Chapter 375: Chapter 53: Huayue City
Before Zhang Deming could reply, both of them froze. They turned their heads at the same time to look to the side.
Just then, a graceful figure floated over from behind. She wore a pink dress, her long, elegant hair dancing in the wind. In terms of looks, she surpassed most of the Female Cultivators Zhang Deming had ever seen.
She could even compare to Dang Rushuang.
Unlike Dang Rushuang, her beauty was vibrant and enchanting, yet she maintained a cold and aloof aura.
The stark contrast between ultimate temptation and a Frost Goddess manifested in a single person, creating a strange sort of allure.
It seemed that whenever she appeared, she would instantly capture everyone’s gaze, drawing all attention to herself.
Her feet hovered an inch above the ground, held aloft by a barely perceptible wisp of pink smoke that propelled her swiftly forward.
She paused for a moment at the city gate, then, under the eager gazes of several gate-guarding Cultivators, floated directly into the city.
The surrounding silence was broken only after she had left, and the crowd immediately erupted into a clamor.
"Who was that? I’ve never seen her before. We have someone like that in Huayue City?"
"No idea. I really haven’t seen her."
"You’ve been living under a rock, haven’t you? That’s Guann Zhenzhen, a new teacher at our Huayue Academy."
"Oh, so this fellow cultivator is a disciple from the Academy! My apologies for not recognizing you!"
"Don’t mention it, don’t mention it!"
"A teacher at your Academy is that beautiful? What does she teach?"
"She’s absolutely top-tier. Teaches Music and Dance!"
"HISS..."
"Fellow cultivator, can you guys even handle that?"
"It’s a little tough. The other day, during one of her classes, half the disciples were dazed for a good while. Afterwards, we were all assigned a ton of Heart Spirit Resistance Technique training. It’s just... unbelievable..."
"Hmm... With a teacher like that, I’d be okay with her telling me to do anything, any way she wants."
Zhang Deming listened quietly to the discussion among the young men in front of him. At that last comment, they all fell silent, and half the people in the line turned to look at the youth who had just spoken.
"Uh, what’s wrong? Is there something wrong with thinking that?" the young man asked, freezing up as he looked at the people around him.
Zhang Deming glanced at their obvious scholarly attire. ’Ah, the good old days of youth!’
Zhang Deming shook his head and paid them no more mind. ’But the atmosphere in this Huayue City is quite different from the Celestial Spirit Sect. The Cultivators have a much more worldly air about them, and the modern influence from the Outer Realm is even stronger.’
The middle-aged man, Sheng Yucai, was distracted by this interruption, and the rhythm of the friendly chat he had started with Zhang Deming was broken.
Seeing that Zhang Deming didn’t seem inclined to talk much more, he had no choice but to turn back around and resume waiting quietly in line.
After all, the people in line were not Ordinary people, so the queue moved quite quickly.
In a moment, it was the middle-aged man Sheng Yucai’s turn. He paused slightly, and the gate-guarding Cultivator looked at him and said, "Hurry up and scan your card."
Sheng Yucai said, "It’s my first time here. I don’t have a card!"
The guard pointed directly to another line. "Those without identification, go over there."
Sheng Yucai glanced over and saw that the other line was still quite long. "Then why didn’t you put up a sign...?"
"Our payment station over here is having some issues," the guard interrupted before Sheng Yucai could argue. "You don’t need to queue up again over there, just go straight to the front."
Sheng Yucai, his argument cut short, shut his mouth and walked toward the other line. Seeing this, Zhang Deming quietly followed.
It was all one city gate split into two columns, so the lines weren’t far apart.
It was only a few steps to the other line. Sheng Yucai went straight to the front, and the guard glanced at him. "Do you have an invitation?"
Sheng Yucai shook his head. "No."
"Three Spirit Stones," the gate-guarding Cultivator said flatly.
"What? Why don’t you just rob people? Three Spirit Stones for a city entrance fee?" Sheng Yucai said in astonishment.
Hearing this, the gate-guarding Cultivator said, "Normally, it’s one Spirit Stone, and that includes a temporary Identity Card."
"But for the next few days, it’s three Spirit Stones without an invitation. If you’re just looking to hang around Huayue City, you can come back in half a month."
’Is this...? Using the entrance fee to weed out the Cultivators who are just here to join the excitement?’
’Hmm... They’re probably also trying to make some extra money on the side!’
Sheng Yucai paused at these words, then reluctantly took out three Spirit Stones and handed them to the gate-guarding Cultivator.
The guard took the Spirit Stones, glanced at the little white mouse on Sheng Yucai’s shoulder, and said pointedly, "Put your Spirit Pet away. If you can’t, you’ll have to pay a fee for it too."
Sheng Yucai’s expression stiffened. Speechless, he turned to look at the white mouse on his shoulder. He made no move to take out more Spirit Stones, just stared at it.
The man and the mouse were at a standoff for a moment. Finally, the little white mouse opened its mouth and, surprisingly, spoke in a human voice, "Stingy!"
With that, it leaped off Sheng Yucai’s shoulder and transformed into a somewhat sleazy-looking young man on the ground.
Zhang Deming was slightly taken aback by this. He had thought the mouse was a bit strange before; for a Tai Chi Stage Spirit Beast, its Spirit Wisdom was a little too high.
He never would have thought it was actually a Cultivator practicing a Bloodline transformation.
’Are there really people who prefer being in an animal’s body?’
’It really takes all kinds, huh!’
’Or maybe you travel together in this arrangement to make it easier to scam people on the road?’
...
While Zhang Deming’s thoughts were wandering, the two of them had already completed the process of entering the city.
After paying his own entrance fee, the sleazy-looking young man surprisingly transformed back into a white mouse and leaped onto Sheng Yucai’s shoulder again.
Just like that, the man and the mouse entered Huayue City.
The guard turned a blind eye to this, as if such an oddball was no longer considered an oddball in his eyes. Clearly, this guard had seen his fair share of strange things.
"Do you have an invitation?" the guard said flatly, looking at Zhang Deming.
Zhang Deming paused for a second before snapping out of his thoughts. He took a card from his pocket. The guard took it and waved his hand over it lightly.
After verifying its authenticity, he said, "This card can be used as a temporary form of identification for the next six months. After it expires, you’ll either have to apply for a permanent one or get another temporary Identity Card."
Hearing this, Zhang Deming nodded. "Understood."
Seeing this, the guard handed the invitation card back and said, "Alright, you may enter the city."
Zhang Deming took the card, gave a slight nod, and turned to walk into Huayue City.
...
