"This is not enough," Liu Xing said as he opened a drawer. There were a handful of bronze coins here, though it was far from enough to be exchanged for a single spirit stone. He closed the drawer and looked around the office. The office was wide, with three tables standing against the opposite wall and the desk he had just checked facing the door. From a glance, he understood this was merely an office where documents were processed, not a place for storing money. Liu Xing was not disappointed, though. He had entered the building randomly, hoping for a lucky break, but it seemed this was not it.

Liu Xing slipped back out the window he had pried open and launched himself to another building, his body invisible and his presence so dim that even a bird perched on the rooftop didn't realize he was there. He moved from building to building, and when he realized there were no banks or other prominent places in the market, he decided to move outward. As he moved from rooftop to rooftop, he decided to trust his instinct and go for one of the three spots where qi converged. He justified this action by assuming that an important place must be nearby. There would surely be cultivators there, but assuming their cultivation was not too high and their senses were not exceptionally sharp, he could infiltrate the area.

Liu Xing adjusted his trajectory. As he saw Fang Ruxue beginning to talk with a vegetable seller—a woman in her late fifties with short, wavy hair—he finally arrived at his destination.

When he saw what kind of place it was, his eyes widened slightly.

"This is a school," Liu Xing muttered. It was still morning, and he could see children walking, running, and chatting as they made their way toward a walled complex of buildings. The largest building was in the center. It was grand and painted pristine white. He could sense cultivators at the first and second stages of the Lock Opening realm gathered in one room on the first level. He sharpened his senses and tried to look into a room on the second level. It was a classroom, with several tables and a blackboard hanging on the distant wall, where several children were chatting and hanging around. His eyes swept the place, found a field, and saw children around ten years of age practicing a kata. Some were sweating, while others were merely practicing while joking around. In another building, on the first level, he could see an old teacher writing something on the blackboard while her class, consisting of merely five kids around six or seven years old, wrote furiously in their notebooks.

"It is indeed a school."

A carriage pulled to a stop in front of the gate, and a teenager came out, perhaps thirteen or fourteen years old, with a hint of qi inside her body. She was no cultivator, but it was only a matter of time before she became one. Her dress was the color of clouds, accented with sky-blue highlights. She walked with steps full of confidence, as if the school belonged to her. Another carriage pulled up, and a boy came out of it. He wore a blue robe accentuated with white lines and ran at a full sprint toward her, waving his arms. She ignored him, however, but a moment later, when she caught sight of another boy, this one wearing dirty and shabby gray clothes, she perked up and ran toward him.

Liu Xing pinched his chin as he observed the school further. He had never thought he would come across a seemingly normal school in a cultivation world. Moreover, since almost all of the teachers were cultivators and some kids already had a hint of qi in their bodies, he realized this was a school that taught them to become cultivators. It was quite unexpected.

The kids wore no uniforms, so he could see some in fine clothes while others were dressed shabbily. This indicated that the school didn't discriminate and accepted children from all backgrounds. However, he could see two distinct color combinations among the students: one was white and blue, while the other was blue and white. If his hunch was correct, then these children were from two prominent clans, which lined up with the information he had gathered. However, he also saw children who didn't wear the combination of white and blue, yet they too had a hint of qi in their bodies and wore nice clothes. This indicated that even people outside the clans could become wealthy. That, or they are the children of officials.

Since he knew that the guards controlled the market, it meant that the city's government was not without fangs, so they too must have cultivators on their side too.

"This is really interesting," he muttered. "The power struggle and political landscape in this city must be quite fascinating."

However, while interesting, he decided the school was not the right place to exchange money, so Liu Xing began to jump to another roof and soon found himself in front of a large clan compound composed of dozens of buildings, with a giant, palace-like building at its center. Upon seeing this clan compound and sensing some cultivators inside, he knew this place would have enough money to be exchanged for or stolen.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Liu Xing enhanced his senses to feel the surrounding qi and found a peculiar qi signature. But it was not emitted from the compound itself; rather, it came from the opposite side. Turning, Liu Xing sharpened his eyes and saw a person that he considered a beggar. Her hair was disheveled, as if she had never combed it. Her clothes were filthy, and flies buzzed around her. She hid behind a building and, from time to time, peeked toward the clan compound and bit her lip, clenched her fists, and snarled. Her eyes reddened before they began to tear up. Before she could cry, though, she turned and began running, earning shouts from several people she knocked out of the way.

When Liu Xing saw her from behind, he frowned. She wasn't a cultivator, but there was some qi clinging to her. However, the way it clung was strange. It felt like ambient qi, but ambient qi doesn't cling to people. He also felt as if the ambient qi around her was trying to push or trip her, like a bully trying to hurt its victim. The force was weak, but the qi almost had an intention of its own.

"Weird," Liu Xing muttered. "It feels as if the qi hates her."

Perhaps she had some kind of bloodline that made qi react to her like that, although it must be one that made it hard to become a cultivator. That qi behaved so meanly toward her that he suspected it would rip her apart if she ever became a cultivator and tried to absorb it into her body.

Anyway, while the qi around her was interesting, he decided to ignore her and refocus his attention.

He needed to enter this compound, find a safe, and, depending on the circumstances, either exchange spirit stones or steal money. Whichever he thought was the correct and better option.

"Alright, let's do this."

Liu Xing jumped and landed right in front of the compound gate, where two cultivators at the first stage of the Lock Opening realm stood guard with menacing expressions. They wore white pants and blue clothes; the guard on the left had a sword, while the one on the right had a spear. Both of them looked straight toward where the beggar had been and sneered, as if seeing her was the most humiliating thing imaginable. The one on the left even spat to the side.

With a calm face, Liu Xing walked between them and entered the clan compound. As he walked, even though he knew he was invisible and his presence couldn't be felt by these two guards, his heart began hammering in his chest. While he knew no one here could harm him, he didn't want to be found out. Hence, as he walked through the front gate, he calmed his breath and consciously made his steps as soft as possible.

Soon, he entered the compound proper, where he saw mortal servants bustling around. Some carried baskets with dirty clothes piled so high they obstructed their view; some watered the plants that lined the pavement; a male servant was trimming the leaves of a short tree; some people were sweeping the road, while others were hanging clothes that had just been washed. Liu Xing took a turn, and a similar view greeted him. This compound was full of mortal servants, and almost all of them had relaxed faces; some were even smiling and humming while working. From this alone, he could tell that this clan treated their servants nicely, which made a good impression on Liu Xing.

Not long after, Liu Xing found a training ground where two servants carried what looked like a shattered log on their shoulders. Several other servants were trying to raise another log, while others were busy creating straw men. He realized this must be a training ground for someone, though it was too small for his taste and too close to the road. However, from the dead patch of grass in the center of the field and from how bruised the shattered log was, he couldn't help but nod. Whoever trained here was at least diligent.

Liu Xing walked deeper and deeper, trying to determine where the clan's safe was. As he walked, he opened his ears to the servants' chatter, deciding to gather information. Most of it was not particularly useful, like the fact that the Patriarch of this clan had four wives and that each of the wives currently had only one child. He learned that the clan had several businesses in town and that some new restaurant was trying to pick a fight with them, which the servant snorted at, saying they were courting death. He heard a rumor that today was the day the Patriarch would visit the grave of his oldest daughter, and also the reason the servants were in such a good mood. Today was payday. And the most important thing, though he got this information not from their words but by the fact that they liked to glance at a certain building far in the east, was that it was the building they needed to visit to receive their monthly wages.

Liu Xing swiftly arrived at the building. It was a two-story, square building. Peering inside, he could see several people queuing in front of a wide table, where a clerk with spectacles was receiving slips of bamboo with names and numbers on them. The clerk would then grab a bag of coins from a tray below him and give it to the person in line, who received it with a happy smile. Liu Xing entered and, from the short queue, realized there was some kind of schedule for receiving their monthly wages. Perhaps some received it in the morning, while others would only get it in the evening. It was a good method to reduce the frustration of anyone involved.

Liu Xing looked around, found the stairs to the second level, and without thinking, climbed up into another room.

This room was like a library, with several racks full of books and scrolls. A large window was open, allowing sunlight and fresh air in. However, he was not interested in the window, but rather in the four people sitting around a table. Countless empty coin bags were beside them. On the table near each of them was a piece of paper with a list of names and numbers. Most interesting of all were the trays and buckets filled with bronze and silver coins in the middle of the table. They glinted in the morning light.

Upon seeing this, Liu Xing smiled. There it was, some money.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.