Chapter 336: Chapter 305 Beihan City_1
Beihan City
Walking in his boots and a thick beast skin coat along the crystal-clear road, Xu Mu moved forward with the crowd. His eyes were wandering around, just like an ordinary lone cultivator.
The pedestrians and customers in the shops occasionally took a glance at him but quickly retracted their gaze.
In this world full of cultivators, bizarre figures were common. Although Xu Mu’s appearance differed slightly from the locals, it didn’t stand out.
Through continuous observation, Xu Mu noticed that the houses here were chiefly made of ice, earth, and stone, with a round arch at the top, and there were few multi-story buildings.
“It should be to avoid the accumulation of snow!”
In this area, heavy snowfalls happened periodically. The snow would pile up in a short time, and it would only melt during specific seasons.
Although cultivators can clear the snow and ice on the roofs with their skills and formations easily, doing so would consume energy. So, most people would prefer the way that saved effort, even if the saving was minimal.
Exceptions are like the Beihan Immortal Palace, which cared not about the consumption of Spirit Stones and had plenty of manpower to clear the snow at all times thanks to the constant operation of the formations.
Because of the environment, people here normally wore thick fur coats, wrapping them like a rice dumpling. Only those who had reached the Foundation Establishment Stage wore a little less.
This can be considered a peculiar place because the higher the level of cultivation, the less the clothing one would wear.
In fact, cultivators at the Foundation Establishment Stage can resist hot and cold temperature. Except in extremely cold conditions, Xu Mu felt that their habit is a major reason why they would wear fur coats.
In addition, it also serves to be prepared for unexpected occurrences.
If a cultivator exhausts all his Spiritual Energy or is gravely injured without relying on clothing, he could be frozen to death. What a pathetic way to die.
Therefore, regardless of their level of cultivation, most people would opt to wear a coat to protect against the cold. The difference comes in the degree of protection.
The coat that Xu Mu was wearing was bought along the way, made of the commonly found white bear skin in the Northern Domain.
In the northern regions, besides being the most common monster beast, white bears also constituted the most commonly used means of transportation, equally vital as the oxen and horses in the Central District.
Right next to Xu Mu, several white bears of massive size were slowly pulling a carriage along.
Due to the long-term domestication, these white bears have become quite docile and rarely cause harm to people. Even ordinary people tend to keep them.
After going around for a while, Xu Mu settled down in an inn. The following days were spent gathering information from tea houses, restaurants, shops, auction houses, and other places. With an endless supply of Spirit Stones, Xu Mu quickly became friends with a large number of low-level cultivators.
With his level of cultivation and wealth, to befriend low-level cultivators was overkill.
Through various channels, Xu Mu gained a lot of valuable information about the Northern Domain and Beihan Immortal Palace within a month. Inadeed, he knew as much as the locals.
Feeling that he had gathered enough information, Xu Mu began to make contact with the higher level cultivators. Despite the considerable effort required, the gains were worth it, as he quickly made acquaintances with a fair number of Foundation Establishment Stage and even Golden Core Stage cultivators.
After some time, he received a lot of useful messages.
First of all, about the Sea of Mist!
Approximately more than a thousand miles away from the coast, there was a haze that covered an unknown area, known as the Sea of Mist.
It wasn’t as he had imagined, with the entire sea being shrouded in mist.
The other point was that venturing into the mist to explore and seek treasures wasn’t unusual—it’s been happening for thousands of years.
A large number of cultivators coming and going had shared some useful experience.
There were two most important points among them.
The first one was that it would be easy to lose one’s direction in the misty sea, which Xu Mu already knew. What he didn’t know was that the cultivators from the Northern Domain had already found a solution to it.
A small creature known as a mist bird could find its way back after entering the Sea of Moss.
With this, cultivators won’t run around like a headless chicken inside the mist, thereby greatly improving their safety.
The emergence of the mist bird made the exploration of the misty sea more frequent, and the number of people increased.
Many precious treasures were being found, which led to a significant improvement in the overall cultivation level of the Northern domain’s cultivators.
The other important point was that the misty sea contained numerous poison gases and different spiritual energies. Either of the two, when inhaled by a cultivator, could cause significant problems.
But the cultivators from the Northern Domain had found a suitable method to counter it.
A robe called the Yuan Li Robe could resist the harmful spiritual energy and toxic gases, greatly reducing the cultivators’ risk of accidents.
Arguably, with these two things, even without the life stone, Xu Mu could try to search for the pool of providence.
He had to admit, the creativity of cultivators was something else.
“Regardless of whether I can find the life stone or not, I must get my hands on these two things!”
If he couldn’t find the life stone originally, he would have given up. But now that there is slight hope, he will undoubtedly give it a try.
The makers of the Yuan Li Robe were the Beihan Immortal Palace, who were ready to sell it at any time if the buyer could afford the Spirit Stones up to the level of tier seven.
There was a rumor that the first one to create the Yuan Li Robe was a lone cultivator, but later it was bought by the Beihan Immortal Palace, which became the only place to possess them in the entire Northern Domain.
Given that Xu Mu didn’t lack Spirit Stones, he immediately bought two tier-six Yuan Li Robes to replace them in case of damage.
However, he didn’t manage to buy the mist bird because the nearby regions were not fit for the bird’s survival. Moreover, mist birds can’t be bred artificially. If he wanted to buy one, he would have to go to an area near the sea.
As long as the treasure was not irreplaceable, given his ability, buying wasn’t a problem, which is why he didn’t give it much thought.
“The next step is to enter the Beihan Immortal Palace!”
Speaking of this, Xu Mu felt pretty lucky as the Beihan Immortal Palace just had a task where anyone who could complete it would have the chance to select any treasure from the Palace’s treasury.
“I guess they should have some information by now!”
While Xu Mu was thinking about it, the communication jade in his pocket started to vibrate. By checking it with Divine Intent, he immediately received a message.
“Friend Xu, we have got news of the thousand-year-old snow lotus you requested! come to the Snow Plum Tower!”
Upon hearing the news, Xu Mu’s eyes brightened instantly. He quickly packed up the communication jade and hurried towards Snow Plum Tower as mentioned in the message.
Snow Plum Tower was a high-end restaurant in Beihan City that only attended to cultivators of the Foundation Establishment Stage and above. Besides providing basic drinks and entertainment, it also held small-scale exchange meetings and auctions, thus holding quite a reputation among the cultivators in Beihan City.
“Mr. Xu, welcome!”
As soon as he entered the hall, a waiter who recognized Xu Mu immediately walked up to welcome him. After Xu Mu stated his room number, the waiter lead him there right away.
Upon opening the compartment, two cultivators, an old man and a young girl were already sitting inside.
Upon seeing Xu Mu, the girl quickly clutched the storage bag around her waist, much like a frightened little white rabbit.