Purchasing Intelligence

The pretty young lady in the bright yellow dress smiled sweetly and said, "For the first option, you just need to purchase the current location of the Thirteen Riders of Saibei. There are no follow-up services, and it only costs twenty Spirit Coins."

"For the second option, you can exchange it for other information, but it must be information that our Heavenly Secrets Pavilion doesn't know. The price will depend on the value of the information."

"For the third option, your martial arts are quite good. You can choose to do one thing for our Heavenly Secrets Pavilion now or in the future. The price will vary depending on the difficulty of the task."

After presenting the three options, she smiled at Lin Xiao, not rushing him, and let him consider.

All three options were practical, but he immediately ruled out the second one. He didn't have any valuable information, or rather, anything he knew in this world would surely be known by the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, so it wouldn't be considered a secret.

That left only the first and third options. Lin Xiao considered for a moment and finally decided on the first option: paying the money.

Although he wasn't wealthy, he still had twenty Spirit Coins. Compared to the third option, it was simpler and more convenient.

With his current strength, he could probably complete a task from the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, but he was afraid of trouble. It was best to avoid such trouble if possible.

Having made his decision, the pretty young lady took out a transparent crystal the size of a human head and placed it on the counter. This was a special item used by the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion or other Heavenly Court organizations for transactions in other worlds. It was equivalent to a recording artifact, capable of recording the entire transaction and transmitting it to the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion at the Primordial Gate.

With this, as long as the transaction was confirmed, no one could renege on the deal. In fact, no one dared to default on their debts to major Heavenly Court institutions now.

The young lady took out something that looked like paper but wasn't, made of an unknown material. She read aloud the standard procedure for this transaction from it.

Normally, transactions weren't this complicated. The main reason was that this wasn't the Heavenly Court. In this unknown small world, all those who descended via projection methods couldn't bring Spirit Coins with them. They had to first notarize the transaction and then pay upon their return.

Lin Xiao stood still, waiting for her to finish reading. But before she could finish, a voice suddenly came from behind him:

"Hey, sorry, please wait a moment."

The young lady paused in confusion, and Lin Xiao turned his head. He saw a middle-aged man wearing a fluffy, round-edged hat standing behind him. He nodded apologetically at the young lady and said to Lin Xiao, "I saw you were interested in the tribute for the Thirteen Riders of Saibei. Coincidentally, a group of us are also interested. Would you like to join forces with us? If we can complete the mission, we'll split the spoils equally?"

Lin Xiao looked in the direction he pointed. Eight or nine other descendents were seated at a long table formed by three smaller tables. As he looked over, they all nodded in greeting.

Lin Xiao nodded back and replied to the man, "How will the spoils be divided?"

The man pointed to a handsome young man in white martial arts attire sitting at the head of the table among the group and said, "That's my boss. We spent a hundred Spirit Coins to purchase the full service. He'll cover the cost, so he'll need the main body of the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng from the spoils. The other tributes and the remaining ginseng roots will be yours to divide."

"Then never mind."

Lin Xiao lost all interest immediately and refused. His primary objective for coming here was that Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng. If he only got the roots by following them, it wouldn't be enough, let alone having to share it with others.

The middle-aged man immediately understood Lin Xiao's meaning and asked tentatively, "You're also after the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng?"

He nodded. The middle-aged man spread his hands in regret and said, "That's a pity."

He then turned and walked back to his table, shrugging his shoulders and saying something to the others. Lin Xiao saw several descendents at the table looking at him and smiling.

Lin Xiao curled his lips, turned back to the young lady, and said, "Please continue."

She smiled charmingly and resumed the interrupted ceremony.

Soon, the paper in her hand, made of an unknown material, caught fire and burned to ashes. The ceremony ended. She wrapped the crystal ball in a piece of cloth and said to Lin Xiao, "The latest location of the Thirteen Riders of Saibei hasn't arrived yet. Please wait here for a while, just like them. New information will arrive within half an hour at the latest."

Lin Xiao then understood what the descendents at the tables in the hall were waiting for. He thanked the young lady, asked for some food, and found a seat.

There were three groups of people in the hall, making it four groups including himself. Their objectives were likely the same, putting them in a competitive relationship. Lin Xiao scanned everyone present and found no one threatening. Among the more than twenty descendents, the strongest wasn't the leader of the group that had invited him earlier, but the leader of the three-person team with the fewest members in the fourth group. His Internal Energy Cultivation was about a hundred and twenty years.

If his Internal Energy hadn't been fused yet, Lin Xiao might not have been able to defeat him, but now...

It had to be said that the efficiency of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion was indeed impressive. They said half an hour, but it didn't even take that long. Lin Xiao heard the door open, and a man in ordinary clothing entered and handed a bamboo tube to the counter lady. She took the bamboo tube, opened it, and clapped her hands, saying crisply, "We have news about the Thirteen Riders of Saibei."

All the descendents in the hall looked up simultaneously. Without drinking or eating, they all crowded around. She took out a rolled-up piece of paper from the bamboo tube and unrolled it, saying, "This is the latest news. The Thirteen Riders of Saibei are currently in the... Zushan Longtan Gully area, heading south or southwest."

The first part was spoken directly, but when stating the specific location, she used Secret Sound Transmission. It was estimated that only those who had purchased the information could hear it. Lin Xiao was quite surprised that this pretty young lady's Internal Energy cultivation was quite good; without sufficient Internal Energy, she couldn't have used a skill like Secret Sound Transmission.

After delivering the news, the leaders of the other three teams immediately waved their hands and led their subordinates away. The hall quickly became empty.

Lin Xiao wasn't in a hurry. He first returned to his table and finished the food on it. He was indeed a bit hungry. As the saying goes, an emperor doesn't trouble a hungry soldier; how could he have the energy to fight if he wasn't full?

After eating, he came to the counter again. The pretty young lady smiled and asked, "They've all left. Aren't you in a hurry?"

He shrugged his shoulders, spreading his hands, "Can't be helped, eating comes first. By the way, I'd also like to buy a detailed map of the surrounding area. You should have one, right?"

As soon as this was mentioned, the pretty young lady's expression immediately turned serious, and she asked, "Yes, we do. What range and level of detail do you want?"

Lin Xiao quickly stated a few keywords:

"Within a hundred kilometers outside the northeastern pass, the approximate terrain."

"Ten Spirit Coins per portion."

"What about within three hundred kilometers and the entire country?"

"Three hundred kilometers is fifty Spirit Coins, and the entire country is two thousand Spirit Coins!"

"Give me the ten Spirit Coin one."

He couldn't help it; he had no money. His balance was only enough to buy this. He didn't know if he could get anything valuable from this descent and return. To be safe, it was better not to incur debt casually.

The young lady quickly finished the procedures, and an exquisite parchment map was in his hand. Lin Xiao waved goodbye to her in thanks and quickly left.