Chapitre 66: To the Deng province.
Early the next morning, Yao Jun and Guo Luo both made their way out of the inn and headed towards the gate that led to the upper districts. When they arrived, there were already a few people that had lined up at the gate. Most of these people were carrying several large bags of miscellaneous items, so it seemed like they were merchants.
While it was called the gate to the upper district, it was really only a large, square opening in the wooden wall that separated the lower and upper districts. There was a single wooden booth at the right side of the opening, a small group of guards clad in metal armor standing next to the booth, blocking the opening to the upper districts. Inside the booth sat a single guard who wore a bored expression
"You two are next. The entrance fee is 3 silver per person that wants to enter. You also need to pull down your hoods and show your faces before entering."
The guardsman spoke with a bored expression and pointed at the next two people that stood in line. He had to repeat these words to anyone who wanted to enter the upper districts of the city. Having them pull down their hoods was only to make sure that there weren't any wanted people entering the upper districts.
3 silver was considered rather expensive to enter the upper district. 10 copper was equal to 1 silver, while 10 silver was equal to 1 gold, 10 gold equaling 1 black gold. For people of the lower districts, earning 1 silver per month was already considered good.
The two people stepped forward and handed over 6 silver. After the guard made sure that there was nothing wrong with the silver, he stored it in a locked box that was located next to him. After storing the silver, he turned back to the two people and waited for them to pull down their hoods.
The two people quickly pulled down their hoods, revealing two scarred and disfigured faces. Just looking at the two faces was enough to evoke a mixture of pity and discomfort in the guard who watched the booth.
"Good, you are free to enter the upper district. Once you enter the upper district, you cannot wander the streets after the sun has set. If you are found walking the streets after sunset, you will be forcibly returned to the lower districts."
The guard gave a nod and kindly reminded the two people about the rules of the upper district. The two people before him looked to be a rather young couple, so he found it to be a shame that such young people had to go through such horrors.
The two people thanked him, put their hoods back on, covering their faces once more, and walked past the guards. Once the two people walked past the guards, no one noticed that the scars and disfigurement on their faces vanished, turning them back into the faces of Yao Jun and Guo Luo.
Once they entered the upper district, there was no longer a need to use an illusion to change their faces, they could just use the hoods to cover their faces. Yao Jun had played with the idea of just having Guo Luo covering both their bodies with an illusion, making them both look completely different.
But Guo Luo had rejected this idea. According to her, the best she could do right now was to maintain one human-sized illusion. If she was to cover both Yao Jun and her own body with illusions, it would drain too much of her Qi, she would only be able to maintain that for at most two minutes before she was completely drained.
Since it was like that, they could only resort to covering their bodies with the cloaks, using illusions whenever they needed to show their faces. Covering their faces and using illusions to hide their faces was not only to hide away Guo Luo, but it was also to safeguard themselves. If there was anyone in this city that had gotten reports of what Yao Jun and Guo Luo did in the previous city they entered, there was no telling what could happen.
After entering the upper district, Guo Luo leaned her entire body on Yao Jun's shoulder and closed her eyes, allowing Yao Jun to guide her body. When others looked at them now, they would only see two people that looked like a couple. After Guo Luo leaned on Yao Jun, a small boy clad in simple cotton clothing appeared in an alleyway not far from them.
The little boy quickly left the alleyway and started running around the upper district, asking both guards and normal people many questions about the locations within the town. This little boy was another one of Guo Luo's illusions. Since she had to put part of her mind into the illusion to control it perfectly, she needed to lean her body on Yao Jun and allow him to guide her body.
"I have found a library that should hold a large amount of the information we are looking for."
After the boy spent almost two hours running around asking as many questions as he could, he entered an alleyway and vanished into thin air. Once the boy vanished, Guo Luo opened her eyes again and stopped leaning on Yao Jun. After opening her eyes, she spoke out and started leading the way.
"The first and second floor contains the historical and the fictional books, but the third floor contains the books we are looking for, books that contain more recent information about this continent and the adjacent continents."
The library she led them to was in the shape of a large, blue pagoda with three floors. There was no plaque with a name on the outside, only three guards that made sure that no one tried to sneak any books out of the library.
The interior of the pagoda was very simple. Bookshelves were lining the halls, each book separated by theme and then sorted alphabetically. A few tables and chairs were spread around to allow people to sit down and read. Arrays that created light were carved into the walls and ceiling, allowing the inside to be nicely lit. At the very center of the pagoda was a spiral staircase that led to the upper floors.
Yao Jun and Guo Luo headed directly to the third floor. The third floor was slightly smaller than the two lower floors, containing only three bookshelves, one bookshelf for each continent. Yao Jun and Guo Luo shared a short look before they both got to work, scanning through the books in the bookshelves.
They would require a few days time to read through everything, so Yao Jun made sure to rent a nice room at an inn not far from the library. Besides leaving the library for eating and sleeping, Yao Jun and Guo Luo both stayed inside the library, reading through all the books they could find about the three continents.
After spending a few days time, the two of them reading nearly every book on the third floor, Yao Jun could not help but heave a sigh. They had shared all the information that they found, so it did not take as long as he expected.
While some of the information was a few years old, Yao Jun and Guo Luo managed to learn about the most dominant clans and academies on the three continents. They did not find any maps in the library, but after Guo Luo used one of her illusions to ask around the city, they found a shop that sold rather accurate maps of the three continents.
The reason Yao Jun was sighing was that he did not find any information about what type of Demonic beasts lived on the three continents, nor where to find them. The best he could find was some information about large battles that had taken place between cultivators and Demonic beasts.
"What do we do now?"
Guo Luo could not help but ask, they had found nearly all the information they needed, but she also knew that the information Yao Jun most cared about was information about Demonic beasts and the Grand Quan continent. They had found nothing on either of those themes.
"Since there is nothing in this city, we can only try our luck in the Deng Province. If worst comes to worst, I know someone I might be able to ask for help."
Yao Jun shook his head as he spoke. When he first arrived at this continent, he had met a girl from the Demon Race, Wan Yi, who had told him that if he needed something, he could head to the Xieren city in the Deng Province to find her.
After reading through all these books, Yao Jun had a better understanding of this continent. The Deng Province was a province that was split between the Demon Race and the Human Race, while the Xieren city was one of the largest cities in the province.
This city was also split between the Human Race and the Demon Race, it was one of the few cities where they lived in relative harmony. The city was therefore extremely popular with merchants and travelers, as they could find almost anything there.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone