For a building as large as the Transcontinental teleportation array, the registration section was quite small.
In fact, it was just a single counter with a person sitting behind it.
'I thought there would be more people here…' Lin Mu thought to himself.
The counter seemed to be empty rights now, and other than a few people that seemed to be the workers here, Lin Mu didn't see anyone else. It made him wonder if he was here at the wrong time.
"Is this place open?" Lin Mu decided to ask first.
The worker sitting at the registration counter looked at Lin Mu who had appeared just now. He seemed to be unfazed by Lin Mu wearing a mask and quickly tapped on a large register kept on the desk.
The register was easily a meter long and half a meter wide in size while also being six inches thick.
~THUD~
With just a tap, the register opened up automatically and flipped over to a certain page.
"Yes it is, what slot do you wish to book?" The worker questioned. "The upcoming slots for Dao Wind Empire are all booked and the closet open one is for Two months away." He spoke.
"Uh.. I don't want to go to the Dao Wind Empire. I want to go to the Holy Topaz Empire." Lin Mu answered.
"The Holy Topaz Empire?" The worker looked at Lin Mu again as if a bit surprised. "You are in luck, since three slots opened up just a day ago."
"When are they for? I want the earliest one." Lin Mu asked.
"The next activation of the array for Holy Topaz Empire will be four days from now." The worker informed.
"That works for me." Lin Mu stated.
"Alright, how many slots do you wish to book?" the worker asked next.
"I want One—" But just as Lin Mu was about to finish his words, he remembered something. 'The Saintess… do I need to book for her too?' he wondered.
"Just get one for yourself. I can take care of the rest." As if reading Lin Mu's mind, the Saintess answered on cue.
Lin Mu could tell that her voice was only audible to him and not to the worker.
"Just one slot?" The worker asked for confirmation.
"Yes, just one." Lin Mu agreed.
"Alright." The worker said before extending his hand. "The payment will be Five Hundred High Grade Immortal Stones."
Lin Mu knew it was going to be a high cost, so he didn't mind the payment, but it also allowed him to know why others wouldn't take this method of transport. After all, not everyone was like him and could make this much wealth.
Even for experts at the Fourth or fifth Tribulation Stage of the Immortal realm, Five Hundred High Grade Immortal Stones were a big fortune. It was something that they might not even make in a hundred years, forget a couple.
Thus they would much rather take a ship to reach another continent and travel for two to three years straight rather than pay such an amount. Two or three years wasn't much after all and they could easily pass it in cultivation.
Only those that were very wealthy or had a reason to reach another continent at the earliest would take this route.
The best example was Cong Shui.
She had come here from the Dao Wind Empire and had taken the Long Leaves merchant association's ship for that. Her reason of coming here was simply to sell the Bitter Burrow Root.
It had ended up selling at a cost of 5000 Mid Grade Immortal stones, which was equivalent to 50 High grade Immortal stones. And this was after the fact that Cong Shui was from an aristocratic clan too.
Even for her 50 High Grade Immortal stones were very valuable and weren't something she would be able to get easily. It was worth for her to spend two years in traveling to get 50 High Grade Immortal Stones and it would still not compare to the 500 High Grade immortal stones needed to use the Transcontinental Teleportation Array once.
One could also understand why the entire building seemed to be empty for the most part. The number of people who could afford it were limited after all.
"I'll pay." Lin Mu took out a pouch of five hundred high grade immortal stones from his ring.
~tap~tap~
"Please place it here." The worker pointed to a circle that had just appeared on his table.
Lin Mu could sense faint spatial fluctuations from the circle.
~thud~
He placed the pouch of Immortal stones on it and saw it disappear.
~Shua~
And just a second later it reappeared. Just this time, it was empty.
"You can take back your bag." The Worker said. "The payment has been confirmed as well." He said after a line of words appeared on the register automatically.
"Okay." Lin Mu nodded his head.
Next the worker took out a token and handed it to Lin Mu.
"This is the entrance token for the array. Please keep it on you at all times and ensure that it is safe. If you lose it, you will not be able to use the array. The token will also inform you two hours before it is time for the array to activate, so please keep that in mind." The worker instructed.
"Alright." Lin Mu took the token from the worker and stored it away safely in his ring.
After all, the cost of this token would easily make many people tempted to steal it.
It wouldn't be unusual to compare it to a high grade immortal tool either, as one might be able to buy one for that cost as well.
Done with this, Lin Mu took his leave from the building.
"Guess I have three days to spend here," Lin Mu had a few things in mind to do till then. "Let's go shopping then." He said before calling for Little Shrubby.
~meow~
Little Shrubby appeared in his kitten form and curled up in Lin Mu's arms.
"Should we go shop for ingredients?" Lin Mu asked.
"YES! Let's go!" Little Shrubby was quite excited.
The master and beast went from shop to shop, buying various ingredients that could be used for cooking. Most of these were spirit herbs, spirit medicine or even Immortal herbs.
As long as Little Shrubby found it to be good, Lin Mu bought it. Thankfully, most of them were 'cheap' for Lin Mu thus he had no issues. And with how much he was buying, the shopkeeper were all quite enthusiastic.
To them, Lin Mu looked like a walking back of Immortal stones and was their apple of the eye for the day.
They showed him everything they had and even gave him discounts for several items.
The best part they liked was the fact that as long as Lin Mu liked some spirit herb or immortal herb, he wouldn't buy just one or two pieces… he would buy the entire stock.
With how large the city was and how many shops there were, Lin Mu didn't sleep at all and continued to roam around buying things or just looking at them. It was quite interesting for him as he got to learn quite a lot of things even from this.
By the second day, news had already spread in the shopping districts about a certain cultivator with deep pockets. He wore a mask and carried around a kitten in his arms.
That became his identifying features and whenever shopkeepers or their clerks saw him, they would come up to him to visit their shops.
Thankfully for Lin Mu they were quite polite and didn't force him.
After all, even they knew someone with such deep pockets must not be simple and was not someone they could afford to offend.
Another thing that Lin Mu liked was the refreshments and snacks they served him. He got to taste and enjoy a lot of them with Little Shrubby eating the most. The clerks note about Little Shrubby and later on the shops started preparing some special food for beasts as well.
Though that ended up backfiring as Little Shrubby didn't like it at all.
He liked the snacks intended for humans a lot more and simply ignored the 'pet food' prepared for him.
On the third day, Lin Mu had seen about a half of the Skylark city. He had obtained quite a lot of information as well and had even bought a few Qi skills and techniques. Then there were the multitude of miscellaneous items that were also pending to be bought for a long time.
It was safe to say, Lin Mu had gone on a shopping spree.
It was his first one after several years and was almost like a vacation for him.
After fighting a world saving battle and then spending two years in a desolate place like the Land of Exile, it was certainly a relaxing experience for him.
