Chapter 71: Besieged for a Year, Rent Increases, Prices Skyrocket

In the blink of an eye, a year passed in an instant.

It had been nearly a year since they were surrounded by the Cultivators of the Youmo Sect.

The Cultivators staying in Miyun City still had no way to leave, and the Youmo Sect Cultivators had no intention of retreating, continuing to attack the Second-Tier Array of Miyun City every day, constantly consuming the array's energy.

Basically, this had become a habit for the Cultivators of Miyun City.

Both sides seemed to be in a state of equilibrium, with neither able to do anything to the other.

The Cultivators staying inside the city were also becoming increasingly restless; after all, no one knew when this war would end.

"Hoo!"

At this very moment, in the quiet room, Zhou Sui sat cross-legged on the ground, finishing his day's cultivation.

After a year of bitter cultivation, his cultivation base had made significant progress, reaching 40% completion of the Qi Refining Seventh Layer.

This was something that couldn't be helped.

After all, the further one progressed, the slower the speed of cultivation became, and it was not so easy to improve.

Of course, his gains this year were not just in his cultivation base.

More importantly, his understanding of pills had reached a higher level, with his Alchemy reaching 99% of First-tier High-grade; he was just one step away from becoming a Second-tier Alchemist.

The only reason he couldn't yet become a Second-tier Alchemist was simply the lack of inherited knowledge for a Second-tier Alchemist.

Besides this, his Five Elements Alchemy Formula had also improved to the level of Minor Achievement, which had also brought an astonishing improvement to his Alchemy techniques, greatly increasing his success rate in Alchemy.

Furthermore, his Phantom Demon Transformation Art had also improved from the Mastery level to the Minor Achievement level; having reached this realm, even a Golden Core Cultivator would not be able to see through his disguise, nor would they be able to see through his cultivation base.

He was fully capable of swaggering in front of Golden Core Cultivators without needing to worry about the other party seeing through his true face.

Of course, after reaching the Minor Achievement level, the speed of improvement had slowed down quite a bit, almost to the point of being difficult to advance even an inch.

If not for the help of the Book Gu, even a talented Demonic Sect Cultivator might spend over a hundred years before they could possibly cultivate this technique to the Minor Achievement realm.

It could be said that his speed of progress was quite astonishing.

"Husband, I'm afraid Miyun City is going to raise the rent."

At this time, Ji Bingyu said to Zhou Sui, who had just walked out of the quiet room.

"Raise the rent? What does that mean?"

Zhou Sui narrowed his eyes.

Because the rent in Miyun City was already quite expensive, requiring two Middle-grade Spirit Stones a month, equivalent to two hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones, which not many Cultivators could afford.

Even though there were many Spirit Stones in the Cloud Mist Mountain Range, causing the price of Spirit Stones not to be particularly high.

But this was basically the limit of what Cultivators could bear.

If the rent were raised again, I'm afraid these Cultivators would rise in rebellion.

"It is said that it is because Miyun City's Spirit Stone consumption is in an emergency."

Mu Ziyan explained: "After all, to maintain a Second-Tier Array, a large number of Spirit Stones are still needed as energy. Over this past year, the continuous attacks by the Youmo Sect Cultivators have caused the Spirit Stones stored in Miyun City to be consumed very quickly."

If there are not enough Spirit Stones, then Miyun City's array naturally cannot be maintained. In order to maintain the operation of this array, the Xianxia Sect has decided to raise the rent for the Cultivators living in the city.

Any Cultivator living in the city must pay expensive rent in order to continue living in Miyun City; otherwise, they must leave Miyun City."

She briefly explained why Miyun City had to raise the rent; it was all forced by the situation.

If there were not enough Spirit Stones, Miyun City's array would collapse sooner or later, and at that time, no one would benefit.

"If the rent is to be raised, exactly how many Spirit Stones will it be raised by?"

Zhou Sui asked.

"It is said that the rent will increase by at least double, which would be four Middle-grade Spirit Stones per month."

Xia Jingyan stated a number.

"Four Middle-grade Spirit Stones? That's not too bad."

Hearing this, Zhou Sui immediately breathed a sigh of relief. For him, a mere four Middle-grade Spirit Stones was not much for the time being, nor was it a heavy burden.

After all, he currently had five thousand Middle-grade Spirit Stones.

If it could be settled by spending a few Spirit Stones, then everything was not a big problem.

Even if he had to pay rent for four or five years, he could fully afford it.

"For us, it certainly doesn't count for much, but for other Cultivators, it is not the case."

Ji Bingyu shook her head: "Because now it is not just as simple as the rent rising; the prices of Runes, Dharma Artifacts, Spirit Medicine, pills, and so on have all risen crazily, more than doubling compared to before."

Even more astonishing are the prices of Spirit Rice and Spirit Meat; compared to a year ago, they have at least tripled, and even with money, you might not be able to buy them. Now, Miyun City is everywhere short of rice and meat. It is said that some neighboring Cultivators have been hungry for three days and three nights, so hungry they started gnawing on wood, and they went everywhere looking for people to borrow food from, but no one paid them any attention."

She indicated that the prices of goods within Miyun City were now starting to rise crazily, with the price changing every single day.

If Miyun City had not been blockaded by the Youmo Sect, then food would be everywhere.

Because outside the city is the Cloud Mist Mountain Range, where a large number of Monster Beasts live.

A single Monster Beast has hundreds or thousands of catties of meat.

Previously, Monster Beast meat was simply worthless and the price was low.

As for Spirit Rice, large tracts of farmland were cultivated outside, and there was a bumper harvest every year.

This also led to the Cultivators of Miyun City having no sense of crisis, and the price of food had always been very stable.

There was even a sense of grain being so cheap it hurt the farmers.

They had also never thought that they would ever have a day where they were short of grain and meat.

So this also meant that Miyun City's food reserves were not very large.

After being blockaded for only a year, Miyun City began to experience a large-scale food shortage.

"It is said that the Xianxia Sect Cultivators in Miyun City have already started to tighten food supplies, and the shops on the streets no longer sell grain and meat, supplying only a limited amount every day."

Xia Jingyan said in a deep voice.

Now, in order to maintain order and stability in Miyun City and prevent these hungry Cultivators from starting a riot, they began to restrict the sale of food, with each person limited to purchasing a certain amount every day.

Only then did the grain market temporarily stabilize.

After all, there was no other way; a Cultivator is also a Human and will feel hunger just the same.

Even a Foundation Establishment Cultivator or a Golden Core Cultivator will go hungry and needs to eat just the same.

"Husband, it is fortunate that we made preparations in advance and hoarded a large amount of supplies, otherwise we would likely be going hungry right now."

Mu Ziyan felt endlessly relieved.

She had never expected that one day she would actually worry about food; for a Cultivator to be starved to death would be a massive joke, yet within the besieged Miyun City, it could potentially become reality.

However, because they had previously hoarded over ten years' worth of grain and Spirit Meat, they had no need to scramble for that limited-supply grain and could still eat fish and meat every day.

Compared to other Cultivators, their lives were countless times better.

It was fortunate that her husband had foresight, otherwise they might have followed in the footsteps of those Cultivators.

(End of this chapter)