When Chu Qi and Yan Jiuge approached, they heard the sound of an argument on the street before they saw anyone.
"No, you have to give me one thousand taels of gold before I can tell you where Qiucheng is."
"Can't you trade it for something else? Like some jade or something like that." Luo Wuci advised kindly.
"I just want gold."
"… "
Liu Weiming wanted to say something else, but he caught a glimpse of two figures approaching from the corner of his eye, so he turned around and said happily, "First Senior Brother, Junior Brother Chu!"
"We are here." Yan Jiuge nodded and looked in front of Liu Weiming, "Is he the one who knows the whereabouts of Qiu Cheng?"
The man was wearing ragged clothes and curled up in the alley, looking like a homeless vagrant. His hair was messy and his face was full of dirt, but his eyes were rolling around, also looking at the two new faces.
"Yes, I know how to get to Qiucheng. I'll sell you this information for 1,000 taels of gold." The man replied to Yan Jiuge. "You pay first."
"Can."
Yan Jiuge responded straightforwardly, which made the man stunned for a moment.
Using his sleeves as a cover, Yan Jiuge took out a stack of banknotes from his bag and handed it to the man.
Yan Jiuge didn't have much gold on him, but he had a lot of silver notes. When he came to Yunhua Realm, the servants of the Yan family went to the bank to exchange several million in secular money.
However, when the man saw that it was a silver note, he looked a little disappointed. "Why is it a silver note? Then I have to go find a bank to exchange it for gold? There is no bank nearby that can exchange it. No, I won't accept it."
Chu Qi understood his implication, "You don't want money, you want gold?"
"Yes! I just want gold." The man nodded.
"It's so dangerous here. Everyone wants to take their money and leave. Wouldn't it be easier for you to leave with the silver bill? Why do you want gold alone?"
Chu Qi narrowed his eyes.
"What do you care about me? If you don't give me a thousand taels of gold, I won't tell you where Qiucheng is."
Yan Jiuge and Chu Qi looked at each other. The former took back the hand holding the banknote and said, "Forget it, fellow apprentices, let's go."
Liu Weiming and Luo Wuci had already talked to this man about the truth for a long time, but he just wouldn't listen. He remained indifferent when he brought up the excuse that Qiu City was in danger.
Now that Yan Jiuge had finished speaking, Liu Weiming and the others naturally followed Yan Jiuge's words and left as soon as they said they would.
Seeing the four of them turn around and leave so abruptly, the man was dumbfounded. He hurried out of the alley and chased after them, asking, "Do you really not want to know where Qiu Cheng is?"
"If you don't have a thousand taels of gold, I won't bother you." Chu Qi's expression was indifferent.
"Nine hundred taels?" the man asked tentatively.
Chu Qi remained calm: "No."
"Seven hundred taels! That should be enough, right?"
The man's tone was a little anxious. Previously, seeing that Liu Weiming and Luo Wuci were honest and eager, he had insisted on giving them one thousand taels of gold. But now, because the gold in his mouth was about to fly away, he began to get anxious.
Chu Qi glanced at Yan Jiuge, who understood, "Ten taels."
"What?!" the man exclaimed in anger, "Ten taels of gold are not even enough to make a brick! How can I enter Qiucheng?"
Yan Jiuge raised his eyebrows, "I need to pay gold to enter Qiucheng?"
The man covered his mouth and said angrily, "You are trying to trick me, you outsider. I won't tell you unless you pay me."
"Ten ounces of gold, if you want it or not."
After a stalemate, the man finally compromised and sold the news for ten taels of gold. "Qiu City is a place that everyone in the Central Region yearns for. It is made of gold and jade, and is extremely rich. If you can live in Qiu City, you will never have to worry about food and clothing in your life. After sunset, you can take the gold and wait on the street for the immortal to take you in. The more gold you pay when entering the city, the higher your status in the city will be."
"?"
This statement is completely contrary to the information revealed by the innkeeper.
The four of them looked at each other. They had all heard the words of the innkeeper, but now when they heard the words of this suspected homeless man, the clues seemed strangely fragmented.
Moreover, the man in front of him easily revealed Qiu Cheng's whereabouts for the sake of gold.
Nothing happened to him, it wasn't like he was cursed.
Chu Qi looked up at the sky. It was almost evening and the sun would set soon.
The only thing they have in common is that there are "immortals" after sunset.
Yan Jiuge said, "Let's go back to the inn first."
*
The disciples of Tianxuan Sect returned to the inn one after another before sunset.
Everyone exchanged clues and found that except for the homeless man, everyone else was scared of Qiu Cheng and was unwilling to reveal his whereabouts.
"… "
"Strange, what does this Qiu City look like?" Luo Wuci was puzzled. "Our Tianxuan Sect received a letter asking for help. It was clear that a cultivator had occupied Qiu City and was harming the people. The only person who was willing to talk about the whereabouts of Qiu City said that it was a city made of gold."
Liu Weiming suggested, "Why don't we go to the street after sunset to find out what those immortals are."
"Well, wait for a while."
In the evening, the innkeeper closed the door early, said hello to the guests, and hid in the airtight room. He held a small Buddha statue in his hand and prayed for the Buddha's blessing.
The monks have a strong sense of perception. There is no barrier set up in the mortal house, and they can still hear the shopkeeper's mumbling through several walls.
Yan Chi and others also stayed in this inn and communicated with Yan Jiuge through a wall.
"A city made of gold? Interesting, I also want to live in it. Then I can save a lot of materials when refining weapons." Yan Chi spoke lazily and casually.
Yan Jiuge was originally deep in thought, but when he heard his words, he suddenly frowned and said, "Say it again."
"Hmm? I was just trying to ease the atmosphere." Noticing the change in Yan Jiuge's tone, Yan Chi tried to defend himself, "You should know that as a weapon refiner, in my opinion, gold is more valuable than jade."
"Gold is the most valuable of all iron ore. There are no spiritual veins in the Central Region, so gold is the most valuable thing worth fighting for. However, most cultivators are not interested in gold. Only mortals and weapon refiners are obsessed with it."
Yan Jiuge narrowed his eyes and continued to speculate, "Could the one causing chaos in Qiu City be a weapon refiner?"
"This..." Yan Chi fell into a brief contemplation. He put down the cauldron in his hand that was used to refine the spiritual weapon and sighed, "Then I have no choice but to take action. Golden City, I want to live in it too."
"It's a bit strange." Chu Qi, who was originally listening, hesitated and said, "Does a weapon refiner have the ability to make an entire city disappear?"
"If it's a weapon refiner, I have a guess." Yan Chi said, "Refine the entire city into a magic weapon, and then control it to turn it into another place similar to the mustard seed space."
"But there is a drawback to this kind of magic weapon. Except for the refiner himself, no other living person can enter it."
“…” The air fell silent.
If this is true, there will be no living people in Qiucheng.
"Of course, there may be other methods that I don't know about." Yan Chi walked out of the house, stood at the edge of the corridor, and waited for the night.
"And the shopkeeper and his people are acting very strangely. If this is a golden city that everyone longs for, why are they so scared?"
After the hearing, it was getting dark outside.
Chu Qi and Yan Jiuge stood in the corridor on the second floor of the inn, looking at the deserted and empty streets below.
“Woo!”
The wind came from nowhere, blowing through the empty house, making a whimpering sound.
Because there weren't many people, there were no lights on the street, and it was pitch black everywhere, which looked a bit creepy. No wonder the innkeeper was so frightened.
Just then, someone was running on the street.
Chu Qi recognized the man. He was the one who sold the information for ten taels of gold in the afternoon.
His face was filled with joy, as if he was pursuing what he had wanted all his life, and he ran madly in one direction.
"Follow him." Yan Jiuge said.
Everyone immediately jumped down from the corridor and stood on the empty street.
“Boom boom!”
At this moment, a burst of orderly footsteps suddenly sounded, landing heavily on the ground, like metal colliding, or like boulders rolling. It came from the direction where the man was running.
In Chu Qi's perception, ten auras similar to those of cultivators appeared out of thin air, and their strength was at the Jindan stage.
But they don't look like humans, their bodies are made of solid metal and ore, their bodies are tall and solid, they have no nose or mouth, and their heads only have a pair of black, substanceless eyes.
"This thing, a puppet servant, tsk, it is indeed the work of a weapon refiner. However, to be able to refine a puppet servant with the strength of the Golden Core Stage, the strength of the weapon refiner must be at least above the Nascent Soul Stage."
Yan Chi was still in the corridor. He looked at those things and felt something was wrong.
"I want to enter Qiu City. I have ten taels of gold. Let me in." At this time, the man who longed for Qiu City had already run to the front of the puppet servants, stretched out his hand to them, and handed over ten taels of gold.
The puppet servant took the gold, then reached out and dragged the man behind him.
A slight spatial fluctuation suddenly appeared, and the man's figure disappeared.
Immediately afterwards, the ten puppet servants turned their heads towards Yan Jiuge and the others, and walked towards them with thumping steps.
"Should we go in?" Chu Qi asked.
"Leave six people outside to wait for news, don't let all of them go in." Yan Jiuge took out gold from his Qiankun bag and distributed it to Chu Qi and the other four sword-cultivating disciples.
"First check if there are any living people inside, then make plans."
During the conversation, the puppets came to the front. Chu Qi and others followed the previous man's method and took out the gold and handed it to them.
Surprisingly, they refused to accept it.
The puppets' eyes turned red from black, and a strange voice came out of their bodies, "Monk, you can't go in alive."
A huge metal fist fell towards Chu Qi and others.
Everyone dodged in all directions. Yan Jiuge was faster, and instinctively grabbed Chu Qi's waist and led him away from here.
(End of this chapter)