Escape from Zone 3
“Huff…”
On the streets of the Third District, bright neon lights illuminated the potholes on the ground. Due to the bad weather, there had been a lot of acid rain in the past few days, and the air was filled with the smell of decay, as if one had come to a fish slaughterhouse.
Poor residents can be seen everywhere here. They wear worthless robes, frown and look downcast, showing no interest at all. There is only endless emptiness in their eyes. They slowly walk to the brand new self-service machine that has remained the same for ten years. The self-service machine emits a faint light, which is completely different from the old and dilapidated community here.
He used the spirit stones he had worked so hard to earn to buy the resources he needed.
"What the hell! All the Dust Repellent Pills have been redeemed! I have to wait another month! Damn it!"
The male cultivator with thick eyebrows and big eyes finally couldn't stand this frustrating life anymore. He usually told himself to just bear with it when encountering unpleasant things, but he had been doing so until today! Surprisingly, someone had already redeemed all the Dust-Repelling Pills in advance, which prevented him from breaking through his inner demons and forming a pill!
How could he not be upset and angry?
"Bang bang!" He wanted to kick the iron box of the self-service machine to pieces, but before his feet touched the machine, they were bounced back by the protective shield. The invisible resistance intercepted his legs and launched an attack. Several attacks that were no less powerful than those of a Jindan stage cultivator landed on his waist, abdomen, and legs.
Hearing the male cultivator's wailing, the people around him quickly retreated. They were already accustomed to the scene before them: "It's Old Lu again, what an impatient person!"
"Get out of the way! Don't block my way! I need to exchange for nutrient solution. I have so much of this stuff, no one will want it! I also need to feed our spirit beast!"
"Dust-Repellent Pills are a scarce commodity, but there's an abundance of nutrient solution. We can get as much as you want. Old Lu is such a jerk! If you'd come earlier and queue up to redeem the Dust-Repellent Pills, they wouldn't have been sold out!"
"The price of Dust Repellent Pills is so high. Did some wealthy person appear in our Third District? He actually took away all the Dust Repellent Pills!"
"They might have gotten some from the youngsters and resold them at a high price in the Central Third District, making a profit. After all, there aren't many fifth-grade alchemists in the Central Third District!"
"Line up! Line up! I finally got in line with you. If anyone wants to cut in line, ask yourself if your head is big enough to be hit by me!" A female cultivator pulled out a spear and held it horizontally in front of her body. She raised her eyebrows, put her hands on her hips, stared at the restless cultivators, and spoke sternly.
When all the monks saw her, they lowered their heads and felt a chill down their spines.
This is District Three's most famous fierce female cultivator, Baili Lianhu! Just hearing her name tells you she's not to be trifled with; she's a true tigress! Anyone who dares to mess with her will have their head chopped off!
As for order? Who cares? Here, fists speak louder than words!
The monks were instantly silenced and lined up obediently.
A loud explosion in the sky broke the silence.
Everyone looked up and saw that it was a hunting team trying to capture a Nascent Soul cultivator. The hunting team belonged to the Taiyin Group and specialized in hunting down wanted criminals. Without exception, these wanted criminals had offended the Taiyin Group, leading to their fate.
The Nascent Soul cultivators escaped at an extremely fast speed. In the blink of an eye, the pursuit team and the Nascent Soul wanted criminal had already disappeared from their sight.
The Taiyin Group is the largest group in the upper three districts. All groups, big and small, must obey the orders of the Taiyin Group. No one knows who the boss of the Taiyin Group is, and no one dares to find out.
Everyone calls him "Venerable".
The Venerable has been planning for a hundred years, and has built the Nine Districts Safe Zone with his own strength, manufactured spiritual cultivation cabins, promoted spiritual energy chips, and doubled the number of Nascent Soul cultivators. The number of Nascent Soul cultivators, which were originally handful, now reaches tens of thousands.
I just don’t know why there is no Divine Transformation cultivator yet.
For years, there's been a saying in District Nine: to become a Divine Transformation cultivator, one must cross the Dead Sea. But beneath the Dead Sea lies a quiet death from which no one can escape. Centuries ago, cultivators who sailed to the sea have never returned, and their soul lamps have all been extinguished.
No matter how powerful the Taiyin Group is, it cannot build a ship that can cross the sea, nor can it build a psychic chip that can allow people to ascend to heaven in one fell swoop.
Baili Lianhu clicked his tongue twice. "It's the Red Pursuit Team that's out this time. It looks like this Nascent Soul cultivator has offended the higher-ups at the Taiyin Group!"
Lao Lu looked longingly at him, "Really?! The reward for a Red Notice wanted criminal is a Nascent Soul Spirit Energy Chip or a treasure of equal value!"
By connecting to the brain-computer interface, the psychic chip can instantly transform a foundation-building cultivator into a core-forming cultivator. There is no need to practice, exorcise inner demons, survive thunder tribulations, or consolidate cultivation. One can easily become a high-level cultivator.
The psychic chips are named after the level of cultivation and are divided into four types: Qi Induction, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, and Nascent Soul. The prices are 1000 high-grade spirit stones, 10,000 high-grade spirit stones, 100,000 high-grade spirit stones, and 1,000,000 high-grade spirit stones respectively.
The second type of foundation-building psychic energy chip is particularly popular! Remember, there are numerous levels of challenges in the thirteenth level of Qi training, and purchasing a foundation-building psychic energy chip is a one-stop solution. As for the price, it's affordable. No matter how poor you are, you can't afford it. No matter how hard you try, you can't afford to neglect education. Therefore, the second type is particularly popular in the third district.
Children born in the third district may be lucky enough to have a single spiritual root, or less lucky enough to have three spiritual roots. Generally, their parents will buy a high-level spiritual training cabin for 10 high-quality spiritual stones per night. The spiritual energy is rich, and if they are lucky, they can draw the energy into the body in one night. Isn’t this more cost-effective than buying a spiritual energy chip?
As for the psychic chips for the Core Formation and Nascent Soul stages, they just thought, living in the slums, how could they afford so much money? Their daily wages also had to pay for rent, utilities, food, drink, and toileting—which of these things didn't cost money?
In the last days of the Dharma-Ending Age, spiritual energy dissipated. Only the spiritual cultivation cabin launched by the Taiyin Group could feel the long-lost spiritual energy. This was also the reason why many cultivators admired the Taiyin Group. After all, the Venerable had done something truly beneficial to the people.
"Old Lu, you are crazy about money! You are a cultivator who has not yet formed a core, and you want to defeat a Yuanying cultivator and get a reward? You are dreaming!" Someone laughed loudly and rudely. Old Lu is almost two hundred years old, and he has not yet formed a core. His hair is all white, and his voice is not as loud as before. Yet he is so unrealistic!
When he was young...Ah!
"Tsk, who wants to talk to you! I won't say any more. Since I can't buy the Dust-Repelling Pill, I'll go stay in the high-level spiritual training cabin for one night. Just wait and see, one day I will become a Jindan cultivator!"
Then I will step on you all!
Of course, this sentence was implied. He did not say it out loud, but just shouted silently in his heart. After all, the cultivation of the monks present was higher than his.
He gazed at the fading red light with envy. When would a pie in the sky fall? A scarred Yuanying wanted criminal would fall. He would decisively report it and receive the reward and treasure, without missing a single one!
…
Lan Xianghan was exhausted, her spiritual power was almost depleted... Her face turned pale in an instant, her lips lost their color, beads of sweat slid down her forehead, her clothes on the back continued to seep blood, her flesh and blood rolled, and her soul was unstable.
Before the Red Hunt Team could catch up with her, she fell from the sky like a falling goose.
"Master... I'm sorry... I'm incompetent and can't avenge you!"
Lan Xianghan raised her hand with difficulty. The strong wind blew her robe, revealing her thin body. She looked dazed. She seemed to be able to see the day when she became a disciple. She was so happy and joyful. She never thought that one day she would be separated from her master by life and death.
"master……"
She closed her eyes unwillingly, and tears fell like pearls from a broken string, falling in the wind and landing on Qianluo's cold face.
Tears are warm and salty.
"I'll take you away..."
Before Lan Xianghan lost consciousness, she saw a green figure approaching. The familiar yet unfamiliar face made her unable to recognize it. The other person kept getting closer and hugged her waist with warm hands.
At this moment, she was truly saved.
…
Qianluo came to the third district for the first time and felt everything was new. It was an era of high technology and low living standards. Neon signs and electronic screens were everywhere, and the dazzling lights seemed to be able to blind the eyes. But what followed was the gray sky and the continuous acid rain. There was always a layer of water vapor on the glass, and there were puddles on the ground caused by people's trampling.
The air is filled with the sour smell of poverty. Self-service machines, spiritual practice cabin experience halls, and spiritual chip stores can be seen everywhere. The monks are squeezed into the square spiritual practice cabins like sardines. Here they can not only feel the rich spiritual energy, but also obtain virtual happiness.
This is a unique era.
The joy of nothingness is more popular than the pain of reality, the one-step psychic chip is more sought after by monks, and the dazzling array of self-service machine products are snatched up and sold out.
Resources are more important than cultivation, and technology is more valuable than talent.
According to the simulated information, when she came out of the secret realm at the age of 200, she would meet Lan Xianghan who was being hunted. Now that she is in the early stage of Nascent Soul, she easily rescued her and came to the black market.
There are many wanted criminals in the upper three districts. Now it is a real-name system, and you can't take a single step without an ID card. She and Lan Xianghan, one an illegal resident and the other a wanted criminal, can only enter the black market.
The black market only recognizes spirit stones and not people. Everyone knows this, and smart people won't ask about it.
There are flashing lights everywhere, colorful, winding streets and alleys. Everyone wraps themselves tightly, leaving only a pair of eyes exposed. You cannot use your spiritual sense to spy on others here, or you will get into trouble if you are not careful, so it is better to be careful.
Qian Luo suppressed her and Lan Xianghan's cultivation to the Jindan stage, concealed their appearance, and walked into a hotel. The hotel owner was a slob, and there were so many debris on the ground that there was no way to step. If the environment was not special and not suitable for rats and cockroaches to live in, there would have been snakes and rats infesting the hotel, and cockroaches everywhere.
However, this is a hotel that has been screened by Qianluo. If there is any dirt, just use a magic trick. I don’t know what the boss is thinking.
She had just stepped in with the unconscious Lan Xianghan. The disheveled boss didn't even raise his head. He was wearing a tattered red vest with the edges washed white. His coarse blue shorts were covered with oil stains. His feet, which were not wearing slippers, were scratching each other from time to time.
Qian Luo hated her good eyesight because she saw the peeling skin between her boss' fingers, which was full of white dandruff. The more he scratched, the more itchy it became. His nails turned an abnormal gray-black color, and the nail on his thumb was hollow, revealing dirty flesh and blood, which was shocking to see.
It's really disgusting!
The boss is also a Jindan cultivator, but how come he has no regard for hygiene at all and creates such an image, especially like a bachelor from the countryside of Blue Star who can't find a wife and whose parents are all dead, and who hangs around the streets all day.
“Bang!”
The boss knocked hard on the wooden board where the price list was written:
King Room (excluding low-level spiritual cabin): 1 high-grade spiritual stone/night
Twin room (excluding low-level spiritual cabin): 2 high-quality spiritual stones/night
If you have money, buy it, if you don’t, get out!!!
There is a pawn shop next door, go there and pawn it yourself!!!
Qian Luo was short of money and didn't dare to take out Lan Xianghan's storage bag. She looked left and right and found that there were still some pills in her storage bag. She immediately used magic to mobilize Lan Xianghan to follow her.
The pawnshop owner, a man with red lips and white teeth dressed like a scholar and wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, greeted the customer warmly when he saw him coming: "Sir, what do you want to pawn?"
"Weapons, elixirs, formations, talismans, spirit beasts? We accept anything here, regardless of origin. However, the price is slightly lower than the self-service recycling price outside. After all..."
He squinted his eyes and smiled, the meaning was self-evident.
Qianluo didn't waste any words, and directly took out a low-level storage bag as a pill: "Give me a number."
The pawnshop owner took it with a smile, without any annoyance. Seeing the Dust-Repellent Pill inside, he thought that these unknown people had such good things.
"Large quantity, high quality, one price of 100 high-grade spirit stones!"
Qian Luo nodded. She did not take out the pill that Grandma Butterfly gave her. First, she was afraid of the cloud pattern on the pill. Second, the grade of the pill was too conspicuous, which would arouse suspicion. It was not surprising that a fifth-grade alchemist hiding in the black market was in the upper three districts.
After paying the money and receiving the goods, Qianluo turned around and walked into the hotel next door, leaving 60 high-grade spirit stones. "One month, twin room."
The slovenly boss lay on a recliner, reaching out to grope for the small cabinet next to him. His overly long nails resembled bizarre tree branches. He had his eyes closed, perhaps asleep or something, but he finally found the key and, without even raising his eyelids, tossed it to Qianluo: "3022."
Qian Luo didn't care and immediately took Lan Xianghan to the elevator and into the hotel room.
As soon as he entered the room, all prying spiritual senses disappeared.
From the moment she stepped into the pawnshop, there were cultivators who had been watching her. Perhaps there were too many scoundrels in the black market, waiting for an opportunity. As soon as she left the pawnshop, the spirit stones in her hands would turn into deadly sickles.
Fortunately, she released the pressure of the late Jindan stage cultivators, temporarily distracting them. She hadn't expected the hotel to have a formation that could block spiritual perception. No wonder it was so expensive. It was more than enough to deal with the group of Jindan stage cultivators outside.
If a Nascent Soul cultivator comes, no formation will be useful!
She put Lan Xianghan on the bed. She had already given Lan Xianghan some elixirs to strengthen her body and heal her injuries, but she was only a seventh-grade alchemist now and could not really make a elixir that could cure all diseases.
The longevity pill in his hand had no special healing effect. Currently, only the seventh-grade elixir, the Bu Tian Dan, might be able to reverse the situation. As the name suggests, the Bu Tian Dan can repair deficiencies and leaks, not only repairing the defects of spiritual roots, but also repairing the damage to the Yuan Shen.
Lan Xianghan's injuries have healed, but her spirit is unstable. Perhaps the Bu Tian Pill can save her.
However, if we go to the black market to look for the spiritual plant for the Bu Tian Dan now, not only will it attract attention, but we will also get nothing and miss the good opportunity to save people.
Besides, the housing prices are too expensive and I can’t afford it!
Right now, the only way to have a chance of survival is to exchange the longevity pills for simulation points!
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