Zhang Tiande came out immediately to attend to him.
When they arrived at the VIP room, Wu Yu said, "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting for so long. However, I have managed to raise the funds that I owe you. Please go through and take count."
Zhang Tiande was taken aback. He extended his hand and received the Sumeru Pouch from Wu Yu. Subsequently, he smiled bitterly and said, "How can this be? Didn't you just go for a single mission? And the mission wasn't that long either. How did you...."
Before he finished his words, he was stunned. After a detailed count, he noted that there were 360 Inner Sea Essence Pills in the Sumeru Pouch. Not a single one was missing.
Wu Yu had managed to pay up his debt for the Yan Huang Heaven Raising Staff by just the second month instead of the previously agreed upon nine months.
"Old Brother Zhang, no matter what, I'm truly grateful towards you. This Yan Huang Heaven Raising Staff has really helped me out greatly recently." Wu Yu thanked him sincerely.
When he was in Shushan, he barely had any friends. Therefore, there were few who would speak up for him.
He had just arrived recently. Yet Zhan Tiande, Ji Qingan, Jiang Xuechuan, Luo Pin, Qin Fuyao, and others could all be considered as his friends.
"You are really unfathomable! In just a single month, you were able to gather so much wealth! A gentleman never goes back on his word. Wu Yu, you are a person who keeps to his promises. I truly have a high opinion of you!"
"You were willing to let me use the Yan Huang Heaven Raising Staff in advance. How could I possibly disappoint you?" Wu Yu smiled.
Zhang Tiande put the Inner Sea Essence Pills away, thumped his chest, and said, "These will just be small matters in the future. If you still require immortal treasures, you can always drop by my Hall of Clouds. I trust you and I'm fine with you taking anything in advance in the future."
It was indeed great to have someone he knew in this place. Wu Yu had wanted to upgrade the weapons of his doppelgangers. However, he wasn't used to owing others. Therefore, he had restrained himself temporarily.
He was just left with twenty-odd Inner Sea Essence Pills currently and could be considered as rather poor. After all, he still had so many doppelgangers to nurture.
Wu Yu wasn't in a hurry to leave, so the two of them chatted. Wu Yu said, "I met a group of ghostly cultivators this time and killed two of them. I had not expected them to carry so many Inner Sea Essence Pills with them. You can count me as lucky this time."
It was then that Zhang Tiande understood the source of his wealth.
He slapped his thigh and remarked, "Old Brother, my place collects immortal treasures used by ghostly cultivators and all kinds of materials too. However, I typically purchase it at half the price. For example, an immortal treasure that could be sold for 30,000 Golden Essence Pills in the ghostly cultivator's world would be collected at 15,000. For you, I'm willing to offer 20,000! I hope you can be understanding in this. After all, there are indeed people using immortal treasures that are commonly used by ghostly cultivators. However, it's hard to sell them at high prices. To be frank, if I'm collecting from you at 20,000, I would at most be able to sell it for 22,000. It's hard earned money."
Wu Yu was surprised. For him, this would be a windfall. It would be great as long as he could sell them. Yan Huang Imperial City had no use for them and wouldn't exchange them for merit points.
In the end, he sold all the items of the ghostly cultivators, including the Ten Thousand Floating Ghosts Harpoons, to Zhang Tiande. Among which, the Ten Thousand Floating Ghosts Harpoons took up the main value of the transaction as the other immortal treasures weren't worth much. Zhang Tiande did his calculations and gave Wu Yu a total of 200 Inner Sea Essence Pills, or the equivalent value of 200,000 Golden Essence Pills. It was similar to the amount in the example Zhang Tiande had given previously.
In the place of the ghostly cultivators, the Ten Thousand Floating Ghosts Harpoons could indeed be sold for over 250,000 Golden Essence Pills!
After spending over 300 Inner Sea Essence Pills, he had quickly regained the bulk of these!
Wu Yu was pleasantly surprised. In this case, he could temporarily be considered as a rather affluent cultivator.
With these, he wouldn't have to worry about lack of money for some time.
"You don't have to thank me for this. If you have similar items in the future, you can always come look for me." Zhang Tiande's main objective was to become friends with Wu Yu. Through the incident of the Yan Huang Heaven Raising Staff, he was able to tell a lot about Wu Yu's personality. He naturally knew that Wu Yu was a man of his word.
After bidding goodbye to Zhang Tiande, Wu Yu returned to the Heaven's Equal Camp.
The Heaven's Equal Camp was still as lively. As Wu Yu was returning from his first mission, the Yan Huang Immortal Soldiers welcomed him warmly. After an entire night, it was still raucous. Wu Yu was particularly fond of the three rather young people who had reached the Violet Kingdom of the Inner Sea Realm.
They were also the most talented trio that he had selected from the reserve camp.
Naturally, although they were young, they were still older than Wu Yu. They had probably cultivated for approximately 50 years, similar to Shen Xingyu.
Naturally, for Violet Kingdom of the Inner Sea cultivators who had a lifespan of 300 to 400 years, those who were under 100 years old could be considered teenagers.
It was just that Wu Yu was simply too young.
Among the trio, there were two guys and one girl. They were Fang Chaoqun, Wu Tianyu, and Zhen Yu. They were all first tier Violet Kingdom of the Inner Sea cultivators and were of similar age to Shen Xingyu.
In Yan Huang Imperial City, they could be considered as rather talented.
Obviously, they all had exceptional regard and admiration for Wu Yu.
The Heaven's Equal Camp was lively, forming a contrast with the Blue Dragon Camp. Perhaps because of Luo Pin, they were indeed quieter. Everyone would either be executing missions or training behind closed doors.
Now that Wu Yu had a windfall, he felt uncomfortable to not spend it.
First, he purchased a large amount of materials for refining immortal medicines and spirit designs and upgraded his furnace and other tools. He was generous in this aspect and spent 50 Inner Sea Essence Pills. In the aspect of refining immortal medicines and spirit designs, he had chosen the best! His rise through cultivation levels would be dependent on these.
After which, he went to the Dao Palace in the inner city. The Dao Palace was the main hall of all dao techniques in Yan Huang Imperial City. Similar to the Yi Palace, Wu Yu was a centurion and therefore could go to the Middle Dao Palace.
Naturally, this was also his welfare after being promoted to a centurion. He could pick Heaven Earth Void techniques from it.
Considering that he had practiced too many sword techniques, Wu Yu wanted to pick a different kind of Heaven Earth Void technique. He was prepared to spend 100,000 Golden Essence Pills, or in other words, a 100 Inner Sea Essence Pills!
The dao techniques in Yan Huang Imperial City were clearly more varied than in Shushan and more suitable for Wu Yu. In the Shushan Immortal Sect, 95% and above of the population specialized in sword cultivation dao techniques. Wu Yu basically had no other options.
In Yan Huang Imperial City, half of the available dao techniques wouldn't require an immortal treasure to execute.
The other half required all kinds of immortal treasures to fully maximize their might!
Those that didn't require immortal treasures to execute were indeed more varied and mysterious. However, they were less potent offensively.
As for those that required immortal treasures to execute, they were better in battling and killing. For example, the might of the sword cultivation dao techniques could be magnified by pairing them with spirit designs.
As Wu Yu's Yan Huang Heaven Raising Staff had its own attacking spirit design, Wu Yu was prepared to choose a Heaven Earth Void technique that was still powerful but didn't require an immortal treasure.
He spent over 10 days browsing through over 10,000 kinds of Heaven Earth Void techniques. He was exceptionally detailed in his choice. Ordinary people would typically make this decision within two to three days.
In the end, after countless eliminations, he found a Heaven Earth Void technique that cost 110,000 Golden Essence Pills.
Its name was the Dragon Enslavement Heaven Imprisonment Technique!
"This is an extremely strong binding technique. After mastering it, one can create a domain. In this domain, one can form enslaved dragons using Jindan essence or Violet Kingdom Primordial Energy. When one reaches perfect mastery, he can summon eight enslaved dragons from the ground that circulate, traps one's opponent, and seals their movements!"
Since he couldn't really use the Fixed Body Art, Wu Yu required a Heaven Earth Void technique to seal his opponent's movements. Through this, his Yan Huang Heaven Raising Staff would be more powerful.
The so-called enslaved dragon was, in fact, the crystallization of a mystical dao technique. It was said that it was created by their ancestors after observing the battles of mystical dragons and combining these observations with their own understanding of dao. According to records, when all eight enslaved dragons were summoned, even the heavens could be trapped. Naturally, this was an exaggerated way of describing it. Nonetheless, as it was related to mystical dragons who were existences that had great dao enlightenment, the Dragon Enslavement Heaven Imprisonment Technique would definitely not be weak!
His final choice of the Dragon Enslavement Heaven Imprisonment Technique was also partly because of Luo Pin. Due to her, Wu Yu had noticed this Heaven Earth Void technique.
After paying 110 Inner Sea Essence Pills, Wu Yu was left with sixty Inner Sea Essence Pills. He left the Dao Palace and returned to the Heaven's Equal Camp.
After returning, he announced that he would be going into training behind closed doors. He wanted to focus on understanding the Dragon Enslavement Heaven Imprisonment Technique. With no debts bothering him, he was much more at ease and wasn't as restless as before.
Wu Yu wasn't thinking of keeping the remaining 60 Inner Sea Essence Pills. Therefore, he distributed six to each of his doppelgangers. After devouring these Inner Sea Essence Pills, their Jindan essence increased again to reach their limits.
"It's time to spend some time to delve deeper into Unshackled Doppelganger. If I can increase it to the third tier, I will have 100 doppelgangers." At the thought of the scene, Wu Yu couldn't help but become agitated.
He had a long list of items to cultivate.
First, it would be to refine his Jindan.
The effectiveness of doing so relied on him gaining dao enlightenment. Therefore, he took some time out to ponder about spirit designs and refining immortal medicines, extracting the essence from the experiences of those who came before him. This took up half of his time.
Second, it was to understand the Dragon Enslavement Heaven Imprisonment Technique. As he had experience with Heaven Earth Void techniques previously, together with his exceptional perception, this wasn't too difficult.
Each of these items took up half of his time, and Wu Yu alternated between them.
"One has to be able to endure the excitement and dangers while battling and also endure the boring times of pondering about dao techniques, spirit designs, and refining immortal medicines on the path to immortality."
If one had to say which one was more difficult, it wouldn't be the former - it was the latter instead.
Monotonous times and loneliness were hard to bear. More often than not, not many people could endure the darkness and seclusion.
Once upon a time, he had Nangong Wei accompanying him. If he was tired, there was someone he could talk to and embrace.
And now, the empty cultivation room only had the shadows of Wu Yu.
"I shouldn't be thinking about it further. I can no longer return to Shushan...."
It was impossible for him to not think back to his days in Shushan, to not reminisce about the greatness of Nangong Wei, to not cherish the time they had spent together in the cave abode.
However, her gaze at the Mortal Arena on that fateful day was truly frightening. Clearly, she was heartbroken at that time. However, so was Wu Yu.
"Reminiscing would only stop myself from moving forward.
"Wei Er has her own path to take. It's better that I don't disturb her. After all, I'm unable to change her dao.
"Hopefully, there would be a day where she can become an immortal.
"I have to work hard too."
He had never resented Nangong Wei. On the day he decided to leave, it was because their daos were different.
For cultivators, this was the most brutal thing between couples.
He had to keep a clear mind and be at peace internally to refine his Jindan, understand the Heaven Earth Void technique, and experience the dao in the enslaved dragon.
Wu Yu had decided that if he succeeded, he would do something big.
After obtaining huge wealth from ghostly cultivators in his previous mission, Wu Yu felt that his eyes were now fixed on ghostly cultivators.
The Scarlet Sea's Seven Ghosts, Ghostly Wings of the Black Mountain, and the three ghostly cultivators in the recent mission had all left Wu Yu with vivid impressions of evil and brutality.
Honestly speaking, he didn't feel that all ghostly cultivators were the same.
Therefore, after encountering them again, he would make his own judgement again.