Mo Yangling whistled a bit as he walked by the many buildings of that sprawling capital city.
The city felt a lot larger when one walked its streets.
'It'd likely take 3 hours to even get to the Mo Clan's compound from the outer gate... But I can always rush towards it when finishing my errands.'
With that in mind, the monk was free to wander the streets for a bit.
Many people gazed his way, but mortals seemed to be giving him a wide berth, almost as if they were avoiding a stinky beggar.
'Well, it's certainly been a while since I've bathed, but I don't stink that badly... People really are not comfortable with people that look like cultivators.'
There weren't all that many cultivators on the streets, or if there were they were dressed more casually, looking more unassuming than Mo Yangling at least.
The only other cultivators travelled in fancy carriages on specially-made roads that the Monk could only look at from a distance.
'At least there's no danger of a cultivator's carriage running people over this way...' Plenty of them seemed to be dragged by lower-ranking Demonic Beasts instead of horses, so they were more dangerous than regular carriages at the end of the day.
The Monk whistled as he made his way through the gates of the next wall and towards a district that his body was used to.
The Guozhi Capital was named after the Kingdom itself, which was in turn named after the royal family.
It wasn't that uncommon for the Kingdoms within the Vermilion Continent to name their capitals after their royal families or their kingdom's name.
Though the Monk did find it a bit uninspiring, at the very least it was easy to remember...
The city itself was segmented into several sections.
Aside from the centre which housed the Royal Palace, the innermost circle was reserved to the large families that had helped with the creation of the Kingdom back in the day.
'Classifying people by earnings and power seems to be the norm in this world...'
The outer parts of the ring were mainly populated by common people living more on the extremities. The rest of the outer wall was mostly markets for mortals.
Meanwhile, the large merchant households and smaller nobles lived in the next level.
That was also where the facilities for cultivators were located, where some cultivation schools had their headquarters and so on.
Marketplaces for cultivators were also to be found within that level of the city. And that was exactly where Mo Yangling was headed.
But he wasn't really in a hurry, he at least had the time to truly appreciate the interesting architecture of the buildings around him.
They were a strange mix of ancient Chinese and Wester-styled buildings, built out of wood and stone.
The Western-style buildings were mostly just storage sheds from what the Monk could see, whilst the Chinese style was most prevalent in the city.
He passed by entire pagodas through the Merchant district, each of them could have been a tourist attraction back in his old world, but were considered a regular business in that world.
The Monk had always liked those types of buildings, and they quickly reminded him of his time in the Temple.
'Maybe I can sell some of Brother Ren's piss water at one of the Merchant Associations here.
I don't really plan to share this with the Mo Family, they'll have a lot of questions and I don't want to get them into my Piss Farming business.
I lost one waterskin during the last battle alongside my arm, but I still have one of them left. It was safely tucked into my shirt.
Should fetch me a good price, but I may get taken advantage of too... Bah, I don't have much choice but to go in and trust my instincts.'
Mo Yangling took a few seconds to decide what merchant to go to in order to sell the Origin Spring.
He passed by a few rather impressive pavilions after he had passed the wall to the 'Cultivator's District', but the largest one that stood out most was ultimately the safest option.
'The bigger they are the more likely they'll be to keep my information private even if other powerful parties pressure them...'
It was certainly the largest Pavilion the Monk had ever seen in his life. It was a place that the previous Mo Yangling didn't seem familiar with either.
An enclosure with quite a few kilometres of land, the gigantic Pagoda was in the middle. It was more of a mountain in width than a tiered tower.
'Golden Providence Merchant Group' was boldly written at the gates at the front. They were, of course, written in pure gold.
'I should get used to such extravagant showings of wealth... It's certainly been a while though.'
The Monk smiled, before pulling up his torn robes to cover his torso slightly.
'Better than nothing at all, I guess...'
One other smaller sign on the door simply proclaimed that only cultivators were allowed inside, which was likely why Mo Yangling hadn't previously gone inside.
'Well, I am somewhat of a cultivator myself now. So this sign can't stop me!'
The Monk stepped right through the gates towards the pavilion, passing through the nicely arranged courtyard whilst ignoring most people that were coming and going.
As the sign suggested, there were no mortals to be found, not even attendants or servants, the Monk could sense that every single person present within that courtyard and Pavilion was a cultivator.
He could feel the stares he received, the scrutiny within them.
His clothes, although tattered, were still something that only a cultivator or noble family would wear. So he had no problems getting in.
But cultivators were usually a lot more refined than beggars, they always carried extra clothes with them just in case.
And, from what the Monk could feel, cultivators also seemed to be quite judgmental...
"That guy's likely part of the Beggar sect... I thought they weren't allowed inside from the front gate."
"God this stench! It's almost as bad as seeing his greasy hair swaying in the wind."
The monk did his best to avoid getting annoyed by the voices around him as he passed by.
But the further he walked in the more those comments grated on his ears, and the more annoyed he became.
'Amitabha, if the sight of me bothers them so much then who's paying them to look? Why are people apparently so keen on not minding their own business?'
Thankfully, not all the feedback he got towards his appearance was bad. Plenty of young women seemed to like his rather wild appearance.
'Heh, the perks of finding myself in a smooth-skinned young gigolo's body!'
The monk couldn't help but smile as he walked with his head held up high.
"Oh, who's let this beggar enter our great Golden Providence Pavilion?!" This time, a more overbearing voice came from the side, addressing the monk directly.
"..." Mo Yangling turned towards the voice, only to see a fat middle-aged man dressed like a regular attendant waddling towards him with a fierce look in his eye.
The monk pondered on whether or not to greet the man formally but decided against it since he didn't feel the need to be polite with someone who seemed unwilling to return that favour.
The fat man tried to grab the monk, likely to drag him out.
Mo Yangling simply caught the man's hand and forced it into a handshake.
"Great to meet you! I've come here on some rather important business, would you mind putting me in contact with someone in charge of buying important materials?"
The Monk almost crushed the man's arm with a light squeeze.
The man seemed to start sweating, his face twisting with pain as his mind filled with confusion.
'What the hell?!? I'm a Last-Stage Martial Apprentice! How is a young man like him this strong?!'
Mo Yangling eventually let go of the man's hand and slowly straightened his tattered clothes.
All cultivation realms were broken up further into different stages, Low, Middle and Late/High Stage Cultivators at that level.
After all, the more one stayed in the same realm the stronger they became. It was only natural as they continued cultivating and gathering energy within their Dantian and Meridians.
"So... Maybe get a move on now?" The Monk didn't really care about the middle-aged attendant's internal struggles though, he was still on a timer even if he wasn't rushing, so he just wanted to get things over with.
"I'll get right to it sir! Please follow me! The area for selling materials is upstairs on the second floor." The Attendant was thankfully not fully brain-dead.
He knew that the man in front of him was at the very least a Martial Soldier.
Normally, average people in their thirties reached that level. Those with lesser talent would even stay stuck in the Martial Apprentice realm until they were 50.
'He must be some talent of a nearby force coming from the wild lands! He must be in a hurry since he didn't even have time to change or wash.'
The Monk merely smiled and stepped further into the pavilion.
The interior was very nicely decorated too, with a strange mix of traditional Chinese furniture and strange floating artefacts on display behind pristine glass windows.
Each price tag made the Monk turn his head away, as the zeros on there were hurting his eyesight.
The commonly used currency in that world was the Bronze, Silver and Gold Taels.
It was simple enough, 100 Bronze was a Silver, 100 Silver was a Gold Taels.
'Even their currency serves some similarities with that of Ancient China. This world is heavily reminiscent of all the books I've read...'
But one thing was for sure... Mo Yangling didn't have the cash to be looking at any of the items on display.
'A good sign is that I at least don't see any Origin Spring around, meaning Brother Ren was not exaggerating when speaking of its worth...'
The Monk stepped on a platform with the Attendant, the platform rose from the ground with a strange hum. It was by no means mechanical from what the Monk could feel.
'Seems to be powered by some strange rocks... First time I've ever seen a cultivator's elevator, honestly.'
"Please take a seat over there! I will return to bring you to the meeting room in order to speak with an appraiser." The Attendant bowed deeply to the Monk and quickly scurried off.
'Hmm... My initial experience was a bit lacklustre, but this place is not all that bad. The Interior is very beautiful, and the attendant was friendlier after judging my cultivation level a bit.
Let's just hope I get a good enough deal on this 'Origin Spring'!
Amitabha, this monk does not care about materialism(lie), but swimming in gold is more pleasant than swimming in dung and piss!
And if selling piss is what one must do to acquire wealth, then I have no choice in the matter!'