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Chapter 194 - Whispers in Guanghan City

"Senior Brother, do you know where in this immortal city is the most convenient place to gather information?" Chen Jinshu asked Wang Quan softly.

"The most comprehensive source of information?" Wang Quan raised an eyebrow, curious. "Are you trying to look into your own background, Junior Sister? Or do you need my help?"

Though curious, Wang Quan's tone remained kind. He wasn't the nosy type, but since Chen Jinshu was new to the area, she might run into unexpected issues. If he could assist, he was more than willing to do so.

"I'm just looking into the whereabouts of a certain cultivator. Senior Brother, do you know any cultivators from the Guangfeng Pavilion? I need to confirm a few things."

"Guangfeng Pavilion?" Wang Quan quickly searched his memory upon hearing the name. "They do sell information to outsiders, but the place mainly trades in spiritual items. If you want broader intel, you'd do better visiting Chunyue Tower, the kind of place that wandering cultivators with loose tongues frequent."

He hesitated, then added thoughtfully, "But Junior Sister, if you're going into Chunyue Tower, you'd better disguise yourself as a man. It's full of mixed company—dangerous types. Not a place for a woman to enter unguarded."

"Chunyue Tower…" Chen Jinshu repeated silently, not with disdain but quiet understanding. After all, her own master Shui Huanmeng had once risen from the humble position of a tavern musician. So in her eyes, no profession was without worth. She simply hadn't expected that chasing information would lead her to such a place.

That said, she had already heard a few rumors about the blood ape beast seller. Apparently, he was an elderly man who had been living in the marketplace for some time—though it had been a year or two since then, and she wasn't sure if he still remained.

"Don't let your thoughts run wild about Chunyue Tower," Wang Quan added in a lower voice. "As long as you keep your disguise, no one but the master of the tower would even suspect. Still, be especially careful around the rogue cultivators—they're from all over and extremely dangerous."

"Thank you for the warning, Senior Brother." Chen Jinshu thought a moment but decided not to share more than necessary.

She had a decent impression of Wang Quan—he seemed brave, efficient, and sincere—but they had only met twice. He was still, technically, a stranger.

"As for those three children, I'll leave them in your care. The sister and brother are quite gifted, though they didn't witness the destruction of Yulian City firsthand, so their temperament needs strengthening. Wen Ming may not be as talented, but he's smart and well-behaved."

She casually mentioned the three children she'd rescued. After all, part of their situation was due to her own actions.

"Don't worry. Since the accident happened on a sect mission site, the sect should step in and help,"Wang Quan assured her.

Chen Jinshu nodded, handing over about a hundred spirit stones and five bottles of second-tier lower-grade pills. Wang Quan had called on several Foundation Establishment juniors to assist her, and she felt obliged to show her appreciation. Without reciprocity, why would anyone help her in the future?

"Junior Sister, what's this for?"

"Senior Brother called in quite a few disciples. It's only right that they're compensated for their time."

"…Alright then. You can leave the kids with me. I'll teach them what I can and help guide them. Their hometown was destroyed without reason—this is something they'll need to come to terms with."

After the spirit boat arrived at its designated stop, Chen Jinshu disembarked immediately, without so much as a backward glance. The three children had hoped to say goodbye, but after running around the boat looking for her, they couldn't find her anywhere.

"She's already gone," Wang Quan said gently, watching the panicked trio. "No need to look anymore. From now on, you'll be with me."

"You can call me Senior Brother Wang."

Chen Jinshu had sensed their approach early and purposely left ahead of time. It wasn't that she didn't want to face the tragedy of Yulian City—but she didn't want to interfere too much in the children's cultivation paths.

Standing at the gate of Guanghan Immortal City, Chen Jinshu realized it was even more massive than she imagined. She couldn't see the end of it. There were cultivator guards at the entrance—the weakest among them at the fifth level of Qi Refining.

To enter, one had to pay a spirit stone. But according to Wang Quan, major sects like Xuanming Sect were exempt, since they had contributed heavily to the city's construction. Naturally, Chen Jinshu wasn't going to pay. She raised her sect token, and the gatekeepers let her through.

"It's even bigger than Pingwu Market!" she murmured.

Pingwu was a sect-exclusive marketplace, built by the sect alone. Guanghan City, on the other hand, was jointly constructed by many clans, hence its immense scale.

Still, the number of cultivators here was smaller than expected. At the three-way junction before her, barely anyone was walking. She summoned her gourd and began wandering through the city. Before long, she followed the flow of people and found the street vendor district.

Unlike other places, this one had proper aesthetics—the wares weren't placed on the ground but neatly arranged on long tables, pleasing to the eye. Chen Jinshu recalled the old seller of the blood ape beast and began scanning the stalls.

She remembered: grey long robe, a black stone hairpin, and the demeanor of a scholarly elder—yet his stall sold only beast materials, a strange contrast.

"If you see him, you'll know immediately," her clan uncle had told her. That's why she didn't ask for more.

Sure enough, she soon spotted an elderly man seated cross-legged in front of an oddly mismatched stall.

Eyes closed, he looked like a Daoist master. But the items before him were all beast parts—blood-stained feathers, limbs, horns… The stalls on either side sold medicinal herbs, making his beast-material stall even more unique.

"Could being unusual help his business?" she wondered.

Yet such people often held the greatest mysteries. She couldn't sense his cultivation, nor was it polite to use spirit-gazing techniques on strangers.

All she could do was rely on the aura he emitted—but it revealed nothing.

"Excuse me, Elder. How much for these fire-element bird feathers?"

"One hundred spirit stones. Non-negotiable."

"One hundred? That's steep for mid-grade first-tier materials." Chen Jinshu frowned slightly.

"These are fire hawk wings—close to upper-grade quality," he replied calmly.

"Still not worth that much. I'll take them for eighty." She intended to forge a Five-Beast Fan as a gift for her mother. Last time, she'd noticed the fan her mother carried was an old first-tier upper-grade artifact, and it pained her.

Her mother loved feather fans—she said it was a source of pride from her maternal Wu Clan. So Chen Jinshu wanted to forge something unique, inspired by the ancient Five-Beast Technique. Legend said the Five-Beast Fan was a divine relic made from the real feathers of five primeval birds—its power immense.

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