Martial World

For the surrounding ten miles around Divine Rune Pagoda, there wasn’t a single building. The entire area was a massive square, and on this square were all sorts of martial arts vendors who were selling various goods. Some sold pills, some sold weapons, but of course, most of them sold inscriptions and divine runic inscriptions.

All of the stalls were well-organized.

Lin Ming cast out his sense and was able to approximately feel that in this 10 mile square trading market, there were around several tens of thousands of people.

These several tens of thousands of people were all outstanding individuals. Whether it was sellers or buyers, none of them were poor. In such a giant trading market, the daily volume of transactions was mind-boggling.

“This Divine Rune City is quite lively.” Lin Ming sighed.

“Yes, Divine Rune City is the most famous trading hub in the inner Asura Road because there are a massive number of pills, divine runic inscriptions, weapons, and all sorts of other things that are sold here. Many people prefer coming here to buy and sell their goods because of the required qualifications to enter the city. Because of their strict standards, everything sold in Divine Rune City is only the highest quality of goods! In Divine Rune City, there are ten large trading companies and the largest of them belongs to the Divine Runic Master Guild. Every three years, this trading company will hold a large-scale treasure exhibition show. At that time, all sorts of influential forces throughout the Asura Road will bring their treasures here to display and trade amongst each other. There are extremely good treasures that can be found and traded and there are also open sales all over. This treasure exhibition will continue for a full month, and almost anything you can imagine can be purchased at this exhibition. Not only are there pill and divine runic inscriptions but there is also a great number of ancient pill recipes, ancient inheritances, God Beast flesh and blood, Empyrean spirit treasures, transcendent divine mights, and even relics of True Divinities from times long past.”

Yue Liuxing confidently spoke up from near Lin Ming, a somewhat satisfied tone in her voice. It had to be known that in Divine Rune City, almost 90% of the people were spiritas. In a sense, Divine Rune City was a city of the soul race.

For her own race to have such a bustling city, Yue Liuxing was certainly proud of this.

“Oh? There is this kind of grand meeting?”

Lin Ming was even more satisfied with this Divine Rune City. In such a large volume of transactions there would definitely be some that concerned inheritances and pills of the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace. In ancient times, the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace was a considerably popular human cultivation method, so it wouldn’t be surprising for inheritances to be left behind in ancient runes.

“Of course, even if Divine Rune City has a tremendous amount of daily business there are still Empyreans that come here every year to make transactions of their own. Besides various treasures, you can also inquire into all sorts of information. All of the greatest intelligence networks of the inner Asura Road have branches in Divine Rune City, and some of them are even headquartered here. In short, in Divine Rune City, if you want to buy something, the premise is not whether you can find it here but whether or not you can afford it. The hard currency here is pills or origin energy runes.”

“I understand.” Lin Ming subconsciously traced his spatial ring. In terms of wealth, Lin Ming was once rich. But because of his battle with Tian Mingzi he had been forced to use up a massive number of nine sun jades to power Primordius Heavenly Palace. Although he was still considerably wealthy, the amount of money he had was completely inadequate to buy pill materials for the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace.

How to obtain a sufficient amount of wealth was one of the problems Lin Ming worried about.

“You just said that there are intelligence networks that sell information?” Lin Ming planned to inquire into information pertaining to the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace. To have pre-prepared information was always better than flying around like a headless fly.

“That’s right. In Divine Rune City, the most famous intelligence network is Heaven’s Secret. Their headquarters are based here and if you have anything you wish to find out, chances are you’ll be able to discover it.”

“I understand, thank you very much. There are indeed some things I wish to ask about so we’ll leave our sound transmission marks with you and part ways for now.”

Hearing Lin Ming say he was leaving, Yue Liuxing was startled for a moment, but there wasn’t anything she could do to stop him. After the two groups exchanged sound transmission marks, Lin Ming then left with Xiao Moxian towards Heaven’s Secret.

Heaven’s Secret was also located at the center of Divine Rune City; it was extremely easy for Lin Ming to find.

The headquarters of Heaven’s Secret wasn’t considered too grand. From the outside it seemed like an antique pavilion that was a bit too old fashioned. There were gardens surrounding it that extended out for several miles.

Lin Ming didn’t need to be a genius to know that the value of land in Divine Rune City came at a sky-high premium. If Heaven’s Secret was able to construct such a luxurious garden in Divine Rune City, it was a clear indication of their status.

Entering the pavilion, Lin Ming looked up at the entranceway to see a plaque with the words ‘Heaven’s Secret Pavilion’ written on it in large brush strokes.

“Young hero, is there information you would like to inquire about?”

Someone welcomed Lin Ming at the entrance.

This person was only a doorman but their foundation was extremely solid. The way he walked and spoke was steady and solid; he was definitely an outstanding person amongst his peers.

“Mm.”

“What would you like to ask about? The information that our Heaven’s Secret sells is divided into different ranks and different prices. The higher level the information is, the more valuable it is. At the highest level, the information will come at an astronomical price.”

Heaven’s Secret Pavilion had a total of seven floors. The lowest floor had the cheapest information, but even though this was only the most ordinary information it still wasn’t something that an ordinary Divine Sea powerhouse would be able to handle.

“Nine Stars of the Dao Palace.” Lin Ming directly stated his goal for coming here.

“Please enter the fifth level.”

The doorman respectfully said. It was clear that this doorman was an extremely knowledgeable person. Just from some casual term that a guest gave out, he was able to judge the approximate value of it. To be able to understand many things from all over the Asura Road as well as the entire 33 Heavens, this wasn’t something that an ordinary person could hope to accomplish.

Just this alone made Lin Ming feel a bit more confident about this Heaven’s Secret. If they dared to call themselves the number one intelligence network of Divine Rune City then they really must be amazing.

“The Nine Stars of the Dao Palace is only a fifth-level inquiry; it doesn’t seem that it’s too exaggerated.” Lin Ming traced his chin. There were still two levels above the fifth. This meant that information about the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace wasn’t too difficult to look up. In other words, inheritances of the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace shouldn’t be difficult to find either. Of course, it was unknown what the rank of this inheritance would be.

Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian walked up to the fifth level. The one who greeted them was an old man. In front of this old man was a table with many wooden signs placed atop it. These wood signs had words such as, ‘inheritances’, ‘pills’, ‘sects’, ‘cities’, ‘mystic realms’, ‘races’, ‘vicious beasts’, and so forth, each of them pertaining to the matter of information that someone wanted to look up. The person seeking information here would pick up the appropriate wooden sign and would then be directed to the corresponding room.

Lin Ming picked up the wooden sign for inheritances.

Afterwards, a woman in a green dress came and brought Lin Ming to a different room.

After closing, all sound and aura was isolated outwards. It was clear that there was an extremely well-done array formation constructed in this room to prevent anyone from spying inwards.

An old woman in brocaded robes was already sitting down in this room, waiting for Lin Ming.

“What sort of inheritance would you like to inquire about?” The old woman asked in an elderly voice.

“The Nine Stars of the Dao Palace.”

As Lin Ming spoke, an astonished light shined in the old woman’s eyes. She stared at Lin Ming deeply. The Nine Stars of the Dao Palace had long been lost to the rivers of time. She was currently unable to judge what Lin Ming’s body transformation cultivation was, but only knew that he was at least at the peak of the Eight Inner Hidden Gates.

For a youth to open the complete Eight Inner Hidden Gates, that wasn’t easy at all.

“If you’re asking about the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace then you should understand just how difficult it is. It is one of the 33 Heavenly Daos.”

“I know.” Lin Ming calmly nodded.

“Mm, if you can cultivate the Eight Inner Hidden Gates to this degree, then your understanding of the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace is likely greater than my own. I can only give you some information about inheritances, and as for cultivating, everything will depend on yourself.”

The old woman didn’t try to urge Lin Ming not to waste his time or effort; she was only responsible for sharing information with guests here. As for the purpose of that information, she didn’t ask that either.

“About the inheritance of the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace, there are 42 pieces of information. Each piece of information is ranked differently and the higher the rank, the more expensive it is to find out.”

The old woman was very familiar with the information about the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace. All of this information was gathered by Heaven’s Secret. Heaven’s Secret would gather all sorts of information and then this information would be sorted and classified into different categories and then passed out to the individual responsible for that corresponding category. That person was responsible for memorizing all of this information so that when guests came, there was no need to look up information; they would have the answers readily available.

“I only want the highest rank. It needs to be at the transcendent divine might rank or above!” Lin Ming gained a bit more confidence in Heaven’s Secret as he heard this number. As he had expected, it wasn’t too difficult to look up information on inheritances of the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace.

“Transcendent divine might? It seems you have a big appetite!” The old woman chuckled. “But, those that would enter my Heaven’s Secret Headquarters to inquire about information would have to have at least that much. When it comes to low rank cultivation methods, we simply don’t bother recording them at all. If you are looking for transcendent divine mights, there is indeed one, but it isn’t complete at all. There are three pieces of information, each one costing 350 million origin energy runes. If you want, I can sell you all three for a billion. Also, we only provide information. Our information doesn’t mean that you will be successful in your quest. But, what you should know is that for the price we charge, we will not provide any false information to you. If you ultimately cannot find what you are looking for then the problem lies with you.”

The old woman calmly said. This expensive price left Lin Ming secretly flabbergasted.

Origin energy runes were a currency unique to the Asura Road. They could be manufactured by having blank runes absorb heaven and earth origin energy. There were many strong martial artists, who had no other way of earning money, and who would spend a massive amount of time to create these origin energy runes and then use them to purchase goods.

In the Asura Road, every business that was connected to the Asura Road Heavenly Dao had to use origin energy runes. Lin Ming suspected that these origin energy runes were the source for how the Heavenly Dao rules revolved in the Asura Road, and thus how they became the hard currency for this land.

A billion origin energy runes were equal to 10 trillion violet sun stones. This was far more expensive than the Boundless World Pill that Lin Ming had spent nearly all his wealth buying in the past, and this was only for information about a transcendent divine might. As for whether or not he could rely on this information to obtain a transcendent divine might, that was hard to say.

This high price was simply because a transcendent divine might was far too precious. In the Divine Realm, it was considered wonderful if a World King Holy Land could have even an incomplete transcendent divine might. If it weren’t for the fact that the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace received such little attention then this price might be even higher.

“I only have nine sun jades.” Lin Ming said.

“We accept nine sun jades. If you wish to pay in nine sun jades then that will be 11 of them.”

Lin Ming pulled out 11 nine sun jades. The old woman picked them up and appraised their purity before nodding with satisfaction. Those that could use nine sun jades as currency were clearly not poor, because these were things created by human Empyreans.

The old woman accepted the nine sun jades and then took out a blank white jade. She poured her divine sense into it and soon wrote down all the necessary information.

Then, she gave this jade slip to Lin Ming. “The information is in here. Take a look.”

“Thank you.” Lin Ming took the jade slip and swept through it with his divine sense. But as he saw the contents, he was left startled.

“This… how is this possible… something like this could happen?”