Chapter 332: Purchasing Intelligence

After three rounds of wine.

Han Yuan and his two companions bowed to Qin Ming, saying, "Fellow Daoist Lu, the three of us must return to the Wan Dao Shang Alliance headquarters to report our mission; we cannot linger here any longer, so we shall take our leave for today."

"Earning this rice means forever rushing along the roads; truly, we are not masters of our own fate!"

"Very well, since the three of you have urgent duties, I, Lu, will not detain you further; next time there is an opportunity, please come to Jingxue Pavilion to meet with me," Qin Ming said as he rose and clasped his hands in salute.

"If Fellow Daoist Lu has leisure, you are also welcome to visit the Wan Dao Shang Alliance in Zhongzhou; the three of us would be extremely delighted to host you," Liu Ye said with a smile blooming like a flower.

"Fellow Daoist Lu, please stay; there is no need to see us off," Gao Feng also bid farewell to Qin Ming.

"We three frequently undertake missions in this Southern Region territory; I believe we shall meet again very soon, hehehe!"

"Therefore, Fellow Daoist Lu need not stand on ceremony."

"Then I wish all you fellow Daoists a smooth journey."

After parting ways with Han Yuan and his two companions, Qin Ming did not head directly to the Jingxue Pavilion branch within the market.

Instead, he followed the intricate and tangled streets of the Lingxu Market, turning seven times and twisting eight times, until he arrived before the largest pavilion.

This building was decorated with extreme luxury and grandeur, resplendent in gold and jade, carved with dragons and phoenixes; on the central plaque, three large characters were inscribed in a vigorous, dancing script: 'Qianji Pavilion'.

This shop was one of the several greatest powers in this area, being a branch of the Qianji Trading House founded by True Person Hua Tianxiong, whom Qin Ming had coincidentally encountered upon first arriving at Qilin Island.

The intelligence Qin Ming required could only be obtained in its complete and detailed form from such a large, locally rooted power.

Before coming, he had already learned from Gu Qingzhao that Jingxue Pavilion's foundation here was still shallow, and many things were not yet perfected.

Inside Qianji Pavilion, several maidservants with graceful figures were receiving guests in the front hall.

Among them, a young maidservant wearing a misty-rose gauze skirt, upon seeing a customer enter, immediately brightened her beautiful eyes, put on a professional smile, and prepared to step forward to attend to him.

However, the middle-aged Shopkeeper behind the counter, who had been sitting in serene composure drinking tea, quickly set down his teacup, rose, and said, "Mo He, withdraw; I will personally attend to this guest."

"Yes!"

The maidservant's heart stirred; she could not help but glance at Qin Ming a few more times, for those favored and personally received by their Shopkeeper were indeed few.

He must be a high-level customer.

Yet she had to obey the Shopkeeper's order; biting her lip in resentment, she reluctantly shifted her gaze away from Qin Ming.

Furthermore, their Shopkeeper was at the late stage of Foundation Establishment; anyone addressed as 'Fellow Daoist' by him must possess cultivation at least at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment or higher.

"This Fellow Daoist appears very unfamiliar; is this your first time visiting Lingxu Market?"

"I am Wei Hong, the Shopkeeper here; please, let us go to the second floor!"

Shopkeeper Wei said with a smile on his face.

Qin Ming nodded, unable to help but sigh with emotion; he had not expected that here, even someone at the late stage of Foundation Establishment was only qualified to receive guests on the second floor.

After ascending the stairs.

Shopkeeper Wei casually ordered someone to bring up a pot of ordinary tea, and after pouring a cup for Qin Ming, he asked, "I wonder what item Fellow Daoist requires? Or perhaps you wish to sell something?"

"I have heard that your trading house is renowned for its extensive information network; therefore, I wish to obtain the latest intelligence on the major powers throughout Great Jin," Qin Ming said, taking a light sip of tea.

"Intelligence on the major powers of Great Jin?"

A trace of surprise appeared on Shopkeeper Wei's face, confirming even more that the other party was an outsider cultivator.

However, possessing extremely high professional ethics, he did not pry further into the customer's identity; instead, he ordered a subordinate nearby to retrieve several jade slips and place them before Qin Ming.

"Fellow Daoist, these contain the latest intelligence on the major powers of the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty, updated within just the last ten days."

"Since you have sought out our pavilion, you should know that the president of our trading house is True Person Hua, and our backer is the Li Li Huogong; therefore, you can be absolutely assured of the authenticity of all intelligence—we guarantee truthfulness or compensate tenfold for any falsehood."

"The intelligence here is divided into four grades: Grade A intelligence is valued at one thousand mid-grade spirit stones."

"Grade B intelligence costs eight hundred mid-grade spirit stones."

"Grade C intelligence costs five hundred mid-grade spirit stones."

"Grade D intelligence costs three hundred mid-grade spirit stones."

Upon hearing this, Qin Ming nodded, then picked up a Grade A intelligence jade slip from the tray and began to examine it: "The Great Jin Immortal Realm is vast and boundless; nowadays, the actual Nascent Soul-level powers are no longer dominated by a single entity but have increased to three: the old-established Li Li Huogong holds sway over Zhongzhou with immensely profound foundations."

"Next is the Wan Dao Shang Alliance; this alliance's power spans several large surrounding Immortal Realms; although the surface-level Alliance Leader possesses a Jin Dan perfection cultivation, such a massive alliance, with hundreds of large and small trading houses affiliated under it, forming such a huge commercial empire, must inevitably have a Qin Zhenjun behind the scenes to keep it stable; however, the Nascent Soul honored guest of the Shang Alliance remains quite mysterious and has never revealed himself to this day."

"Finally, there is the newly risen Divine Dao Mountain."

"Divine Dao Mountain is located in the Southern Border region, with its western side bordering another large Immortal Realm named 'Great Li Immortal Realm'."

"Unlike Great Jin, the Great Li Immortal Realm is a veritable Demonic Dao Immortal Realm, chaotic in order."

"The jade slip specifically notes: Divine Dao Mountain is suspected of receiving covert funding and support from 'Yin Mo Sect', a Nascent Soul-level power within the Great Li Immortal Realm."

Reading this, all the thoughts in Qin Ming's mind instantly connected into a single coherent thread.

"It matches, it matches! Everything matches!"

The Great Li Yin Mo Sect mentioned in the jade slip was extremely familiar to Qin Ming; the three mid-Jin Dan Demonic Dao envoys he had slain while traveling in the Wu Kingdom had come precisely from the Yin Mo Sect. Was this not a coincidence? "In that case... no wonder Divine Dao Mountain, having only recently become a new Nascent Soul power, can compete with Li Li Huogong without falling behind; it turns out there is a Modaoda Sect pushing things from behind the scenes..."

"It seems the waters of Great Jin are deeper than ordinary!"

"I must act with extra caution from now on."

After finishing the material in the jade slip, although Qin Ming felt the price was slightly expensive, he considered it worth the value, having obtained the information he desired.

Moreover, his wealth was currently abundant, so these spirit stones amounted to little.

Seeing Qin Ming's expression grave, lost in deep thought, Shopkeeper Wei could not help but reveal a trace of a self-satisfied smile and said to Qin Ming, "How is it? Did the content inside... disappoint Fellow Daoist?"

"Mn!" Qin Ming nodded, responding only faintly.

Subsequently, he picked up another Grade A intelligence jade slip and began to examine it.

What met Qin Ming's eyes in this jade slip was a very complete and detailed map of the Great Jin Immortal Realm, comprehensive in every aspect, introducing the geographical environment and cultural customs of various regions.

It was worlds apart from the one Gao Feng had given him.

"I did not expect that this map also meticulously marks out the distribution maps of the major powers."

Within the Great Jin Immortal Realm, apart from the three Nascent Soul hegemon-level powers, there were more than two hundred Jin Dan-level powers, which truly opened Qin Ming's eyes wide.

"So many Jin Dan powers; compared to the four major Jin Dan factions of the Southern Desolate Immortal Realm, there are countless times more," Qin Ming clicked his tongue inwardly in astonishment.

However, even though the Great Jin Immortal Realm was rich in cultivation resources and abundant in spiritual energy, it had not reached the point where Nascent Soul cultivators were as common as dogs and Jin Dan cultivators walked everywhere on the ground.

Most of the Jin Dan cultivators in Great Jin were still primarily at the early Jin Dan stage.

After all, once cultivation reached the Jin Dan step, breaking through even a minor realm was incredibly difficult.

The bottleneck mountain of the mid-Jin Dan stage had stalled eighty percent of all Jin Dan cultivators.

Not to mention breaking through to the late Jin Dan stage.

Here, great cultivators of the late Jin Dan stage were also few and far between, and as for Nascent Soul True Lords, one could count them on three fingers.

"So this is the Five Elements Mountain."

Qin Ming's gaze was drawn to a super mountain range.

"This location lies on the boundary line of Great Jin's southern region; the excavation of a massive fourth-tier lower-grade spiritual vein here triggered a struggle for possession between the Li Li Huogong and the Divine Dao Mountain."

Seeing this, Qin Ming finally understood the spark that had ignited the war between the two sides.

A fourth-tier spiritual vein was a rare strategic resource capable of giving birth to a Nascent Soul great expert.

"Struggles revolving around resources; profit is the only eternal truth."

"It seems this is the bare-faced reality of the Immortal Realm, an unchanging melody throughout the ages."

This made Qin Ming cannot help but recall those days he spent in the Yunze Dahuang.

The chaos at Qingyang Market was also triggered by the Qing Feather Sect reclaiming wasteland and discovering a third-tier spiritual vein; it was the same even in these large-scale Immortal Realms.

Qin Ming dispelled these distracting thoughts and continued reading downward.

"The Li Li Huogong and the Divine Dao Mountain have been at war for several decades; cultivators on both sides have suffered countless casualties, injuring their very foundations."

"If the fighting continued, both sides had already realized that many other factions were eager to see them mutually destroy each other, watching from the sidelines like tigers eyeing their prey, waiting for an opportunity to act."

"Thus, the two major powers opened negotiations at the Five Elements Mountain, introducing a third-party force, the 'Myriad Dao Shang Alliance,' to intervene; according to the agreement, the spiritual vein resources within the Five Elements Mountain would be jointly developed by the Li Li Huogong and the Divine Dao Mountain."

"As the mediator, the Myriad Dao Shang Alliance would gain ownership rights to establish markets along the entire Five Elements Mountain frontier."

"Even the Lingxu Market where he currently stood had the Myriad Dao Shang Alliance as its greatest behind-the-scenes backer."

The Myriad Dao Shang Alliance expended no effort at all, purely gaining a huge windfall for free; merely acting as a peacemaker, why would they not do it? After finishing his reading, Qin Ming understood the full context of the upper-level maneuvering in the Great Jin Immortal Realm and could not help but feel deeply moved.

Besides this.

There was also an extremely unexpected and explosive piece of intelligence that Qin Ming came to know.

That was the background of Su Yuqing's family origin.

"Brother Su has always hidden things from me; no matter how I tried to probe indirectly, he refused to reveal even a shred of information about his family background."

"I never expected that the Su family of Dragon Court Lake in the Zhongzhou of Great Jin was actually one of the four major Jin Dan noble families that originally split off from the Li Li Huogong."

"Hehe!"

"The Su clan, Great Jin's number one alchemy noble family of all time; this is interesting."

(End of Chapter)