As Shen Luo and Wuman'er talked, they reached a fork in the road, where he caught sight of a rather inconspicuous little shop down the side street.
"There, here we are." Shen Luo tipped his chin toward the little shop and walked over.
Wuman'er immediately followed him.
The storefront was small and far more understated than most shops. Without a close look, one might have mistaken it for a private residence, but the two characters for "Heavenly Mechanism" were carved vertically in Ancient Seal Script on one side of the doorframe.
Only after entering did they discover that the space inside was considerably larger than it looked from outside.
Behind the counter facing them, a clerk in a black robe was explaining something to two customers.
Shen Luo noticed that only the words "Heavenly Mechanism" were embroidered in white thread on the clerk's cuffs, with no other patterns. Clearly, he was merely a commoner of the lowest rank in Heavenly Mechanism City.
As the two approached, they heard the commoner clerk say, "Honored customers, I'm not deliberately trying to push a Wayfinding Lantern on you. It's simply indispensable if you want to enter the Cloud Dream Marsh."
"How so?" asked a tall, bald man among the two customers in a gruff voice.
"The conditions in the Cloud Dream Marsh are very different from those outside. Once you enter, even if you're a high-level cultivator at the great vehicle stage, there's no guarantee you won't encounter illusory fog and lose your way. This Wayfinding Lantern is the only thing that can show you the right direction," the Heavenly Mechanism City clerk explained.
The bald man listened attentively, but the thin, reedlike man beside him seemed distracted. He leaned over the counter, teasing something with his finger on a potted Greeting-Guests Pine