Living as a Mortal: Grinding Experience Starting from the Underworld

"Huh, a teleportation from the Five Dragons Sea? Haven't seen one in years!"

In the Starry Sky Palace on the fiftieth floor of Tianxing City, a Core Formation elder guarding the teleportation array stirred his divine sense slightly.

As the teleportation array's light faded, Zhang Feng's figure emerged from within it.

"Is this Tianxing City?"

Zhang Feng stepped out of the formation and turned to look around.

"Young friend, are you a cultivator from the Five Dragons Sea? It's been a long time since my Star Palace has hosted a merchant cultivator from the Five Dragons Sea!"

"I am Gu Xingyi, the Star Palace Elder who guards the teleportation array here."

A cultivator in the early stage of Core Formation suddenly appeared in front of Zhang Feng and introduced himself enthusiastically.

Zhang Feng was startled and quickly began to bow:

"Greetings, Elder Gu. I am Zhang Feng, a rogue cultivator from Suihan Island, not a cultivator from the Five Dragons Sea. I merely wandered into the Five Dragons Sea by mistake and used the teleportation array to return!"

"A rogue cultivator from Suihan Island?"

Upon hearing Zhang Feng introduce himself, the cultivator frowned, held the jade tablet in his hand, and activated his divine sense.

"snort!"

A moment later, Gu Xingyi seemed to have found out Zhang Feng's background. He put away his smile, snorted coldly, and turned to leave.

"This~"

Zhang Feng stood there, stunned. What did Elder Gu mean?

"Fellow Daoist Zhang, please follow me to register your entry information."

Just as Zhang Feng was wondering, a guard in the early stage of Foundation Establishment woke him up.

Zhang Feng had no choice but to put the elder out of his mind and follow the guards to process the entry information into the city. What a strange person.

"Fellow Daoist, cultivators who come to Tianxing City for the first time must purchase a short-term stay ring. If you wish to stay in Tianxing City for an extended period, you must purchase a permanent residence ring."

"Of course, if you are a Core Formation cultivator, this rule can be disregarded."

"However, short-term stays are limited to seven days."

"What kind of thing do you want, senior?"

Before the information was even entered, the guards had already started making sales pitches.

"A ring that will live there forever."

Considering that he would be staying in Tianxing City until he reached the Core Formation stage, or even longer, Zhang Feng decided to purchase a permanent residence ring.

"Okay, please wait a moment. A total of eight hundred spirit stones."

Upon hearing this, the guards immediately became excited and their attitude became very enthusiastic.

Eight hundred spirit stones?

Zhang Feng scanned the storage bag with his divine sense. He remembered that he had sold some level-four demon beast materials in the Five Dragon Sea, which was how he obtained the money to use the teleportation array.

Now I only have a thousand spirit stones left in my pocket.

If I spend another 800 to buy a permanent residence ring, I'll only have 200 spirit stones left.

It seems I need to quickly find out the specific situation of the city's markets and merchant alliances, and choose reliable shops to sell the monster materials I have.

"Give!"

Zhang Feng took out eight hundred spirit stones from his storage bag and handed them to the guard.

"Alright, the information has been entered. Here is your ring. You can obtain permanent residency in Tianxing City by giving it a blood oath."

The guard took out a red ring and handed it to Zhang Feng.

"Senior, turn right after you go out. There is a brokerage firm set up by the Star Palace. You can find a broker to learn about the structure of the Tianxing City branch and handle some errands."

Just as Zhang Feng was performing the blood oath ceremony and turning to leave the room, the guard's sales pitch came through again.

After thinking about it, Zhang Feng decided to follow the instructions and spend ten spirit stones to find an intermediary to show him around Tianxing City.

Unfortunately, information from books and anime is never comprehensive; it's always better to experience things firsthand.

Three days later, Zhang Feng personally traveled all over Tianxing City and finally gained a deeper understanding of it.

The four major business alliances have established offices in the core area of ​​Tianxing City, and other forces, large and small, have business associations and exchanges scattered throughout Tianxing City.

The monks' quarters, shops, and commercial streets are as numerous as hairs on a cow.

A thriving commercial sector indicates that Tianxing City is exceptionally safe.

The Star Palace Guard is present at every level, and it is rare to see any troublemakers in the city.

Seeing the safe atmosphere in Tianxing City with his own eyes, Zhang Feng finally felt relieved. Even if Wan Qing came looking for him, he would be safe in Tianxing City.

Subsequently, Zhang Feng began distributing the monster materials he possessed.

In order to avoid attracting attention, Zhang Feng spent a full month selling the items before he finally raised enough spirit stones to rent the cave dwelling in Tianxing City, totaling 2,500 spirit stones for a hundred years.

The thirty-third floor of Tianxing City contains caves with sufficient spiritual energy for late-stage or peak Foundation Establishment cultivators to cultivate daily.

After renting the cave dwelling, Zhang Feng had no further plans to sell his supplies and decided to avoid the situation for a while.

After setting up his only two arrays outside the cave, Zhang Feng focused on examining the cultivator's storage bags and various relics he had stolen.

First, we found the storage bag of Feng Xianghan, a Core Formation cultivator. It contained only a few thousand spirit stones, two talismans, various pills and miscellaneous items, and a few cultivation manuals.

Suihan Island was still too poor; the island lord, who was in the early stage of Core Formation, only had these items in his storage bag.

Feng Zhengxing's storage bag surprised Zhang Feng. It contained several hundred spirit stones, three Dust-Reducing Pills, and a talisman. It was clear that he had used all his wealth to buy the Dust-Reducing Pills in preparation for forming his core.

However, everything benefited Zhang Feng.

As for the other cultivators' belongings, apart from the storage bag of a Nascent Soul cultivator which Zhang Feng couldn't open for the time being due to insufficient divine sense strength, there were none.

Zhang Feng opened all the remaining storage bags one by one, and in total, he gained nearly 50,000 spirit stones and nearly a hundred magic treasures, magical artifacts, and talismans.

However, these magical treasures, artifacts, and talismans have been left in the underworld for a long time, and their precious light has become weak, indicating that they are obviously damaged. Almost none of them are usable and can only be sold as scrap materials.

However, these nearly 50,000 spirit stones were a great harvest for Zhang Feng.

There's no need to worry about the materials needed to reach the Core Formation stage; just buy them directly.

After careful consideration, Zhang Feng decided to stop selling any monster materials for the time being.

He should stay in Tianxing City for now, spend all the hundreds of thousands of spirit stones, and convert them all into his own cultivation and combat power.

The most urgent task is to break through to the Core Formation stage.

Zhang Feng had already obtained three Dust-Reducing Pills from Feng Zhengxing's storage bag and needed to purchase other pills and materials to aid in Core Formation.

The dosage should not be too high to avoid drug resistance.

Another important matter is the cultivation method. The "Langshui True Essence Technique" is no longer suitable for me as the main cultivation method.

Zhang Feng needs a more powerful cultivation technique, preferably one with the water attribute, since his water elemental root talent is currently the highest.

The "Underworld King's Technique" is sufficient for body and soul refining.

The "Myriad Laws Sword Technique" is sufficient as an offensive technique.

The "Demon Taming Technique" is more than enough for my newly learned beast taming skills, especially since it is the core technique of the Ten Thousand Demon Valley, one of the top powers in the Great Jin Dynasty.

However, the fact that the demon race practices the "Demon Control Technique" is somewhat puzzling.

Returning to the topic of cultivation techniques, the only place in Tianxing City that sells books, cultivation techniques, and secret manuals is Baimen Pavilion.

I'd like to take this opportunity to find out what happened to Suihan Island.

Having finalized his plan, Zhang Feng headed to the White Gate Pavilion with the spirit stones.

……

The location of Baimen Pavilion is quite unique, situated in a well-connected commercial center.

The four-story building has separate staircases for the first three floors, but the fourth floor is like a castle in the air.

There were many cultivators coming and going, and there were even food and banquets on the first and second floors.

That makes sense. When sharing information, it's impossible for one cultivator to just talk while the others listen passively.

Under Zhang Feng's divine sense, the first and second floors of the White Gate Pavilion were crowded and relatively noisy, the third floor was less crowded and relatively quiet, and the fourth floor could not be detected by divine sense.

Finding nothing amiss, Zhang Feng stepped onto the first floor and immediately saw the information he wanted to inquire about.

In the very center of the first floor, a message hangs above a white jade panel.

[A ghostly mist appears; strange tales unfold on Cold Island.]