Chapter 45: Leaving Behind

Soon they emerged from the grassland. Gu Zhun led Li Zhen further until they came upon an ancient tree.

Gu Zhun faced the old tree and performed a magical incantation, deliberately slowing his movements so Li Zhen could clearly see them.

The incantation was very simple: using his finger to channel spiritual energy, he drew a relatively uncomplicated pattern in mid-air.

As he completed the incantation, the ancient tree shuddered, and a door became visible at its base.

Beyond that door, another scene was visible, along with a surge of spiritual energy.

“There’s a spirit vein here!” Li Zhen exclaimed, somewhat disbelieving.

“What’s so strange about that? Without spirit veins, how would cultivators gather?” Gu Zhun explained with a smile, assuming Li Zhen’s ignorance stemmed from his youth.

He jumped off the immortal crane, then waved his hand at it, causing the crane to transform into a paper crane folded from talisman paper.

Putting the paper crane back into his robe, he gestured for Li Zhen to follow him through the newly revealed door.

Li Zhen entered after him, immediately noticing that the interior space was far larger than what appeared from outside.

Before their eyes stretched a path lined by spirit fields on both sides, within which spirit rice grew. The sight felt strangely familiar to Li Zhen.

In the distance, a village-like settlement was faintly visible - that must be the actual market place.

“Two Broken Spirits allow one person to stay for a day, but you must leave by evening!” the cultivator guarding the market entrance reminded them.

Gu Zhun took out four Broken Spirits and handed them over. Although Li Zhen could have been considered a child exempt from entry fees given his situation, he might need to stay behind later, so they required the appropriate status.

The gatekeeper cultivator gave Gu Zhun two wooden tokens, which he divided with Li Zhen.

“Hold onto these tokens carefully,” Gu Zhun instructed as he led Li Zhen towards the village. “This place is within an array, and not having a token will cause significant trouble!”

Li Zhen mimicked him, hanging the token at his waist.

“I’m not sure if your family is here, but I’ll take you around first!” Gu Zhun suggested.

At the edge of the village stood rows of wooden houses, each separated by mere inches. The houses themselves appeared no larger than ten square meters, creating an impression of unbearable crowding.

As Li Zhen stepped into the village, he immediately understood why these wooden houses were built so close together.

He felt the spiritual energy concentration increase noticeably. By his estimation, there was at least a high-grade first-order spirit vein here.

Don’t underestimate the power of a high-grade first-order spirit vein. Yunxi County only had second-order low-grade spirit veins, and the number of branching high-grade first-order veins was limited. All six cultivation classes across different years at Second High School shared just one such high-grade first-order spirit vein.

The first-class high-grade spiritual veins here were completely open for use; anyone entering the village would be enveloped by their aura.

In this Xian Nation, the usage of spiritual energy could be said to have reached an extreme precision, calculating supply down to each individual person.

“This is truly too much waste!” Li Zhen felt it was extravagant and sighed.

Gu Zhun led Li Zhen through a tour of the market. If his family really existed, they would definitely come looking for him automatically.

“Don’t be disappointed. Unfortunately, Ten Directions Valley’s recruitment isn’t until next June. Otherwise, I’d take you back there right away!” Gu Zhun had only spent a short time with Li Zhen, but he found him quite decent during that brief interaction.

“You’ve already helped me so much!” Li Zhen bowed sincerely in gratitude.

“Here’s what we’ll do: I’ll lend you two spirit stones. Stay around the market for some time. Your family will surely come looking for you if they’re searching!” Gu Zhun couldn’t afford to delay any further. He took out two spirit stones as he spoke.

Having just toured the market once, Li Zhen now had a rough idea of the purchasing power of spirit stones.

Spirit stones were still incredibly precious; ordinary cultivators used ‘spirit fragments’ as their basic unit of currency instead.

Spirit shards were byproducts of mining spirit stones, with one hundred shards equalling one whole stone.

Each day spent in the market cost two spirit shards. Without considering food and lodging expenses, two spirit stones would allow him to stay for over a hundred days.

As for Gu Zhun claiming it was a loan—well, it might as well have been a gift.

For Li Zhen, a twelve-year-old boy, repaying those spirit stones could take who knows how long.

After handing over the two spirit stones to Li Zhen, Gu Zhun left. He’d only done this good deed because he happened to be in a good mood today.

Li Zhen felt multiple pairs of greedy eyes on him. Startled, he quickly tucked away the two spirit stones.

With Gu Zhun gone, his first order of business was finding a place to stay.

There were two options in the market area: One, staying at an inn, which was beyond his means given his limited resources. Two, finding work within the market itself, where they provided wooden huts for employees.

Li Zhen thought about it briefly before opting to secure a room at an inn first. The cheapest room cost five spirit shards.

A waiter led him to his quarters. The room was clean and tidy—a matter easily addressed with a Cleaning Spell. As long as the inn wasn’t intentionally neglectful, any establishment run by cultivators would boast impeccable hygiene due to such spells.

“If you don’t wish to be disturbed,” the waiter explained to Li Zhen, “after closing the door, simply engage the latch. The room will then automatically activate its isolation barrier!” Before leaving, he added one more reminder: “If you need food, just call out. Your room fee includes a meal of spirit rice!”

Li Zhen closed the door and engaged the latch. As expected, once the latch was secured, there was a fluctuation of spiritual energy, and the room became isolated from the outside world.

With no time to waste, he immediately sat cross-legged on the bed and began cultivating the ‘Seventeenth Edition Foundation Qi Refining Technique’.

An hour later, he slowly opened his eyes, feeling his internal spiritual energy fully restored.

Next, he took out the Police A30 model fighter armor. In this environment rich with spiritual energy, simply placing the fighter armor outside would allow it to absorb spiritual energy and recharge the energy blocks within itself.

While waiting for the fighter armor to charge, he pondered what to do next.

Firstly, he needed at least nine spirit stones. Based on his judgment, only with nine spirit stones in hand could he potentially reactivate his spatial abilities again, breaking through the spatial barrier back to the Xian Nation world.

Additionally, he didn’t want to give up on this place either. Aside from other factors, even the abundance of spiritual energy here was enough to make him extremely tempted.

Recalling his days at Second High School, he had access to only one hour of cultivation per day in a first-class spiritual energy room.

Here, as long as his body could endure, he could cultivate continuously without worrying about insufficient spiritual energy.

Finally, the vast price difference between this world and the Xian Nation offered tremendous potential for profit.

Of course, each teleportation cost nine spirit stones, so cross-world transactions required careful consideration to maximize benefits.

After two hours, the A30 police-type martial fighter armor’s energy was restored to 70%. Li Zhen decided not to wait any longer; certain matters needed resolution today.

He left the inn and headed straight for the Treasure Pavilion.

Using a fragmented spirit, he gleaned information from the waiter. The Treasure Pavilion held a unique position in the market, being the business of the prominent Lin Clan—the largest nearby family.

The Lin Clan valued reputation over all else. While their offers might not be the highest, they were undoubtedly the safest choice for selling spiritual artifacts.

Li Zhen entered the Treasure Pavilion, deliberately revealing his second level of Qi Refinement aura.

“Can I help you, young man?” the old shopkeeper behind the counter asked with a smile, sensing Li Zhen’s spiritual energy presence.

He was somewhat surprised by Li Zhen’s age, considering he already had a cultivation base at the second level of Qi Refining.

While the strength of the second level of Qi Refining wasn’t particularly high, taking into account Li Zhen’s young age, it indicated that his talent was quite extraordinary.

“Shopkeeper, I have two magical artifacts I’d like to sell. Could you please appraise them for me?” Li Zhen took out two prepared low-grade first-rank magical artifacts and placed them on the counter in front of the old shopkeeper.

The reason he only brought two low-grade first-rank magical artifacts was because, given his age and cultivation base, recklessly selling higher-quality or more numerous magical artifacts would put him at great risk.

Although the waiter said the Lin family had an excellent reputation, Li Zhen absolutely refused to compromise his safety based solely on trust towards others.

The old shopkeeper lightly tapped his fingers on the two magical artifacts twice, spiritual energy flickering between his fingertips.

Sensing the lingering mental imprints within the two magical artifacts, the old shopkeeper couldn’t help but glance at Li Zhen.

Receiving such war trophies was commonplace for him, but receiving them from a cultivator so young was certainly a first.

“These two magical artifacts are of poor quality, and considering their origins, I’m willing to offer you ten spirit stones for both. Is that agreeable?” The old shopkeeper retracted his hand and asked mildly.