Translator: Asuka
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
Green Cloud City was a small city. There were countless cities like this scattered across the entire Spirit Creek Battlefield. Cultivators would always need a place to trade and rest. Their spontaneous gathering in one place tended to result in cities like this coming into being.
Everything in the city was very messy since nobody was in charge of managing these cities, especially when it came to the buildings. Buildings of various different styles from all over Jiu Zhou stood scattered around in a disorderly manner, making the city look like a smorgasbord.
These buildings were built by the cultivators who lived here all year round. There were a lot of cultivation resources that could be found in the nearby Green Cloud Mountain. Moreover, the safety factor was also pretty high. That was why many low-leveled cultivators were drawn to this place, especially those rogue cultivators that belonged to no Sect.
Every building was a storefront, selling various cultivation resources. There were also restaurants and tea houses among them. Low-leveled cultivators still needed to eat after all. Moreover, they had greater daily needs compared to ordinary people. It was inevitable that there would be these kinds of livelihoods.
Lu Ye walked past the shops, looking but buying nothing. The main reason was that he had no money to buy anything. Thus, he gradually figured out how the cultivators traded among themselves.
He did not know what currency system was used among the common people in Jiu Zhou. However, Spirit Stones were generally used for transactions between cultivators. That was the currency of the Cultivation World. Spirit Stones were of great use to cultivators, whether it be during daily cultivation sessions, in battle, or even to prepare talisman paper and set up Arrays. That was precisely the reason why Spirit Stones could be used as a standard of measure in the transactions between cultivators.
He had never seen a Spirit Stone before. The Third Senior Brother of the Green Jade Sect had placed some Spirit Stones on the Array during the test to determine his level of talent before, but he had not paid any attention to it at the time. Only now did he learn that Spirit Stones were a kind of semi-translucent crystal approximately the size of a thumbnail. Furthermore, it could be differentiated by the quality of the stones. It might be that the cultivators here were very weak, hence why only Low Grade Spirit Stones were being used. It could be seen from this that there probably also existed High Grade Spirit Stones that were of better quality.
Pharmacies selling the Spirit Pills used by cultivators were the most commonly found store throughout the city. Since he had no money, he could only browse around. Even so, he was starting to get a grasp on the general prices after visiting so many shops. ．
Aside from the stores that were selling stuff in the city, there was also a street where many rogue cultivators had gathered. These rogue cultivators set up simple stalls by the side of the road and displayed the wares they wanted to sell at their stalls. Anybody could bargain for the items if they took a fancy to anything. As such, this street was incredibly busy. It was livelier than all the other streets he had strolled through today. There were all kinds of things for sale, which made it seem like an open market.
He had seen everything he needed to see after strolling through the city for more than half a day. Thus, he decided to find an unmanned spot along this street, sit down cross-legged, took out a few ores from his Storage Bag, and displayed them for sale. He pondered for a moment, then took out a Yuan Metal ore about the size of a fist. It wasn’t that he really wanted to sell these ores. Rather, his main purpose was to figure out how much these items were worth.
He was hungry after walking around for more than half a day, so he took out some beast meat to eat. Having hunted many beasts previously, he had roasted them all and stored them into his Storage Bag. It was enough to sustain himself for a few days.
While eating, he observed the cultivators coming and going in front of him carefully.
A cultivator’s strength in terms of cultivation remained a complete mystery to him. He only knew that those who were qualified to enter the Spirit Creek Battlefield had to be in the First-Order Spirit Creek Realm, at the very least. Unfortunately, he couldn’t tell how high their cultivation was.
That was not a good thing. He was bound to get into disputes with other people in the future. Thus, it would be dangerous for him if he had no way to determine the opponent’s cultivation. If he happened to encounter a cultivator he could not win against, he might lose his life before he could even try to gauge his opponent’s strength. Therefore, he wanted to try and figure out a clue from his observation so that he would have more means of protecting himself in the future.
He studied every single cultivator that passed him by extremely carefully but was unable to figure out anything.
“Junior Brother, what are you looking at?” Lu Ye’s abnormal behavior had attracted the attention of the stall owner next to him. That was a female cultivator with a plump figure. She was wearing a deep green dress. That dress had obviously been washed many times, but it was still fairly neat and clean. Her hair was pushed behind her ears, revealing her slender and fair neck.
Lu Ye had not paid any attention to her prior to this. Turning to look at her, he was immediately greeted by the sight of an ample bosom. He withdrew his gaze and shook his head. “I wasn’t looking at anything.”
He took a bite of his dried jerky and washed it down with a sip of water.
The female cultivator pursed her lips. “You can’t be trying to judge their cultivation, right?”
He was surprised. “Was it that obvious?”
She laughed. “That’s because I was just as dumb and foolish as you when I first entered the Spirit Creek Battlefield.”
[Turns out everybody has the same idea…] He burst into laughter.
“It’s not easy being a rogue cultivator. There’s nobody to guide you and no Elder to protect you. You don’t even have a place to stay to shelter you from the elements.” She was clearly recalling her precious experiences. Sighing, she stopped reminiscing and pointed out. “You won’t be able to see anything just by looking with your naked eye.”
He asked, “What should I do?”
“Now that you’re in the Spirit Creek Realm, you should have enough Spiritual Power. Why not try using your Spiritual Power?”
He was stunned when he heard those words. Then, he secretly scolded himself for being stupid. He tried doing as the female cultivator had instructed and gathered his Spiritual Power in his eyes. In the next moment, it felt as though he had opened the doors to a whole new world.
The cultivators passing by in front of him were enveloped in a layer of light that was invisible to the naked eye. The light flowed around them slowly. It was an indicator of the Spiritual Power flowing inside their bodies. At a glance, there was not much difference between the light of each individual. However, a closer inspection revealed that there were some subtle differences. The light around some people flowed faster than the others. It was also unmistakably denser. On the other hand, some people were the polar opposite.
He understood immediately: The people whose light was denser and flowed faster had higher cultivation, and vice versa.
“Do you see it now?” she asked.
He nodded repeatedly in response.
She said, “If you can enter a Sect, you will learn of these things naturally. Unfortunately, rogue cultivators don’t have people teaching them. We can only figure it out ourselves.”
At this time, he saw a few strange people. They did not have the slightest bit of light around them, which baffled him greatly. Hence, he asked the female cultivator about them once they were out of earshot.
She replied, “That’s normal. They have Spirit Artifacts that can conceal their aura, or they cultivate some kind of Secret Technique that slows them to conceal their aura. However, the cultivators who appear in this place are weak. They won’t have the energy to practice any Secret Techniques. So, it’s probably due to the former reason.”
“I see!” He nodded in understanding.
“Let me give you a piece of advice,” she said solemnly. “If you ever run into people like them in the future, run as far as you can. The reason being that they definitely come from a powerful background. They are not people rogue cultivators like us can go up against. Also, this method might be able to give a rough estimate of a person’s cultivation, it’s not an accurate measure. Only when the other party has made their move can you accurately judge their cultivation from the fluctuations in their spiritual power.”
He gratefully said, “Thank you for your advice, Senior Sister.” After pondering for a moment, he took out a piece of meat from his Storage Bag and handed it to her.
She burst out in a peal of laughter but did not refuse his kind gesture. Reaching out her hand, she took it from him and slowly began to eat. In any case, it was undeniable that the way she ate was much more elegant than his.