Chapter 661 - 1 Cent Stumps a Hero

Of course, Yi Tianyun knew the hawker was a scammer. He had known all along; he was just talking to him to get information. He hadn’t, however, expected a young boy to try and dissuade him. That was a surprise.

In a world as chaotic as this, he had always admired people who could still be so kind. Since this stranger had gone this far for him, he would grant him a great opportunity!

But first, he had to get the details out of the hawker. After subduing the man, he began his interrogation, asking about the general state of the Celestial Realm. He couldn’t gather much information just by asking the Illusion Spirit here.

The spirit couldn’t go down to collect information itself, and most Cultivators only came once every decade, so they rarely revealed specific information.

Yi Tianyun could only gather information by questioning the locals, with news about Shi Xueyun being his top priority. He wasn’t foolish enough to directly ask for her whereabouts. Who would even know?

The information he wanted was simple: he would ask about all the major factions in the Celestial Realm! He needed to see which of them placed a high value on cultivators with an Ice Attribute constitution. That would be a strong lead.

In addition to that, the cultivation environment was another factor. Shi Xueyun possessed the Ice Saint Body, which meant she had to cultivate in a place of extreme cold to achieve the best results.

He quickly got the general information he needed. Just as he’d thought, the hawker knew quite a lot, including information on many of the smaller factions.

‘There are actually six or seven that fit the criteria? Is this even the Celestial Realm?’

Yi Tianyun was a bit speechless. The Spiritual Power of the Celestial Realm was supposed to lean toward Masculine Qi. Who would have thought there would be six or seven places of extreme cold? It completely went against the Celestial Realm’s fundamental nature.

But nature was full of endless variations. Even in a land of extreme heat, a patch of extreme cold could appear. The world was vast, and anything was possible.

And that was after he had already eliminated a few candidates; there were still six or seven possibilities. He’d heard that her cultivation was at the Spirit King Stage or higher, which meant she had to be with a decent faction—at least a fourth-grade power, the equivalent of an Empire.

Even after narrowing it down, there were still six or seven options, which was a major headache. These factions were massive to begin with, and he was a complete stranger in this new land. He couldn’t just walk up to someone and ask, “Do you know Shi Xueyun?”

If he did that, they’d just call him a lunatic.

‘Looks like I’ll have to check them one by one. They’re scattered across such a wide area…’ Yi Tianyun shook his head. ‘Even with my incredible speed, just visiting each one and investigating thoroughly would take several years to have a chance of checking them all.’

‘And even after checking them all, I might not find her! I’m only working with possible leads. The Celestial Realm is just too vast; there’s no way this hawker could know everything.’

‘It’s very possible she’s with a Hidden Clan or even a smaller faction. My judgment can’t be perfect; I’m relying on intuition for all of this.’

“That’s right, Soul Guidance!”

Yi Tianyun remembered that when he’d obtained the Transmigrator title, he had gained the Soul Guidance ability, which could point him toward a quest objective. His main quest was to find Shi Xueyun, so if he used Soul Guidance, wouldn’t he be able to find her?

‘He felt like slapping himself. How could he have forgotten about that?’

He immediately opened the system’s shop. All of his items appeared before his eyes—things he’d won in the lottery or obtained from killing enemies would all show up here. This meant he could spend a large sum to buy back items that had dropped, which was a very user-friendly feature.

The prices, however, were not so user-friendly. They were typically dozens, or even hundreds, of times more expensive than the sell price. For example, selling a Sacred Artifact might net him a few tens of thousands of Madness Value at most, but buying the exact same one from the shop would cost over a million. The markups were extortionate.

He quickly found “Soul Guidance” on the list, but his expression changed the moment he saw the price: three million Madness Value!

He nearly coughed up blood. In the past, he could have casually thrown around three million Madness Value, but after upgrading his Madness Mode, his funds had been all but wiped out. His entire net worth was now less than one million Madness Value, as he had given most of his possessions to the Celestial Cloud Empire.

Even if he liquidated all his assets, he estimated he would only have about six or seven million Madness Value, and the loss would be immense. He had so many Sacred Artifacts and Martial Arts; selling them off would be a huge waste.

Sacred Artifacts sold for a million apiece in the shop, but he would only get a little over ten thousand for selling one. That meant to get three million, he’d have to sell almost three hundred of them. It was the same for Martial Arts. Heaven-level Martial Arts were sold as if by the pound, with one manual fetching a mere ten thousand-plus Madness Value. Mid-grade ones were slightly more expensive, and the priciest were high-grade ones, which went for nearly one hundred thousand Madness Value.

However, he had acquired relatively few high-grade Sacred Artifacts over time.

Of course, he had given them all to Yi Yuwei and the others, leaving nothing for himself—unless he sold a Divine Artifact. They were priced at one million Madness Value each. He had Divine Artifacts on him, but he couldn’t bear to sell one. It would be an incredible waste.

‘Three million Madness Value… I’ll just have to scrape it together. It shouldn’t take too long…’

Yi Tianyun shook his head. He decided to hunt some high-level Demon Beasts; that was undoubtedly the fastest solution. ‘Perhaps none of this is worth even a single one of Shi Xueyun’s fingers, but her situation surely isn’t dangerous right now. That’s why I’m not in a huge rush.’

If she were in grave danger, he would have long since sold off everything he owned and charged in, regardless of whether his opponent was a Saint King or a Divine King.

“The trial is about to begin! If you’re going to buy something, buy it now! It’ll be too late if you wait!”

“That’s right! My Martial God Robe will absolutely carry you through! You’ll pass the trial with ease and snagging the reward will be a piece of cake!”

“The power of my Celestial God Pill is even more astonishing! I guarantee you’ll ascend the steps with ease, absolutely no pressure!”

As the start time drew near, the hawkers began shouting with all their might. They themselves, however, remained unmoved and had no intention of participating in the trial.

The Celestial Realm’s Ascension Divine Altar was extremely strict, with major restrictions on both age and cultivation. Participants had to be above the Core Formation Stage but below the Pill Transformation Stage—the Pill Transformation Stage itself was excluded—and could not be older than thirty!

These hawkers were all well over thirty, and their cultivation had long since reached the Pill Transformation Stage. Therefore, they could only come here to swindle people out of their money, using it as a convenient excuse: if they weren’t too old, they would have taken their own treasures and joined the trial long ago.

‘Alright, it’s about time. After I grant him his opportunity, I need to find a good spot to hunt some Demon Beasts and earn some Madness Value.’

Yi Tianyun nodded, temporarily settling on this plan. He could also check for wanted posters or something similar; there were plenty of ways to earn money. Three million Madness Value would have been difficult to amass in the past, but for his current self, it was manageable.

By killing a single powerful expert, the Madness Value he’d gain, combined with selling off all their possessions, could easily net him tens of thousands, or even over a hundred thousand. It wasn’t a major issue.