Chapter 604 - 248: Hearing of Red Moon Dew; Arrival at Tingtao Sea
Chapter 604: Chapter 248: Hearing of Red Moon Dew; Arrival at Tingtao Sea
He gave a thumbs-up and set down four small dishes. "These two extra side dishes are on the house. Please, enjoy your meal."
Xiao Chen glanced over and saw they were jerky and sliced meat made from Spirit Beast Meat.
He tried a piece and felt the complimentary dishes tasted even better.
"Come on, come on, fill up Yan’s cup!"
At the table to his right, two newly arrived Early Stage Golden Core Cultivators were talking. "Long time no see! Where have you been getting rich these past two years?"
"Hah, Wu, don’t tease me."
The man named Yan gave a bitter smile. "You know I have a relative over at the Cangming Market, right? The year before last, I heard they were short-staffed."
"Last year, they urged me three times. I couldn’t put it off any longer, so I went to have a look."
"I regretted it to death."
His friend Wu heard this and asked in surprise, "That can’t be right. You’re all family. Would they really mistreat you?"
"If something like that really happened, even I wouldn’t stand for it."
The man named Yan just shook his head. "No, it wasn’t because of that."
Then, he deliberately lowered his voice. "Wu, there’s something you don’t know. The Cangming Market has been very strange these past two years."
"There’s a Wealth Wall there. You’ve probably heard of it, right?"
"In the last half-year alone, I personally saw bounties posted for a full seven missing Golden Core cultivators."
In the cultivation world, all sorts of accidents were common.
So Wu asked curiously, "If they only went missing, perhaps they’re just trapped in some Secret Realm or Relic. That’s not so strange, is it?"
After all, a Golden Core Cultivator disappearing for a year was like an ordinary person being lost for a couple of months.
Sometimes they might have a sudden fortuitous encounter, or temporarily become a Tribulation Cultivator and go into hiding.
And there were plenty of cultivators who would just pop back up on their own after a few years when things had quieted down.
"This time is different."
Yan’s voice was laced with lingering fear as he spoke. "They didn’t all disappear at once. They vanished one by one, here and there."
"And that’s not all. Those are just the ones we know about publicly. In reality, the number is far higher."
He held up two fingers. "Many families don’t post a bounty. According to the inside information I’ve gathered, at least twenty or thirty of our peers have gone missing in the last two years."
Hearing that so many of their peers had disappeared, Wu was clearly taken aback. "Is your inside information reliable? What the hell is going on?"
Yan swore with conviction, "My friend’s older brother is on duty with the Cangming Immortal Sect. He told me this himself."
"Besides, you know that relative of mine who opened a small shop in the Marketplace."
"Usually, during the holidays, he has to give ten percent of his profits to the Golden-faced Tiger in the Marketplace. But at the end of last year, I heard that even Master Hu disappeared without a trace."
Hearing a specific example, Wu was stunned. "HISS... Something big must be happening behind the scenes."
"You’re telling me!" Yan nodded. "That’s why I found an excuse to come back this year. Nothing could make me go back there again."
...
Xiao Chen had been listening with great interest, wondering if there was really something to this mystery.
He had heard discussions before; a large number of Golden Core Cultivators disappearing one after another was indeed highly suspicious.
But then, a somewhat familiar name suddenly popped up.
Although he didn’t know any Golden-faced Tiger, he had a gut feeling that the "Master Hu" they were talking about was the same one who had tried to block his path and extort him.
After all, there were usually only a few people capable of acting so tyrannically.
This was the problem with rumors—they always exaggerated the truth, sometimes distorting things beyond recognition.
Therefore, Xiao Chen didn’t take the so-called mass disappearance of Golden Core Cultivators to heart.
He simply satisfied his appetite, then went to the inn across from the restaurant for a good night’s rest.
Early the next morning, he left the Marketplace and headed straight for the Tingtao Sea.
"Huh? Why is there fog here?"
Halfway there, Xiao Chen suddenly noticed a large bank of thick white fog spreading out before him.
He opened the Nautical Chart in his hand to check, only to find that this area had been marked as safe just four months ago.
Speaking of which, this was the third time he had encountered a Yin Spirit infestation.
It also meant that another Relic was about to open somewhere in the Compassion Sea.
’I wonder if there are any reliable sources of information in the Tingtao Sea. If it’s convenient, it might be worth checking out something this good.’
Xiao Chen made a mental note of it, but he wasn’t in a hurry.
His priority was to collect the remaining few Spiritual Objects.
Everything else would have to wait until after the auction.
’Good thing I left myself enough travel time, precisely to account for unexpected delays.’
He skirted the Yin Spirit infestation, and encountered no other mishaps along the way.
Thus, sixteen days later, at noon on the fourteenth of the third month, Xiao Chen arrived safely at the Tingtao Sea.
To ensure the success of this grand auction—which had been in preparation for a full three years—the Cloud Sea Sword Pavilion and the largest local commerce association, the Feiye Commerce Association, had made extensive arrangements.
Ever since the new year, throughout the entire Tingtao Sea region, Disciples had been dispatched to post bright red notices wherever there were people.
Therefore, Xiao Chen spotted a notice without any trouble.
The upper half of the notice listed several well-known auction items.
These included a Talisman Treasure of no less than the fourth grade, rare treasures like Dao Crystals, and a special mention that a mysterious Tier Four Spirit Pill would be up for auction.
Many of the items were deliberately only half-described. For example, the notice intentionally didn’t specify that the Talisman Treasure was a Defense Type.
The answer would only be revealed at the auction itself, a tactic designed to pique the curiosity of more cultivators.
The auction would feature a vast array of Spiritual Objects. As long as enough cultivators showed up, someone was bound to buy something they hadn’t originally planned to.