After leaving Many-Treasures Emporium, Ian Song and the three fox princesses continued to stroll through the city. Soon, they spotted another shop selling magical artifacts—this one called Heavenly Treasure Pavilion.
Just like before, the shop assistant was also at the Grandmaster level.
After asking about Ian's requirements, the assistant led him to a sword chamber.
However, the highest-grade sword available was only an eighth-grade spirit weapon, priced at 660,000 low-grade spirit crystals.
After a brief hesitation, Ian bought it. With his current strength, he really needed a good sword to fully bring out his swordsmanship.
After buying the sword, Ian spent another two hours wandering the streets with the three girls. Each of them picked up quite a few little trinkets before they finally returned to the inn.
Ian noticed that ordinary people did exist inside the city, and there were quite a few of them. But they all lived in a particular district, where the spirit energy seemed isolated and was much thinner.
Supposedly, only mortals who reached Grandmaster level could leave that area—unless a powerful cultivator took them as disciples or bought them as servants. In those cases, they could leave too.
But those strong enough to buy someone were either after rare beauties, or—if they were evil cultivators—they’d use them for experiments. So even if someone was bought and left that district, their future wasn’t likely to be bright.
In short, in this world, strength is everything. Ordinary people have no real status.
Back at the inn.
Ian brewed himself a cup of tea and sat by the window, thinking about his next steps.
Seizing Qi Luck had always been his ultimate goal.
Only by gathering enough Qi Luck could he attain true eternity.
But this world was pretty interesting—it wasn’t like other places where gods, immortals, and mortals all belonged to separate realms. Here, everyone shared the same overarching space, just in different regions.
Of course, that was because this was a newborn world, and the three realms hadn’t been fully divided yet.
And wasn’t it precisely because this was a newborn world that he had the qualification to take its place?
There were three ways to plunder Qi Luck: first, killing people; second, becoming an official in the Great Chu Dynasty; and third, overthrowing the dynasty. And right beside him were three princesses of the Foxhaven Kingdom!
Although Foxhaven Kingdom had already fallen, there were surely remnants still out there. As soon as word got out that three princesses survived, those remnants would definitely come seeking them.
But since he’d already led a rebellion and restored a nation once before, he wasn’t all that interested in doing it again.
After some thought, Ian Song decided that he'd rather be a rogue cultivator specializing in hunting evil cultivators.
Earlier today, while strolling through the city, he also checked the Qi Luck of the Golden Core experts he encountered.
The higher one's cultivation, the denser their Qi Luck. Typically, Golden Core cultivators have Qi Luck ranging from thirty thousand to a hundred thousand.
Among Golden Core cultivators with Qi Luck exceeding a hundred thousand, he saw only one: Eric Ye, the City Lord's son. In a Profound-grade city, the City Lord is a sixth-rank official protected by dynasty Qi Luck, and his City Lord's Seal can boost his strength by two minor realms.
So even though Victor Ye, the City Lord, is only at early Nascent Soul, with the City Lord's Seal and within Black Tortoise City, he’s practically invincible among his peers.
Outside of Black Tortoise City, the City Lord's Seal still boosts his strength, but definitely not by two minor realms.
Several days passed quickly.
During those few days, Ian Song picked up even more information.
The current emperor of the Great Chu Dynasty is extremely ambitious. After a thousand years of recuperation and stockpiling, he has now launched a war against another dynasty.
This is definitely not a pointless gesture, since Black Tortoise City has already started recruiting soldiers.
On the battlefield, you can kill without reason.
So Ian Song was quite tempted by the idea.
After all, every time he killed someone, he could absorb their Qi Luck—a very efficient way to plunder fortune.
He had already checked the recruitment requirements.
The minimum requirement is Grandmaster, and all recruits undergo three months of formation training.
During training, new recruits receive two hundred low-grade spirit crystals per year. Once on the battlefield, it increases to three hundred. For every enemy of the same realm killed, there's a reward of one hundred low-grade spirit crystals; for defeating an enemy of a higher realm, the reward jumps to ten thousand low-grade spirit crystals.
Of course, all these terms apply only to Grandmaster-level cultivators.
Senior Grandmaster-level cultivators who enlist can at least become squad leaders—a squad consists of twelve people.
Golden Core cultivators who join the army can serve as thousand-man commanders.
Nascent Soul cultivators who enlist receive the status of ten-thousand-man commander, with an annual salary of one million low-grade spirit crystals. If they complete combat missions, the rewards are even more generous.