What Jiang Lu Saw in the City

Hearing this, everyone suppressed the amazement in their hearts. A Foundation Establishment Lineage was not someone they could afford to provoke.

But judging by the situation, she seemed to be heading for the testing platform. The crowd exchanged glances, hesitant to move. They had no idea what this young miss was doing here at such a time.

They could only hope she would not affect them.

Seeing the worry in everyone's eyes, Jiang Lu paused, quietly withdrawing toward the back. A bad feeling rose within her.

The messy hair over her forehead cast a patch of shadow, concealing the panic in her eyes.

Sure enough, when she followed the crowd to the testing platform, the guards stopped them outside.

"By order of the City Lord, this Spiritual Roots test ends here! Those still waiting may go home!"

A cultivator from the guard squad waved his hand at the crowd. A booming voice rang in everyone's ears. Those at the very front were violently shoved backward by the guards and tumbled to the ground.

Fear showed in their eyes. They scrambled and rolled to their feet, retreating backward. They did not dare meet force with force. Cultivators killed without batting an eye; at a time like this, these people held the power of life and death.

Boom—

The crowd immediately raised their heads toward the testing platform. Their lips trembled slightly, and their eyes reddened, yet they did not dare voice any objection.

The City Lord's free testing of everyone's Spiritual Roots had been his own decision in the first place, usually done to seek out talented disciples to nurture for his own use.

Now that he said it was over, who dared refuse?

They were only mortals. Even if their clans had a few immortal cultivators, they were merely at Early Qi Refinement. How could they dare become enemies with them?

They could only sigh inwardly at their own bad luck.

If they wanted to test their Spiritual Roots later, they could only pay to visit the Spirit-Testing Hall. One test cost one spirit stone, or ten taels of silver.

To ordinary mortals, that was an astronomical price. If they had no Spiritual Roots, that money would simply vanish like water poured into the sea.

Quite a few people left dejectedly, clutching their wooden tokens tightly enough that the bulging veins on their hands showed faintly.

Others remained where they were, staring unwillingly at the Spirit-Testing Platform, hoping for another chance to be tested.

Only after the cultivators and the tested disciples on the Spirit-Testing Platform gradually left did the guard squad withdraw.

Jiang Lu looked at the wooden token in her hand, and all that remained in her heart was boundless melancholy. It seemed like the sorrow of missing some opportunity, yet also like the relief of surviving a calamity. She could not tell what kind of feeling it was.

Watching the hurried mortals and cultivators around her, her feet seemed glued to the ground. She did not know where to go.

"Little girl, little girl, hurry and leave."

In her muddled state, Jiang Lu vaguely heard someone calling her. Her expression gradually cleared, and she saw an auntie beside her calling out to her.

The woman wore patched clothes and held a child by the hand, her expression anxious.

"What are you standing around for, little girl? You look like an ordinary person too. This isn't somewhere we can stay. We should leave quickly."

Although Jiang Lu was puzzled as to why, seeing the woman's anxious expression, she could not help following closely behind her as they left.

"Auntie, why is that?"

After leaving the city gates and walking some distance, Jiang Lu saw the woman relax and asked her.

When the auntie heard the question, she looked at Jiang Lu in confusion.

"Miss, are you not from around here?"

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Jiang Lu hesitated briefly, then nodded.

"Are you from the Mortal Realm?"

Seeing her nod, the auntie leaned closer and asked in a low voice.

Jiang Lu hesitated, then nodded again. The auntie did not seem like a bad person. Perhaps she could learn quite a bit from her.

The auntie sighed and looked at her with pity.

Another pitiful child. Judging by her bearing and clothing, she must have been the child of a wealthy family in the Mortal Realm. Yet in such a bedraggled state, she must have endured countless hardships to get here.

"You must have suffered quite a bit getting here. You people from the Mortal Realm all think that once you arrive, you'll have a chance to seek immortality and inquire into the Dao. But without Spiritual Roots, how could it possibly be that easy?"

Jiang Lu did not interrupt her. From the auntie's words, she learned that this place was called the Immortal Cultivation Realm.

The Immortal Cultivation Realm had Five Great Domains, namely:

Xuancheng Domain: the center of the world, where cultivation flourished, sects stood in great numbers, and resources were most abundant. It was the foremost of the five regions.

Azure Tide Domain: immortal mountains stretched in endless ranges and produced rare treasures from spiritual seas. Island immortal abodes dotted the waters like stars, and its marine heavenly treasures stood unrivaled among the five regions.

Desolate Qian Domain: Gobi deserts and sacred mountains coexisted, while vast ancient wildernesses sprawled across the land. Demon beasts roamed everywhere, body cultivation thrived, and many ancient secret realms remained. Body-refining sects and aristocratic families had lived there generation after generation.

Crimson Reed Domain: dense forests covered the land, with spiritual herbs everywhere. Most cultivators there were Dan cultivators or poison cultivators.

Ling Shuo Domain: mostly home to reclusive families, where the frigid spiritual veins were blessed uniquely by heaven.

Each of the Five Great Domains had its own characteristics. Sects stood everywhere, and aristocratic families covered the land, but the five domains lay incredibly far apart, separated by boundless seas. Cultivators generally found it difficult to travel to other domains; only through a few Teleportation Arrays or certain secret realms did they have a chance to reach them.

According to the auntie, they were at the edge of Crimson Reed Domain. This city was called West River City, and everything within a thousand li belonged to its territory.

Spiritual energy was thin here, and cultivators were weak. A Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator already counted as a powerful figure in one area.

The closer one got to the central regions, the denser the spiritual energy became, and the faster one could cultivate.

There should not have been mortals in the Immortal Cultivation Realm, but the mortals here were different. Their ancestors had been immortals, which was why they had the chance to survive here.

Spiritual Roots were rare. Not every descendant born to cultivators possessed them. They were the mortals without Spiritual Roots, but with their ancestors' bloodline still flowing through them, they believed that one day their descendants would have Spiritual Roots. They were gambling on that possibility.

In the Immortal Cultivation Realm, where aristocratic families covered the land and sects stood in great numbers, it was always difficult for one person to move forward alone. Under the name of a Lineage, one could at least scrape out an existence.

Even the villages Jiang Lu had seen earlier counted as the territory of a clan. There were always a few Qi Refinement cultivators in the clan, but to become a Qi Refinement Lineage, one person in the clan had to reach Late Qi Refinement—the Seventh Level of Qi Refinement.

Without that, they could only remain such villages.

The city was inhabited entirely by cultivators with cultivation. Mortals like them were not permitted to stay overnight in the city.

Every clan was hostile to outsiders. The auntie could not take Jiang Lu back with her, so out of pity, she gave her the two flatbreads in her bag and hurried away.

Jiang Lu watched her leave. She wanted to ask something more, but in the blink of an eye, all she could see was the corner of her clothing.

She sighed. She could only bury this gratitude in her heart and repay it someday if she had the chance.

She came to a broken corner of a wall and pondered how to proceed. She did not know whether she had Spiritual Roots, much less whether she could cultivate. As a lone woman from the mortal world, she did not even dare imagine how dangerous her situation was.

She took out a flatbread, tore off a small piece, and put it into her mouth before storing the rest away.

The flatbread was hard to chew. She had not touched water all day, and now she was on the brink of dehydration. She immediately got up to search for water.

Suddenly, two voices came from ahead, accompanied by sounds of fighting. She immediately held her breath and lay still in the grass, not daring to move.

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