Please call me Huanxian

Chapter 387 Gift, Good Deed

When Xu Yuanchang walked out of the three-story, ancient and majestic door of the bookstore, the sun was setting and dusk was about to rise.

The ground beneath his feet was as smooth as jade, and each brick was about ten feet in size, with faint traces of hazy light flowing through it. Xu Yuanchang recognized that these were five-element bricks made by high-level weapon refiners using the stone-condensing technique. The same was true for the city walls, too, making it easy to engrave various array patterns and integrate the great array between heaven and earth.

Only the upper realm can afford such luxury.

He has learned the local "Liuyun Mandarin" and Western Barbarian language, and bought a bunch of books of various categories. He plans to stay in Qiaojiao City for a year or two, and after getting a clear understanding of the situation in the upper realm, he will slowly look for Zeng Wanglou, Lao Li and Taoist Yanshan.

Looking at the shops lined up in the streets and alleys, I can already recognize most of the words on the plaques and signs.

Some of the handwriting was too unrestrained and flowing, and it was a type of font variation, so he really couldn't recognize it.

He could understand most of the conversations that came into his ears, and occasionally he could hear the same language as him. The shop clerk revealed that he was speaking the most widely circulated "common language" in the upper world.

Xu Yuanchang admired the exotic and novel architectural style and walked into a large inn in the alley next to it.

He took out twelve sparkling gems, which the upper world called "Spirit Stones" (a return to the ancient currency name of the world of cultivation), to pay for three days of hotel rooms. He carefully cleaned the confiscated Spirit Stones with magic power to avoid leaving any residual marks.

He walked into the guest room on the second floor, set up the formation and activated the protection, and released two avatar puppets, allowing them to adapt to the gravity environment of the upper realm as quickly as possible.

Xu Yuanchang buried himself in reading books for two days and two nights and understood the geographical distribution pattern of the upper world.

The upper realm is divided into nine domains, also called "realms", namely Zhoushan Domain, Fangcun Mountain, Dianjiang Palace, Dahuang Mountain, Longyuan Valley, Liuyun Domain, Dongyou Domain, as well as the mysterious Yuxu Domain and Chenfu Domain.

Each "domain" is a separate "realm", just like the underworld is divided into ten major ghost realms, which are connected to each other by void passages, or can be reached by taking the realm teleportation array.

The realm he is currently in is the Liuyun Domain, which has three huge landmasses: Liuyun Continent, Boyun Continent and Anyun Continent, in addition to overseas forces such as the Jiuzhu Islands and Jie Island.

Qiaojiao City is one of the many cultivation cities in Liuyun Continent.

The book introduces that every city has a teleportation array, which makes travel very convenient and charges according to the distance. The boundary teleportation array of Liuyun Continent is located in Liuyun City, and the cost of using it once is not cheap.

Xu Yuanchang stood up and paced around the room thinking. The upper realm was so vast, with so many masters that it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack to find someone. Someone like Taoist Master Yanshan might be easy to find, as he had a high level of cultivation and was famous. One could find him as long as he was willing to spend money to find him.

However, a master will inevitably have enemies of equal strength, so he cannot make a public announcement about his search for them, lest he fail to find them and suffer an unexpected disaster.

Never mind. There’s no rush. I’ll try my luck after I get familiar with it.

He suddenly stopped and frowned. Why did he feel that the magic power in his body was declining?
After a careful internal inspection and comparison for more than a quarter of an hour, Xu Yuanchang was extremely sure that his magic power was retreating at a very slow rate. This was a great shock. Could something have gone wrong?
I have been concentrating on reading books and looking up classics in the past two days, and my mind was not on spiritual practice, so I didn't notice it earlier.

It is said that the concentration of spiritual energy in the upper realm is several times that of the lower realm, and the conditions are better. Even if your cultivation level does not improve slowly on its own, it will not regress, right?

The only reason he could guess was that it was related to the gravity that was far beyond the lower world.

After putting away the two avatars, Xu Yuanchang hurried out. It was night outside. As the moon rose and the lights gradually brightened, the night view of Qiaojiao City was unique. The ground was shining like a flowing river, with twinkling stars in it, making the whole huge city dreamy, hazy and mysterious.

There was an endless stream of monks walking or flying low on the streets, making the scene bustling and prosperous.

Xu Yuanchang had no mood to appreciate it. He slightly changed his body shape, appearance and clothes and found another bookstore.

He didn't want his identity as an ascended monk to be exposed before many things were clarified.

People are cheap when they leave their hometown, and things are expensive when they leave their hometown.

It won't be wrong to be more cautious and act with more care.

He kept his cultivation aura on the fourth floor, following the crowd without attracting attention.

The spiritual energy in the upper realm is unique, low-level resources are extremely abundant, and the rules of heaven and earth are conducive to cultivation, creating a huge base of cultivators. Even for cultivators of average qualifications, it is easy to improve before the fourth floor. However, there is gain and loss. Improving cultivation too quickly will cause insufficient state of mind, so after the fourth floor, it is easy to stagnate at a bottleneck and find it difficult to break through.

Xu Yuanchang bought several books about ascending monks. He walked out of the bookstore, walked around the street and returned to the inn.

He couldn't wait to turn the pages of the book, and half an hour later, a look of relief appeared on his face.

All ascending monks have to go through a brief period of seemingly regressing cultivation, which lasts for one year. This is because they go through a minor heavenly tribulation, suffer from the tempering of their soul and body by heavenly thunder, and the unconscious transformation of the power of heaven and earth during the ascension process. As a result, the meridians of the ascending monks slowly expand over the next year, and their magic power seems to decline, but in fact the total amount of magic power has not changed.

For the ascending monks, it is a gift from heaven, a good thing that is hard to find even with a lantern.

Xu Yuanchang slowly calmed down and continued to read the remaining books.

The next morning, Xu Yuanchang appeared in teahouses and taverns with a different face. He listened with his ears and collected useful information. In the afternoon, he strolled around the streets and alleys to familiarize himself with the topography of Qiaojiao City.

The things in the books are dead, he needs to understand the local forces of Qiaojiao City vividly. Ten days passed like this, and Xu Yuanchang changed an inn.

He lived in a small guesthouse located halfway up a mountain in the city. The annual rent cost 5,000 spirit stones, and the spiritual energy supplied inside was twice as much as outside.

Based on the experience he learned from books, he decided to take advantage of the opportunity of expanding his meridians and practice hard every day, using his magic power to stimulate the meridians. Perhaps he could expand the meridians by 10% more. He could earn more spirit stones after spending them. It was better to believe it than not to believe it.

In the following days, Xu Yuanchang stayed at home and rarely went out, spending most of his time meditating and practicing martial arts behind closed doors.

Occasionally he would go out to buy books. He was not picky and would read travel notes, fragments, books on formations, books on talismans, classics, etc. He found every book beneficial.

After a year, he noticed that his meridians were no longer expanding, and his cultivation had "regressed" to the middle stage of the sixth floor. His strength had improved significantly, and even a calm man like him could see his joy, so he went out for a drink to reward himself.

He paid another five thousand spirit stones to rent the small guesthouse for another year.

He experienced the convenience of cultivation brought by the rich spiritual energy. In the next few years, he would seize the time to "restore" his cultivation to the late sixth level.

His main technique, "The Immortal Breathing Technique", can only be practiced to the sixth level, and the bookstores in the city do not sell techniques above the sixth level.

If you want to obtain subsequent high-level skills, there are only two ways. One is to join a large sect with profound heritage, and the other is to spend a lot of money to entrust a store to purchase it.

Deep down, he actually didn't want to join Taoist Master Yanshan. When he was in the lower world, he already knew the cruelty of the struggle between the immortal way and the divine way. They were like fire and water. Even in the upper world, both sides would definitely not give up and there would be all kinds of open and covert struggles.

Why is he getting involved?
When the city gate catches fire, the fish in the pond will also be affected, and the ones that die are often the small fish that have no eyesight.

It will take a long time for him to grow up.

In the evening, Xu Yuanchang was strolling alone on Zabu Street in the corner of West City. There were all kinds of stalls on both sides of the street, selling all kinds of strange things. But one thing was that once you bought something, they would not be responsible. If you wanted to find a bargain, you had to rely on luck, vision and strength.

"Friend Xu, we meet again. I am here to greet you!"

Someone on the other side greeted Xu Yuanchang.

Xu Yuanchang put down the peculiar black tripod in his hand, stood up and smiled and returned the greeting: "Greetings, Fellow Daoist Shi."

The person who greeted me was Shi Qiyuan, whom I met when I came to the city last year.

"This is Shi's good friend, his last name is He and his name is Qizhi. You are all Taoist masters, so you can get close to each other."

Shi Qiyuan extended his hand and introduced a young man beside him who was wearing a black Taoist robe with dark blue edges. The three of them all restrained their cultivation. Otherwise, if they walked around Zabu Street with the sixth-level cultivation level, they would be ripped off by the vendors without saying a word.

Even when introducing themselves, voice transmission was used.

"I am Master Xu Yuan, and I am honored to meet Master He. May you be blessed with infinite happiness!"

"It is my great honor to meet Taoist Master Xu from a foreign land. Mercy!"

After the two greeted each other, they walked towards the main street.

The three chatted all the way. Elder Xu Yuan had made friends with many heroes and experts in the area before. He was knowledgeable and had unique experiences. He got along well with the two of them. Shi Qiyuan suggested going to the teahouse to have a drink.

Through chatting, I learned that He Qizhi is the elder of Wuji Temple.

Wuji Temple and Hufeng Mountain are both first-class sects in the Qiaojiao Mountain area, and there are eight-story masters in charge of their sects.

Xu Yuanchang fabricated an identity for himself as the guardian of Fangcun Mountain's Dengxian Temple.

Separated by a long distance, Fangcun Mountain is vast, who can find the exact location of Dengxian Temple?

He Qizhi extended an invitation, saying, "Fellow Daoist Xu, if you have time the day after tomorrow, I would like to invite you to go to the 'Changle Villa' in the north city and participate in the discussion meeting held by our Sixth Floor monks?"

Shi Qiyuan added, "We will discuss the law instead of fighting it. Don't worry, Fellow Daoist Xu. You can find like-minded cultivators to discuss refining equipment, alchemy, talisman making, formation, etc. You can also exchange new magic skills. We hold it irregularly, once every three to five years, or even every twenty years."

Xu Yuan responded with a smile.

He can take this opportunity to integrate into the Sixth Floor circle.

……

(End of this chapter)