Living

Cities throughout the Central Continent did not restrict flight through the air, except for certain Demon Race members with enormous true forms. Thus, Shen Gui naturally encountered no obstruction when entering the city.

Shen Gui entered Qingluan City with ease.

He landed on a secluded street within the city and began to slowly examine this rare great city of the Central Continent, one guarded by a Golden Immortal.

Though it was called a great city, it was not actually much different from the several smaller cities Shen Gui had passed through before.

A few simple streets ran through the entire city, lined with rows of ruggedly styled buildings.

It seemed that all cities in the early Primordial Wilderness shared this simple, crude style.

In that case...

Shen Gui raised his head and looked toward the center of Qingluan City.

Cities of this era did not yet possess the many complicated functions they would have in later generations.

Aside from providing a place to live, cities now had only one other function.

Bartering.

At the center of every Demon Race city was a place where Demon Race cultivators could exchange resources they did not need for resources useful to them.

That was Shen Gui's destination as well.

As for the Demon Race members living in this city, Shen Gui did not care about them.

Other than each city's guardian—the city lord—these Demon Race cities generally held no particularly powerful beings.

They were the lowest-tier beings in the entire Primordial Wilderness. If they lived outside, they might die at any moment, which was why they had moved into cities.

Although the spiritual energy within cities was certainly not as rich as that of Spirit Mountains and blessed lands, making cultivation far slower than outside, and opportunities were even less worth hoping for, at least by living in a city, they did not have to worry about being killed someday.

As for truly powerful beings, or those with even a little ability to protect themselves, they generally did not live in cities.

To them, a city's only purpose was the trading grounds at its center.

As Shen Gui approached the center of Qingluan City, the streets visibly grew more crowded with Demon Race members dressed in all manner of clothing. Some had not even taken human form, though the vast majority traveled alone, with scarcely anyone moving in groups.

This was also a common phenomenon throughout the Primordial Wilderness at present.

Across the entire Primordial Wilderness, apart from cultivators of the same race or those related by blood, most cultivators were alone. Even with the emergence of cities, this situation had not improved much.

Even cultivators living in the same city rarely interacted unless they needed something from one another.

It was not so apparent when cultivation was low, but the higher one's cultivation, the more obvious it became. Even once-close relationships could grow distant as cultivation rose.

After all, cultivation consumed resources, and the higher one's cultivation, the more resources one required.

Only without relationships or attachments could one seize resources without hesitation.

As Shen Gui had expected, the center of Qingluan City was a vast open space.

Across the open space, many Demon Race cultivators laid out things they did not need on the ground, hoping to exchange them for resources they needed.

There was no universal currency in the Primordial Wilderness at present, so transactions were generally conducted through barter.

Although bartering was certainly inefficient, it at least offered a slim possibility and was better than letting useless resources rot in one's hands. Therefore, many Demon Race members were still willing to take part in such exchanges.

Of course, Shen Gui had not come here to barter.

Where there were many people, there would naturally be all kinds of information.

That was why Shen Gui had come here.

After entering this trading area, Shen Gui could clearly sense that there were also many more powerful presences around him.

Before this, as he walked Qingluan City's streets, the beings residing within the city had almost all possessed cultivation no higher than the Foundation Establishment realm.

Now that he had reached the center of Qingluan City, those around him were mostly at least Spirit Transformation or Void Refining cultivators—beings with enough combat ability to protect themselves in the Primordial Wilderness. There were even quite a few Immortals.

Most of these people were not residents of Qingluan City. They had merely come here to exchange for things they needed.

After some time, they would leave.

They were the true main body of Primordial Wilderness cultivators. As for those beings who needed the protection of these cities to survive, without the cities, their situation would not be much better than that of ants.

This was why Shen Gui had previously remarked that Nuwa and Fuxi's construction of cities benefited all living beings.

At the very least, they had given those beings at the very bottom of the Primordial Wilderness a chance to live.

Whether they could become powerful in the future was another matter, but as long as they lived, there was hope.