Tianque Market

On their first day in Tianque City, the stewards led them to an inn.

They announced the disciple selection would begin the next day.

This day was for rest.

The inn provided free meals, lodging, and hot water.

They could eat their fill and tidy up.

That evening, Su Qing and her companions went to the first-floor dining hall.

They devoured lamb stew with flatbread.

Even Zhu Xing’er, who usually scorned lamb’s gaminess, broke her bread and ate two bowls.

The broth was rich and hearty.

The lamb was tender and flavorful.

The dipping sauce was tangy and spicy.

The bread, though hard, soaked up the broth when broken into the bowl.

Popped in the mouth, it delivered the savory delight of meat and the satisfying fullness of bread.

Meat was meat.

Only a few slices of lamb, but the soup was genuinely simmered from sheep bones, milky white.

If her stomach weren’t so full, Su Qing wouldn’t have let go of the bowl.

Satisfied, deeply satisfied.

She felt the hardships of the long journey were healed by this steaming bowl of soup.

After eating, Zhu Xing’er clamored for hot water to bathe.

Su Qing said: “Wait a bit. Bathing right after eating can make you faint.”

She suggested: “We rarely get to Tianque City. Let’s stroll around, help digestion.”

Zhu Xing’er refused.

Xiu Fu, catching Su Qing’s drift, laughed and shook her head. “You’re hopeless, always thinking of food. Didn’t you see in the dining hall? Our smell made the waiters dodge us. If we go out like this, people will think we’re beggars. Let’s bathe first.”

Fair point.

Su Qing agreed.

She’d just seen a waiter, pinching his nose, complain to the manager that the group needed to bathe before being served again.

After a half-hour digestion break, they queued for toiletries and hit the bathhouse for a thorough scrub.

Post-bath, Su Qing felt two jin lighter.

That night, she, Xiu Fu, Zhu Xing’er, and an unfamiliar girl shared a room.

After nearly a month without a bed, Su Qing fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.

She woke to bright daylight.

Su Qing struggled to keep her eyes shut.

A rare free day—no tasks, no farm chores, just rest to adjust.

It felt like a college Saturday: no early classes, no lectures, no urgent assignments.

She could sleep in until a bathroom trip forced her up.

Even so, she forced her eyes open.

“!”

She jumped, startled by Xiu Fu and Zhu Xing’er’s faces looming over her, like disciples in Journey to the West saying, “Eldest Brother, you’re awake?”

Zhu Xing’er pouted: “Finally up. A bit longer, and you’d skip breakfast for lunch, saving a meal.”

Xiu Fu said: “If you’re tired, rest more. I’ll bring food back.”

Su Qing rubbed her eyes, noticing both were dressed nicely.

Xiu Fu wore clean clothes, her thick black hair in a large braid tied with a red ribbon and silver bells.

Zhu Xing’er was more refined, in elegant goose-yellow robes, hair in an updo with jade pendants and bracelets, jingling like a dainty little immortal.

Su Qing, groggy, blurted: “Did you strike it rich? Dressed like that.”

She hadn’t processed that Zhu Xing’er wouldn’t have trekked in such finery—she’d have lagged behind.

Xiu Fu flashed her teeth in a grin.

Zhu Xing’er raised a brow: “You’re not awake yet!”

She huffed: “Don’t you know bigger places are full of snobs? Yesterday, that inn waiter clearly looked down on us. This lady’s got to dress sharp to show him!”

Xiu Fu added: “This morning, I went to buy needles and thread to mend clothes. The prices here are outrageous, and everyone in Tianque City wears new clothes—hardly a patch in sight.”

She knew people preyed on the weak.

After a quiet chat with Zhu Xing’er, they agreed to dress neatly to avoid being treated like riffraff.

Zhu Xing’er wouldn’t let Su Qing linger in bed, yanking her arm to get up.

Su Qing, drained, asked: “Where’s the other girl in our room?”

“She’s long gone!” Zhu Xing’er snapped. “Out hunting treasures while you, lazybones, loaf around.”

Xiu Fu explained: “She said there’s a street selling treasures for us selection candidates—pills, artifacts, clever trinkets. True or not, we should check it out. Even if we don’t buy, it’s good to see the sights. So we woke you.”

This was a chance to scope out the cultivation world and Tianxia Sword Sect.

Su Qing squeezed some energy from her weary body, hopped off the bed, and washed up.

Zhu Xing’er wanted to style her hair and lend a silver hairpin.

Su Qing declined, braiding her hair like Xiu Fu and donning a clean robe.

The trio grabbed a quick bite in the inn’s hall and headed out.

They’d arrived at dusk yesterday, so Su Qing hadn’t noticed much.

Now, she saw Xiu Fu was right: passersby wore new clothes, adorned with gold, silver, brocade, and jade.

Their wide robes, long sleeves, and side locks gave an ethereal, immortal air.

Truly the border of mortal and immortal.

Xiu Fu scanned the street, eyeing a medicine shop.

Su Qing, squinting, could read the shop’s poster: “New Miracle Wound Balm, 80 Spirit Seeds per dose; Vitality Tea, 40 Spirit Seeds per pack.”[^1]

The currency here wasn’t copper or silver but spirit seeds.

Zhu Xing’er, from a merchant family, frowned: “We need to figure out if silver works here or how it converts to spirit seeds, or our money’s useless.”

Xiu Fu, mustering courage, approached the shop’s apprentice: “Brother, do you have medicine for congenital weakness? Especially for heart palpitations and breathlessness?”

The apprentice paused weighing herbs, smiling. “Miss, we’re a small shop—where’d we get such power? To cure inborn ailments, you’d need Elder Dan to refine a pill.”

Xiu Fu pressed: “How do we hire Elder Dan? How much silver?”

The apprentice shook his head. “Hiring Elder Dan costs at least 10,000 spirit seeds for his service fee, plus three sets of ingredients. If the pill’s made, there’s an additional favor fee.”

Zhu Xing’er asked: “How do spirit seeds convert to silver?”

The apprentice eyed them, doubting they could afford it. “In Tianque City, one tael of silver equals one spirit seed. Ten thousand spirit seeds is 10,000 taels.”

Su Qing, Xiu Fu, and Zhu Xing’er gasped: “Ten thousand taels!”

Why not just rob someone?!

A typical farming family earned three to five taels a year.

Where could they find 10,000?

Zhu Xing’er’s family was wealthy, with grain and oil shops across towns, but even she couldn’t fathom 10,000 taels.

Su Qing started pondering quick ways to get rich.

Xiu Fu, prepared for bad news, comforted them: “If it saves lives, it’s worth more than 10,000 taels.”

The apprentice chuckled: “Miss, you’ve got a kind heart and good fate. But in the cultivation world, mortal lives are the least valuable. If we die, next spring, the fields sprout a new batch.”

Stunned by the harsh truth, the three girls trudged glumly to the market.

Unfamiliar with the city, they expected trouble finding it.

Surprisingly, it was easy—the streets were packed with stalls.

The wide, 400-meter road was lined with vibrant booths, leaving a mere two-meter path for pedestrians.

Shouts, haggling, and chatter filled the air, everyone flushed with busyness.

Su Qing found it fascinating.

Even with an empty purse, she loved browsing malls and shops in college, never buying.

Xiu Fu and Zhu Xing’er, awestruck, gaped at the scene.

Someone behind urged: “Don’t block the way—move!”

Snapping back, they shyly glanced around.

Su Qing, pulling one girl in each hand, approached stalls selling “Good Fortune Talismans” and “Spirit Herbs.”

She couldn’t read the talismans—scribbles to her—but displayed neatly, their gold paper and red cinnabar looked striking, almost convincing.

The talisman vendor, waving a feather fan, chanted in a sing-song drawl: “Banish illness, boost luck, enhance feng shui, attract wealth, elevate status. Good Fortune Talismans bring good fortune!”

The herb vendor shouted louder: “Cleanse marrow, purge impurities, clear toxins, build foundations. Use Spirit Herbs—Qi Refining in one year, Foundation Building in three, Golden Core in five!”

After the medicine shop, Su Qing and Xiu Fu were skeptical.

Zhu Xing’er, young and with pocket money, was tempted but not foolish.

She scoffed: “The liquor shop by our store claims to strengthen bodies and clear meridians, but I’ve only seen drunks die, not thrive. These sellers lie without blinking.”

The next stalls sold spirit pets.

Now that was interesting.

There were talking colorful birds, four-eyed dogs that bowed and rolled, wolf cubs with crescent marks on their foreheads, and tiny hamsters clutching gold coins, supposedly with a trace of treasure-seeking rat blood.

The vendor, seeing a growing crowd, proudly had the hamster perform.

He placed fake spirit beads and one real one before it.

The hamster’s whiskers twitched, instantly grabbing the real bead and hiding it in its mouth!

The crowd gasped appreciatively, kids clapping red-handed.

The vendor grinned: “With this pet, you’ll never miss a chance!”

He held up the hamster, showing it off, but it nabbed his ring and swallowed it, prompting a shout of “Beast!”

Su Qing laughed: “It doesn’t discriminate—owner’s stuff is its stuff too.”

Xiu Fu worried: “What if it steals outside?”

Zhu Xing’er tugged her away, hating rats and the stench.

She mocked Su Qing’s cutesy voice with the cats, saying it gave her goosebumps.

Su Qing thought: Who doesn’t baby-talk to kittens? “But aren’t the cats adorable?”

Zhu Xing’er rolled her eyes: “My family’s grain shop hires all kinds—white, black, tabby!”

Su Qing retorted: “But not with this pattern.”

After happily petting one, she noticed it shed dye and pretended she’d said nothing.

She dreamed of emulating transmigration seniors, picking a pet with ancient divine beast blood, growing with her through cultivation, evolving into a divine beast.

But staring at the fluffy creatures, all she saw was “cute,” “cute,” “very cute.”

Cute was enough, though.

[^1]: Spirit Seeds: A form of currency used in the cultivation world, equivalent to one tael of silver in Tianque City, as explained by the shop apprentice. Often used for transactions involving cultivation resources.