Chapter 163

In Cloud Palace City, whether inside or outside the city, cultivators are not restricted from flying or using any flying devices; the only restriction is that when entering or leaving the city, one must pass through the city gate.

As for the reason,

It's very simple.

This city is enveloped by a massive formation; although it is not fully activated, it is not something that any random cultivator can simply ignore the formation's existence or disregard Cloud Palace City's rules.

Fortunately, there are many officials at the city gate, merchants have their own routes, ordinary cultivators have their own passages, and resident cultivators have their own ways, so it does not feel crowded; on the contrary, because everyone understands Cloud Palace City's rules, entry and exit are swift.

When the cultivator ahead of Yunhe exchanged several spirit stones for a token, he then understood the general rules for entering and leaving the city gate.

"I want a residence token."

When it was his turn, Yunhe unhesitatingly produced five medium-grade spirit stones and handed them over.

The gate guard cultivator thought nothing of it, accepted the spirit stones, and returned a wooden token; this token was somewhat special, seemingly also possessing certain functions of a jade slip.

"Fellow cultivator, you only need to drip blood to bind the token as your master; the token also contains a map of Cloud Palace City, the city rules that must be observed, and your current location. Apart from places marked in red that must not be approached, holding this token allows you to reside permanently in the city. By the way, fighting is prohibited within the city; if caught by the patrol, lightly you will be expelled, severely you may be arrested or even executed—please keep this in mind, fellow cultivator."

The other party also politely explained a few more sentences.

"Thank you."

After receiving the token, Yunhe dripped a drop of blood, performed a hand seal, and thus bound it as his master; simultaneously, the token emitted a faint halo.

While following the crowd, he infused his divine sense into the token, and quickly gained a rough understanding of Cloud Palace City.

"Indeed, there is a reason for its high price."

Obtaining a residence token requires five medium-grade spirit stones, which equals exactly five hundred low-grade spirit stones; this is the most expensive entry fee Yunhe has ever seen.

However, after simply scanning the map of Cloud Palace City stored in the token, he felt it was still within an acceptable range.

"Cloud Palace City is huge, extremely huge, and inside the city there are not only cultivators but also a large number of mortals."

Overall, Cloud Palace City can roughly be divided into three regions.

The largest and most extensive area is the outermost ring of the city, which is the mortals' residence, where the spiritual energy can reach the intermediate level of the first stage.

Moving inward one ring, this is the cultivators' activity zone, including residential, trading, and dueling areas, etc.; the spiritual energy there ranges from the low to middle levels of the second stage.

Cultivators holding a residence token can stay in inns at a lower price in the residential area.

Further in is the cave dwelling rental area; cultivators who spend spirit stones can not only rent a cave dwelling but also obtain a sizable private plot, whether for planting medicinal fields or anything else, decided by the cultivator themselves.

Further inward lies Heaven Pillar Mountain, where the Cloud Upper Palace is located.

This mountain is not only extremely massive and towering, but its spiritual energy is also intensely rich.

Even just at the mountain's base, the spiritual energy reaches the level of a high-grade second-stage spirit vein; the higher one goes, the greater the concentration, reaching low-, middle-, and even high-grade third-stage.

But once the spiritual energy concentration reaches comparable to a high-grade third-stage spirit vein, the area above is not leased out, and cultivators are not even allowed to approach casually; this is the true sect location of the Cloud Upper Palace.

And Yunhe set his goal on Heaven Pillar Mountain.

From late Foundation Establishment to perfected Foundation Establishment, he relied mostly on Marrow Essence Pills for cultivation, and the demand for spiritual energy was not particularly high.

But when it came time to break through to a higher realm, the concentration of spiritual energy also became an important factor in increasing success rates, so naturally one would choose a place with higher spiritual energy.

Using the token, Yunhe can accurately pinpoint his current location in Cloud Middle City.

Ignoring the sycophants with fawning smiles approaching from all sides, he summoned his flying vessel and swiftly flew into the city.

Although the towering Heaven Pillar Mountain could be seen clearly from afar, Yunhe piloted his vessel and flew for a full two quarters of an hour before finally reaching the mountain's base.

Only upon drawing near did he increasingly feel the mountain's loftiness and grandeur.

Through obtaining the information from the token, Yunhe learned that this mountain was not naturally formed; it is said that, before any records existed in the classics, several powerful cultivators of the Cloud Upper Palace, with their vast divine powers, jointly exerted the tremendous might of moving mountains and filling seas, transporting earth and rock from other cloud islands and piling them up to form this mountain.

Thus, thereafter the Cloud Upper Palace established an important sect celebration—the Mountain Moving Celebration.

Every two hundred years, the Cloud Upper Palace sees great cultivators exerting their might to bring stone from outer islands and lay it upon this mountain; after an immeasurably long span of time, this has shaped the present Heaven Pillar Mountain.

Of course, aside from the initial mountain-moving and land-reclamation and the few subsequent occasions, this celebration gradually became merely a formality; it no longer requires moving many rocks, just putting on a show suffices.

As for these, Yunhe could only marvel at the strength of the Cloud Upper Palace.

Even though a Yuan Ying cultivator's lifespan can be a thousand years, the Cloud Upper Palace's inheritance span cannot be calculated; within at least ten thousand, even up to tens of thousands of years, the Cloud Upper Palace has continuously given birth to Yuan Ying cultivators in a stable manner—such inheritance inevitably inspires awe.

After expressing his awe,

Yunhe went straight to the mountain's base, where a luxurious small building came into view.

From time to time, cultivators would descend and enter the building, or transform into streaks of light and depart.

After pausing briefly, Yunhe, having disembarked from his flying vessel, also went inside.

Inside the building, it was unusually bustling; many cultivators, under the reception of attendants, were selecting cave dwellings and residences.

This sight left Yunhe speechless.

"A real estate office in the cultivation world!"

Upon his entry, an attendant soon came forward to greet him.

"Senior, do you wish to rent a cave dwelling?"

Although he was only a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator, he did not show any fawning attitude toward Yunhe, merely asking respectfully.

"How does one rent a cave dwelling on Heaven Pillar Mountain?" Yunhe asked after a slight nod.

"You want to rent a mountain cave dwelling, senior?" the attendant expressed slight surprise, but quickly reacted, gesturing and leading Yunhe to a wooden table, saying, "The mountain cave dwellings are managed by the steward; please wait a moment, senior, I will go fetch the steward."

Regarding this, Yunhe neither affirmed nor denied.

Soon after,

The attendant who had just served spirit tea then led a Foundation Establishment cultivator forward.

Without much small talk, the Foundation Establishment steward clasped his hands and said, "Fellow cultivator, do you need a cave dwelling on the mountain? Or perhaps one at the mountain's base?"

At this time, Yunhe did not overly conceal his cultivation; his late Foundation Establishment level was considered quite good outside, but within Cloud Palace City it was not uncommon, so the steward assumed Yunhe wanted a cave dwelling at the mountain's base.

"I am doing this for my elder; the higher the cave dwelling's location, the better."

Yunhe casually made an excuse.

"Oh?" the steward showed slight surprise, but quickly reacted, without further inquiry, he took out a thick special register.

After opening it, just as Yunhe had previously selected a cultivation site on Horned Flood Dragon Island, the book recorded various caves of all sizes within Cloud Palace City.

Densely packed, likely no fewer than ten thousand.

But most are caves at the mountain's base; those on the mountain are relatively sparser.

"Fellow Daoist, there aren't many caves left in the upper levels; this is information about caves currently available for immediate occupancy."

Saying that, he handed over several Jade Slips.

The caves on Heaven Pillar Mountain are divided into ten regions according to spiritual energy density; the higher the region, the higher the spiritual energy density.

The Jade Slips taken out by the steward respectively correspond to two caves in Region Eight, four caves in Region Six, and three caves in Region Four.

The spiritual energy in Region Eight barely reaches upper-grade third tier; Region Six's is middle-grade third tier; Region Four's is lower-grade third tier, but it is relatively the most dense among lower-grade third tier areas.

Of course, due to the region, location, and characteristics of each cave, their prices differ.

But the lease term is the same for all, measured in centuries.

"This one will do."

After examining it carefully, Yunhe took out one of the Jade Slips.

"Region Four, number thirty-seven?" The steward took the Jade Slip and gave it a quick glance.

Three days later.

Yunhe stood before a cave on Heaven Pillar Mountain, looking at the cave he had the right to use for a century, and showed a satisfied expression.

This cave is quite expensive, not much cheaper than a Golden Core spiritual treasure.

But it's understandable.

After all, strictly speaking, spiritual energy reaching the level of a third-tier spiritual vein can satisfy the cultivation needs of a Golden Core cultivator.

Moreover, a century's time, if broken down to a year or even a day, actually doesn't feel that expensive.

Yunhe chose this cave in Region Four for two reasons: first, the caves in the upper levels are outrageously priced; second, this cave's location is relatively remote, occupying a sizable plot of land, allowing him to safely develop spiritual fields or raise bees.

In fact, this place covers several thousand mu, not at all smaller than the cave he developed on Horned Field Island.

He spent three days removing some of the cave's original arrangements, then rebuilt it according to his needs; its internal facilities are almost identical to those of the cave on Horned Field Island.

Not everything is the same; this time he planted some special spiritual plants inside the cave, and after using a wood-attribute technique, many vines grew as decoration, so at least it won't look as dull as plain stone bricks.

He scattered seeds in the spiritual fields he had opened outside the cave.

The various spiritual plants that grow in the abundant spiritual energy allow his spiritual bees to collect more and more valuable spiritual honey, and to some extent save the resources he invests in the bees.

"Abundant spiritual energy, safe."

These two points satisfied his needs, so he didn't care as much about other things.

After perfecting the cave, Yunhe set aside all his thoughts and fell asleep on the soft bed inside the cave.

Several months of arduous travel left his body and mind with an indescribable fatigue.

However, after a good night's sleep, his condition returned to its peak.

Originally according to plan, he should today go wander the markets, exchange venues, or auctions within Cloud Palace City to see if he could purchase any spiritual treasures helpful for his Golden Core formation, and he needed to start focusing on planning his Golden Core.

But plans change faster than expected; before he left, he suddenly sensed that the carefully placed Red-ring Gold-spotted Bee queen and its eggs inside the special insect chamber had shown some activity.

The bee eggs that had been waited for months are finally about to hatch!

The bee swarm is one of the methods Yunhe highly values, so he directly abandoned his original plan and stayed in the insect chamber.

Silently waiting for the new bee species to hatch.

His demands are not high.

He only hopes.

The new bee species just needs not to be weaker than the Red-ring Gold-spotted Bee.

(End of chapter)