Although he knew Yu Qing had given his word and should not go back on it, Mu Ao Tie still acted as if it had nothing to do with him.
Nan Zhu however said, See Yuan Mountain matters are See Yuan Mountain matters. Do not drag women into it. Can you not tell what is important? Old Fifteen, it is not that I am unwilling to spend money to buy information on See Yuan Mountain. It is that we do not know the price. I fear even if we pool all the money on the three of us together, it may not be enough.
Yu Qing replied, That is easy to handle. We ask first. If we can afford it, we buy it. If we cannot, then forget it.
At this point the three martial brothers had nothing more to say. They decided to leave immediately and set off right away.
Outside, Sun Ping met the three of them, exchanged greetings, and stood at the shop entrance watching them depart. He did not know where the three were going.
The dome light in You Jiao Port gradually dimmed. It must be that the sun outside was setting. Under the dome the lights became even more brilliant, and the outline of the mysterious You Cliff became clearer.
After making inquiries, the three martial brothers finally stopped under the signboard of a shop with the words Wang Lou written on it.
It was different from ordinary shops. There was no main door, at least not on the street-facing side.
The building had two floors, which was not easy in You Jiao Port. For example, Miao Qing Hall was only one floor.
Because the underground space in You Jiao Port had limited height, and because being too tall easily blocked the view, such as when trading messages formed by cloud light insects appeared in the air, buildings were generally not allowed to have multiple floors.
If one really wanted to build multiple floors, one needed to communicate with the You Cliff side. One had to explain the reasons to the You Cliff. If the reasons were reasonable and accepted, then the You Cliff would agree. Otherwise one had to honestly build only one floor. No connections would help.
Wang Lou had no door on the street side, but on the first floor there were many staircases leading upstairs, more than ten in total. Some staircase entrances had closed doors.
Yu Qing and the other two entered one staircase that was not closed.
As soon as they entered the corridor, Nan Zhu closed the door. The light inside the corridor became much dimmer. Only weak light came through the transom above the door. The glow from the fluorescent stones embedded in the steps became more noticeable, but it was still insufficient.
The lighting in the whole of You Jiao Port was already poor. Being closed into this kind of corridor made it even worse.
At this moment Yu Qing subconsciously became alert to his surroundings.
Mu Ao Tie on the other hand always acted like a proper man. He went up the steps first and walked ahead.
Yu Qing followed behind him, and Nan Zhu was at the back.
The three of them went up step by step. The staircase slope was gentle but rather long. They estimated they walked no less than ten zhang before finally reaching the platform on the second floor. It was a small room with no windows, pitch black, and nothing could be seen.
Looking back, they could still see the light from outside the corridor they had just come from, but it had become smaller due to the distance.
What is going on? Yu Qing asked in a low voice, completely confused.
Nan Zhu said, I do not know. This is my first time coming up.
Mu Ao Tie said, Same for me.
The two had indeed never come up before. They had only heard about it previously.
Hearing them say this, Yu Qing subconsciously gripped the hilt of his sword.
But right after the words were spoken, the room suddenly lit up. Light suddenly appeared from the ceiling. It seemed like firelight reflected by mirrors, shining diagonally onto a table.
Then a person appeared behind the table, as if emerging from under the floor.
Judging by the person’s appearance, it was a one-eyed person. One could roughly confirm that the person was standing on the first floor with their body protruding to the second floor.
The one-eyed person wore a black hat on their head that looked like both a small boat and a gold ingot. Two long black ribbons hung from the sides of the hat, draping over the shoulders and down the chest.
His two palms came out from behind the table, placed neatly side by side on the edge for a moment. Then one palm turned over and made a please gesture. There are chairs. Come and sit.
The three martial brothers saw a chair opposite the table and walked over.
Yu Qing poked Nan Zhu in the lower back. Nan Zhu had no choice but to step forward and sit on the chair.
The one-eyed person seemed to only then notice there were three people. There are three people. Sorry, the light is shining in my eyes so I could not see you clearly. Apologies. There is only one chair here, so I must neglect the other two.
Nan Zhu said, It is fine.
The one-eyed person asked, Tell me, what do you need?
Nan Zhu replied, We want to know the situation at See Yuan Mountain.
The one-eyed person said, See Yuan Mountain? In my impression, there seems to be only one place called See Yuan Mountain within Luan Prefecture in the eastern part of Jin Kingdom. You should understand that we are not omnipotent immortals. I do not know if the See Yuan Mountain I refer to is the one you mean.
Nan Zhu said, That is correct.
The one-eyed person continued, Clarifying the target is a good thing. We can continue to clarify the scope of the transaction. What specific situation about See Yuan Mountain do you want to know? Is it the overall general situation, or details about a particular person, or some object? As you know, different ranges of information and different targets mean different prices.
Nan Zhu looked at his two martial brothers on left and right. They could not directly say they wanted to know about Guan Feng Yang Ancient Tomb. Besides, going to an unfamiliar place, knowing only about the ancient tomb might not be safe enough. He could only reply, We want the overall general situation.
The one-eyed person said, If it is the overall situation, I must remind you again that we are not omnipotent immortals. We cannot accurately grasp everything. We can only provide some general information that can be inquired about. Therefore the information we provide cannot guarantee to fully meet your needs.
In addition, some information involving personal privacy will not be provided if it has not been made public. This may cause you to need to spend money again for more targeted information. We can only guarantee that the information we provide is verifiable and relatively comprehensive. Have you understood what I mean?
Nan Zhu replied with a sound of agreement, Understood.
The one-eyed person asked, Do you want the situation before this year, or the new situation this year?
Nan Zhu asked, Is there a difference?
Please wait. The one-eyed person lowered the hands resting on the table edge, waited a while, took out a piece of paper, looked at the content, and then informed them, The regional situation of See Yuan Mountain is not highly complex. We can organise the situation before this year and give it to you today. The price is three thousand taels. The new situation this year will require ten days before we can give it to you, as we also need to inquire. The price is sixty thousand taels.
As soon as these words came out, the three martial brothers were all shocked. Nan Zhu said in a deep voice, Even outdated information costs three thousand taels?
The one-eyed person replied, Three thousand taels is very cheap and not expensive. If you spend your own money and time to inquire, even if you spend the value of three thousand taels, the information you obtain will certainly not be as comprehensive as what we provide. We have accumulated resources. Under normal circumstances, people who come here are spending money to buy time. It is definitely worth the value.
If you are unwilling to spend even three thousand taels, then frankly speaking your usual capabilities may be relatively low, and normal gains may also be relatively low. If the effort and return are not proportional, you may not be suitable to come to a place like Wang Lou to purchase information.
Upon hearing this, the faces of the three martial brothers all changed. They felt looked down upon.
Nan Zhu and Mu Ao Tie could tolerate it, but Yu Qing was unconvinced and felt a bit angry.
I have entered the imperial palace, met the emperor, passed the highest imperial exams, been selected as a top candidate, and spent over a hundred thousand taels of silver. Yet I am being looked down on by a one-eyed monster. He immediately retorted, As long as you can provide the information we want, no amount of money is a problem. We want to know the internal situation of You Cliff. How much? You name the price.
Nan Zhu and Mu Ao Tie both nodded at the same time. They realised Old Fifteen was quick-witted after all.
The one-eyed person still spoke in a calm tone, Such jokes cannot be made. I will take it as you joking. If you are certain you truly have such a need, we can only report the situation to You Cliff. As for how You Cliff will handle you and how much information they will let you know, that is not something we can control. Are you sure you still want to probe the internal situation of You Cliff?
The three martial brothers instantly lost the smug look they had from thinking they had scored a point. They all fell silent. Their expressions were unclear whether from embarrassment or guilt.
Especially Yu Qing, who was left completely speechless. Try talking tough again?
The one-eyed person added, I do not mean to belittle you. I am used to discussing matters on their merits. I am only stating a fact. If it caused you any resentment, I apologise. Three gentlemen, do we still need to continue the transaction?
How could they continue? The three exchanged glances. Even if they pooled all the money on the three of them, it was less than half. Transaction my foot.
Nan Zhu gave a dry cough. Allow us to go back and consider it.
Very well. Three honoured guests, take care on your way. I will not see you off. After the one-eyed person finished speaking, his body lowered and disappeared behind the table again with some movement.
Yu Qing flashed over, wanting to see what was behind the table. He only saw a board closing over the gap in the floor and did not see anything.
Immediately after, everything before the three of them went black. The light in the room disappeared completely.
This sudden shift from brightness to darkness truly made everything feel pitch black.
Then a soft light appeared again. Mu Ao Tie had taken out a fire starter. The three of them lined up in single file and felt their way down the stairs in the dark.
They reached the door, opened it, and walked back onto the streets of You Jiao Port. Only then did the three martial brothers breathe a sigh of relief.
We were looked down on, right? Old Fifteen, I am not saying this to criticise you, but if you had kept just a few tens of thousands of those hundred thousand taels back then, why would we suffer such humiliation today? Nan Zhu sighed and complained.
Yu Qing’s face was dark as he looked left and right. He snorted coldly, Come on, let us find a pawnshop.
Nan Zhu and Mu Ao Tie both turned to look at him at the same time, their eyes lighting up. They understood. This fellow was finally going to use his hidden treasure.
Anywhere is fine. There are plenty. Nan Zhu pulled his arm and pointed in a random direction.
The three martial brothers hurried off like a gust of wind. Not far away, they poured into a shop whose main business seemed to be pawnbroking. At least that was how it looked from the entrance.
Yu Qing finally slapped his bottle of profound level demon spotting dew onto the counter.
The old shopkeeper came over personally to examine it and offered a price. One used portion of profound level demon spotting dew, seven thousand taels.
Yu Qing’s eyes widened at once. Shopkeeper, did you see clearly? It is something worth ten thousand taels per portion. Only two or three drops have been used. You should at least value it at nine thousand taels. Seven thousand taels is too black-hearted, is it not?
The old shopkeeper said, Little brother, the reasoning is not your one plus one equals two calculation. For this kind of item, once it is opened, the price must be discounted, let alone when it has been used. Think about it. Those who can afford this item, would they care about a mere ten thousand taels? They generally buy pristine ones. For something like yours, unless there is a substantial discount, it will not sell. Even at seven thousand taels I will not make much profit. That is the price. If you accept it, sell it. If not… He placed the item back on the counter and waved his hand, meaning please leave if unwilling.