Chapter 48 – Walking the Street

The following day.

As Zhan Changfeng descended the stairs, she immediately sensed a tense atmosphere. She swept her gaze across the main hall — there was no sign of Zhao Long or Daoist Shanshi, let alone Lu Shen and his group.

“When will we be allowed to leave?”

Zhang Hu looked at the young lord in black robes, whose brow was deeply furrowed, and said gruffly: “Once the Bureau of Patrol’s reinforcements arrive, you register your residence, name, and current lodging, then you’re free to go.”

Yesterday, Zhang Hu had felt uneasy in his heart. The Bureau of Patrol had a formidable reputation, yet more than a dozen of them had all fallen to the Dream Marten. On top of that, the rescue and the capture of the inn attendant had all relied on outsiders — one of whom was a child. It was simply laughable.

He had taken an instant dislike to Zhan Changfeng, interpreting her warning as contempt for the Bureau of Patrol, which soured his attitude considerably.

But upon reflection that night, he felt he had truly lived like a dog — blaming a child for his own incompetence.

He had intended to come and apologize in the morning and make amends, but Daoist Shanshi and Zhao Long had not returned at all. He was immediately drenched in cold sweat, terrified that something had happened to them.

But just look at this brat — was this any way to behave?

It was plain as day that she had noticed the atmosphere in the hall, yet she showed no concern for their lives, thinking only of herself!

What kind of child was this? No child should be as cold and infuriating as her.

Zhan Changfeng found herself bewildered by Zhang Hu’s glare. She straightened her sleeves and told the Coachman to go prepare a meal. There were really too many troublesome people outside — better to keep them out of sight.

At noon, the Bureau of Patrol’s people finally arrived. After Zhan Changfeng finished registering and left, she could see a large contingent of men and horses at the entrance to the mountain forest — but none of that was her concern anymore.

Following the words of yesterday’s Prenatal realm cultivator, Zhan Changfeng pressed forward and truly did find a small town. People came and went, hawkers called out their wares, and at first glance it seemed no different from any other small town.

If one had to name a difference, it was that the auras of the people within were all extraordinarily robust, and quite a few of them carried swords or wore blades on their backs.

The Coachman clicked his tongue. “How can there be so many martial arts masters here?”

He recognized the sword and blade carriers, and mistook the seemingly frail spell cultivators for ordinary commoners.

“Remember this place. Once you’ve gathered some information, report it to the Imperial Aunt.”

“Understood.”

Although she had previously heard Daoist Shanshi say that cultivators were not to interfere in worldly affairs, the chaotic age had already begun, and the Gongsun Clan from Cangyun Ravine had already meddled in it. Who could say whether there wouldn’t be some conflict between commoners and cultivators? It was better for the Imperial Aunt to know more.

Additionally, she suspected that the wisteria flower on her Wrist was some kind of tracking method, and for now she lacked the strength to remove it.

Yet two months had already passed since she killed Gongsun Jing, and no one had come to hunt her down. Either the Gongsun Clan’s manpower or strength in Shenzhou was insufficient, or they were plotting something far more important.

She surmised that with the Heavenward Path’s annual opening approaching, there was a ninety-nine percent chance the Gongsun Clan would appear.

This was hardly good news. Her body could no longer endure large-scale combat and killing.

Her physical body was truly a problem. If not for the fact that the Nine-Cycle Rebirth Art required three souls, she would have considered abandoning her body and cultivating as a ghost.

(Note: Living beings possess three souls — the Heaven Soul, the Earth Soul, and the Life Soul. The Life Soul is also called the Living Soul, and governs the body while producing the seven spirits. Upon death, the three souls each depart: the Heaven Soul returns to the Dao, the Earth Soul carries the sins and evil fruits of this life and falls into hell to be punished, and the Life Soul carries the memories of this life and dissipates. Those whose Life Soul does not dissipate become ghosts. Ghosts possess neither a Heaven Soul nor an Earth Soul.)

Then again, she reflected, she knew far too little about the world of cultivation — she hadn’t even fully grasped the general cultivation realms, which was truly unacceptable.

Zhan Changfeng turned her attention to the book stalls lining both sides of the Street. This was a gathering place for cultivators, so there should be books related to cultivation.

Upon paying closer attention, she found it did differ somewhat from a common mortal market after all. Looking around, she noticed an especially large number of medicinal herb shops and weapon shops.

Even the street stalls displayed rare and precious medicines that ordinary commoners would have hidden away as treasures.

“Come take a look! Eighty-year-old wild mountain ginseng — only five spirit orbs a stalk!”

“Golden swallow nests freshly plucked from Qingwu Cliff — one spirit orb per tael!”

“Spirit orbs?” What kind of currency was this? She had just seen people settling transactions with silver coins.

Zhan Changfeng pondered for a moment and walked up to one of the stalls. “Stall keeper, someone at home urgently needs mountain ginseng to sustain their life, but we are short on spirit orbs. Would gold or silver do?”

The stall keeper’s brows drooped. “No, no, I don’t want silver. Go to one of the big medicine shops — they might accept silver.”

“Come, come, young lord — you can pay with silver at my stall!” A nearby vendor picked up a box and opened it, saying, “Look at this mountain ginseng of mine — slender and elegant in form, with a wide split between the two legs, firm and tawny skin, sparse yet tough and aged rootlets, and even pearl-like nodules on it. A genuine century-old wild ginseng.”

“How much?”

“Not expensive at all,” the vendor said, sizing up Zhan Changfeng’s clothing before naming a price. “Three thousand taels of silver per zhu, and it weighs just under one liang — net weight twenty-two zhu. I’ll only charge you sixty-six thousand taels.”

The Coachman, thinking Zhan Changfeng might not know market prices among the common folk, quickly said: “Young lord, that’s outrageously expensive. A stalk like that outside would go for thirty-five thousand at most.”

The vendor was unfazed. “You’re new here, aren’t you? Gold and silver aren’t worth much in these parts. I’m one of the few willing to sell for them at all. Look — where else out there could you find wild mountain ginseng of this quality? And even if you could, you’d spend a good deal of time searching for it.”

Zhan Changfeng shook her head. “I’ll look around some more.”

“Once you miss this village, there’s no finding this shop again!” the vendor called out toward her retreating figure.

Sigh, what a shame to let such a fat sheep slip away.

The vendor at the neighboring stall laughed with disdain. “Taking advantage of outsiders.”

“As if you’ve never done it before. My price this time was actually a bargain in good conscience.”

“It truly was a bargain,” said the neighboring vendor with a meaningful tone. “You don’t know yet, do you? The price of spirit orbs has gone up again lately — ten thousand taels of silver for one spirit orb.”

“What? Wasn’t it eight thousand six hundred per spirit orb before?” The vendor groaned in frustration. “No wonder you’re refusing silver now.”

Silver had become utterly worthless.

At that moment, Zhan Changfeng also felt it was utterly worthless.

She entered a pawnshop, where the shop assistant confirmed that silver taels could be exchanged for spirit orbs — ten thousand taels of silver for one orb.

“What use are spirit orbs?” Zhan Changfeng asked. If they merely served as currency, she couldn’t see what made them valuable.

The shop assistant had apparently grown used to this question and showed no surprise. Seeing that Zhan Changfeng was dressed plainly yet expensively, he sensed a potential transaction and explained with care: “Spirit orbs are born from spirit veins and are greatly beneficial to cultivation. Try sensing one for yourself.”

He handed over a perfectly round orb about the size of a thumb, its color limpid and translucent.

Zhan Changfeng concentrated and sensed it carefully. “Heaven and earth elemental energy?”

“Though pitifully little — nowhere near enough for self-cultivation.”

The shop assistant shook his head. “Even a little is still something. It’s certainly not enough to cultivate directly from — to do that you’d need at least high-grade spirit stones. The use of spirit orbs isn’t really for cultivation.”

“Let me give you a couple of simple examples. Ordinary formation Plates require spirit orbs or spirit stones as a power source. Some recipes require them to be ground into powder for medicine. They are considered a common item of relatively stable value.”

“This one orb is also called a Mixed Origin Orb. The heaven and earth elemental energy within it is the most ordinary kind of spiritual energy, containing all five elements.”

The shop assistant then carefully displayed five small boxes, each containing a crystal stone — gold, blue-green, white, red, and yellow — five colors in all. “These spirit stones each carry one of the five elemental attributes — metal, wood, water, fire, and earth — in pure form. They are well-suited for assisting in the refinement of objects or special formation Plates requiring a single attribute. Naturally, their value is considerably higher than a Mixed Origin Orb — a single stone like these goes for one hundred thousand taels.”

Zhan Changfeng said: “It seems that gold and silver, as minerals, hold very little value here.”

“Ah?” The shop assistant was briefly startled, then understood her meaning and nodded. “Gold and silver aren’t suitable for refinement. To cultivators, they are indeed of little use. If Xiaohan Town weren’t situated in the mortal world, and we ourselves weren’t in the mortal world, we wouldn’t even bother exchanging the two.”

(End of Chapter)