Immortal Alliance Headquarters

Second update. This humble Taoist had finished today's six thousand words. Fellow readers, please inspect them.

Xinyue Mountain lay in the north-central region of the Divine Land, named for the famous Xinyue Mountain within its territory. Xinyue Mountain rose by borrowing the lingering force of Kunlun, the Divine Land's greatest mountain range, yet it was not connected to the Kunlun Mountains. From afar, it looked like a lone peak standing upon the plains, somewhat abrupt. Xinyue Mountain's southern slope was gentle while its northern slope was steep, and the Immortal Alliance headquarters had been built upon its southern slope.

This had once been a forbidden ground of the Holy Infant Sect, the greatest sect of the Ancient Method Immortal Path thousands of years ago. Ge Bai, master of the Mysterious Star Observatory and the first official Modern Dharma Cultivator, had once been suppressed here by the Holy Infant Sect using the force of Kunlun. Later, Darwin, the God of Heaven's Choice and the first Free and Unfettered Cultivator, fought one against seven here, defeating every Mahayana cultivator of the Holy Infant Sect and carving a path through the encirclement with the observatory master, establishing Modern Dharma's towering prestige. Lord of Yuanli Newton, Wan Fa Guiyi Mai Siwei, and a host of other geniuses had also joined the various Modern Dharma sects together here before going to battle the Ancient Method Cultivators. After the Unforgiving Taoist joined forces with the Demon Emperor to split the Misty Palace apart, brewing an Immortal Path calamity that threw the world into chaos, the Sky Sword Palace was established here to set things right amid the disorder with the might of the Heavenly Sword. To put an end to Immortal Path turmoil, the sects led by the Five Excellences joined to establish the Immortal Alliance, whose headquarters naturally also stood here.

Though this place was already close to the Northern Wilderness and should have paled beside the thousand miles of fertile southeastern Divine Land where Wang Qi had been born, cultivators from the City of Mountains and Rivers had diverted southern waters here when the Immortal Alliance was first established, while Liuyun Sect cultivators had regulated the winds and rains of the region, making the climate quite pleasant. Over the centuries, mortals had continuously been drawn here by the rich soil and waters, settling down once more. The cultivator households of the present age did not drive them away, and over time, a great city had emerged: the Xinyue Mountain of today.

Xinyue Mountain was divided into an inner city and an outer city. The outer city was where mortals lived. Since it lay close to an important Immortal Path center and the locals included many wealthy merchants, it was prosperous. The inner city, meanwhile, belonged to cultivators. Mortal entry and exit were strictly restricted, and ordinary cultivators were forbidden from flying through the air as well. Yan Heyi's flying boat circled outside Xinyue Mountain City for a short while before descending toward the inner city's entrance.

"Tut, tut. It really was huge." Wang Qi looked at the outer city and sighed. Based on the level of historical knowledge possessed by a science-minded man like Wang Qi, the social productivity of the Nine Provinces Continent was probably only around that of the Song Dynasty. It was truly inconceivable for it to build a great city on a scale comparable to a modern city on Earth.

Xiang Qi scoffed. "And this already scared you? Once you entered the inner city, wouldn't you be scared to death?"

Wang Qi gazed into the distance. Xinyue Mountain's inner city had been built on the mountain. By rights, it should have been visible at a glance, but for some reason, Xinyue Mountain was shrouded in a thin mist that made its interior impossible to see clearly.

Xiang Qi explained, "It's the Liuyun Sect's Cloud Mountain Mist Shroud Formation. Its power is not much weaker than the formations of the Five Excellences' sects, and the spiritual energy it consumes to maintain is practically negligible among formations of the same rank. Most Immortal Alliance locations use it as their routinely activated defensive formation. If many Mahayana cultivators came to attack, we could calmly activate a stronger formation."

As the two spoke, they felt a tremor beneath their feet. The flying boat had already landed. Xiang Qi led Wang Qi as they leaped down from the flying boat and landed on the ground. No city wall stood between the inner and outer cities; they were separated entirely by the clouds and mist of the Cloud Mountain Mist Shroud Formation. The formation had several openings through which cultivators could freely enter and exit, but it blocked mortals without mana. Wang Qi noticed that the ground beneath him was paved with bluestone slabs, resembling some kind of plaza. At the center of the "plaza" was the band of clouds and mist, with cultivators constantly passing through it. Some mortals wandered endlessly through the plaza as well, likely hoping to strike it lucky and obtain the faintest thread of immortal fortune.

Yan Heyi formed several hand seals. The spirit boat hummed and shook a few times, then began shrinking before turning into a streak of light that flew into Yan Heyi's sleeve. After putting away the flying boat, Yan Heyi said to them, "Go in. Also, Wang Qi, remember to circulate your mana. At the early Qi Refining stage, you don't have much strength, and the Cloud Mountain Mist Shroud Formation could easily block you outside."

With that, Yan Heyi walked toward the inner city. Xiang Qi and Wang Qi followed close behind.

After passing through the band of clouds and mist, Wang Qi's eyes widened. "Holy shit..."

Winding corridors and high, sharply upturned eaves might have been common in this world, but what if the twisting, turning corridors stretched through the air, and those ancient-style buildings with lofty eaves stood a hundred stories tall?

The streets were packed shoulder to shoulder, and every single person was a cultivator. Shops of every kind lined the streets, a dazzling array beyond compare. If the buildings had not all carried the Divine Land's distinctive style, Wang Qi would almost have thought he had transmigrated back to Earth and arrived in some extravagantly developed metropolis!

Zhen Chanzi could not help sighing. "The customs of this age truly differed greatly from those of my time."

Wang Qi asked curiously, "Old man, what was it like in your day?"

Zhen Chanzi smiled bitterly. "Heh heh. Cultivators did have places for trade, but no one ever managed them. People gathered and dispersed as their hearts pleased. I fear they were not even as good as the better-run mortal marketplaces."

Yan Heyi had originally been leading the two toward Xinyue Mountain, where the Immortal Alliance headquarters stood. Hearing the conversation between Wang Qi and Zhen Chanzi, she stopped and said, "Wang Qi, if you're curious, you may go have a look around on your own. There is nothing in this matter that requires you."

Wang Qi felt that this was simply a pillow arriving just as sleep overcame him. It would have been even better if this aunt had not kept such a sour face. He greeted them and was about to wander off by himself when Xiang Qi grabbed the youth, who was about to run away, and sighed. "Sigh, do you have any sense of propriety at all? If you ran off just like that, how would I find you?" As she spoke, she took a small bell and a palm-sized black rectangular artifact from her storage pouch. "Here. Don't lose this bell; it's a person-finding artifact. I'll lend you my spirit pool for now. Don't go crazy, and don't buy things recklessly, or you'll be in for it."

"Spirit pool?" Wang Qi examined the artifact in his hand closely, feeling that it looked far too much like a power bank. "How do I use it?"

Xiang Qi slapped her forehead. By then, Yan Heyi had already gone far away. The girl did not dare delay and said, "If you're shopping, the seller will naturally bring out something similar. Just touch your spirit pool against theirs, and that'll do it. You still don't know how to control the output... Forget it. Just remember to ask for receipts. At the Immortal Alliance headquarters, no one would dare make unscrupulous money."

With that, Xiang Qi hurried after Yan Heyi.

Wang Qi stood at the roadside, holding the artifact in bafflement.

"Old man... do you recognize roughly what this is for?"

Zhen Chanzi's Mahayana Stage divine sense wrapped around the artifact called a spirit pool as he examined it for a while. "I can barely make sense of the inscribed talisman formations. But it should be for storing spiritual energy."

"Spiritual energy?"

Zhen Chanzi explained, "I've told you before, haven't I? The things needed by those on the Immortal Path are difficult to measure in gold and silver. In the past, we most commonly used Spirit Stones as a medium of exchange. Nowadays, they likely use spiritual energy directly."

Wang Qi frowned. "How did they calculate its value?"

Zhen Chanzi said, "The spiritual energy inside this artifact exists in a very peculiar fashion. It isn't mixed into one mass; rather, at an even smaller level, it is divided into portions. The spiritual energy flows out by portions."

Discontinuity?

Wang Qi was immensely intrigued. After what he had learned over the past few days, he had already confirmed that the cultivation methods of the Misty Palace among the Five Excellences were connected to Quantum Mechanics. This meant that discontinuity still held true in this world. Time consisted of countless Planck units of time, and energy was also released discontinuously according to Planck's constant—though, naturally, this world's universal constants might differ somewhat from Earth's.

And this spirit pool seemed to indicate that spiritual energy also possessed discontinuity?

Wang Qi shook his head. Now was not the time for research. He continued asking, "Do you know how to use it?"

Zhen Chanzi said irritably, "Look around. Since this thing is used for buying and selling, it ought to be extremely common."

Wang Qi watched the pedestrians around him. After selecting goods from the small stalls, quite a few people would take out spirit pools, press them together with the spirit pools of stall owners or shopkeepers, and complete the transaction in just a few seconds.

So it was a bank card plus a POS terminal?

Zhen Chanzi asked, "Go have a look around. You can be considered utterly destitute now; you don't even have the most basic cultivator's gear."

Wang Qi shook his head. "It's someone else's money."

Zhen Chanzi said, "She's a Foundation Establishment cultivator from a major sect. Any one of the sword discs on her person is worth the entire fortune of ten Qi Refining cultivators."

"If you're acquainted but not close enough to share a purse, do less of this sort of thing." Wang Qi refused. "The urgent matter now is that manuscript."

Zhen Chanzi asked doubtfully, "You still have no leads?"

Wang Qi lifted his chin and said disdainfully, "Without paper and pen, how am I supposed to analyze it? Let's find some paper and writing tools first, then find a place to take a proper look!"

This humble Taoist shamelessly asks for recommendations and bookmarks.