Martial Research Master

190 DANGEROUS UNDERCURRENTS

Long Tao was shocked to see that his name was listed within the top 9 contenders of this year’s Pill-brewers list. He kicked the ten families’ disciples out of the list. This was going to attract a lot of attention. How could the agency find this information out?

“I will be back by evening.” Long Tao advised Su Menqi to continue to meditate. He instantly called 4 of his avatars out. It was time to get some answers. Each of Long tao’s avatars had the strength of an intermediate Qi king. It could be categorized as a substantial force even in the central plains.

The first person he went after was the innkeeper. He was abducted quite quickly and taken into a hidden location. Lu Ming came forward and looked the scared receptionist in his eye.

“Were you the one who leaked the information about me?”

The receptionist was scared shitless. He couldn’t believe such a strong practitioner would be backing Lu Ming. He instantly bowed down and replied:

“I have kept my promise, milord. I wasn’t the one who leaked the information about you. I have already made the payment to keep my mouth shut. How could I betray my benefactor.” Lu Ming went ahead and searched for his soul. It turned out that the receptionist was telling the truth.

He took out another bag of stones. ” This is your reward for telling the truth.” The receptionist couldn’t believe his eyes. The disaster seemed to have turned into a blessing for him. He instantly thanked Lu Ming and the group of people behind him and rushed back to his position.

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“If it wasn’t the inn-keeper, who could have known my origins and strength to have mentioned my name in the top 10 of the pill brewer’s list?”

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The Keeper advised him to be cautious about his environment. If his details are leaked, the location of his stay wouldn’t remain hidden for long. He should be a bit cautious while moving within the city.

“I guess we need to go to the agency.”

The avatars made their way to the agency which was responsible for the maintenance of the list. It was the Brown-stone merchant guild, one of the most influential merchant organizations in the central plains.

He couldn’t create a conflict within the organization, as such an influential guild must have powerful cultivators backing them up. He rushed in as one of the buyers. The floor manager came up to him:

“How may I help the customer?”

“I would like to buy something.”

“Please provide your list dear sir. I would instantly gather all the goods you would need and present it to you.”

Long Tao gave him a huge list of herbs and other materials. The manager was shocked to see the length and the components listed were all quite costly. A big customer seems to have arrived in their store.

“If you would wait a while, I would get my workers to gather the requested goods. You could go up and have some quality tea and wine at our café.” Long Tao didn’t hesitate to go up the stairs. Once on his table, sweet-smelling tea was served to him with a small booklet. The waiter glanced at him and nodded his head.

The booklet was to note the information being requested of the organization. Long Tao wanted to gather a lot of them and hence noted down quite a long list of targets. The waiter took the booklet away and left for the kitchen.

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After some time, Long Tao was invited up to the VIP room. The only possible reason behind this act was that the requested information has a high-level classification. Once within the VIP room, the waiter helped Long Tao with his seat and served some authentic dishes.

“Our owner would be here anytime. Please enjoy the meal during the wait.”

Long Tao couldn’t help but wonder who the informant was. All he requested was a detailed description of all the candidates ranking in the top 100 and the source of information about the top ten. He also asked for the possible locations for three herbs which he required to create the frost pill which would be utilized in Su Menqi’s accession to Qi King level.

As he was sipping the tea from the pot, a warm and calm feeling spread through his body. He couldn’t believe that such a miraculous blend existed in this world. It would be quite helpful during meditation and genuine relief from stress.

“I hope sir likes the tea served in my humble establishment?”

Long Tao looked up to see a lady whose face was covered in a veil. Even though most of her face was hidden, the eyes themselves spoke for the beauty she was possessing. He couldn’t help but get mesmerized for a second. It was the same feeling he got when Su Menqi finally undid her seal.

He stood up and bowed to the lady out of respect, which caused a small hint of surprise on her face. Even Long tao couldn’t believe his actions just now.

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The Keeper couldn’t help but gloat at Long Tao’s actions. ” You seem to be mesmerized by her beauty, boy. Would you like to take another woman under your wing?”Long tao couldn’t help but get embarrassed.

“I have to warn you though. She doesn’t seem to be an easy girl to get. The aura I feel from her is at the peak of 6th level Qi King, and her body type is quite special too. Su Menqi seems to have found a worthy competition in her.”

“The body type exhibited by this girl is called Plum charm body. It is an illusion type body of the same grade as the perma-frost body in the sector of illusion. She is perfectly suited for illusion, charm, and nightmare skills. Her age isn’t much higher than yours, maybe in her early twenties. Stay cautious when acting in front of her. I can sense some powerful yet hidden aura within the whole building.”

“There are around 4 emperors in this building alone.” Long Tao was surprised upon hearing that. The brown-stone guild seemed to be quite a resourceful merchant guild.

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“I am sorry to have the guest waiting. The information you require requires a high-level clearance. The number of herbs you just bought is enough to make you a premium member of our guild and hence you could avail the requested information.”

“The first two requests are quite odd since we don’t know the name of the person who provided the name of Long Tao, but what I do know is that the person is quite powerful and resourceful. He is influential enough to morph the list like this. I have no power over him.”

“Money is not going to be a problem.” Long Tao insisted.

“Their identities and locations remain secret and are on a clearance level that even I can’t access.” Long Tao was shocked upon hearing this. Just what kind of person was involved in this matter?

“The third request is quite feasible. The ten clans are Feng, Shui, Nam, Teng, Cha, Chu, Namgong, Shimu, Peng, Tulu, and Bing. The competition is one of the parameters to decide their family rankings. It would affect the yearly allocation of resources and quota to enter the land of fire.”

When Long tao heard the words land of fire, his eyes began to shine. So the ten families had direct access to it while other people had to get permission by showing achievements.

“The top 100 people would be accepted as inner disciples of the valley. The top 10 get a particular resource allocation, along with the chance to become core disciples. The top 3 get a chance to be recruited by the elders of the academy to become one of their personal disciples. Although the position is kind of similar to core disciples, the benefits are much higher.”

“The first spot holder gets the highest amount of benefits. This year, out of the request from the ten families, the valley-head decided to allow the first rank holder to enter the land of flames. It is one of the reasons why the ten families are so aggressive regarding the matter. It has the potential to unbalance the equation by allowing one family to send in an extra pair of hands.”

“The last 2 of your requests are quite special. The frost herbs you asked for information about will be available with us during the next grand auction held by our agency. It is dated to be held during the 5 months from now. As per its location, you can go to extreme ice-lands to the south or the frost demon mountain range. You could also find some in the river of death valley. There were mentions of these herbs being spotted in the land of fire.”

“The last request is regarding the details of the Pill-brew competition.” The girl handed Long Tao a small manual, which he verified. It listed possible competitions that might take place this time around. The listings were quite large but Long Tao had prepared for most of them.

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Long Tao gave out a ring containing the spirit stones necessary for the payment. Once the girl verified the content she was shocked to find a small sachet in addition to the top-grade Qi stones. It contained low-quality fire stones, a resource that can only be used by advanced Qi Kings. This small sachet was ten times more valuable than the whole quantity of Qi stones.

“I can’t seem to understand the motive behind giving me the sachet” The girl was surprised upon seeing the contents of the sachet.

“It is a payment for you to prepare the highest grade materials for the upcoming Pill-brew competition. I want every single resource to be utilized along with the necessities once I enter the valley.”

“As per the rest of the stones, regard it as patronage from me.”

The girl requested Long Tao to wait up. A merchant tries his best to satisfy wealthy customers like Long Tao. The amount of patronage given by him was quite large. She instantly prepared all the items and even gave him a black-gold card. It was the second-highest privilege card for their customers.

“This is a VIP identification card. Please receive it. We look forward to your future visits.”

“As an additional favor to you, I would like to warn you about the groups hidden in shadows. They wouldn’t let a commoner do well in the competition. You should be careful.” Long Tao nodded in agreement and exited the establishment.

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The girl was sitting in a secluded room within the building. One could see a group of old men sitting around the table, waiting for the girl to speak.

“Does the young miss have something to report?”

“The last customer who visited me was categorized as a black-gold level patron due to his generous donation of fire-stones to the guild. I would like for elders to find out about his background and look out for him. I am quite confident about him being the dark horse ranked ninth on this year’s Pill-brewers list.”

“We should cultivate a good relationship with him. I believe him to be a prominent customer of ours in the future.”

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