Observing the City

"Bad habit!"

The clerk muttered, but Zhao Wu did not catch it and looked at him blankly.

The apothecary glared at the clerk, opened the stone box, and narrowed his eyes as he inspected it closely. It was a rather lengthy process, but Zhao Wu had both the patience and the confidence. There was no doubt that the box contained a thousand Shrimp Whisker Grass stalks of excellent quality. Moreover, to deal with the shop's "routine squeezing," he had padded the good stock with inferior goods; there were even an extra hundred or so stalks in the box. It should have been foolproof.

The shop fell silent for a time, while the clerk beside them had already gone in and out who knew how many times. On his final trip, under the apothecary's direction, he ran to the back hall and fetched the most crucial item in Zhao Wu's transaction: the Three Yang Talisman Sword!

The clerk placed the sword case on the counter for Zhao Wu to inspect. Though Zhao Wu knew nothing at all about such things, and did not believe that a great establishment like Bai Ri Mansion would cheat him with a fake, the matter was too important. He opened the case and scrutinized the sword itself and the craftsman's plaque attached behind it, as if he wanted to stuff his very eyes inside.

After a long while, Zhao Wu finally closed the case. With that, all the procedures were complete. His hands trembled a little, but he still swiftly stuffed the foot-long case into the pack he had prepared beforehand and turned to leave. Behind him, the clerk coughed and reminded him, "Be careful. That sword could buy you an entire garden estate in the new city!"

Zhao Wu stumbled. Fortunately, he had been mentally prepared and did not dare entertain any greedy thoughts. He hurried out the door, did not return to the lower city, and instead kept going, racing in a puff of smoke toward the place his employer had specified.

The shop clerk followed him all the way outside and waited until he had run far away before patting down his lower robe and turning back into the shop. Not far off, two men dressed in short, fitted outfits saw that gesture and emerged from the shade, then followed Zhao Wu.

Zhao Wu remained utterly unaware of what was happening behind him. In high spirits, he found the well-known Guangfu Street in the new city and located the first establishment at its entrance, the Rugui Inn. He sought out the proprietor, and after only two sentences, the two matched their signals. Zhao Wu deposited the sword case and his pack at the counter, while the proprietor took out ten taels of gold he had prepared beforehand and stuffed them into Zhao Wu's hands, unable to hide the envy on his face.

Zhao Wu wandered onto the street as if in a dream. That was it? Ten taels of gold—enough to cover his expenses for the next five years—were now his? The street teemed with people, yet no one noticed this hanger-on staring straight ahead with vacant eyes. Only the two men trailing him from afar watched him, their faces filled with helplessness.

The two men did not waste any time. Before long, one of them split off and entered the building.

Meanwhile, after the proprietor accepted the pack, he did not bother asking what was inside. He summoned a clerk, handed him the item, and told him to deliver it to the guest in Room Five, Xuan Grade. The clerk had barely left when the man who had been tailing Zhao Wu came in behind him to ask about what had just happened, hinting both openly and subtly at the illustrious status of his master's household.

The proprietor was quite straightforward and told him everything without holding back. He also casually informed the man that Room Five, Xuan Grade had been booked by Wang Xiaoqi, an idle fellow from the city, who had prepaid two days' lodging.

At this, the man's face turned green. Just then, the clerk who had delivered the pack returned, so he dragged him over for questioning. As expected, the clerk said that there had been no one in the room and the door had not even been locked. There was only a note telling him to place the pack on the table.

The man immediately rushed inside. Before long, he returned to the main hall and widened his eyes as he watched the flow of people coming and going. Yet he soon gave up. Rugui Inn served both meals and lodging, and it was mealtime now. People streamed in and out constantly. Who knew which one was their target?

Outside, his companion happened to poke his head in. The two exchanged a look, both dejected and crestfallen.

As the listless men who had been tailing Zhao Wu headed back, Yu Ci sat down in an upper Heaven-grade room at the Fuan Inn, one street away from Rugui Inn, smiling. Before him, four Three Yang Talisman Swords lay neatly arranged on the table, awaiting his inspection.

The Three Yang Talisman Sword looked much like the Nine Yang Talisman Sword. At the very least, both were made of wood, and both bore talismans painted with an unknown vermilion spiritual medium. The only difference lay in the complexity and quality of those talismans, yet that alone created a gulf as vast as heaven and earth between their power.

As he had seen, by ordinary standards, the Three Yang Talisman Sword could already be considered a divine weapon. The flaming blade it condensed possessed advantages beyond those of ordinary metal blades, and it was indeed worth a thousand pieces of gold. In this respect, Bai Ri Mansion was not cheating anyone. Yet compared with the Nine Yang Talisman Sword, whether in lethality or the strength of its flaming blade, it still lagged an unreachable distance behind.

Both swords used blades condensed from flame to wound their enemies. Yu Ci had once used the Nine Yang Talisman Sword to cut Poisonous Snake Monk's hand before killing him. But if it had been a Three Yang Talisman Sword, that monk would likely have crushed the flaming blade barehanded. That was the difference.

Now that the Nine Yang Talisman Sword had been vaporized while fighting the ghost beast, Yu Ci was in particular need of a weapon that suited his hand. Thus, he had also developed some expectations for the higher-grade "Pure Yang Talisman Sword." Unfortunately, even though he possessed the complete process for making a Pure Yang Talisman Sword, it would still take a rather long time, and he had no time for that at present.

What truly interested Yu Ci now, and what he had poured a great deal of effort into, was something even more interesting.

Shifting into a more comfortable position, he opened the Zhaoshen Map and, with practiced familiarity, settled his thoughts into it and found his targets. The map clearly showed the two men who had been tailing Zhao Wu sneaking timidly back into their master's shop to receive a scolding. Yu Ci smiled as he picked up the cup on the table. Without caring about the taste of the cold tea inside, he took a light sip, feeling immensely satisfied.

Bai Ri Mansion was wealthy and powerful; a few Three Yang Talisman Swords meant nothing to it. But four thousand stalks of high-quality Shrimp Whisker Grass were quite extraordinary. If Yu Ci had brought them all out at once, he would inevitably have drawn attention. So he had put in some effort, exchanging them in three separate batches and through three different methods for these four Three Yang Talisman Swords.

The first time, when he exchanged for one sword, Bai Ri Mansion's steward had merely been a little surprised. The second time, when he suddenly exchanged for two swords in one go, they began to sense that something was wrong. By the time he exchanged for the fourth sword today, it was no longer a matter of surprise or not—it was outright mockery. Especially since, though Yu Ci used a different method each time, they all shared one trait: he had city hangers-on sell the grass for him. In this off-season for purchasing Shrimp Whisker Grass, that was simply too conspicuous.

Even if Bai Ri Mansion possessed the best patience in the world, it could not endure this. This time, it directly sent people to tail him, hoping to uncover Yu Ci's background. Unfortunately, under Yu Ci's interlocking arrangements—and, more importantly, the unfathomable functions of the Zhaoshen Map—they could only be left dizzy and disoriented, returning empty-handed.

Yu Ci's original intention in doing this had naturally been to err on the side of caution. Yet he had to admit that he could have handled it more simply and discreetly. If he had not inserted so many steps in the middle, the results might even have been better, and it would not have indirectly turned into a provocation against Bai Ri Mansion as it had now.

The reason things had ended up this way was purely because of his mischievous streak.

Ever since he had discovered this function of the Zhaoshen Bronze Mirror and used it repeatedly, Yu Ci had savored the marrow and craved the taste, gradually picking up this bad habit without realizing it.

How could he not pick up such a bad habit?

After putting away the four talisman swords, Yu Ci moved the Zhaoshen Map directly before him in the most comfortable position, then switched to its broadest view. In an instant, the thoughts he had settled within it seemed to sprout wings and soar high into the sky. Beneath the lingering dark clouds, the majestic giant city revealed its true face to him, with almost nothing concealed.

Juebi City had been built along the mountains on both sides. On one side lay Dan Cliff, behind whose precipice rose a sheer wall smooth as a mirror. To the northeast stretched the gentle slope bearing the city. When it was first built, the city was the cliff, and the cliff was the city—seamlessly fused, indistinguishable from one another. But after hundreds and thousands of years of development, the city had spread down the slope across the entire basin and continued expanding northeastward. By now, it had connected with the remaining ridges of Boundary Breaking Mountain, forming a long and narrow yet incomparably magnificent mountain city.

The rain that had just fallen flowed down from the mountains on either side, gathering in the city lake at the heart of the basin. It then traveled southeast along artificially dug channels, forming a spectacular waterfall at Ten-Li Slope outside the city before joining the Ba River that wound around it.

Such a vast yet direct impression was something even local residents who had lived in the city for decades would find difficult to possess.

But that was not all!

In Yu Ci's eyes, within the majestic metropolis, small houses and grand courtyards stood row upon row. Hundreds of thousands of people packed together like ants. Regardless of age or gender, wealth or station, whether formidable heroes or cultivators and immortals, all were reflected in the Zhaoshen Map without the slightest omission. As for lofty residences, secret chambers, and hidden mechanisms, they were no different from empty decorations. The deeds and movements of countless people, their joys, angers, sorrows, and delights, shifted every moment. Yet no matter how they changed, all lay exposed at a glance, with no privacy whatsoever from him.

At this moment, he was a god above the city, holding the vast metropolis and its hundreds of thousands of inhabitants within his palm. Such experiences left Yu Ci intoxicated every time, and made him feel with utter clarity that he had stepped onto a higher level.

One's vision determined one's breadth of heart, and one's breadth of heart guided one's achievements. While others still haggled over petty gains before their eyes, Yu Ci already possessed a grand perspective a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand times beyond that of ordinary people. This also destined the goals he pursued to far exceed ordinary imagination and transcend the bounds of the mundane world.

And he knew very clearly that this rise in level was closely tied to the improvement of his cultivation. Without a breakthrough into the Spirit Communion realm, none of this could ever become reality.

Immortality and cultivation truly were the most correct choice he had ever made in his life!

"Standing" in midair, Yu Ci shifted the direction of his attention. If he had to choose what interested him most in Juebi City, it would undoubtedly be the "upper city" built upon Dan Cliff—or, more directly, Bai Ri Mansion itself.

In that instant, he did not move, but Juebi City did.

Buildings and crowds rushed past like a flood, then abruptly froze in the next moment. The scene had changed, and Dan Cliff, where Bai Ri Mansion stood, crouched before him like a giant beast beneath the dark clouds.

Yu Ci's thoughts reflected onto it like a ghost, passing through layer after layer of gates and courtyards. He did not directly lock onto any target. Instead, he let his thoughts drift through it; this immersive sensation was undoubtedly a pleasure. These days, his greatest daily pastime was observing every move made by the people within Bai Ri Mansion through the Zhaoshen Map. There was no malice in it, of course. Nor did he intend to seek Bai Ri Mansion's permission beforehand.