Chapter 47 – White Flower Church

"We're here", knocking can be heard at the carriage window as the driver announces.

Jack is reluctantly pulled out of his mind, he wanted to continue to analyse and take inspiration from the visions within his mind but needs to accomplish a task here which can not wait. The carriage has stopped next to a large solid looking gate, the road ends at the gate while two pathways on either side allow passengers to disembark.

He exits the carriage and the driver quickly pulls away leaving Jack somewhat startled by the reaction as if the driver needed to get away from this location as soon as possible.

A group of twenty men are standing around wearing rather fancy clothes as though they're there for courting but they each have a weapon by their side giving a contrast to the usual residents of the city, they are waiting in silence sometimes speaking quietly to each other.

Small paths beside the road lead to smaller gates allowing entrance into the compound, where several women covered in plate mail that cover their appearance are standing guard holding large spears acting as a wall, an invisible wall of aura can be felt delineating each group.

Jack shrugs at this and walks towards the closet entrance gate but is stopped by one of the women yelling, "Stop, men aren't permitted to step foot on our sacred lands, if you wish to see one of our maidens you may wait and stand with the rest, if you are here to purchase something you go over there!" The woman points the spear towards Jack almost touching his forehead, both threatening him and pointing towards the building.

Jack doesn't like the feeling of the spear being pointed at him so closely, he can feel his emotions getting heated up as demonic qi roils within his forehead star wanting to break free, while a blood-red tiny star shape that looks like a tattoo appears above his left eyebrow. He circulates a single motion of his normal qi causing his mind to return to equilibrium not taking notice that the woman pointing her spear at him has widened her eyes.

"You… what cultivation technique do you have?!" she almost can't control her voice while asking

Jack is visibly confused by her reaction, "It doesn't matter what cultivation technique I have; I am leaving now."

"Wait, I don't mean to offend sir" her tone changes but Jack doesn't turn around.

She wants to take a step but is pulled by one of the other women beside her, "Inform the grand madams but don't leave your post"

Jack walks past all the men who are snickering at him, no man has ever managed to step foot into the White Flower Church compound so they often get to see this show, walking the couple hundred metres to where he was pointed Jack quickly enters the store he doesn't want to stay here for very long.

Not too far away within a large hall decorated with white flowers, all the same type but different sizes. There are four cushions placed in the middle upon which each is seated a person, two women wearing white robes with flowers adorned on them and two people wearing masks with blue robes. There is a platter full of tea ceremony gear sitting before them, billowing steam out of a simple looking teapot.

"Grand madam Yumi and Lisa, thank you for seeing us" A masked person disguising their voice wearing a blue robe can be seen.

"It's no problem, White Flower church and Frozen Cloud sect have always assisted others and last night just proves we will need each other more than ever, if Thousand Flower Valley were here too then we'd have all the primary alliance members represented" a tired looking woman wearing white speaks up.

"It still feels silly that you are all required to wear protective gear at all times outside of the eternally sacred lands" A mid-20s attractive woman with big breasts also wearing a white robe pours some tea for the group.

"That's true, these regions truly are much warmer than the eternally sacred lands but our mission can't be jeopardised just because we wish to relax for a moment" the other masked blue robed person says.

"Speaking of which, are you undertaking a mission right now?"

"You know I can't speak specifics about the mission as the Northern Alliance has many strange and unusual techniques, but I feel that last night's blood-moon is related to them"

"Is that why you're here?" Lisa asks

"Indeed, we lost track of two targets when the blood-moon appeared so we felt appropriate to check this city for their influences, the Northern Continent is incredibly wealthy and has their hand in many places one wouldn't expect"

There is sudden a clamour outside the door causing the conversation to pause as a knocking is heard from the door, "Grand Madams, sorry to interrupt your discussion but there has been an incident that we need to inform you of"

"Speak" the tired woman yells out in a command tone.

"Yes, Grand Madam Yumi, Saintess Tessa's inheritance has been acquired by an unknown entity and the spirit linking orb does not contain any information about this person"

Everyone in the room frowns with a serious expression, "Do we know who acquired the orb or who likely had it?" the woman called Grand Madam Yumi speaks up.

"We only know that it was last in the hands of Yellow Snake Chapel, the city lord's daughter is loosely connected to this group and thus we couldn't retrieve it yet"

Yumi lets out a loud audible sigh, White Flower church has a lot of power but that's severely limited at the moment because of the restricted region travel causing the City Lord to have power go to his head, White Flower Church has existed here for hundreds of years but the city lord could eject the whole organisation on a whim.

His son has been courting many of the young maidens of White Flower Church openly and now it turns out that his daughter might have had a hand in stealing several objects including a very important inheritance orb from one of their storage rooms.

"Send people to investigate and petition the city lord" Yumi speaks to the people in the doorway before lowering her tone and speaking to the people still seated; "I hope you don't mind that we have to cut our little meeting short"

"It's no problem, if you need our assistance feel free to ask as we're also stuck here for now" the two blue-robed people stand up, cupping their hands towards both Grand Madam's Yumi and Lisa and promptly disappearing indicating they're both at least Saint realm powerhouses.

"I'll look at the spirit linking crystal, you should take some people and petition the city lord and see if we can ask a few questions of his lovely daughter"

"Ok but we both know that's going to be useless, do we need to ask for assistance?" the big breasted Lisa asks Yumi.

"Not yet, hopefully someone affiliated with White Flower Church acquired it and the spirit linking crystal is just not functioning correctly"

"Let's hope so"

The pair part way leaving in different directions, Yumi is walking towards further in the compound while Lisa is leaving toward the gate when someone can be seen running from that direction, "Grand Madam Lisa, I have news from the gate to inform you of!"

Grand Madam Lisa's has an intrigued expression on her face as she listens to what happened, "Where is that person now?" she asks as the person from the gate informs her.

Jack has entered the store and takes a quick look around the room, there's literally nothing but a large desk with four people standing behind it, two women wearing plate mail like the ones outside and two women wearing white robes with flowers embroidered on them.

Jack walks over to the desk where one of the robes wearing women turns toward Jack with slight disgust.

"What do you want?" she abruptly asks.

Jack looks at her, she has a typical attractive appearance with black hair but it's ruined by her current expression of disgust, Jack has literally said nothing and she is already acting like he is the worst person in the world.

"How much for 100 arrows?" Jack asks remaining expressionless.

"2,000 gold"

Jack pauses for a moment before saying, "I'll take 10 arrows".

The woman snorts as reaches under the counter and passes the arrows to Jack, "Big spender that'll be 200 gold"

Jack feels a big pain from having to pay 200 gold for 10 arrows but begrudgingly hands over the coins and looks at the information;

[Holy Arrow] Grade: White, Description: Single use arrows imbued with the power of divinity.

They honestly seem no different than normal arrows except each arrow head is stamped with the symbol of a white flower, compared to the light arrows that had light crystals these seem much worse for value.

"If you're done, leave" The woman points Jack towards the door, Jack doesn't want to stay here for a moment longer as this woman clearly doesn't want to talk.

He turns around to leave but a woman around Jack's age is slowly walking in, "Don't be like that junior sister Claire, while most men are here for nefarious purposes our young sir here is not like them"

"Grand madam Lisa I'm sorry I did not mean to offend this sir; it is only because I am weary of heart from all these men everyday coming here and harassing the maidens of White Flower Church"

"I am sure Grand Madam Yumi will accommodate you if you wish to change roles but please reflect on this during your nightly spirit linking session, sir I hope you are not offended" the new woman smiles toward Jack, she looks rather pretty with her long brown hair braided and twirled into a bun, her clothing barely able to contain her large breasts that jiggle as she moves.

"Grand madam huh, are you able to get me a better deal here?" Jack looks at this woman suspiciously, after the previous church he is wary of any attractive woman that appears out of nowhere.

"Of course I could, why don't you come into our compound and we can discuss it further over some tea?"

"No, we'll discuss it here, I would like to buy the things on this scroll, you give me your best price" Jack quick withdraws and throws the scroll toward the woman with a stoic face but his eyes sometimes wander, he is tempted to use his divine sense to take a look under her clothing but it might cause him to ruin his appearance.

The woman easily catches the scroll flying towards her, upon reading the first line her eyes go wide upon the requests listed.

"I had no idea sir would be so extravagant" the woman's eyes flutter towards Jack causing him to frown slightly, he doesn't want to get involved in another situation like last time.

"According to your cartel prices, I guess it's extravagant but I'll need many times that before I'm done as this is only a trial amount" Jack speaks confidently, forgetting the first line on the scroll is dragon jade.

The woman's eyes light up, "Junior Sister Claire, please give the man everything in the store, sir do you have a storage ring or would you like us to provide you one?"

Jack is confused by her reaction but shows the storage ring he acquired; the woman looks at it for a moment thinking before suddenly realising something. Claire is begrudgingly leaving the desk area getting the items from behind a curtain, quiet cursing can be heard from behind the curtain.

Lisa cutely clears her throat as a distraction from the quiet cursing, "I didn't know sir was from the Northern Continent, may I please have your name?"

Jack is still confused as to why she thinks he is from the Northern Continent and considers for a moment if he should hide his name narrowing his eyes, "You may call me Jack".

"Esteemed sir Jack, this transaction today can be considered a special service but for the rest of your order, it will take some time, will sir be available to visit another day?"

"Will I be dealing with you in the future?"

Lisa smiles as if she can read Jacks mind, she bends over allowing Jack to see down her robe; "Does esteemed sir wish to see me again in the future?"

Jack inwardly sighs, "That'd be best".

Grand Madam Lisa stands by the doorway smiling at Jack while they look at each in silence, after several moments the big breasted young woman speaks up; "Junior Sister Claire, are you done yet?"

A woman panting can be seen parting some curtains, the other women by the desk have long since fled as very few customers come in because no one purchases these goods, "Sir can I please have your storage ring for a moment?"

Jack passes it to the woman, watching her as the young woman called Claire transfers items between the two rings and passes it back to Jack.

He uses his sense to inspect the storage ring, it now contains: over 5,000 of various short swords, more than 4,000 long swords, over 2,000 spears, over 2 million arrows and lots of other resources, essentially filling the whole storage ring up with new goods.

Jack stoically nods his head after looking at it but inwardly he's celebrating as it's enough to outfit an army of over 10,000 soldiers easily.

Lisa is quietly observing his reaction, if he reacted in a major way to receiving such a small amount of weaponry that would indicate that he's not from a major force and is most likely a player.

"I'm very pleased with this, I'll be back in a few days to discuss further trade"

Lisa smiles bright upon hearing this, she approves of Jack for now and is glad to hand over these resources that they have excess of, regardless of blood-moon they aren't allowed to lower prices but they can give them away for free.

"Please call me Lisa in the future, I will inform the guards at the gate to inform me when you arrive"

"Thank you, I hope we have many successful transactions in the future" Jack gives the woman a pleasant smile, he is glad that it didn't turn out like the last church he visited.

Leaving the building with the newly acquired goods, he feels accomplished as this was his primary task and he really doesn't need to come back so soon but given how many goods he was given freely, he should return the favour by being somewhat honest.

Jack already feels bad about pretending to be someone from the Northern Continent, he will probably need to clear that up with her next time they meet, walking down the road away from the White Flower Church he doesn't notice many pairs of eyes on his back.

Many of the men standing outside the gate are looking at Jack with hatred, he was able to talk with a Grand Madam. Jack doesn't even take notice of these stares and enters a transport carriage and orders it to head back to the transportation gates, while he looks through the storage ring at the various goods.

"Please be more careful in the future, you nearly ruined my chances" Lisa speaks towards Claire, the last part of her sentence is almost spoken under her breath.

"Yes, grand madam, Junior sister shall reflect on her mistake" Claire sheepishly lowers her head but sticks her tongue out towards Lisa when the big breasted woman leaves the building.

The grand madam watches Jack enter a transport carriage before walking over and talking to the woman who first identified Jack by the gate, "Good job, I am glad you didn't offend that esteemed sir Jack from the northern continent"

"He's from the northern continents, that explains why his 3-star cultivation technique is so mysterious and gives me an evil feeling"

A few of the men's ears perk up upon hearing the word evil, some upon hearing the word 3-star cultivation technique, as they start to covertly discuss amongst themselves.

"He is an esteemed guest, make sure to welcome him when he comes back in several days, I wonder if he has many wives."

"Grand Madam Lisa, you have been searching all over for a suitor and many men infatuated with you will be disappointed to hear you say that about another man"

Lisa snorts softly, "Those men are only after my body but they have nothing to offer me, this esteemed sir has one of the lost star cultivation arts, he has enough money to display an epic quality storage ring on his finger openly and an order of three million metres of dragon jade is a trial order for him"

"Grand Madam Lisa… perhaps now isn't the time to talk about this" the woman wearing plate armour

Lisa loudly snorts and looks at the crowd of men, they all stiffen their backs and try to put on manly airs about them as her eyes wander over them but she just turns around ignoring them to the disappointment of some and the fury of others.

She has a smirk on her face, saying "These men are nothing compared to that esteemed young sir, something about him just makes me feel connected to him already…".

The two women continue to talk for some time while some of the men can be seen passing notes to others, one of them quite clearly has Jack's appearance on it while other pages contain all the other information Lisa has just shared.

Jack has no idea about all of this going on as he's absorbed in looking through the storage ring trying to catalogue all the goods during the long trip, he is looking forward to returning to the village so he can try out the Heavens Piercing Thrust technique.