Impressions of Yuanling City (Part 1)

After hearing Senior Liao's words, Lin Xiao immediately transferred all the spirit stones from his storage ring into his private vault.

The private vault provided by the system gave him a greater sense of security. He figured that no arrays or restrictions could possibly extract his spirit stones from there.

Right at that moment, the system in his mind also gave a very timely prompt:

[Aside from the host, no one can discover or obtain items from the system's private vault. Please use it with peace of mind.]

Upon entering the city, Lin Xiao was slightly startled by the sights within.

People were bustling about on the exceptionally wide main road. Many rode strange and bizarre spirit beasts. Above the road, many people were even stepping on slender swords, flying unhurriedly through the air. With a single glance, he could tell that those flying on swords were all Foundation Establishment cultivators.

The sides of the road seemed no different from the mortal realm, lined with various kinds of shops.

Compared to the spacious avenue, the storefronts of those shops could be considered cramped. When Lin Xiao took a closer look, he realized that the shops on both sides of the city's entrance avenue were actually selling very miscellaneous items, rather than the high-end, prestigious goods he had expected to decorate a storefront.

Sweeping his gaze over them, he saw shops collecting materials, selling the meat and hides of various low-tier demonic beasts, selling low-tier medicinal pills, recycling herbs, peddling low-tier talismans, and offering array diagrams...

Most of the shopkeepers inside and the customers coming and going appeared to have cultivation bases at the Qi Condensation or Foundation Establishment stages.

He never expected that even a city in the cultivation world would be so pragmatic.

Liao Pantu, who was in Lin Xiao's robe, suddenly sent him a voice transmission:

"Don't underestimate those craft shops. Although they only do low-tier work, most of them possess ancestral skills that have been passed down in this Yuanling City for over a thousand years. The shopkeepers themselves might not be very strong, but their influence in this city is not small. If you provoke one shop, everyone on this street might come out to target you. As the saying goes, it's easier to meet the King of Hell than to deal with his impish underlings. Unless your cultivation is like mine, reaching the Nascent Soul stage or higher, don't easily offend these people."

"I see. Thank you for the reminder, Senior." Hearing this, Lin Xiao instantly lost the desire to browse this street. Anyway, with the various comprehensive guides provided by the system for these basic skills, he didn't have any special needs.

He continued walking inward, occasionally looking up at the people in the sky and asking Liao Pantu:

"Senior, didn't you say that spells and spiritual energy cannot be used in this city? Why are these people able to fly?"

"Only fighting is prohibited. Things like flying are still allowed."

After Lin Xiao passed two streets, he suddenly heard a shout coming from behind.

"The Jiang Family Livestock Company's cargo cart is passing through! Fellow Daoists ahead, please make way, make way!"

Hearing the voice, he turned around and saw a middle-aged Qi Condensation cultivator dressed in a standard brown uniform slowly driving an oxcart pulled by two oxen.

The two oxen pulling the cart in front were pitch-black all over, with four branching horns on their heads. At a glance, they were clearly not ordinary oxen.

On the oxcart, inside a cage set with a confinement spell, dozens of plump and tender little suckling pigs were oinking and squealing, rooting around with their soft snouts.

Seeing this, Lin Xiao suddenly felt hungry.

These plump and tender little suckling pigs would definitely smell amazing if roasted.

The cultivators originally walking on the street immediately made way upon hearing "Jiang Family Livestock Company."

At this time, Liao Pantu sent a voice transmission to Lin Xiao:

"Oh, the Jiang family is still around. I thought that with what happened to them back in the day, they would have likely fallen into ruin. Ah, their spirit pigs are quite good. Go buy one later, and we'll take it to the Immortal Fragrance Pavilion to have the chef roast it for us."

After the oxcart passed by, Lin Xiao agreed and then asked:

"Is this Jiang family very famous here?"

Liao Pantu replied:

"If we're just talking about the strength of the various families in Yuanling City, the Jiang family is definitely outside the top ten. But if we're talking about reputation, theirs is not small at all."

"Is there a story behind this?"

"It's actually quite boring to talk about. You could say the Jiang family became famous by airing their dirty laundry. Back in the day..." As he spoke, Liao Pantu's voice suddenly stopped, and then he said to Lin Xiao:

"A little kid like you shouldn't ask about such filthy matters. Focusing on your cultivation and managing your sect properly is the serious business!"

After saying that, no matter how Lin Xiao asked, he refused to answer.

Lin Xiao had no choice but to suppress his gossiping heart and asked instead:

"Where are we going now?"

Seeing that he was no longer pressing for gossip about the Jiang family, Liao Pantu finally replied:

"To Seven Stars Street. The gathering place for cultivators in Yuanling City is right there."

Lin Xiao was confused:

"Why is that? Is there anything special about Seven Stars Street?"

"Naturally. Ah, it's hard to explain in a few words. You'll know once you get there."

Following Liao Pantu's directions, Lin Xiao walked for quite a while before arriving at Seven Stars Street.

Just arriving here and seeing the bustling crowds all around, Lin Xiao couldn't help but marvel. This place truly lived up to being the gathering place for cultivators in Yuanling City.

He saw that although Seven Stars Street was called a street, to him, it looked more like a large plaza. No, it would be more accurate to say it looked very much like the job markets he had visited once in his previous life.

Amidst the dense flow of people, he could hear the shouts of many individuals.

"The Red Moon Secret Realm opens in three days! Our ten-person squad is still missing three people. Those who want to go, come quickly!"

"Escorting goods for the Yuan Family Trading Company! Reward is twenty spirit stones per person! We're only hiring fifteen people, first come, first served!"

"Buying ten Fire Rhino Beasts, alive! Five hundred spirit stones per beast!"

"Forming a team to capture Fire Rhino Beasts! Need a five-person team, come quickly! We leave as soon as we have enough people!"

"Metal Secret Realm! Five-person squad! Come quickly, come quickly!"

"The Wu Family is hosting a banquet at the Immortal Fragrance Pavilion today to entertain fellow Daoists from all directions! As long as you have a special skill, you can go to the Immortal Fragrance Pavilion to show off your strength and become an honored guest of the Wu Family!"

...

Lin Xiao finally understood why this was the gathering place for cultivators in this city. It turned out this place was basically a real-life version of a global chat channel.

Seeing Lin Xiao looking around and not continuing to ask him questions, Liao Pantu couldn't help but send a voice transmission to him:

"What do you think of this?"

Prompted by his question, Lin Xiao replied:

"Senior, do you think I should go join them to catch a Fire Rhino Beast or something? That's five hundred spirit stones!"

Hearing this, Liao Pantu inside the Soul-Nourishing Pendant took a good while before answering him:

"For someone like you with no foundation in the city, believe it or not, the moment you finish catching a Fire Rhino Beast, you'd immediately get ganged up on and robbed by a group of people."

Having cold water poured on his excitement, Lin Xiao reined in his somewhat impulsive thoughts:

"Alright then."

It seemed that as a newcomer, trying to make money here was still going to be a bit difficult.

Setting aside his immature money-making ideas for the time being, he began to earnestly observe and listen in on the various pieces of news here.