Chapter 157: 157. Chapter 155: In the Mortal World (Bonus 6)

157. Chapter 155: In the Mortal World (Bonus 6)

Ding Huan and his group fled for a full three days before finally stopping.

"Xiaotu, I used to go days without eating and never felt hungry, but now I've eaten several energy capsules in one day and I'm still starving."

After Ding Huan decided to stop fleeing, Qi Xinyue couldn't hold back the words she'd wanted to say for days.

Ding Huan nodded; he too felt hunger.

Now he was nearly like an ordinary mortal, needing two meals a day, or else he felt obvious hunger.

Energy capsules seemed unable to ward off hunger here.

Qi Xinyue didn't understand this principle, but Ding Huan had a vague sense—it must be related to the laws of heaven and earth.

Ding Huan's spiritual sense had already scanned a city, bustling with people and lively; above its gate were three ancient characters: Jihé City.

He had come from Luohe, and now arrived at Jihé—it seemed he had some affinity with rivers.

He'd settle in this city for now; everything else could wait until he grew familiar.

On the way to Jihé City, Ding Huan was calculating.

But there were too many strong cultivators here; much of what he calculated was blurred and unclear.

Still, nothing involving immediate life-threatening danger seemed likely, so he lazily gave up thinking further and decided to stay here for now.

"Finally, a city."

When the group reached the outskirts of Jihé City, Lou Buzhi swallowed hard.

Clearly, he was starving too, but had said nothing until now.

Jihé City was smaller than Six-Direction City, but its population density was hardly less.

Unlike Six-Direction City, where all races coexisted, Jihé City was almost entirely human—no bull-men or such.

Ding Huan led the group to find a guesthouse first.

As he entered the city, he briefly surveyed it; Jihé City's outskirts appeared to have a simple defensive array.

Among those walking in Jihé City were martial artists, cultivators, and mostly ordinary mortals with no cultivation.

He detected no Foundation Establishment cultivators, but many gene cultivators equivalent to levels three to five.

Since he had just arrived, Ding Huan didn't know whether people here fused various skill genes.

Ding Huan chose a guesthouse that looked modest in quality.

"Fifty Zhenye coins per night for a standard room."

The clerk, seeing Ding Huan and two others arrive with a pet, immediately smiled and stepped forward.

Zhenye coins?

Ding Huan pulled out a crystal shard he'd taken from Sister Tou:

"I've run out of Zhenye coins—can you exchange this for some?"

Ding Huan knew this crystal shard originated from this place.

It was a fragment of some kind of Qi stone, carried here by locals for trade in Six-Direction Starland.

Since it was native here, presenting it for trade wouldn't seem odd.

The clerk glanced at the crystal shard in Ding Huan's hand and shook his head:

"Friend, you should go to a bank for exchange—we don't handle it here; too much or too little causes trouble."

"Thank you."

Ding Huan's spiritual sense had already scanned a bank directly across the street: Yunji Bank.

Watching Ding Huan and his group walk away, the clerk felt puzzled.

In the Zhenye Empire, shouldn't everyone know where to exchange broken Yuan crystals for Zhenye coins?

Ding Huan didn't know what the clerk thought—he was already at Yunji Bank.

"What's the current rate?"

Upon entering Yunji Bank, Ding Huan pulled out a broken crystal shard and asked with practiced ease.

The clerk glanced at the broken crystal shard in Ding Huan's hand:

"Currently, one broken crystal shard exchanges for three thousand Zhenye coins."

Ding Huan frowned:

"Why so low?"

Ding Huan wasn't bluffing—he knew that in Six-Direction Starland, one Yuan crystal coin exchanged for ten thousand Purple Gold coins.

He had never seen a Yuan crystal coin before, but assumed it was made from this kind of broken crystal.

If that exchange ratio held, then each of his broken crystals should fetch ten thousand.

Even accounting for discounts and losses, it shouldn't be only three thousand.

The clerk spoke lazily:

"That's the highest rate. If you don't want it, check other places."

Ding Huan sighed and pulled out two broken crystal shards:

"Exchange these two for me."

The clerk swiftly handed over six Zhenye coins.

Ding Huan noticed each Zhenye coin was worth one thousand—he immediately pocketed five thousand:

"Exchange this one thousand into smaller denominations."

The clerk didn't mind, giving Ding Huan five one-hundred coins and the rest in ten-coin pieces.

Ding Huan's spiritual sense scanned the clerk's cash drawer and saw coins of one and five denominations.

After comparing, Ding Huan fully understood.

These True Karma Coins really aren't easy to counterfeit, because the higher the value of a True Karma Coin, the greater the amount of crystal cores it contains.

Moreover, the method of minting is extremely ingenious—it locks all the primordial energy within the crystal cores.

Once the primordial energy inside dissipates, this True Karma Coin is very likely to collapse.

……

Carrying six thousand True Karma Coins, Ding Huan immediately purchased several booklets introducing the culture, history, and geography of the Star Continent.

Among them were introductions to the Mortal World of the Tri-Heaven Star Continent, the True Karma Empire, and Jihe City.

Ding Huan did want to buy some introductions to the Cultivation World and the Ascension World, but unfortunately such things couldn't be purchased in the Mortal World.

After buying the things, Ding Huan and the others immediately went to get something to eat.

They were truly starving.

The staple food here was also a kind of rice; fierce beast meat was only simply grilled or steamed, without any elaborate cooking methods.

The only upside was the generous portions that filled you up.

Lou Buzhi used his own practical actions to tell Ding Huan and the others why he had grown so fat.

Yet Ding Huan ate while wondering—why was it that on Earth and the Four Directions Star Continent, one meal could sustain him for many days, yet here he got hungry again so quickly?

If it really was related to the rules of heaven and earth as he guessed, then how exactly could one touch upon those rules?

Was touching the rules of heaven and earth the true beginning of cultivation?

With Ding Huan's current knowledge and strength, he naturally couldn't figure out the reason.

After the few of them ate and drank their fill, Ding Huan paid out one hundred and twenty True Karma Coins.

This made Ding Huan feel that True Karma Coins really don't last long when spent.

Not going back to the previous rest inn, Ding Huan and the others this time switched to a different one—the Wanderer Rest Inn.

Unlike other rest inns, the Wanderer Rest Inn wasn't exactly quiet.

Because the first floor of the Wanderer Rest Inn was a rest hall, or rather a tea room.

The difference between a rest hall and a rest inn was that a rest inn offered lodging, while a rest hall was a place that provided casual patrons a spot to rest.

Here one could drink tea, have snacks, and even drink alcohol.

Ding Huan wasn't here for cultivation—his purpose in staying here was to gather some news about the Mortal World.

Choosing a place with a rest hall tea room was also to hear a bit more about matters concerning the Tri-Heaven Star Continent.

o￠o

The rooms this time were a bit more upscale—three people plus Old Six, four rooms in total, costing nearly three hundred True Karma Coins for one night.

Ding Huan only had six thousand True Karma Coins on him, and after buying the booklets and paying for meals, some had already been used, so he had to find a way to make money quickly, otherwise he'd truly be sitting on a fortune while it drained away.

"Brother Huan, thank you. If it weren't for you, I'd probably still be wandering the streets right now."

After moving into the rest inn, Lou Buzhi was overflowing with gratitude—he had made the right choice.

Brother Huan was a person is critical of loyalty; although they weren't deeply acquainted, since they all came from the Four Directions Star Continent, Brother Huan still took good care of him.

Ding Huan patted Lou Buzhi:

"Don't worry. Since there's a Cultivation World here, the Cultivation World will definitely recruit disciples in the Mortal World. I'll go ask around in a bit.

Since you can cultivate, you definitely have a spiritual root, and you'll surely be able to enter the Cultivation World."

Ding Huan was certain Lou Buzhi had a spiritual root, because Lou Buzhi could cultivate, and what he cultivated wasn't some genetic art.

Qi Qi Xinyue had never fused with a genetic spiritual root yet could still cultivate, which naturally meant she had a spiritual root too.

His only worry was himself—he had only generated a spiritual root after fusing with a genetic spiritual root potion.

Since everyone had their own rooms, the first thing Old Six did upon returning to his room was to attempt a breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment realm.

This guy was completely obsessed with breaking through to Foundation Establishment as a demon cultivator—every time he changed locations, he would definitely attempt the Foundation Establishment demon cultivation breakthrough.

On the flying ship he had been restricted by Ding Huan and not allowed to cultivate; otherwise, this guy would surely have attempted the Foundation Establishment demon cultivation breakthrough on the flying ship.

As soon as Ding Huan reached his room, he took out several culture and geography booklets to study.

Half an hour later, Ding Huan tossed the booklets into the Star House.

He now had a rough idea of what kind of place he was in.

The Tri-Heaven Star Continent wasn't described in detail; the Mortal World he was currently in was essentially an empire world.

There were hundreds of large empires in the Mortal World, and countless small and medium ones.

These empires were basically all founded by descendants of the Cultivation World, or by cultivators from the Cultivation World who couldn't advance further.

Almost every empire had ties to the Cultivation World; those without such ties had long since perished in the dust of history.

The True Karma Empire was similarly deeply connected to the Cultivation World—they provided various convenient services as backers for the Cultivation World.

And their backers would also escort and protect them in return.

The True Karma Coin was one such example.

True Karma Coins couldn't be produced by ordinary mortal workshops; they were refined by powerful cultivators of the Cultivation World through formations, crystal cores, and a certain metallic material.

With the integration of cultivation techniques, this kind of coin was very hard to counterfeit.

The currencies of other empires were more or less the same. Among empires with closer relations, currencies could even be used interchangeably.

What concerned Ding Huan most was the day the Cultivation World would come to the True Karma Empire to recruit disciples, according to the True Karma Empire booklet's introduction.

Every year, the various sects of the Cultivation World came to the Mortal World twice to recruit disciples—once on a large scale at the beginning of the year, and once on a moderate scale at mid-year.

Ding Huan checked the current time period they were in—there was still a little over a month until mid-year.