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nGuang’an Prefecture

nFour hours later, the Canglong docked at the port.

nAfter a month of drifting about at sea, Chen Daoxuan finally stepped onto solid ground.

n“Is this Guang’an Prefecture?”

nLooking at the crowd of pedestrians around him, Chen Daoxuan could not help but ask.

n“Yes, this is Guang’an Prefecture!”

nLooking at the most prosperous prefecture within a hundred thousand miles, Chen Xianhe could not help but feel excited.

nIn Chen Daoxuan’s eyes, the prosperous Guang’an Prefecture looked more like a coastal city from modern civilization of his than the ancient cities of previous generations.

nFirst of all, this city did not have walls similar to the ancient cities; it was a completely open concept city.

nSecondly, there were too many buildings in the city. One after another, there were residences, restaurants, inns, and various businesses … there was no end to them.

nHe got off the ship.

nChen Daoxuan discovered that, at the dock, there was a group of oddly dressed mortals carrying sacks around. They were moving goods onto the cloud treading beast carriage without stopping.

nThey were wearing ankle cuffs, so it was difficult for them to move quickly. Behind each of the dozens of porters, there was a mortal warrior with a whip in his hand. It seemed like he was keeping watch over them.

nChen Daoxuan scanned them with his spiritual sense.

nHe found that the sacks were actually filled with food.

nChen Xianhe, who was walking beside him, followed Chen Daoxuan’s gaze and explained, “Those are mortal prisoners of war from the Cloud Nation. They were bought by some itinerant cultivators and small clans and used as slaves.”

n“Using mortals as slaves?”

nAll along, Chen Daoxuan had thought that mortals were only used as breeding vessels to produce more immortal cultivators.

nHe did not expect that there would be cultivators who would use mortals as slaves.

nIt was as if Chen Xianhe could see through his doubts. He smiled and said, “Of course, we cultivators can go without eating or drinking, but not mortals. Aside from the large number of cultivators in the great cultivation clans, the population of mortals in their clans is extremely large as well.”

n“Take the Zhou clan as an example. Their population of mortals surpasses tens of millions. With such a large number of mortals, they cannot survive on the food produced by Spirit Shell Island alone.”

nHearing this, Chen Daoxuan instantly understood.

nMost of the slaves of the Cloud Nation in front of him were the servants of the cultivators of the Myriad Sea of Stars.

nItinerant cultivators relied on these servants to develop barren islands and grow food. The great immortal cultivation clans used small sums of their spirit stones to purchase this food to feed their huge population; both sides took what they needed.

nThis was also one of the sources of spirit stones for itinerant cultivators.

nAs for why the Chen clan of Shuanghu Island did not develop this “business”, Chen Daoxuan took one look at his thirteenth uncle and immediately understood the reason.

nIt was not because the Chen clan was kind-hearted, but rather because they could not spare the extra energy and time. The number of cultivators in the Chen clan was too few.

nChen Xianhe usually had to deal with clan matters, while also protecting the safety of Changping County’s clansmen.

nHow could he have the time or energy to run this “side business”?

nMoreover, most of the mortal prisoners of war from the Cloud Nation were martial artists and, if there were no cultivators around to suppress them and they only relied on ordinary members of the Chen clan to oversee them, it was impossible to guarantee that these servants would not rebel and escape.

nMoreover, the income from selling ordinary food for spirit stones was too low, and as such rather pointless.

nTherefore, the Chen clan chose not to develop this business.

nAs he thought of something, Chen Daoxuan continued to ask, “These slaves were originally members of some of the cultivation clans in the Cloud Nation, right?”

nUpon hearing this, Chen Xianhe fell silent at first, and then nodded. “That’s right! The war between the Myriad Sea of Stars and the Cloud Nation has been going on for more than four hundred years. Fortunately, we have always been on the offensive, so the ones who ended up suffering were mostly the mortals of the Cloud Nation.”

n“Among these mortals, most of the men were sold into slavery, while the women became the vessels for the great immortal clans to reproduce.”

nWith just a few sentences, Chen Xianhe sketched out an extremely cruel cultivation world for Chen Daoxuan.

nThere had never been anything beautiful about life here. There were only crueler battles than in his previous life. In order to fight for resources, the methods of the cultivators were even crueler than the humans of his previous life.

nChen Daoxuan thought to himself, ‘This was the tragedy of the weak. No matter whether it was his previous life or in this life, it was all the same.’

nDespite seeing Chen Daoxuan’s ugly expression, Chen Xianhe did not stop talking.

nAs the future clan leader of the Chen clan of Shuanghu Island, there were some things that he had to bear.

nIn the past, he did not tell him about these things because he wanted him to focus on learning how to refine artifacts; it did not mean that Chen Daoxuan could escape this world’s cruel reality.

n“Being weak is a sin.”

nWhen Chen Xianhe heard this, he was stunned at first. Then, he nodded and said affirmatively, “That’s right. In this world, being weak is a sin!”

n…

nThe group continued forward.

nChen Xianhe arranged for his clansmen to stay behind at an inn in Guang’an Prefecture.

nThen, he led Chen Daoxuan toward the inner city of Guang’an Prefecture.

nAs the two of them headed toward the inner city, Chen Daoxuan discovered that the number of cultivators was increasing. In the end, he could hardly see any mortals around. All he could see around him were cultivators.

n“Although you can find both immortals and mortals in Guang’an Prefecture, cultivators and mortals don’t actually live together. The inner city of Guang’an Prefecture that we’re going to now is the true immortal city of Guang’an Prefecture!”

nAlong the way, Chen Xianhe spoke as he walked.

nIt was as expected.

nAs the group continued to move forward, a tall city wall appeared in front of the two of them.

nAt the city gate, a cultivator wearing a long green robe, embroidered with a fiery red spirit pearl, blocked their path.

n“Stop, please pay the city entrance fee.”

nHearing this, Chen Xianhe took out two spirit stones from his storage bag and handed them over.

n“You may enter.”

nThe Zhou clan cultivator waved his hand and let the two enter the city gate.

nChen Daoxuan turned around and looked behind him. He could not see the end of the long line.

nHe had just stepped past the city gate, but Chen Daoxuan felt as if he had entered another world. The concentration of spiritual essence suddenly increased by more than ten-fold.

n“This is…”

nSeeing Chen Daoxuan’s shocked look, Chen Xianhe, who was beside him, explained, “This is their spiritual vein! There is a third-grade spiritual vein buried underneath the immortal city of Guang’an Prefecture. Therefore, we can feel the presence of the spiritual essence just by stepping into the territory.”

nLooking at the sky, Chen Xianhe said, “Let’s find an inn to stay the night first. Every night in the immortal city of Guang’an Prefecture, there will be Zhou clan cultivators coming to clean up the cultivators who don’t have the right to stay, so that itinerant cultivators don’t come here to obtain spiritual essence.”

nThe rental of houses in the immortal city of Guang’an Prefecture was divided into two types, which were short-term rental and long-term rental.

nThe short-term rental was at the inns, and the normal rental period was for less than a month.

nIf the rental period was for more than a month, the cultivators would often choose to rent an immortal cave abode from the Zhou clan, because the price was cheaper than the short-term rental rates offered at the inns.

nDue to the abundant spiritual essence in the immortal city of Guang’an Prefecture, the prices of the inns here were also very exorbitant.

nChen Xianhe and Chen Daoxuan only rented two rooms. After choosing to rent for ten days, they paid a total of 20 spirit stones. On average, each person needed to pay one spirit stone a day, and this was only the inn with the lowest concentration of spiritual essence.

nIt was rumored that the immortal city of Guang’an Prefecture also provided cave abodes of A, B, C, and D grades. The living environment and spiritual essence concentration of each grade of cave abode were different.

nIt was unknown how many spirit stones were required to rent the A-grade cave abodes, which were of the highest grade.

nOf course, cultivators who could afford to rent A-grade cave abodes were either disciples of other immortal cultivation clans, or itinerant cultivators with special skills.

nOrdinary itinerant cultivators and disciples of small clans would not even dare to think about such extravagance.

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