Golden Ling Silkworm Silk
Lin Xiao didn't think the other party was just being perfunctory by saying they didn't know or weren't sure. After all, five hundred years was not a short time for a low-level cultivator. Even if Qi Refining cultivator could live for more than a hundred years, that span of time was enough to pass down through several generations.
They migrate every five hundred years, and those who survive in this Chongxiao Domain are all cultivators whose cultivation is much higher than theirs, at least at the Golden Core stage or above.
These cultivators wouldn't bother explaining the details of the Cloud Burst to those who returned, since they couldn't resist it anyway, and knowing wouldn't make a difference.
Therefore, it's perfectly normal that this male cultivator didn't understand the situation.
After asking the question, Lin Xiao noticed that the three- or four-year-old child being held by the cultivator's wife was curiously glancing at him. The child had a very cute little topknot tied with a red ribbon on his head. So, Lin Xiao took out some pastries and snacks prepared by the Spirit Cuisine Hall and handed them to the male cultivator.
"Thank you for your answer, fellow Daoist. These snacks are for the children to eat and play with on the journey."
Seeing that he wasn't angry because he didn't know the answer to his question, the male cultivator breathed a sigh of relief.
Hearing that it was just some food, the male cultivator didn't refuse. He thanked him, accepted the food, and then took his leave to continue his journey.
After watching them leave, Lin Xiao turned and continued deeper into the Chongxiao Domain.
Cloud Burst...
This was the first time he had heard of natural disasters that could threaten cultivators since he came to the Immortal Cultivation Realm.
The further he went, the more numerous and densely he encountered low-level cultivators migrating. Lin Xiao went against the flow of people and finally arrived at the first city on the first level after an hour.
The entrance fee to this city is very low, even lower than that of the South Spirit Domain and North Spirit Domain, costing only three Spirit Stone. I wonder if the fee was lowered because no one is coming due to the impending Cloud Burst.
After entering the city, Lin Xiao found that although the city was not very large, it looked quite prosperous.
The shops along the street all looked very impressive, like chain stores, but in reality they were just individual businesses run by cultivators, or at most small Lineage.
Further inside, those even more magnificent and enormous stores are the business premises of the surrounding sects and Aristocratic Clan.
Lin Xiao explored the area briefly and found that most of the city consisted of shops that were open for business, while the actual residences of cultivators were very small, occupying less than one-tenth of the city's area.
This one-tenth is concentrated in a small western corner of the city. The rooms are small and narrow, and it is said that they are rented to wandering Rogue Cultivator who come to the city to work in those shops. Generally, low-level cultivators and ordinary people without cultivation do not live in the city, but live in the villages and towns under the jurisdiction of the surrounding sects and Aristocratic Clan.
This was somewhat unexpected for Lin Xiao. Along the way, he had seen that most cultivators without a fixed organization settled in the city as much as possible, and at least half of the area in the city was residential.
However, just looking at the density of people in the city, he could understand it somewhat.
There are so many people coming and going here, and many of them look like they're there to buy goods, rather than just casual tourists.
Despite the imminent Cloud Burst, the city is still teeming with people, demonstrating just how attractive the goods sold in the shops are to cultivators.
Lin Xiao quickly learned the reason after making a few inquiries.
It turns out that most of the customers here are not locals; many are from the Mysterious Extreme Domain who come here to buy things to take back home.
Because the goods produced here are in high demand, and they are things that their spirit realm has neither the ability nor the capacity to cultivate.
Like that Spirit Oil.
You can also explore the area below the snow-capped mountains in the Mysterious Extreme Domain, where you'll find Mystic Ice Metal Iron and Ice-Thorn Snow Lotus as well.
However, their Mysterious Extreme Domain does not have Snow Seed or produce Spirit Oil.
This makes the efficiency of harvesting Ice-Thorn Snow Lotus in the Mysterious Extreme Domain far lower than that of the people in the Chongxiao Domain.
This is at least a resource they can obtain with some effort, it's just that the quantity is small and the risk is greater.
However, these special products with white cotton velvet on them in Chongxiao Domain are something they don't have at all. Moreover, for many years, people from Mysterious Extreme Domain have been trying to take them back and cultivate them, and have used many methods to obtain some Cloud Mud as cultivation soil.
As a result, once they carried the Cloud Mud away from the Chongxiao Domain, the Cloud Mud would immediately begin to float up into the air as if it had lost its weight, eventually merging with the clouds in the sky.
After trying every method imaginable, the people of Mysterious Extreme Domain discovered that these specialties of Chongxiao Domain could only grow here, so they had no choice but to come here with Spirit Stone to purchase them.
The Chongxiao Domain, relying on its unique products that are unavailable elsewhere and in high demand, frequently raises prices, which is a major reason for the strained relationship between the two spiritual domains.
Because of the unique nature of Chongxiao Domain, which is particularly good at earning Spirit Stone, even though a Cloud Burst crisis occurs here every five hundred years, requiring low-level cultivators to undergo a large-scale migration, they will still return to their homeland without hesitation to continue their lives after the disaster ends.
Where could these migrating people go?
The vast majority of them were heading towards the Mysterious Extreme Domain.
Therefore, the relationship between the two spiritual realms is very contradictory. They cooperate to guard the Mystic Ice Passage, but they also fight each other all year round over the issue of fees for entering their respective spiritual realms. They also have a great need for each other's special products, but are dissatisfied with each other because of the prices of the special products. On one hand, they complain that the other is too poor, and on the other hand, they complain that the other raises prices on the spot. When the Cloud Burst Period arrives, the people on this side have to go to the other side's territory to avoid disaster.
Because of this, most shops in Chongxiao Domain don't dare to charge too much; they at least have a bottom line.
In short, the two spiritual realms have always coexisted in this contradictory yet strangely harmonious way.
After learning more about it, Lin Xiao found the people on both sides quite interesting, with a somewhat love-hate relationship.
"Seriously, Shopkeeper Yang, why has your Golden Ling Silkworm Silk gone up in price again? Half a year ago it was fifty Spirit Stone a roll, how come it's eighty Spirit Stone now!" A middle-aged cultivator's voice came from a shop.
Instead of being smug about raising prices, the shopkeeper, Shopkeeper Yang, looked distressed. "Fellow Daoist Liu, the price isn't really up to me. You know that Open Cloud City produces very little Golden Ling Silkworm Silk; most of our stock comes from Thousand Cloud City Thousand Cloud City. If the price goes up there, we can't sell to you at a loss."
When the middle-aged cultivator heard Shopkeeper Yang mention "Thousand Cloud City," he frowned, clicked his tongue, and asked, "Shopkeeper Yang, we've known each other for so many years, give me a fair price. Don't try to fool me with eighty Spirit Stone."
Shopkeeper Yang was also at a loss. "The highest price is seventy-nine. You know our Cloud Burst season is almost over, and the production of Golden Ling Silkworm Silk in Thousand Cloud City has decreased. I can't change the price set by the owner, Brother Liu. Otherwise, the manager you see next time won't be me."