The establishment was a sprawling restaurant, spanning five storeys, with the sixth transformed into an open balcony meant for VIPs. The sixth floor was currently vacant. There was a dressing room in one corner within which sat five women, their ages ranging between early to mid-twenties.
By slipping in an Empyrean Zinger Scout, Inala probed their strengths, 'They are all at the Spirit Stage, decently weak.'
By decently weak, he meant their Prana was in the range of 50s. It wasn't much to write home about but it also wasn't little. In the end, they were slightly weak.
Judging based on the shopkeeper's earlier boast, the fact that such young girls had so much Prana meant they were fairly high up in the social ladder and were decently talented. Of course, that was in the perspective of this region.
They were all too weak from the Mammoth Clan's perspective.
Situated opposite the dressing room, positioned on the other corner of the balcony was an office room. Seated within it was a middle-aged woman that wore a dress with four colours.
Based on his primitive understanding of this society, he judged this middle-aged woman was pretty high up on the social ladder.
Cling!
"This month's revenue is five percent higher." Safara smiled in satisfaction as she poured a bag of coins into a chest. The clinking sounds produced by the coins caused her immense satisfaction, "I can never get enough of this sound!"
She picked up a coin and played around it with her finger. The coin spanned a radius of two centimetres, pretty large in size. It was made from pearl, dense and hard to break, even for her.
Embedded on the front was a denomination of '100' and on the back was the bust-up image of a man who seemed to have been of prominent status. His getup was of a level of grandness unmatched by others, extremely tacky.
Safara was the proprietress of the Golden Town Restaurant, having established her place of operation twenty years ago. From there, she quickly made a name for herself, amassing a lot of wealth.
The currency of her place was called Pella. It was backed by the authorities using Parute Fruits. The current exchange rate was 40 Pella for every Parute. Using a local currency allowed the authorities to control the flow of resources better.
Every time people wished to exchange money with Parute Fruits for cultivation, they had to approach the authorities. Hence, the authorities had a perfect grasp of the place's power ecosystem.
Safara didn't have any talent for cultivation. Hence, she remained weak during her prime years. But, she did have a talent for business. Once she set up shop and amassed a fortune, she used it to purchase a lot of cultivation resources, eventually reaching the Body Stage and cementing her authority on the business street.
Once she entered the Body Stage, she truly felt strong, using up even more resources to purchase Eruppa, an expensive mineral to forge her Avatar. Safara was assured by then that she had truly entered her golden age.
But now, she was reconsidering it. Her body was slick with sweat as her limbs turned cold, numb with fear. It was unknown when it happened, but by the time she realised, someone stood behind her.
And a hand, cold to the touch, hard, resembling bone, made contact with her shoulder, "Make a squeak, and you're dead."
"Little girl, isn't it rude to play around like this?" Safara quickly gathered her bearings, judging based on the entity's voice that she was only a little girl, fourteen or fifteen years of age. She riled up her Prana while acting calm, intending to attack, "Entering someone's office isn't good manners…"
"One more word, and you're dead." Suddenly, Safara felt a loss of words, gasping for air as her Prana was sucked into the bony hand, shocking her. Two seconds later, the process stopped, "Have you calmed down now?"
"Try that one more time and I'll destroy you and everything you've worked for."
'She knows what I was about to do?' Safara was terrified. The mineral fused into her Spirit Container was Eruppa, an expensive material with calming properties.
She generally used it to keep her restaurant's atmosphere calm and pleasing, one of the reasons her customers continued to increase, especially ones with fat wallets. Eruppa calmed one's mind, allowing the body to relax.
In a tea setting, that was perfect when accompanied by aromatic incense. The effects were even better for a massage session, another popular venture she had opened recently.
But there was another reason Safara chose Eruppa. It can forcefully calm a target. If the target was in a battle state, they would find it difficult to gather their strength as their body continued to relax.
Hence, the majority of the time, she won a fight before it even started. Eruppa's effects were unleashed through an energy medium, hence it was hard to guard against.
The moment she noticed the intruder, Safara had unleashed Eruppa's effects in full swing. Moreover, hidden under the view of her clothes were her hands that transformed into a pinkish-yellow crystal. She had activated her Eruppa Avatar already.
But despite that, the entity behind her expressed no change, as if her ability was useless, "W-Who are you? And what do you want?"
"Pretty simple," The voice resounded calmly, "Tell me about this place."
"A-Are you from outside…" Safara asked, intending to casually turn around and sneak a glance at the intruder.
"I'm the one asking questions." The voice resounded. Safara was unable to move anymore. The bone hand pressing down on her shoulder suddenly grew in weight, rooting her to her seat, making her unable to even budge an inch.
'W-Who is this person?' Safara was going mad from terror. Her voice stammered as she began speaking in reflex, intending to survive, "This is Ellora Trade City in the Ganrimb Kingdom. There are 7 such cities, 19 towns, and 200 plus villages. There are approximately 90,000 people per city, 20,000 per town, and one to two thousand per village."
"Ganrimb…Ganrimb…Hmm," In his feminine form, Inala thought and asked, "What's its relation to the Brimgan Empire?"
"Our founder is an exiled Prince of the Brimgan Empire." Safara felt like she had become a statue as only her mouth moved, "His followers left the Brimgan Empire and established a Kingdom here 380 years ago."
'380 years ago…Then, judging by the Brimgan Empire's cultivation technique, this Prince should very well be alive. Since this place is connected to the Brimgan Empire, then things are simpler.' Inala was relieved as he asked, "How far is this place from the Brimgan Empire?"
"I'm not sure…aah!" Safara spoke when her Prana was siphoned once again, causing immense pain. Suddenly, the drawers nearby opened and a bunch of scrolls were pulled out. At the sight of them, her face paled in response, "P-Please, don't kill me."