Return Of The Demon - 121 Hescha city

It had been four days since Bai Yun had departed Yellow city. Bai Yun was determined to go at it alone. So he had said goodbye to his family at the mansion. There was no great fanfare. It was as if Bia Yun was going out for a stroll rather than a two year journey.

Bai Yun had taken a carriage from Yellow city to the city he was currently in, Hescha city.

Yellow city was in the middle of a large valley between the ever green hills and the blue moon mountains. There were multiple entrances to the valley at both sides. Bai Yun had decided to take the southern route to the plains of enlightenment.

There were five points to enter the valley from the southern side. Bai Yun had taken a carriage to one of those entry points called the Heshca city.

Due to the close proximity of the yellow city and other geographical advantages, there was no danger along the route. So Bai Yun was able to easily reach Heescha city.

As one of the five major entrances to the yellow valley, Hescha city was a rather large city, though it was nowhere close to the top cities of the world. There were many people and traders who would travel through the city each day, making it a prosperous place.

Bai Yun quietly traveled through the city. With his cultivation and age, and the plain clothes he was wearing, he did not stand out too much. Bai Yun drifted along with the crowd while looking at the stores on either side of the road. To Bai Yun who had gotten accustomed to the Yellow city, this was not much of a big deal.

When Bai Yun was deciding on the path he would take, he had come up with three small cities he could head to after Hescha city. Bai Yun had decided that he would explore some options and take whichever one was better. He would late fate decide which city he would go to.

Bai Yun asked a passerby for directions to the local transportation office. Here Bai Yun would be able to find a caravan or carriage that could take him to one of the next cities. Bai Yun initially considered taking a mission to one of the three cities. But considering the cultivation levels of the people in these cities, Bai Yun did not think that it would be too safe. Thus he decided to travel with a caravan that would offer their own protection for a fee.

The transportation office was where these caravans would register if they wanted to find people to join them. The transportation office was located in the center of Hescha city, and it was not far from where Bai Yun got off the carriage from Yellow city. So it only took him less than an hour to reach there.

When Bai Yun walked into the transportation office it was already the afternoon. So it was rather empty.

Bai Yun walked up to a country. Behind the counter was a young lady who smiled politely when she saw Bai Yun approach her.

“Hi, I would like to know if there are any caravans with a spot for rent heading towards clear moon city, sapphire lake, or terracotta hill.” Bai Yun said.

“And when would you want to leave.” The young lady asked.

“As early as possible.” Bai Yun replied.

“Definitely”. The young lady said, before turning to look at the various screens and sheets in front of her. A moment later she turned to Bai Yun. “There are no longer any caravans leaving for those cities today. There is one leaving towards terracotta hill tomorrow morning. All the other caravans leaving tomorrow are fully booked. But there are many openings in various caravans leaving towards all three locations from day after tomorrow onwards.”

“Please book one seat to the one leaving tomorrow to terracotta hill then.” Bai Yun said. He had said that he would let fate decide his path. And seeing that there was only a single caravan leaving tomorrow, it seemed like a pretty good sign.

“definitely.” The young lady said. “Please give me your identification card.” Bai Yun quickly handed over the identification card he had gotten from the hunter union to the young lady as well as the cost of the seat and the registration fee. In a few moments he had booked a seat to terracotta hill. Then the lady handed Bai Yun both his ticket as well as the directions to the meeting place.

“Would you be needing a room to stay for the night?” The young lady asked after Bai Yun had finished. Bai Yun thought for a moment before replying. “Just give me your cheapest room for the night.” The transportation office often arranged for accomodation for people who were in transit. It was better to simply stay in the transportation office for a night rather than go around the city looking for a cheap inn.

After Bai Yun booked both a room for the night and the seat for his journey, Bai Yun decided to travel about the city. He was seeing if would get lucky and could buy something he would need for cheap.

Bai Yun spent the next few hours wandering about the city. He had gone into both large shops like the ones opened by the Alchemist Association as well as small roadside stalls. But Bai Yun had no great luck. He did find a few good medicinal ingredients, but he did not find anything even remotely valuable. Everything he found here could easily be found in yellow city.

By now the sun had long since set, and Bai Yun had pretty much given up on finding any good item. Not that he had much hope anyway.

It was with this attitude that Bai Yun walked into the final store. It was a medium sized store on the side of the main road.

Bai Yun looked around the store. There was not much in it. It was a weapons store that displayed one weapon after another. There were also some raw materials displayed here and there.

“Hello there young master, is there anything you would like.” Suddenly an old store clerk appeared in front of Bai Yun.

“No need I am just looking around.” Bai Yun replied as he moved away. He looked through the items on the shelves but did not find anything interesting. But just as he was about to leave, a red rock at the corner of the store caught his eye.

Bai Yun quickly walked over to the stone and quietly studied it. The more he studied it, the more he was sure of his guess.

“You like this young master.” The store clerk said. “This is a very valuable piece of red iron ore.”

Bai Yun smiled when he heard this. He was sure that the item in front of him was not red iron ore. It was a very valuable ore called volcanic iron ore. The two of them were very similar, but there wee some ways to tell them apart.

Volcanic iron was far more pure than red iron. The iron that one could refine out of it was of a much better grade than normal red iron ore.

But most blacksmiths would not work with volcanic iron. This is because during the refining process of volcanic iron, many impurities, and toxic substances would be released. refining it properly while not dying was such a difficult job that it was not worth the effort to refine it.

Bai Yun probably would not have refined it too before he received the alchemist legacy. This was because he found a method n the legacy to refine poison pills from the toxic byproducts of the volcanic iron refining process. Bai Yun could completely utilise every art of the volcanic iron thanks to his expertise in formation, alchemy and blacksmithing.

“Do you have any other ores.” Bai Yun asked.

“We dont have other ores.” The salesman said. “We dont usually sell ores, but we were forced to buy this one due to some circumstances. The person who was selling this was also selling a piece of meteorite iron, and he would only sell them together, so we were forced to buy it.”

“You have meteorite iron?” Bai Yun asked excitedly.

“Sorry.” The salesman replied. “We bought it a long time ago. We have already sold all of it.”

Bai Yun nodded. “In that case, I will buy some of it. How much do you have.?”

The old man was happy with this statement. He immediately took Bai Yun behind the counter to the warehouse to show him how much volcanic ore there was. There was over a ton of it, which was lying there like a small hill. But when refined, you would only get a tenth of it as iron in weight, if that.

After Bai Yun bought the ore, he was about to leave, when he saw some wooden beams lying on the side.

“What are those?” Bai Yun asked the clerk.

“Oh, those. We bought some wood for some renovations to the store. Those are some leftover pieces, that were not good enough. They were far too flexible to be used in the construction.” The clerk explained.

Bai Yun studied the wooden beams for a while longer. The more he studied, the surer he became of his guess. This was a rare variant redwood. This could be treated and refined to make great arrow shafts. Even though he still did not have a good bow, getting some good arrows was useful. And the iron that he just got was perfect for an arrow head.

“I want this wood.” Bai Yun said. “How much will it cost.”

The salesman was surprised by the sudden request, but he decided to sell the wood to Bai Yun after consulting with his manager. The wood was simply sitting there taking up space anyway. If they can sell it, it would be a good profit.

So Bai Yun quickly bought the wood and left the store in a good mood. While these materials were not rare enough that they could not be bought, due to the fact that the store didn’t realize their true value, he got them much cheaper.

As the manager saw Bai Yun leave he finally gave a sigh of relief.

“Finally, we got rid of that pile of volcanic ore.” He said.

“Will we get in any trouble.” The salesman asked the manager. “After all, if that young man tries to refine the volcanic ore like regular ore, he will die.”

“It is not our problem.” The manager exclaimed. “We can just claim that we didn’t know it was volcanic ore. It is difficult to tell those apart anyway. Whatever happens from now on is his fault. Though it will be a pity if something happened to him. I like him. Not only did he take away that pile of volcanic ore we couldn’t sell, he even took away that pile of useless wood.”