Spirit Vessel

Darkness came quickly along with the breezes in the mountain range. One could hear the awe-inspiring roars from the beasts in the distant.

While crossing a narrow path between two cliffs, one could see a huge beast skeleton chained on one side. Its head was as big as a room. Bone flames were still burning and emitting a terrifying aura. This must be the corpse of a millennium spirit beast that has been burning for several hundred years.

Far ahead was the glow of bonfires.

The vacant plain was filled with numerous tents, traders with flamboyant clothes, cultivators from famous sects, and a few powerful lone wolves.

Some of the tents had the insignia of a trading company with guards nearby.

The ones who traded at the pass have also re-located here. Unfortunately, they couldn’t stay near the center with the tents and had to be content with just sitting on the ground.

Feiyun was surprised and asked: “Why don’t they set up shops here instead of running to Jiang Pass?”

“Trading under the table at the inn is punishable. A light sentence will end with their hands being chopped off; a serious sentence consists of being thrown into a serpent pit.” The old man answered.

Feiyun agreed with this answer. This inn is a place of business. Gaining protection is one thing but if people dare to steal their profit in any manner, that’s just suicidal.

A few Jiangs spent the night here as well. After a quick observation, there must have been more than ten thousand people here.

The inn was large but it couldn’t accommodate so many people. Only influential and important characters could enter. The rest could only rent a tiny piece of land to stay overnight.

Of course, it wasn’t cheap either. Each square meter required ten gold coins - enough expenses for an ordinary person to last ten years. This was only the price for the outside spots. The closer it was to the central inn, the more expensive.

A worker dressed in blue with a round hat walked over with a lantern in one hand and a jade ruler in the other. He had a soft yet haughty strut. A gold glow existed in his dantian.

Many cultivators stood up and greeted him with a smile: “Sir.”

He came over to the old man in blue and said: “Elder Lin, how many spots will you need tonight?”

Elder Lin cupped his fist and slightly bowed: “Sir, business was bad tonight, so just twenty, as far out as possible.”

He handed over a golden pouch, heavy with exactly two hundred gold coins.

The worker nodded, seemingly expecting this. He accepted the pouch and used his jade ruler to draw twenty spots in the farthest area away.

The old man and his two bulls entered the area with two large piles of merchandise, filling up the whole place. He had no choice but to sit on top of the items.

Feiyun watched while standing to the side, thinking that being a businessman wasn’t easy. Others back home only saw the drunken parties, not the struggles on the move.

The worker then turned towards Feiyun then Bai Ruxue. He didn’t linger on him for too long before asking: “How many plots for you, gentleman and lady?”

Feiyun smiled: “How can I let such a beautiful woman sleep outside? Prepare a top-notch room for me.”

Those dared to go here were strong and had good hearing. They all looked over at Feiyun, thinking that this youth has a big tone.

Nevertheless, they understood the moment they saw Bai Ruxue. They would never let a pretty girl sleeps in the wild, but the problem was that a good room here cost an exorbitant sum.

“Another young master wanting to show off his wealth to the beauty, just watch, his face is gonna turn black the moment he learns the price for a room here.”

“But that girl is truly pretty. I’m fine with going broke if it means spending the night with her.”

Ruxue was definitely a demoness. She blinked and said coquettishly: “Just one room?”

“How many do you want then?” Feiyun asked.

Men would never be able to understand a woman’s heart.

“How about reserving the entire inn?” She smiled.

“So be it.” He surprisingly played along.

In public, women needed to give men face and in return, men needed to satisfy their vanity.

Many snorted after hearing this and looked at Feiyun with disdain. ‘This guy wants to reserve all of Spirit Domain?’

The children of powerful clans training outside could only stay in the tents so they sneered at him.

“This guy thinks Spirit Domain is just a regular inn, that one can just reserve whenever? I can handle ten inns outside, but here... Hahaha!”

The worker smiled: “We don’t have that many empty rooms left, only seven. Two of them are top-ranked, dubbed Heaven, costing one hundred spirit stone per room each night. Three are smaller, Earth, fifty stones. The rest are Mortal for ten per night. If you want to reserve everything, then it will be 380 spirit stones, Young Noble.”

This was indeed a scary price. One hundred spirit stone could be the lifetime fortune of a half-step Giant, but it was only enough for one night here.

The crowd was ready to see Feiyun’s embarrassed expression after hearing the price.

“So cheap?” Feiyun took out two stones from his spatial pouch. They were as big as basins with a bright luster resembling two stars in the night sky, nearly dazing some people.

These two were large enough to be cut into 400 little ones.

“No change necessary, take my tiger to a Mortal room and feed it the tastiest beasts.” He said.

Ruxue didn’t expect Feiyun to be so rich either. Little did she know that this amount was nothing to him.

Everyone became frozen and slack-jawed. ‘Where the hell did this god of money come from? Throwing away several hundred stones like that without batting an eye?’

Of course, some became greedy and stared at Feiyun as if he was a mobile treasure grove. If it wasn’t for the no-kill law at the inn, they would have made their move already.

Feiyun walked towards the inn with both hands behind his back, leaving the crowd to gossip among themselves.

“Who is this brat? I don’t think many youths in all of Jin can be so liberal with money, is it Beiming Potian? Or the great genius from Yin Gou?”

“It has to be the genius from Yin Gou, only that clan can be so rich.”

“If it is one of these two monsters, then don’t have any idea or he’ll kill you.”

Everyone nodded.

“Hmm, I heard the Guard Commander Guo of Jiang Pass is coming tonight.”

“Divine Commander Guo has several million troops, comparable to a marquis. He comes here for the last day of every month, hehe, but the rooms are taken by the brat now so where is he going to stay?” [1]

“It’ll be fun, he’s gonna want to kill the brat given his temperament.”

***

The mysterious rooms inside the inn were extravagant and decorated with pink flowers, as luxurious as a royal palace.

A Pekinese with snow-white fur looking like a cotton ball was lying on its stomach on top of a flower bed. Its round, black eyes flashed in an intelligent manner before it suddenly barked towards a dark corner.

The worker with the jade ruler came out and respectfully bowed: “Mistress, we have a strange guest.”

“Which guest isn’t strange in some way here?” A woman answered with a pleasant voice.

Water vapor and mist filled the place along with the sound of water splashing.

“You’re right, Mistress.” The worker answered. This guy might be special compared to ordinary people, but not to the mistress.

“Another thing, Mistress. Today is the last day of the month.”

“Oh?” The splashing stopped in the water bath: “Looks like that annoying Divine Commander is coming again. If I didn’t want to take advantage of his men guarding the inn, I would have eaten him already, haha.” [2]

The Pekinese barked again after hearing this.

“And that strange group has been staying here for nearly a month without leaving. Maybe they have figured out your secret, Mistress?” The worker said, keeping his gaze on the ground.

“They’re from Sacred Spirit Palace, but I’m not their target. Beacon King has left Bronze Cauldron Mountain so they are feeling some pressure. No need to worry about them, of course, I’ll deal with them if they can’t pay the bill.” A jade-like hand extended from the bath, sparkling and translucent with pink flower petals attached. Beads of water streamed down her perfect skin, resulting in a gorgeous scene.

1. Guard Commander is his role at the pass, Divine Commander is his position in Jin

2. The word for eat can be literal or sexual in nature when used like this, probably literal with this context.