The two walked side down the dusty street, Bai Lian had eventually gone silent as her expression gave away the thoughts that were crossing through her mind, Shu He decided to let her do so, he wasn't sure exactly what to say at times like this.
He was using his territory to get a better grasp of the population of this island while they walked, the best part about his territory's senses was that it was undetectable, at least so far it was, not even people like the sect master had noticed it.
'There's a lot of them' he noted a certain group of people, each and every one of them were cultivators, back in the Steel region, outside of areas near the Titanic Steel Sect he hardly saw any cultivators walking about, and back in his village – Green-gate – cultivators were an elusive myth due to how isolated they were.
If his father wasn't familiar with them, he would've probably never found out until he left the village, providing that 'incident' didn't occur of course.
Yet just walking down the streets of Sea-break Town he could spot one or two cultivators for every couple hundred meters! They weren't very noticeable and blended in with the other people, but they were certainly there!
'I wonder if they're independent cultivators, or part of a sect…' he pondered as he ignored the glances he was getting every now and then, his cloak of pure white was certainly eye-catching among the clothes style around him, the same was for Bai Lian however, oddly, the glances sent her way occasionally contained hints of respect.
Eventually they reached a split in the road, and above on a wooden archway was a sign that read 'Market Street'.
"I'm guessing this is it?" He asked Bai Lian who nodded slightly.
The moment he entered the street he noticed just how cluttered the place was, while before there was the occasional stall that sold fruit or foodstuff, every inch of both sides of the street here was filled with stalls containing a myriad of different items.
He paused for a moment before a slight smile grew on his face.
'It reminds me of the travelling market that visited our village every year' this memory was the cause of his smile, it was that very market that began his rise as a cultivator, he had obtained the recipe for Qi Gathering Paste from a medicine salesman by the name of Bo Lin and from that moment on he was a cultivator, he had formed his golden core flame and began to walk on this path.
'There's Yun Fu as well… he was quite close with father; I wonder if he knows learned what happened… I wonder if I'll ever see them again' he felt slightly nostalgic as the memories flipped back and forth in his mind, but eventually he shut his eyes and refocused.
'If we meet, we meet, if not, then so be it, the world is big, the chances are small'.
He began walking down the market street as his eyes began scanning over every stall, he was here for a map but that didn't mean he wouldn't be interested in everything else.
"Hey, you there, you a traveller?" Someone called out to him, it was a middle aged man with an enthusiastic look on his face; Shu He glanced in his direction as he looked at the wares on the man's stall.
"You are right? Look at these stones here! We carry them around because they protect against the Flood Dragon's kin!" he gestured to the azure stones that were on the table in front of him, they were clear and spherical in shape. "As long as you have one of these, you'll be safe as your travel the archipelago!".
Shu He didn't even reply, instead he turned his head back and began walking without even a word.
"Ah- Hey!... Tch." The man's voice cut off behind him as he began looking for another 'customer'.
'Tourist traps even in a cultivation world' Shu He wanted to sigh, but he expected it already. The Flood Dragon Archipelago was a hotspot for travellers because of the views and climate, even cultivators came often because of the archipelago contained an abundance of valuable resources and constantly produced them because of the sea.
The stones the man was selling were of course, simple gems with little value. As he walked more and more stall owners tried to call out to him, so much so that even Shu He began to get annoyed.
"Hey mister! Please check out my father's stone carvings!" A child pulled on his robes making Shu He glance down at him, his expression startled the little child "S-sorry" he said as he stumbled, Shu He immediately felt a bit guilty and sighed "What did you say? Stone carvings?" he decided to give in.
"Y-Yes! Look here, my dad's pretty skilled don't you think?" On a thatch carpet there were many different stone statues laid out, most of them were the size that would fit in one's palm, but some were big enough to be garden decorations.
Shu He kneeled down as he stared at them, he could tell that the person who carved this had some skill, they were fairly well made and the subject matters were different animals, probably ones found on this island.
But to Shu He who had seen the carvings done by Yun Jiang and his master, Jin Nianzu, they were no different than dust, hollow of meaning, purely made for aesthetics.
He reached out for one, intending to buy it then get rid of it later to abase his small tinge of guilt, but when he reached out he froze, and his brow twitched ever so lightly.
He picked up the statue that was of an odd looking fish with multiple eyes and stared at it. "I'll take this one".
"Really?! That's 1 large bronze coin and 5 small ones!".
Shu He's eyes drifted over the statues until his eyes rested on another small statue, it was of a large ball like creature with spikes. "You know what, a pair would feel better, I'll have that one as well".
The boy's eyes lit up "Okay! Got it! That one is 1 large and 2 small bronze so that's…" The boy paused for a second as he moved his fingers to count, he was young. "2 large bronze and 7 small!" he cheerfully yelled.
Shu He dropped the coins in to his hand and packed the statues away in his backpack.
"Thanks for buying! Come again!" The boy waved as Shu He walked off.
"Why did you buy those?" Bai Lian suddenly asked, a look of interest in her eyes.
"Just a habit of mine" Shu He responded with a smile and nothing else.
"Really? Hmm…" She flashed a look of doubt but didn't chase up on it.
Meanwhile Shu He's mind was filled with confusion and excitement. 'What was that? I used the <
His curiosity was piqued so he bought the one he was originally going to buy, plus that one as covers just in case, as he picked up the second one he tried to penetrate it with his territory, yet he could only get past the normal stone!
He had a feeling something valuable was inside, but he had to wait until he got to a safe place to extract it, especially with all these cultivators around.
And so, he continued on his quest to find a map; It didn't take long at all after that, they came across a man that sold maps he drew and copied himself with plenty of annotations, it cost a full large silver coin to buy but to Shu He that was nothing, so he happily paid.
"So, we're done?" asked Bai Lian.
"No, I want to buy some more maps" Shu He replied, confusing her.
"Why? We already have one, no?".
"This is just one map made by one person's experience, it's better to have multiple so we can cross reference and get a clearer picture" Shu He explained.
"Oh! Makes sense… we already had perfect maps when we travelled so we didn't need to do that".
Shu He proceeded to buy another five maps, each with slightly different shapes and annotations before he nodded and was satisfied, he had begun to look even closer at other stall items after the statue but couldn't find anything else of interest.
'Makes sense, if a good item was place obviously then all of these other cultivators would snatch it up before I could' he thought as he eyed some cultivators that were quietly prowling the market, they were low levelled, so they were probably hoping to get a lucky break.
"That should do it… do you know anywhere we can rent a space for a little while?" He wanted to sort out his stuff before they moved on, but didn't necessarily want a inn room.
Bai Lian frowned for a moment as she wracked her brains until she remembered something "There's a restaurant around here that has private rooms for cultivators".
"For cultivators? Really? Is it cheap?"
"It's not too expensive, some of the weaker sects use it when visiting".
"Sounds good enough, we can go wait out the night there and I'll call the other two".
The sun was beginning to lower over the horizon so it was the perfect time to retire, travelling across place he wasn't familiar with in the dark was asking for trouble after all.
He planned to set out tomorrow.