Chapter 1072

On the bustling street, Yechen walked along, scratching his head the whole way.

He had only casually thought about buying a house in Youdu, not that it was absolutely necessary. But now, things had escalated to the point where he had no choice but to go through with it.

With that, Yechen turned and entered a fairly large pawnshop.

The shop owner was a pudgy old man. The moment Yechen laid eyes on him, his mouth twitched involuntarily.

It wasn't without reason—the old man's eyes were ridiculously shaped, one slanting up and the other down, forming an upside-down "ba" character. And as for his mouth, good grief, it was smaller than a fingernail. It was a miracle he could eat anything, and that was only because he was a cultivator. If he were an ordinary person, he'd probably starve to death trying to get a meal.

For some reason, Yechen felt a strong urge to straighten out the old man's wonky eyes and stretch his tiny mouth a bit wider. But that was just a fleeting impulse; he didn't actually plan to act on it.

"Pawning something?"

"Uh, uh, uh." Yechen snapped back to reality and, without further ado, handed over a storage bag. It was filled with treasures from that three-eyed elder, though most of them were fairly useless odds and ends.

"Not bad treasures. Stolen, huh?"

"I don't have that kind of skill."

"Three thousand Yuan Shi."

Yechen yanked the storage bag back and, for good measure, shoved a butcher's knife at the old man. "Here, take this knife and go rob someone!" Three thousand Yuan Shi? Was he kidding? Did the old man think he was some country bumpkin fresh from the hills?

"Don't rush! We can negotiate the price."

"One Wan Yuan Shi."

"Come on, take your knife back and go rob someone!" The old man glared, his beard bristling, and shoved the butcher's knife right back.

"In that case, goodbye." Yechen didn't hesitate and turned to leave.

"Fine, fine, you win." The old man grabbed Yechen again, then casually took the storage bag from his hand and replaced it with another containing one Wan Yuan Shi.

"There, that's more like it!" Yechen grinned.

"I've never seen anyone haggle like you." The old man's face darkened, though he calculated in his mind that he was still coming out ahead.

"By the way, can I ask where to buy a house?"

"A house?" The old man widened his ba-shaped eyes and looked Yechen up and down, taking in his ragged clothes. "Kid, even the cheapest house in Youdu costs at least ten Wan Yuan Shi. Are you sure you have that much?"

"Just steal a few more times, and I'll get there."

"Now that's music to my ears. Out the door, then left, left, left, and left again—head to Youlong Pavilion."

"Thanks." Yechen immediately turned and dashed off like smoke.

"What's the world coming to these days?" Watching Yechen disappear, the old man scratched his head. "I was five hundred years old before I scraped together enough to buy a house in Youdu. That kid's barely over a hundred, and he's already doing it. Unbelievable."

Once out of the pawnshop, Yechen hurried along.

Following the old man's directions—left, left, left, and left again—he stopped in front of a grand and imposing pavilion.

Sure enough, plenty of people were there to buy houses, and the weakest among them were at the peak of Tianjing realm. They were all seasoned elders, with the youngest being over five hundred years old.

Yechen's arrival drew a lot of attention. Among the crowd, he had the lowest cultivation and was by far the youngest.

He ignored the surprised stares completely.

The one who greeted him was a purple-robed elder. In terms of dress and appearance, he was far more normal than the pawnshop owner.

"Young friend, what size are you looking for?" The purple-robed elder smiled slightly, though his eyes held a hint of surprise. In all his years as an elder in Youdu, he had never seen someone with Yechen's level of cultivation and age come to buy a house. It made him assume Yechen had some powerful background.

"The cheapest one."

"The house itself is ten Wan Yuan Shi, plus an annual fee of two thousand, for a total of ten Wan and two thousand Yuan Shi."

"Annual fee?" Yechen blinked. "What's that?"

"You can think of it as a management fee for Youdu."

"Can I skip paying it?"

"No."

"What a rip-off." Yechen grumbled to himself, but he still pulled out his storage bag. After all, this was their territory, so even if they tacked on an extra five thousand, he had to pay up. In a world where strength ruled, the weak had no say.

"Your name?"

"Yechen."

"Falling petals and vast stars—quite a fine name." The purple-robed elder chuckled as he carved Yechen's name onto a jade token, then added various restrictions to prevent anyone else from copying it.

"A good-sounding name doesn't do much." Yechen thought to himself again.

"Number 9527—that's your house." The purple-robed elder handed the engraved jade token to Yechen.

"Thank you, senior." Yechen took the token and left Youlong Pavilion. As for the number 9527, it was obviously the house identifier, like a spatial coordinate with no duplicates.

Stepping out of Youlong Pavilion, Yechen followed the spatial coordinates straight to his new property.

However, as he walked down the street, the other cultivators looked at him differently. It was all because of the jade token hanging at his waist—that was a property deed, even if it was for a low-end house, it still meant he owned property.

Yechen could clearly feel those gazes—some envious, some jealous, and some just surprised.

As always, he ignored them. All he was thinking about now was checking out his new house and then going up to find the reincarnated ones.

After turning a corner, Yechen entered a winding, serene path.

Youdu was truly impressive. Along both sides of the path, exotic spiritual flowers and grasses were planted, each one shimmering with brilliant light and full of extraordinary value. Over ninety percent of them were extinct in Da Chu, and a few he had never even seen before.

As he walked, Yechen's eyes flickered with interest, but he didn't dare pluck any.

These spiritual flowers and grasses were protected by restrictions; otherwise, they would have been picked clean by cultivators long ago. This alone proved how powerful the Zhuque family was. If he foolishly tried to take a couple, the consequences wouldn't be pretty.

After some time, Yechen finally came to a stop.

It was a peaceful spot full of birdsong and flowers, with babbling streams and ancient trees draped in vines, serene and elegant.

There were many stone monuments here, at least a hundred of them, each over three zhang tall and neatly lined up in rows. They were spaced about ten zhang apart, and each one was engraved with a house number.

Yechen scratched his head, his expression a bit odd.

For some reason, those hundred orderly stone monuments looked just like a row of tombstones.

Well, tombstones or not!

Yechen coughed lightly and stopped in front of the one in the center, which bore the number 9527.

Hm?

Before he could enter, he heard a soft sound of surprise.