REVEREND INSANITY
261

...Chapter 261: Inner City of the Shang Clan...

Fang Yuan paid two hundred ancient stones, and entered the city center with Bai Ning Bing.

The inner city, although built in the mountains, has a wide footpath that can accommodate ten horse-drawn carriages.

Once they entered, the crowd became much smaller, less than half of the outer city.

But Gu Masters became scattered everywhere, rank one was all over the place, rank two was mixed between them, and sometimes one or two rank three.

There were few or no humans, however, a hundred ancient stones were needed to enter. Most Gu Masters had servants to serve them, but did not want to waste their money like this.

Lighting in the interior of the city is done through a type of charcoal.

The coal can burn for a long time, and does not emit smoke. Every hundred steps, Fang and Bai would see a hole being dug in the wall, as a bunch of coal burned within it.

Although coal does not emit much heat, with so many of them burning at once, it still causes the temperature within the city to be higher than outside, and the air to become much drier.

Unlike the outer city, which had all sorts of buildings, being a complete mix, the buildings here were all in one structure, and looked the same, made from heat-resistant red lava stone.

All sorts of paths extend from the main road.

At the same time, every five hundred steps, a huge round pillar would appear.

There was a spiral stone staircase on the surface of the pillar, which jutted upwards, with a fence along the stone staircase.

Through the stone pillars, one could ascend one floor, or get to the street one floor lower.

The interior of the city is not flat, but rounder. From top to bottom, there are many walkways and buildings, which connect to each other and allow one to travel anywhere easily.

Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing moved towards the deeper parts of the mountain, this was still not their goal.

At a certain location, a guard appeared.

The Gu Master at work had a higher cultivation, as the security of the place was enhanced.

“Do you two have tokens?” The guard stopped Fang and Bai.

The Shang Clan gave tokens of varying authority to people of different statuses.

“This is our first visit,” said Fang Yuan.

Obviously, he doesn't have anything like that.

“Then, it will be two hundred primeval stones per person,” the guard said.

Fang Yuan paid for the ancient stone, and the guards let them pass.

Both arrived at the fourth deepest city as a result.

Shang Liang Mountain has been through several thousand years of development by the Shang clan, the entire mountain has been renovated by the Shang clan, digging trails and building new buildings, classifying the place into several regions.

So, the inner part of the city was huge, from the inside out, there were five regions.

Within the first city was called the inner city center, the political heart of the Shang clan, and also their military base.

Within the second city also known as the clan city, only the Shang clan could stay here.

The third city center had an elegant environment, with clean and fresh air, it was an upscale zone.

The fourth deepest city is the middle class zone. Within the fifth city was a low-class zone.

Go further and we get out of town, high traffic flows, and all sorts of freight. Compared to the city center, it was much more chaotic.

This construction structure, is somewhat like a termite hill on Earth.

Termite hills are four to ten meters long, with termites living in them, in small, interconnected, intricate and beautiful tunnels.

Once the two entered the fourth deepest city, they could feel more moisture in the air as the temperature dropped slightly.

Compared to the fifth city center, the city within the fourth was higher in level, not only was the entrance fee twice as high, but it also had much better facilities.

First, the light was not provided by charcoal, but by a large number of rank one Gu grasses.

His name is – Moonlight crawling tiger mountain.

It is a kind of vines, growing on the walls of both sides of the road, as it spreads, can be seen everywhere.

The roots were deep blue, and the leaves were wide and large, emitting a small blue moonlight. Only one path had thousands of leaves, as the soft blue light fused together.

Due to the large number of leaves, the air becomes more humid and water vapor fills the air. Near the ground, there was a mist of viscous steam.

The moonlight drifted in the mist, turning into an aurora. When one walks on the streets, they have the feeling of walking in the spiritual realm.

Most of the buildings here are full of carvings and decorations. Some residents make meadows, place vats of flowers, while others make artificial mountains, and pavilions.

There are even fewer people on the streets here.

Rank two Gu Masters was now an ordinary group, after all, two hundred ancient stones was an enormous amount to rank one Gu Masters.

Obviously, the streets were still noisy in the center of the fifth city, but here, the atmosphere was much quieter.

The two continued deeper, and reached the city gate.

“Without token, to enter the city in the third, you two have to pay six hundred ancient stones.” Cultivation guards were already rank three.

Fang Yuan gave the ancient stone away, and arrived at the third area.

This place was different from the fourth deepest city again.

All infrastructure is made using star stones.

This type of rock, a material widely used in the Gu refinement, is capable of emitting starlight in the dark.

The entire inner part of the third city used star stones. Not only the building, but even the path was made of star stone.

At first glance, starlight filled the air as the vision was clear, without any fog as a barrier.

Fresh and clean air. Looking around, there were pavilions, red walls and green bricks, and even transplanted bamboo forests, famous trees, making artificial mountains, with flowing springs as well.

The streets had small, quiet and serene people, like starry palaces.

“Truly rich and extravagant ..” Bai Ning Bing slightly judged, only the building cost she could see, was an astronomical figure.

The wealth of the Shang clan was like a mountain, in fact, the entire city of the Shang clan was a literal mountain. The Shang clan mainly traded and it involved the entire southern border.

The true wealth and assets of the Shang clan, no one could explain it.

But Fang Yuan knew, only the construction of the city within these three, could match the tens of the total wealth of the Gu Yue clan.

In this place, even rank two Master Gu became rare.

Every now and then, they saw Gu Masters, but almost all of them were ranked third.

This was Fang Yuan's goal.

It was deeper, and it was the second deepest city.

But to enter it, it was no longer a matter of ancient stones, the Shang clan city token was needed. And the authority of this token must reach a certain level.

“Toko Tong Ou.” Fang Yuan looked at the plaque before entering.

This is the shop that sells Gu worms.

“Two honored guests, please come in.” The maid was a young girl, walking over and speaking in a soft voice.

His aura was not hidden, showing off Master Gu's cultivation of rank one.

Although Fang and Bai were wearing mortal clothes, one was ugly while the other was down and down, this Master Gu girl still showed a respectful attitude, showing her superior service attitude.

Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing were taken to an elegant room.

It is a private room, with wooden tables and chairs, with statues and paintings hung on white walls. His brushstrokes resembled dragons and phoenixes dancing as his strokes were written with just the right power.

Through the window grille, the garden could be seen; green trees and red flowers along with birdsong.

The young girl Master Gu brought two cups of fragrant tea and left.

As he left, an old man came in.

“May I ask if two of our honored guests are here to buy or sell?” The old man was a second rank Gu Master, smiling as he cupped his fists and asked.

“Good buy, and also sell.” Fang Yuan raised his cup while answering.

The old man laughed, and two flashes of light flew out from his body, floating in front of Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing.

Those are two nerds.

Bookworms are rank one Gu worms, but they are as valuable, as rare as liquor worms.

Once one appears in the market, it will be sold outright, there is often demand but no supply for it.

He was like a silkworm, despite having a head, body and stomach, three different parts, his whole body looked like a cocoon, round and cute.

Its body was white, but its surface had a layer of enamel, giving it an oily shine.

Holding it in one hand, it was round and smooth, like a high-grade porcelain vase.

Bookworms are a type of Gu storage, similar to the tusita flower.

The difference is, tusita flowers store physical items, while nerds store knowledge and information. Even if it was destroyed, it would only explode into a harmless flash of white light.

“Please browse.” Old Master Gu said.

The two nerds were refined by him, so he could easily lend them to Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing.

Fang and Bai both used traces of the snow silver primordial essence, and injected it into the nerds.

The bookworm turned into a flash of white light, entering the foreheads of the two, between their eyebrows.

Suddenly, Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing got a wave of information in their heads.

The information was like the content they had memorized, deeply embedded in their minds.

Bai Ning Bing secretly bit her tongue, Tong Ou's shop sold nearly tens of thousands of Gu worms! Gu worms of all kinds, causing one to get dizzy from observing the selection alone.

Among them, there were nerds, liquor worms, all kinds of precious Gu worms, from low to high, ranked one to five.

Of course, there was definitely no rank six Gu.

Each Gu worm has a special introduction to state its usefulness. There were even accurate prices, some were given high prices, while the rare and precious Gu worms even had all kinds of token requirements.

This meant, only Master Gu with the token of a certain Shang clan would have the qualifications to purchase this Gu worm.

Fang Yuan needed to buy a large amount of Gu worms, after casually exploring, he returned to the real world and returned the nerds to the old man.

Even though he had over ten thousand ancient stones now, in order to buy all the Gu worms he needed, there was still a way to go.

Money was not the case, as some of the Gu worms had token requirements.

“Honored guests, what are you interested in? If you buy in bulk, we can provide the appropriate discount.” The old man smiled and said.

Looking at the snow silver primordial essence of Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing, his tone became even more respectful.

Fang Yuan waved his hand: “Don't rush, I have Gu worms for sale.”

Saying so, he summoned Gu bone spear.

The elderly are not surprised, many come to the store Tong Ou to buy, but also many come to sell.

He held onto Gu's bone spear, looked at it, and showed a trace of shock on his face.

He had never seen Gu's spear bones.

Of course not.

This is a special Gu worm made by Grey Bone Scholar, he never entered the market.

“Please give me enlightenment, honored guest.” The old man showed a serious expression as he cupped his fists.

Fang Yuan nodded, drinking tea: “Of course. This was the bone of the spear Gu, a certain descendant of the worm Gu. I'll lend it to you now, you'll know when you try it.”

The old man immediately held it, saying: “This gu, despite being ranked one, is not easy to raise. But its attack power is high and rather unique, it is worth this price.”

The old man stretched out his palm, showing a figure.