Eight Noble Families

"Father, what was my mother's identity?" Qiu Nuo couldn't help but ask.

Qiu Yuansheng sighed, and a look of nostalgia appeared on his face. "Your mother belonged to one of the eight noble families in the Imperial Capital. Your mother went against her family's objections to be with me. I may be the head of the Qiu family, but that means nothing in comparison to the eight noble families…"

"Eight noble families? Are they very powerful?" Qiu Nuo tilted her head.

"Of course!" Qiu Yuansheng nodded. "The eight noble families are the Gu family, the Su family, the Shangguan family, the Yun family, the Lu family, the Chu family, the Ye family, and the Ximen family. They're all high-ranking ministers in the central government or rich businessmen. Some of the families existed even before the founding of our country!"

"Wow! My mother had such a great background!"

Thinking back to how Su Qingqing and Madam Gu had been amongst those whom she had met in Ziying Mountain, Qiu Nuo couldn't help but wonder what relationship Madam Gu had to her and her mother.

"Don't think too much about it." Qiu Yuansheng tussled Qiu Nuo's hair and retrieved an exquisite white jade hairpin from his storage ring. "This is a thousand-year-old Soul Jade. There's a cultivation technique inscribed within it. It's currently the highest level skill that the Gu family has in possession, and only their descendants have access to it. As Qingrong's daughter, you definitely have the right to learn this skill too!"

Qiu Nuo's eyes glimmered.

She had been in a dilemma over where to find a passable skill. She hadn't expected to have one delivered right to her!

From Xue Ling, she had learned that skills were divided into four levels, and each level had three separate grades.

In Jiuzhou Mainland, a third level skill was already rare. After all, this was just a normal realm, not the Divine Realm.

Even a highly respected and powerful family's best skill was of the lowest grade of the third level. That went to show how valuable skills were.

And her mother had managed to inherit and pass down such a precious skill. That could only mean that she held quite a high position in the Gu family too.

…

Two days later, Qiu Nuo shut herself in her room, analyzing the skill inscribed within the Soul Jade.

The name of this skill was Black Sky, and it was an offensive skill.

Even without any martial arts skills, its spiritual power alone was enough to compare to some first-level skills.

Because this was the lowest grade third-level skill, it absorbed one's aura at a much faster rate than a normal skill. Although it was worlds apart from the skill that Xue Ling's master had left her, it was still much better as compared to other Warriors'.

"I know that you're going to collect the bone needle today. Drop by the marketplace and get some herbs for making the Xuepo Pill. Your progress is too slow. You need the help of some spirit pills," Xue Ling said.

"I haven't even been training for half a month, and I'm already close to reaching the peak of the first level of Soul Mastery. Is that slow?" Qiu Nuo huffed. This girl's standards were way too high!

"Your spiritual talent exceeds the ninth level and you have the special skill that my master left to you! But you haven't even reached the second stage yet! Don't you think it's embarrassing?" Xue Ling rolled her eyes.

"Fine!" Qiu Nuo could only admit defeat. "When I get to the marketplace later, I'll get the ingredients to make a spirit pill. In another three months' time, the Imperial College will be coming to Tianluo City to recruit students. I must become a third level Warrior before then!"

"Do as you seem fit, as long as you don't forget to train your Soul Mastery."

…

As night fell, the downtown area of Tianluo City ushered in the busiest time of the day.

Upon collecting her bone needle and dagger at the blacksmith, she headed directly for a building in the most prosperous part of the downtown area.

This building was where most of the people had gathered. It was terribly crowded.

Above the building's main gate hung a huge purple-gold plaque. Written in ink mixed with luminous powder were the words: Qiwu Pavilion. It looked unbelievably majestic!

Qiwu Pavilion was the Luojia Empire's largest exhibition. Even though Qiu Nuo hardly left the house, she knew all about Qiwu Pavilion because of how famous it was.

"Qiu Nuo, I went in earlier to make some inquiries. The first floor of Qiwu Pavilion is the normal area. There isn't anything worth your time there. The second floor is for higher-level items. They're all worth at least a thousand gold coins. Then, the top floor is the VIP area. Only those who spend at least ten thousand gold coins are welcome there. I looked around there earlier and found a lot of precious and rare materials that you won't even be able to find elsewhere. I heard that you must be a VIP to attend the Qiwu Pavilion's annual auction too." Xue Ling chattered on while projecting her image beside Qiu Nuo.

"Annual auction? There must be a lot of good things there!" Qiu Nuo stroked her chin.

Qiwu Pavilion held small-scale auctions every day, but the items were usually not worth much.

But for a large-scale annual auction, Qiwu Pavilion would have no choice but to bring out all the big guns.

"Of course." Xue Ling squinted at Qiu Nuo. "Although nothing has caught my fancy, there might be something for you."

Qiu Nuo pursed her lips, completely at a loss for words.

…

Upon learning that Qiu Nuo could now cultivate, Qiu Yuansheng had immediately given her five hundred gold coins.

With the money that Mo Ziyan had given her earlier, she now had more than a thousand gold coins on her.

The Xuepi Pill and the Nayuan Pill were both first-grade pills. Their ingredients were fairly common too. As such, Qiu Nuo had only prepared to buy enough ingredients to make ten pills. As for the rest of the money, she would use it to buy seeds of herbs that the Qiu family didn't have in their medicinal garden.

In the future, as long as she had the complete range of herbs, she could very well be self-sufficient.

Qiu Nuo followed the crowd into the first floor of Qiwu Pavilion, and she headed straight to the counter.

But because there were simply too many people, Qiu Nuo had waited in line for a good half an hour before she had managed to purchase the ingredients for those two pills, as well as the seeds of herbs that weren't grown in the Qiu family's medicinal garden.

Because not many people bought seeds, and even those who did rarely planted them, these seeds were extremely cheap. After all, herbs were only valuable after they were grown.

Qiu Nuo had probably emptied the entire shelf of seeds, but she had spent no more than five or six hundred gold coins.

With the remaining gold coins, Qiu Nuo had intended on finding a place to savor the delicacies of this world.

"Come take your pick! Come take your pick! The newest Soul Jades that cost only one hundred gold coins! Once they're sold out, you'll have to wait until tomorrow!"

Just as Qiu Nuo was about to leave, she heard a shrill voice shouting from the counter beside her.

Only after asking around did Qiu Nuo realize that Qiwu Pavilion received a shipment of Soul Jades every day, and each piece went for a hundred gold coins.

If one was lucky, one would get his money back. Otherwise, it would be a waste of gold coins.

A hundred gold coins were quite a significant amount of money even for the descendants of some well-to-do families.

Even so, many were willing to take that risk.

After all, there were always a few good Soul Jades among all the jades in the shipment.

This high-profit transaction, added to the excitement of betting on stones, meant that these Soul Jades were always snapped up within the hour!