Chapter 70 - 69: Looking for information.

Chapter 70: Chapter 69: Looking for information.

Morning arrived quietly, bringing pale light through the gaps between the old houses.

The four had already packed their belongings by the time they stepped out of the room. Yichen stretched his arms, looking much more refreshed than he had the previous evening, while Minghao checked that nothing had been left behind.

Yuexin, meanwhile, gave the room one last glance before following them toward the front door. Xiaoyu adjusted the straps of her belongings and waited beside the entrance.

The old woman was waiting near the door, holding a small basket. She handed them a few pieces of food wrapped in cloth, telling them to eat along the way.

"Thank you for letting us stay, Senior" Minghao said, accepting the basket with both hands.

Yichen smiled and waved. "We’ll come visit again if we’re ever nearby!"

"Don’t make promises you can’t keep," Yuexin said, giving him a look.

The old woman only chuckled. "Then take care on your journey. The road ahead is long."

"We will," Yuexin replied.

Xiaoyu bowed slightly. "Thank you for your hospitality, Grandma"

The old woman looked at her for a moment, her cloudy eyes resting on Xiaoyu’s face. Then, to the surprise of the others, she gave a small bow of her own.

"And thank you, little one."

Xiaoyu was startled as she hurriedly blinked. "For what?"

"For last night."

Minghao and Yuexin exchanged a brief glance. Neither seemed to understand what the old woman meant, and Yichen, who had been standing nearby, also looked at Xiaoyu.

The old woman did not explain further.

She simply smiled, her expression carrying a warmth that had not been there the previous evening.

"There’s no need to be so formal. Take care of one another on the road."

Xiaoyu lowered her gaze for a moment before giving another small nod.

"...You’re... welcome."

Yuexin looked between them, seemingly about to ask something, but Yichen spoke first.

"Ah, Grandma, you should have seen it. It was such a beautiful sight."

Minghao turned toward him. "What are you talking about?"

Yichen only smiled, glancing at Xiaoyu before looking back at the old woman. "Nothing. Just something I happened to see last night."

The old woman chuckled softly, but said nothing more.

After bidding her farewell, the four left the house and walked through the quiet village.

The morning air was cool, and a thin layer of mist still lingered between the abandoned houses. Their footsteps sounded unusually clear against the empty road, while the faint smell of smoke followed them from the old woman’s chimney.

Yichen walked ahead, already talking about how much he had enjoyed the stew. Minghao occasionally answered him, though his attention remained on their surroundings. Yuexin followed behind them with Xiaoyu, who glanced back once toward the house.

By the time they reached the village’s outskirts, the old woman’s house was already behind them, its chimney sending a thin trail of smoke into the morning air.

They continued eastward, leaving the abandoned village behind as the road stretched toward the distant mountains.

As they walked, Minghao took out a small jade-like compass from his storage pouch. Its surface was smooth and pale, with a thin pointer resting beneath the translucent cover.

He held it in his palm for a moment, allowing the pointer to settle. After a brief tremble, it turned toward the east, pointing along the road ahead.

Yichen leaned closer. "So that’s the direction?"

Minghao nodded. "According to the compass, Jade River City lies that way."

Yuexin glanced at the pointer before looking toward the distant mountains. "Then we should follow it. There’s no need to waste time taking unnecessary detours."

Xiaoyu quietly observed the little device, while Yichen straightened and continued walking.

"Well, at least we won’t get lost."

"That depends on whether you actually follow the direction," Yuexin replied.

Yichen gave her a wounded look but said nothing, and the four continued eastward with the compass guiding their way.

Endless green plains rolled beneath the open sky, broken only by distant forests, winding rivers, and mountains that rose like ancient giants from the horizon.

Strange spiritual plants grew among the grass, their leaves shimmering faintly whenever the wind passed, while herds of spirit beasts wandered across the plains, occasionally lifting their heads to watch the travelers pass.

They crossed rivers wide enough to resemble lakes, climbed hills covered in flowering trees, and passed through settlements where cultivators and ordinary people lived side by side.

Whenever their spiritual energy grew low, they would find somewhere suitable to rest, replenish their supplies, and continue once they had recovered.

Some nights were spent beneath ancient trees, others in roadside inns or abandoned shelters. They encountered a few minor dangers along the way, but nothing the four of them could not handle together.

Days turned into weeks, and the scenery gradually changed as they travelled farther east.

The green plains became less frequent, replaced by rocky hills and stretches of barren land where spiritual energy gathered beneath the earth.

By then, nearly a month had passed since they first departed from the Chen Family.

At last, they arrived at Jade River City.

Unlike the cities they had passed along the way, Jade River City was built within an enormous crater. Its outer walls followed the uneven slopes of the depression, while countless buildings spread across the lower basin, their rooftops forming dense layers of grey and dark green.

From a distance, the city appeared to have been carved directly into the earth.

Yet what made it truly unusual were the countless glowing ores embedded throughout the crater walls.

Some protruded from the exposed rock in clusters, shining with soft jade-green light.

Others glimmered in shades of blue, violet, and pale gold, their radiance visible even beneath the daylight.

Many had remained untouched, still buried deep within the stone, while others had been partially exposed by mining over countless years.

Their combined glow gave the entire crater an almost otherworldly appearance, as though the city had been built inside a gigantic cavern filled with scattered stars.

Even from the distant road, the four could see cultivators moving along the crater walls, some carrying mining tools while others examined the exposed veins of ore.

Jade River City was clearly built around these natural treasures, and its people had long since learned to live alongside the glowing earth.

As they drew closer, Chen Yichen kept glancing at the glowing ores scattered across the crater walls. Some were exposed right beside the roads, shining through the rock as if someone had left pieces of jade embedded there.

He finally pointed toward them. "If those are valuable, why hasn’t anyone mined them?"

Chen Minghao followed his gaze. He studied the nearest vein for a while before answering, "They probably have. Just not all of it."

"Why not?"

"Look at how far those veins stretch. If they’re connected beneath the whole crater, digging into the wrong place could damage the entire deposit." Minghao paused, then added, "And the light isn’t just coming from the ores. There’s spiritual energy running through the rock. They might be afraid of disturbing it."

Yichen looked at the crater again. "So they’re just going to leave all that jade sitting there?"

"Would you rather they dig it out and bring the whole city down?"

Yichen glanced at him. "When you put it that way..."

Beside them, Chen Xiaoyu had been quietly observing the exposed veins.

Her amber eyes followed the faint light running through the stone before she finally looked away, seemingly satisfied with what she had seen, "It’s so beautiful... "

Yuexin had already turned her attention toward the city gates. "Can you two save the discussion for later? We should find somewhere to rest. We still have another three hundred kilometres north to go."

Yichen caught up with her. "How long do you think that’ll take?"

"Several days, at least."

"Several days?" He looked toward the distant mountains. "I thought we were almost done."

"We are almost there," Yuexin said. "Just not today."

Minghao gave him a brief look. "You were the one who insisted we take this mission."

"I didn’t say I wanted to walk forever."

"Then you should have learned how to fly."

Yichen opened his mouth to reply, but Yuexin had already walked ahead, leaving the others to follow.

The four joined the line of people waiting at the city gate. Unlike the walls of an ordinary city, the entrance had been built directly into the crater’s sloping rock, with thick stone pillars supporting a broad archway.

Several guards stood on either side, checking the belongings of arriving cultivators and collecting the entrance fees.

As Yichen approached, one of the guards noticed the emblem embroidered on his clothes.

His eyes widened slightly before he looked at Minghao, Yuexin, and Xiaoyu, confirming that they wore the same mark.

"The Chen Family?"

His voice was not particularly loud, but it caught the attention of those nearby. A few people turned to look, and whispers quickly spread through the queue.

"Chen Family? From the eastern region?"

"I heard they recently became the Lord of the Eastern Region."

"Those four must be their younger generation."

The guards exchanged a brief glance before the one who had spoken stepped forward and cupped his hands.

"Please, young masters and young miss. Welcome to Jade River City."

Yichen blinked at the sudden change in their attitude, while Minghao returned the greeting with a polite nod. Yuexin simply acknowledged them, and Xiaoyu followed quietly as the four continued through the gate.

Once inside, the city opened up before them.

A broad stone avenue descended along the crater’s gentle slope, branching into smaller streets lined with shops, inns, and workshops.

Buildings had been constructed against the exposed rock, some with their foundations carved directly into the crater walls.

Others stood on raised platforms connected by stairways and stone bridges, allowing people to move between different levels of the city.

The glowing ores were everywhere. Some were displayed behind shop windows, while others remained embedded in the walls and pillars, casting faint colours across the streets.

Miners carried baskets of extracted stones toward nearby workshops, and cultivators could be seen examining small pieces of ore at roadside stalls.

Despite its unusual location, Jade River City was lively. Merchants called out their prices, carts rolled along the main avenue, and cultivators from different regions moved through the crowd.

The constant glow of the crater walls gave the entire city a strange brilliance, even beneath the morning sky.

Yichen looked around, his attention already drawn toward the nearest row of shops. "This place is something else."

Xiaoyu glanced at the shops as well, though her attention soon drifted toward a small stall displaying several unusual spiritual plants.

She paused for a moment to examine them before following the others deeper into the city.

The four continued along the avenue, taking their time to look around while keeping an eye out for anyone who might sell information about the area marked on their mission slip.

They first tried asking a few shopkeepers, but none of them knew much beyond the general geography of the northern outskirts.

One suggested visiting the trading houses, while another pointed them toward the auction district.

They followed the directions and asked around, but after visiting several places, they still hadn’t found anyone who could give them useful information.

By then, the market had grown busier, and the four had wandered through several streets without making much progress.

Yichen was beginning to wonder whether they should try somewhere else when a voice called out from the roadside.

"You four little birds looking for information about that godforsaken place?"

The voice came from an old man sitting against a weathered stone wall.

His clothes were ragged, his grey hair tangled, and a battered wooden bowl rested beside his feet.

Despite his appearance, his eyes were fixed on the four of them, as though he had been watching them for some time.

The old man rubbed his fingers together, his gaze moving between them.

"Information doesn’t come cheap, little birds. Especially information about that place."

"How much?" Minghao asked.

The old man raised one hand and spread out five fingers. "Five hundred low-grade spiritual stones."

Yichen nearly choked. "Five hundred?"

"That’s right. You won’t find another person in Jade River City who knows as much as I do."

Minghao frowned. Even if the information proved useful, that price was absurd. He was about to decline when Yuexin stepped forward.

"Five hundred? For a story you haven’t even told us yet?" She looked the old man up and down. "You don’t even look like you have five hundred stones to your name."

The old man’s expression stiffened. "You little girl, don’t judge a book by its cover. I have my sources."

"Then go sell your information to someone else."

Yuexin turned and started walking. Minghao followed without hesitation, while Yichen glanced back at the old man before hurrying after them.

Xiaoyu followed at the rear, her expression as calm as ever.

"Wait, wait!" the old man called. "You can’t just leave after asking me!"

Yuexin stopped and looked over her shoulder. "We didn’t ask you to tell us anything. You were the one who called us."

The old man rubbed his beard, then raised two fingers. "Two hundred."

"No."

"One hundred!"

Yuexin continued walking.

"Fifty! That’s my final offer!"

She didn’t even turn around.

The old man watched them go, his face twisting as though he were suffering a great loss.

Finally, he called out again.

"Ten! Ten low-grade spiritual stones! I won’t go any lower!"

Yuexin stopped.

Minghao looked at her, then at the old man. "You were really going to walk away?"

"Of course." She turned back toward him. "He was the one who called us. If he wants to sell information, he should offer a reasonable price."

The old man grumbled under his breath, but held out his hand. "Ten stones. Pay first."

After Yuexin handed over the spiritual stones, the old man quickly swept them into his sleeve.

He then leaned back against the wall, looking rather pleased with himself.