The battlefield of Hei Feng Cliff was deserted, save for the scattered corpses and scavenging animals, after the righteous cultivators of Lu State were routed.
The trio and the ghost easily crossed Hei Feng Cliff and entered what was once Lu State, but was now the domain of demonic cultivators.
The once densely populated and prosperous towns had become desolate, with white bones littering the fields and no sign of life for a thousand miles.
The few living people they occasionally encountered fled in terror.
A young boy, no older than seven or eight, with an injured leg that slowed him down, turned and kowtowed in panic, begging for mercy.
"Please, Immortal Master, spare my life!"
Xiao Fei scanned with his divine sense and found that the child had a fractured leg, with pus flowing from the wound.
Unable to bear it, he casually reset the broken bone and gave him half a healing pill.
"Take this food, gather your younger siblings, and flee eastward as much as you can. That is your only path to survival."
As Xiao Fei spoke, he handed the boy a small bag of dry rations from his spatial storage.
His divine sense had already detected two younger, emaciated children hiding in a nearby burrow, peeking nervously in their direction.
"Thank you, Immortal Master!"
The young boy kowtowed again before staggering towards the burrow.
For Xiao Fei, saving the child was merely a casual act. As for the fate of these three siblings, he could do nothing more. Lu State had been occupied by the demonic cultivators of Ying Shan State, and there were too many pitiable souls for him to save.
His only immediate goal was to reach Qin State as quickly as possible to seek reinforcements.
The group hurried through the occupied territory of Ying Shan State, encountering similar scenes along the way.
These demonic cultivators were like locusts and tumors in the world of cultivation; where they passed, nothing grew.
Yet, many powerful cultivators in the cultivation world focused only on their own small plots of land, and as long as their interests were not threatened, no one was willing to meddle.
Only after leaving the territory of the Ying Shan State demonic cultivators did they see a normal human society. Although there were occasional frictions between people, they were nothing compared to the beasts of Ying Shan State.
The group traveled day and night, and it took them three months to reach Qin State, which was the closest major country to Lu State. Chu State and Qi State were even farther away.
Qin State, as a powerful nation on the Eastern Continent, had much richer spiritual energy than Lu State, with numerous strong cultivators. One could see cultivators on the road at any time.
However, Qin State differed greatly from Lu State. The Qin Dynasty was extremely powerful, and its cultivation sects were actually governed by the dynasty.
The royal city of Qin State was called Xian Cheng. The city walls were tall and imposing, the streets within were wide, and shops lined them.
There were no shortage of powerful cultivators among those coming and going.
The prosperity of the Great Qin royal city captivated Zhu Yu and Huang Feifei.
As newcomers, they were unfamiliar with the place and could only find a place to stay first.
They rented a courtyard in the city, which contained dozens of rooms and a small garden.
After settling in, the trio and the ghost did not act rashly, but instead spent their days wandering around the city.
Xiao Fei concealed his aura, changed his appearance, and walked along the streets of the royal city, observing the cultivators passing by.
The cultivators of Qin State primarily practiced righteous Daoist techniques, but there were also some who cultivated demonic arts.
However, the Qin Dynasty had a strict legal system to ensure the safety of its ordinary people and cultivators.
If cultivators of demonic arts were to indiscriminately slaughter the weak like the demonic cultivators of Ying Shan State, they would face severe sanctions under Qin law.
Under the suppression of the powerful dynasty, the cultivation sects within the country also behaved themselves extremely well, being skilled in song and dance, and multi-talented.
Therefore, the ordinary residents of Qin State generally lived quite peacefully.
The reason the Qin Dynasty acted this way was because the dynasty needed to collect the power of incense and offerings from its citizens to become the nation's destiny.
Maintaining a peaceful and stable environment within the country was beneficial to the dynasty.
Xiao Fei entered the market at this time. Many people were setting up stalls, including Foundation Establishment cultivators. The items on display were diverse, with all sorts of spiritual items available.
After walking around the market, he didn't find anything he wanted to buy. He found an empty spot and placed several jars of spiritual wine in front of him.
Over the years, most of the surplus spiritual herbs and fruits in his spatial storage had been brewed into spiritual wine.
The spiritual wine stored in his spatial dimension had piled up into a small mountain. The oldest had been aged for several hundred years. He couldn't possibly use so much spiritual wine himself, so he could clear out some inventory.
Xiao Fei placed some spiritual wines aged sixty to seventy years in front of him, opened one jar, and immediately the aroma of the wine filled the entire market.
Many cultivators were attracted by the scent and couldn't help but look over.
Spiritual wine, as a spiritual item, not only satisfied the cravings of some wine connoisseurs but could also quickly replenish the user's mana.
It was a rare treasure in battle.
By storing spiritual wine in places with extremely rich spiritual energy for aging, the longer the time, the more concentrated the spiritual energy in the spiritual wine, and the better the taste, naturally leading to a higher price.
Xiao Fei poured himself a large bowl of spiritual wine, and even set out two small dishes, sitting at his stall to drink and eat by himself.
Soon, he attracted his first customer.
"Fellow Daoist, how much is your spiritual wine?"
A bearded cultivator, with his nose twitching, kept inhaling the aroma of the wine, having already savored the scent worth several spirit stones.
"80-year aged spiritual fruit wine, priced at 500 spirit stones per jin."
Xiao Fei took a sip of wine and said unhurriedly.
"This jar of spiritual wine is 10 jin, priced at 5000 spirit stones."
The bearded man, seeing Xiao Fei's unhurried demeanor, became a little anxious. He swallowed and finally waited for Xiao Fei to finish quoting the price.
He directly picked up two jars, threw down 10,000 spirit stones, and quickly left, presumably to find a place to indulge his craving for wine.
Seeing how readily he paid, Xiao Fei began to wonder if his pricing was too low.
Although he had walked around here several times in the past few days, he was not yet fully familiar with the city's prices.
Ordinary goods in the city were indeed cheaper than elsewhere, but some rarer materials were much more expensive.
Afterward, the spiritual wine he placed on his stall was quickly snapped up by everyone.
In just one day, he earned tens of thousands.