Snow had piled up on my head and shoulders at this point, I sat cross-legged on a nearby mountaintop, calmly breathing in and out as I enjoyed the embrace of the cold. Ever since that day when I heard that voice I would always come out here, every couple of days, and cultivate in peace, absorbing the energy. The Mountain tops were so far up that even now in high summer there was snow and the glaciers remained untouched, every now and then they produced a loud ringing noise.
It was perfect for me, the thin air was laced with spiritual energy with a heavy ice aspect to it, so each breath felt like an improvement, it was very satisfying.
By this point, I had fully recovered, wearing a set of male robes due to the lack of feminine clothes in the cultivator's Spatial bag. It wasn't quite as massive and filled with wonders as I had thought at first, it had everything he needed to cultivate this land and grow spirit herbs and fruits. Lots of seeds, farming equipment, a small pile of spirit stones, a few weapons, and a plethora of books. He clearly intended to stay here for a long time. But then he died and became a vengeful spirit.
But now his land was ours, and we used it well. Taking the wisdom from his journals and books and applying it to ourselves. We now knew how the world actually worked. Apparently, there were two kinds of cultivators, External and Internal, the things we did meaning Mimi, Li the Tiger and Lu the Monkey, and of course, myself was internal cultivation, where one would reforge their bodies from the inside, and create pools of magical energy within called spiritual energy.
And then there was external Cultivation which was ... something "Mortals" did, apparently, Cultivation in the form of bathing in special herbs and going through lots of pain and working on your body, while using special medicine. These "Cultivators" were those strong soldiers and that one bounty hunter that had once dislocated my arm.
In one of the Books we had there were called "False Cultivators" Or just Mortal Cultivators. It was very different from what we were doing. Apparently, we were currently in Qi Condensation, All of us it was called the first step to Immortality and it had 10 stages. Each time I filled up the void inside of me and formed a little bead of condensed energy meant 1 stage. So I was currently at stage 5, I had just reached it the other day after 2 months of daily cultivation. The snow and ice outside really helped me quite a bit.
Mimi was a natural apparently, she was already in stage 7. And according to her, she felt best cultivating while she was working with the fields and earth. She was very strong, physically that is, and recently she seemed to have picked up on some of the techniques we had access to, the old Cultivator that lived here apparently had another name called "Old Mountainheart" His Element just like Mimi's was earth, so he had quite a bit of material for her to work on.
As for Li, she was fire attributed at currently in stage 8. She had already been in stage 6 for a long time before, but apparently the higher they got the smarter they became, so once she had reached 7 with my help she was able to talk.
Lu on the other Hand was in stage 7 as well, he had the very same fire attribute that Li had. That's probably why he guided all the Monkies to the hot springs. Unlike Li however who had been once just a normal Tiger, Lu had been a circus monkey from the Immortal lands, he was a bit more special compared to Li in that regard, having more knowledge.
Which explained all the knowledge he had.
Apparently, after Qi Condensation came to Foundation Establishment, and then there were more stages after that. Elder Gowas was apparently at a stage even above that. Which explained his vast riches. It was lucky that his shade was as weakened as it was when we encountered it or we would've been turned to dust with but a wave of his hand.
At this point, they had already been here for almost a year, and given that they could farm from the seeds and live in the valley there was no point in leaving. Much... Well, that was if it went after how I wanted things because my quiet contemplation was suddenly interrupted by Li, holding a large deer in her mouth. Spitting it to the ground the feline had a somewhat amused expression as she looked me down. "Mimi is getting a bit antsy about that family meeting she wants to do... I think it's time you come down from the mountain, you have been here for almost a week."
That was true... I had been quietly cultivating here for almost a week, the more I wandered into the realm of cultivation the less attached I was to the idea of food and water, my body seemingly absorbing what it needed from the energy I took in. I was very different in that regard from the others, who all very clearly needed sustenance, while I could go for quite a while without.
"Care for a ride then?" I tilted my head with a light smirk on my lips as Li picked up her food again, she just looked at me with a somewhat miffed expression but it was the kind of miffed expression that said "Okay. but only because, your my friend." So I hopped from the boulder I was sitting on, shaking off the snow and landing on Li's back.
I had grown a fair bit but I was still small and had more than enough space on her back, and riding her always felt nice, even if I was faster than her.
...
Mimi held a large wooden spoon in her hand and was bonking the ground a little. "I know you guys can live off air, the forest, and meat alone but I want something more than Spirit Grass, fruits, and wild game! And Kou no matter how spirity she is is a small girl and needs proper food to grow up alright! So since we have money and land I want to go down to the city and buy livestock! Also proper clothes, I hate wearing men's clothes! And Kou is getting used to it and that is horrible!"
While she was ranting I kept quiet, I didn't wanna get pocked with the spoon for my opinion that pants weren't so bad and that skirts and colorful clothes were overrated in my mind... But Mimi had made her opinion loud and clear before already, a girl ought to take care of her appearance. In fact, everyone should. And I found it hard to argue. It felt much better now that I was clean, I actually took my time to take a bath regularly even breaking my training for it, she didn't feel sick anymore, my skin was smooth and the clothes were comfortable. And Lu with his basic knowledge had even reset my nose so it wasn't crooked anymore. All and all Cleanliness was a new friend of mine.
Suddenly as I absentmindedly stared into the distance I felt something pressing against my left cheek, Mimi had leaned over the table and was poking me with the wooden spoon! "Wha?" To be honest I wasn't really listening... "I said if you are okay with going down to town today! Li has found a town down the mountain next to the main road! We might be able to buy some livestock, some goats and chickens, maybe even a cow. I'd love a cow.. we had one back home, her name was Betsy and she was really big and kind." Mimi drifted off into a long explanation of the benefits of different farm animals.
The corners of my mouth twitched lightly, I couldn't really stop myself from smiling slightly with her being so excited, she was rather infectious with that stuff... but I stopped myself before I ruined my scruffy image and just gave a light huff of acknowledgment to her tirade about animals, not really listening in but not ignoring it either. It was a blissful world of half listening, if later asked about the conversation I could probably at-least answer half of them. That kind of state!
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Finally, puffing up her clothes Mimi came to an end and then made us pack up and told us to get dressed properly. That did me by the way... I wasn't really wearing the thick clothing you should up in the mountains, my clothes were rather airy and light. So sometime later I found myself dressed in an adjusted male robe combined with my cloak, it fit snuggly and just fine which was good. I had grown a bit.
On the back of Li we dashed down the mountain, of course, Li could not bring us all the way to the City. Awakened beasts like her and Lu were not common in these lands, and neither were fox ears and tails, so my hood was up and my tail was wrapped around my waist like a fluffy white fur feature.
"It's been a while since I have been out.." Mimi spoke while fiddling around with her coat a little, she was uncomfortable wearing male clothing. Which seemed silly to me. I was uncomfortable with the fact that we were about to enter a City at all. As soon as we got close enough, we both jumped down from her back and then the large tiger shrunk down to the size of a cute orange kitten with a tiger-like visage, hopping up onto my shoulder.
I wasn't particularly shocked by this. I had seen Li shrink down and up quite a bit. Otherwise, how was she ever going to fit into the house, given she was large enough for the three of us to ride on? I didn't think she could go quite this small. I scoped off my shoulder and instead shoved her into a large pocket on the inside of my cloak, where she could easily rest. "It's better if you hide... I think."
The City was fairly large, just on the bank of a large river that came down from the mountains, its shape was a little like a large Squash pumpkin with thick limestone walls surrounding it. The upper slimmer part of the City was elevated and seemed to be rather posh, with mansions and expansive gardens, it was disconnected from the larger part by a large secondary wall while the thicker lower part was built around one large structure, some kind of large pavilion in a large center plaza from which wide central roads lead into the cardinal direction. Leaving the city with 4 large pizza slice-shaped districts. Of course, like most cities there were slums. Unlike Roymont city they were outside the walls snuggly hugging them along its expanse, shakes, and dirty wooden houses. There was some space between the slums and the gates.
The wall had 3 main gates leading into the larger part of the city, each connected to the 4 cart wide main roads, the east gate was facing towards the mountain, and the road it was connected to was winding around the mountain and probably leading back to Reymont City. It was the gate we were currently approaching, I pulled my hood down a little, but Mimi seemed to be rather calm, we had been out of the eye for almost a year at this point, and this city was in another province of the Empire and had little to do with Reymont City.
There was a small queue at the gate where they searched carts and such, and let people into the city, apparently, there was a toll of sorts, my ears twitched as I listened in to some men talking in the distance as we found our spot at the back of the queue.
"It's been a while since tolls were last raised.. a whole silver per person, times are rough these days... especially with the mountain bandits and rogue cultivators... scary business." The man, a tall broad-shouldered man with a large backpack said.
His companion was arguably smaller, still taller than either of us, but not as wide as his friend, he had a little cart dragged by a brown horse, and next to him sat a cloaked clearly feminine figure. The man's voice was pleasant. "Well, with bandits around traders like us just have to be more careful. It is a bit unfortunate that the price has gone up, but I have good business in the city. So it's all fine."
They continued to talk but nothing seemed very interesting aside from that, the man's cart did have a very apply scent to it however, it was rather pleasant! So I sniffed for a moment before the female on the cart turned around reaching under the trap and pulling out a ripe red apple starting to munch on it. I found myself a bit jealous. Then our eyes met, and she seemed to be bemused and threw an apple towards me which I caught. What a nice lady...
Then their turn came and they entered the city after some payment and searching of the cart. Finally, it was our turn I was idly munching on my apple while eyeing the guards, one was broad-shouldered and tall, with arms like tree trunks. he was bold and had this tiny thin mustache, he was loud and did most of the talking, the other guard was small, but looked lean and well build in his armor, he had spiky black hair and somewhat of a snarl on his face, they both held spears in their hands.
"The Fee is 1 Silver per person!" The bold one barked towards Mimi who... flinched a little, as did I we just had to spend almost a year in calm and quiet so someone so loud was a bit offputting. Mimi quickly handed the man his 2 silver and we got to pass into the city without any further problems. None of us had large baggage that needed to be searched and they seemed to be more lenient towards a young woman with a child. Walking through the gate my eyes wandered around. This place was a bit larger than Roymont City. Commercial buildings stores and such were placed at the front-facing road, while thinner roads lead deeper into the districts towards housing areas. It was all very orderly and not as convoluted and confusing as Roymont City.
To be honest, I did not like it much, it seemed very ... clinical.
Mimi was seemingly over the moon! Looking at all the pretty stores holding dresses and such, before she looked at the price tags and recoiled "I think we should go a bit further towards the south ...the stores there will be more commoner oriented... I assume." The east gate was closest to the noble district further north so we had entered quite the posh area.
"Well.. while we are here we should stock up on some spices!" Mimi mentioned looking around, indeed there were quite a few fancy stores that smelled rather nice to me! So I wasn't quite against that, and while we both were wearing male clothes they were of high quality and so neither of us seemed out of place.
"Usually I get shooed away from fancy places.." I mentioned quietly but with an excited undertone, Mimi clearly realized this and grabbed my hand with hers, it was soft and gentle but strong at the same time, and my cheeks flushed a little. I felt ... happy for some reason that she had grabbed my hand.
Mimi looked down and grinned. "Well, we have more than enough money to be treated well for now! So don't worry about it! For now, our little family is just as posh as anyone else here. We are going to buy spices!" Spices were expensive but if Mimi wanted to do it.. then I would not complain, following her with a faint nod, while squeezing her hand a little. That made her giggle wildly... for a moment, and I rolled my eyes but was just as happy.
The Store we ented was called "Heavenly Spice" Well... on the nose I guess. the moment we entered I sneezed as I adjusted to the air inside of here, the front room of the store was very large, it had large barrels with different powders lined up next to each other, there was a seating area and a large front desk. Apparently, you had to order the employees to get the spice for you. There was an older pair, a small round man with a massive mustache and a thin elderly lady. The man was currently boisterously talking to the clerk, something about him landing a new contract and needing spices for the kitchens.
Anyway, he did not pay any mind to us, while the older lady seemed to disapprove of both of us, clearly due to our clothes, she even clicked her tongue at us, so I clicked back. I didn't have much time to glare at her as a young man in a nice suit approached us with a rather charming smile. Mimi was blushing a little and pulled me in front of her.
"Welcome to Heavenly Spice! My name is Damian, how can I help you today?" The young man had pearly white teeth and used them to show Mimi a friendly disarming smile. At that point I checked out a little, the whole spice deal kind of messed with my head, my nose was constantly under assault, and it was making me a bit woozy. But apparently, we left with a few bags full of different spices.
"Now let's find some clothes, and after that, we need to find out where to buy animals! Also seeds...We might need a cart for the way back too..." Mimi seemed excited.
"Ohboy.." I for one was just happy to be out of the spice shop.