Chapter 91: Just Arrived at Yanling City, and the Space Ring is Already Stolen?!
The Beiyan Province was on the very border of the Tianhun Empire. At this time in the eighth month of the year, the Beiyan Province had been in a very long drought. It was scorching the majority of the time and the entire earth baked.
Yanlin City was the provincial capital of the Beiyan Province. It was also the most flourishing area in the entire province. A single eye wouldn’t be enough to see the entirety of this gigantic city standing on top of a mountain. The most particular part to this city was the surrounding parts of the city. There were countless of stones scattered everywhere in a dense blanket. Some lay high and some lay low, but these areas were like forests of stone. The entire Yanlin City was ‘guarded’ by this stone forest.
As the sun began to set, the scorching, hot weather dipped in temperature. On the southern road to Yanlin City, a single white-robed figure wore a straw hat. He basked in the sunset’s glow as headed leisurely toward the city.
The youth raised his head up to the sky. With the shabby straw hat, hands that were completely out of sight, and short, simple hair, he was not very outstanding in looks. However, the firm and serious expression on his face gave any observer a feeling that he was trustworthy.
This youth was Bai Yunfei. From Cuiliu City to now, he had almost always walked on the main roads the entire way without coming across any danger. So naturally he had been in no rush to travel and had felt the emotional rush of traveling for the very first time. Slowly, but not too slowly, he walked around and familiarized himself with the surrounding world. He had spent over a month traveling before he reached the provincial capital of the Beiyan Province.
The reason why the word ‘almost’ was used was because twenty days ago, Bai Yunfei had taken a “totally clear and impossible to be lost” path which had changed his direction. It had taken him half the day to realize that the road was not like what the map had said. Lost, he had found himself in a forest before Bai Yunfei had realized this was wrong. He figured he would be able to quickly make his way out, but the results…
After an entire day of walking around, he had finally made his way out of the forest muddle-headed. It was by good fortune that he had discovered an inn near the forest. Although the fact there was an inn out in a place like that was strange, Bai Yunfei had thought nothing of it and chose to enter the inn to take a quick rest.
He had in fact came across one of the “Black Inns” spoken of in legends. It had been fortunate that the knockout drugs in the well Bai Yunfei had drunk from were not of a good quality. An ordinary person would be affected, but for Bai Yunfei, who was a middle Soul Sprite, it had only taken a circulation of his soulforce for him to flush out the drugs. Those evildoers, who had that wicked gleam in their eyes, had been beaten black and blue by Bai Yunfei, and were forced to scream for their fathers and cry for their mothers as they tried to run away.
It was with noses full of snot and eyes filled with tears that they had sworn they only wanted riches and never harmed anyone’s lives. Bai Yunfei had verified that they weren’t lying before letting them go. If Bai Yunfei had a heart that detested criminals as much as his enemies, then he would have cremated them right where they stood.
After making his way back to the main roads with difficulty, Bai Yunfei had decided that without the the direct guidance of another person, he would not travel down a minor road again.
Afterward, Bai Yunfei had traveled as he pleased down the road. He had then finally arrived in the Beiyan Province after leaving Cuiliu City forty days ago.
Looking ahead at the stone forest and the protected city above it, Bai Yunfei felt quite shocked. This was a sight he had never seen before. From just this majestic sight alone, Bai Yunfei felt a little elated, and the travel fatigue he had built up was alleviated a little bit as well.
“I’ve already traveled halfway! I’ll rest in this city for two days and continue my journey after. I bet that in not too long, I’ll reach the Pingchuan Province and then the Crafting School!” Bai Yunfei began to walk even faster toward the city.
As he got closer to the stone forest, Bai Yunfei discovered that the distance between each pile of stones was quite far. Some of the stones were dozens of meters tall, some were about the height of a short person, and some were wide enough for several people to form a ring around them. There were some stones that were like rocky sticks jutting from the ground while others were buried deep into the ground. In either case, they did not seem to be in danger of collapsing any time soon.
From the stone forest to the city gates, the path was completely straight. Walking past the stone formations felt like there were guards standing watch by the side. They gave the feeling of welcoming him.
After entering the city, Bai Yunfei was greeted by a never seen before level of flourishment. In the past, he had thought that Cuiliu City was a magnificent city in terms of how much it flourished, but compared to Yanlin City, Cuiliu City was like a beginner magician in front of a grand magus.
In terms of the width of the streets, the streets of Yanlin City were double that of Cuiliu City. Five or six carriages wouldn’t even be enough to completely fill the city streets. Even at night, there were still plenty of people to be seen walking to and fro. Sometimes, there would even be a chariot that shuffled back and forth with a loud clamor.
There were many buildings on both sides of the street that stretched for as far as the eye could see. Despite it not being completely dark out, all of the buildings had plenty of lanterns light. From far away, the interior of the buildings were even brighter than the outside.
Bai Yunfei looked at a three story tall pavilion. On the top, there was a giant signboard labeled “McBun” — clearly it specialized in selling steamed buns. The interior of the building was extremely busy— business was very prosperous for them. The scent of a meat bun could be smelled from the outside, and those passing by couldn’t help but twitch their noses at the aroma. Plenty of people who had just entered the city, hungry from their travels, would brighten at the sight of it and enter the building.
Bai Yunfei felt hungry when he thought about it. Giving it a second thought, he figured this store was much better than the previous store he had been to, the ‘Happy Bun Store’, so he walked right in.
After being escorted to the second floor by a waitress, Bai Yunfei was told they offered many different types of buns. With the waitress offering him the specialties of their store to him, Bai Yunfei ate like a king. In the end, he finally understood just why this store had so many customers. After buying these unique buns, anyone that ate them would be pleased.
After demolishing ten of the buns on the table, Bai Yunfei took a sip of his tea in satisfaction. Picking at his teeth with a toothpick, he called for them to bring him the bill.
Getting up, Bai Yunfei had already taken out several coins to give to the waitress. Turning around to walk down the stairs and out the building, the coin purse in his hand disappeared from sight.
The happily full Bai Yunfei was not paying attention when he left the building. When he had taken out his coin purse from his space ring, a middle-aged man with matted hair and a rather ordinary appearance had been secretly watching him from the corner on the second floor. At the sight of the coin purse, his eyes had gleamed with excitement.
When Bai Yunfei had walked down to the first floor, the man had stood up to pay his bill and followed Bai Yunfei closely. Even as a middle Soul Sprite, Bai Yunfei wasn’t paying attention at all!
The streets were still brightly lit since it was not that late, and plenty of people were walking to and fro. Bai Yunfei was in no rush to find an inn to sleep for the night. He decided to stroll around the city first to understand the basic layout of the city and buy a few things.
After half an hour, Bai Yunfei had discovered that there were plenty of soul cultivators in this city!
The unique and abundant soulforce of a soul cultivator would easily create a resonance with other cultivators. Even if he was unable to determine a soul cultivator’s true strength, as long as the difference in strength wasn’t too much, then a person would be able to tell that the other person was a soul cultivator.
Bai Yunfei could see several rather arrogant looking soul cultivators that made no attempt to hide their power and subsequently intimidated the surrounding civilians into scurrying away from them lest they provoke them. These soul cultivators seemed to be used to it as well. They continued to walk and laugh like tyrants as if they were the only ones on the street.
“Can even a middle Soul Personage dare be so arrogant? Are they not afraid of angering any other soul cultivators? Perhaps… they belong to some of the strongest factions in this city?” Bai Yunfei watched a single soul cultivator throw down someone who hadn’t been able to move away in time with narrowed eyes. When he saw how those few who had been tossed to the ground bowed and scraped their heads in forgiveness, Bai Yunfei could only shake his head. Not caring enough to do anything, he turned around to continue down the road.
Just as he turned around, a single figure had failed to move out of the way in time and crashed into him. While Bai Yunfei didn’t budge an inch, the man let out a short cry and fell backwards.
Startled, Bai Yunfei instinctively reached out a hand to grab the wrist of the other person. The other man had been startled as well, and grabbed onto Bai Yunfei’s hand so that he was pulled up before falling to the ground.
“Hey! Just what’s wrong with you — turning around so suddenly without caring where you are?” A rather frail-looking middle-aged man spoke unhappily while rubbing his right shoulder with his left arm.
“Oh, my apologies.” Not expecting to have the other person speak first, Bai Yunfei was stunned. Without arguing, he gave several words in apology before letting the middle-aged man walk away grumbling.
Shaking his head lightly, Bai Yunfei paid him no more attention and continued walking. Before he could even take two steps, his eyebrows suddenly narrowed together in doubt.
“I feel something strange, is something wrong here?”
Thinking for a moment, Bai Yunfei suddenly gasped. Lifting up his right hand, his eyes bulged in shock and his mouth dropped open in utter disbelief.
On the ring finger of his right hand, the space ring on it had disappeared!!