Jade City

Wang Rui brought Huo Yuqing into Jade City. Dawn was breaking, and the city was slowly waking up as well. Humans and soul beasts occasionally passed by them.

Jade City was a circular city. With the Golden Tree at its center, the surrounding buildings radiated outward in rings, giving the entire city the shape of concentric circles.

Different roads divided the city into fan-shaped sections. Buildings with jade roofs and brown walls were dotted with abundant plants, while the courtyards of residential homes brimmed with the atmosphere of daily life. Some courtyards even housed resting soul beasts.

Owl-type soul beasts flapped their wings and landed on perches in roadside courtyards to doze off. Feline soul beasts stretched lazily by the road... Huo Yuqing even saw a golden monkey soul beast sitting cross-legged outside someone's courtyard, weaving a straw hat.

The surrounding humans, meanwhile, seemed completely accustomed to such scenes.

"These soul beasts seem really intelligent," the girl said softly.

"When soul beasts live among humans, their intelligence develops far faster than it would in the forest." Wang Rui reached out and brushed aside a blade of grass by the roadside. "Although they still cannot reach the level of human intelligence, the soul beasts that live alongside humans are far smarter than members of the same species living in the forest."

Soul beasts survived on instinct, but with proper guidance, their intelligence was not actually low.

Among the ordinary animals from his previous life, creatures with clear social structures, such as wolf packs and lions, possessed considerable intelligence. Whales and dolphins even had their own languages, allowing them to communicate with one another.

Pet cats and dogs with lifespans of barely over a decade could understand human commands, while trained orangutans could even communicate with humans through sign language!

Even ordinary animals were like this, let alone soul beasts whose lifespans were measured in tens of thousands of years. Their long lives meant soul beasts could not possibly lack intelligence.

The key was an environment with civilization.

Even a healthy human, if isolated from human civilization for a long time, would gradually regress mentally until he was no different from a beast.

"They will clumsily learn from and imitate humans," Wang Rui said quietly. "Ordinary soul beasts live muddled and ignorant lives in the forest. Aside from certain naturally powerful races that know from childhood to cultivate actively, most soul beasts, even after reaching ten-thousand-year cultivation, only grow according to instinct."

"But these ones living alongside humans in the city..." Wang Rui pointed at the soul beasts visible on the streets. "They are more intelligent than the soul beasts in the forest, awaken their intelligence earlier, and can recognize the importance of cultivating proactively. The cleverest among them even imitate human soul masters and cultivate through meditation."

Just then, several brightly colored bird soul beasts suddenly flew over and circled above Huo Yuqing and Wang Rui.

"Hello, visiting humans! Welcome to Jade City! Welcome to Jade City!" the bird soul beasts called out in comical, strange accents. "Please obey this city's rules. Do not harm any soul beast or human within the city! Do not use any means to harm any soul beast or human in Jade City! Otherwise, unpleasant things will happen!"

"How can they all speak? Are these soul beasts also Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts?" Huo Yuqing widened her eyes in surprise as she watched the gaudy birds flying above her.

"They are not Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts." Wang Rui smiled and shook his head. "These are Wind-Listening Parrots with Thousand-Year Cultivation. They are naturally skilled at imitating all kinds of sounds. They use different sounds to hunt prey and intimidate enemies, so naturally they can speak human language too... Though they may not necessarily understand what they are saying."

"I understand!" one of the parrots shrieked. Its companions were still stupidly repeating their earlier words, making it clear that it was much smarter than the others. "You are not allowed to insult me!"

"Alright, alright, I was wrong!" Wang Rui hurriedly dragged Huo Yuqing away from the area.

"What did that parrot mean by unpleasant things?" Huo Yuqing asked with some concern. "Wouldn't bad people really sneak in and harm the soul beasts in the city?"

Wang Rui hesitated for a moment before coming up with a relatively tactful explanation. "Well, most intelligent beings will not offend a healing-type soul master who might save their lives. As for those whose brains do not work very well, who want to attack the moment they see a soul beast... The closest city to Jade City is Gu City. The soul masters and soul beasts over there all play with poison, so they occasionally need living creatures... to test their skills on."

Although Jade City was a gathering place for healing-type soul masters and soul beasts, it was also the most heavily guarded of Beast Sect's five cities. All those little black dots circling in the sky were birds of prey soul beasts, and even the weakest of them possessed combat strength comparable to a Soul Douluo.

If anyone was foolish enough to cause trouble in Jade City... they might as well start considering how many tables to set for their funeral feast.

With Jade City's military strength, even if Mu En came in person, they could hold him off for a while.

Huo Yuqing did not think there was anything wrong with that. "My mother taught me too that if someone cannot keep their greed in check, then they deserve whatever punishment they receive."

"Well said, young man." Something patted her shoulder.

Huo Yuqing jumped in fright and turned around. A wrinkled human face had squeezed out from the trunk of a large tree, smiling kindly at her.

"Don't be fooled just because it can talk. This fellow does not have Hundred-Thousand-Year Cultivation." Wang Rui explained before she could ask. "Plant Soul Beasts cannot move, but they learn to speak human language earlier than ordinary soul beasts."

"Exactly!" the large tree said. "I still have to stand here for another twenty thousand years before I can leave. Here, hold out your hand."

Several plump purple fruits fell from its branches and landed in Huo Yuqing's palm.

"Take them and eat, little human," the tree said kindly. "Remember to take my children to other parts of the continent after you finish eating them!"

"Thank you!" Huo Yuqing thanked it politely, then wiped the fruits with her sleeve and offered them to Wang Rui. "Do you want one?"

"No." A strange expression appeared on Wang Rui's face. "I suggest you be careful too. Think about it—if its fruit tasted good or had some special effect, would it need to hand them out everywhere?"

Huo Yuqing refused to believe it and took a bite. Her little face immediately puckered from the sourness, but she still stubbornly finished one of the incredibly sour fruits and carefully put away the pit.

Wang Rui smiled and shook his head. He led Huo Yuqing to the central commercial street of Jade City. "This is Jade City's commercial district. There are a lot of shops here. Someone I know runs a shop here, and I'll introduce you to work for her for a while."

"Thank you!" Huo Yuqing's eyes widened in delight. Wouldn't that mean more than half her goal had already been accomplished?

Looking ahead along the street, there was a cluster of colonnaded buildings at the end of the road. From afar, she could see many people and soul beasts gathered there, while the majestic, thick trunk of the Golden Tree stood behind those buildings.

"The area around the Golden Tree's roots has the densest life energy. That is also where Jade City's healing-type soul masters and soul beasts treat the injured." Wang Rui tilted his chin ahead. "And this side is Jade City's marketplace."

Most of the houses along both sides of the street had awnings set up in front of them. Their roofs were formed from intertwined emerald-green vines, and beneath every awning, either people or soul beasts had set up stalls.

"Soul beasts run stalls and sell things too?" Huo Yuqing stared in disbelief at a purple-gray squirrel nearly half a person tall. It was slowly arranging pinecones as large as an adult human's head and pine needles as thick as knitting needles.

The squirrel noticed her words and actually nodded in a very human-like fashion. It then picked up a sign beside it and waved it toward them.

Pinecones and pine needles from an eighty-thousand-year Troll Pine. Pinecones with seeds, fifty Gold Soul Coins each. Pine needles, three Gold Soul Coins each. Pine nuts sold individually, five Gold Soul Coins each.

The prices were quite fair. To humans, these were already exceptionally valuable items.

Huo Yuqing stared at the sign in astonishment.

The squirrel tilted its head, ran out from beneath the awning, stood upright with its two forepaws raised high, and struck a pose as though embracing the sky. Then it stared at Huo Yuqing with its pair of little black bean-like eyes.

"Uh, a tree?" the girl guessed that the squirrel was trying to tell her something. "A Troll Pine?"

The squirrel nodded vigorously, looking extremely pleased. Keeping its forepaws raised, it began spinning its entire upper body in circles, then started waving its arms like windmills. After that, it acted as if it were clutching something and made a nervous fleeing motion.

The corner of Wang Rui's mouth twitched. This squirrel was such a drama queen. Look at that mime performance—it was veteran actor level!

"The Troll Pine hits people with its branches, so gathering its pinecones is very difficult?" But Huo Yuqing found it quite interesting and continued guessing.

The squirrel nodded enthusiastically, looking very happy. It darted back beneath the awning, cracked open a pinecone, and handed a pine nut to Huo Yuqing.

"I don't have money to pay you..." Before the girl could finish refusing, the squirrel forcefully stuffed the pine nut into her hand and ran back to its stall.

"Just take it. It is thanking you for watching its performance." Wang Rui smiled. "Troll Pine nuts are nutritious and make good snacks. Their scent can also help improve concentration."

"Won't it lose money doing business like that?" Huo Yuqing asked, feeling conflicted. She rubbed the hard shell of the pine nut, and a fresh pine fragrance wafted out, instantly refreshing her mind.

"How would it lose money?" Wang Rui laughed. "The pinecones grow on the Troll Pine, and it eats them too. In the beginning, the more intelligent soul beasts gathered here to trade the natural treasures they had but could not use for things better suited to themselves, in order to assist their cultivation. But barter was ultimately inconvenient, so this form of buying and selling with money gradually emerged."

"Later, pills specially made for soul beasts were sold in Jade City as well. Most soul beasts wanted to sell off little odds and ends that were useless to them in exchange for pills—of course, humans also set up stalls to make money."

They passed several connected food stalls, where several food-type soul masters with modest cultivation were selling their martial souls.

"But you cannot expect soul beasts' little minds to understand bargaining. They are not that clever yet. Someone has specially assessed the value of these goods." Wang Rui explained with a smile. "Soul beasts still think in very simple terms of exchange."

Basic daily necessities in Jade City were provided by the city as a whole. However, if one wanted to buy pills or anything else, one had to earn money personally.

Setting up a stall in the commercial district was not the only way to make money. Jade City also had many jobs that required workers.

In truth, this city's economic system and social structure were extremely fragile and incomplete. Yet this was not a purely human city. The more simple-minded soul beasts made up more than half the population, while longer-lived Fierce Beast-level soul beasts maintained order within the city... And so Jade City continued to function well.

Huo Yuqing had never seen such a strange marketplace. She followed behind Wang Rui through the commercial street, looking around in every direction, wishing she had eight more eyes.

A snow-white spirit deer lay quietly beneath a vine awning, with its shed antlers and several auspicious herbs laid out before it.

A delicate purple-haired youth loudly hawked bundles of snow-white spider silk. Behind him, a massive spider soul beast was diligently spinning more silk, and several women had gathered around his stall.

A huge golden turtle lay quietly to one side, its shell covered in Gold Soul Coins. The sign beside it read: Gold Soul Coins offered upon a Golden Hawksbill Turtle's shell bring good fortune. Exchange five Gold Soul Coins for one... It sounded absurd, but humans and soul beasts were actually standing there picking through the coins, leaving Huo Yuqing deeply shocked.

One stall had a line of soul beasts in front of it. When Huo Yuqing moved closer to look, she found a middle-aged woman cleaning the shell of a massive fiery-red scorpion—cleaning service, starting at five copper coins. Huo Yuqing thought about it and figured the price was probably based on size, since an enormous rhinoceros was also standing quietly nearby.

Behind the middle-aged woman was a thick pink giant python. It was curled into a ball and dozing, with bundles of bright pink snakeskin and price tags laid out across its body.

"How do they collect money? Soul beasts do not seem to have pockets," Huo Yuqing asked curiously. Some of the price tags listed sums starting in the thousands of Gold Soul Coins.

"Most soul beasts that can set up stalls here have their own Storage Soul Tools," Wang Rui said. "Look at that big snake's tail."

Sure enough, a silver ring was hooked onto the tip of the pink giant python's tail.

Huo Yuqing let out an amazed sound.

Before long, they passed a shop that sold and repaired Soul Tools. The dark-skinned female owner sat in the storefront behind the awning. Several baskets sat beneath the vine canopy, casually stuffed full of various Storage Soul Tools, from earrings to rings, in every conceivable shape... The careless way they were piled up made them look like baskets of mixed beans from afar.

"Two Gold Soul Coins each?" Huo Yuqing's eyes widened. Was a Storage Soul Tool not even worth as much as the pine nut the squirrel had given her?

"They are nothing valuable. They are only first-grade and cannot hold much." The shop owner cheerfully called out from inside. "They are little things made by apprentices for practice. I am only charging the cost of the metal. Want to pick one, young lady?"

"No, I don't have enough money yet." The girl smiled and shook her head. She calculated inwardly that if the job Wang Rui introduced paid enough, she could save up and buy a Storage Soul Tool.

"Then come buy one from Auntie once you've saved enough money, little one!" the shop owner said with a smile.

"Definitely, definitely!"

They left the Soul Tool shop, and before long, Huo Yuqing was drawn to a particularly unusual stall.

That stall had no emerald-green vine awning. A lean, black-clothed middle-aged man sat on a small stool, with several small bottles placed before him. Behind him stood a thick perch, upon which stood a large red-eyed crow nearly a meter tall.

"Stalls without vine awnings like this generally only accept bartering, or they have not hired anyone to appraise the value of their goods," Wang Rui said. "In other words, buying things from such stalls is a real test of one's judgment."

"Oh my, young lady, you know your stuff!" The middle-aged man said nothing, but the crow let out a harsh, grating voice. "We only accept bartering here~"

"Pills produced by Gu City, capable of letting soul masters challenge opponents above their level. Life-saving treasures with only a tiny little side effect. One pill for five to eight drops of blood~ Better buy quickly, darling~"

Let me recommend a good friend's story! Time for some shameless cross-promotion!