noffsinger Chapter 696 An Alternative City of Immortality
Chapter 696 An Alternative City of Immortality
Chapter 696 An Alternative City of Immortality
Lin Xiaohe closed her eyes and appeared at the gate of Eternal City.
Immediately afterwards, four more bright lights appeared behind her.
"Aww! I've finally succeeded!"
Lin Xiaohe looked in the direction of the sound and saw a barefoot man whose pants were torn into strips and who was now held together by a tattered hemp rope, which he had to pull up every two steps.
He looked as disheveled as if he had been chased by a ghost for eight blocks.
"Hey, beautiful, my name is Wang Tianhai, a newly promoted ghost cultivator. Let's be friends?" Wang Tianhai brushed his burnt bangs aside, thinking himself dashing.
Lin Xiaohe...
Do the residents of Eternal City all have an innate sense of familiarity?
Seeing that Lin Xiaohe ignored him, Wang Tianhai didn't take it seriously and turned to look at Yong Sheng City.
There was no black mist or fairy maidens lining the way as he had imagined, nor any ghost cultivators robbing and rigging on the road. There was only a long street paved with bluestone slabs, with rows of white paper lanterns hanging on both sides, and densely packed stalls under the lanterns.
Among the many stalls, the most popular one wasn't selling magical artifacts or elixirs, but surprisingly, it was selling food.
The smoke from the barbecue rose along with the light from the lanterns, and the aroma of braised meat mixed with the scent of Sichuan peppercorns filled the air.
A shirtless vendor was stirring a pot of tripe in bubbling red oil with a large ladle, while next to him, grilled squid was sizzling and steaming. Just a couple more steps ahead, there was even a vendor selling jianbing guozi (Chinese crepes)!
The stall owner was a one-eyed old man. He used a bamboo scraper to scrape a thin layer of mung bean flour off the iron plate, his movements as practiced as if he had been doing this stall on this street for hundreds of years.
Wang Tianhai stood there for three seconds, his mind a whirlwind of thoughts: the words "Ghost Cultivation World" and the barbecue stall in front of him.
He reincarnated nine times in the realm of demons and animals, and finally, when he was reborn as a mortal, he died at the age of 16.
He worked hard, diligently, and single-mindedly, and finally became a ghost cultivator, thus gaining access to the City of Eternal Life.
There was no ghost realm as he had imagined, nor was there any eerie atmosphere. Instead, the pungent smell of cooking oil filling the streets made his stomach rumble on the spot.
He had lost track of time while cultivating in the mountains, and he couldn't even remember how many years it had been since he had satisfied his appetite!
"Don't just stand there, come and sit down." A woman's voice came from the street.
Wang Tianhai turned his head and saw a beautiful woman sitting at a low table with three sets of bowls and chopsticks on it. Rabbit meat was stewing in a pot.
Two other people were sitting next to her: a gloomy-faced boy who was wiping the hidden weapon in his hand, and a bald monk who was closing his eyes and fiddling with prayer beads, muttering incantations, but whose body was covered with rabbit fur.
Wang Tianhai didn't stand on ceremony; when the beautiful woman called him over, he actually went.
The beautiful woman walked past him, caught sight of Lin Xiaohe, grinned, revealing eight pearly white teeth: "Sister, we meet again, what a coincidence!"
Lin Xiaohe: "We were never meant to be, it's all thanks to you waiting here. Just sit at the city gate, of course you'll see me."
"Hehe, it's rare to meet a kindred spirit in Eternal City. Of course, I have to be a little shameless." The beautiful woman was poised and generous, offering no excuses.
Lin Xiaohe possesses divine authority, and with Xinbao and Xiaohei by her side, what is there to fear?
She remained calm and composed, sat down in the empty seat, and accepted the bowl and chopsticks handed to her by the beautiful woman: "What's your name?"
The beautiful woman had striking features, with eyebrows like distant mountains and eyes like autumn waters. Her lips, naturally red, always held a carefree smile. Her long black hair was tied up in a high ponytail, giving her an imposing and heroic air.
“If anyone else asked me, I would definitely say that I am Lin Xiaohe. But since you asked me, sister, I will not change my name or surname. You can just call me Hao Jiejie.”
Lin Xiaohe raised an eyebrow. This name... "Hao Jiejie, what kind of place is this?" Wang Tianhai pulled up his pants and walked over to sit down, not caring that the rabbit meat was scalding hot, and stuffed it into his mouth with gusto.
"Eternal City." Hao Jiejie stirred the pot with a spoon, steam billowing up, the aroma of cumin mixed with rabbit meat hitting the top of her head. "What do you think ghost cultivators are?"
The bald monk opened his eyes, put his hands together, and said: "Transcend life and death, attain supreme wisdom, and save all sentient beings."
Hao Jiejie chuckled and tapped the edge of the pot with her chopsticks: "Then you've come to the wrong place. This is the City of Eternal Life, indeed without birth or death, but it doesn't have the supreme wisdom and universal salvation you're looking for."
"Amitabha." The bald monk picked up his chopsticks and swiftly chose a piece of rabbit meat that was neither too fatty nor too lean.
"Is this what Eternal City looks like?" Wang Tianhai looked at the barbecue stall across the street.
A ghost was skillfully flipping a skewer of lamb over charcoal.
"I thought it would be all about killing and fighting, but it looks like a temple fair."
"Eternal City is known as the mini-underworld, and this is what the underworld looks like." Hao Jiejie picked up a piece of rabbit meat and put it in her bowl. "You'll understand once you've been here a while."
As soon as she finished speaking, a ghost cultivator who was eating hot and sour noodles at a nearby stall suddenly put down his bowl, leaned over their table, and looked the four of them up and down: "Brothers and sisters, haven't you registered yet?"
"Register?" Wang Tianhai frowned.
"Eternal City is recruiting civil servants," the ghost cultivator wiped his mouth and pulled a crumpled notice from his pocket, slapping it on the table.
"With your physiques, it's a shame you're not taking the civil service exam. Eternal City is really short-staffed right now, so the chances of getting a permanent position are high. The written exam covers the 'General Rules of the City of the Dead' and the 'Code of Ethics for Ghost Cultivators,' and the interview is a structured interview. If you pass, you'll be assigned a position. Let me tell you, the benefits are really good: eighteen spirit stones a month, room and board included, double pay at the end of the year, and a mount after a year."
“Although the mount is also a ghost cultivator and can’t run fast, it’s still a mount. Of the four of you, one can hunt rabbits, one can use hidden weapons, one can chant sutras, and one can…” He glanced at Wang Tianhai, “and pull up your pants? Forget it, there are plenty of positions, there’s bound to be one that suits you.”
Wang Tianhai opened his mouth, looked down at his pants bound with hemp rope, and then looked at the notice on the table.
The handwriting on the notice was crooked, but the official seal at the bottom was clearly affixed: "Eternal City Government Affairs Department".
Next to it was a line of smaller print: "[Anyone who passes the written test will receive a pair of shoes as a reward.]"
He scratched his head in confusion, wondering why this passerby seemed like someone involved in a pyramid scheme.
Hao Jiejie grabbed five registration forms in one go and handed them out to everyone: "Come on, sign your names."
Without a word, she grabbed Wang Tianhai's thumb and pressed it onto the registration form, and that was it!
Wang Tianhai looked at his thumb, then at Hao Jiejie, filled with terror.
He wanted to become a ghost cultivator so he could be lawless, act recklessly, and fight anyone who disagreed with him. So why did he sign up for the civil service exam?!
The system of organization is like shackles that bind people's hands and feet!
Wang Tianhai was on the verge of tears. What kind of wicked cultivator would want to take the civil service exam?! This completely goes against the original intention of cultivation!
The bald monk and the mute boy didn't care; they simply pressed their fingerprints and continued eating meat.
Hao Jiejie held up the registration form and looked at Lin Xiaohe with a smile: "Good sister, sign your name?"