Chaotic Sword God
Chapter 598: Return to Mercenary City (Four)

Mercenary City was situated at the very center of the entire continent as if to serve as the heart of the land. Although there were no walls, the territory that the city spanned over was no less than the seven Capital Cities. In name, it was the most well known city in the continent.

Mercenary City was the very symbol of divinity in the heart of every single mercenary. As the holy grounds for every mercenary, the name of the city itself represented freedom and peace.

A series of complicated regulations and laws upheld the security and peace of Mercenary City. There was no division between the strong and the weak. A Heaven Saint Master’s status was no different than a common villager’s status. Everywhere else on the continent, the law of the jungle reigned supreme. However, here that law was non-existent. Fighting was prohibited within the boundary of the city, and the very moment any person entered the city, even the strongest wouldn’t be able to use their strength without fearing the consequences.

This prohibition led many people to refer to Mercenary City as the safest asylum to live. As long as one lived here, there would be no need to worry about being chased down and killed by anyone.

Over the course of history, plenty of people disregarded this law and broke it. Each and every single one of the lawbreakers had been killed without mercy, even Heaven Saint Masters. Coincidentally, there had never been a case of murder that happened within the city.

The only thing that could serve to establish your status within the city was money. With money, one would be able to live a life that even a prince would envy. Without money, one would have to live on the streets; even finding food would prove to be a challenge.

With the tiger cub in hand, Jian Chen flew across the sky at a steady pace. From afar, a series of large buildings could be seen stretching into the sky. From above, Jian Chen could just barely see the transparent barrier that surrounded the entire city.

His eyes carefully studied the barrier with curiosity. He had only been to Mercenary City once before, but even that had only given him a small bit of information when it came to the city. He knew several things, such as it was forbidden to fight within the city and that the barrier that spanned across the sky had to do with that prohibition.

A series of roads and streets intersected one another throughout the entire area since Mercenary City possessed no walls. With roads leading in and out, mercenaries could travel through the city along with carts in numerous amounts. Despite the fact that there were no guards stationed anywhere, none of these mercenaries acted unruly like they might when they are in the wildlands of the continent. No matter where they were in the city, they acted nice and polite.

Touching down several kilometers away from the barrier, Jian Chen walked the rest of the way. Without a care for the nearly transparent barrier, he walked into Mercenary City.

As soon as he entered the city, Jian Chen bought a Class 3 Magical Beast for him to ride throughout the city. Combined with the fact that Mercenary City was large and that Jian Chen was prohibited from flying, he would have to ride a magical beast mount if he wished to get to his destination swiftly.

Riding on top of the magical beast, Jian Chen traveled slowly through the major streets of the city to buy all sorts of delicacies from the street stalls. These were all gifts for the natives of Longevity Valley — for the little fatty in particular. He had never once traveled outside the valley and knew nothing about the outside world. This by extension meant that he had never once experienced the delicacies of the continent.

For half the day, Jian Chen walked through the streets. Using the money saved in his Space Ring, Jian Chen had gone on a wild shopping spree, and had managed to fill up five whole Space Belts before he had been satisfied. Hopping onto his mount, Jian Chen then rode straight for the drug stores.

About an hour later, Jian Chen arrived at a five-layered pavilion. This was where all sorts of priceless heavenly resources could be bought and sold.

“Mrowrrr…” As soon as Jian Chen and the tiger cub arrived in front of the pavilion, the tiger cub caught a whiff of the fragrant aroma from the heavenly resources. It called out with excitement from its spot in Jian Chen’s robe with such force that if Jian Chen hadn’t been holding it, the cub would have dashed into the pavilion.

He tried his best to hide the faint smile on his face when he saw the impatience of the cub. Heavenly resources all over the age of a thousand were very rare in the Gesun Kingdom, and it had gone for a very long time without tasting such a delicacy.

With the cub in hand, Jian Chen strode into the pavilion. There were plenty of other customers shopping around the place ranging from mercenaries to merchants to attendants, who dashed around to help serve the customer. From their mouths, talks of discussion about what item to buy could be heard. Several of the mercenaries could be seen buying several hundred year old resources.

Looking around the place, Jian Chen could see that the first story of the pavilion sold several priceless drugs, but not a single heavenly resource could be seen.

This way of selling merchandise was not unfamiliar to Jian Chen. He knew that the more expensive wares would be on the higher levels of the pavilion, so without further ado, Jian Chen walked to the second story.

On this level, more expensive types of drugs could be seen along with several heavenly resources. The ages of these resources were below the age of five hundred, but even this second floor had plenty of customers.

Again without looking around, Jian Chen headed to the third floor, but when he reached the stairwell entrance, a guard moved to stop him.

“My apologies sire, but the third floor on is restricted to customers with a purple card.” This guard apologetically informed him.

Without a word, Jian Chen flashed several purple cards for the man to see. At the sight of them, the guard smiled and relinquished the path to allow Jian Chen on his way.

Compared to the second floor, the third floor was quite peaceful. Only a few scant people could be seen haggling prices with the attendants here. On this floor, Jian Chen could finally see some of the more sealed heavenly resources displayed here and there. Their prices were clearly written right below the caseboard with a bottom line price of ten thousand purple coins. Some of the more ancient wares surpassed prices of fifteen thousand purple coins, which was an exorbitant price.

The thousand year old heavenly resources caused the tiger cub to open its eyes wide and start to lick its lips in anticipation.

“My lord, how may I serve you today?” A twenty something year old female attendant suddenly came into view.

Slowly walking up to one of the more well-preserved heavenly resources, Jian Chen spoke, “I wish to speak some business with you. Have your shopkeeper come out to talk.”

She looked at Jian Chen oddly, but without any further complaints, she went off to look for the shopkeeper.

Soon enough, a middle-aged woman with grandiose-looking robes followed the previous attendant in. Coming to a stop right in front of Jian Chen, the attendant smiled and introduced Jian Chen to the woman, “My lord, this figure here is the shopkeeper.”

Looking Jian Chen up and down, the woman gave a small smile on her face, “My name is Ochire, shopkeeper of this pavilion. Might I ask to know your name, my lord? You give me a familiar feeling, as if I have seen your visage somewhere before.”

Smiling in return, Jian Chen said, “Shopkeeper Ochire, let us talk business. Does your store happen to have any heavenly resources over the age of a thousand?”

Seeing that Jian Chen was unwilling to disclose his identity, Ochire decided not to push it any further and smiled. “Certainly, we have several of those heavenly resources in stock, but not by much. In total, there are twenty-eight of them over the age of a thousand. My lord, if you are asking such a question, do you perhaps mean to purchase them?”

“Shopkeeper Ochire, please calculate the total price of the twenty-eight then.” Jian Chen replied.

The woman was taken aback. Uncertain of how to phrase the question, she asked, “My lord, do you mean to say that you wish to purchase all twenty-eight of them? That will certainly not be a small sum of money.”

Jian Chen nodded his head and spoke no more of the issue.

With that confirmation, a small smile lit up Ochire’s face. A customer purchasing over twenty thousand-year old heavenly resources was an extremely rare sight to behold.

Hurriedly taking out an abacus, Ochire started to total up the sum of all the items. “My lord.” She began, “Each of the twenty-eight heavenly resources has varying ages. Some are just thousand years old, some are two or three thousand years old. Combined with the fact that some of them are of rare species, each one of the heavenly resources will be a different price. As such, the cumulative price will be one million thirty thousand purple coins. If my lord is willing to purchase them in bulk, then we will discount the remaining thirty thousand purple coins for a grand total of a million purple coins. Is that to your satisfaction?”

“Correct. Then the twenty-eight heavenly resources will be bought for a million purple coins.” Jian Chen handed a purple card over to Ochire. He knew a little bit about the pricing of heavenly resources, so even though the ages of the heavenly resources were all different, Jian Chen knew that the price given to him had been a very fair one. In the smaller cities, heavenly resources such as these would be priced for far higher.

Taking the purple card into her trembling hands, Ochire said, “Should my lord ever come to my pavilion for any future thousand year old heavenly resources, this servant here will be sure to give a favorable price.”

With a small hum to himself, Jian Chen asked, “Shopkeeper Ochire, would you perhaps have any heavenly resources over the age of ten thousand?”

“What? Heavenly resources above the age of ten thousand?” Ochire was astounded. Regarding Jian Chen with a stupefied look, she answered, “My lord, how could heavenly resources of that age possibly be that easy to find? Ten thousand year old heavenly resources are something that the entire Tian Yuan Continent can only stumble upon once in awhile. Not only are they impossible to find in markets, each time one appears, they are worth countless of purple coins. They are something that allow people to become anew and are known to many as ingredients to immortality. Many of the experts standing at the zenith of the continent would use such things to extend their lifespans.”

“Perhaps shopkeeper Ochire knows of a place where such heavenly resources could be purchased at?” Jian Chen pressed on.

Pausing to think for a moment, Ochire finally responded, “According to what I know, ten thousand year old heavenly resources are all rare. With each appearance of one, they have shown up in only the Capital Cities and Mercenary City. To my knowledge, they have appeared once every three years or so among the seven Capital Cities, and once a year here. A tremendous auction house always follows two days after its announcement, so if my lord is still in need of one, then your best luck would be at the auction house.”