The starting point is auspicious; the fiancée will not call off the engagement.

Five days later, outside Tianyang City.

As dawn broke, a thin mist lingered over the fields on both sides of the official road, and a spirit boat was moored outside the city gate.

Peak Master Liu had gone ahead to attend to sect affairs, so now only Fang Zhou and Ye Ninghan stood side by side.

Ye Ninghan had changed back into her usual cyan dress, a sword at her waist, her demeanor as aloof as ever. Fang Zhou, on the other hand, traveled light, carrying only a storage ring given to him by his father.

"Let's go."

Ye Ninghan, carrying Fang Zhou, leaped lightly onto the spirit boat with clean and swift movements.

She glanced down at Fang Zhou and added, "The Myriad Saints Sect is 30,000 miles from here. It requires passing through three teleportation arrays. The first teleportation array is in Qingmu City, which is half a day's journey from here."

They traveled in silence. Ye Ninghan wasn't a talkative person, and Fang Zhou didn't know what to say to her, so they continued on their way in silence. There was no awkwardness, but rather a strange tacit understanding.

Just past noon, the teleportation array for Qingmu City appeared before them. After paying the spirit stones and stepping into the array, a dizzying sensation followed, and they found themselves in another city. This process repeated three times, and when Fang Zhou emerged from the teleportation array for the third time, it was already the afternoon of the following day.

He stood on the high platform of the teleportation array, gazing into the distance, and then froze.

He had imagined what the Wansheng Sect would look like. Immortal mountains and pavilions, swirling clouds and mist, cascading waterfalls and flowing springs—all his imaginations revolved around the four words "immortal grandeur."

But to his utter surprise, what truly shocked him was not the Wansheng Sect itself, but the city outside the Wansheng Sect.

High-rise buildings, towering buildings standing side by side.

Those buildings often have dozens of floors, and some even exceed a hundred floors. Faint spiritual runes flow on the exterior walls, indicating that they have been reinforced by arrays.

Between the buildings, wide and clean streets crisscross, paved with unidentified stone slabs that gleam warmly in the sunlight. Shops line the streets, their signs adorned with words that seem to gleam with spiritual light, and pedestrians come and go in a bustling crowd, dressed in various styles.

In the distance, a huge spirit array floated in mid-air on the plaza, slowly rotating, with cultivators flying in and out of it from time to time.

Further away, several rainbow bridges spanned the sky, connecting several tall towers. On the rainbow bridges, cultivators walked through the air, their robes fluttering, like immortals.

But what surprised Fang Zhou the most was the city's "sense of order".

Every tall building is arranged in a neat and orderly manner, the streets are precisely planned, and the spiritual light of the various spiritual arrays intertwines without interfering with each other, forming a huge network covering the entire city.

"This is... the Ten Thousand Saints Sect?" Fang Zhou asked.

"This is one of the cities surrounding the Wansheng Sect, named Cheng'an."

Ye Ninghan walked beside him, her tone indifferent.

"Within a radius of 50,000 li around the Wansheng Sect's mountain gate, there are over a hundred such cities. Cheng'an is about 300 li away from the sect's mountain gate, making it the closest one."

Fang Zhou silently digested this information. More than a hundred such cities, each built by cultivators, were planned in such an orderly manner.

The Fang family was considered a powerful clan in the mortal city, but compared to Cheng'an City before him, they were like fireflies compared to the bright moon. He even saw a pastry shop sign on the street, made of Moonlight Glazed Gold, which cost a thousand spirit stones per gram. In Tianyang City, this stuff was only used in the forging of weapons, yet here it was used for a signboard.

"The residents of these cities are mostly homeless people rescued by disciples of sects during their training expeditions."

Ye Ninghan continued, "They settle down in the city and do some business. Some of them are people from all over the country who come to study, hoping to one day pass the selection to enter the Ten Thousand Saints Sect."

Fang Zhou snapped out of his daze and nodded.

He followed Ye Ninghan down the teleportation platform and walked along the main street.

The shops lining both sides of the street were dazzling, including medicine shops, magic tool shops, talisman shops, as well as restaurants, teahouses, cloth shops, and grain shops.

Practitioners and ordinary people live side by side without any sense of incongruity.

Not long after, Ye Ninghan stopped in front of a five-story building.

"arrive."

The small building was entirely constructed of bluestone, with its exterior walls covered in unknown vines blooming with tiny white flowers. There was no plaque above the door, only a simple array pattern carved on the door frame.

Ye Ninghan took out a jade tablet and affixed it to the array pattern. A flash of light appeared, and the door opened.

"This is the residence that my master gave me after I entered the inner sect. I sometimes stay here when I return to the sect. The sect has a rule that non-disciples are not allowed to stay in the mountain gate for more than three days. If you want to stay for a long time, you can only stay here."

Fang Zhou followed her into the building.

The first floor is the reception hall, simply furnished but not shabby, with tables, chairs, and a tea table. The second floor contains bedrooms and a cultivation room, while the third floor is a study. Everywhere is spotless, clearly maintained by an array.

Ye Ninghan led him around the room, and finally they returned to the guest hall.

She took out a palm-sized spirit card from her sleeve. It was crystal clear and had a faint spiritual light flowing across its surface. She handed it to Fang Zhou.

"This is yours."

Fang Zhou took the spirit card, which was slightly warm to the touch.

The front of the spirit card is engraved with the logo of the Wansheng Sect, while the back features a string of floating spirit runes and numbers.

"This spirit card is a universally accepted transaction certificate within the Wansheng Sect, and is denominated in spirit coins."

Spirit coins are crystals of spiritual energy uniformly refined by the sect. They can be used for trading or absorbed directly during cultivation. One spirit coin is roughly equal to one spirit stone. I've already stored a sum of spirit coins in there, enough for your daily needs.

Ye Ninghan spoke in a calm tone, as if she were explaining a trivial matter.

Fang Zhou glanced down at the spirit pattern numbers on the spirit card, and his pupils suddenly dilated.

One million.

A typical Spirit Aperture Realm cultivator consumes about ten spirit stones per day for arduous cultivation. One million spirit coins would be enough to support a Spirit Aperture Realm cultivator for 100,000 days, which is approximately 270 years. Even without considering this conversion method, this amount far exceeds the scope of "pocket money".

"this--"

"in addition,"

Ye Ninghan continued speaking before he could finish, her brows slightly furrowed, as if she were seriously recalling something.

"The largest restaurant in the city is Yunkeju. The food is decent, but it's a bit too oily and salty. If you're not used to it, there's a congee shop in the east of the city that specializes in congee and side dishes, which is lighter in flavor."

I'm usually at the sect. If you need anything, you can use your spirit card to send a message to me at the affairs hall in the city.

Fang Zhou's hand holding the spirit card froze. Why did that tone sound so off?

"Also," Ye Ninghan suddenly looked up, her gaze earnest as she looked at him, "remember to eat on time."

Fang Zhou was stunned.

"Cultivation is important, but you are only at the Spirit Aperture Realm and have not yet achieved the Great Abstinence from Grains. You must not neglect your meals and sleep." Ye Ninghan said this with a serious expression. "You must not miss three meals a day. I will come back to see you when I have time."

Fang Zhou opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but found that his language function had completely failed at this moment.

He looked down at the spirit card in his hand, then looked up at the girl in front of him who was earnestly telling him to eat on time, and suddenly felt that the world was somewhat magical.

"Did you remember?" Ye Ninghan tilted her head slightly when she saw that he didn't speak.

"...I've got it."

Fang Zhou looked at Ye Ninghan's earnest instructions and replied somewhat helplessly.

He's not a child, there's no need to give him such instructions.

Seeing Fang Zhou's helpless expression, Ye Ninghan knew he was unwilling to listen to her instructions, but she still continued talking.

"Also, there are many rules in the city. Since you're new here, don't wander around. If you want to go out, at least familiarize yourself with the layout of the city first. Although Cheng'an City is generally safe, there are occasional troublemakers. Your cultivation is still shallow, so don't provoke any trouble."

As Fang Zhou listened to her recount her story point by point, he suddenly remembered what Peak Master Liu had said that night.

She said she wanted to fulfill her responsibilities as a partner, and she would earnestly do what a wife should do.

He listened to it at the time but didn't take it too seriously.

But seeing Ye Ninghan's serious expression as she gave her instructions, he suddenly felt that Peak Master Liu was being a bit modest.

This girl is hardly "fulfilling her duties as a wife".

This is treating him like a child.

Is it cute or scary? Fang Zhou couldn't tell for a moment.

However, he was certain of at least one thing: the days to come would probably be much more exciting than he had imagined.

After giving her instructions, Ye Ninghan left, as there were still matters in the sect that required her attention.

Before leaving, she looked back at Fang Zhou one last time, her lips moved as if she wanted to say something more, but in the end she only said "Call me if you need anything" before flying away on her sword. Her cyan figure quickly disappeared into the distant horizon.

Fang Zhou stood at the door watching her leave until the blue light completely disappeared into the clouds before turning his gaze away.

He looked down at the spirit card in his hand; the numbers, shimmering with spiritual light, flickered slightly in the afternoon sunlight.

One million.

He had never seen so much money in both of his lives combined.

Fang Zhou took a deep breath, carefully put away the spirit card, and turned to walk into the small building.

With no one around, he finally no longer needed to maintain his composed and calm persona, and couldn't help but mutter a curse under his breath.

"Holy crap, what's going on here?"

He said that, but he couldn't suppress the smile on his face.