Prophecy Of The Stars

10.ZHIMENG NIGHT MARKET

The Shen Xin tea house is very famous in Chengdu city. With their tea plantations that produced many varieties of tea, they have a good business turnover throughout the year. It could be described as a lovely place with customers frequenting it all day.

The tea house had two different pavilions.. the spring pavilion ushers in all the rich and reputed customers ranging from the imperial family members to the standard fifth rank officials and the reputed aristocratic families. The waterfall pavilion is for the lower-ranked officials and other aristocratic families. Each pavilion had common tea halls and private rooms.

In one of the private rooms in spring pavilion, the crown prince Chu tian yin was meeting his master, Master Chen over a cup of tea. Master Chen came to Chengdu to meet with the emperor to discuss the matters of upcoming celestial jade sect selections. As he was here he planned to meet his favourite disciple who has not returned to the sect for two months.

"Your betrothal with the sixth young miss Wan is cancelled . What is your next plan? ". Master Chen knew about his disciple's dilemma.

"Father emperor agreed to cancel my engagement with that invalid. I spoke to him about marrying miss Wan Bei. As long as she and I are qualified to enter the celestial jade sect, he would issue a betrothal letter for us".

"Miss Wan Bei is a talented young lady. I heard she is stuck in the bottleneck phase. Maybe she can use the level of breaking pills to break through the bottleneck phase and enter the profound Earth stage. The availability of such pills are limited and is also costly. You can search for it in auction houses. How about this, the Zhimeng auction house will hold its annual auction two days later. Try for it and maybe you'll get it". Master Chen suggested.

Chu Tian yin was elated. Finally, he has a chance to play the benefactor. "Disciple thanks, master. Since you will remain here for a few days, disciple humbly requests master to give some pointers to miss Wan Bei, so she can improve her cultivation.

Master Chen nodded his head in agreement. Wan Bei is the pampered young miss of Wan family, also the sister of his other personal disciple. Helping her can solidify his connections with the Wan family. How can he let go of such a good chance?

Wan Jahao was enthralled, when he received news that Wan Bei was invited to accompany the crown prince, to Zhimeng annual auction and also that master Chen would guide her so that she can climb up from her bottleneck phase. He passed this news to Wan Bei and also asked Wan Jie and Wan bao to keep them company as they were also invited.

Located in the intersecting land between the three countries and inside the great gorge, the Zhimeng night market was a one-stop destination for people who searched for rare and valuable treasures, different cultivation manuals, exotic pills and herbs and much more.

It was owned by a mysterious and powerful organization, which no one dared to offend. Even the political powers of the three countries were varied in the power behind the Zhimeng night market.

The management of the entire market and auction house was well-disciplined and efficient, that no one could see any quarrels or scruples here. It operated only at night from gou hour(7-9 pm) till Shu hour(11-1 am) throughout the year. Auctions were held once every month and the large scale annual auction was held on the last day of the second month of spring.

To even pass through the gates, one needs to register their name, pay a hundred silver coins and obtain a yellow entry card. Those who have the entry card could shop from the market. If one wanted to enter the auction house, they had to pay an additional two hundred silver coins to obtain a green card and could attend the auction.

Wan Huang easily entered the night market, thanks to the entry card her master had. The master allowed her to stroll freely inside as he had some matters to catch up. Wan Huang was thrilled to see shops that sold various cultivation manuals, medicinal pills, herbs, weapons and beast cores. She would have bought the entire market according to her nature in previous life if xiufeng had not desperately stopped her.

The only thing that had some sort of value to her now was only the medicinal herbs. Since she already had some common and some rare herbs stolen from Wan manor, she strode inside the shop to purchase exotic herbs.

The shop she entered sold many precious rare and exotic herbs. Orders could be placed for acquiring herbs or could be bought instantly but at higher prices and were given only during any emergencies. Other herbs were for sale daily.

Wan Huang moved towards the daily sale batch. After careful consideration and selection, she picked up two herbs under xiufeng's advice. She wanted to buy some cultivation manuals but had to curb this greed as she had no idea what her elemental attribute was. She reluctantly bid them goodbye and walked towards the location she agreed to meet up with her master when a familiar voice caught her attention.

She quickly found out its owner among the crowd. Opposite, to her left, stood Chu tianyin, Wan Bei, Wan Jie, and Wan Bao in front of a pill shop.

Wan Bei and Wan Bao Followed after the boys and entered the shop. Curious, Wan Huang Followed them keeping a distance.

Wan Bei needed the level breaking pills, that were available only at Zhimeng night market. From their conversation, Wan Huang came to know about the upcoming celestial jade sect selections. The Wan family trio and Chu tianyin were planning to participate and were here to purchase level promoting pills to improve their cultivation.

Hearing what she wanted to know and her curiosity satiated, she left the shop.

She felt quite lucky to visit the Zhimeng night market of which she had only heard of. Moreover, today she learnt about the celestial jade sect and wanted to go, but it would be improper of her to do so as she had already accepted a master.

Wan Huang returned with her master while brooding over xiufeng's suggestion to plant and harvest medicinal herbs inside her Red jade palace. According to xiufeng's deductions, they could harvest a spiritual qi rich medicinal plants, if they could grow it. This would provide double the results if they were refined into pills.