Ling Xiao City is a city where cultivators gathered based on the development of Bixiao Gate, a sect of Xiu Xian Men.

  Under the sunset, a youth with tattered clothes, to be exact, his body was like being wrapped in strips of rags, and his hair was disheveled and dirty, walked alone on the streets west of Ling Xiao City.

  The west city's this generation of the market, are mostly immortal big families Han family's industry. And Baicao Hall, is the west city's largest collection and sale of medicinal materials shop, also belongs to the Han family.

  The young man walked into the Baicao Hall, and the shopkeeper behind the counter raised his eyes slightly to take a look, frowned, and then ignored him, continuing to bow his head to sort out his accounts.

  The young man, however, was completely nonchalant and calmly walked up to the counter, placing some medicinal herbs on it.

  "Shopkeeper, take a look at these few herbs." The young man said calmly.

  The shopkeeper finally raised his head and casually flipped through these medicinal materials with his hand.

  "Qingye lotus, jinv manteng... are all some unconventional medicinal materials, and the year is barely enough to be used as medicine. Hmm! This purple polypore does have some age." The shopkeeper glanced at the young man with a slanted eye, seemingly curious about how he managed to pick such a purple polypore, but it was fleeting, and he quickly calculated the bill.

  "Thirty pieces of low-grade spirit stones in total!"

  The young man's face didn't show any change in expression, and the shopkeeper also stopped talking, taking out thirty pieces of low-grade spirit stones and pushing them over. The young man carefully counted the spirit stones before putting them away close to his body, then turned around and walked out.

  The shopkeeper looked at the young man's thin back, sighed slightly, shook his head, and immediately continued to sort out his accounts.

  Out of Baicao Hall, the young man changed his silent and taciturn appearance, with a bright and pure smile on his face, excitedly jumping up.

  "With thirty pieces of low-grade spirit stones, I can buy a bottle of Gathering Qi Dan!" The young man thought to himself, then looked around again and found no one noticing his actions, before continuing to walk forward with a silly grin.

  This young man's name was Li Hui, and he was a loose cultivator in Ling Xiao City.

  Less than 100 meters east of Baicao Hall, there is an alley similar to the streets in the mortal world called "Mortal Street". Inside this alley, there are wine houses, silk shops, oil and rice stores, inns, pawnshops, and even brothels. In short, all the necessities of life in the mortal world can be satisfied here.

  There are four alleys like this in the east, west, south and north of Ling Xiao City, controlled by the four major families in the city. This alley in the west of the city belongs to the Han family's property, just like Baicao Hall.

  It's called an alley, but in reality, it would be a very wide street even in the secular world. At the entrance of the alley is a money house with a sign that reads: "Huitong Building".

  In this alley, there are two kinds of currency in circulation. One is the spiritual stone that Li Hui just received for selling medicinal materials. The other is the mundane gold and silver.

  In Ling Xiao City, no ordinary people are allowed to live. All infants born in Ling Xiao City will be registered and undergo spiritual root detection at the "Testing Spirit Pavilion" set up by the Bi Xiao Gate. If a couple in Ling Xiao City gives birth to a child without a spiritual root, they must send the child outside of Bi Xiao Mountain before the age of five.

  This rule is spontaneously observed by all cultivators in Ling Xiao City, because the world of cultivation is cruel and a mortal without spiritual roots cannot survive in Ling Xiao City.

  Even loose cultivators living outside Ling Xiao City would generally send their descendants without spiritual roots to the mountains, where they would be adopted by a good family. These cultivators were like gods in the eyes of ordinary people, so they could usually find a wealthy and noble family to adopt their descendants.

  Those who are still unable to abstain from food and drink, such as low-level cultivators and ordinary people, need to eat, drink, wear clothes, and live in houses, so streets and alleys similar to those in the secular world appear.

  Ling stone is a universal currency in the Xiu Zhen world, equivalent to gold and silver in the mortal world.

  Ling stones can be directly absorbed into the spiritual energy during cultivation, set up arrays, and cast some spells that consume a lot of spiritual power. According to the amount of spiritual power contained, ling stones are divided into four levels: lower grade, middle grade, upper grade, and extreme grade.

  Generally, one hundred pieces of low-grade spirit stone can be exchanged for one piece of medium-grade spirit stone, while one thousand pieces of medium-grade spirit stone are barely enough to exchange for one piece of high-grade spirit stone. As for top-grade spirit stone, it is impossible to estimate its value, and it is extremely rare in the entire cultivation world.

  The Xianxia world generally uses spiritual stones as currency, but the value of these items needed in the secular world is too low to be measured with spiritual stones. As a result, shops like Huitong Building that specialize in exchanging spiritual stones for gold and silver have emerged.

  Li Hui came to the lobby of the hotel, walked up to the counter, and behind the counter was a smiling fat man with big ears wearing expensive clothes, who looked like a worldly businessman.

  "Exchange two pieces of low-grade spirit stones." Li Hui placed the two pieces of low-grade spirit stones on the counter. He ignored Fatso's smiling face, knowing that this fat guy was ruthless when it came to making deals, without even blinking an eye.

  "Alright! Two pieces of low-grade spirit stones, exchanged for 100 taels of silver!" The fat man shouted loudly, and a clerk brought over 100 taels of white silver and placed it on the counter.

  Li Hui took the one hundred and two silver coins, his face showing a few degrees of pain, turned around and walked out. The fat shopkeeper still smiled and said "slow down, no need to see you off".

  "It's too black!" This is what Li Hui thinks every time he exchanges silver here. Exchanging spirit stones for silver, one low-grade spirit stone can be exchanged for 50 taels of white silver. But if you exchange white silver for spirit stones, 100 taels of white silver can only exchange for one low-grade spirit stone.

  The immortal families in the city generally support certain forces in the mortal world, some are Jianghu gangs, and others support business firms.

  In this way, the forces of the mortal world provide materials to the immortal families in the city, and the immortal families use these shops in the city to turn these materials into spiritual stones and silver. The spiritual stones are used for cultivation by the immortal families, while the silver is used to develop the secular forces.

  In the city, this alley that looks like a secular market street sells things at several times the price of the secular world. Moreover, there is a huge difference between exchanging spirit stones for silver and exchanging silver for spirit stones. These intermediate profits are all taken by the immortal families.

  As I walked out of the Huitong Building, I ran into a young man wearing all white clothes, holding a folding fan and looking like a rich young master from the secular world. Although this guy had a face as dark as charcoal and looked like a monkey, he still managed to dress up in a stylish and elegant manner. Behind him followed several young men dressed in black clothes who looked like bodyguards.

  The young man in white clothes is called Han Hao, and the Huitong Building is his father's responsibility behind the scenes. This Han Hao has both golden and wooden spiritual roots, and among the younger generation of the Han family, he also belongs to the better ones in terms of talent. He is 15 years old this year and has already reached the seventh level of Qi refining. Becoming an inner disciple under the Bi Xiang Gate was a foregone conclusion.

  As a result, his father also rose in status within the family and was responsible for the operation of this Huìtōng Building. And this guy often acted as if he were the young master, frequently hanging around this area.

  Li Hui glanced at Han Hao and was about to leave, but Han Hao blocked his way with a folding fan: "Hey, what's with the getup? Tsk! Look at this outfit, thread by thread, it's really got personality!"

  The several boys who followed behind burst out laughing.

  Li Hui stood quietly, his face showing no change. Han Hao looked at him like a rare animal, circling around him and sizing him up from head to toe, clicking his tongue in amazement. The black-clad youths laughed so hard their heads almost touched the ground.

  "Let the young master have a good laugh." Li Hui said calmly.

  "Huh?" Han Hao's face showed a hint of surprise, and he said with a playful tone: "Not bad, not bad, you're quite sensible! Unlike that guy Wang Dong last time... Hey, how did we meet that guy again?" This last sentence was directed at a black-clad youth in his entourage.

  "Ah-choo!" The young man in black clothes stepped out with a mischievous grin, pretending to cough twice: "Young master, watch closely!"

  Han Hao and several other boys were already laughing together at Wang Dong's comical appearance.

  "Hmph!" Wang Dong cleared his throat, put his hands behind his back, and straightened his waist. "Righteously and with proper words," he said: "Thirty years on the west bank of the river, thirty years on the east bank of the river. Rather deceive an old man with white hair, do not deceive a poor young man!"

  He immediately returned to his usual fawning expression, smiling obsequiously at Han Hao and saying: "Young Master, isn't that right?" Then he couldn't help but burst out laughing.

  "Hahaha... hahaha... right... right... hahaha... that's it... hahaha, I'm dying of laughter!" Han Hao laughed so hard he bent over, speaking in a stuttering tone.

  Several other black-clad youths also burst out laughing.

  After a while, Han Hao finally straightened up, still shrugging his shoulders and laughing: "Haha, later that guy was beaten by Wang Dong and the others for at least half a month and couldn't get out of bed, haha......hahaha!"

  Li Hui stood quietly as usual, with no expression on his face and said nothing.

  "Hey! Kid, don't you think it's funny? Who are you showing off that donkey face to?" The black-clad youth named Wang Dong shouted, pointing at Li Hui.

  "It's really funny!" Li Hui said calmly, suppressing his inner anger.

  "Alright, I'm happy now. Let's get down to business!" Han Hao reopened his folding fan and put on the airs of a young master, walking towards the Huitong Building, while the other black-clad youths hastily followed behind him.

  Li Hui stood still, his fists slowly clenched, his eyes full of anger.

  The Xiuzhen world is so cruel, if you don't have the strength, even saying a few tough words will become a laughing stock. Only the strong are qualified to pretend to put down their airs and sympathize with the weak from a high position.

  Li Hui's clenched fist slowly relaxed, he had never yearned for strength like today...

  After a long time, Li Hui's face slowly returned to normal. He turned his head and took a look at the high-hanging signboard of the Huitong Building, with a hint of ferocity in his eyes:

  Today you humiliate me, tomorrow I'll repay with blood!

  Li Hui didn't say this sentence, now saying it out is pretentious! The anger without strength is meaningless! The strong are not those who become stronger by speaking a few childish and hot-blooded words with a feverish brain!

  Turning back, Li Hui didn't hesitate anymore and strode towards the depths of Fanren Street.