Chapter 178: Small Courtyard and News

"Alright!"

The woman behind the counter kept smiling at He Pingsheng. She reached out to take the jade slip He Pingsheng handed over and said very politely, "There are two types of eighth-grade courtyards: one is close to the City Lord's Mansion, near the center of Dingxiang City, and the other is far from the City Lord's Mansion, on the outskirts of Dingxiang City near the city wall!"

"Which one do you want?"

He Pingsheng asked, "Is there a difference in price?"

"Yes!" the woman said, "The courtyard in the city center is five thousand spirit stones, and the one on the outskirts is also five thousand spirit stones!"

"However, there is a difference in the annual tax!"

"For the one on the outskirts, you only need to pay one percent tax annually, which is only fifty spirit stones!"

"If it is the one in the city center, you need to pay two percent, which is one hundred spirit stones as tax!"

He Pingsheng was a bit drunk.

Buying a small courtyard, and the City Lord's Mansion still wants to collect tax from me every year?

"Let's go with the one on the outskirts!" He Pingsheng chose the cheaper one.

Actually, it wasn't just for the sake of being cheap; it was mainly for peace and quiet!

He had secrets of his own, and the further away from the center, the fewer chances those big shots would have to notice him.

"Alright!"

Next, after He Pingsheng paid the money, he successfully obtained a small courtyard.

Of course, he also very readily paid ten years of taxes in one go.

This small courtyard was in the northeastern part of Dingxiang City, truly close to the city wall. It couldn't be said that the courtyard was right against the city wall, but the distance was definitely less than one hundred zhang.

There was just a street in between.

Fortunately, it was quiet enough here.

He Pingsheng opened the door and liked the courtyard at first glance.

The courtyard was covered with a lawn, and at the very back was a three-story small building. In front of the small building were two fruit trees—naturally, they were just ordinary fruit trees: one peach tree and one plum tree.

Additionally, in the front left corner of the courtyard, there was a medium-sized pond, and in the pond were dozens of golden carp.

Closing the courtyard gate, He Pingsheng's spiritual sense surged out.

Now, his spiritual sense could extend four hundred zhang.

Within a radius of four hundred zhang, whether it was his own home or the surrounding neighbors, everything was clearly visible to him.

No cultivators.

That's right, there were no cultivators nearby, only ordinary mortals living there.

This was just right!

He Pingsheng opened the door of the three-story small building and looked inside and out.

There were no arrays or remnants of cultivation.

Very clean!

He cleaned the small building again and then took out a fire-attribute spirit stone and placed it inside.

In less than an hour, the dampness inside the small building was gone.

Putting away the spirit stone, He Pingsheng took out an array disk!

This was a second-tier array disk, which he had made himself and carried with him at all times.

With the array disk, he set the array flags in the predetermined positions, and a small second-tier defensive array was constructed.

Besides the defensive array, he also deployed a second-tier spirit-prohibiting array and a second-tier early-warning array.

The spirit-prohibiting array could prevent Foundation Establishment cultivators from extending their spiritual sense to investigate.

As for the second-tier early-warning array, it was even more useful.

Because the spirit-prohibiting array could not block the spiritual sense of cultivators above the Golden Core stage, once a Golden Core cultivator's spiritual sense entered the array, this early-warning array would sound.

Letting He Pingsheng know that someone was peeping at him.

So after these three arrays were set up, he basically didn't have to fear peeping from Golden Core cultivators.

As for peeping from Nascent Soul cultivators and above.

There was nothing to be done about that.

He Pingsheng also believed that no Nascent Soul cultivator would be so perverted as to secretly pay attention to a Foundation Establishment disciple.

After all, in this entire Dingxiang City, there were at least eighty thousand Foundation Establishment disciples, if not one hundred thousand.

After the arrays were set up, He Pingsheng took out a pink meditation cushion, tossed it onto the third floor of the small building, sat cross-legged on the ground, and began to cultivate.

Because he basically had no spirit-gathering pills, the only thing he could cultivate now was: Nine Poisons Golden Body.

After the thirteen poison pills were strengthened by the Treasure Basin, they became twenty-six, and they were all top-tier second-tier poison pills.

Let's refine.

Half a year later, He Pingsheng had refined the Nine Poisons Golden Body to the first layer of Foundation Establishment. Of course, those twenty-six poison pills had used up twenty-two, leaving only four.

Going to cultivate further now was basically impossible.

Need to go out and prepare to buy a wave of resources.

"Shopkeeper, is the latest news out?"

He Pingsheng walked into the 【Dingxiang Chamber of Commerce】 and asked the shopkeeper behind the counter.

The shopkeeper was completely bewildered by his question.

"This... fellow Daoist..."

"What are you talking about?"

He had completely forgotten He Pingsheng's existence.

He Pingsheng breathed a sigh of relief: So, I am not that easy to be noticed by others after all.

"Hehe..." he said with a smile, "Didn't I buy a map from you half a year ago, and you said I could see new information for free for ten years!"

"Oh, oh, oh..." The shopkeeper slapped his forehead hard and said, "I remember now... come, come, come..."

"Here is a copy for you!"

The shopkeeper, familiar with the routine, took out a piece of paper and handed it directly to He Pingsheng.

He Pingsheng took a look; the paper was densely packed with over a hundred pieces of news.

Some were about heavenly treasures discovered in certain places, some were about the change of Sect Masters in certain sects, and others were about certain cultivation family forces being wiped out.

He Pingsheng didn't care about any of these.

What he cared about was the Dao Xuan Alliance and the Profound Heaven Sect.

Sure enough!

He saw the news about the Profound Heaven Sect.

There was only one line: In the third month, the Beast-Taming Immortal Sect within the Dao Xuan Alliance wiped out the Profound Heaven Sect. The Profound Heaven Sect's Golden Core disciple Wuwei was killed, and the remaining Golden Cores surrendered. The Profound Heaven Sect perished, and its sect territory was divided by several sects including the Beast-Taming Immortal Sect and the Ice Extreme Sect, with no final decision on ownership yet.

He Pingsheng nodded expressionlessly and said, "Thank you!"

The shopkeeper asked, "Does fellow Daoist want to purchase some items?"

He Pingsheng asked, "Do you have second-tier poison pills?"

The shopkeeper shook his head: "Not at the moment!"

He Pingsheng shook his head: "Nothing else needed for now, farewell!"

Walking out of the Dingxiang Chamber of Commerce, He Pingsheng breathed a deep sigh of relief.

The Profound Heaven Sect being wiped out couldn't be helped; this thing was a matter of time because it was too rotten, rotten to the core, beyond saving.

What he cared about was how the people were doing?

The news only said Wuwei died, which meant that Master Yu Ning and Elder Yu Xuan were not dead.

That's good!

With a wave of his hand, the piece of paper turned into ashes.

He Pingsheng walked along the street and soon stopped in front of a shop named 【Xuanyuan Alchemy Shop】.

This kind of alchemy shop usually sold pills and various spiritual herbs.

In short, they sold everything related to alchemy, but whether you could find the materials you wanted depended on luck.

Because their stock was not complete!

"Welcome, Senior!" A child who looked only in his teens bowed politely to He Pingsheng: "Senior, what would you like?"

There was only one person in this shop.

He Pingsheng scanned him with his spiritual sense, and this child's cultivation was not low.

He had actually reached the eighth layer of Qi Condensation.

A genius. ===== CHAPTER 179 =====