Chapter 335: Chapter 322: Barbaric Alien Race, Prison Fire City!
The Nanman Country is located at the southernmost end of the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm. Continuing south from the Nanman Country, after passing through a million miles of Wilderness Jungle, one would reach another Cultivation Realm—the Celestial South Continent Cultivation Realm.
However, this is not easy, not easy at all.
Within the million miles of Wilderness Jungle, there are not only various formidable Demon Beasts but also countless Barbaric Alien Race tribes.
These Barbaric Alien Race tribes, like humans, are intelligent races but possess talent divine techniques that humans do not have.
The members of each Barbaric Alien Race tribe have a strength at least equal to that of a human Qi Cultivation Stage Cultivator, with the strongest among them comparable to a human Tribulation Crossing True Immortal.
It’s precisely due to the interception by these Barbaric Alien Race tribes that interactions between the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm and the Celestial South Continent Cultivation Realm have always been not smooth.
As a result, high-tier cultivators in both cultivation realms prefer to transit through the Donghua Continent Cultivation Realm rather than risk crossing the Wilderness Jungle.
Fortunately, although the Barbaric Alien Race in the Wilderness Jungle are powerful, their population is not as numerous as humans, nor do they intend to leave the Wilderness Jungle to occupy the human Cultivation Realm, so human cultivators need not worry about their chaos.
Moreover, the unique heavenly materials and earthly treasures in the Wilderness Jungle attract numerous human cultivators to venture inside for treasure hunting and exploration.
Sometimes, some cultivators even engage in trade with a few Barbaric Alien Race members inside the Wilderness Jungle, exchanging elixirs refined by human cultivators for high-tier demon pills, beast hides, spirit elixirs, and other raw materials.
Of course, more often than not, when human cultivators encounter Barbaric Alien Race members in the Wilderness Jungle, they end up getting their heads chopped off and buried in the soil as fertilizer.
After leaving Yunxia Country, Zhouyang hurriedly flew for three months before entering the territory of the Nanman Country.
His visit to the Nanman Country was, of course, for the "Nine Heavens Profound Gold" that appeared here centuries ago.
The "Nine Heavens Profound Gold" is the best material for refining the "Qianyang Golden Tower," and Zhouyang would not miss any opportunity to obtain such a treasure.
However, it has been over three hundred years since the appearance and disappearance of the "Nine Heavens Profound Gold," and cultivators who still remember this are at least Purple Mansion Stage Cultivators.
Therefore, it is somewhat challenging for Zhouyang to inquire about this matter.
Fortunately, he still has plenty of time and can first settle down in the Nanman Country and plan slowly.
With this in mind, Zhouyang entered the Nanman Country and went straight to the most famous Immortal City in its southernmost part—"Prison Fire City".
"Prison Fire City" is the largest Immortal City in the Nanman Country, established by the biggest sect within the Nanman Country—Divine Fire Palace.
Among top-notch major sects, Divine Fire Palace is relatively young, having been founded only over five thousand years ago.
However, a shorter establishment time does not imply weaker strength.
Currently, Divine Fire Palace has as many as three Nascent Soul Stage Zhenren and also a Tier Six High-Grade Demon Beast, the "Flame Flood Dragon," as the sect guardian spirit beast.
This level of strength places it at an upper-tier level among many sects in the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm.
As Divine Fire Palace’s meticulously built Immortal City, "Prison Fire City" also has its unique characteristics.
First, this Immortal City is built on a Tier Six Spirit Mountain located less than a thousand miles from the Wilderness Jungle. Cultivators from the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm ventsuring into the Wilderness Jungle for treasure hunting often choose to stay in "Prison Fire City," either looking for fellow adventurers or purchasing some consumable spiritual objects as supplies.
Secondly, to the west of this Immortal City is a natural fiery gorge, which is over a hundred miles long and more than three thousand feet wide, with the blaze of ever-burning earth fire inside.
The ancestors of Divine Fire Palace utilized this natural fiery gorge to construct over a thousand artifact refining and alchemy rooms on the mountains on both sides and rent them out at very low prices to all cultivators.
Originally, this move by the ancestors of Divine Fire Palace aimed to attract popularity.
However, nobody expected that after thousands of years of development, "Prison Fire City" has now become a permanent place for independent refining alchemists and artifact refiners from dozens of surrounding countries around the Nanman Country.
And these permanently resident independent alchemists and artifact refiners have attracted countless loose cultivators to come here, either purchasing elixirs and magical artifacts or seeking to learn the craft.
As a result, the flow of cultivators in "Prison Fire City" has consistently remained over ten thousand throughout the year, rivaling the renowned Immortal Cities like Immortal Sun City, which were established tens of thousands of years ago.
Zhouyang arrived outside Prison Fire City late at night, and because it was the dead of night, he immediately noticed the unique and magnificent scenery in the western sky of this Immortal City.
He saw that the western sky over Prison Fire City was bright as if on fire, with the darkness dispelled by the soaring blaze from the fiery gorge below, making the vicinity over a hundred miles around the fiery gorge as bright as day every year.
Looking from the west to the east, various tall immortal buildings in Prison Fire City glimmer with spiritual light, emitting a colorful glow that dispels the surrounding darkness, irresistibly drawing people toward them.
The fear of darkness lies deep in human bones, so when walking in the night, people instinctively move toward the light; this tendency applies even to cultivators with night vision abilities.
However, the most conspicuous building in the city is still a torch altar inside the Immortal City.
The torch altar stands a hundred zhang tall, with a hemispherical inwardly concave top where the perpetually burning crimson flames reside.
This torch altar is the landmark building of Prison Fire City known as the "Divine Fire Altar."
Because Nanman Country is far from the center of the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm, far from the territories of sects like the Beast Taming Sect and the Purple Star Sect, which are hostile toward Zhouyang, Zhouyang didn’t conceal his face upon entering Prison Fire City, only maintained his alias "Huang Yi."
It’s worth mentioning that Prison Fire City exempts Purple Mansion Stage and above cultivators from entry fees, and when the cultivators of the Divine Fire Palace learned that it was Zhouyang’s first visit to Prison Fire City, they specially called a Qi Cultivation Stage young girl who worked as a "Wind Media" to guide him.
Of course, the guiding fee for the girl was naturally paid by Zhouyang himself.
Prison Fire City does not prohibit air travel, but it forbids flying in and out of the Immortal City; cultivators must approach the city wall and land before entering and exiting through the gate below, convenient for control and registration.
After entering the city with the guiding girl, Zhouyang released the "Illusory Cloud Ship," carrying the girl to tour the Immortal City under her guidance, while conveniently looking for a cave mansion suitable for his cultivation.
After circling the city and viewing several cave mansions, Zhouyang chose a Tier Four Cave Mansion suitable for a Purple Mansion Stage cultivator in the South City District.
This mansion couldn’t compare with the one in Immortal Sun City, but there wasn’t too much difference; the environment was quite tranquil, the spiritual qi concentration was sufficient, and naturally, the price was quite affordable, requiring only 2,500 low-grade spirit stones per year.
After paying five years of rental upfront, Zhouyang officially moved into the cave mansion.
Upon settling into the new mansion, Zhouyang went around various shops and the free market in the city to leisurely survey and understand the local price levels.
After two days of inquiries, with certainty in his heart, he rented a shop on a commercial street near the South City exit at a rental price of 2,000 spirit stones per year, named "Huang’s Refining Shop," to undertake various Tier Three and Four magical artifact refinements and sell his self-refined Tier Three artifacts and spirit talismans.
With the shop acquired, it was essential to have staff.
Thus Zhouyang recruited a Qi Cultivation Stage elder with years of experience and a family, hiring him as the shopkeeper-cum-helper at a price of 100 spirit stones per year to manage the shop and attract business.
He himself spent most of his time cultivating in the cave mansion, only visiting the shop when receiving refinement orders or finding some free time.
In the blink of an eye, three years had passed.
Three years is naturally just a short phase in a cultivator’s life.
However, for the deliberate Zhouyang, after three years of operation, he has essentially achieved his goal of integrating into Prison Fire City and establishing a preliminary foothold in the city.
After three years of management, his "Huang’s Refining Shop" has gained some renown among certain middle-high tier cultivators, with many resident Foundation Establishment and Purple Mansion Stage cultivators in the city aware that a Tier Four Refining Master had arrived in the South City.
A Tier Four Refining Master, regardless of location, holds certain prestige and is an individual many cultivators preferentially seek to associate with.
Therefore, in these three years, although Zhouyang had not received any Tier Four artifact crafting orders, he successfully established some friendships with several resident Purple Mansion cultivators in the city. He was even invited by a loose cultivator Tier Four Refining Master to participate in a loose cultivator refiner exchange meeting, where they shared refining insights.
Generally, the refiners from major sects and clans are unwilling to partake in these loose cultivator refiner exchange meetings because their gains from these exchanges would surely be less than their contributions.
Thus, Zhouyang’s willingness to participate and share some refining insights gained him a good deal of favor among some loose cultivator refiners, indirectly boosting his "Huang’s Refining Shop" business.
On this day, as Zhouyang was cultivating in his cave mansion, he unexpectedly received a flying sword communication.
He took down the flying sword and saw that it was sent by the loose cultivator refining master Xiao Feng whom he befriended. Xiao Feng mentioned in the communication that in half a month, there would be an exchange meeting within the high-tier cultivator circle in Prison Fire City and asked whether he wanted to attend.
"Finally, the moment I waited for! It was worth the efforts I’ve put into nurturing these relationships over the past three years!"
"After this high-tier cultivator exchange meeting, it seems I can try to inquire Xiao Feng about the news of the [Nine Heavens Profound Gold]. This person, being over four hundred years old with diverse associations, surely knows some inside stories from back then!"
Holding the communication flying sword, Zhouyang’s face showed a pleased and happy expression.
Xiao Feng’s invitation to the high-tier cultivator exchange meeting signifies his preliminary recognition of Zhouyang as a friend, otherwise, he wouldn’t rashly invite someone unfamiliar into his circle.
And inquiring among friends about some news, surely wouldn’t be difficult?