Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Jinsha Square City was located on Jinxia Mountain to the south of White Sand River Oasis. It was less than two hundred meters from the base camp of the Chen clan in White Camel Ridge.
In the beginning, Jinxia Mountain had a Lower Grade 3 natural spiritual vein. When Jinsha Square City expanded, the Chen clan had spent a lot of money to upgrade the spiritual vein to one that ranked at Advanced Grade 3 to allow a sufficient amount of spiritual Qi emissions that could satisfy several Foundation Establishment cultivators and hundreds of Qi Refinement cultivators at one time.
As such, the number of resident immortal cultivators at Jinsha Square City was five hundred with more than one hundred shops in the market.
As the only market for immortal cultivators within a radius of tens of thousands of miles, Immortal cultivators came to Jinsha Square City every day to buy or sell cultivation materials. The poll tax collected annually from the marketplace alone could total up to thousands of spiritual stones.
Some had calculated that just the poll tax imposed on visiting immortal cultivators and the annual rent paid by the shops and cultivation caves in Jinsha Square City could provide the Chen clan with a net income of ten to twenty thousand spiritual stones. And this was aside from the Chen clan’s profits from their own shops in the marketplace.
With such a large amount of income, it was easy for them to attract the envy of others. In order to protect their golden goose, the Chen clan not only set up a Lower Grade 4 array formation in the market but also stationed more than three of their Foundation Establishment cultivators there all year round.
Combined with the law enforcement team of the Chen clan, even Zifu cultivators or Grade 4 demon beasts would not be able to break through the array formation and stationed manpower for several hours before the clan leader Chen Yaohui would come to the rescue.
Zhou Yang left the Chen clan’s gateway and rode on the Camel Beast for another day before he arrived at the city’s border that was shrouded by the array formation’s fog.
Zhou Yang saw a few Chen clan cultivators collecting poll tax. Usually, an Advanced-Stage Qi Refinement cultivator like him who wanted to stay in the city for less than ten days would have to pay one lower-tier spiritual stone as a fee. If he wanted to stay for more than ten days, then he would have to pay an extra lower-tier spiritual stone as a detention fee.
However, as an allied clan of the Chen clan, Zhou clan cultivators only had to pay one-third of the poll tax when they entered the market.
Zhou Yang was not sure how long he would have to stay in the marketplace, so he paid the one-year fee first. Then, he brought his payment receipt and a refined iron token with a special mark before slowly walking into the marketplace shrouded in clouds.
An immortal cultivation clan’s marketplace was, of course, very different from the ones built by ordinary mortals.
Upon entry, Zhou Yang discovered that what looked like a marketplace shrouded in clouds from the outside was actually a spiritual mountain that was hundreds of meters tall. There were pavilions, palaces, lofts, and pagodas on one side of the mountain, emitting all kinds of dazzling spiritual lights that attracted cultivators from all directions to go there.
Day or night didn’t matter in the marketplace.
Zhou Yang stood at the foot of the mountain and looked around for a while before spotting the Yuquan Pavilion among the many pavilions.
The Yuquan Pavilion was located on the side of a pond in the marketplace. The entire building was seventy feet tall and was made of hundred-year-old ironwood. It had three floors where the lower two floors sold magical artifacts, pills, spiritual talismans, and other items refined by Zhou clan cultivators while the upper floor was used to receive distinguished guests.
The two shops that the Chen clan had given to the Zhou clan back then were the Yuquan Pavilion and the Drunken Immortal Restaurant – the latter had been managed by Zhou Yang’s mother, Lin Yuting.
Before Zhou Xuanhao reached the realm of Foundation Establishment, he was in charge of Yuquan Pavilion. Now that he was back at Yuquan Lake Oasis, the Zhou clan cultivator in charge now was the new elder, Zhou Xuanlin.
Zhou Xuanlin was ranked seventh among the Xuan generation. He was also a Grade 2 artifact refiner of the Zhou clan besides the clan leader and Zhou Yang. However, his talent in artifact refinement was not very good. Despite already being at Qi Refinement Level 9, Zhou Xuanlin could only refine up to Intermediate Grade 2 magical artifacts with not-very-high success rates.
Besides Zhou Xuanlin, there were also three juniors from the Yuan generation – Zhou Ping, Zhou Yu, and Zhou Xiong – and an external Zhou clan relative – Qian Hongyu. They were the sales assistants of the shop.
Qian Hongyu was Zhou Xuanchen’s Dao partner who ranked twelfth in the Zhou family’s Xuan generation. Zhou Ping, Zhou Yu, and Zhou Xiong were ranked fourth, fifth, and thirteenth in the Yuan generation respectively. Zhou Yang was most familiar with his thirteenth brother, Zhou Xiong as they were closest in age to each other.
Zhou Xiong had been assigned to Yuquan Pavilion to observe and learn from the business because of his younger age. The clan wanted him to improve his eloquence and observation skills.
When Zhou Yang led the Camel Beast to the front of the building, Zhou Xiong immediately recognized the former whose name had already spread throughout the entire clan.
“Zhou Yang! Why are you here? I didn’t hear Seventh Uncle and the others mention this matter beforehand!”
Zhou Xiong was five years younger than Zhou Yang. He was turning twenty-seven years old that year and was growing into quite a handsome young man.
Zhou Xiong was surprised to see Zhou Yang. The former hurriedly ran forward and took the reins from Zhou Yang’s hands before greeting the new arrival warmly. “Zhou Yang, you must have had a hard journey coming all the way here. Don’t worry, I will help you take care of this Camel Beast in the backyard. It just so happens that Seventh Uncle is upstairs today. You can see him on the third floor.”
Zhou Yang was now a prominent figure in the Zhou clan. Even if the news of his father’s breakthrough to the realm of Foundation Establishment had not reached White Sand River Oasis yet, Zhou Yang’s achievement as an Advanced Grade 2 artifact refiner and Level 8 Qi Refinement cultivator was enough for Zhou Xiong and the others of the same generation to look up to him.
Now, everyone in the Zhou clan knew that if nothing unexpected happened, Zhou Yang would definitely be the next clan leader of the Zhou clan.
As such, wouldn’t it be beneficial for them to start building a good relationship with Zhou Yang now?
Besides the Yuan generation cultivators like Zhou Xiong, only a small number of the elders of the Xuan generation dared to offend Zhou Yang.
After all, the strong were respected in the immortal cultivation world. One’s identity as an elder was not a reason for them to act recklessly, not if they took the future into consideration.
Zhou Yang had lived two lifetimes which meant that his actual age was much older than his appearance. So he did not think Zhou Xiong’s or the other elders’ behavior was inappropriate.
He would also not use his status to suppress others because he never liked it when others did so. He preferred to treat others how he would like to be treated.
“Then I’ll have to trouble you with my Camel Beast because I do have something to discuss with Seventh Uncle.” Zhou Yang thanked Zhou Xiong, let go of the reins, and walked into the building.
When Zhou Ping and Zhou Yu heard the sound of footsteps approaching, they immediately perked up. They had been feeling listless due to the lack of guests that day. The duo thought that guests were coming, so they quickly prepared to welcome them.
“Are you…are you Zhou Yang?!”
“Zhou Yang, why are you here in the market?”
When they saw that the guest was Zhou Yang, whom they had not seen for many years, Zhou Ping and Zhou Yu were also surprised because, like Zhou Xiong, they had not received any notice in advance. After all, this was a visit by the clan’s genius!
“Zhou Ping, Zhou Yu, it has been many years since we last met. How have you been?” Zhou Yang smiled slightly and greeted his two clan brothers with a cordial smile.
Zhou Ping and Zhou Yu were flattered. “Zhou Yang, you’re too kind. Long time no see. We miss you a lot too.”
It was true that they had missed him. The two of them had been away from home for many years and could only return to the clan once every three to five years. If they wanted to know about the clan, they had to rely on the camel trading group, and most of the news they had heard was related to Zho Yang.
Every time they heard about him, they could not help but think about how that taciturn and somewhat withdrawn youth from the past had managed to do something that countless elders of the Zhou clan had not been able to do in the past two hundred years.
“Our younger brothers and sisters back at the clan also miss the two of you very much, especially our fourteenth and fifteenth siblings. They always talk about wanting to quickly come of age and descend the mountain to come to the marketplace and explore the immortal cultivation world with you.”
Zhou Yang chuckled. He could tell that the two of them were trying to be reserved, so he smiled and tried to break the ice by talking about some interesting things about the younger cultivators of the same generation.
Sure enough, when they heard him talk about things other than cultivation, skills, and talents, the reserved front Zhou Ping and Zhou Yu put up had relaxed slightly. They hurriedly responded by sharing some interesting stories from their side.
After chatting like this for a while, the initial awkwardness from not seeing each other for so long gradually disappeared.
Of course, during their conversation, the two of them could not help but express their admiration for Zhou Yang’s rapid improvement in cultivation, and they also asked Zhou Yang for advice on some of the problems they had been facing in their cultivation.
Zhou Yang generously helped them, trying his best to answer their questions, and even lent the notes of his cultivation experience to them.
The three of them chatted for about an hour when Zhou Yu slapped his forehead and said, “Oh my, we have been so engrossed in catching up that we forgot that you must have some official business to attend to. Seventh Uncle is upstairs. We won’t delay you any longer.”
When Zhou Ping heard this, he was also startled. Then, he hurriedly nodded and replied, “Zhou Yu is right. Zhou Yang, your official business is more important. We are not in a hurry to catch up on our old matters. After you finish your official business, we will have plenty of time to chat.”
Zhou Yang agreed with his brothers. Through the conversation with his two clan brothers, he now had a slightly better understanding of the recent situation at Yuquan Pavilion. “Alright, then. I’m heading up now to pay my respects to Seventh Uncle. We will meet later..”