The Beginning of Trials

He brought the bulging storage bags in his arms over to the nine members of the summer-camp group.

“My grandmother says you can’t go out without bringing something to eat. These are the dried provisions prepared by the Spirit Food Hall. Every storage bag contains the same types and quantities of food. I heard you might be staying there for quite a while this time, so we prepared quite a lot. Each of you gets five.”

The Southern Spirit Region, Yuanling City.

An hour had passed since sunrise. Most of the mortals in the city had either gone home to cook or headed off to work. Of the people coming and going along the streets, nine out of ten were cultivators.

At the city gates, several cultivators affiliated with the City Lord’s Manor were slacking off while standing guard in the watch post.

Most of them were older cultivators in the late Qi Refining or early Foundation Establishment stages. They belonged to the City Lord’s Manor and followed its orders. Normally, the manor assigned them fixed duties on a rotating basis, such as patrolling the city or standing watch at the gates. These were all routine tasks with little difficulty. Naturally, the stipends were not very high either.

Still, compared with rogue cultivators outside, who had to take on all sorts of missions and venture out to struggle for every spirit stone they earned, the advantage lay in the stability. Besides, the City Lord’s Manor would occasionally issue special missions to them, and the rewards for those missions were quite generous. As a result, quite a few rogue cultivators sought employment with the City Lord’s Manor.

Of course, the manor only needed a fixed number of people. Unless a rogue cultivator possessed some genuine skill, there was essentially no chance of being accepted.

The few rogue cultivators stationed at the city gates usually had nothing to do besides keep watch. After all, they did not even need to collect the spirit stones required to enter the city. All they had to do was observe the area outside the city for anything unusual and maintain order around the gates.

That was how things were supposed to work. However, after keeping watch at Yuanling City’s gates for so many years, they had never seen anything unusual happen. Besides, even if something did occur, what could it possibly have to do with them?

If it were an anomaly they could detect, then with the city’s protective formation, it would be impossible for it to get inside. The nearby rogue cultivators would generally deal with it themselves. And if it were something capable of evading the city’s formation, then with their cultivation levels, they would have no hope of noticing it anyway.

So their real purpose here was simply to be available to deliver messages and run errands if something happened.

Day after day, it was difficult not to grow lax in such a job.

A middle-aged cultivator sitting in the watch post yawned listlessly and asked the person beside him, “Are you going to Treasure Pavilion after we get off duty? I heard they brought in some new merchandise a while back.”

The person beside him glanced over. “You call that ‘a while back’? It was two months ago. At this rate, they’ll probably have another new shipment in a few days.”

The middle-aged cultivator sighed. “I came across a new cultivation technique before that. They said it was especially suitable for advancing one’s cultivation, so I went into seclusion.”

Judging from his dejected sighs, along with the absence of any spiritual energy fluctuations indicating a breakthrough around him, it was obvious that he had been deceived. His companion could only console him. “People like us don’t get many shortcuts to take. Spirit stones are still the most reliable. Earning more and using them to buy high-quality pills is much more practical than trusting some cultivation technique of unknown origins.”

The middle-aged cultivator nodded silently. “You’re right. After this experience, I’ll never trust some cultivation technique from an unknown source again…”

The two chatted idly as they made plans to visit Treasure Pavilion after their shift.

Lin Xiao and the others entered through the city gates at an unhurried pace, passing in front of the watch post.

Because of Yuanling City’s protective formation, the Lingxian Sect had never purchased a property inside the city to serve as a fixed teleportation point for its disciples. After all, no one knew whether frequently using a Cosmos Transposition Disk to enter and leave Yuanling City would alert the city’s protective formation—or cause it to lock onto them.

Thus, their base had always been outside the city. Liao Pantu had specially created a separate space beside his own cave abode for them to use as a teleportation point.

As for why he had created another space instead of simply letting them use his cave abode, the reason was obvious: Liao Pantu did not want his home to become a sightseeing destination for every Lingxian Sect disciple sent out on assignment. Though he was already several hundred years old, he still needed his privacy.

Compared with several years ago, Yuanling City now seemed somewhat livelier.

The massacre that had wiped out the Wu family had indeed caused the people of the city to panic and left it desolate for a time. Yet at some point, a rumor began circulating that the Wu family had obtained some ancient treasure, which had ultimately brought about the disaster that destroyed them.

At first, the rumor attracted little attention. But as time passed, it drew more and more cultivators to the city.

Later, people discovered that Yuanling City’s selection of cultivation goods had grown increasingly diverse. Some simple and practical little items could not even be found in other cities of the Southern Spirit Region. Gradually, many cultivators decided to settle in Yuanling City.

As more newcomers arrived and time continued to pass, the shadow cast over Yuanling City by the destruction of the Wu family slowly faded.

Walking along the bustling, spacious streets, the group could barely contain their excitement. They looked around at the sights, which were utterly different from the markets and streets of the mortal world.

Their expressions, however, attracted no attention. The people of the city had long since grown accustomed to such behavior. Most young scions from small families and newly arrived rogue cultivators looked exactly the same when they first came here.

Of the nine, everyone except Yuan Jinsheng was a teenager or in their early twenties. The young men and women wandered in groups of two or three, lingering as they passed the street stalls selling all sorts of strange and interesting little trinkets.

Whenever they saw something novel and fun, they would ask the price. If they thought it reasonable, they would take out their spirit stones and buy it.

By the time they had finished browsing several streets, each person had spent roughly a dozen spirit stones and gained quite a collection of miscellaneous little items in their storage bags.

Yuan Jinsheng followed behind them and occasionally made a purchase as well.

He had little interest in such things, but he had a son around their age at home.

Although Yuanling City was considered a remote city in the cultivation world, there were quite a few secret realms suitable for low-level cultivators in the surrounding area. As a result, the number of low-level cultivators coming and going through the city was still extremely high by the standards of the mortal world.

Therefore, even though the Lingxian Sect had organized so many sect cultivators in the mortal world to refine all kinds of low-grade goods and ship them here to sell, the low output from the mortal world and the high rate of consumption in Yuanling City meant that the city could basically absorb all the goods sent by the Lingxian Sect. Very few needed to be circulated elsewhere.

Moreover, the goods supplied by the Lingxian Sect included not only common products, but also many uncommon ones, as well as items that were constantly being improved and updated. This had made the Yuan family, Treasure Pavilion, and Suji General Store—who cooperated with the Lingxian Sect—earn excellent profits over the past few years.

Shopkeeper Zhong had even been promoted by his employer to become the regional manager of the entire Southern Spirit Region. From then on, all of the Treasure Pavilion branches across the Southern Spirit Region came under his management.

As a result, Shopkeeper Zhong had also been quite busy these past two years. He had to inspect shops in other cities, audit their accounts, check their merchandise, and so on. He was rarely in Yuanling City.