After getting a scolding disguised as a debrief, Xuan and the others finally arrived in the city of Qujiang. It was a city which had a giant lake in the center of it, and by default, this was more of a fishing city than anything.

This world was large too, and according to Hanbi, they were currently in the country of Henan. It was a cold country for the majority of the year, unless it was summer, which it currently was.

As for Qujiang, Xuan couldn’t help but swallow his saliva upon seeing just how many cultivators there were. It was like some kind of ant nest. No matter where he looked on the street, there would be a cultivator there, plus ten extra.

It was bad, really bad. He was half-considering coming back at night, but judging by how Hanbi was already striding toward the main gate confidently, it was too late.

"Relax, all of you. It only looks crowded because it’s peak hours. Check this out." Hanbi suddenly pulled out a jade pendant that had been hanging around her waist earlier. "This is a symbol of authority, and it’ll allow us to walk the streets which have fewer peasants."

"Oh? Isn’t someone a little privileged?" Yuelan tried calling her out.

Though Xuan just bonked her over the head. "Shut up. I don’t want to walk the streets which smell like shit from so many people being there."

Hanbi nodded in appreciation and continued ahead. Sierra, unlike the others, was way too preoccupied with reading, to the point that she kept tripping on the nearby rocks, nearly falling flat on her face.

Xuan kept catching her with a smile, feeling as though she was doing this on purpose. Finally, they arrived by the gate, and Hanbi took charge.

"Hello. I’m the daughter of the Serene Blossom Valley Sect’s sect master. If you don’t want this city to disappear off the map tonight, let me through," she said kindly and showed the guards her jade pendant.

"A-Ah? Miss Xue Hanbi!"

"We’re sorry for not recognizing you!"

"Please, enter."

Hanbi scoffed and stepped through the main gate alongside the others. They were led on a different path, one that went into a few homes, and then exited out into an empty street.

Though despite how empty it was, there were plenty of people working off to the sides. Merchants, fishermen, and even some people who were selling their wares. Since they were selling in this quarter, there weren’t as many customers.

But the customers that they did get were filthy fucking rich.

Heh.

"All of these people are cultivators too?" Xuan hummed.

"Obviously, dummy. Did you see how easy it is to become a cultivator?" Yuelan scolded, clicking her tongue.

Though Hanbi seemed to be of a different opinion. "Everyone who works in public is a cultivator. Those who work in palaces and with private sects and factions... they’re not cultivators."

Yuelan tilted her head. "But don’t they only need to cultivate for a few minutes?"

"Not everyone can cultivate," Hanbi said flatly. "Every world goes through Ascensions, and the non-cultivators are wiped out first, then the weak, and then the extra weak. After they have been culled, non-cultivators can be born to restore the balance of sorts."

She fell into thought, placing a finger on her chin. "I think the odds of being born as a non-cultivator nowadays are around 1 in 1,000? Since there are several trillion people in this world, that means there are hundreds of millions of non-cultivators."

Interesting...

"Does the palace not value cultivators because they feel like they’re too important to ever be overthrown?" Sierra asked out of nowhere.

Hanbi shrugged. "Talking about it is treason, so I’d rather not say. On that note, are you guys hungry?"

"Nope."

"I am not."

"Obviously."

As expected, Yuelan was always hungry. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Hanbi facepalmed. "Fine. I’ll take Yuelan to eat then. Take this."

Just then, she tossed some dimly glowing blue stones to Xuan and Sierra. Ten each, rather.

"These are Spirit Stones. They’re the currency of the cultivation world, and you can pretty much use them everywhere. I’d explain how they work, but just go ahead and buy something. You’ll understand how they work then," Hanbi said.

"Sure? But what about the Alchemist?" Xuan asked.

"Ask around for the Alchemy Association. It should be in the same pavilion where the library is, so you two can go together," Hanbi replied.

Xuan and Sierra both nodded. Then, they bid Yuelan and Hanbi farewell before making their way to where all the noise was. Along the way though, they stopped by a store just like Hanbi said and bought an apple each.

The way the money worked was interesting. Although Xuan had 10 Spirit Stones, and the apples cost two, when the merchant placed two Spirit Stones on some special scale, it showed that the final weight of the Spirit Stones was 1.42 Spirit Weight.

If an average Spirit Stone weighed 1 Spirit Weight, then a shabbier Spirit Stone was less than that, and a slightly better one was more than that.

So in the end, out of his 10 Spirit Stones, Xuan needed to spend four of them for a combined total of 2.12 Spirit Weight.

Since no one could split the stones either, you couldn’t get change. Xuan felt like he was scammed, but then again, it was Hanbi’s fault for giving him such bad currency.

"At least they gave us directions, right?" Sierra looked on the bright side as she took a bite out of her own apple.

"Yep." Xuan sighed. "The Alchemy Association building is literally the main pavilion in the center of the lake. I doubt we’ll miss it."

Speaking of, there was so much variety in the buildings here. The ones who had less wealth lived in medieval wooden houses, while those with a tad bit more wealth lived in mid-sized pavilions fitted with everything one could need.

To be fair, it looked like some kind of sect grounds, minus the sect, maybe?

Regardless, Xuan and Sierra already had somewhere they wanted to be, so they didn’t waste any time and went straight to the Alchemy Association.