Chapter 22 - Flame Mountain City
The Walls of the city soon appeared in front of Xuan Hao as he felt slightly awed at their size, reaching more than 20 meters into the air.
While such walls were not able to deal with stronger Core Formation demon beasts. Dealing with a few lower ranked Core Formation demon beasts should be doable. Especially if the Core Formation experts stationed in the city helped out.
But even without them, a group of Foundation Establishment cultivators should be able to deal with a weaker Core Formation demon beast if they used the wall to their advantage!
Looking at the uselessly large gate, Xuan Hao quickly made his way over.
The Giant gate of the city had a long line in front of it, with guards checking the people coming in and out of the city. Making sure that the ones who entered paid the entrance fee.
Standing in the back of the line, Xuan Hao patiently waited until it was his turn, so as to not draw any unwanted attention. This was after all still the territory of the Raging Flame Sect and if they found him, he would have a lot more difficulties in finding the Infernal Heart Grass for Qing Yi.
"Reason for entering the Flame Mountain City?"
It was finally Xuan Hao's turn, as a guard came up to him and asked for his reason to enter the city.
"I'm here to explore the Burning Mountain Range and I'm looking for a place to rest before continuing into the mountain range." Xuan Hao lied as he smiled brightly at the guard.
"Sure, sure… Just pay the entrance fee over there. Its 5 low grade spirit stones." Waving him off with an uninterested look on his face, the guard pointed towards another guard and made his way to the person behind Xuan Hao. Most likely asking him the same question that he just asked Xuan Hao.
Spirit stones were the currency used by cultivators to trade between each other and was also the reason for the current animosity between the Flying Sword Sect and Raging Flame Sect.
The reason for this was the other use of spirit stones. Speeding up the cultivation of a cultivator, while the amount needed increased with the cultivation level of the cultivator, it was still magical to be able to increase one's cultivation speed. Some higher-grade spirit stones could even allow a cultivator to have an easier time comprehending the energy between heaven and earth!
Such spirit stones were above the normal low grade spirit stones and were instead called high grade spirit stones.
The spirit stone mine that the Raging Flame Sect had stolen from the Flying Sword Sect produced over 10 high grade spirit stones every year!
This was an unimaginable temptation to many Nascent Soul experts and was also the reason why the Raging Flame Sect still held onto the spirit stone mine even if they made enemies with the Flying Sword Sect. The worth of high-grade spirit stones were simply too much.
It was even rumoured that the Sect Master of the Raging Flame Sect managed to reach the eighth stage of the Nascent Soul Realm with the help of the high-grade spirit stones!
Being able to reach the eighth stage might not sound like much, but the difference between realms widened the further along in cultivation one went and while one might be able to fight someone at the Foundation Establishment Realm only being a Qi Condensation Realm was possible. Fighting a someone at the King Realm while only being in the Nascent Soul Realm was close to impossible and those who achieved it had long since surpassed the King Realm by now…
In essence, someone at the eighth stage would be able to easily deal with a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator at the seventh stage.
The only reason that the Raging Flame Sect did not dare to attack the Flying Sword Sect was simply because they were a sword sect and sword cultivators were always famed for their strength in combat.
The current Sect Master Feng Chen was no different and while only at the seventh stage, he had fought equally against a Nascent Soul expert at the eighth stage before!
Thinking about all the rumours regarding the current Sect Master of the Raging Flame Sect, Xuan Hao chuckled a bit to himself as he paid the 5 low grade spirit stones and entered the Flame Mountain City.
The rumours about the Raging Flame Sects Sect Master were many and Xuan Hao knew quite a few of them.
Fore example, it was rumoured that the Raging Flame Sect's Sect Master had once been seen entering a famed establishment for… Ahm… Gentlemen… to deal with personal stuff and sort out their… Feelings…?
This rumour had been cracked down upon hard by the Raging Flame Sect, especially by the Sect Master himself. After all, his wife was less than pleased when she heard the rumour…
Neither was her father, the current Vice Sect Master of the Raging Flame Sect…
Looking around the bustling streets of the city, Xuan Hao saw a giant build with a sign of two pickaxes crossing each other, this was the explorer union's sign.
The Explorer Union had appeared a few hundred years ago and was a giant organization that existed all over the Ewaria Continent and could be found almost everywhere at this point.
The Explorer Union had several people at the Emperor Realm behind it and was not something even the strongest empire on the Ewaria Continent would carelessly offend.
The main goal of the Explorer Union was as the name suggested, to explore the world and all the fantastic places that existed in it. By joining the Union, one could sell all the material that one found in places like the Burning Mountain Range to them at a reasonable price and without fear.
Even a Qi Condensation cultivator could sell a Mystic Grade Herb at the Explorer Union and get a good amount of high-grade spirit stones without someone coming to kill them off in the middle of the night.
If anyone had any information about the location of the Infernal Heart Grass, it would be the Explorer Union.
With that thought in mind, Xuan Hao made his way towards the Explorer Union's building. Hoping that they either had the Infernal Heart Grass in stock or at least knew the location of some in the Burning Mountain Range.
If they truly had nothing to come up with, Xuan Hao would have to waste at least a few weeks tirelessly looking through the Burning Mountain Range to try and find it, while also making sure as to not enter the territory of some Nascent Soul demon beasts.
