Daily life of a cultivation judge

Chapter 774 Ferry tiers

"I was looking to visit these four places.." Yang Qing said as he took out a map from his storage ring and unfurled it on Duan Ting's desk.

Four locations had been circled on the map, with those four places having the symbol of a green jade pavilion on top of them.

"There are a few things that I need from these shops. Is there a flight going along that route, and what are the charges? I'd also like to know flying at a moderate speed, how long would it take for you to get me to all four of those places.." asked Yang Qing.

The four places he had circled were four shops of the Green Jade Pavilion and they were located close to the territories of the four agents he had intended to meet.

With an attentive look, Duan Ting examined the map as he narrowed in on the four places.

"The first place should be in Camel Lake-town in Hanming province under the Sun Birch Kingdom, the second is Five Peak Valley under the territory of Moonpine Kingdom, the third is Thousand Forgehold City under the territory of the Ascendant Divine Armament Sect, and lastly Azure mirage city in Swan Oak province under the Great Chen Empire..

Considering the distance, it should take four days, to make the complete journey but it will only be four days if you hire our highest-tiered service.." Duan Ting said after some thought.

As if afraid of being misunderstood he added,

"It's not that I am trying to make you go for the highest tier. Our travels have a lot of stopovers during regular travel for drop-offs and picking up new customers as we make our journey.

Only when we have a highest-tier customer do we remove those stops, maintaining it only a maximum of three stops outside of yours along the route, and the stops don't last more than five minutes..."

"That's fairly understandable. How many tiers are there?"

"There are three, gold which is the highest tier, silver tier follows after it, and the lowest is the bronze tier.."

"I take it, other than fast travel, the tiers come with other privileges.."

"Yes they do, please have a look.." Duan Ting said as he handed Yang Qing a jade slip. Li Mei had arrived at that time and deftly poured tea for both of them, leaving after for her duties, looking relieved as she left.

Yang Qing breathed in the relaxing aroma of the jade rabbit spring tea soaking its flavorful scent. Without hesitation, he took a sip, and the reputation of its taste and effects were not unfounded. He took another sip and then proceeded to pour a sliver of his spiritual essence into the jade slip Duan Ting had handed off to him to read its contents.

"Gold tier service- costs 1,000 high-grade spirit stones.."

Yang Qing almost spit his tea when he read the cost, luckily with his excellent reflexes and will, he managed to hold himself.

"1,000 and they are the moderately priced one? How expensive are these trips?" he wondered as he read through the rest of the contents.

Despite his miserly nature, as he read through he couldn't help but feel it was well worth the price. Gold-tiered customers would rarely share the same ferry because of the priority afforded to them on their flight routes and would only do so when their routes overlap with it not infringing on the agreed delays.

Other than preference on route, the privileges extended to their quality of stay within the ferry. They had access to single chambers that had multiple rooms within them such as a cultivation room, alchemy and blacksmithing room, combat room to test their techniques, and said room was retrofitted to handle the abilities of an early palace realm stage cultivator, and the arrays that were outfitted in the chamber were all of the blue grade. They also had an entire floor to themselves.

As for the silver tier, it cost 200 high-grade spirit stones, with every silver tier member having individual access to their chambers which had the same number of rooms as those found in gold tier chambers with the difference being in the quality of the arrays used. Those in the silver tier were all top tier orange grade array. Though they didn't share chambers, they shared the same floor on the ferry.

The last tier, the bronze tier cost 10 high-grade spirit stones, and the chamber was shared four per chamber, with the arrays all being low-tier orange-grade arrays.

Even though the prices seemed steep considering there were ferries whose transport costs ranged from 50 high-grade spirit stones at the maximum to 10 middle-grade spirit stones, Yang Qing still believed the prices of the Bluefin spine-tailed swift were more than fair, because regardless of what tier someone decided to buy, they would all have the same level of security on board the ferry.

The escort agency had six flying ferries and of those six, four always had a palace realm escort on board in which the founder of the agency was one of them and also with the highest cultivation base while the other three, one was at the second stage of the palace realm, and the remaining two were in the first stage of the palace realm.

For 10 high-grade spirit stones, you could gain the protection of a palace realm expert. That in and of itself was a huge bargain that any cultivator with a brain would jump at. Most escort agencies would lump those paying low sums together on a single ferry and give them services, security, and the ferry included that was a reflection of what they paid for.

For example on a different ferry that charged 10 high-grade spirit stones for its services, the security that one would get for such a cost would be middle-stage core formation experts, but when it came to the Bluefin spine-tailed swift, they offered a universal protection system regardless of the amount paid which was one of the reasons they were favored so much. And even the two ferries that didn't have a palace realm cultivator on board, each had an anchoring defensive monarch-grade artifact with each artifact being operated by four late-stage core formation experts. So even with palace realm escorts not being on board, with the artifacts, it was the same as having one on board.

Having already made his decision Yang Qing took out 1,000 high-grade spirit stones and paid the fare.

"When will it be leaving?" he asked as he made the payment.

Duan Ting seemed hesitant to answer before a calm voice sounded from behind them.

"We can leave now if you want.."