Li Zhi immediately took the Hundred Herbs Diagram out of the Bitter Sea and unfolded it. A trace of disappointment appeared on his face.
Although the Small World in the diagram had recovered a little spiritual energy, not a single medicinal plant in the Medicine Field had reached the level of Spiritual Herbs.
At the same time, Nangong Wentian finally managed to temporarily suppress the injuries on his Wheel of Life and appeared once more.
At this moment, Nangong Wentian looked like a young man of twenty-five or twenty-six.
It was clear how severely his previous injuries had affected him.
With his Wheel of Life damaged, unless he used Precious Medicine of the Saint Medicine level to treat it, the injury would continue to plague him.
It would constantly consume his Lifespan.
Now that he had merely controlled the injuries and stopped them from worsening, he urgently went out to search for Li Zhi's whereabouts.
He wanted to extract Li Zhi's Life Origin to repair the wounds on his Wheel of Life.
If he succeeded, not only would his injuries heal completely, but his constitution would also become stronger.
Following the traces Li Zhi had left behind, he pursued him to the Small Town outside the Ancient Deep Forest.
After arriving at Lingxu Inn, Nangong Wentian directly condensed an image of Li Zhi with magic power and asked, "Tell me, where is this child?"
"Esteemed guest, our Lingxu Inn does business honestly and would never sell information about our customers." The innkeeper looked at Nangong Wentian's murderous expression and spoke neither humbly nor arrogantly.
After staying at the inn for more than ten days, Li Zhi had not only been digesting and absorbing all kinds of cultivation knowledge. Even his progress in the Longevity Locking Body Art had improved greatly, and he could lock away his own blood and qi and various auras so that they no longer leaked out.
That was also why Nangong Wentian had lost track of him after following Li Zhi's aura to the inn.
"Hmph!"
Nangong Wentian seemed very dissatisfied with the innkeeper's answer. He let out a cold snort, and the innkeeper immediately flew backward as though struck in the chest by a sledgehammer. With a "bang," he slammed heavily into the wall behind him.
Blood streamed from his mouth. He was taking in less air than he breathed out and seemed unlikely to survive.
Nangong Wentian turned to look at the shop assistant beside him.
Overwhelmed by Nangong Wentian's aura, the shop assistant immediately stammered, "E-Esteemed guest, that—that child settled his bill and left early yesterday morning."
"Where did he go?" Nangong Wentian asked.
"I-I don't know where he went," the shop assistant said fearfully.
"Is 'I don't know' that easy to say?" Nangong Wentian stared at the shop assistant, seemingly warning him not to end up like the innkeeper.
The shop assistant's face turned deathly pale with fright, and cold sweat poured down his forehead. He then said, "Senior, I'm only an ordinary mortal. I truly don't know where that child went. If Senior really wishes to find him, perhaps you could ask the cultivators who have been staying in the Small Town these past few days."
Nangong Wentian said nothing, as though waiting for the shop assistant to continue.
The shop assistant seemed to remember something. He immediately scrambled to the counter, took two sharp beast fangs from a box beneath it, and said, "These two beast fangs were used by that child to pay for his room and board."
Nangong Wentian simply reached out, and the two beast fangs flew from the shop assistant's hand into his own.
Then a streak of azure light flashed, and Nangong Wentian extracted a wisp of Li Zhi's aura from the beast fangs.
Li Zhi had previously kept the beast fangs inside his Bitter Sea. After such a long time, it was inevitable that they had become imbued with some of his aura.
A moment later, the two beast fangs turned directly into powder, and Nangong Wentian's figure vanished from Lingxu Inn.
At the same time, Li Zhi, walking along the road to the Primordial Ruins, looked at the beast-skin clothes he was wearing and felt that they were somewhat out of place with the clothing style of cultivators from Yan State.
Afterward, Li Zhi changed course and went to a nearby city of mortals.
He wanted to sell all the demon beast materials he had collected earlier in exchange for some cultivation resources. Even the most ordinary Hundred Herbs Liquid would do.
Just after Li Zhi entered the mortal city, Nangong Wentian, who had been following his aura, suddenly lost track of him.
In the mortal world, all kinds of auras were the most jumbled, making it easy to conceal a person's aura.
Especially for someone who had just embarked on the Path of Cultivation—if they lingered in the mortal world for too long, even their aspiration toward the Dao would be worn away by the Red Dust Qi.
"Buns! Delicious buns!"
"Don't miss it as you pass by! Brocade Workshop's newest styles are out. Esteemed guests, come inside and have a look!"
"Earth Dragon Roast! Delicious and nutritious!"
"Golden Preserved Fruit, made from carefully selected top-grade Spiritual Fruits and dried in the sun! Everyone says they're delicious!"
Walking down the street, a bustling, prosperous scene of the mortal world rushed toward Li Zhi like a vivid painting, leaving his mind somewhat dazed.
Including the year he had been trapped in the Mount Tai Secret Realm, Li Zhi had gone nearly two years without experiencing city life among such a dense population.
Although the cities of Beidou differed from those on Earth,
the people were still people. The passage of time and space had not caused that thick aura of humanity to disappear.
Although the pedestrians on the streets were all ordinary people, their complexions were much better than those of ordinary people on Earth.
Their physiques were also far superior to those of ordinary humans on Earth.
There were quite a few people over a hundred years old who still walked with nimble steps.
The saying that a place could produce outstanding people truly made sense.
Even if they could not enter the cultivation world, ordinary people living in a world filled with spiritual energy had a far better spirit than those living in the Age of Dharma Decline.
Li Zhi also discovered that there were far more handsome men and beautiful women on the streets than on Earth.
It seemed that, nourished by spiritual energy, everyone's features had grown unusually harmonious.
Regardless of whether they were tall, short, fat, or thin, very few people were hideously ugly.
Walking down the street in a set of beast-skin clothes, Li Zhi's delicate little face topped by a gleaming bald head attracted a great deal of attention.
Some restless older girls and aunties could not help reaching out to touch his little bald head whenever they passed him.
They laughed nonstop and said things like, "He's so cute," "Whose little one is this?" and "Why is his little bald head so shiny? I really want to take him home and touch it." Their words made Li Zhi blush furiously.
Faced with such enthusiastic aunties, Li Zhi could only "run away" as quickly as possible.
Who could blame them? He was currently just a seven-year-old boy who was so adorable that he inspired practically no wariness in anyone.
It seemed he could no longer keep his head shaved.
Those women's hands were truly quite "itchy."
They seemed not to understand the taboo that a man's head was not to be touched.
It was not that his hair had failed to grow over the past year. He simply felt that a bald head was easier to maintain, so he controlled his blood and qi to prevent his hair from growing.
After passing through the overly enthusiastic crowd, Li Zhi began wandering around the city.
At last, on an antiques street, he found a shop that purchased all kinds of fierce beast materials.
Soon, Li Zhi sold the fierce beast materials on him that were unsuitable for refining into Magic Artifacts and received more than a hundred gold coins in exchange.
Then Li Zhi carried his "fortune" to the most famous Brocade Workshop in the city and directly bought thirty sets of clothes in different sizes.
They would be enough to wear until he grew into an adult.
He changed into the clothing style popular in Yan State and put on a hat that could shield him from the sun.
After lowering the hat's veil, he finally stopped people from focusing on his little bald head.
At just over one meter thirty tall, he still looked rather short, which made everything inconvenient.
After leaving Brocade Workshop, Li Zhi suddenly sensed two people secretly following him.
Li Zhi quickened his pace and pricked up his ears to listen to their reactions.
"Brother Shun, that little fellow is walking awfully fast."
"Keep up. He's a fat sheep, so don't lose him. If we sell him, we'll be able to enjoy at least three years of carefree living."
They turned out to be two kidnappers.
Li Zhi secretly mused, So even on the Ancient Beidou Star, children can't run around outside alone.
The buying and selling of people truly was an ancient business.
After that, Li Zhi used a pace that they could not catch up to while walking, yet that would make too much noise if he jogged, keeping far ahead of them.
He led them on for two whole streets, until the two men were exhausted and panting. With their hands on their hips and against the wall, they cursed at him. Only then did Li Zhi stop.
Then he spotted a Bun Shop by the roadside.
He wondered what difference there was between buns from Beidou and buns from Earth.
Li Zhi walked toward the Bun Shop and ordered four baskets of buns with different fillings, both meat and vegetarian.
Seeing Li Zhi order so many buns, the bun seller reminded him, "Little brother, my buns are made with genuine ingredients. Can you finish four baskets all at once? They taste best while hot. Once they cool, their flavor is cut in half."
"I can finish them. I have a huge appetite. Four baskets of buns might not even be enough."
Each basket contained eight two-inch buns. Li Zhi ate nearly one in two bites and quickly finished an entire basket.
The taste was indeed delicious, far more flavorful than the buns on Earth.
"Boss, do any of your buns use the meat of spirit beasts?" Li Zhi suddenly asked after eating two baskets.
"Little brother, you're joking. This is just a roadside shop. How could I afford spirit beast meat? If you want buns filled with spirit beast meat, you can only go to Taifeng Restaurant in the city. They're the ones who serve spiritual cuisine, and even they don't have it every day. You have to place an order in advance." The bun seller explained it to Li Zhi.
Li Zhi nodded and said, "Boss, give me another basket each of the beef-filled buns, braised-meat-filled buns, and earth-dragon-meat-filled buns."
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