a demonic beast to ascend, hence, many demonic beasts, before their lifespan ended, would not easily ascend to the eleventh rank.
Because the eleventh rank meant that they would have entered the ascension-stage, and it was uncertain when the ascension lightning tribulation would come descending down at them. If their ascension succeeded, then all was well. However, if their ascension failed, their souls would dissipate from the lightning strikes.
However, the lifespan of a tenth-ranked demonic beast was simply too long. One would naturally feel bored from living in a forest for a period of time that was far too long. Chen Ning was one of those demonic beasts who was bored as hell.
When he rose to the tenth-rank, he transformed and began mingling with the humans. He even had a very good business mindset, and he opened up a shop in the city of human practitioners. Because he was high-ranked demonic beast, he could basically randomly pick up the spiritual herbs, spiritual medicine, or unique treasures in the forest. The other demonic beasts did not dare to have the slightest of objections either.
Hence, naturally, his business became bigger and bigger. In a short ten thousand years, the Qiwu Pavilion turned into the cultivation world’s largest trading center.
When Zhu Yao arrived at the so-called Qiwu Pavilion, she was given quite a fright. At the very most, she had thought that it would be similar to a large-scaled supermarket, only to find out that the Qiwu Pavilion was actually being referred to an entire street.
There were countless of shops selling talismans, mystic tools, spiritual herbs, and spiritual pellets on the street.
Zhu Yao silently looked at Chen Ning, and instantly had a feeling as though she was looking at a head of a conglomerate.
This entire street had been taken by him!
And from hearing what that Azoth-stage human practitioner meant, this was simply the main branch. In the other practitioner’s cities, there were other branches as well.
Zhu Yao suddenly felt a little itchy all over.
Chen Ning, as a beast, you’re so successful. Have you ever considered how humans feel?
The so-called Record Hall was a five-floored building among them. The space taken up by it was not huge, and looking from afar, it looked just like an ancient tower. After entering, she realized that there was another dimensional space inside, and it looked twice bigger than how it looked outside. The place was filled with shelves, and every shelf had their own small compartments, and above them were jade tablets stating ‘Records’.
Chen Ning enthusiastically introduced every floor. The first floor was mostly filled with various miscellaneous records, the entry-level basics for life skills such as talisman and tool creation, and the various Mystic Arts that could be learnt by practitioners from the Essence-stage to Foundation-stage. On the second and third floor, the Mystic Arts that could be learnt by Foundation-stage and Azoth-stage practitioners were located here, including the records of intermediate-grade life skills as well. The fourth floor was thus the high-leveled sector where only Nascent Soul practitioners could gain entry to.
Hence, the first floor was basically crowded with a sea of people, the second and third floors only had a few customers, while the fourth floor was especially quiet. Most probably, a customer or two would only appear once in a few years.
As for the fifth floor, it was Chen Ning’s private floor. The Azoth-stage manager that came to accomodate them said that no one had ever entered it before.
While currently, Chen Ning was however forcefully inviting Zhu Yao to head to that floor.
Zhu Yao rolled her eyes at him, and instantly headed down to the first floor. She had to find information regarding that black shadow, not some sort of incredible Mystic Art. Usually, when one had reached the realm of a Demigod, the Mystic Arts that should have been known had all been learnt, so naturally, she wouldn’t be appreciate them. Also, she had yet to finish reading the records that her own master had left for her, alright?
Seeing the dense packs of jade tablets, Zhu Yao really rejoiced the fact that there would be something so useful in this world, such as the divine sense, and there was no need for her to investigate one book at a time. Sweeping her divine sense over, she was basically able to know the rough information engraved in every single one of the jade tablets.
Zhu Yao walked up and down the first floor, and looked especially for those information that were related to rumors and records of unique creatures, yet, she still was unable to find the information she was looking for.
Hence, she could only head up to the second floor. The second floor was even more simple. Other than Mystic Arts, there were only formulas.
After an hour later, she had basically swept across the first to fourth floors once, yet, she had yet to find a single piece of information regarding that shadow.
“Lord, why don’t we head to the fifth floor to take a look?” Chen Ning once again suggested enthusiastically. “The fifth floor is made of a collection of lost Mystic Arts that I have gathered. And, there’s many ancient and tattered texts, along with confidential information. There’s definitely only one copy of each, and outsiders do not know about them.”
Zhu Yao frowned, as she faintly felt that he was a little unreliable. The information of the things here decreased as one went up the floors, especially the fourth floor, where there were only a few dozen Jade Tablets in total. It could be imagined just how few the things there are on the fifth floor.
“Lord, since you’re already here, why not head over to look?”
“Let’s take a look then.” In any case, she was already here.
Only then did Chen Ning happily lead the way. The fifth floor could be said to be much smaller than the floors beneath it, as it was basically just a small study room. What’s different was, rather than Jade Tablets like the floors below, books or scrolls were placed here instead.
Though, the books were slightly yellowish. Although they all carried a protective formation, they seemed to have come from an era far in the past.
“Every single one of the books here has been gathered here through sheer hard efforts.” Chen Ning said with a gleeful expression, and ostentatiously, he began to introduce them. “Every single one of these books has their own story, and most of them are brought out from ancient ruins that had already disappeared. They have been lost for a long time, so they’re very precious.”
Qiwu or 齐物: in Taoism, it’s referred to ‘equality of all things’.