Heaven's Secret Pavilion

"I can see that it is destiny that led you to come here and meet me.", Li Yuan said with a tone of confidence.

"I've been in the Dark Mirror Forest for so many years and you're the first cultivator I've met."

"Since destiny brought you here, I'll help you.", Li Yuan said and pointed at a wooden sign that hung above the door of the little hut.

Hearing his words, Xiao Huo somewhat relaxed.

No matter how much he thought, he couldn't find any reason for such a powerful cultivator to lie to him.

Turning his head to look at the sign, he saw that the words "Heaven's Secret Pavilion" were written in golden colors.

What was strange however was that the words were written in a language that he didn't know or recognize, but he was instantly able to understand their meaning.

'This should be the divine language of ancient cultivators.', Xiao Huo thought excitedly.

In fact, those words were written in English.

Although the system had engraved the language of this world in his mind and he was able to speak it fluently, his past life's habits were still there.

That's why the sign was in English, he just forgot to translate.

Li Yuan didn't know that Xiao Huo mistook English as a divine language, otherwise he wouldn't be able to hold his laughter back. He explained:

"This is the Heaven's Secret Pavilion and I'm the Pavilion Owner."

"Here, you can ask any questions and I'll deduce the secrets and find the answer for you."

"Of course, peeking at destiny comes at a price. If you want to get an answer, you have to pay something of equal value in return."

"Otherwise, you'll suffer the wrath of the Will of Heaven.", Li Yuan spoke with a mysterious expression.

He wasn't lying.

It was true that the system told him that deducing secrets and predicting the future will anger the Will of Heaven.

It's just that the one to face the wrath of the Will of Heaven is him and not his customers.

After all, he was the one committing the taboo.

Fortunately, the wooden hut has the function of isolating the Will of Heaven and it would not notice anything strange inside its range.

The reason Li Yuan said all of this was not to scare Xiao Huo, but to have a reasonable explanation to receive resources in exchange for the information.

Otherwise, how would he explain his need for resources?

Don't forget, he was currently pretending to be a hidden expert!

Xiao Huo heard his words and immediately understood.

But the more he thought about it, the more wrong he felt.

Why did the senior sound like a swindler?

"Don't think about it. Just ask him anything.", the sound of his master's voice ringed in Xiao Huo's ears.

Since Xiao Huo could think of it, his master, as an experienced cultivator, could also understand that they were being cheated.

However, this didn't change the fact that this smiling young-looking man in front of them was most likely a hidden expert.

Even if they knew that they were being cheated, they had to leave this place first and then go somewhere else to scold him secretly.

Xiao Huo understood his master's meaning and nodded his head.

"Senior, can you deduce where the Frostfire Flame is?", Xiao Huo asked politely.

Li Yuan wasn't surprised by his request.

If your surname is Xiao and you don't try to collect flames, are you even the protagonist?

'System, deduce the location of the Frostfire Flame.'

[The deduction requires 100.000.000 HS.]

Even if Li Yuan wanted to proceed, he wouldn't be able to.

His balance was an impressive amount of 0 HS Points.

Thinking of this, he looked at Xiao Huo and said: "Your request is kind of tricky. It involves one of the Heavenly Flames of the Xuan Continent."

"For such precious information, the price you have to pay is somewhat higher."

"It will cost you about 10.000.000.000 low-grade spirit stones, and that's only because the Frostfire Flame is near the Dark Mirror Forest."

In this world, cultivators use spirit stones as a currency.

The spirit stones are divided into low-grade spirit stones, medium-grade spirit stones and high-grade spirit stones.

1000 low-grade spirit stones are equal to one medium-grade spirit stone and 1000 medium-grade spirit stones are equal to a high-grade one.

If Li Yuan exchanged a low-grade spirit stone to the system, he would be able to get 1 HS Point.

Li Yuan felt that a hundredfold increase in price was very justified. In fact, he felt that he was very kind.

'Sure enough, only honest people like me can be chosen by things like the system.', he thought shamelessly.

Xiao Huo was embarrassed when he heard the price. This was not something that a little Foundation Building cultivator like him could afford.

'Even if you want to rob me, you have to at least me it sound somewhat plausible, right?', he complained inwardly, but on the surface, he remained extremely respectful.

"Then senior, is there any opportunity that can allow me to break through the Middle Stage of the Foundation Building Realm?"

He changed his question, with his words implying that he was only a Foundation Building cultivator and did not have so much money on him.

Li Yuan became a little depressed. he thought that as a protagonist, Xiao Huo wouldn't hesitate to pay even if he asked for thousands of high-grade spirit stones, but it seems that he was wrong.

'System, deduce nearby opportunities that are suitable for Xiao Huo to break through.'

[There are currently 23054 opportunities that meet the requirements.]

[Origin Energy. Price: 5 Billion HS Points.]

[Flaming Emperor Fruit. Price: 1 Billion HS Points.]

[Quasi-Emperor Corpse. Price 900 Million HS Points.]

[...]

Li Yuan scrolled through all the nearby opportunities and was stunned by the price of most of them.

Finally, when he reached the bottom of the list, he found a suitable opportunity.

[Residence of a dead Core Formation cultivator. Price: 1.000 HS Points.]

'Finally, there is something cheap.'

Li Yuan pinched his fingers with a mysterious expression, as if he was calculating something.

"There is a residence of a Core Formation cultivator near this place."

"The price you have to pay is only 10.000 low-grade spirit stones."

He consciously lowered the profit he would make from 100 times, to 10 times.

It wasn't that his conscience suddenly awakened, but he was afraid that Xiao Huo wouldn't want to pay any more.

This was the first person he met in the past year, if he got mad and didn't want to buy anything after he was pushed too far, wouldn't he be stuck in this deserted place forever?

Sure enough, this time, the price was much more acceptable to Xiao Huo.

"Senior, can I pay my ransom... cough, for the information I want with other items?"

Li Yuan pretended not to hear his slip of tongue and nodded calmly.

Xiao Huo breathed a sigh of relief and took some cultivation techniques and pills out of his space ring.

He had taken these cultivation techniques from his clan, while the pills had been personally refined by him.

[You can trade these items for 13.000 HS. Please confirm the exchange.]

A prompt appeared in Li Yuan's field of vision and he immediately chose to confirm the exchange.

Instantly, the items that Xiao Huo took out disappeared. Xiao Huo didn't think anything of it, guessing that Li Yuan had stored them in his space device.

Then, Li Yuan didn't hesitate and bought the information regarding the residence of the dead Core Formation cultivator.

[Residence of a dead Core Formation cultivator.]

[This cultivator died after having a fight with a Core Formation Tiger Monster.]

[Their residence contains: 2 Foundation Building pills, 100 low-grade spirit stones, a low-grade magic weapon...]

[Location:...]

[Safe Path:...]

Li Yuan found that not only did the system give him the location of the residence, but also the items it contained, how the cultivator died and even how to get there safely.

After paying 10 HS Points to the system, a map materialized in front of him, with marks showing the location of the residence and the safe path.

"This map contains the location of the residence and it includes a safe path to get there easier.", Li Yuan said and threw the map to Xiao Huo.

Xiao Huo reacted quickly and caught it easily, while feeling slightly surprised.

He didn't expect to get anything in return, even if it was just a useless map.

"Thank you senior.", he cupped his hands respectfully.

Next, after confirming with Li Yuan that he could leave, Xiao Huo flew away in a hurry, afraid that Li Yuan would stop him and ask for more money.

Seeing Xiao Huo's leaving figure, Li Yuan was satisfied.

This was his first customer and after seeing that the information he gave him was true, he would surely return to this place.

Li Yuan didn't believe that Xiao Huo was as broke as he seemed.

Not even counting the cultivation techniques he had on him and the Heavenly Flames he possessed, just the knowledge of his master was worth hundreds of thousands of spirit stones.

Li Yuan had even considered robbing him, but he finally decided against it.

From Xiao Huo's information, he knew that the soul of his master used to be a Saint Realm cultivator.

Even though the system told Li Yuan that he was "almost invincible" near the hut, it didn't specify what this meant.

Did he have the strength of a Core Formation cultivator, a Nascent Soul, or a Saint?

All of the above were possible and he wasn't willing to bet his life to find out.

That's why he didn't dare to rob Xiao Huo but only forced him to buy information.

While these thoughts were running through his mind, he turned his head to look at a seemingly empty place.

"You two have been observing for so long, aren't you going to show up?"