The candied hawthorns were neatly speared on thin sticks of oak, standing upright on either side of the stall’s counter as though pronouncing their elegance.
The caramel coating on the hawthorn glistened in the evening rays of sunlight, causing the young girl’s mouth to water at the thought of the taste.
“Then…”
An Fei mulled for a brief moment, her eyes roaming from the array of speared hawthorn as though to gauge their quality.
She then pointed towards the stick in the middle, one where her eyes informed her that they were the freshest out of the rack.
“I want that one.”
“Here you go, Young Lady!” the man beamed, his eyes revealing a joyful revelry at his success of obtaining a new customer.
With a quick nod, An Fei stuffed her left hand into the leather bag, rummaging through the contents until she found the grey silken pouch.
Prying open the drawstring of the satchel with her fingers, the young girl stabbed her index finger and thumb into the small pouch until her fingers were submerged in a literal sea of coins.
At that moment, the young girl spectacularly froze, her mind grinding to a halt.
All of the coins were of the same size and shape, so how was she going to extract three specific copper coins without drawing attention to herself?
An Fei didn’t dare bring the pouch into open air; she clearly recognized the implications of such a baseless and unintelligent act.
Helpless, her fingers ran rampant throughout the satchel, jumping from the metallic surface of one coin to another in absolute cluelessness.
“Young Lady, is something wrong?”
The man rubbed his chin in thought, his eyes inspecting the young girl before him.
Regardless of how he viewed the circumstance, it seemed improbable that the current situation would occur.
She was dressed in a linen coat that was plain but clean, meaning that she wasn’t from a bottom-feeder family as him.
Not to mention, though her appearance wasn’t eye-catching or of spectacular appeal, the slightly pretty face brought forth a refreshing aura that calmed his nerves.
…she wouldn’t be able to afford three coppers, right?
Unless she was a maidservant of a prominent family, then perhaps…
Caw!
The little raven perched on An Fei’s shoulder released a sudden cry, the crimson eyes flashing with an indeterminate gleam.
At the same time, An Fei’s mind shook with a thought, one that made her wish she could slap herself on the forehead.
“Spiritual essence, and the sea of perception!”
The young girl directed a strand of spiritual essence to coalesce at the tips of her left hand’s fingers, rummaging through the contents of the pouch once more.
To her delight, the sea of perception was indeed capable of conveying basic information equivalent to the quantity of spiritual essence infused to the task; she was able to differentiate between the composition of the coin, but no more than the single statement.
A copper coin by her index finger, a gold one by her thumb, five silvers brushing against her pinky…
“Owner, here you go.”
Aided by the spiritual essence, An Fei quickly fished out three copper coins, handing them to the owner whilst fighting down the embarrassed flush that threatened to spoil her image.
As he watched the young girl quickly run off with her chosen stick of hawthorn, the thirty-three-year-old man tilted his head with a confused expression on his countenance.
She definitely shouldn’t have be so poor to be unable to afford a single stick of candied hawthorn…
Unless she was a maidservant of a prominent family?
At the end, it was the same conclusion.
–
Bone Spirit Town.
That was the name of the town that An Fei had managed to glean from the nearby passerby whilst walking down the streets.
As expected, the town was indeed under the jurisdiction of Great Yong, but the young girl had never found where the Bone Spirit Town was located.
The town apparently wasn’t anything special within Great Yong; there were hundreds of thousands of identical towns throughout the empire’s grasp.
From what some of the more spectacularly dressed and refined people spoke from their awkwardly moving lips, the Bone Spirit Town was a bottom-feeder town.
A town that was consisted mostly of ordinary mortal commonfolk; one where even Body Tempering Realm cultivators were highly respected.
Such a town… couldn’t be anything special, for that would mean that Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators were practically ancestors of a clan, or perhaps the town’s mayor themselves.
“Xiao Hei, how many people do you think live in this Bone Spirit Town?”
The young girl asked with a relaxed tone, her voice suppressed to permit only the little raven and the small fox to discern.
“Do you think that there would be approximately thirty thousand at the most?”
Caw!
The raven shook a claw in disdain, its pride flourishing to its peak after having vented its frustration onto the common people outside of the walls.
The little creature pecked downwards at the linen coat as to tease the young girl, only to have tears sprout in its eyes the next instant.
Stinky lass, there are at least three hundred thousand people living in this square region! And since nine-tenths of such population are not cultivators, he could go… hunting.
The last part, the little raven swore to keep to himself.
“That many, huh?”
An Fei sighed in appreciation as she glanced around, her interest towards the inhabitants of the Bone Spirit Town only continuing to increase.
The people were dressed in ancient Oriental clothing, of linen, leather, and cotton.
The females were commonly dressed in long dresses of colorful linen and wool, whereas the males generally drifted towards a cloth tunic of blue, white, or light brown.
Some of the males sported pauldrons of leather, as though serving as the role of a hunter or guardsman.
…none of them carried a sword, or any weapons. Thus, An Fei quickly stashed away her twin butterfly swords, sticking to her principles of reducing as much attention on her person as she could.
She didn’t have to wear a veil as her appearance unexpectedly blended in rather nicely with the surrounding people, but her voice and mannerisms were sure to reveal a noticeable hint to those with a discerning eye.
Thus, An Fei upheld the glorious role of transferring the little raven to her left wrist, occasionally talking to the resentful creature with beaming eyes.
“Xiao Hei, where do you think we can obtain a map? No matter where we look, nobody’s selling one…”
The street they were walking along was named the Providence Road, and it seemed to be teeming with wooden stalls attempting to sell their products.
Dozens of carriages rumbled past the young girl’s body on either side, the clattering of the horses’ hooves nearly drowning out the cries of the stall keepers and their ardent calls to profit.
A cosmetics stall to the left, three fried dough stalls on the right street, followed by an actual weapons storehouse…
This Providence Road seemed to contain only necessities towards survival and consumables, but no cartographer.
Regardless of where she looked, An Fei could not find any store or stall related to the spreading of knowledge, even if it were a simple book pavilion.
Caw!
The young girl walked in silence, listening to the cries of the little raven.
As she attempted to decipher the little creature’s calls, the young girl quickly rubbed the fur of the small fox she had brutally stuffed into the leather bag.
A fox with seven tails was bound to attract unwanted attention; An Fei could only command it to remain silent, promising meat in the future as bait.
Well… there were fresh spiritual vegetables stored in a cloth bundle within the bag, but they contained spiritual qi from the Sanctum – An Fei was not sure whether it was lethal to the spiritual creature, only that the world’s spiritual products were lethal to her.
“Long Yu Pavilion?”
The words abruptly garnered An Fei’s interest, breaking her thoughts from continuing their astray march.
The young girl glanced from the corner of her eye to discover a young female and male talking to each other, their eyes tinging with infatuation.
“Long Yu Pavilion, the one and only Long Yu Pavilion?” the young female chattered in excitement, her hazel eyes brimming with a nearly tangible joy.
“Mi’er, of course I mean that Long Yu Pavilion, ah!” the male flicked his charming partner on the nose with an affectionate smile.
“Eldest Brother managed to obtain a ticket to enter the pavilion, and allowed me to come as well. Of course, that allows you to tag along, ah!”
“Long Yu Pavilion…” the young female sighed in envy, her hands clasped before her chest.
“How lucky is it to be a regular visitor – right, is the merchant from the nearby city coming?”
Nearby city?
An Fei’s eyebrows shot to the sky, her expectation parting its starving jaws within her heart, barely suppressing its drool at the mention of a nearby city.
