Chapter 482: Differences

Chapter 482: Chapter 482: Differences

The efficiency of Moon Shadow Tower is remarkable; when they say two days, it won’t turn into three. Shen Hao had barely stepped into his house when he saw Xiaoma waiting for him, holding a sealed wooden box.

"Master Shen, this was delivered by the people from the Official Posthouse this afternoon. They said it’s for you."

Official Posthouse—a government-run place for ordinary folks to ship goods. Letters and small items can typically be handled there. Their fees are friendly, making a modest margin with high volume, offering a convenient essential for daily life.

This was Shen Hao’s first time receiving something sent to him after coming to this world. He didn’t have many friends, certainly not enough to send things around.

Shen Hao didn’t even need to guess who it was from.

"Take it to the study."

Only after changing clothes and eating dinner did Shen Hao slowly stroll into the study. He checked the seal on the box, tore it off, and opened it to reveal a stack of bound booklets, along with a slip of paper with an address written on it.

The booklets had plain white covers, no titles. Opening them, inside were neat, tiny characters, and even a fair number of illustrations.

With growing interest, Shen Hao began reading word by word, his expression entirely focused. Compared to the intelligence he’d seen at the Jingxi Town Governor’s Office before, the information he’d purchased for fifty thousand taels from Moon Shadow Tower this time was much more substantial.

According to the booklet, City of Unjust Death is teeming with factions big and small. Many minor groups with names but little reputation aren’t even included in these statistics. Since power shifts quickly in the city, the booklet only guarantees the information’s timeliness until the end of this June.

Shen Hao had only read halfway when his horizons had already broadened. Based on the booklet’s descriptions, City of Unjust Death was utterly chaotic, a mishmash to the extreme, rife with danger but seemingly full of opportunity.

Moon Shadow Tower picked out and recorded a total of forty-five factions in their intelligence—yes, that many, and that’s after filtering them. The sheer number far surpassed Shen Hao’s expectations. For just a modest peninsula, so many factions; how do they all survive?

The greater a faction’s reputation, the stronger its power, and Moon Shadow Tower ranked these factions based on their strength.

At number thirty-one, Shen Hao found the words "Zhengyang Sect."

"Zhengyang Sect, Sect Leader Chen Zhidong, Profound Sea Realm Second Layer..."

The booklet had less than three hundred words describing Zhengyang Sect, most of it focused on its Sect Leader. As for the overall situation of the sect, it was summed up in one line: "Mostly engaged in business with medicinal ingredients and elixirs." If not for the Sect Leader being a Profound Sea Realm Second Layer expert, this sect wouldn’t have made it into the thirty-one.

Moreover, a Profound Sea Realm Second Layer—someone Shen Hao considered a regional Boss—wasn’t even that impressive in City of Unjust Death. Among the top thirty factions, all have cultivators of similar Realm sitting at their core; some even have more than one.

Now Shen Hao understood why outside forces couldn’t deal with City of Unjust Death. Just the sheer number of Profound Sea Realm Cultivators was frightening enough; even a Super Sect probably couldn’t dominate here. Plus, the mutual restraints kept City of Unjust Death standing strong, turning it into a formidable force instead.

Yet Shen Hao guessed the city’s actual structure was quite loose. Without an outside power forcing its hand, internally it was probably many independent groups competing, inevitably harboring grudges over survival space. This structure fundamentally differed from something like the Jingjiu Dynasty’s unified hierarchy.

Why did so many powerful cultivators gather in City of Unjust Death? Was it to escape the repression of other forces, or for easy access to the Ancient Tomb Complex and Underground Palace beneath the city? Likely both.

"This is quite different from Ma San Kui’s original testimony."

In Ma San Kui’s account, Zhengyang Sect was mighty as the midday sun, but the intelligence from Moon Shadow Tower only ranked it as lower-middle in City of Unjust Death.

Still, one thing matched Shen Hao’s earlier suspicions—the Zhengyang Sect did indeed deal in elixirs.

Fifty thousand taels seemed a fair price to Shen Hao; this booklet had already proven Moon Shadow Tower to be an excellent third-party supplement for intelligence gathering. Their information was more thorough than what Xuanqing Guard could provide.

After finishing the booklet, Shen Hao put it away, then rose and sat cross-legged on the Puduan laid opposite his desk, ready for today’s cultivation.

It had been more than two months since he entered Gathering Spirit Realm Sixth Layer. Others might still be struggling to consolidate their Realm, but for Shen Hao, two months was enough to stabilize his Realm and begin pushing through the next little bottleneck.

His rapid progress was thanks to Nie Yun’s guidance, which let Shen Hao use much less time and energy on consolidation, freeing up more time for deepening his cultivation.

These last few days, perhaps from a relaxed mood, he felt his cultivation speed pick up again. The True Qi in his meridians made him feel that swollen pressure for the first time in two months, a sign True Qi was about to reach the meridians’ maximum capacity.

Meanwhile, the expansion of his Sea of Consciousness had nearly stopped—it too was at its current limit. To expand further, he’d need to break through to the next Small Realm.

The barrier of the next Small Realm had appeared clearly in his consciousness days ago. Whenever he wished, he could attempt breaking through.

But Shen Hao wasn’t in a hurry. He steadily cultivated Qi Refinement, planning to linger in Gathering Spirit Realm Sixth Layer for at least another month. Only after his meridians and Sea of Consciousness reached their limits would he try breaking the next bottleneck.

What seemed like a routine cultivation session was suddenly disrupted after Shen Hao ran the Great Five Elements Technique for one Circulation.

All of a sudden, a familiar hunger erupted without warning, not only interrupting his cultivation, but also sending a chill through his heart.

"This is..."

The hunger was so familiar, and it shocked Shen Hao. It was seeping from the Black Beast Tattoo on his chest—normally it only appeared when he sensed Soul-type energy nearby, but now Shen Hao was in his study, and there was nothing like Soul Energy around.

Forced to pull out from cultivation, Shen Hao opened his eyes and looked around in confusion. He was sure nothing nearby could trigger the Black Beast Tattoo’s appetite.

This was the first time for such a situation, and it left Shen Hao at a loss.

Moreover, the hunger kept intensifying, to the point his senses began to fall into disarray.

Eat! Go find food?

The only thread of clarity left in his Sea of Consciousness was not covered by the hunger, so though Shen Hao slumped to the floor, he didn’t act on his "appetite."

What did the Black Beast Tattoo want to eat? If he let it guide him to "find food" now, the consequences would be unimaginable...