This time, Ding Huan did not use an iron pot; he went to search for the ruins of a collapsed immortal gate.
Controlling an excellent spirit artifact, Ding Huan was also on the lookout for it along the way.
After twenty days of walking, Ding Huan didn't find the collapsed immortal gate, but he found an immortal city. To be honest, Ding Huan has been in the fourth immortal realm for several years. Although most of the time he was practicing, he also walked outside. He had seen many types of immortal gates, such as this immortal city. It's his first time to see it.
Ding Huan did not hesitate and landed the spaceship outside the immortal city, transforming himself into an ordinary wandering cultivator who had been expelled. In the Fourth Immortal Realm, there were countless cultivators expelled due to their lack of ability, so Ding Huan's attire was nothing out of the ordinary. Ding Huan guessed that Yan Yuefang would look for him; any intelligent person would definitely inquire about Dan Yi's situation. There was a hundred percent chance that Chao Danyi would reveal to her about finding the Immortal Spring of Life and even about setting up protective arrays and death traps with patternings. After all, he had no interest in working for the Shuang Zi Mountain Immortal Gate. Why go through all the hard work of searching for an Immortal Spring of Life for others? The immortal gates have been around for more than just a day or two; without him, Ding Huan could still manage. He wouldn't make much difference with just a few more Immortal Spring of Life wells. If the sect heads of various immortal gates knew that Ding Huan was talking about just a few Immortal Spring of Life wells, they would probably be driven crazy. The Immortal Spring of Life wells are part of an immortal gate's foundation, a major scoring item in the ranking system. Can they really be described simply as just a few extra wells?
Outside the immortal city, there was a third-level immortal array. Ding Huan felt it was decent enough.
Based on his recent experiences walking around the Fourth Immortal Realm, most immortal gates have second and third-level protective arrays, while only a very small number possess fourth-level arrays.
This is normal, after all, in the Immortal Realm, the danger seems to be something like a thief worm that pops up from nowhere.
The Fourth Immortal Realm seems to have strict laws. Immortal gates rarely engage in mutual battles, and there are no top-level immortal beasts. As long as you can block the thief worm, it should be fine.
As for setting up more advanced immortal arrays, it's not even worth considering how to hire such high-level array masters.
The daily consumption of spirit crystals for high-level immortal arrays is a significant expense, so for the impoverished Fourth Immortal Realm, it's better to save where possible.
Outside the immortal city, there were four large immortal characters suspended in the air: "Yao Yue Immortal City."
To enter the immortal city, one must pay immortal essence. Yao Yue Immortal City charges ten pieces of immortal essence per day. "When Ding Huan was stopped by the city guards at the entrance, he asked: "If I pay 100 pieces of spirit crystals and I do not stay for ten days, will I get a refund?"
As he said that, Ding Huan felt in his heart that this was indeed expensive. If he hadn't entered the Fourth Immortal Realm, he might not have had much concept of spirit crystals. Now, he was very clear that ten pieces of immortal essence were not a small fortune for an ordinary cultivator. The city guard, who looked like a contracted cultivator, smiled and said, "You must have been expelled from an immortal gate as well? There are no refunds here, but if you pay 100 pieces of spirit crystals and don't stay for ten days, you can still come back later." Upon hearing this, Ding Huan knew that this city guard had also been expelled from some immortal gate. However, he was lucky enough to find a job as a city guard and make ends meet. Ding Huan took out 100 pieces of spirit crystals and handed them over: "I'll book for ten days first."
When the city guard saw Ding Huan take out 100 pieces of spirit crystals at once, his eyes brightened. This was definitely a wealthy master.
If it hadn't been for the city guard regulations that clearly stipulate that one should not inquire about the details of visitors, he really wanted to make friends with Ding Huan and ask where he made his fortune.
Why after being expelled, he could only find a menial job like being a city guard, while Ding Huan could casually pull out 100 pieces of spirit crystals to enter the city like an old man?
The city guard quickly issued a jade token for Ding Huan, which read the characters "Yao Yue." Along with these two characters, there was also an array pattern.
There was a number written on this array pattern, the number 10.
Ding Huan understood: it seemed that every day spent in the city would reduce the number by one, and if he left Yao Yue Immortal City, the number on the jade token would remain unchanged.
Putting away the jade token, Ding Huan decided to stay in Yao Yue Immortal City for a while, and then clear up some situations in the Fourth Immortal Realm and make plans for his future.
As soon as Ding Huan entered Yao Yue Immortal City, he felt that the ten pieces of inferior spirit crystals he paid each day were not wasted.
In the Fourth Immortal Realm, where the immortal essence is so scarce, the immortal essence here is surprisingly good.
If ordinary cultivators trained here, they would definitely achieve excellent results.
No need to think, there must be an immortal spring of life here.
Using ten pieces of immortal essence for solitary cultivation would not only be a waste but also wouldn't result in significant progress.
That's different in Yao Yue Immortal City. The immortal essence here is systematic, and it's available throughout the entire space of the immortal city. Compared to using ten pieces of spirit crystals to cultivate in the wilderness for a day, it's much better to cultivate here for a day.
Yao Yue Immortal City is quite crowded, and Ding Huan's mind scans show that there are both cultivators and ordinary people. However, relatively speaking, the number of cultivators from the mortal realm is less.
The number of cultivators at the true immortal level is the most, occupying a full half, and there are a very few who are higher in cultivation than true immortals. Ding Huan estimates that they should be Golden Immortals.
In the Fourth Immortal Realm, Golden Immortals can be considered among the more advanced cultivators.
Ding Huan walked into a commercial building and asked: "Do you have any spirit scrolls introducing the immortal gates of the Fourth Immortal Realm? And do you have a positioning jade token?" "Yes." The salesperson quickly took out two jade tokens and handed them to Ding Huan.
Ding Huan scanned the jade tokens with his spiritual thought and smiled, "These spirit scrolls only introduce immortal gates that are doing very well. Even those that haven't developed well or have been extinguished, they still introduce them." Upon hearing Ding Huan's words, the salesperson laughed heartily, "I get it. You want to find Immortal Springs of Life in these extinguished immortal gates, right?" Ding Huan subconsciously touched the back of his head, wondering if he had been too obvious. It seemed like he had only asked one question. Before the salesperson could respond, a young cultivator beside him smiled and said:
"Generally speaking, new cultivators who come to the Fourth Immortal Realm want to search for Immortal Springs of Life in these extinguished immortal gates, so it's not a secret that everyone knows," Ding Huan understood and said. "So, there are many smart people indeed."
"That's right. I'm too poor, so I also want to take a chance." Ding Huan decided to stop hiding and revealing his true intentions.
The salesperson shook his head, "Comrade cultivator, what you're thinking, the immortal gates have already thought of. Usually when an immortal gate is extinguished, someone takes over the territory."
Some immortal gates were destroyed by natural disasters or calamities, and their territories were taken over by new immortal gates immediately.
Some immortal gates were destroyed due to insufficient support and sold their territories before they were extinct. Regardless of the method, the territories of immortal gates are not something ordinary wandering cultivators can obtain. "Ding Huan was very helpless in his heart, and he could only shake the jade tokens in his hand and say, "How many pieces of spirit crystals?"
"It's all for one piece of immortal essence." The salesperson was honest enough not to ask for an excessive price.
Ding Huan paid the spirit crystal and held the two jade tokens in his heart, feeling a bit worried.
Would he have to find another immortal gate to join?
Along the way, he had encountered some immortal gates, all of which had their protective arrays tightly sealed.
Ding Huan couldn't help but think back to his first life when he saw a classmate searching for work, going around the outside of factories and companies in industrial parks without any results.
Now, does he have to wander around the gates of various immortal gates too?
He can't do that. He doesn't want to be constrained by an immortal gate. Once he joins a immortal gate, he will definitely become a tool for them to find Immortal Springs of Life.
He is not a tool.
At the corner of the street, Ding Huan saw a shop that had a sign saying "For Sale." If he started a small business, couldn't he also survive here?
Thinking about this, Ding Huan directly walked into the shop.
The shopkeeper, a man with short hair, saw Ding Huan come in and casually asked: "What's up? Our shop is currently closed for business."
"This shop is for sale? How much spirit crystals?" Ding Huan asked.
The man sized up Ding Huan from head to toe before saying: "37,000 pieces of immortal essence."
"If you're renting it out?" Ding Huan knew he couldn't afford to buy it.
The man said indifferently, "100 pieces of spirit crystals per month."
Ding Huan was taken aback. This was so cheap? His understanding was that he could stay in Yao Yue Immortal City for a month as long as he spent 100 pieces of spirit crystals each month?
Not only would there be no accommodation fee, but he wouldn't have to pay the 10 pieces of spirit crystals daily.
Ding Huan's good fortune hasn't even finished, and the man said again: "The spirit crystals for Yao Yue Immortal City per day are paid by yourself." Ding Huan only realized then that the real cost wasn't the rent, but the 300 pieces of spirit crystals per month for Yao Yue Immortal City. The shopkeeper must have been struggling with business and had to sell his store because he had to pay the 300 pieces of spirit crystals per month to Yao Yue Immortal City. Ding Huan hesitated for a moment and said, "Can I rent it for three months first and see?" "Yes, but you have to pay the spirit crystal first," the shopkeeper said without hesitation.
Ding Huan took out 300 pieces of immortal essence, and the shopkeeper took out the lease agreement. They quickly completed the transaction for renting the shop.
The shopkeeper left the shop as if dropping a hot potato, hurrying away quickly.
Ding Huan looked over the lease agreement and found no major issues. However, there was a monthly management fee that needed to be paid by himself.
This is similar to the sanitation fees on Earth and other things, at most a few pieces of immortal essence. Ding Huan didn't take it seriously either.
After cleaning up the shop, Ding Huan was still thinking about what kind of business to start.
Ding Huan was good at arranging arrays, but he couldn't sell it.
Ding Huan was good at making seal characters, but now he could only make spirit charms of ninth level. The ninth-level spirit charms seemed too low in grade here, and there would not be many buyers. Ding Huan had not yet figured out what kind of business to start when the person who collects management fees from Yao Yue Immortal City came. When Ding Huan heard that it was 100 pieces of immortal essence per month, he looked at the small and shabby shop he rented and sighed in his heart. This is why the owner wanted to sell it; this shop couldn't even afford to open! （Goodnight, fellow cultivators! Please support with moon essence tickets!）
