Located in the northern part of the Lu Kingdom stood a magnificent city called Star Moon City.
The city walls were tens of feet high, and its population numbered in the millions. Among these millions, at least a hundred thousand were rumored to be cultivators.
On this particular day, a man and a woman arrived at the city gates, having traveled thousands of miles, dusty and weary. They were Xiao Fei and Huang Feifei.
"This is the legendary Immortal City!"
"We've finally arrived!"
Standing by the city gates, the two watched the people entering and exiting, their eyes naturally reflecting envy, inferiority, and longing.
Everyone who passed through these gates had ruddy complexions and wore decent clothing, without a single patch to be found. Silks and satins were commonplace.
This sight made Huang Feifei, once the eldest daughter of the Huang family in Qingyang Town, feel a pang of self-consciousness. She subtly pulled a patch on her sleeve inward.
Huang Feifei quietly observed Xiao Fei. His coarse cloth clothes were all mended by her, and they bore even more patches. Yet, Xiao Fei stood tall and proud, seemingly unbothered by these details.
Just then, two people emerged from the city, drawing the attention of everyone at the gates.
They were both tall and slender, possessing an ethereal aura that seemed detached from the mortal world. The man was dashing, the woman exquisite. Their clothes, made of an unknown material, faintly shimmered.
After stepping out of the city gates, the pair took out a paper crane and tossed it to the ground. The crane instantly grew to over ten feet in size, its wings spread as if alive.
Then, under the envious gazes of the crowd, they mounted the paper crane. With a flap of its wings, the crane carried them into the sky.
Xiao Fei and Huang Feifei witnessed true immortal arts for the first time, feeling a sense of wonder. They stared blankly until the paper crane became a tiny speck in the distance and vanished.
"Feifei, let's go. We should get into the city first."
"Okay!" Huang Feifei nodded and followed Xiao Fei inside.
Although there were two middle-aged guards in armor at the city gates, they did not impede normal passage, serving more as decoration.
After entering the city, they looked at the bustling streets and the streams of pedestrians, feeling like country bumpkins in a big city, bewildered and unsure of where to go next.
"Let's find a place to settle down first. We can inquire about other matters later."
"Okay!"
Throughout their journey, Huang Feifei had always responded to Xiao Fei's decisions with a soft "okay" and a nod. Xiao Fei had grown accustomed to it.
They walked through several streets, witnessing the city's prosperity. They passed several inns with grand entrances, but Xiao Fei, short on funds, dared not enter.
Doctor Huang had sold off most of his property, obtaining five hundred taels of silver, which he gave to the two of them for their travel expenses. They had already spent nearly a hundred taels on the journey.
Although they still had over four hundred taels, they had no immediate prospects for livelihood, so they had to be frugal.
Furthermore, he noticed that after the previous ordeal, Huang Feifei felt extremely insecure. He needed to leave some money for her.
Sometimes, having money meant having security.
Xiao Fei led Huang Feifei past many inns that looked quite luxurious and entered a small inn with a somewhat dilapidated entrance.
The innkeeper, with his beady green eyes, seemed indifferent. However, his pricing was exorbitant.
Renting a room with two small single chambers cost two taels of silver per day, sixty taels a month, and seven hundred and twenty taels a year.
Living in such a small inn for a year would bankrupt the Huang family of Qingyang Town.
Xiao Fei inquired about prices at other inns and discovered that the beady-eyed innkeeper was actually the kindest; other places were even more expensive.
One slightly cleaner and tidier small shop charged ten taels of silver a day.
With no other choice, they returned and paid for one month's rent to settle in.
The beady-eyed innkeeper took the silver, led the two to the door of a very run-down room, tossed them a key, and left.
The room was covered in a layer of dust on the tables and chairs. Upon lifting the bedding, they found a nest of mice, which had just given birth. This startled Huang Feifei greatly.
Seeing the litter of naked, pink little mice, Xiao Fei could not bear to kill them. He relocated them, quietly placing them in the innkeeper's closet, and let them go.
The rest of the room was also dirty and messy, with mouse droppings everywhere. Occasionally, they saw mice scurrying from the corners.
Huang Feifei, having worked all day, fetched water and scrubbed every corner of the room two or three times. She also blocked all the mouse holes.
Xiao Fei looked at the refreshed room and then at Huang Feifei, who was still busy.
"Feifei, please rest."
Huang Feifei carried the basin of water to Xiao Fei. "Is there something you need, Young Master?"
"Feifei, you've worked hard!"
Xiao Fei spoke from the heart. Huang Feifei was a woman of few words, but she had always meticulously taken care of his daily needs with great care.
"This is what I should do."
"You don't have to do this. Years ago, when I was severely injured and close to death, if your father hadn't saved me, I would have died long ago. From now on, as long as I have food, you will have a share. The past is the past. Now that we're in a new environment, let go of what you need to forget and start anew."
"Okay!"
Huang Feifei nodded and then went to wipe the table with the basin.
"Are you even listening?"
Xiao Fei felt a bit troubled. He didn't notice that Huang Feifei's movements while wiping the table had become noticeably lighter, and a glimmer of light had appeared in her eyes.
After settling in, Xiao Fei went out every day to gather information.
He learned from that Young Master Lin that the Lin family of Kaitai City was a branch of a cultivation family scattered in the mortal world. The true headquarters of the Lin cultivation family was located in Star Moon City.
If he wanted to find his second sister, he first had to locate this Lin cultivation family. Moreover, being new to the city, he needed to understand it better.
After a few days of inquiry, Xiao Fei had a general understanding of the situation.
Firstly, Star Moon City was a city of cultivators, inhabited by a large number of them.
Although the city had more mortal residents, their status was low. If they accidentally offended a cultivator and were killed on the spot, no one would intervene.
Some of these mortals were relatives or descendants of cultivators, while a large portion provided daily services for them. In essence, ordinary people could only exist by depending on cultivators.
Despite living in Star Moon City together, mortals and cultivators seemed to inhabit two different worlds.
Mortals used gold, silver, and copper coins, as well as cloth and other worldly possessions.
When cultivators conducted transactions, they rarely used gold or silver. Instead, they used something called spirit stones as currency.
Xiao Fei had seen them from afar: square, thumb-sized stones that emitted a white glow.
Spirit stones and gold/silver could be exchanged, but it was very expensive, requiring a thousand taels of silver to exchange for one spirit stone.
Doctor Huang had sold most of his assets and only obtained five hundred taels of silver, which could only buy half a spirit stone.
Through his inquiries over the past few days, Xiao Fei received good news: his guess was correct, he was also a proud cultivator.
The tattered book he had traded for a few fern roots at the refugee camp was indeed a cultivation technique. He was now at the second level of the "Evergreen Technique," a cultivator in the Qi Refining second stage.
He learned that cultivators were divided into many levels based on their cultivation. The major realms were Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, and Golden Core. He had heard of Nascent Soul, but that was already the stuff of legends.
Qi Refining was further divided into twelve minor stages. Xiao Fei was currently at the second stage of Qi Refining, considered a beginner.
Xiao Fei had also gathered some information about the Lin cultivation family. The Lin family had a long history, with over a hundred Qi Refining cultivators within the clan, and it was rumored that they even had Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Such a powerful family was awe-inspiring. His second sister had been bought into the Lin family, and to redeem her, a huge price would undoubtedly have to be paid.
With the meager amount of silver he currently possessed, it was unlikely to catch the eye of the Lin family. He had to proceed slowly, gather more information about the Lin family, and ideally, find out about his second sister.
Furthermore, he needed to find a way to acquire some spirit stones. Transactions between cultivators required payment in spirit stones.
He didn't have many items that could be sold for money.
His spatial dimension contained a large amount of grain, which he had grown recently. He couldn't eat it all, so he could sell most of it. The grain produced in his spatial dimension contained a small amount of spiritual energy, so it should fetch a better price here.
He also had over a dozen ginseng plants in his spatial dimension, from seeds given to him by Doctor Huang. With the ten-fold growth rate in his spatial dimension, they were now five years old. Moreover, these ginseng plants had continuously absorbed spiritual energy within the dimension, showing a tendency to mutate into spiritual herbs.
In a market in Star Moon City, spiritual herbs were quite expensive. A single spiritual herb could sell for one or two spirit stones, while more valuable ones could fetch tens of spirit stones. However, the ginseng was not yet old enough; it needed to be cultivated for some more time, at least ten years, before it could be sold.