Across the web, immortals and true beings, their thoughts and energy creating the heavens.

Chapter 147 Intelligence and Cat's Claws

Wangshan Restaurant is named so because you can see the Hanging Mountain when you look up. Another explanation is that the restaurant can be called "Looking at Immortals" when guests arrive. The owner often introduces it this way. Some people think it's clever, while others think it's far-fetched. But no matter what, Wangshan Restaurant is just an ordinary restaurant in Xian'en Town and can't be considered high-class.

As Lin Zhuo and his entourage entered the room, the customers in the lobby, upon seeing their attire, all quieted down and stopped talking and laughing, not daring to look them in the eye. Whenever they passed by, they would bow their heads and tap the table with their fingers to show respect.

Before he could even reach the top of the stairs, a ragged young man in the corner suddenly put down his bowl and chopsticks, rushed over, and knelt down in front of Lin Zhuo, pleading for divine intervention while kowtowing vigorously.

The shopkeeper was startled and rushed out, yelling and pulling at the man, "You shameless scoundrel! Our shop took pity on you two brothers and kindly offered you a meal. Just eat it and be done with it, and you dare to offend the immortal master?"

The young man kept pleading, and then a child came running over in a panic, looking terrified and wanting to kneel down before Lin Zhuo and the others.

Lin Zhuo raised his hand and pressed down, using his abundant spiritual energy to lift the two brothers up and make them stand upright.

Seeing this, the restaurant owner quickly took two steps back and pleaded for them, "Immortal Master, please have mercy! These two brothers have wandered into this town. These days, whenever they see any of you immortals, they beg for your teachings. They have suffered a lot, but they still don't know how to repent."

"It's alright. You've come at an inopportune time; someone has an appointment with a new friend upstairs. If you don't mind the delay, please wait here."

"I'm willing to wait!" "Me too—" The two brothers, one decisive and reckless, the other gentle and intelligent, complemented each other.

Lin Zhuo smiled slightly, turned around and went upstairs side by side with Shu Yuliu.

The second floor was deserted, with only one lonely table of guests set up by the railing facing the street. A young Taoist priest who called himself Wu Huaiyao held a wine jar and smiled at them, "Have you run into a troublesome little devil? There are plenty of fools like this. Without innate magical abilities, one cannot walk the path of cultivation in this world."

"A natural talent for magic? What kind of setting is that?" Shu Yuliu asked curiously, but her eyes kept glancing at the customers at Wu Huaiyao's table.

Before they came up, there were only these two figures on the entire second floor. Wu Huaiyao was short, but the man next to her was a tall and strong man. He was covered from head to toe in a set of mountain-patterned armor, wearing a helmet and a demon mask. His hands were covered with a pair of heavy iron gauntlets, and not a single inch of his skin was exposed. But even such a strong man, who was like a copper wall, had no presence at all, which made people feel uneasy.

Chi Jiang, aided by the small robot's scanning equipment, had already detected something amiss and alerted Lin Zhuo: "This is a corpse."

Wu Huaiyao explained in a clear and cheerful voice, "A magic aperture is an acupoint that can sense and store spiritual energy. Are you all Qigong masters? You should be familiar with acupoints, right? This plane has spiritual energy as a special resource, so of course it will also give birth to various creatures and spirits that adapt to spiritual energy. Special individuals among humans have magic apertures, which can hold spiritual energy and be used to perform supernatural powers and spells."

Shu Yuliu clicked her tongue twice, "What a standard Xianxia worldview." She stretched out her palm, and her divine veins meandered and spread like tree roots. Soon, they intercepted some special kind of primordial energy from the wind, and the light of her divine veins became even brighter, like a blazing torch.

Lin Zhuo recalled the theory of primordial energy, which refers to a special kind of primordial energy that can move at will and can manifest all kinds of phenomena and create supernatural powers. Its quality is superior primordial energy, and when combined with mortal energy, it can give birth to all kinds of spiritual energy.

It can be said that spiritual energy has the power to turn the rotten into the miraculous.

The spiritual energy varies in different planes, and even in the same world, there may be a variety of spiritual energy. But in any case, this kind of spiritual energy is a high-grade resource with extremely wide applicability.

If spiritual energy exists in Lin Zhuo's real world, then the industrial capacity of the human community can be mobilized to begin large-scale production of various spiritual materials.

Wu Huaiyao picked up her chopsticks and ate some food, inviting Lin Zhuo and the other person to sit down. She also took out a cat food bowl from her sleeve and placed it on the corner of the table, her eyes darting around Jin Xiaohu.

The tabby cat's radar alarm was on full blast. It moved away from the young Taoist priest with a wary look on its face, and took the only fish dish on the table with it.

"What a clever kitten." Wu Huaiyao blinked.

"This is my teammate," Lin Zhuo introduced, glancing at the burly corpse across the table. "And who is this?"

"These are the zombies I raise. What Taoist priest doesn't raise zombies?" Wu Huaiyao looked on in astonishment, patting the zombie's arm. "This is my nuclear-powered ox, a real workhorse. It just eats a lot. I was planning to use it to mine some spirit jade to earn disaster coins, then buy yin energy to raise the zombies, but those unscrupulous merchants are keeping their prices too tight, so it might not work out."

Mining doesn't make much money and can even result in small losses.

"If it's this bad, who would want to do business with them? Doing things like this on the internet is a dead end, isn't it?" Shu Yuliu asked, puzzled.

Upon hearing this, Wu Huaiyao chuckled awkwardly, "Well, if I had to say, there was actually some profit to be made from mining spirit jade in the past. Selling it to those unscrupulous merchants was slightly more profitable than selling it on the forum."

Lin Zhuo nodded knowingly, "Has the difficulty of obtaining spirit jade increased?"

"Sigh, this is the end times," the young Taoist sighed. "Demonic energy is everywhere, and evil spirits abound. To put it simply, the environment is polluted, the earth's veins are shrinking, the production of spirit jade has plummeted, and even if you find a wild mine, monsters are lurking there. The disgusting creatures of the Sang Cult are running around everywhere, and if they see you mining, they'll come and steal your things. A fight could bankrupt you, it's so annoying."

"Is it absolutely necessary to dig up this spirit jade?" Jin Xiaohu suddenly asked.

Wu Huaiyao stared at it, surprised, "Such a steady voice. This cat looks quite cute, but why does it talk like an old man?"

Shu Yuliu disagreed, "Where's the composure? It's clearly a child's voice!"

"We Taoists listen to the voices of souls, and this cat gives me the feeling of being the father of six children."

"Really?" Jin Xiaohu looked at him with newfound respect. "How did you know I have two sons and four daughters?"

"I guessed!" Wu Huaiyao clapped her hands and laughed, picking up the wine jar and pouring a bowl for Jin Xiaohu. "What a coincidence! Little cat, how about I read your palm too?"

After Jin Xiaohu finished drinking, the spiciness made Ye's tongue burn, and his expression was restless. Hesitantly, he walked over and handed his paw to the little Taoist priest. Wu Huaiyao suppressed a laugh, pretending to knead the cat's paw while chatting with Lin Zhuo and the others to buy time.

"Where were we? You asked what the key to the Dharma is, right?"

"Not that early. I'm asking why you went to dig for spirit jade yourself."

"Oh, mining spirit jade, huh? Because every faction is short of spirit jade. Cultivators in this world are useless without spiritual energy. Although they can generate their own spiritual energy after reaching a certain level, it's still not enough to meet their needs. So players can use spirit jade to complete many faction quests. If you have disaster coins, you can buy them from a shady merchant, but it's a losing proposition."

Lin Zhuo looked up at the celestial market in the sky and asked, "I saw on the map drawn by veteran players that there are seventy-two independent cultivator markets in this world, six of which are built suspended in the air. Which one is this?"

"You can actually spend some money to buy a high-resolution map from a shady merchant. The information in the group files is all fake. This world is divided into regions according to the major sects. This place is nominally the territory of the Xuanwei Dao Sect, but it is managed by independent cultivators. As for this market, let's call it Flying Sky Market."

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