Xu Long was struggling. If he thought the crowd at the lift was overwhelming then he clearly didn’t know the meaning of the word, this city was a cacophony of noises and smells, but most importantly to Xu Long was that the number of cultivators just strolling the streets was astronomical.

Seeing that he was struggling to make sense of all the chaos, Old Wu decided to take it easy on him.

“Come, let's go visit my favorite inn in the entire city, you are going to love the place, a lot quieter than all this.”

Xu Long only managed to squeeze out. “Sure, that sounds good.”

Old Wu bade him to follow and led Xu Long down the first side street on their right to the much quieter and sparsely populated back streets. The relief that washed over Xu Long was palpable, he felt like he could breathe again after being trapped underwater for far too long. Once he had calmed down and surveyed their new surroundings he was more than a little surprised, there were formations covering almost every building they passed.

“Is this normal? It seems like every building we pass is protected by a formation.”

Old Wu let out an amused chuckle. “That depends on your definition of normal, kid. In the mortal lands, you would be hard pressed to get to your second hand if you were counting them with your fingers. In the world of cultivatiors, it is as common as dirt, mind you, most of those formations are easily bypassed by anyone of a decently high realm, but bypassing them without anyone being the wiser, now that is a rarity.

“All that being said, Tianyun City is not indicative of most places, while the concept of a protective formation around your property is common, the ubiquity of high grade formations you will see in this city is very much not. This is a city of unsurpassed wealth, of the millions of cultivators that occupy the city at any given time, the amount of them that actually own property here is a fraction of a fraction. A building that may seem to you to be shabby compared to the splendor that can be found in this city would likely afford the owner a palatial estate in almost any other city in the realm if they sold it, they would never do that though.”

“Why not just build outside the city, or start a new one?”

“Firstly, all of the shallow reaches of the Endless Forest are claimed by either the Academies, and by extension the clans that back them, or the triumvirate of families that administer this very city. And they would never permit something like that to happen. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, the Endless Forest is not human controlled land, both the Academies and this city exist because deals have been struck and accords ratified between humans and the spirit beasts that rule over both the forest and the Frozen North.

“I should also probably clarify, when I say that the lands are claimed by the various powers, those claims exclusively apply to humans. As far as the spirit beasts are concerned and the accords state, the only human controlled territory in the Endless Forest is this city and the two Academies respectively.”

Xu Long was silent for a couple of backstreets while he contemplated everything he had just heard, but one thing that Old Wu told him piqued his interest. “Why would the powerful spirit beasts acquiesce to the desire of humans to set up strongholds in their territory that would allow them to basically treat their forest as a treasure trove to be plundered?”

“Just like the Academies and their surroundings are a proving ground for our young, so too are the southern stretches of the forest a proving ground for theirs, so in that regard it is mutually beneficial. The other benefit is something that every cultivator knows, yet is not often talked about, which is that to most spirit beasts, human cultivators are a delicacy and are often quite beneficial to their cultivation.”

Xu Long tilted his head down in Xu Xing’s direction, “really? I taste good, do I?”

Xu Xing just yipped angrily at him for his implication. Old Wu chuckled at their exchange.

“It’s not that humans have special or particularly delicious meat or anything, in fact by that metric we would be considered a poor choice of food, what differentiates us is our qi. All who walk the path of cultivation refine qi in one way or another, but humans are particularly good at it, so to a lot of wild spirit beasts we are walking sacks of very pure qi and thus are very desirable.”

They continued to walk through the backstreets of Tianyun City at a leisurely pace. Xu Long was realizing as they went that navigating a human settlement was going to require a different skill set than what he had developed for the forest. There was no moss to help him judge cardinal directions and the sun was now well and truly set, all of the buildings looked similar to him, just a sea of formations that he could not feel anything through. When he voiced his concern to Old Wu the response he got was not very encouraging.

“Unfortunately kid, short of memorizing the layout of the streets, this is a handicap of your blindfold that is not going to be easily overcome. It won’t be as big of an issue in the Academy as the formations are mostly Academy wide and not on individual buildings, but if I were you I would not expect to get a good grasp on navigating the labyrinthian backstreets of a city like Tianyun in the near future, your best bet is to train yourself to come to terms with the crowds so you can traverse the main boulevards without issue.

“That being said, you could always just cheat.”

That last comment left a bad taste in Xu Long’s mouth and renewed his conviction to overcome his difficulties with large crowds over the next few weeks that he had free in this city before his enrollment to the Academy.

As he was mulling over all this in his head he was interrupted by Old Wu who had stopped in front of a building with a rather sizable and from what Xu Long could tell high grade formation surrounding it.

“This is the place. Come on kid.”

Before the words had finished leaving his mouth Old Wu was walking towards the formation. Xu Long felt him disappear into the formation and decided that before he followed he was going to utilize what was left of the energy in his blindfold to get a look at what would be his home for the next few weeks. And his first impression was that he was impressed with what he saw, while the building certainly reeked of wealth, it exuded a sense of understated class. He looked around at its neighbors and had to admit that he would have walked into this one every time if given a choice, there was a subtle aura of superiority radiating from the building, but it was so subtle that it gave the impression that you alone had discovered it and were thus special and worthy of entering.

Xu Long shook his head, there was definitely something suspicious going on with this building and his sudden line of thinking. He took one last look at the building and read the name etched upon a thin slab of dark stone that adorned the top of the gate that led inside.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“The House Heavenly Respite, what do you think, Xu Xing?”

He looked down only to see his spirit fox companion completely entranced by the facade of the building they were about to enter. Shaking his head he clicked his fingers next to Xu Xing’s ear which almost immediately snapped her out of whatever that was.

Looking down at her Xu Long warned her. “Stay on your toes Xiao Xing, I get the impression that this place is not simple.”

After being entranced by a building Xu Xing had to agree, she shuddered, and Xu Long felt it against his chest, so as he walked in to follow the giddy and impatient old man he pet her on the head slowly. As soon as Xu Long started towards the formation he disabled his blindfold, he was curious what would happen with his blocked off ‘qi sight’ when he entered the formation.

As soon as Xu Long walked over the threshold of the formation he found that he could ‘see’ perfectly fine again, well on the first floor of the establishment anyway. The higher floors, which no doubt contained the rooms of the inn, seemed to have individual protections, which he supposed made sense, still he was just grateful that he would be able to navigate the inn without too much hassle. That small weight lifted from his shoulders, Xu Long strolled through the open doors of the establishment, taking a deep breath because he could feel that the bottom floor, which appeared to be a restaurant, was very popular and thus very crowded.

Xu Long didn’t have much time to try and get a handle on the crowd before the person who was standing near the entrance approached him.

“If you will follow me sir, I will show you to your room.”

Swayed by the gentle female voice and with little desire to start his training on dealing with crowds right this second, Xu Long answered with a nod of his head and then promptly followed the young woman as she started walking up the stairs that were located not far from the entrance of the inn. They traversed a couple of flights of stairs before they arrived at their destination, which was the first room on the third floor. The young woman positioned herself next to the door and handed Xu Long a small disc with an elaborate formation on it.

“This is the key to your room, so try to keep it safe, it cannot be bound to anyone in particular, for obvious reasons, so anyone who possesses the key has free access to your room.”

Xu Long took the disc and thanked the young woman, before he put a little qi into the most obvious place on the formation for him to do so, immediately he was rewarded with a small clicking sound from the door in front of him. As soon as the door clicked it seemed as if the formation that protected the room turned off and Xu Long could make out a few of the shapes in the surprisingly spacious suite.

Before Xu Long had much time to figure out the composition of his new accommodations, the young woman beside him asked. “Will there be anything else sir?”

Xu Long turned his head in her general direction and replied. “No, thank you for your assistance…sorry I didn’t catch your name.”

She let out a small giggle which sounded quite heavenly to the young man who had spent his entire life isolated from the world.

“It’s Li Ruolan, sir. If you have any desires just ask for me.”

Taking a pause at her phrasing, Xu Long had a slight smile on his face. “I appreciate it. It’s nice to meet you, I’m Xu Long.”

“I know, Old Wu told my mother that you both will be staying here until your enrollment, I am sure we will be seeing more of each other over the coming weeks. Anyway, I better get back to it, I hope you enjoy your stay at the House Heavenly Respite.”

As soon as the words had left her mouth she disappeared from in front of Xu Long. He just stood there, more than a little shocked. He could tell that she was powerful from the way her qi was clamped down and orderly, he had assumed maybe Core Formation at best because she didn’t have the same feeling as his mother or Old Wu, but he might have to revise that after that kind of movement. ‘Could this establishment have a Nascent Soul cultivator working the door?’ When that question drifted through his mind he had to shake his head, he must really be tired after his journey through the Endless Forest, she was clearly there just for him because of Old Wu, he must be quite the valued customer.

“I imagine we are going to find out that their speciality is spirit liquor.”

Chuckling to himself and getting a quizzical head tilt from Xu Xing for his random comment, Xu Long walked into his room. Or rather ‘their’ room judging by the layout, the door led into the middle of three equally sized rooms, the left and right appearing to both have a bed each, the middle had a few couches, a table and some chairs and a few other things that were not immediately recognizable to Xu Long with his blindfold on. What was recognizable was that the middle room opened up onto a balcony, at the edge of which was the formation that clicked back to life when he had closed the door to the room behind him.

“Xiao Xing, do you want to go and see if you can cultivate comfortably through the formation that covers the balcony? If not, I’m sure Old Wu can sort out a solution with the owner, he seems to be well liked here.”

Xu Xing yipped in confirmation and then wiggled her way out of his robes before trotting over to the balcony, Xu Long followed right behind her. Stepping out onto the balcony, Xu Long felt a gentle breeze on his face, but none of the overwhelming smells of the city that he expected, he also couldn’t hear any of the noise either, assuming that this was the work of the formation he started to really hope that it would be viable for the two of them to get what they respectively needed from the stars through this formation.

Xu Long sat down in the middle of the balcony in the lotus position and placed his sword across his lap. His perception of the energy stored in his artifacts from his mother was tenuous at best, so the best way for him to judge the effectiveness of charging them through the formation was to compare the charge he received after a night here to one in the Endless Forest or the Valley. So naturally, rather than bother with all of that, why not just see if the formation affects the cultivation of his furry companion, that should tell him everything he needed to know.

So he waited patiently. After a few minutes of said patient waiting he felt Xu Xing stir from her seated position looking up at the night sky. She turned towards him and gave out a happy yip, which he took as confirmation that all was well.

Smiling at her for the good news she bore, he replied. “That is good to hear, so shall we eat, if you can call it that, before we get to it?”

That elicited a far louder and more excited yip than her successful test.

Chuckling, Xu Long prepared her tea before popping a green pill of his own into his mouth. As snarky as he was about calling swallowing a pill ‘eating’, Xu Long had to admit that he was well and truly used to it by now, it had been over three weeks since his stomach pains had dissipated and any mental block about eating nothing but a small pill once a day was eroding away at a rapid pace.

While he was waiting for Xu Xing to finish her bowl, something she had recently begun to savor, rather than devour, after watching Old Wu partake in the occasional spirit liquor over their month long journey through the Endless Forest, Xu Long decided to take advantage of a feature of his blindfold that he rarely utilized on their journey. Namely his ability to keep his blindfold activated indefinitely under the stars. Given that his view would have largely consisted of the foliage of the tree that they were staying in, it goes without saying why he didn’t feel the need to utilize it during the trip, but now he was in a city, sitting on a third floor balcony under the stars, it was the perfect circumstances to give it a test run and see what kind of view Old Wu’s patronage afforded him in this no doubt horrendously expansive inn.

Either the old man is rich or they must really like him, maybe both, the view of the city from their room was spectacular. Xu Long hadn’t realized just how far they had walked through the backstreets but it was clear to him now that it was almost the entire length of one of the quadrants. From his vantage point he could see the central plaza that he saw from the lift was a couple of blocks in front of him and he had a perfect view of the hustle and bustle still going on there even if he couldn’t hear any of it. The city itself was lit by muted yellow lights that seemed to adorn every building city wide, coupled with the light earthy tones of most of the buildings, lent the city an aesthetically beautiful air of warmth and hospitality that Xu Long was sure was intentional but unsure if it was a facade or not.

“This place is pretty beautiful isn’t it Xiao Xing.”

She let out a small scoff of a yip in reply.

Xu Long laughed. “Sure, it can’t compete with the stars, but what truly can?”