Back at the Earthly Treasures Pavilion, many people were excited when they found that there were new places to visit.

"Look, there's another location to hunt beasts! This will be excellent, I always wanted to get a tamed beast, but the ones found in the old area were simply too weak to be of any use to me with my current cultivation."

"Is that a new area for gathering herbs and wood? It looks like some type of jungle. I wonder what plants can be found there and what medicinal properties they have."

There were two new display cases offering access to new locations.

[Lake of Spirit Fog] - 50 First Tier Cores, 5 Second Tier Cores or 50 First Grade Spirit Stones

A land covered in dense fog, covering the area in a high concentration of spirit power. An excellent place to search for second tier herbs of all kinds.

[Jungle of Fury]

Lower Tier – Second Tier Spirit Beasts: 20 First Grade Spirit Stones for 1 day,

Recommended for Initial to Mid Level Foundation Cultivation Stage

Middle Tier – Lower Third Tier Spirit Beasts: 20 Second Grade Spirit Stones for 1 day,

Recommended for Higher Level Foundation Cultivation Stage

High Tier – High and Peak Third Tier Spirit Beasts: 40 Second Grade Spirit Stones for 1 day,

Recommended for Peak Level Foundation or Lower Level Core Stage Cultivation Stage

-

This jungle is home to various ferocious beasts, most of them highly aggressive. Beasts often fight using poison, stealth and have various means to adapt their appearance to hide in their environment.

Unlike the beast grasslands, the jungle was a lot harder to defend against the unexpected and to move around. Not to mention that most beasts here would be a lot more aggressive and go on the offensive rather than trying to keep their distance.

The lake, as a peaceful gathering area, once more did not have any wild beasts. It was a dream come true for any alchemists and physicians who needed the various spirit herbs.

"Miss Tai, can we get the supporting leaflets for these areas as well?"

"If you pay for access of course you will receive them." Yui smiles. "How could we let our customers go into our areas unprepared!"

"This is excellent. Grandmaster Koda will be delighted to see a new area with spirit herbs opening."

"I heard the Greenfire Sect has got into quite the competition lately with another upcoming sect that called itself the Cauldron's Abode, miss Yui who will the Earthly Treasures Pavilion support?"

Shrugging, not even knowing about any competition between sects Yui did not mind about any of this.

"We don't take any side, we are a neutral establishment. Everyone can come and buy our services and we don't provide benefits to any specific customer that others will not also receive."

"What our customers do with their materials and who they compete with, is really not any of our business. I wish them all success though."

-

"Sect Master, there is a young alchemist here wanting to see you. She said she had a message for you."

The sect master of the Greenfire Sect looked up from the scroll he was just reading and at the disciple who just disrupted his work.

"Why would I want to talk to some apprentice? There are more than enough senior disciples who can handle such matters right? Does she want to buy some herbs, then point her to the trading place."

"But, master … she is from the Earthly Treasures Pavilion. She already took an exam and said while she is here, she would also inform you about their new location. She mentioned something about an agreement with Grandmaster Koda."

"What did you say, the Earthly Treasures Pavilion? Why did you not tell me right away? Let her in, if she is sent by the Earthly Treasures Pavilion it has to be something important."

The young woman was not a disciple of Yui and had to rely on herself for learning about cultivation, but being trained by Tora as an alchemist gave her insights into the workings of alchemy, that many senior alchemists could only dream of.

"Sect master, I have been sent here to tell you about our new spirit herb area opening. We now provide access to second tier spirit herbs in our Lake of Spirit Fog, with some rare third tier spirit herbs to be found there as well."

"Second tier spirit herbs? There might even be a few third-tier spirit herbs in the new area? This sounds excellent, we can once again improve the amount of elixirs we can make."

By now, even the leader of the Greenfire Sect was fully aware of the importance of the Earthly Treasures Pavilion.

People who were usually gathering higher grade spirit herbs in dangerous far away locations would soon be recalled and told to use the pavilion's services to acquire the necessary plants.

"Young miss, I have not seen you around here, may I know your name? I know about the pavilion training some new people, but I would not have expected their teaching methods to be this efficient and already let you take the exam as an alchemy apprentice in such a short time. You must be very diligent with your studies."

Greenfire Sect, as well as a few other sects had the rights to grant someone the status of an alchemist. The profession was strictly regulated even across regions, with precise requirements for each rank.

Kaiya was just the daughter of a farmer when she started working for the pavilion, with some experience how to identify herbs, but Tora quickly saw her potential and trained her as an alchemist.

"I thank the sect master for his kind words. Lady Tora is teaching us alchemy and I am just a simple disciple. Sect master can call me Kaiya." she was giving the sect master a bow, and felt a little bit awkward, especially as the Greenfire Sect disciple was rather astonished as well and had obviously been around for her exam.

"I still have to get back to the pavilion, I hope the sect master doesn't take offense."

"Oh, yes I should not keep you from your tasks, thank you for the information miss Kaiya."

When the girl had left and the disciple who led her in was still looking extremely awkward, the sect master couldn't help but ask.

"What's with your face, why do you look like this? Did I say something wrong?"

"Ah, sect master. She didn't take the alchemist apprentice exam. This lady took the alchemist master exam. I think she was simply too self-conscious and did not want to point out your mistake."

The sect master stared at the disciple for a moment in disbelief. How long could this girl have possible trained as an alchemist? What methods did the pavilion use to train them to achieve such an outcome?

"This pavilion obviously grows young talents at a rate that is unbelievable." The sect master could only sigh, as it would not be possible for them to receive some of this training as well.

-

The sound of Yui's steps was dampened by the thick fog surrounding her. This place had a rather peculiar charm of its own. There was no direct sunshine and the sky looked like it would soon rain, giving off a little bit of a gloomy look. The lake area had this tranquil feeling making it no less special than the Old Vine Forest on a sunny day.

Water lilies, various spirit lotus flowers and other rare plants could be found here. Among the multitude of second tier plants that could be found everywhere many of the third-tier plants that preferred shadow and areas with lots of water would grow as well.

"Get a feeling for the land, in order to make my own for the auction. This is easier said than done. How am I supposed to make my own land?"

Yui was told to build the auction area on her own and now scouted the various places that Tora made in order to get some inspiration and a feeling of their basic structure.

Earth element and wood element for the Old Vine Forest, a lot of water and wood element for this Lake of Fog, metal and earth elements for the mines, some fire element for the volcanic areas. Yui could feel all of these basic building blocks, but it seemed really hard to shape them properly.

"I guess I just have to give it a try."

She moved herself to a new dimensional space and like a painter might do to a painting, she started to create what would soon become their auction hall.

Hours passed by and by the time she was happy with the foundations for this new area, the night had already passed, and it was the morning of the next day.

Yui was completely exhausted and decided to get some sleep right away. It was the first day since coming to this world, when Ryoma would take over her shop keeping duties completely and Yui did not appear even once in their shop.

-

Tora took a closer look at the world that had been created by Yui after she noticed the immense drop in their power reserves.

"What did that girl do again to drain so many of our resources? The last time this happened was when she was exploding in anger and scaring that old man."

The new dimension was far from perfect when Tora looked at the basic rules of the world and she helped to improve on them some more, but she was still impressed by the creativity and design of it that Yui had made.

There was not any land to be seen outside of the garden. The world was built quite literally on top of clouds one could walk on. Like a dark celestial palace, there was a huge building in the center, hundreds of meters long and wide, made out of black polished onyx and surrounded by a huge garden filled with red leaved trees and plants.

The only term fitting for the sheer size of this palace like structure would be colossal. While the center hall was large, it was still easy to see from one end to the other.

The height of the tall pillars with the dome like structure on top, however, was so high and massive that even the greatest empires on this world would be impressed. It was so large, that the only thing holding it together were the supporting formations embedded in the walls of the structure.

Without them, it was very likely that the whole structure would collapse under its own weight.

It was a massive work of architecture, with gothic style windows with crystal clear glass and dome like structures, archways grand enough to dwarf even palaces of royalty. The roof style had an eastern touch, with the dark red shingles reminiscent of the Earthly Treasures Pavilion back in Sume city.

Blood red banners with the symbol of the Earthly Treasures Pavilion were hanging from the archways and walls, giving the building a mysterious and awe-inspiring feeling.

The black stone seats in the main auction hall were covered by blood red cushions with fabric made out of spirit cotton and winding stairways would lead up several floors to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people.

White buildings were quite commonly seen, but buildings out of black stone were really unusual.

"No wonder all the energy is gone again. I didn't expect her to make an auction hall of this size. If this won't impress those guests, then nothing will. Even some celestial masters don't have a place of this quality."

Happy with the added finishing touches and making sure this world wouldn't collapse while Yui was sleeping, Tora was already looking forward to their auction.