Chapter 598: Return to Mercenary City (Four)

Mercenary City was situated at the very center of the entire continent as if to serve as the heart of the land. Although there were no walls, the territory that the city spanned over was no less than the seven Capital Cities. In name, it was the most well known city in the continent.

And in the heart of every single mercenary, Mercenary City was the very symbol of divinity. As the holy grounds for every mercenary, the name of the city itself represented freedom and peace.

Within Mercenary City, a series of complicated regulations and laws were put into place to uphold the security and peace of the city. There was no division between the strong and the weak. Even if it was a Heaven Saint Master, their status was no different than from the common villager. Everywhere else on the continent, the law of the jungle reigned supreme. But here, that law was non-existent. Fighting was prohibited within the area of the city, and the very moment any single person entered the city, even the strongest wouldn’t be able to use their strength without fearing the consequences.

This prohibition had thus led to many people referring to Mercenary City as the safest asylum to live in. As long as one lived here, there would be no need to worry about being chased down and killed by anyone.

In the course of history, there had been plenty of people that disregarded this law and broke it. But each and every single one of these lawbreakers had been killed without mercy, even the Heaven Saint Masters. Coincidentally, there had never been a case of murder that happened within the city.

The only thing that could serve to establish your status within the city was money. With money, one would be able to live a life that even a prince would envy. Without money, one would have to live on the streets; even finding food would prove to be a challenge.

With the tiger cub in hand, Jian Chen flew across the skies at a steady pace. From afar, a series of large buildings could be seen stretching into the skies. From above, Jian Chen could just barely see the transparent barrier that surrounded the entirety of the city.

His eyes carefully studied the barrier with curiosity. He had only been to Mercenary City once before, but even that had only given him a small portion of information when it came to the city. He knew of several things such as the fact that it was forbidden to fight within the city, and that the barrier that spanned across the sky had to do with that prohibition.

Because of the fact that Mercenary City had no walls, a series of roads and streets intersected one another throughout the entire area. With roads leading in and out of the place, mercenaries could travel through the city along with their carts in numerous amounts. Despite the fact that there were no guards stationed anywhere, none of these mercenaries had acted as unruly as they might be out in the wildlands of the continent. No matter where they were in the city, they acted nice and polite.

Touching down onto the ground several kilometers away from the barrier, Jian Chen walked the rest of the way. Without a care for the nearly transparent barrier, he walked through and into Mercenary City.

As soon as he entered the city, Jian Chen bought a Class 3 Magical Beast for him to ride throughout the city. Combined with the fact that Mercenary City was large and that Jian Chen was prohibited from flying, Jian Chen would have to ride a magical beast mount if he wished to get to his destination swiftly.

Riding on top of the magical beast, Jian Chen traveled slowly through the major streets of the city to buy all sorts of delicacies from the street stalls. These were all gifts for the natives of Longevity Valley--little fatty most especially. He had never once traveled outside the valley and knew nothing about the outside world. This by extension meant that he had never once experienced the delicacies of the continent.

For half the day, Jian Chen walked through the streets. Using the money saved in his Space Ring, Jian Chen had gone on a wild shopping spree and had managed to fill up five whole Space Belts before he had been satisfied. Hopping onto his mount, Jian Chen then rode straight for the drug stores.

About an hour later, Jian Chen arrived at a five-layered pavilion. This was where all sorts of priceless heavenly resources could be bought and sold from within the city.

“Mrowrrr….” As soon as Jian Chen and the tiger cub arrived in front of the pavilion, the tiger cub had caught a whiff of the fragrant aroma from the heavenly resources. Calling out with excitement from its spot in Jian Chen’s robe with such force, if not for the tight grip Jian Chen had on it, the cub would have dashed into the pavilion.

He had tried his best to hide the faint smile on his face when he saw the impatience of the cub. Heavenly resources all over the age of a thousand were very rare in the Gesun Kingdom and so it had gone for a very long time without tasting such a delicacy like that.

With the cub in hand, Jian Chen strode into the pavilion. There were plenty of other customers shopping around the place ranging from mercenary to merchant to attendants dashing around the place to help service everyone. From their mouths, talks of discussion about what item to buy could be heard. Several of the mercenaries could be seen buying even the several hundred year old ones.

Looking around the place, Jian Chen could see that the first story of the pavilion sold several priceless drugs, but not a single heavenly resource could be seen.

This way of merchandise selling was not unfamiliar to Jian Chen. He knew that the more expensive wares would be on the higher levels of the pavilion. So without further ado, Jian Chen walked up to the second story.

On this level, the more expensive types of drugs could be seen along with several heavenly resources. The ages of these ones were below the age of five hundred, but even here on this second floor had plenty of customers.

Again without looking around, Jian Chen headed for the third floor. But when he reached the stairwell entrance, a guard moved to stop him.

“My apologies sire, but the third floor onwards is restricted to customers with a purple card.” This guard spoke apologetically.

Without a word, Jian Chen flashed several purple cards for the man to see. At the sight of them, the guard had relinquished the path to allow for Jian Chen to continue on his way with a smile.

Compared to the second floor, the third floor was quite peaceful. Only a few scant people could be seen haggling prices with the attendants here. And on this floor, Jian Chen could finally see some of the more sealed heavenly resources displayed here and there. Right below the caseboard, their prices were clearly written with a bottom line price of ten thousand purple coins. Some of the more ancient wares had surpassed even fifteen thousand purple coins, that had been an exorbitant price.

The thousand year old heavenly resources had caused the tiger cub to open its eyes wide and start to lick its lips in anticipation.

“My lord, how may I serve you today?” A twenty something year old woman attendant suddenly came into view.

Slowly walking up to one of the more well-preserved heavenly resources, Jian Chen spoke, “I wish to speak some business with you. Have your shopkeeper come out to talk.”

She had looked at Jian Chen oddly, but without any further complaint, she went off to look for the shopkeeper.

Soon enough, a middle-aged woman with grandiose-looking robes came following the previous attendant in. Coming to a stop right in front of Jian Chen, the attendant smiled and introduced Jian Chen to the man, “My lord, this figure here is the shopkeeper.”

Looking Jian Chen up and down, the woman gave a small smile on her face, “My name is Ochire, shopkeeper of this pavilion. Might I ask to know your name, my lord? You give me a familiar feeling, as if I have seen your visage somewhere before.”

Smiling in return, Jian Chen spoke, “Shopkeeper Ochire, let us talk business. Does your store happen to have any heavenly resources over the age of a thousand?”

Seeing that Jian Chen was unwilling to disclose his identity, Ochire had decided not to push it any further and smiled. “Certainly, we have several of those heavenly resources in stock, but not by much. In total, there are twenty-eight of them over the age of a thousand. My lord, if you are asking such a question, do you perhaps mean to purchase them?”

“Shopkeeper Ochire, please calculate the total price of the twenty-eight then.” Jian Chen replied.

The woman had been taken aback. Uncertain of how to phrase the question, she asked anyways, “My lord, do you mean to say that you wish to purchase all twenty-eight of them? That will certainly not be a small sum of money.”

Jian Chen nodded his head and spoke no more of the issue.

With that confirmation, a small had lit up on Ochire’s face. A customer purchasing over twenty thousand-year old heavenly resources was an extremely rare sight to be seen.

Hurriedly taking out an abacus, Ochire started to total up the sum of all the items. “My lord.” She began. “Each of the twenty-eight heavenly resources have varying ages. Some are just a thousand years old, some are two or three thousand years old. Combined with the fact that some of them are of rare species, each one of the heavenly resources will be of different prices. As such, the cumulative price will be a million and thirty thousand purple coins. If my lord is willing to purchase them in bulk, then we will discount the remaining thirty thousand purple coins for a grand total of a million purple coins. Is that to your satisfaction?”

“Correct. Then the twenty-eight heavenly resources will be bought for a million purple coins.” Jian Chen handed a purple card over to Ochire. He knew somewhat of the pricing of heavenly resources, and so even though the ages of the heavenly resources were all different, Jian Chen knew that the price given to him had been a very fair one. In the smaller cities, heavenly resources such as these would be priced for far higher.

Taking the purple card into her trembling hands, Ochire spoke, “Should my lord ever come to my pavilion for any future thousand year old heavenly resources, this servant here will be sure to give a favorable price.”

With a small hum to himself, Jian Chen spoke, “Shopkeeper Ochire, would you perhaps have any heavenly resources over the age of ten thousand?”

“What? Heavenly resources above the age of ten thousand?” Ochire had been astounded. Regarding Jian Chen with a stupefied look, she answered, “My lord, how could heavenly resources of that age possibly be that easy to find? Ten thousand year old heavenly resources are something that the entire Tian Yuan Continent can only stumble upon once in a while. Not only are they impossible to find in markets, each time one appeared, they are worth countless of purple coins. They are something that could allow people to become anew and are known to many as ingredients to immortality. Many of the experts standing at the zenith of the continent would use such things to extend their lifespans even.”

“Perhaps shopkeeper Ochire knows of a place where such heavenly resources could be purchased at?” Jian Chen pressed on.

Pausing to think for a moment, Ochire then finally responded, “According to what I know, ten thousand year old heavenly resources are all rare. With each appearance of one, they have shown up in only the Capital Cities and Mercenary City. To my knowledge, they have appeared once every three years or so amongst the seven Capital Cities, and once a year here. A tremendous auction house always follows two days after its announcement, so if my lord is still in need of one, then your best luck would be at the auction house.”