Chapter 2125: Mysterious Young Woman
Chapter 2125: Mysterious Young Woman
A hint of surprise flashed through Xi'er's eyes upon discovering that Han Li had been concealing his own cultivation base, but she quickly lowered her head in a respectful manner as she gave an affirmative response before departing from the second floor of the pavilion.
"Please come with me, Fellow Daoist. Seeing as you're a devilish lord, you'll be meeting our young mistress in person as opposed to a substitute," the woman said before sweeping a sleeve toward the staircase leading to the third floor.
Yellow light flashed, and a burst of energy fluctuations surged forth, indicating that some type of restriction seemed to have just been removed.
In the instant that the restriction was removed, a grey rune flew out of the woman's sleeve before vanishing into space in a flash.
Han Li merely nodded in response before following the woman up the staircase.
The third floor of the pavilion was a massive lavish hall.
At the center of the hall was a pristine white jade offering table, upon which were placed items such as eight trigrams and divination tags. Beside the table was a petite and intricate cauldron, from within which a wisp of white smoke was billowing out, filling the entire room with the aroma of sandalwood.
Behind the table was an extremely beautiful yellow-robed young woman seated on a large chair, playing with a palm-sized jade fan in an expressionless manner.
There were eight young servants positioned on either side of the hall, four of which were male while the other four were female. The men were all tall and handsome, while the women were all beautiful and petite, and they stood with respectful looks on their faces.
All eight of them possessed Deity Transformation Stage cultivation bases.
However, the woman didn't stop here, and led Han Li toward the staircase to the fourth floor instead.
The yellow-robed young woman rose to her feet and extended a curtsey toward Han Li and the woman from afar along with the servants in the room, and the woman merely waved a dismissive hand toward them.
Han Li's footsteps faltered slightly, and a peculiar look appeared on his face as he swept his gaze over the devilish beings in the room.
In terms of appearance and disposition alone, he would've been convinced that the yellow-robed young woman was the young mistress of the Vast Origin House; who would've thought that she was a mere substitute?
With that in mind, and considering the research he had conducted into the Vast Origin House in advance, he couldn't help but become even more curious about what type of person this young mistress was.
Shortly thereafter, Han Li arrived on the fourth floor of the pavilion with the woman.
As soon as they arrived on this level, Han Li swept his gaze through the surrounding area, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.
It wasn't that the decor on this level was particularly strange; it was just that everything was set up to be identical to a small rural shack.
There was a small thatched hut situated not far up ahead, within which was a set of simple tables and chairs, and an old wooden bed, upon which was placed a coarse cloth quilt.
In front of the hut were several piles of hay and a spinning wheel, all of which were situated on a spacious patch of ground.
Behind the spinning wheel was a frail-looking woman in a set of coarse cloth robes. She was seated on a short wooden stump, and her attention was entirely focused on the spinning wheel before her.
One sheet of coarse fabric after another was slowly being rolled out of the wheel, then stacked up into a pile that was positioned neatly beside her.
Han Li swept her spiritual sense toward the young woman, and a hint of surprise appeared on his face.
The young woman seemed to have only just reached the Deity Transformation stage, but when he tried to conduct a more thorough examination, his spiritual sense was pushed away by a burst of invisible power that emanated from her body, indicating that she possessed a treasure that could automatically repel spiritual sense.
The woman had already made her way over to the young woman, but she merely stood off to the side in silence and didn't disrupt her.
Han Li had also stopped in his tracks, and was appraising the young woman with an indifferent gaze.
He had already gleaned her appearance, and discovered that it was extremely mundane.
The only thing remarkable about her was that her forehead seemed to be wider than that of the average person, and the concentration on her face was somehow very comforting to behold.
The young woman was very clearly very proficient at what she was doing, and within the span of 15 minutes, all of the coarse yarn on the spinning wheel had been spun.
As the final sheet of coarse fabric dropped down from the spinning wheel, the young woman exhaled and looked down at the large pile of fabric on the ground with a pleased smile. Only then did she turn toward the woman with a slightly apologetic expression. "Sorry to keep you waiting again, Aunt Zhu."
The young woman's voice wasn't all that pleasant, but it had an indescribable alluring cadence to it.
The young woman's cultivation base was far inferior to the woman's, but the latter was putting on a very respectful display, as if she were a servant. "It's alright, Young Mistress; I didn't have to wait for too long. If anything, I must apologize to you for bringing a guest here without your permission."
Han Li was quite surprised to see this, and he immediately began to appraise the young woman again, wondering if she were another Sacred Ancestor clone.
"I'm sure the guest that you've brought to me is quite an esteemed one, Aunt Zhu. My name is Lan Ying; may I know your name, Fellow Daoist?" the young woman said as she turned to Han Li with a calm smile.
"My surname is Han. It's rather surprising to me that you're the owner of the Vast Origin House."
"Do you think I'm unfit to take on this role, Brother Han?" the young woman asked with a faint smile.
"In terms of the cultivation base and appearance, that substitute downstairs seems more fitting to be the young mistress of the Vast Origin House. Having said that, a substitute is just that, so there's no way she'll be of any help to me," Han Li replied in a straightforward manner.
"Truth be told, that servant of mine on the third floor isn't just there for show; she's able to take care of the needs of some normal customers, but she'd be out of her depth when it comes to a guest of your cultivation base," the young woman replied.
"I see. I assume most of the guests that visit the Vast Origin House are attended to by that servant of yours," Han Li said with a faint smile.
"I'm doing this out of necessity. After all, she's enough to take care of normal guests, and there aren't many guests that can satisfy the criteria required to see me; you're only the third guest I've seen this year, Brother Han. Please take a seat, and we'll discuss the reason you came here for today. As long as you're willing to offer a sufficient price, we'll be sure to satisfy your needs," the young woman said as she invited Han Li to take a seat.
Han Li looked around before making a grabbing motion, drawing a chair toward him before taking a seat on it across from the young woman.
"I'm sure you've already conducted some research into our Vast Origin House, but as a formality, I must inform you of the rules here; I hope you don't mind, Brother Han," the young woman said.
"I've only recently arrived at Blue Waterfall Lake, so I don't actually know a lot about your Vast Origin House; it would be great if you could tell me about this place," Han Li replied in a nonchalant manner.
"Our Vast origin House doesn't actually directly cater to the needs of our guests. Instead, we're only responsible for providing information. We've been operating for a very long time, and I wouldn't dare to proclaim that we know everything that's happening in our holy realm, but I daresay we know most of the important secrets in the realm. On top of that, all of the past owners of our Vast Origin House have been very adept in divination, so even if we don't have information on a certain subject matter, we can conduct divination to find out some relevant information.
"However, using the divination technique will shorten one's lifespan, so the price of that will naturally be very steep. Generally speaking, our Vast Origin House wouldn't actively encourage a guest to pick the route of divination. On top of that, regardless of what answers you obtain from our Vast Origin House, you're not to disclose it to anyone else. Otherwise, you'll be blacklisted and will no longer be welcome here. The rest of the rules are rather inconsequential, and I'm sure you wouldn't intentionally break them.
"Now then, do you have any questions, Fellow Daoist?" the young woman asked in a calm manner.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this, but his expression quickly returned to normal as he replied, "What you've told me does match what I've found out already about this place. I have one question: how many of the guests that have visited your Vast Origin House have left with satisfactory answers?"
A proud look appeared on Lan Ying's face as she replied, "I don't know too much about the past, but ever since I've taken over the reins here, we haven't even a single disappointed customer."
Han Li was quite taken aback by this answer, but his expression remained unchanged as he nodded in response. "Is that so? It instills me with great confidence to hear that."
"Seeing as your doubts and concerns have been erased, you can tell me what you'd like to know now; the price of the information will be decided based on how valuable it is," Lan Ying said with a serious expression.
"I want to know where I can get a large quantity of premium Bloodtooth Rice in one transaction in Blue Waterfall City," Han Li replied without any hesitation.
Lan Ying's expression eased slightly upon hearing this, and she smiled as she said, "Hehe, I see."
"Is there something strange about this request?" Han Li asked.
"That's not the case. Truth be told, around a fourth of the guests that visit our Vast Origin House ask this exact same question, so we naturally have relevant information on this matter. However, just because this information is regularly purchased doesn't make it any cheaper," Lan Ying replied with a smile.