Chapter 147: Equal
“What? In the future, even human cultivators can live in the inner city?”
“You’re not joking, are you?”
“Are you serious?”
In the outer city, where the human cultivators gathered. A group of human cultivators gathered in front of a list and discussed.
In Ping City, the n.o.ble demons had always lived in the inner city. The lowly humans could only live in the outer city and in specific residential areas.
At this moment, after the human cultivators obtained a huge amount of power, they were also brewing to improve their living conditions. This had been a sore point for the human race for many years.
They had originally thought that they would have to pay a price to fight with the demons to obtain true equality. However, before they could gather, the City Lord had already completely opened up the inner city.
This announcement was posted on the outer wall of the inner city. There was a circle of city walls between the inner and outer walls. It was simply two different worlds. The few city gates that were originally connected to each other were guarded by demon guards. Only humans who had permission could enter the inner city.
However, Hu Jiujiu had removed all these guards today.
“Looks like it’s true. All the guards inside are gone. No one checked the pa.s.s.”
“You can throw away all these pa.s.ses!”
As he spoke, someone threw the jade pendant that was used as a pa.s.s into the sky.
“Don’t be so anxious. What if this matter isn’t settled?”
The doors of the various demon clans in the inner city were tightly shut.
The previous Black Dragon Calamity erupted in the inner city and destroyed many demon clans. Many places in the inner city were empty. Although the houses were destroyed, it was easy to rebuild them.
This was also one of the reasons why Hu Jiujiu wanted to open it up now.
Firstly, the empty s.p.a.ce in the inner city was too big. They could take this opportunity to let the humans and demons live on equal terms without fighting for it. Moreover, this was the time for the human race to acc.u.mulate points. It could give them some encouragement and make them more stable.
After the leading human cultivators entered the inner city, they immediately rushed forward.
In an instant, thousands of humans surged into the inner city. Hu Jiujiu had already marked out those ownerless places and allowed the humans to establish a residential area here. They looked at the closed doors of the big families with disdain in their eyes.
“These demons will sooner or later become our subordinates!”
“These b.a.s.t.a.r.ds have done it all these years. Sooner or later, they will pay the price.”
In the City Lord Manor, City Lord Hu Jiujiu looked at Li Yuanqing’s back with eyes filled with reverence.
“Master, your idea is great. Now that the human cultivators have moved in, there shouldn’t be a large-scale battle between the two sides for the time being.”
Li Yuanqing looked at the human cultivators who occupied the land everywhere. This was a good decision for both sides.
The demons’ strength had been damaged, if the two sides fought, they would be evenly matched. They could not fight in this evenly matched situation during this short period of time. As a result, the entire Ping City would fall into chaos for a long time.
“There have been fewer flying ants recently. Send someone to investigate immediately and see if you saw any flying ants or their corpses.”
“Yes, Master. I’ll send someone to investigate.”
“Recently, a lot of people have poured into Ping City, including many with high cultivation levels. Be careful.”
Li Yuanqing looked at the human cultivators who had swarmed in. They were basically old people from Ping City.
Li Yuanqing had some impression of most of them, but none of the newcomers came to join in the fun.
Hu Jiujiu took out a few pictures and placed them in front of Li Yuanqing. “Master, look. These are the empty courtyards all near the City Lord Manor. Where do you want to stay?”
Hu Jiujiu pointed them out to Li Yuanqing. From where they were standing, their vision was very wide and they could see everything below.
Li Yuanqing chose a secluded courtyard beside the market.
The market in the inner city was rather diverse. Not only were there many demons setting up stalls to do business, but there were also some humans with special ident.i.ties who could bring in many rare treasures from the outer layer to trade together.
After choosing this courtyard, Li Yuanqing flipped over and jumped to the wall of the City Lord Manor. He silently blended into the crowd and turned into his own courtyard.
This small courtyard was rather elegant.
Looking at the introduction, it said that this used to be a property of the She clan. It was empty now that the She clan had fallen. Many places made demons and humans earned a lot.
After setting up the small courtyard and placing some defensive restrictions, Li Yuanqing left the small courtyard. He circled two streets and turned into an underground market.
There was an open and an underworld market around the small courtyard. Both markets were considered top-notch in Ping City.
However, Li Yuanqing had also seen the items in the big market above. He was not particularly interested. He came to the underground black market to try his luck.
There were many treasures in the black market. Although some of them were not precious, they were rare. For example, the pink vine that Li Yuanqing had taken a fancy to.
There was nothing particularly impressive about this pink vine. It was just that it was elegant and pink. Li Yuanqing thought that by placing the plant in a corner of the domain, he could set up a good scenery.
“This guest has good taste. I spent a lot of effort to bring this pink vine from Rong City.” The stall owner was a demon and introduced it enthusiastically.
Here, it didn’t matter if you were a human or a demon. As long as you could take out spirit stones, you were a guest.
Li Yuanqing nodded slightly, looking very satisfied with the little pink vine.
“Sir, if you like it, I’ll charge you two spirit stones.” The stall owner smiled warmly.
Li Yuanqing shook his head and put the pink vine down.
“Sir, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you looking?”
“Your pink vine is quite beautiful. Unfortunately, it can only be used as a scenic spot and has no value in nurturing it. Two spirit stones are too expensive.”
“Sir, your eyes are really sharp.” The stall owner smiled in embarra.s.sment. “This pink vine indeed doesn’t have enough spiritual roots and doesn’t have any prospects for cultivation. Why don’t you name a price and we’ll negotiate?”
Li Yuanqing extended five fingers. The stall owner scratched his head, not knowing what he wanted to say.
“One spirit stone, five stalks.”
“Ah, this. Sir… I’m just doing a small business. You can’t let me suffer a loss.”
“If you think it’s inappropriate, then forget it. I don’t think you have anything else good in this entire stall.”
Li Yuanqing casually put down the pink vine and turned to leave.
Seeing that Li Yuanqing was about to leave, the stall owner gritted his teeth and stomped his feet, stopping Li Yuanqing.
“Sir, you’re really accurate. I really can’t earn much money from you with one spirit stone.”
As the stall owner spoke, he kept the pink vine in a cloth bag and took out another cloth bag from the box below. After taking out five pink vines, there were only a few left.
Li Yuanqing threw a spirit stone over and took the bag. Li Yuanqing flipped his hand and the cloth bag wrapped in pink vines instantly disappeared into his palm.
When the stall owner saw Li Yuanqing doing this, he reminded him anxiously, “Sir, this pink vine is tender and can’t stay in the storage artifact for a long time. Why don’t you take it? It’s not that heavy anyway.”
Li Yuanqing did not put the pink vine in his storage bag. Instead, he planted it in his domain.
“What’s wrong? Do you have any objections?” Li Yuanqing turned to look at the stall owner.
The stall owner shook his head gloomily. After Li Yuanqing left, he muttered softly, “I thought that he would know what’s good for him. I didn’t expect him to be so stupid.”
Li Yuanqing discovered that there were also some demon beast bones here. It was unknown where these people got these things from, but most of them looked good.
Li Yuanqing did not waste his breath and bought everything.
After trading with so many people through the voice transmission device, Li Yuanqing had a large number of spirit stones in his hands.
Not long after, Li Yuanqing’s name spread among the hawkers of the underground black market. It was said that there was such a generous human cultivator who specialized in collecting treasures.
“Sir, look at me.”
“Look at me! As long as you eat one of my Heavenly Dragon Golden Pills, you can increase your cultivation by ten years!”
“Stop bragging. It’s not bad to use your Heavenly Dragon Golden Pill to brag. Ten years of cultivation is probably equivalent to ten years of the Body Refinement.”
No matter where Li Yuanqing went, there would be hawkers enthusiastically greeting him.
They scrambled to show their treasures. When he encountered something good, Li Yuanqing waved his hand and accepted it.
For example, the bone of an eighth-grade Spirit Transformation realm demon beast in front of him.
“Dear guest, your judgment is really too sharp. My thing is very fresh. The spiritual energy inside is still very rich. There’s nothing more suitable than this when it comes to refining pills and equipment.”
Li Yuanqing picked it up and examined it carefully, but he shook his head slightly.
The stall owner was bragging, but the spiritual energy of this beast bone had already been depleted. The higher the demon beast, the tighter the spiritual energy in its body was sealed. For an eighth-grade Spirit Transformation realm demon beast, it would take at least ten years for its bones to reduce by ten percent.
This had nothing to do with the novelty that the stall owner was talking about.
Seeing Li Yuanqing shake his head, the stall owner was shocked and hurriedly lowered the price.
“Two hundred spirit stones, no less!”
Li Yuanqing looked up at him and said indifferently, “This skinny bone is at least thirty to forty years. I don’t know how many times you’ve changed hands, but two hundred spirit stones are a little more. I think it’s one hundred and fifty. How about it?”
“A hundred and fifty? I’ve risked my life for this beast bone. Isn’t a hundred and fifty a little too little?” The vendor looked at Li Yuanqing with a sad face.
“If you don’t want to sell it, then forget it.”
Li Yuanqing was about to leave when he was immediately stopped by the vendor.
“Sir, don’t be anxious. I just want to ask if you can give me more. It’s fine if it’s not much. A hundred fifty it is. Deal!”
“Aiyo, this guy is so generous. He spent one to two hundred spirit stones at once.”
“Then when can I sell this black iron sword?”
“You can wait a little longer. Let him take a look at my pill first.”
Recently, Ping City was in chaos. The market was quite good, but there were very few big customers who were so generous. After Li Yuanqing picked up a few things, he felt bored and wanted to return.
However, just as Li Yuanqing was about to leave, his gaze suddenly stopped on someone.
“Ye Qiluo?”
Li Yuanqing stared at the familiar figure in confusion. Wasn’t this Ye Qiluo, who he had fought with in the Wilderness? Why was she here?
Ye Qiluo, who was in front of a human stall, suddenly felt an inexplicable aura behind her. She turned around cautiously.
“It’s you?” It was rare for Ye Qiluo to see an acquaintance here, and her expression softened. “What are you doing here?” She lowered her voice.
Li Yuanqing smiled and replied, “I wanted to ask you when you came here.”
Ye Qiluo looked around and shook her head at Li Yuanqing. “This is not the place to talk. Let’s go somewhere else.”
The two of them left the underground market one after another and followed Ye Qiluo to the human residential area in the outer city.
Ye Qiluo suddenly stopped in a remote alley. Li Yuanqing happened to follow her.
“How long have you been here?” Ye Qiluo asked Li Yuanqing carefully.
Li Yuanqing replied casually, “It shouldn’t have been long, right?”
“Do you know that a huge change has happened in Ping City recently?” Ye Qiluo whispered to Li Yuanqing. “These cities were originally under the control of the Black Dragon, but this Black Dragon was slaughtered. Now that Ping City has no leader, it’s time for the human race to rise.”
As Ye Qiluo spoke, she sized up Li Yuanqing. This unfathomable man in front of her made her feel a little suspicious.
Li Yuanqing replied noncommittally, “Indeed. The current City Lord has a generous policy towards the human race. I believe the human race will live better and better here.”
“This is the new City Lord. Why does she look so familiar?” Ye Qiluo suddenly looked at Li Yuanqing and asked, “I only saw her from afar, but I suddenly remember that I seem to have seen her somewhere before.”
“Are you talking about Little Jiu?” Li Yuanqing pretended to be stupid and glossed over it. “Little Jiu was lucky to become the City Lord.”
Ye Qiluo nodded slightly, but whether she believed Li Yuanqing or not was another matter.
“From the looks of it, you’re like a fish in water in Ping City.”
“Let’s not talk about me. Let’s talk about you. What do you want this time?” Li Yuanqing changed the topic and asked.
Ye Qiluo’s eyes never left Li Yuanqing. “I discovered this place half a month ago and brought my men here. I originally wanted to control Ping City, but it’s good that Ping City is under you now.”
“I’m really sorry for being a step ahead and letting Miss Ye make a wasted trip.”
“It can’t be said to be a wasted trip. I did gain something else this time. Someone is here. I’ll look for you if there’s anything.”
Before Ye Qiluo could finish her sentence, she flipped over the wall in a flash.