Treasure Gathering Pavilion

As one of the continent's foremost cities, Shrek City had a permanent population of several million.

After a week of demanding but rewarding classes and cultivation, Lu Yi planned to give himself a short break.

More importantly, he wanted to use the chance to buy medicinal ingredients and see whether there was anything else that could help his cultivation.

He made his way through bustling streets lined with buildings that showed their age, their facades hung with signs in all sorts of colors.

The peculiar combination gave Lu Yi a strange feeling. It was as though he were in one of the oldest districts of the Foggy City, yet also back on the shopping street of some county town near his hometown. That was the feeling Shrek City gave him.

Still, Shrek City's streets were laid out fairly neatly. Before long, Lu Yi spotted an unusually shaped building in the distance.

It had only four floors but stood more than twenty meters tall. Much of its exterior was painted and decorated in gold, and with its treasure-bowl shape, it really did look like a giant treasure bowl.

This was the Treasure Gathering Pavilion, one of Shrek Academy's major holdings in Shrek City.

Lu Yi offered no opinion on the building's appearance. He was beyond the point of complaining.

Perhaps the intention behind its construction had been good, but that shape on a building, paired with those glittering golden walls, was hideously ugly.

Turning his attention back to the Treasure Gathering Pavilion's main entrance, he saw several young women in matching attire standing in two rows just inside as greeters.

They all looked seventeen or eighteen, with lovely faces and figures. Against the resplendent interior, they were even more dazzling, making it hard to look away.

Even passersby, men and women alike, kept turning their heads for a glimpse of their beauty.

Lu Yi stopped outside to check the sign above the entrance before stepping in. An attendant opened the door for him before he could do it himself.

As Lu Yi entered, the greeters in both rows leaned forward slightly and called out in sweet, perfectly synchronized voices, "Welcome, honored guest!" It made him feel as though he had walked into an upscale club.

Just then, a young woman at the end of the row, dressed in a yellow dress with a high slit, came forward. She stopped before Lu Yi and said respectfully, "Welcome to the Treasure Gathering Pavilion, honored guest. I'm a sales assistant here. Please tell me what you're looking for."

"I'd like to buy something to help with cultivation. Before that, though, I want to pawn a Storage Soul Tool. Does your establishment offer that service?"

Once Lu Yi explained why he had come, the sales assistant saw that he was not merely browsing and smiled. "Rest assured, honored guest. The Treasure Gathering Pavilion handles almost every kind of business related to Soul Masters. Please follow me."

Lu Yi nodded and followed her to another section.

This was clearly where items were appraised. After being examined and assigned an estimated value, they were sorted by type and grade, then put on display or into storage. Soul Tools had their own dedicated appraisers.

After the sales assistant introduced him, Lu Yi took the Storage Bracelet off his wrist and handed it to the bespectacled middle-aged man before him.

Before coming here, Lu Yi had taken everything out of it and piled it in his dorm room, locking the more valuable things in a cabinet.

It was Shrek Academy, after all. Few people would even pick up a Silver Soul Coin dropped on the ground; no one would care about his meager possessions.

The middle-aged man took the Storage Bracelet. He did not need to inspect it closely to know, from the feel of it alone, that it was no cheap item.

After examining the materials used in its core and the Soul Tool array engraved on it, he broke into a smile.

"High-end stuff!" the middle-aged appraiser exclaimed. He set down the bracelet and his magnifying glass, then looked up. "How much do you want for it?"

Lu Yi was just about to explain when the sales assistant beside him said, "The customer wants to pawn it for cash and redeem it later."

The appraiser gave a slight nod and immediately took out a form. "Since you're pawning it, the amount will be lower."

Once he had filled out the form, he passed it to Lu Yi to sign.

Lu Yi's expression changed when he read the details.

The eight-cubic-meter Storage Bracelet was valued at eighty thousand Gold Soul Coins, far more than he had expected. The amount he could borrow against it, however, was thirty thousand less: only fifty thousand Gold Soul Coins.

To redeem it within a year, he would have to pay sixty thousand Gold Soul Coins. The price would rise by ten thousand for each additional year, up to a limit of three years. After that, the Treasure Gathering Pavilion would have the right to dispose of it.

Lu Yi did a quick calculation. Overall, the terms were not predatory, but they were hardly generous. Still, Shrek was a powerful institution with vast resources. It was good enough that its shop was not throwing its weight around.

Just as Lu Yi was about to sign, the appraiser noticed his Shrek freshman uniform and could not help pointing out, "You're a Shrek freshman, aren't you? Once you become a full Shrek student, the interest rate will drop by ten percent, and you'll have until graduation to redeem it. If you become a core disciple of the outer court, the interest will be waived entirely."

That was undoubtedly good news. Lu Yi nodded respectfully and thanked him, then signed his name with a few strokes of the pen and pressed his fingerprint onto the form.

With the pawning process complete, Lu Yi soon received a yellow card holding a full fifty thousand Gold Soul Coins.

With that considerable sum in hand, Lu Yi headed straight to the Treasure Gathering Pavilion's merchandise section.

Inside the lavish shop, ordinary goods filled the shelves in a dazzling array.

These were relatively affordable items, ranging from a few dozen to several thousand Gold Soul Coins. Naturally, they did not warrant dedicated display cases.

As he browsed, Lu Yi spotted the same model of Storage Soul Tool that Bei Bei had given Huo Yuhao in the bestseller section.

Twenty-Four Bridges on a Moonlit Night, replica model: twenty-four separate storage spaces. In the basic model, each compartment measured half a meter on each side, with a volume of one-eighth of a cubic meter. Price: 1,200 Gold Soul Coins.

At that price, each half-meter-sided space cost only fifty Gold Soul Coins.

Most storage rings, meanwhile, had a single space of one cubic meter, yet cost almost as much as Twenty-Four Bridges on a Moonlit Night—close to a thousand Gold Soul Coins.

But the Storage Bracelet Lu Yi had just pawned was a gift from Zhang Lexuan. Its storage space measured two meters on each side, and its value reached eighty thousand Gold Soul Coins.

Lu Yi had known the value of Storage Soul Tools might vary wildly, but he had never imagined the gap would be this wide.

He finally understood why Zhang Lexuan had said what she had when she discovered his pouch.

He had never calculated its volume, but its floor space alone was roughly equivalent to a three-bedroom apartment with a living room. Its total capacity could reach several hundred cubic meters.

If he wanted, he could even climb inside and live there.

No wonder Zhang Lexuan had gone out of her way to warn him.

For that very reason, Lu Yi was more determined than ever to master the Undetectable Extension Charm as quickly as possible.

He was going to drive down the price of Storage Soul Tools single-handedly.