The Yin Yang Crown plane was one of the stronger planes within the Soul Land universe. It was divided between two lands: the Dark Five Elements Continent and the Light Five Elements Continent.
Because of its special laws, the top experts of this world, the Nine-Crown titled lords, could command the ten legendary ultimate powers. Every hundred years, the Ten Heavenly Stem Saints of Light and Darkness, along with their Heavenly Oracles, would be born in accordance with destiny.
These people were the world's favored children. Before even breaking through to the Nine-Crown level, they could grasp the legendary ultimate powers and receive extremely special inherited strength.
On the Light Five Elements Continent, there were five nations: the Eastwood Empire, the Southfire Empire, the Westgold Empire, the Northwater Empire, and the Central Earth Empire.
The Eastwood Empire lay in the eastern part of the Light Five Elements Continent. Wood energy flourished there, and the climate was springlike all year round. Among the cultivators of that land, wood-attribute practitioners made up an overwhelming share.
Bright sunlight poured across the earth, spreading warmth everywhere. It was almost noon, and the air carried a dry, clean scent.
The official roads of the Eastwood Empire were broad and well kept. Among the five great empires of the Light Five Elements Continent, Eastwood was relatively weaker, but years of peace had made this country, brimming with life aura, quite wealthy.
Among those five empires, Eastwood was unquestionably the most scenic and had the greatest number of tourist destinations. Whenever people from any nation spoke of travel and leisure, the Eastwood Empire was usually the first place they thought of.
It had not only comfortable temperatures, but countless sights beautiful enough to intoxicate the heart. Of the ten largest forests on the entire continent, the Eastwood Empire occupied five by itself. Nobles from every country liked to spend their vacations here when they had free time.
On a broad, clean official road, a young man and a young woman walked slowly side by side. The girl was a head shorter than the young man beside her. From their faces, they looked like brother and sister.
Whether in bearing or figure, neither of them looked like ordinary travelers. Naturally, they were Wu Ling and Rose, who had arrived on the Five Elements Continent from the Qin Emperor world.
Since Wu Ling already knew this was the Five Elements Continent, doing his homework was necessary. After arriving, he first spent some time searching through his memories, writing down the things he might be able to obtain during this trip.
The difference between the Five Elements Continent and Soul Land was not actually that large. Both worlds had nine major stages of combat strength, and each stage could roughly correspond to Soul Land's ranks. At most, this world had one additional special profession: mixologists. Even that special profession would later be overshadowed by soul engineers in the era of Soul Land 2.
Even so, in certain fields, especially the five major attributes of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, this world far surpassed Soul Land.
The Five Elements Continent contained many special resources. Magic cores left behind by magical beasts, crystal crowns left behind after Yin Yang Mages died, all of these were cultivation resources similar to condensed Spirit Power blocks. He could collect some for Rose to study. More importantly, this world also possessed special resources like the Heavenly Stem Divine Beasts and the Ten Famous Wines.
The Heavenly Stem Divine Beasts were beings that had received fortune and gained limited authority over certain laws under the Five Elements Continent's special rules. Both continents possessed them.
Although they were called Divine Beasts, they were not truly divine beasts. The Divine Realm would never allow such beings to appear freely. They merely possessed near-divine strength within the Five Elements Continent. In Soul Land terms, if any of these Divine Beasts reached Soul Land, each one would at least be a hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast. Whether they could compare with the Deep Sea Demon Whale King or Di Tian was another matter.
Of course, the Ten Heavenly Stem Divine Beasts were not urgent targets for the current Wu Ling. Every one of those beings had lived for no one knew how many years. The difficulty of tricking them and carrying them away could not be compared with the Golden-Armored Forbidden Insects at all.
Other resources, however, such as crystal crowns, magic cores, and the Ten Famous Wines, could be collected in large amounts during this trip and brought back to Soul Land.
Among those resources, the ones Wu Ling cared about most were the Ten Famous Wines. As far as he knew, those wines were not merely famous. They also contained mysteries that resonated with the ten broadest branches of magical energy in the Five Elements Continent system, and they could even help a person transform and awaken an ultimate attribute. Of course Wu Ling cared about treasures like that.
He and Rose could make potions. With certain precious immortal herbs, they could also help Soul Land Spirit Masters advance their Martial Souls. But the two methods were different. Studying this one and borrowing from it would be useful.
As for the timeline, Wu Ling guessed that the protagonist Ji Dong had probably not transmigrated here yet, though it should be soon.
At the end of Soul Land, the Asura God had once said that the enforcer of the Five Elements Continent had been killed. At that time, Tang San had already become a god. But on the Five Elements Continent, Ji Dong's story was only halfway through when Lie Yan was killed.
"Let me think. A place where I can quickly obtain the Ten Famous Wines, crystal crowns, and magic cores... Mm. The Mixologist Guild headquarters, then."
The northern part of the Five Elements Continent was a paradise of the water attribute. The capital of the Northwater Empire, Tianshui City, was a deep and noble city.
Compared with Central Plains City of the Central Earth Empire at the heart of the continent, Northwater City lacked that broad, balanced grandeur, but it carried a unique iron-blooded air.
The north governed water and revered black. The buildings in Northwater City used black and purple as their main colors. Deep black and noble purple created a distinctive landscape. Although the city was less than one third the size of Central Plains City, its prosperity was not inferior at all.
The weather in the north was always colder than in the south. In half a month, Wu Ling and Rose had traveled from the eastern Forest of Life toward the northwest while sightseeing along the way. The clothing of the people around them changed from light shirts to thick coats, showing the shift in climate clearly.
People of the Northwater Empire were generally tall, with rugged features. They lacked the south's delicacy, but had more northern boldness. In this northern country, the most numerous practitioners were water-type and wood-type mages. Water nourished wood, so Northwater's dense water element also benefited wood-type cultivation.
Wu Ling and Rose passed through the city gate and entered the city. The streets of Tianshui were crowded and lively. He found an extremely luxurious hotel, reserved a large suite, and of course chose one with only a single bed. After all, when Rose rested, she could simply return to Wu Ling's body or his shadow.
After settling in briefly, Wu Ling and Rose went out, bought a map of Tianshui City, and began sightseeing. Their route eventually took them to the northern district, where nobles and major powers kept their estates. The imperial palace was also closest to this area.
Tianshui City was not especially large. Following the map, Wu Ling soon arrived three streets away from the Tianshui imperial palace, at the Mixologist Guild headquarters. This was his target for the trip.
Mixologists counted as a special profession of the Five Elements Continent. As a guild organization with considerable fame across the continent, the Mixologist Guild naturally did not lack experts.
The Mixologist Guild headquarters was a very tall bottle-shaped building, higher than all the surrounding structures. If measured by floors, it would probably have seven. The bottle-shaped building was thick at the base and narrow at the top. Its entire surface was a strange amber color, making it look extraordinarily gorgeous.
From a distance, the building looked even stranger. One could faintly see rippling currents of water flowing inside that amber bottle-like structure. It was extremely unusual. The headquarters itself was one of Tianshui City's landmarks.
"The Mixologist Guild headquarters. Pretty lively, isn't it?"
When Wu Ling arrived outside the building, he lifted his head and looked at the antique signboard with its flowing, dragonlike calligraphy. Then he brought out the Dragon Frame and stepped forward again, striding toward the guild with the Dragon Frame and Rose.