Purchasing Information

The pretty young lady in a bright yellow dress smiled sweetly and said:

"The first option is simply to purchase the current location of the Thirteen Riders of Saibei. There will be no follow-up service. It costs only twenty Spirit Coins."

"For the second option, you can exchange other information, but it must be information unknown to the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion. The price will depend on the value of the information."

"For the third option, your skills are quite good. You can choose to perform one task for the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, either now or in the future. The price will depend on the difficulty of the task."

After explaining the three options, she looked at Lin Xiao with a beaming smile. She did not urge him, simply letting him consider.

All three options were quite practical, but the first one Lin Xiao ruled out was the second. He had no valuable intelligence—or rather, anything he currently knew about this world was certainly already known to the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion. None of it could be considered confidential.

That left only the first and third options. After some thought, Lin Xiao ultimately chose the first one and paid.

Although he was not particularly wealthy, he still had twenty Spirit Coins. Compared with the third option, this was simpler and more convenient.

With his current strength, he should be able to complete a task from the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, but he hated trouble. If this kind of trouble could be avoided, it was best to avoid it.

After he made his choice, the pretty young lady brought out a transparent crystal the size of a human head and placed it on the counter. This was a special tool used by the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion or other Heavenly Court institutions to conduct 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, no one could renege once the transaction was established. In fact, no one currently dared to renege on debts to major Heavenly Court institutions.

The young lady took out something resembling paper but made of an unknown material. It was not actually paper. She read aloud the prescribed procedure for this transaction.

Ordinary transactions were not this troublesome. The main issue was that this place was not the Heavenly Court. In this unknown minor world, Descenders who arrived through projection could not carry Spirit Coins with them. They could only have the transaction notarized first and repay the money after returning.

Lin Xiao stood motionless, waiting for her to finish reading. Before she could finish, however, a voice suddenly came from behind him:

"Hey, sorry, wait a moment."

The young lady stopped in confusion. Lin Xiao also turned around and saw a middle-aged man standing behind him, wearing a round-edged fur-trimmed scholar's hat. The man apologetically nodded at the young lady, then said to Lin Xiao:

"I saw that you're interested in the tribute offerings of the Thirteen Riders of Saibei. As it happens, our group is interested in them too. Would you like to act together with us? If we complete the task, we'll split the wealth evenly."

Lin Xiao looked in the direction he indicated. Eight or nine Descenders sat around a long table made by joining three tables together. When they saw him look over, they all nodded in greeting.

Lin Xiao nodded back, then asked the man:

"How will the spoils be divided?"

The man pointed at a handsome young man seated at the head of the group, dressed in a white martial artist's outfit, and said:

"That's my boss. We spent one hundred Spirit Coins to purchase the full service, and the money came from our boss. So when the time comes, he'll need the main body of the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng from the spoils. You can divide the other tribute offerings and the remaining ginseng fibers among yourselves."

"Then I'll pass."

Lin Xiao immediately lost interest and refused. His main purpose in coming was that Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng. If he followed them, he would be left with only some roots, which would not be enough even if they all went to him, let alone if he had to divide them with others.

The middle-aged man immediately understood what Lin Xiao meant and tried asking:

"You want the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng too?"

He nodded. The middle-aged man regretfully spread his hands and said:

"Then that's truly unfortunate."

After saying that, he turned and left. When he returned to the table, he spread both hands and said something Lin Xiao could not make out. Several Descenders at the table then looked at Lin Xiao and laughed.

Lin Xiao curled his lip, turned back to the young lady, and said:

"Please continue."

She smiled sweetly and resumed the interrupted ritual.

Before long, the sheet of unknown material in her hand caught fire and burned to ashes, bringing the ritual to an end. She wrapped the crystal ball in a piece of cloth and said to Lin Xiao:

"The latest location of the Thirteen Riders of Saibei has not arrived yet. You can wait here with the others for a while. New information will arrive within half an hour at the latest."

Only then did Lin Xiao understand what the several groups of Descenders in the hall were waiting for. He thanked the young lady, ordered some food, and found a seat.

There were three groups in the main hall. Counting him, there were four groups, and their targets were probably all the same, making them competitors. Lin Xiao swept his gaze over everyone and did not find a single threatening opponent. Among the more than twenty Descenders, the strongest was not the leader of the group that had invited him, but the leader of the three-person group—the smallest of the four teams. His internal energy cultivation was roughly one hundred and twenty years.

Before his internal energy had fused, Lin Xiao might not necessarily have been able to defeat him. But now...

He had to admit, the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion's efficiency was truly impressive. They had said half an hour, but in reality, not even half that time had passed before Lin Xiao heard the door open. An ordinarily dressed man entered and handed a bamboo tube to the young lady at the counter. She took it, opened it for a look, then clapped her hands and announced crisply:

"There's news about the Thirteen Riders of Saibei!"

Every Descender in the main hall raised their head at the same time. They stopped drinking and eating and all crowded over. She took a rolled-up note from the bamboo tube, unfolded it, and said:

"This is the latest information. The Thirteen Riders of Saibei are currently in the area of Longtan Gully at Mount Zu. Their estimated direction is south or southwest."

She had spoken openly at first, but when she gave the exact location afterward, she used Secret Sound Transmission. Presumably, only the few people who had purchased the information could hear it. Lin Xiao was rather surprised that this pretty young lady's internal energy cultivation was quite impressive. Without sufficient internal energy, there was no way to use a technique like Secret Sound Transmission.

After she finished announcing the information, the leaders of the other three groups immediately waved their hands and led their subordinates away. The main hall soon became empty.

Lin Xiao was not in a hurry. He first returned to the table and ate everything on it. He was indeed a little hungry. As the saying went, "The emperor did not keep hungry soldiers." If his stomach was not full, how would he have the strength to fight for anything?

After eating, he returned to the counter. The pretty young lady asked with a smile:

"They've all left. Aren't you worried?"

He spread his hands and shrugged.

"I can't help it. Food comes first. Right, I'd also like to buy a detailed map of the surrounding area. You should have one here, right?"

At that, the pretty young lady immediately became serious and asked:

"Yes. How large an area and how detailed would you like?"

Lin Xiao quickly listed several requirements:

"Within one hundred kilometers beyond the northeastern pass, with the general terrain."

"Ten Spirit Coins per copy."

"What about three hundred kilometers, and the entire nation?"

"Three hundred kilometers costs fifty Spirit Coins. A map of the entire nation costs two thousand Spirit Coins!"

"Give me the ten-Spirit-Coin one."

He had no choice. He had no money, and his remaining balance was only enough to buy this one. He also did not know whether he could obtain anything valuable when he returned from this descent. To be safe, it was better not to incur debts casually.

The young lady quickly completed the formalities, and a delicate parchment map was placed in his hand. Lin Xiao waved to her in thanks and hurried out.