Chapter 466: The Bustle of the Mortal World

Yu Sheng walked out of the gate and glanced back suspiciously in the direction of the main peak of Thousand-Peak Spirit Mountain, his brow furrowing slightly.

Hu Li immediately bounded over with curiosity. "Benefactor, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, just felt like someone called my name a moment ago," Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then waved his hand dismissively. "No big deal, probably misheard."

"Oh, oh."

Hu Li nodded quickly, then began looking around excitedly.

At the foot of Thousand-Peak Spirit Mountain lay a great city. Yu Sheng had come here once before to "open coordinates" around the mountain, but he'd only passed through in a hurry—right after that, a string of incidents had started, leaving everyone with no time to wander. Now that they finally had some leisure, they finally had a chance to see what a "city" in the Taixu Spiritual Pivot was like.

Before their eyes were pavilions, towers, grand halls, and expansive buildings, along with tightly packed rows of theaters and taverns, bustling markets, and towering classical-style structures rising in the distance. Between the buildings were long covered bridges and elevated walkways. The entire city exuded a wonderfully ancient atmosphere, yet everywhere were incredible architectural structures that seemed to defy the "laws of construction," breathtaking to behold.

Among those large buildings and covered bridges that resembled magnificent beasts, fairy boats and shuttles of various sizes could be seen streaming back and forth. All kinds of magical lights and colors flickered over the carved walls and rooftops, and small building-like structures, pushed by mechanical devices, strode unhurriedly through specially reserved "tracks" between buildings, moving from one district to another.

The sounds of bustling traffic filled their ears, and before their eyes was a large city driven by giant mechanical structures and immortal spiritual power. The whole city was a completely different style from the "Ink City" on Xu Ji, yet it radiated the same atmosphere—both ancient and advanced, both real and dreamlike, bizarre and surreal.

The doll-headed children who had followed Yu Sheng and the others down the mountain burst into excited shouts. The older kids pulled out their phone watches and started snapping pictures of the surrounding streets. Some tugged at Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White, asking all kinds of questions. The little girl closest to Yu Sheng was jumping up and down, pointing at a temple-like building slowly flying overhead: "Ah—that building can fly!"

Yu Sheng was also dazzled. Because it was a festival period, the entire city was bedecked with lanterns and festoons, full of holiday spirit. Various celebratory greetings and stunning massive holographic projections covered almost every building in sight. Local and out-of-town tourists packed the streets. When he looked up, he even saw two cultivators in standard Daoist robes flying on swords chasing a local fox that streaked across the sky in a flash of yellow light. From the surrounding chatter, he learned they were catching a speeder…

By this time, Alene had climbed onto Yu Sheng's shoulder, her small hands gripping his head tightly as if afraid of being jostled off. "Holy crap… I knew it was lively down here, but I didn't expect it to be this lively."

"This is a completely different vibe from the quiet and serene Thousand-Peak Spirit Mountain," Yu Sheng remarked with emotion. "Gotta say, there's a real warmth of everyday life here."

Hu Li beside him nodded rapidly again, then tugged at Yu Sheng's sleeve. "Benefactor, I want to eat this!"

Yu Sheng looked up and saw a stall by the roadside not far away. It had a large cauldron set up, with blue light flickering at the bottom, while the pastries inside emitted wisps of cold air. Many people were lining up.

He went to join the line and then saw a big sign next to the stall. The sign had a bunch of text, mainly telling a story about a down-and-out loose cultivator in some year, who was frustrated and failed the Spirit Mountain grand selection, ending up here. Then an old lady—whose name was bolded and underlined—saw he was about to starve and gave him a piece of pastry. The loose cultivator ate it, and immediately his heart orifice opened, his meridians all cleared, and he rushed up Spirit Mountain, breaking through obstacles, and successfully enrolled in the 56th cohort of the Beast Taming Peak's Spirit Beast Postpartum Care major…

Yu Sheng burst out laughing as soon as he saw it. So even the private sector researching cultivation in the Taixu Spiritual Pivot did this kind of thing…

While he was laughing, Alene started tugging at his hair. "Hey, stop laughing! Do you have any money? It looks like they use something called spirit stones or something here…"

Then Yu Sheng pointed to a small mirror placed next to the stall. Under the mirror was a note: "This store supports Star Federation Pay / Spirit Stone Pass / Unified Payment / Terra Quick Pay."

"Are you kidding? This is the capital planet of an interstellar civilization, and you're worried about not being able to spend money?" Yu Sheng rolled his eyes. "Besides, the Yuanling have been opening up the Taixu Spiritual Pivot to the outside for decades now. Even a beggar at the foot of Thousand-Peak Spirit Mountain probably supports scanning QR codes with a Borderlands phone…"

Alene was stunned for a moment, then scratched Yu Sheng's head. "Are there beggars here?"

Yu Sheng broke out in a cold sweat. "Metaphor, I was just using a metaphor."

A few minutes later, the crowd that had been lining up at the stall scattered. Yu Sheng and his group emerged from behind the crowd. Hu Li walked along, grabbing pastries one by one from her tail and stuffing them into her mouth. Behind them, the stall owner looked on with a dazed expression—the cauldron on his stall was empty, and even a few spice jars were empty…

Then before they had gone much further, Hu Li started tugging at Yu Sheng's sleeve again. "Benefactor, I want to eat that!!"

After that, it was basically a loop of these sentences: "Benefactor, I want this! Benefactor, I want that! Benefactor, is this good? Benefactor, try this… Try that too!"

Fortunately, Yu Sheng wasn't short on money now. If this had been before, he would never have dared to take his fox on a stroll down a street full of food—back then, taking Hu Li for a loop around the riverbank was his limit, because the riverbank could at most spawn a few vendors selling grilled sausages and cotton candy…

The cost of living at the foot of Thousand-Peak Spirit Mountain was really high.

But then he thought again—this was the lodge's primary firepower unit replenishing ammunition. Suddenly, he felt it was all worth it. So he raised his hand and stuffed another ten cages of buns into the fox's tail…

As for the Fairy Tale kids' study group led by Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel, they had run off by the time Hu Li reached her third meal. Before leaving, Rapunzel said she was taking the doll-headed children to watch a street performance nearby—some itinerant cultivators were performing "Breaking Stones on the Chest" and "Flesh Regeneration and Bone Mending" right on the street…

Honestly, Yu Sheng found the performance highly suspicious, and he seriously doubted whether it was suitable for children. But then he thought again—given the fierce dreams the children of "Fairy Tale" had faced growing up, coming here to watch "Breaking Stones on the Chest" might even count as a bit of light, refreshing eye-washing…

So he continued walking along with Hu Li and Luna, carrying a puppet on his shoulder (with an Omen Wanderer floating beside the puppet's head). The four of them (plus one sphere) strolled through the streets without any particular goal, just letting their minds wander.

Along the way, he fed Hu Li all sorts of strange things, many of which he suspected weren't even ordinary people's food. He also bought Alene a bunch of hairpins, buttons, glowing beads, and other miscellaneous trinkets—to be honest, most of the things were completely useless for Alene's current 66.6-centimeter-tall body, but she just liked collecting these pretty little things.

Yu Sheng's nightstand drawer was now stuffed with a pile of such "collectibles" the puppet had stored there, and she usually didn't let anyone touch them.

Finally, Yu Sheng's attention turned to Luna, who had been silently following along.

"We rarely get to go out—don't you want to buy something?" he asked curiously, looking at the quiet artificial saint.

Luna thought for a moment, then slowly shook her head. "I, nothing I want."

"Well, C-type buckle usually stands around at home zoning out or goes to the valley to farm," Alene muttered, shaking her head. "Doesn't look like this place sells farm tools."

Yu Sheng rubbed his chin. "Let's wander a bit more, it's not every day we get this chance—Luna, look around more, maybe you'll find something interesting. Don't always be cooped up in the spiritual wilderness, at least allocate some traffic to the real world…"

Luna nodded sluggishly, then followed Yu Sheng as they continued down the street. But after just a few steps, she actually found something. She reached out and tugged Yu Sheng's arm: "Found, something interesting."

As she spoke, she was already walking ahead, looking like she had truly discovered a treasure.

This kind of proactive behavior from the saint was rare, and Yu Sheng was taken aback. He quickly looked in the direction Luna was staring and saw a crowd gathered ahead. He moved forward a few more steps and finally saw a stall there. It seemed to be selling all kinds of souvenirs and decorations.

Yu Sheng was surprised. He hadn't expected Luna to be interested in this kind of thing—after all, the style of those items on the stall was clearly designed to scam tourists. He'd seen plenty in scenic spots. Then, the next second, he saw right in the middle of the souvenirs was a best-crafted "shop treasure," a statue about twenty centimeters tall. The face looked strangely familiar. When he looked closer, there was even a small plaque on the base of the statue with a line of golden small characters:

"Lord Yu Sheng, the Holy and Virtuous Savior of Great Grace."

Yu Sheng: "…?"

Before two seconds had passed, Alene started tugging at Yu Sheng's hair. "Hey, hey, hey, that little figure looks just like you! But it seems they made you a bit too handsome, your face isn't that good-looking…"

Yu Sheng finally reacted and let out a "Holy shit."

As soon as he said that, the crowd around them didn't react much, but the stall owner, who had been turned around busy organizing things, suddenly jolted. He stood up and turned around, face to face with Yu Sheng.

It was fucking Yuan Hao.

He had changed his signature white hair to black and was wearing some kind of uniform that looked like a tourist spot worker's outfit, scavenged from who knows where. He had set up a stall here—selling consecrated souvenirs and Yu Sheng's action figures…