Chapter 19 - Green City

Green City, one of the great cities of the Forest Kingdom, was famous for its thriving market, which contained all kinds of merchandise for sale.

Unlike other cities, it had no forests in its surroundings and therefore used that space to its advantage to expand and build various types of structures. Apart from the capital, it was the largest city in the kingdom.

Furthermore, since it was located on the part of the kingdom that bordered the sea, it had no risks like the frontier cities. So the guard’s number and their strength were remotely comparable.

But if this was a problem in the citizens' life, this was a blessing for the underworld groups that had a strong influence in the city.

Brigands, thieves, murderers, and every other kind of criminals had made Green City their point of reference. After all, no one would have been willing to always sleep in caves or other outdoor places. And in any case, they needed a place where they could sell their stolen goods without having to worry about being arrested.

The royal family, as well as the leading ministers, were aware of it. But they turned a blind eye because the city’s various criminal groups each year donated a massive quantity of goods to the kingdom.

Thus, in Green City, it was possible to buy anything, including drugs and deadly poison and even slaves.

Although it wasn’t an activity encouraged by the kingdom, it wasn’t banned either. But, there were regulations about who could be sold as slaves. Only people without acquaintances and relatives or who had been captured in a war were sold.

Furthermore, there were cases of slave traders hiring bandits or murderers to assault innocent people and kidnap those who could make a profit as a slave.

Of course, they were rare episodes that only happened in places far from the big cities. After all, they didn't want to provoke the capital's wrath if they exaggerated with the attacks.

At that moment, a young boy from the outward appearance of 14-15 years, was crossing the city gates. He wore a low-priced, slightly worn brown robe. His brown skin was dirty with earth, and his hair was messy.

If it weren't for the wooden spear that stuck out, they might have thought he was a tramp. But the people who saw him concluded he was instead a young mercenary looking for work.

This boy was none other than Hei. To avoid creating a fuss, Bao Bei thought it would have been better if Hei didn’t directly wear his silvery silk clothes. He should instead put some low-quality robe on top when arriving at the city.

Despite providing some protection due to their resistance, Bao Bei’s silk was a precious material in the eyes of other people and could have brought inconvenient problems. At the moment, they didn’t want to attract too much attention, not with Leaf Village’s incident still quite recent.

So they took advantage of a group of travelers who were sleeping outdoors to steal one of their reserve robes. As compensation, they left the fur of an animal they had hunted that would be worth more than the cost of that old robe.

As a result, Hei entered the city without problems, leaving only a fleeting impression in the people at the gates.

As for Ye and Xing, they were hidden in their usual hiding places. However, along with them, there was also Bao Bei.

For the occasion, she had shrunk herself to become a tiny spider, and she hid on Hei's head. To prevent Ye from feeling alone, she would occasionally change position while moving towards his neck.

Accustomed to his mother carrying the three of them, Hei was very nervous with his mother on his body. Although Bao Bei had become tiny, for Hei, it was like he was carrying a valuable cargo. After all, he wanted his mother to have a good trip while she was on his body.

The reason for this choice was because, in her usual size, she would have attracted too much attention. At the same time, she didn't even want to send Hei alone to an unknown city. So she opted for this decision.

Because they didn't know where to start, Hei and his mother and his two sisters decided to follow the flow of people. Even if they didn't know exactly where they were going, it was an excellent opportunity to take a look at the structure of a city. After all, except for Bao Bei, their experience was limited only to the Multicolored Leaf Forest and Leaf Village.

Green City, therefore, didn’t disappoint their expectations.

Unlike a village where there were mainly houses, here there were a vast amount of buildings not used as dwellings. They went from being shops that specialized in selling a specific product to structures such as hotels, public baths, schools, and so on.

But what surprised Bao Bei’s three cubs was above all the number of people there. They were far numerous than the Leaf VIllage's inhabitants, not to mention the diversity between them.

There were people of low stature who wore low-cost clothes, usually with dark colors. In their tired eyes and the paleness of their skin, you could see that they slept little and worked hard.

Then there were the middle-class people who had a stable income and could afford a decent lifestyle, and they wore clothes of much better quality. Their appearance was decidedly better, and they wandered the streets slowly while taking a look around if something could pick up their interest.

Finally, you could see elegant carriages that carried people with bright clothes and adorned with precious gems. Their wealth was visible, but no one dared to have strange thoughts because they were accompanied by bodyguards.

To crowd the streets further, there were a lot of stalls selling their products. They were mainly agricultural, but occasionally, you could find stalls selling cheap weapons and tools as well as small items for the house. Their cost wasn’t much, but because they were cheap, they attracted many buyers.

Not knowing where to start asking for information, Hei tried to stop some people, but none of them stopped to listen to him.

So Hei decided that instead of asking passers-by, he should try with the stalls' owners. But even these didn't pay any attention to him since he wasn't interested in their goods.

With no other option left to him, Hei tried his luck with the shops. He decided to try one that caught his eye: it was a herb and medicinal pills store; these items were used to grow one’s cultivation.

Hei naturally had no gold, silver, or copper coins to buy anything, but he had a currency far more precious than all those: spirit cores.

Due to their multiple uses, their price was very high. Besides, in the negotiations concerning rare goods, gold and other currency had often no purchasing power. But spirit cores or spirit stones were always accepted. Regarding spirit stone, they were nothing but stones containing spirit power.

The main difference between the two was that the spirit cores’ energy had to be diluted with other elements. Therefore they were mostly used in alchemy. Spirit stones, on the other hand, could be directly absorbed by martial artists to raise their cultivation, and they were also used as fuel for arrays.

The shop was very spacious inside and well-ordered. On the shelves, there were exposed various herbs and bottles containing pills, each labeled with a brief description of their use. Not all of them were used for cultivation, but many were specifically designed for combat, causing an immediate strengthening of a specific type in the one who swallowed the medicine.

As he began to turn to take a look at the goods on display, an annoying voice was suddenly heard.

"If you came to snoop, then you'd better go away. I don't have time for those who just want to see without buying."

The speaker was a middle-aged man with a thick beard and long dark brown hair behind a counter. He wore a simple black tunic but of good quality. His eyes at first glance appeared closed, but noticing carefully, one could see they were open and carefully controlled every single movement of Hei.

From the way he spoke to him, Hei concluded he was the shop owner. "I came to see, but if there is something that interests me, I would like to buy it."

"Really? And yet you don't look so wealthy from your appearance. Do you think this shop is like the stalls out there selling common plants? No, each of these plants contains spirit power as well as the pills. They are all objects that have a huge cost for ordinary people."

Since it seemed useless to try to convince him in words, Hei released his spirit power a little.

Hei was generally forbidden by Bao Bei to use his spirit power because he hadn’t yet started his cultivation. He would become a bit tired if he used it even for a brief moment.

However, if he hadn’t done so, the owner would have thrown him out directly. Of course, before doing so, he had obtained permission from his mother.

"Spirit power? What?! Uhmm... from your appearance, you seem to be no more than 14-15 years old. Boy, tell me-" The owner got up while trying to question Hei, but then suddenly stopped to resume talking shortly after, "Sorry, just forget it. Go ahead and let me know if you need help.” Then he sat down and left Hei alone.

The reason he didn't investigate further was that he knew that martial artists didn't like too many questions about them and their origins. A boy able to awaken his spirit power so young was undoubtedly from a big sect or a big family. It wasn’t a good idea to investigate if they hadn’t announced their identity first.

Hei, a bit puzzled by the strange behavior of the owner, returned to focus on the goods on display. Everything was fascinating, and as he liked plants, he was very attracted by that view. Even the pills aroused his interest since he was the first time he saw them.

With furtive movements, even Ye and Xing peeped to smell the smell of the products. For some reason, their stomach began to grumble as they watched the plants.

Bao Bei also awoke from her brief sleep as she quickly scanned the goods. Then she signaled Hei to go to a shelf and pointed to a bottle.

Anti-impurity pills (skin) - 10 pieces - 20 gold coins per bottle

Thus it was written in the description below.

‘The impurities are nothing but a substance inside the body that limits the efficiency of a person's body. Therefore it is necessary to eliminate them to have good foundations and advance with cultivation. We spirit beasts don’t have this problem because, through the energy absorbed directly by spirit cores, we are directly purified by this substance.’ Said Bao Bei while explaining the importance of such pills.

‘And what exactly does skin mean in the description?’ Hei asked with curiosity since there had to be a reason for this specific indication.

‘As I told you, human cultivation is divided into seven ranks. The first is called a spirit apprentice and includes seven stages: skin, muscles, organs, bones, blood, meridians, and marrow. The first rank is the basis of all your future cultivation. It consists in making the martial artist’s body capable of producing spirit power and imbuing it in every single part of the body. As you progress towards higher stages, your body improves.

The first stage improves the hardness of your skin by increasing the defense. The second strengthens the muscles, thus increasing strength and speed. The third is the organs that increase reflexes and resistance to ailments, such as paralysis or poisoning. The fourth is the blood that influences stamina and regeneration. The fifth is the bones that improve flexibility and agility. The sixth instead concerns the opening of the meridians with the creation of the circuit where the spirit power flows, and it increases instinctive perception. The seventh instead is the marrow that improves all the abilities of the other previous stages. The latter, however, isn’t an indispensable step to advance. But if you advance to the second rank, by skipping the seventh stage of spirit apprentice, it will be much more difficult to advance. Your potential will also be limited.

Regarding the sixth stage, although you can still let your spirit power flow without the meridians opening, the two of them aren’t remotely comparable. Furthermore, before the meridians open, the only source from which you could obtain spirit power is your's own body. With the opening of meridians, it is instead possible to absorb the environment's spirit power to restore it more quickly.

However, this spirit power absorbed from outside has to be purified, and only a part will be absorbed. So, it makes it almost impossible to use that in battle unless you are willing to suffer permanent wounds. Moreover, it is extremely tiring for the body if you try to do it when you have suffered too many injuries. There is a risk that the body won't hold up the process.’

Bao Bei finished her long explanation and then asked Hei if he understood. He answered yes and stared with new curiosity at the pills. With the newly acquired knowledge, he realized that there were other similar pills, but they only reached the fourth stage. Astonished, he tried to ask the owner who answered him with a strange look.

"They cannot be sold to the normal public. Only sects and the army can manage these resources to prevent powerful martial artists from being left without affiliation."

"I understand, then I take a pack of anti-impurity pills (skin), then I wondered if, in addition to the plants, by chance, you also sell the seeds?"

The fact of not knowing that it was forbidden to buy medicines that strengthened beyond the fourth stage had surprised the owner. However, Hei's subsequent request astonished him even more.

"Boy, are you an apprentice spirit farmer?"

"More or less. I have cultivated various medicinal plants and not, but I would like to try my hand at cultivating plants with spirit power. So, I need the seeds and, if possible, also a manual with the known species and their cultivation methods."

Thanks to Lei Lei, Hei had learned how to cultivate plants and flowers, but they were plants without spirit power. Although the process shouldn’t diversify too much, growing spirit plants required different requirements: first of all, the presence of a spirit vein. A spirit vein meant a place where a steady flow of spirit power naturally flowed from the earth. Thanks to this energy, the plants would have enough nourishment to become spirit plants.

Spirit veins weren’t common on Rainbow Island. Only the territories under the control of the sects and other strong influences possessed one, thus ensuring a secure source of energy.

"Yes, I have them, but I must warn you that cultivating spirit plants is more difficult than cultivating normal plants. However, if you are willing to buy, it isn’t my business."

Therefore the man went to retrieve a couple of books that he kept under the counter. Then, he momentarily closed the shop to bring Hei to the back where all the seeds were placed. There Hei collected an enormous quantity of various types of seeds. Since he didn't know if his first attempts would bear fruit, he wanted at least to have multiple types of plants to experiment with.

Since they were only seeds, the cost was significantly lower than the pills and the mature plants. But as Hei had taken them in large quantities, the price, in addition to the pills and books, went to reach the 100 gold coins.

He then exchanged various first-level spirit cores in exchange for the selected items.

It had to be stated that spirit beasts were divided into only seven levels. However, that didn’t mean that those of the same level had the same strength and, therefore, the same price. Like how a first-stage spirit apprentice couldn’t compare to a seventh-stage spirit apprentice. Likewise, a newly awakened spirit beast couldn’t be compared to a spirit beast near to the second level.

So, to accurately calculate the right price, merchants used unique scales with arrays that calculated the spirit power contained inside an object by comparing it with a sample of measurement.

When the payment was finished, the owner gave Hei various leather bags to put everything into. Since he had bought so much from him, he gave Hei these for free and let him come out from the back to avoid too many looks.

With various bags hanging over his body, he left the shop. Once he was sure to be alone, he motioned for his mother to proceed. The multiple bags containing his purchases were sucked into Bao Bei’s pocket dimension, leaving Hei free from their burden.

Since he had noticed the strange look of the shopkeeper, Hei decided at the end not to ask him any question about the near sects. That would have given the man the confirmation of not being familiar with the situation in the Forest Kingdom.

So he went back to the busy streets to find food and to find information about the sects nearby.