Chapter 214: Three Requests (1/2)

As the day of the new emperor’s coronation grew nearer, foreign cultivators filled Xiankan’s streets, and Nephrite’s crown jewel bustled with activity.

Six days before the ceremony, Panorama Pavilion’s auction officially began. This auction in particular was a nexus of attention, especially from master refiners. The Ten Orientations Stone was to be made available, an immortal-grade material surpassing ninth rank!

The present world wasn’t as prosperous as the ancient era, but its resources remained quite abundant, at least in terms of various special and unique natural materials. However, something as precious as the stone was an extreme rarity.

It was no ordinary supreme material. Rumor had it that a real world was hidden inside, one that could be used to make particularly extraordinary treasures. The pavilion had paid the hefty price of four dao immortals in the process of obtaining it.

So why was it selling it, then? That remained unknown.

As one of the largest mercantile guilds in the world of immortals, the Panorama Pavilion owned a blessed land in Xiankan’s inner city—one that had promptly been renamed upon their occupation of it.

Sublime mist wreathed around the buildings in the small world, and crane songs wafted through the air. On this highly anticipated day, Panorama Blessed Land opened its gates with great fanfare. A collective jolt of excitement ran through the immortals assembled out in front.

“What?! I need to pay ten thousand premium crystals just to get in?!” Dissatisfaction rang out strongly when the rules were announced.

True immortals usually consumed inferior crystals for cultivation. A premium crystal was worth a hundred inferior ones, making ten thousand of them an astronomically large sum for most.

“Today, we auction off three treasures that cannot be priced with immortal crystals. Ten thousand premium crystals serve only as an entry fee to keep out the rabble.”

“What do you take the Panorama Pavilion to be? A tavern house for peasants and rubes?” A rather arrogant youth casually tossed a storage ring to the guards, then entered with ease, along with his followers.

His words easily shut up the crowd. They’d wanted to see a top-notch auction in person, but the entrance threshold effectively barred them from doing so.

Lu Yun, Qing Han, Lu Shenhou, and the other sovereign youths strode in together in a small group, led by a few immortals from the Lu Clan. After they paid the fee, they were allowed to enter the Panorama Blessed Land.

“Ten thousand premium crystals….” Lu Yun felt the pinch. “That’s enough to buy a third of Dusk Province.”

“Why do you care about such a paltry sum?” Zi Chen couldn’t help chuckling. “If you charged entrance for that inheritance tower outside Dusk Capital, plenty of people would be willing to pay just as much. You’d become the richest man in the world, practically overnight.”

Lu Shenhou’s eyes lit up, rather inspired by the suggestion. Could he talk the clan ancestor into doing the same with the tower back in the clan paradise? Would a hundred thousand be a good price?

“Forget it. Charging an entrance fee goes against my original intentions,” shrugged Lu Yun.

He wanted to make Dusk Province fundamentally his. Its standing should be so secure that even if the restriction disappeared one day, it would still remain safe from the predations of the rest of the world.

Emulating the Skandha Range was a good way to go about it. That place protected countless evil and otherkind cultivators, a sacred land for them in the world’s eyes. If not for Aoxue’s mastery over that place, Lu Yun would’ve been cut to shreds as soon as he left Dusk Province.

He’d flung open the doors of the tower to everyone in the world. If even a tenth of those who used the inheritance tower were grateful to him, it would be more than enough. In fact, he still received a small trickle of goodwill from Dusk City’s direction, even now.

“Actually,” Qing Han smiled, “remember the talismans you used during the reselection tournament? There’s a lot of old collectors who love ancient artifacts like those. If you’re willing to sell a few of them, you’ll easily make a few hundred million immortal crystals off that.”

Lu Yun nodded eagerly, noticeably more pleased with this idea. As they spoke, the Panorama Pavilion staff seated them at a floating gazebo. Thousands of these gazebos hung in the blessed land’s airspace.

Immortals who qualified to enter the blessed land were generally prominent individuals in their own right, or perhaps the core disciples of various great sects and clans. The mercantile guild was hardly going to neglect them.

Only about ten meters in diameter from the outside, spatial formations inside the gazebos expanded the interiors to a dozen times that. Each one was furnished with a plethora of tasty foods, as well as multiple august immortal singers and dancers.

“Tsk tsk. This is quite the arrangement. I guess the price tag makes sense now.” Mo Qitian stroked his bare chin in thoughtful praise. “The Panorama Pavilion does good business. No wonder my clan’s Treasure Emporium can’t beat them.”

“Yes,” Wu Tulong nodded with utmost seriousness. “Just from the name itself, ‘Treasure Emporium’ is a bit too tacky. ‘Panorama Pavilion’? Much more sophisticated. It makes perfect sense.”