Monarch Of Time

Chapter 1062 Hundred Fragrance pavilion (1)

Eventually, Shun Long reached down and grabbed Ma Renwu’s severed head, before tossing it into the man’s spatial ring. Then, he straightened his back and swept his gaze once more across the ruined chamber.

The destruction his fight with Ma Renwu had caused was nothing short of catastrophic.

The majority of the private room had been reduced to rubble, still crackling with residual white lightning, while even the reinforced crimson stone on the walls and ceiling now looked like it was on the verge of collapse.

The fact that the entire Ma family hadn’t noticed anything during the fight was proof of how sturdy the formations inside the room really were. Unfortunately, they weren’t enough to save their patriarch’s life.

A moment later, after extinguishing the last few sparks of his ’Dao of Heavenly Tribulation’ from the ground and Ma Renwu’s body, Shun Long let out a breath. He could tell that the city guard had already entered the premises of the Ma estate and were about to reach this place soon enough.

So without another word, he just shook his head and blinked away, vanishing from Ma Renwu’s private room.

When he appeared again, it was in a narrow, dimly lit alley, not far from the teahouse that bordered the estate.

He retracted his soul sense and suppressed his aura once more, looking like a mortal old man at the twilight of his life, before he started to wander the streets of Iron Dawn in silence.

...

Shun Long had been careful not to let out any clues that could possibly link him to the death of the Ma patriarch. He’d even extinguished the last few sparks of his Heavenly Tribulation for that same reason.

It’s not like he was afraid of the city guard or the Sovereign of Iron Dawn, but there was no reason to get to a Sovereign’s bad side. After all, the moment word began to spread that a Dao Emperor had died in his own estate, it was bound to raise a storm in a place like Iron Dawn with all its security, and facing the wrath of a Sovereign was never a good thing.

And yet, Shun Long didn’t leave the city just yet.

Instead, he adjusted his robes and turned toward the busier districts, his golden eyes faintly glimmering under the light of the city’s spirit lamps.

Since he was already here, he might as well visit Iron Dawn’s most famous alchemy shops and see if he could find any rank 7 or even rank 8 medicinal herbs for sale.

After all, for a city as prosperous as Iron Dawn, finding a few rank 7 herbs shouldn’t be too difficult... hopefully.

And it seemed that luck was on his side this time.

The moment he stepped into the heart of the city, he found a modest shop tucked between a talisman store and a smithy. Although the middle-aged man who owned the shop—a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator—didn’t have any rank 7 medicinal herbs for sale, he told Shun Long where he could potentially find some inside the city.

Apparently, there were only three places in Iron Dawn that had rank 7 medicinal herbs.

The first one was called the ’Hundred Fragrance pavilion’, which sounded like a name of an establishment that only... cultured men would visit. Surprisingly, though, it was one of the three most prestigious alchemy shops in the city. As long as one had money, they could hire even a star-rank alchemist to refine a pill of their choosing.

Still, success rate would naturally depend on the difficulty of the pill and the skill of the alchemist one hired. And yet, despite the pavilion’s exorbitant prices, it was still one of the busiest shops in Iron Dawn.

The second was the Golden Furnace Sect, an alchemist sect with deep roots in the city and its own long-standing reputation. Apparently, it was one of the most influential second-tier sects throughout the continent. Unfortunately, according to the shopkeeper, they didn’t sell raw medicinal herbs to anyone. They only sold pre-refined pills.

And the last one was... unexpectedly, a place called the Alchemists Guild.

Shun Long’s brows lifted slightly at the name.

He had seen an Alchemists Guild before... back in the Night Star continent, but whether this one bore any relation to it...

He highly doubted it.

After all, the guild in the Night Star continent was founded by the Feng family, a family from the northern part of the continent that was even weaker than the Holy sect. It was only a third-tier family in the continent’s northern region.

Shun Long had already found out information about that family during his stay in the Holy sect. Supposedly, the Feng family patriarch was a rank 2 Dao Emperor who had some connections to the sect.

That alone was enough to clear up any doubts. After all, an early-stage Dao Emperor... couldn’t possibly have enough influence to create a guild of high-level alchemists in the central continent.

Shun Long had long since come to the conclusion that the Feng family was doing something similar to the Holy sect. They were trying to find talented people in the continents adjacent to the central, and rope them into their family.

As for this Alchemists Guild, it couldn’t be related to them in any way.

Shun Long fell silent for a moment, pondering things seriously, and in the end, he decided to head for the place he was most likely to obtain some high-level herbs... the ’Hundred Fragrance pavilion’!

...

Hundred Fragrance lived up to its name. The imposing building rose like a layered pagoda, surrounded by a garden of giant oak trees. There were nearly 50 trees, arranged in an almost protective formation around the pavilion, enough to take the breath away of anyone who witnessed it for the very first time. It looked like dozens of small bodyguards protecting a very eye-catching target.

And yet Shun Long’s footsteps didn’t pause. He just glanced at the 50 rank 6 trees around and continued to make his way towards the pavilion’s entrance.

It was only after reaching the half-opened gates of the pavilion that he finally came to a halt. There, a pair of smiling attendants were already looking at him, their moon-white robes glistening under the shade of the oak trees.

"Honored senior," one of them said, bowing. "Welcome to Hundred Fragrance. Are you here to commission a pill or do you wish to browse the Night Hall?"