Published at 10th of December 2024 10:17 am

Chapter 979: Storm In Ninestar (2)

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Su Yu laughed, "Yeah, I'm aware of that. But at the very least, the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion is transparent with its price. As for the other two, there are rumors that they will try to lowball you if you're not aware of the true value of what you're selling. I've never heard about the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion doing the same."

"True. You're a wise man, Brother."

The old man raised his thumb and grinned. It was clear that this man was not completely clueless. Perhaps he used to operate in the Heavendoom City.

Su Yu smiled and said nothing else. He didn't exactly know how the three organizations operated. He was merely speaking based on his guesses. It wouldn't matter even if he was wrong. From his previous interactions with the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion, he was sure that was how they operated. Yes, the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was quite greedy. But it was also rather reliable to trade with.

Furthermore, it specialized in information. Thus, he could probably obtain some new information there. Su Yu started walking with the old man while asking nonchalantly about the recent rumors. The old man did not mind the topic of conversation. After all, everyone in the city was talking about the same thing.

When they were near the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion's place, the old man said with envy, "Life is hard for nobodies like us. We need to actually go to their physical stores to trade. I've heard that the big shots and young geniuses are offered personalized services by the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion.

“The people of the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion will actually go to them for their transactions. With a single index copy, one can contact them at any time. Their services will be always available to you if you're an index copy holder. Sigh. This is not the kind of service I'll ever get to enjoy. Maybe I can get an index copy if I manage to become a Sunmoon..."

Su Yu was speechless. So for most people, index copies were considered a privilege only enjoyed by important individuals? Then again, that was understandable.

With an index copy, one could contact the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion at all times. Someone would arrive to complete the transaction regardless of how dangerous the place was. That was actually quite impressive.

Su Yu was only looking down on the index copies because he had obtained so many of them. After all, almost every genius he killed was an index copy holder. In fact, he had collected about seven or eight index copies so far. All of them had been disposed of.

Evidently, his victims were all big shots in the eyes of this old man.

Su Yu smiled and said, "Yeah, I've heard of that thing before as well. I wonder if people like us can ever get one..."

"There's no hope for me. But that's not the case for you. I can see that you're still quite young. Perhaps after a few years of hard work, you'll be able to catch their attention."

Su Yu smiled, "I hope so."

Finally, they arrived at a large store. It was a two-story building right beside the street. It was spacious, and its door was wide open

A signboard with Heavenly Hunt Pavilion

written on it hung above the entrance. Those characters were written through willpower in the form of an ancient language similar to the language used by the ancient cities. Anyone could understand these characters despite not knowing the language.

This was the Empyrean Cloud branch of the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. Su Yu stepped through the entrance. The first floor was filled with counters, couches, and some other furniture of human design.

Su Yu was surprised to see that, but the old man wasn't. The human race was a major producer of ordinary products like this, and the prices were relatively affordable. Thus, it was normal for the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion to actually use the human-produced furniture. After all, the people of Heavenly Hunt Pavilion were known for being stingy. The divines and immortals loved forging their furniture out of natural treasures.

As for the dragons, they loved forging their furniture out of gold, silver, pearls, jewels, and other ores. These products were impractical for many people. Thus, the products produced by the human race became the optimal choice. The price was affordable and it also wasn't embarrassing to use since the human race was also considered a major race.

Right after entering, a woman with cat ears walked over and offered a sweet greeting, "Dear customer, how may I assist you? Please have a seat. We can talk business after sitting down. The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion is the most reliable business in the Myriad Realms. We can provide anything you can think of."

Su Yu wanted to say that their claim was absolute nonsense. When he asked for the elimination of the divines and devils previously, they had failed to offer that service. Inside his head, the little furball was in agreement.

The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was anything but reliable. He had asked them repeatedly for yummy characters, but they had failed to satisfy his request. And thus, the human and ball started insulting the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion in their minds.

The old man smiled and said, "Brother, I'll be waiting outside. Don't forget the inner core I'm selling. The price is negotiable."

Su Yu also smiled, "Thanks, Brother. Don't worry. If I manage to close a good deal here, buying your inner core won't be an issue."

The cat girl waited until the old man was gone before smiling and saying, "Dear customer, dragon inner cores are also available for sale in the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. You may also consider making your purchase from us!"

"It's fine. Your products are too expensive."

Su Yu couldn't be bothered to waste his time with idle chatter. He sat down directly. A few other customers were in the store as well, and each was served by a personnel of the opposite gender.

Su Yu was quite surprised to see that the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was not using masked individuals here. He grumbled inwardly that this was shameless. Instead of doing business honestly, they were wasting their energy on these pointless tricks.

He took out a weaponsmithing material and said, "This is an incredible item. I only managed to obtain it from the depths of the Sea of Stars after great difficulty. I had to face eight demonic beasts during the process and nearly died. Take a look. How much is this thing worth?"

"..."

The cat girl shot the item a glance and took something out. It seemed to be an appraisal tool. After a short moment, she replied with the same friendly smile, "Dear customer, this is a regular piece of rainbow earth ore. An ore of this size is worth around thirty drops of source qi liquid."

Yes. It was a cheap item.

"What?"

Su Yu cursed. That was a bullshit price. Even in the Human Realm, an ore of this size was worth two hundred merit points. But here, they were offering thirty drops of source qi liquid for it. Sure enough, the people here were incredibly greedy. But this wasn't the real reason he was here. He naturally couldn't show anything that was too valuable.

With a displeased expression, he asked, "Is it possible to increase the price?"

The cat girl merely smiled without saying anything. The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was known to never budge from the price they set.

It was up to the customer whether they wanted to proceed with the transaction or not. Su Yu started swearing in human language. Previously, they were conversing in the common language. He didn't know if the cat girl knew the human language or not, but she had remained silent while he was cursing.

"Fine. I'll sell it, but I don't want source qi liquid for it..."

Finally, Su Yu said, "I'm planning to get more of these ores from the Sea of Stars. Do you sell any information of that place here? I wish to purchase a map of the known regions where earthsea gold ores can be found, including the dangers one might encounter in the area. If possible, I need the latest update on the current political situation there as well."

He did not ask for the information on Sea of Stars directly. But the earthsea gold he mentioned was a rather valuable weaponsmithing material that could only be found in the Sea of Stars. That was a material Su Yu had learned about when he was studying weaponsmithing. It was a material unique to the Sea of Stars.

The cat girl said, "Yes. Please wait a moment."

She worked on the tool she took out earlier for a bit and said, "Respected customer, we have a lot of information related to the material you spoke of. If you only want to know about the known locations it can be found and the dangers nearby, the price will be cheap. But if you wish to know about the current political situation there as well, the amount of information you need will increase significantly. The total price won't be cheap."

"What's the price for everything?"

"Ten thousand drops of source qi liquid or thirty thousand human merit points."

Su Yu merely stared at the cat girl without saying anything. He wanted to tell her to go screw herself. Was this daylight robbery? Definitely! He was only buying some information and they were charging him thirty thousand merit points?

The cat girl maintained her smile, but some awkwardness could be seen on her face. This was the price. She did not have any control over it. If this human rejected the order, so be it. From his expression, that was probably out of his price range.

Despite her thoughts, she said, "Customer, if you're an index copy holder or a genius on the index, you may enjoy a twenty percent discount."

Su Yu rolled his eyes, "If I'm one of them, why would I be here in this shitty store? I would have called for the personalized service instead."

The cat girl said nothing. Yes, she was aware of that.

After complaining for a bit, Su Yu said, "Forget it. I'm not buying here anymore. The price here is too stupid. This is my first time here. Sell me a set of generic information about the city. I don't need any secrets. I only need to know the common knowledge here. Make it cheap."

"Sure. You may have the standard package for a hundred drops of source qi liquid."

While cursing, Su Yu paid seventy drops of source qi liquid on top of his ore before leaving with the information he bought.

***

Even when he left the building, he was still swearing. However, he was deep in thought inwardly. Should he come here again with a different identity to buy more information? Naturally, he couldn't buy all the information he needed from a single seller. That would be too conspicuous as the volume of transactions would be too big. He could instead buy a little bit of information from each seller before combining them together to get a clear picture.

That way, not even the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion would suspect anything. This damn organization was definitely not to be trusted.

At the very least, he needed to know the power distribution in the Sea of Stars. He also needed to know the strength of those powers and the areas where he could look for some benefits. Furthermore, he also needed to learn about the areas protected by Invincibles.

Su Yu reunited with the old man and bought the inner core for a price of forty drops of source qi liquid after some bargaining. A Skysoar could produce that much source qi liquid in a few months. Thus, it was a reasonable price. In the black market, that much source qi liquid was worth about 120 merit points. For a Skysoar, that was actually a considerable sum of money.

After all, they would need to stop cultivating and focus solely on source qi liquid production if they wanted to produce that much within a few months. But that would be pointless. After all, improving the speed of their cultivation was the reason they worked so hard in the first place.

After buying the inner core and sending the old man away, Su Yu continued roaming the streets while going through the information he bought from the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. It was quite thorough.

All the publicly known information was compiled in the list. The mayor of the city was a ninth-stage Sunmoon. And the mayor was a woman. This mayor came from the green fox race. It was worth noting that there were a lot of fox races out there. For example, the fox who had offended Su Yu back in Great Xia came from a race known as the seven-colored bright fox.

That was not a strong race. It was nearly fully exterminated by Great Xia during the war. As for the green fox race, it was one of the stronger fox races. It did not have an Invincible, but it had a decent number of Sunmoons. For some reason, one of their ninth-stage Sunmoons had decided to become the mayor of this city.

Her real name was unknown, but most people addressed her as Mayor Qing Yu. This was a relatively low-profile mayor as she rarely showed herself to the public. Su Yu did not care too much about the mayor. He was more interested in the stone statue. Could he visit the stone statue of this city as well?

Fortunately, that question was answered by the information he bought. The inner hall of the mayor's residence was available to the public. But not everyone could enter. One had to either be an index genius or a Sunmoon to enter. Only these people would be granted the opportunity to visit the stone statue.

"Forget it."

Su Yu was very regretful. He wouldn't be able to enter.

Also included in the information were fair introductions on the Allheaven Treasure House and Thousand Region Alliance despite the fact that these were the competitors of the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. Rather, it would be more accurate to say that the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion did not even view them as competitors.

According to the introductions, the two organizations were information peddlers as well, but a lot of the information they sold was speculation. One could take their information as sources of reference, but not as facts. It was also through this set of information that Su Yu finally learned more about the Allheaven Treasure House.

This was a relatively large organization that had existed for a very long time. Of course, it was not as old as the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. It was founded only after connections were formed between the various realms and the Allheaven Battlefield. It was said that the initial connections were formed about a thousand years ago.

In the beginning, only the realms of the major races such as the divines, devils, immortals, and some ancient races were connected to the Allheaven Battlefield. Slowly, connections to more and more realms opened up, and finally, a connection was established with the Human Realm about four hundred years ago.

Thus, the Allheaven Treasure House had existed for nearly a thousand years. It was likely that this was an organization controlled by the major races they they first gained access to the Allheaven Battlefield. The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion did not specify which of the major races was the founder of the Allheaven Treasure House.

In any case, it definitely wasn't the human race. The Allheaven Treasure House also offered similar services to the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. After all, it was an organization founded to compete against the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. But from how well the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was doing even after a thousand years, the people of the Allheaven Treasure House were evidently not very good at their job.

However, a certain product of the Allheaven Treasure House was rather well-known. It was a ranking known as the Sunmoon Dao Affirmation Ranking. Nobody had the courage to set a ranking for the Invincibles. Instead, the Allheaven Treasure House produced a ranking listing all the powerful Sunmoons near dao affirmation.

Only ninth-stage Sunmoons were qualified to enter this ranking. Even something like this required a lot of courage to do. Thus, it was very possible that this action received the backing of at least one Invincible.

This ranking was more well-known among the top experts. This was also a service the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion did not provide with their Heavenly Hunt Index. After all, there was no way to guarantee the accuracy of such a ranking.

These super experts were too cunning, resulting in a considerably low level of accuracy when ranking them in a single list. The Heavenly Hunt Index only worked so well because the index itself was a divine weapon that would work automatically.

Su Yu was fully engrossed in his reading material. Naturally, the said ranking was not provided in the set of information he purchased. That was something one needed to buy. And it wasn't cheap either.

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