Penglai Island, as the headquarters of the East Sea Cultivator Alliance and the largest force of the East Sea human race, truly boasted an extraordinary style. A continuous stream of whales docked at the shore, and as they opened their mouths, cultivators surged forward, coming out from within the whales’ maws.

The island’s inhabitants were still predominantly ordinary people, but cultivators were not in short supply. They could be seen everywhere, with those at the Qi Refinement Stage and Foundation Establishment Stage being particularly common. Compared to Fangshan Island, Penglai was as different as heaven and earth.

The Island Master of Penglai was an old cultivator at the Transcendance Tribulation Stage. According to the classification of Great Xia, Penglai Island was considered a super-grade force, one of only nine in the entire Great Xia.

Moreover, Penglai Island gathered the vast majority of East Sea cultivators, with profound and imposing foundations, even stronger than the super-grade sects of Great Xia by several measures.

Upon arriving at the Alliance headquarters, Daoist Yan found himself before a nine-layered pagoda. The pagoda was ancient and had endured many years, having gone through countless baptisms of time. Each layer of the pagoda was engraved with talismans, array methods, or patterns that contained the profound truths of the Dao, exemplifying the mysteries of the laws of heaven and earth.

Standing before the pagoda, one felt as small as an ant.

"Five esteemed Daoists, I shall first go in to register at the Alliance. Once I am finished with my affairs, I will then take you all on a tour of Penglai Island. Does that sound good?" Daoist Yan said with a cupped-fist salute. Non-members of the Alliance were not allowed to enter the pagoda.

"No problem at all, Daoist Yan, you go ahead with your business," Lu Yang said with a chuckle. They were not in a hurry.

Being at the Divinity Transformation Stage carried some weight in the Alliance. Once Daoist Yan entered the nine-layered pagoda and explained his situation, it didn’t take long for a Divinity Transformation Stage cultivator to come out and greet him. When they heard that Daoist Yan had passed the Thunder Tribulation through his own efforts, their words carried an extra measure of respect.

"Let’s go. Daoist Yan has his own matters to attend to, so let’s take a look around by ourselves," Lu Yang called out to the others. It shouldn’t make much of a difference without a local guiding them.

"Take a look, freshly caught Nine-Star Thunder Eel." Someone was holding a meter-long, shiny black eel and shouting. The eel had four spots on each side, with an additional spot right at the center of its head—a rather rare Nine-Star Thunder Eel.

"Uncle, how much for this Nine-Star Thunder Eel?"

The uncle chuckled softly and said nonchalantly, "Not for sale."

𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

The person became annoyed, "If you’re not selling it, then why are you shouting about it!"

"If I didn’t shout, how would you know that I caught a Nine-Star Thunder Eel?"

"Freshly unearthed ancient elixirs from a secret realm, one hundred thousand spirit stones per bottle!" Someone was displaying several small medicine bottles with soil still on them.

This was a custom in the Cultivation World. Elixirs from secret realms were sold unopened, leaving it to a gamble whether the elixirs inside were good or bad, and also as a way to test one’s discernment.

"There are ancient elixirs here," Tao Yaoye whispered, quite astonished.

The Little Medicinal King was disdainful, "What ancient elixirs, only the mud is ancient."

As a Little Medicinal King who had lived since ancient times, it had eaten more soil in its lifetime than it could count, and it could tell the era of the soil without tasting it—just a glance was enough.

"Kebabs, freshly grilled mutton kebabs here, eat one for longevity, two for a breakthrough in realm, three for eternal life."

Hearing the familiar shouting, Lu Yang instinctively turned his head and was surprised to find a barbecue shop by the roadside.

"A barbecue shop has opened up here?" Meng Jingzhou exclaimed. The Jiuyou Sect was really striving to make money by expanding its overseas business to Penglai Island.

Lu Yang shook his head, his expression serious, "Our barbecue doesn’t have this flavor, and they’re not using True Fire. This is a counterfeit."

Beyond that, Lu Yang also found flying cars without trademarks and the Dream Mirage without authorization... All were outright knockoffs.

In Great Xia, copyright management was strict, but that was not the case in the East Sea. Here they believed that anything that made money was fair game, even murder and arson, let alone protecting intellectual property rights.

For this reason, the pill formulas, array methods, and so forth of Great Xia are subject to strict lineage teachings, and unauthorized transmission is undoubtedly a death sentence.

Lu Yang calculated that he had lost at least eight million spirit stones in the East Sea.

Lu Yang’s heart ached—eight million! That was more than enough to buy Old Meng’s life.

Meng Jingzhou glanced at Lu Yang with a sideways look, always feeling that this kid was bad-mouthing him.

Li Haoran consoled him sincerely, "The East Sea is just like this, you’ll get used to it. Back in the day, Qin Haoran made a fortune by peddling pirated goods in the East Sea. That was the capital he used to marry Yi Ren."

Lu Yang: "..."

"Why is there a portrait of my master here?" Lu Yang discovered a picture of Daoist Buyu on the notice board, with a bounty written at the top.

Daoist Buyu, Dao Seeking Sect Master, with a bounty of one billion spirit stones.

Even the bounty was issued jointly by the Sea Clan and the human race.

"I’d always heard that my master fetched a high price in the black market, and now I see it’s true."

Lu Yang commented, one billion spirit stones, that was way more expensive than Old Meng’s eight million spirit stones.

Aside from Daoist Buyu, there were many familiar faces on the bounty list, such as the Grand Elder, Sixth Elder, Seventh Elder, and Eighth Elder.

Half the upper echelon of the Dao Seeking Sect was on that list, of course, none of them had a bounty as high as Daoist Buyu. He firmly topped the list, an unshakable status.

Before leaving, Lu Yang heard Uncle Ba say that the Grand Elder entered and exited the tombs on Penglai, the abbey, and Yingzhou seven times, and even built a tomb in the style of the ancient tombs on an island in the East Sea. When the Penglai trio discovered this tomb, they all thought it was their own ancestral tomb, nearly losing their minds over it.

In the end, Penglai Island triumphed and joyously moved the coffin back home, compared the family genealogy for half a day, knelt and worshipped in front of the coffin, and then the Grand Elder sprang from the coffin...

At the time, the Sixth Elder was in the middle of a breakthrough during her Pure Immortal Body phase, making her Pure Domain quite unstable, and it was sound-activated. She attended a banquet where the host spoke, and her Pure Domain opened up. Every time someone spoke, her domain was triggered, and she was consequently blacklisted from banquets.

The Seventh and Eighth Elders, taking advantage of the fact that Great Xia’s laws couldn’t reach them here, swindled everywhere, with their scam technique growing day by day. Eventually, the East Sea couldn’t take it anymore, and after several failed attempts to capture them, they asked Great Xia to apply the principle of personal jurisdiction to arrest the Seventh and Eighth Elders.

Great Xia, citing respect for the sovereignty of the East Sea, refused to deal with the case.

Passers-by looked at the bounty and felt it was quite nostalgic, triggering memories of the past.

"Who would have thought that Daoist Buyu is still up there, it’s been hundreds of years, he hasn’t shown up in the East Sea for two hundred years, has he?"

"Exactly, I still remember when Daoist Buyu’s bounty was five hundred million spirit stones. He once pretended to have been captured and, in partnership with the Dao Seeking Sect’s Grand Elder, they swindled the bounty money."

"After that incident, his bounty went up to one billion. And every time there’s a sign of him, a Great Power leading a team personally comes to try to capture him."

"One billion spirit stones, huh, if you could catch Daoist Buyu, you’d be set for resources for several lifetimes of cultivation."

"Catching Daoist Buyu, that’s just wishful thinking. I heard that previously some cultivators did misdeeds under Daoist Buyu’s name and after that incident, even Tribulation Cultivators dared not use his name anymore."

Lu Yang felt fortunate that he was currently using the identity of a disciple from the Five Elements Sect.

Considering the relationship between the Dao Seeking Sect and the Five Elements Sect, even if the Five Elements Sect minded, it wouldn’t matter.