Chapter 4244 — The Teleportation Array
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Shouldering their way through the crowd, the six of them wove through the streets and alleys of Zhenduan City, and half an hour later at last arrived at their destination: the Rufeng Road Teleportation Array.
From a distance, they could already see a long queue ahead, arranged in groups of six—plainly all of them, like Wei Zhao and his companions, bound for adventure in the Rufeng Forest.
Wei Zhao craned his neck to look. Some hundred meters ahead stood a circular raised platform, which appeared to be some sort of giant disc array, ringed by six majestic spirit-jade pillars each ten zhang tall—this was the Rufeng Road Teleportation Array they had been told about.
Every so often, a burst of white light would flare upon the array, followed by a sharp shriek that tore through space; once silence returned, the next group would soon mount the platform. All in all, the pace was not too slow.
Waiting patiently, watching the people ahead of them thin out one by one, Wei Zhao suddenly noticed something: before every group stepped onto the array, they would voluntarily produce a large sack of spirit jade—by rough estimate some five thousand pieces—and hand it over to the array official stationed at the entrance.
Five thousand spirit jade made for a hefty sack indeed. A glance over his shoulder, and it was just about the size of the bags Guo Dengtao and Wang Feng were each carrying. Not everyone paid in ready spirit jade, though—some simply swiped a spirit jade card.
"Brother Guo, what's this..." Wei Zhao could not help but stare, pointing first at the array ahead, then at the big sack on Guo Dengtao's back. Spirit jade, no doubt, packed inside—no wonder he had refused to let Wei Zhao carry it earlier.
"What?" Guo Dengtao blinked, and only after a moment caught on. He slapped his forehead. "You didn't know? Using the Rufeng Road Teleportation Array costs a fee. Every teleportation array burns through vast amounts of spirit jade—you won't find a single one anywhere that lets people use it for free!"
"A fee?" Wei Zhao raised an eyebrow. It was not that he couldn't understand it; the thought had simply never crossed his mind. "You didn't mention it to us yesterday. How much does each person need to pay?"
"Ah, that was my oversight—but this is common knowledge, I assumed you two must know..." Guo Dengtao was speechless all over again, recalling that Wei Zhao and his companion knew nothing at all, illiterate in the ways of the world. He rubbed his aching head. "Five thousand spirit jade per person. That's no small sum—don't tell me you haven't made any preparation at all?"
"You might have said so earlier..." Wei Zhao gave him a resigned look. Beside him, Huang Xiaotao, her face veiled, showed a trace of worry—after all, even for a fine hand at the early Golden Core stage, ten thousand spirit jade was not something one could simply produce on a whim; it took advance preparation at the very least.
"Tch, one look at them and you know they're unprepared. I told you long ago, Taozi, that you'd take anything that came your way—dragging back two such blockheads. No strength to speak of, and now not even spirit jade. Aren't they just wasting our time!" Feng Hongyu seized the moment to toss in a few sour remarks from the sidelines.
Chu Bubai frowned at the sight. If Wei Zhao and his companion truly had no spirit jade ready, then the four of them could not go either—and the whole trip would have been for nothing.
"You really have no spirit jade? Ten thousand between the two of you—I can put it up for you. But as for the profits from this expedition, don't expect too large a share." Chu Bubai spoke in a low voice. "And once we're there, you'll follow my orders!"
Ten thousand spirit jade was no trifling sum, and Wei Zhao and his companion were, by any measure, "the weakest." Put that way, his words were not unreasonable.
"No need. Ten thousand spirit jade—we can produce that ourselves." Wei Zhao shook his head decisively.