Chapter 18 – An’yue (1)

Grey City, as one of the six major cities in the Mars Prefectures, was in charge of twenty sub-cities and over one hundred mini-cities in the southern parts. Far in the south, there was the gigantic Wild Mountain Range, which was located on the border between the Mars Prefecture and the Barbarian Prefecture. 

The way to the Wild Mountain Range was full of dangers – the zigzag road was strewed with thorns, and numerous demonic beasts were lurking around. Moreover, it was said that the heart of the mountain range was inhabited by some saint beast, as it was even regarded as a forbidden area for civilians. In other words, the Wild Mountain Range was a place full of exotic beasts; its reputation was only second to the Dark Mountain Range in the north.

Despite all of the risks ahead, the Wild Mountain Range was comparatively safer than the Dark Mountain Range. At least, unlike the Dark Mountain Range, people wouldn’t die instantly whenever they entered. Actually, visitors had the chance to be safe and sound as long as they didn’t enter into the heart of the mountain range. 

Thus, the periphery of the Wild Mountain Range had become a paradise for adventurous cultivators. Currently, it was considered as the most popular place for cultivation. 

Because of the popularity of this place, swarms of visitors flooded into the Wild Prefecture, which was in the vicinity of the Wild Mountain Range. Owing to its unique geographic location, the Wild Prefecture had developed into a territory that encompa.s.sed more than twenty small cities.

&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;

The An’yue Hotel!

A famous hotel that was located at the southern entrance of Wild City. It was a three-layered hotel – the first floor was used as a dining hall, while the second and third floors were used as guest rooms. 

A young man in green clothing was sitting at a seat next to a window; he frowned over the walking pa.s.sersby, as though something was nagging on the back of his mind. 

The young man was Qinghan, who had been in Wild City for a couple of days already. It had taken him half a month to arrive in Wild City. On his way to Wild City, he was accompanied by a group of merchants, who were on their business trip. 

Every day, there were countless of cultivators swarming into this city, as it lived up to its reputation as a paradise for adventurers. In order to increase their cultivation level, visitors would enter into the periphery of the Wild Mountain Range to fight with the demonic beasts or even kill them. Later, they would skin the dead demonic beasts and take the fur and magic crystal (which were made from the hardest part of the demonic beast’s body). As a result, the magic crystals were sold for an extremely low price here. 

At the beginning, Qinghan was excited over the price of the magic crystals, and he had bought as much as he could afford. 

However, right now, it was only his thirteenth day in Wild City, yet his wallet was almost flattened. However, there weren’t that many changes happening to Little Black, except for the size of its body, which had become a little bit bigger. It seemed, that there was still a long way to go for Little Black, before it would step out of its weak period. Meanwhile, it remained with its current life pattern of eating and sleeping. 

Out of disappointment, Qinghan had walked out of the guest room, and went downstairs. He ordered some inexpensive wine and took a seat next to a window. 

“It has almost been a month since I have departed from Qingyu&h.e.l.lip; How is she doing back home? Little Black&h.e.l.lip; How many magic crystals are enough for you to overcome your weak period?” Qinghan felt rather gloomy, as he stared into the distance through the window, until his vision became blurred by his wet eyes. The picture he imagined in his brain had touched the strings of his heart – his sister was craning over the fence of the courtyard in the southern direction, waiting for her brother.

“Alas!”

Considering his current situation, his eyes became even more bewildered. 

“Talent, talent! Why am I short of talent?” He grumbled. 

Actually, during his days in Wild City, he had never discontinued his cultivation. On the way to this city, he had been cultivating in the carriage. Once he had arrived at his destination, apart from searching for low-priced magic crystals, he had spent most of his time cultivating in the guest room. 

As for cultivators, the first and foremost thing was to strengthen their body. Averagely, the descendants of the Ye Family would enter into the Realm of the Warrior at the age of six. Afterwards, they would begin to absorb the Battle Qi existing between heaven and earth. Gradually, they would obtain the Realm of the Soldier. As for Qinghan, he had actually spent only as short as one month to jump from the Realm of the Warrior to the Realm of the Soldier. Interestingly, his father, as a well-known genius, had also spent one month to bridge these two realms. In this regard, Qinghan was quite talented, at least he shouldn’t be considered as garbage in cultivation. 

Nevertheless, Qinghan had lingered in the Realm of the Elite for many years, showing no sign of improvement due to his congested meridians. Gradually, some ill-intentioned counterparts had nicknamed him as garbage. 

In order to step out of the Realm of the Elite and enter into the Realm of the Commander, one had to expand all nine meridians in one’s body – the yang meridian, the yin meridian, the dashing meridian, the arterial meridian, the left-feet meridian, the right-feet meridian, the left-hand meridian, the right-hand meridian and the absolute meridian. These nine meridians were known as the Nine-Meridian Heavenly Circuit.

In order to step out of the Realm of the Commander and enter into the Realm of the General, one had to expand another three major meridians in one’s body – the conception meridian, the governor meridian and the magic meridian. Plus, these three major meridians had to be condensed into the area of the Dantian. 

Because of the strict requirements of one’s physical condition, many cultivators in the Mars Prefecture stagnated their cultivating process between these two realms. Qinghan was one of those unfortunate ones, because eighty percent of his meridians were congested. 

During his long period of cultivation, Qinghan had only managed to open his yin- and yang meridians. Right now, he was working on the dashing meridian.

He had been cultivating for about twenty days since he had arrived at this place. Sadly, the result was far from fruitful – only two to three percent of the dashing meridian had been cleaned up. 

At the same time, Little Black had not yet shown any sign of becoming stronger. Elder Tianxing once said, the higher the grade, the longer the weak period would be. It really seemed like it would be impossible to find any shortcuts in helping Little Black grow up. 

Originally, Qinghan had planned to spend all of his savings on buying as many magic crystals as possible, so that his little beast would grow up by eating them. Thus, hopefully, Little Black would integrate with him and level up his ability, and he would possibly even be listed as a key descendant of the Ye Family.

However, there was always a gap between dreams and reality. 

“I never thought things would go this way. Now, I have to go into the mountain range like the other cultivators do&h.e.l.lip;” Qinghan whispered to himself. 

Touching the bag in his arms, he was determined to take this risk. In this bag were some gadgets, which were needed to climb the mountains. Eventually, he decided to hunt for the demonic beasts in order to get more magic crystals. 

&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;

In the middle of Qinghan’s meditation, he was distracted by a sudden booming voice.

“My Darling, Yueyue, Please give me a kettle of ‘Blue Enchantress’. It’s been a long time since my last visit. I’m desperate to taste your self-made wine again.” A man with a strong build had entered the dining hall, sitting on a randomly-selected seat. 

The rest of the guests all jerked their heads towards this man. Among them, a man with long hair stood up, “Haha, It’s you, brother Menglong! I guess you aren’t coming for the wine, but for our charming lady boss. Haha&h.e.l.lip;”

“Hey, Zhaotie, don’t you dare to make fun of me, otherwise, I"ll suck you dry tonight.” A gorgeous lady was walking towards the new customer, holding a kettle of wine in her hands. 

The lady was roughly in her twenties and the chubbiness of her curving body made her quite seductive. Her rosy cheeks and affectionate eyes dazzled the hearts and minds of many guests here; most of them were male cultivators. She threw an angry glare at the long-haired man, before putting one of her snow-white hands on the shoulder of Menglong, “I heard that you have found some new lovers? No wonder you didn’t come here. It has been half a month since the last time I saw you.”

“Haha!” Menglong stretched out one of his big, yet swarthy palms, trying to touch the bottom of the lady. 

However, the lady boss swiftly dodged, and walked away, leering at Menglong over her shoulders. 

Looking at the shaking hips from the back of the lady, Menglong continued his coa.r.s.e joking, “Yueyue, you always say that you’re willing to be my lover. Why don’t you even let me touch you.”

“Yeah, My beautiful An’yue, you said you would suck me dry, but you never did. I’ve been waiting in my bedroom after taking a shower for so many nights, why do you never come? I’m so lonely&h.e.l.lip;” The skinny middle-aged man, Zhaotie, coquettishly stroked his long hair. 

“Liar! An’yue, don’t believe this b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Several days ago, he went to a brothel called the Million Flower Pavilion. You know, his personal life was quite promiscuous. He was an addicted brothel-goer, as you can tell from his skeleton-like body.” Menglong added. 

“Menglong! I know, every night, you will hold the portrait of An’yue and play with your d.i.c.k. Son of a b.i.t.c.h&h.e.l.lip;” Zhaotie slammed his fist on the desk. 

“Hey, stop it. If you break my table, there’ll be double reimburs.e.m.e.nt&h.e.l.lip; If you really want to sleep with me, no problem. Well, I have some standards – only those who can win from me in a real fight will I sleep with. Otherwise, no way&h.e.l.lip;” An’yue, the lady boss, glared furiously at Zhaotie. 

Amusingly, both of Menglong and Zhaotie quietly sat down as two cowardly mice who had just encountered a cat. 

An’yue had a mixed personality. Sometimes, she could be as s.l.u.ttish as a prost.i.tute, while other times, she would take her gloves off and be relentless. 

“Haha&h.e.l.lip;”

Observing the ongoing farce, the whole dining hall bursted out into laughter. Qinghan was also quite amused by the pair of funny fellows. As for the lady boss, he found her admirable. Her business skills were one of a kind, using her body to lure in endless amounts of guests from afar.