The streets of the capital were lively and bustling. The shocking battle outside the capital did little to affect the people inside. Instead, it made room for much gossip to take place.
After leaving the restaurant, Su Zimo was sandwiched in the bustling crowd as he strolled aimlessly, contemplating about his future plans.
Since he had decided to stay on in the capital, the first thing to do was to find a place he could settle down.
He had to stay in this place for at least two to three years and he couldn’t make do with just any place; it had to be quiet and comfortable enough to be conducive for his cultivation.
After asking around, Su Zimo headed straight for the Sky Treasure Pavilion.
To find a place he liked in the capital, the fastest way to go about it was to head to the Sky Treasure Pavilion’s mission area.
In the Sky Treasure Pavilion of Yan Country’s capital, most people heading in and out were Qi Refinement Warriors.
It was rare for even a Foundation Establishment Cultivator to appear within a year.
As for the Sky Treasure Pavilion in the Great Zhou Dynasty’s capital, Foundation Establishment Cultivators could be seen everywhere. In fact, there were even Golden Cores around. Even though Su Zimo was a mid-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator, he was inconspicuous in the crowd.
Entering the main hall, Su Zimo walked to a counter where a beautiful maidservant headed up. Wearing a veil, her exquisite figure and curves were barely hidden from plain view.
The beautiful maidservant let out a sweet smile and asked, “Fellow Daoist, what can I do for you?”
Su Zimo asked, “I want to buy a residence in the city. Do you have any recommendations?”
“Fellow Daoist, most of the best residences in the capital are located on either shores of Jishui River. When you’re tired from cultivating, you can look right out the windows at the clear river to rejuvenate your mind.”
The beautiful maidservant took out a map and pointed to residences on both sides of the river while recommending with a smile.
Su Zimo nodded and chose a residence by the shore. “This one then.”
“Do you have a Sky Treasure Badge?” The beautiful maidservant asked.
Hesitating slightly, Su Zimo shook his head.
While he had a Sky Treasure Gold Badge in his storage bag, it was extraordinary. Each time he took it out, it would attract quite a bit of trouble.
Now that he was in the capital, Su Zimo did not want to have anything to do with Ji Yaoxue lest he incurred the hostility of the Emperor of Great Zhou.
The scene of Dai Xu escorting Ji Yaoxue out of Ping Yang Town back then was still etched deeply in his mind.
Su Zimo could sense the concrete killing intent Dai Xu had towards him!
The beautiful maidservant said with a smile, “Without a Sky Treasure Badge, this residence’s price is 100,000 superior-grade spirit stones.”
“Yes, 100,000…”
Su Zimo nodded and was just about to agree to it when his expression changed starkly. He looked at the beautiful maidservant in disbelief and asked in seriousness, “100,000 superior-grade spirit stones?”
“That’s right,” The smile on the beautiful maidservant’s face did not fade.
“So expensive?”
Su Zimo was secretly shocked.
If it was 100,000 middle-grade spirit stones, he could still afford it.
However, 100,000 superior-grade spirit stones was equivalent to 10,000,000 middle-grade spirit stones! The 200,000 odd middle-grade spirit stones he had left in his storage bag was far from enough!
The beautiful maidservant explained, “The spirit qi in the capital is much thicker than outside the city, so it’ll take you half the effort to cultivate.”
Pausing for a moment, the beautiful maidservant continued, “Furthermore, in the capital, other than some special areas, fighting is forbidden. If anyone dares make a move, they will be killed by the Imperial Army! Even Golden Cores are no exception to that rule! Therefore, you don’t have to worry about safety while cultivating within the capital.”
Su Zimo remained silent.
Even with the benefits, he could not afford it.
“How about changing a location? It’ll be cheaper in a remote area,” After a while, the beautiful maidservant noticed Su Zimo’s dilemma and suggested.
“Forget it.”
Su Zimo waved it off and asked in a deep voice, “I’ll just take this residence. How much does it cost for me to rent for three years.”
The beautiful maidservant smiled. “The rental for a year costs 3,000 superior-grade spirit stones, that’s 300,000 middle-grade spirit stones.”
Su Zimo furrowed his brows slightly.
Prior to this, he truly had not expected a residence in the capital to cost this much.
“I’ll rent it for a year first.”
Su Zimo took out all the middle-grade spirit stones in his storage bag. He sold off some of the spirit weapons and elixirs from the blood-robed youth’s storage bag on the spot and barely managed to gather 300,000 middle-grade spirit stones.
After handing in the spirit stones, the Sky Treasure Pavilion’s efficiency was extremely high as they quickly registered and sent someone to take Su Zimo to the residence.
Su Zimo circled the residence, looking satisfied.
Even though he no longer had any spirit stones and that was a problem for his future cultivation, he was not flustered.
Su Zimo intended to open up a weapon workshop at this place which would kill two birds with one stone.
On the one hand, he could earn spirit stones by refining weapons to fulfill his daily cultivation and expenditure needs.
On the other hand, Su Zimo had already learned the weapon tempering technique. Along with the projection image left behind by Dao Lord Extreme Fire, he could make use of the weapon workshop to continuously train and improve on his skills!
Not only was he a Weapon Refinement Master, he was also a Sword Formation Master.
This meant that the deeper his proficiency in weapon refinement, the greater his combat strength would be!
After all, if Su Zimo could create higher grades of flying swords, the power of his sword formations would naturally increase.
Furthermore, he obtained a secret array skill from Dao Lord Extreme Fire known as Candlelight Sword Formation which he hadn’t had the chance to try yet.
With the remaining two and a half years left, Su Zimo intended to raise his weapon refinement level and create a new set of high-grade flying swords!
Two and a half years was also sufficient for him to refine the essence energy of the dragon egg completely.
Su Zimo would be able to undergo a complete transformation and increase his strength tremendously before the sect competition!
Taking Night Spirit along with him, Su Zimo left the place for the time being and headed for the northwestern corner of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
That was Yongxing City, a place where people of all sorts gathered. There were many elixir and weapon workshops as well and Su Zimo decided to take a look around so as to find out more about the market.
While Su Zimo believed that his weapon refinement technique was not inferior to others, if he did not understand the market along with the fact that his area was not in the downtown area, his weapon workshop may not be able to succeed.
Before long, Su Zimo arrived at Yongxing City.
Yongxing City was divided into many streets; some specialized in dealing with elixirs while others specialized in weapons.
Su Zimo watched as he walked.
The weapon workshops on both sides of the streets were connected one after another.
Some were opened by individuals such as Liu Clan Weapon Workshop and Chen Qi Weapon Workshop.
Majority were weapon workshops that had logos of sects on them such as Flying Swallow Weapon Workshop, Scarlet Rainbow Weapon Workshop, Golden Tide Weapon Workshop and True Fire Weapon Workshop.
True Fire Weapon Workshop was opened by one of the five major sects, True Fire Sect. At the same time, it had the best business and largest workshop in Yongxing City.
Other weapon workshops could merely have a couple of people waiting in front of them but True Fire Weapon Workshop had long queues in front of it.
As one of the five major sects to begin with, True Fire Sect had the highest achievements in terms of elixir and weapon refinement in the Great Zhou Dynasty.
For each sect competition, True Fire Sect would occupy at least half of the top ten spots on the ranking lists for elixir and weapon.
It was only logical why the business of True Fire Weapon Workshop was booming in the capital.
Su Zimo walked over as well and joined the queue with others.