txolops Chapter 12 Six Consecutive Palaces
Chapter 12 Six Consecutive Palaces
On Kuixing Island in the Chaotic Star Sea, a bustling island teeming with cultivators, the Six-Hall Linked Palace, with its unique six-pavilion linkage model, has become the most iconic commercial force on the island. Its shop layout and business characteristics have profoundly influenced the cultivation ecosystem of Kuixing Island.
The core commercial cluster of the Six-Hall Palace is located in the heart of Tiandu Street in the northern district of Kui Xing City. This area is regarded by cultivators as the prime commercial location of Kui Xing Island.
Tiandu Street was originally a trading area specifically designed for cultivators. It was surrounded by an array that isolated mortals, while the interior was rich in spiritual energy and orderly.
The six halls of the Six-Hall Complex are arranged in a ring, among which the "Mountain and Sea Pavilion" suspended in mid-air is particularly eye-catching.
This three-story pavilion, entirely verdant, is more than thirty feet above the ground. It is not only a landmark of Tiandu Street, but also a trading place for cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage and above.
The other five pavilions are built around the Mountain and Sea Pavilion. They are "Jade Ring Residence", which mainly deals in elixirs and spiritual herbs; "White Water Pavilion", which specializes in finished magical artifacts; "Cloud Dream Pavilion", which focuses on talismans and formations; "Green Bag Pavilion", which sells cultivation techniques and pill formulas; and "Spirit Beast Pavilion", which is responsible for trading in demon beast materials and spirit beasts.
The six pavilions are connected by aerial corridors, forming a unique structure of "one pavilion in charge and five pavilions working together". If a cultivator has any needs in any pavilion, the staff can quickly access resources from other pavilions through the corridors, greatly improving transaction efficiency.
In terms of its business operations, Liuliandian has achieved "full-chain coverage" of cultivation resources.
This is also the method that Han Xiaoliu has his eye on.
In his plan, he also intends to open a cultivation market with a full range of supplies.
As the core of the elixir industry, Yu Huan Ju not only stores regular Foundation Establishment Pills and Qi Recovery Pills, but also monopolizes the official sales channels of "Dust Reduction Pills" on Kui Xing Island, attracting a large number of cultivators who are close to forming their core to come here.
Bai Shui Lou is known for its complete range of magical artifacts, from low-level artifacts to replicas of ancient treasures suitable for Core Formation cultivators. The shopkeeper often personally appraises the quality of magical artifacts for high-level cultivators.
Relying on the abundant monster resources of the Chaotic Star Sea, the Mountain and Sea Pavilion has been purchasing sea beast essences and demon cores year-round, while also selling tamed earth-遁 (earth-遁 is a type of magical beast) and medicine-finding spirit beasts, becoming a "logistics base" for cultivators exploring the sea.
Yunmeng Pavilion and Qingnang Pavilion respectively meet cultivators' needs for consumable talismans and formations, as well as their needs for advanced techniques such as breakthroughs and the collection of pill formulas.
The Spirit Beast Pavilion is a specialty of the Six Palaces, not only providing baby monsters but also undertaking spirit beast taming commissions. Its team of tamers is quite famous in the Chaotic Star Sea.
In the power structure of Kui Xing Island, the Six-Linked Palace is second only to the Star Palace's direct forces and is ranked alongside the Myriad Sounds Gate as one of the island's three major business giants.
It has several Core Formation stage elders behind it, including Elder Gu and Elder Miao, who are experts in the early Core Formation stage, enough to occupy a place among the medium-sized forces in the Chaotic Star Sea.
The Six-Linked Palace not only controls the core commercial resources of Tiandu Street, but also indirectly influences the direction of the cultivator community's actions by issuing tasks such as "encircling and capturing the Infant Carp Beast"—for example, it recruits cultivators to participate in the encirclement and capture of demon beasts with "Dust-Reducing Pills" as rewards, which not only solves its own resource needs, but also strengthens its appeal to the cultivators on the island.
However, its power is not monolithic: in the original story, Elder Gu and Elder Miao were actually spies of the Reverse Star Alliance. Their exposure during the Demon Suppression Platform incident caused internal turmoil, which also reflects the vulnerability of the Six-Hall Palace in the complex power struggle in the Chaotic Star Sea.
……
Below the Nascent Soul stage, all are mere ants!
Yunlu, wait for me in Tiannan! I'll show you what cruelty is.
Han Xiaoliu shook off the tormenting fantasies about the old monster Yunlu from his mind.
With a calm expression, he slowly walked into the Spirit Beast Shop on Tiandu Street, followed by the respectful Hyacinth Boy who dared not utter a sound.
The month-long trading gathering has ended, and Han Xiaoliu used this time to collect a copy of all the monster blood essences that appeared at the trading event.
He thought that there wouldn't be many more opportunities to quickly acquire monster resources like this, but the hyacinth boy told him some news: the Six-Linked Palace on the island has almost all the monster resources in the sea area near Kui Xing Island. If you want to collect monster blood, the Spirit Beast Hall of the Six-Linked Palace is the most suitable place.
After learning about the Spirit Beast Pavilion from the boy, Han Xiaoliu immediately made up his mind to go there. Of course, in order not to attract attention, he still had the boy act as his cover.
"Senior, this is the 'Complete Encyclopedia of Ocean Monsters,' which includes illustrations of monsters from level 1 to 4. It also contains information on some monsters level 5 and above. It's already the most comprehensive monster encyclopedia circulating on the market."
As the boy carefully introduced the types of monsters recorded in the thick encyclopedia, he secretly glanced at Han Xiaoliu out of the corner of his eye. He saw Han Xiaoliu carefully sketching on the picture with a specially made spirit ink brush, looking very focused.
If he weren't drawing circles, the boy would have thought he was recording important information.
Han Xiaoliu marked each type of demon beast blood essence he already possessed, then handed the encyclopedia to the other party, saying calmly, "Besides the ones I marked, go ask how many different types of blood essence essence they have here. And how many spirit stones they need."
The boy quickly took the illustrated guide with both hands, not daring to be negligent in the slightest, and turned to walk towards a calm and composed receptionist in a blue robe at the counter.
Although his steps were light and quick, each step revealed caution.
In the common knowledge of the cultivation world, although the essence blood of demon beasts has a wide range of uses, few people are as "strange" as Han Xiaoliu.
As everyone knows, the greatest use of the essence blood of demonic beasts is to refine spiritual ink to make talismans, or as an auxiliary material for refining weapons and alchemy.
Furthermore, some evil cultivators who practice demonic arts need to soak their bodies in massive amounts of blood essence to temper their demonic techniques. All of these uses require enormous amounts of blood essence as a foundation.
However, Han Xiaoliu's purchasing methods were completely different.
He only takes "a tiny bit" of the essence blood of each kind of demon beast, a pitifully small amount. Let alone using it to refine high-level talismans, he probably wouldn't even have enough to draw a few low-level talismans.
This kind of "superficial" need is simply insufficient to meet any actual cultivation or weapon crafting requirements.
To outsiders, this behavior is truly incomprehensible.
After all, if it were truly for cultivation or weapon forging, they wouldn't be so "petty".
Therefore, those who knew the inside story could only attribute Han Xiaoliu's behavior to a kind of "quirk" - just as some people like to collect rare minerals and some people like to collect rare spiritual herb seeds, this "Senior Han" was probably obsessed with collecting "specimens" of various monster blood essences, just to satisfy some unknown collecting hobby.
This "collector" persona provided perfect cover for Han Xiaoliu's actions.
After all, who would bother to investigate the true motives of a "quirky collector"?
This is far more discreet than being suspected of practicing some kind of evil technique.
"I heard that the auction at Liulian Palace has a lot of good stuff up its shelves, and even the final item is shrouded in mystery."
The hushed but excited chatter of the surrounding cultivators, like needles, pierced Han Xiaoliu's ears, instantly piquing his interest.
An auction? An auction in the cultivation world of the Chaotic Star Sea, I wonder how it differs from the one in Tiannan.
"Fellow Daoist Wu, you're always so well-informed. Do you have some inside information? Give the brothers a sneak peek!" The fellow cultivator's eyes lit up, and he stepped forward expectantly, clearly believing in this "Fellow Daoist Wu's" inside information.
The cultivator addressed as Fellow Daoist Wu revealed a hint of smugness. He paused deliberately before lowering his voice, yet ensuring that those around him could hear him clearly: "A close friend of mine works at the Six Linked Palace. Yesterday, he secretly told me that the Six Linked Palace's recent hunt resulted in the slaying of two level-five demonic beasts! Not only did they obtain two high-quality demonic cores, but even more remarkably, they also captured a newly hatched demonic beast cub alive!"
He paused, and seeing that everyone around him was holding their breath, he continued with satisfaction: "On the surface, this auction is to deal with those two demon cores, but in reality, it's to find a good buyer for that demon beast cub. It's said that the cub's bloodline is extremely special, and even the elders of the Six Linked Halls are interested."
Han Xiaoliu stood at the edge of the crowd, his fingertips trembling almost imperceptibly.
A level 5 demon beast is equivalent to the early stage of Core Formation cultivation. The essence contained in its flesh and blood is far superior to that of a low-level demon beast.
But what moved him was never any demon core, much less the cub.
Instead, it is the flesh and blood of a level-five demon beast, which contains immense blood and energy...
If this flesh and blood could be carefully refined into the "Red Silk Soup" needed for the Elephant Armor Technique, the massive amount of essence contained within would be enough to help him push this body-refining technique to its perfection.
At that time, one's physical body can unleash a force of nearly ten thousand jin, and every move will have the power to split mountains and shatter rocks. Such temptation is far beyond what a few demon cores can offer.
"I must go and see." Han Xiaoliu lowered his eyes, concealing the glint of light that flashed in them. His fingertips gently caressed the corner of the storage bag, and he had already made up his mind.