"Yes, it is indeed fine. You can say it." Duan Ke spoke in a cold tone.
~Sigh~
"Alright, listen carefully. In the past one year there have been five incidences where nascent soul realm cultivators have gotten injured.
Of these five incidences, the first was because of a mistake cause during cultivating by the nascent soul realm elder belonging to the Wind Zither sect.
The second and third nascent soul realm cultivation realm experts were injured in a friendly spar and belong to the centennial sword sect.
The fourth nascent soul realm expert is a wandering cultivator called the Swan Daoist. He tried to rob one of the convoys of the kingdom and was hunted down by the royal regiment, thus getting injured. We do not know his exact location but know that he was last seen in the Southern plains.
As for the final incident, this… was the hardest one to obtain. An elder of the Sky Precepts sect was fatally injured with his current condition unknown. But the rumors are that he has succumbed to his injuries." Jingming Shang revealed.
During the entire report, neither Jing Wei nor Duan Ke had much reaction, until when the last one was said.
"What? An elder of the sky precepts sect got fatally injured? But how?" Duan Ke asked in a shocked tone.
"I do not know. Even this bit of information cost me a lot to obtain." Jingming Shang replied.
"Hmm, do you know what peak he belonged to?" Jing Wei questioned.
"I… do not know for sure. But from the additional information I gathered, it seemed like there was a change in the populace of the Sky Catching peak." Jingming Shang said cryptically.
Jing Wei's eyes went wide, but he did not say anything. He had already understood what was to be understood from those words and knew that they were not to be stated outright.
The shop became silent for a minute after this as everyone started to comprehend the information that was just revealed. Lin Mu too was doing the same as he had learned quite a few new names this time.
Lin Mu had already known about the centennial sword sect and had also read up about them in the records he had obtained from Jing Wei before. He knew that the centennial sword sect was a sect full of cultivators that liked to battle and that they cultivated sword techniques.
It was common for the disciples to spar with each other and get injured. This time it was just that nascent soul realm cultivators were involved that's all.
Wind Zither sect was a new name that Lin Mu had heard, and he didn't know who they were. He quickly took a look through the records and found out who they were. The wind zither sect was a medium sized sect that was located in the western part of the Great Zhou Empire and was an average sect with nothing particular about them.
The Swan Daoist, this was the first wandering cultivator Lin Mu had heard about. There was no information recorded about him in the records, thus he couldn't do much about it.
But the final bit of informing that was said was also the most shocking one. The Sky precepts sect was the number one top sect of the Great Zhou Empire and was said to be equal if not above the emperor himself. Anything pertaining to them was taken with great importance, and it was thus quite surprising to hear that one of their elders was injured.
As for the Sky precepts sect, there wasn't much information about it in the records, except that it was one of the divisions of the Sky precepts sect.
'Hmm, this doesn't seem to give me much to go on with.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
~Clap~
Jingming Shang lightly clapped his hands to pull the attention and then spoke.
"Now then, about the Autumn Valley sect. There hasn't been much that has happened with them in the past few years, but recently a few of their disciples got into a scuffle with some disciples of an unknown sect. Nothing serious happed, and it was resolved at that time.
Though there was a rumor that someone from the Autumn valley sect was seen in the Wu Lim City."
"Oh, who was it that was seen? Was it a disciple or an elder?" Duan Ke asked.
"It was a core condensation realm cultivator, so it's likely that it was an elder of the Autumn valley sect. The sect only has one Nascent soul realm cultivator that is the sect head, so it's obvious that the core condensation realm cultivators are the elders.
As for their identity, we do not know what their name is, but we do know that it was a woman." Jingming Shang replied.
Duan Ke nodded in response and then spoke, "that's all we needed. Tally the costs against the goods."
Jingming Shang closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening his eyes.
"Lady Duan Ke, the cost is slightly higher than the goods, but just for you, I'll give a discount. No need to pay the extra cost." Jingming Shaun spoke in the same flattering tone as before.
Duan Ke did not dignify the response with an expression and simply hummed in agreement. An awkward silence descended after this, which was forcibly broken by Jing Wei's cough.
"I guess, we are done here. Till next time, lady Duan Ke and owner Jing Wei." Jingming Shang hurriedly said before leaving the shop, but not before giving Lin Mu a slight look.
~Sigh~
A sigh escaped Duan Ke's lips as she rubbed her forehead as if she was about to have a headache.
"That man… he's strange." Lin Mu said with a wry smile.
"Strange is an understatement. If we were not forced because of our condition, I would have long since taught him a lesson. Ugh! I do not want to see him again. You should have never saved him before, grandfather," Duan Ke said with frustration.