“Well, let’s go,” Bai Xiaochun said with a sigh. “Now that we’re here, we might as well find a place to settle down.” With that, he headed toward the city, and everyone followed along.
As they neared the city itself, they sensed invisible fluctuations spreading over all of them. Bai Xiaochun took out the jade slip he’d been given, which began to glow with a bright light that was none other than teleportation power. Before anyone in the group of seven could react, they had vanished.
When they reappeared, they were in a grand hall somewhere in the middle of the city. As soon as they appeared, and before they could even see their surroundings clearly, and icy voice spoke out.
“Hostage Bai Xiaochun. Hostage Gongsun Wan’er. Within these bags of holding you will find identity medallions and red Daoist robes for both you and your Dao Protectors.
“From this day on, all of you are cultivators of the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect!” Two bags of holding appeared out of thin air and flew toward Bai Xiaochun and Gongsun Wan’er.
Before they had a chance to even open them, streams of power wrapped them up and threw them out of the hall. Moments later, they were out on the street. No one even spared them a second glance; apparently, they were used to people appearing like this.
Bai Xiaochun looked around blankly. Xu Baocai and Big Fatty Zhang were a bit pale-faced from the teleportation. Song Que and Master God-Diviner seemed to have handled it a bit better, and Chen Manyao didn’t appear to be affected at all.
However, the cold reception from the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect was something none of them were used to.
Feeling less than pleased with the treatment, Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath, looked back at the grand hall, and shouted, “Hey, I’m an important political hostage!”
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Chapter
380: I'm Hungry
Bai Xiaochun’s shout provoked no response from within the hall. Master God-Diviner and the others exchanged awkward glances. As for Bai Xiaochun, he was extremely displeased. After all, he was an important political hostage, a status that he felt should come with at least some level of respect.
“Right guys?!” he said, looking over angrily at Big Fatty Zhang and the others. “Come on, I'm an important political hostage!”
Big Fatty Zhang cleared his throat and looked left and right, but didn’t say anything.
“Ah well, whatever. I guess this hostage will just have to rough it out. Alright guys, what should we do now?” Sighing, he looked over at Master God-Diviner.
“Um,” Master God-Diviner began cautiously, “well... maybe we should check things out first before making any decisions.” Xu Baocai and Big Fatty Zhang seemed to agree with him. Chen Manyao didn’t say anything, and Gongsun Wan’er simply stood there with a slight smile on her face. As for Song Que, he looked just as grim as always, and didn’t seem interested at all in even looking at Bai Xiaochun.
Bai Xiaochun looked around at everyone, and felt a headache coming on. He was already starting to regret bringing all these people with him. However, he couldn’t change the situation now. Therefore, he decided to do just as Master God-Diviner had suggested, and began walking down the street in the city.
As he went along, he slowly forgot about his mistreatment from before. Soon, he began to gasp and let out exclamations of shock. He wasn’t the only one to react in such a way; the others were similarly astonished by the things they saw.
After all, they were at the source of the entire eastern Heavenspan River, and this city had an enormous population. Most of the people in the city were disciples of the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect, but others were from various families and clans that had lived in the city for generations.
One of the strangest things that Bai Xiaochun realized was that he hadn’t seen a single overweight person in the city so far. Everyone was skinny to the point of being gaunt. Some of them even looked like little more than skin and bones. Furthermore, everyone always seemed to be rushing about, as if they didn’t want to waste even a bit of time. Another strange thing was that none of them revealed even the tiniest sliver of their cultivation base. Bai Xiaochun was a Gold Core cultivator, so he was able to pick up some clues here and there. However, most other cultivators would look around and see people who looked like nothing more than mortals.
Suppressing his curiosity about that, Bai Xiaochun focused on all the things that were for sale in the city. Just about anything could be bought, from spirit treasures to magical items to ancient books. There were all sorts of medicinal pills as well.
There was spirit food available, some of which was made from precious materials of heaven and earth. Other spirit foods were the meats of different types of wild beasts. The prices for the spirit foods were astronomical, and yet to the surprise of Bai Xiaochun and his companions, people still would buy them, although it always seemed to be with some level of reluctance.
Bai Xiaochun had never seen such a bustling city before, nor had any of his companions. Thus, they took their time strolling through the city, slowly taking in all the sights and sounds.
As time passed, they were convinced of one thing... prices in the city were simply beyond belief. Thankfully, Bai Xiaochun had been given a sizeable sum of spirit stones back in the River-Defying Sect, but even with what he had, it only took a quick calculation on his part to come to the conclusion that he didn’t have enough to buy any of the things he really wanted.
After a few hours of wandering the city, the entire group came to another shocking realization: for some reason, all of them were very hungry!
This development caused their eyes to grow wide. After all, once cultivators reached Foundation Establishment, they didn’t need to consume physical food. Instead, they subsided on spiritual energy alone.
But as of this moment... a sensation of profound hunger had risen up within all of them.
“What’s going on...? I'm... I'm hungry!” Bai Xiaochun rubbed his belly and then looked over at Chen Manyao with a confused expression on his face.
Chen Manyao was also clearly taken aback. After a moment of thought, she pulled out a jade slip which she used to send a message to someone. After a moment, an odd expression appeared on her face. Looking around at her companions, she hesitated, then said, “Did any of you notice... that your cultivation bases have progressed already?”
Everyone quickly checked their cultivation bases, and sure enough, it was just as Chen Manyao had said. They hadn’t experienced huge advancements, but the evidence was there; they had just been so entranced by the bustling city that they hadn’t noticed.
Chen Manyao went on to explain, “Considering how close we are to the Heavenspan Sea, the spiritual energy is especially strong, and after entering our bodies, it throws our five yin organs into chaos. Although it causes our cultivation bases to advance more quickly, it’s also very draining on us.... That’s why we’re feeling hungry. Essentially... the energy drain is so severe that we can’t sustain our cultivation without eating normal food.”
Even as Chen Manyao explained the situation, Bai Xiaochun’s stomach began to grumble loudly.
When she finished speaking, his face fell. Other than death, the thing he feared most in life was hunger. Back on Fragrant Cloud Peak when he had begun to practice the Undying Live Forever Technique, he had almost starved to death. After reaching Foundation Establishment, he had never felt the pangs of hunger, but now, here they were rising up again.
Chen Manyao smiled bitterly and said, “Furthermore, I just asked... a friend of mine, and was told that everyone in the city has to eat a huge amount of food every day to replenish their energy. Also, it has to be spirit food.”