26 Wok City

Wok City was located southwest of North Star Kingdom, a few thousand kilometers away. This place had some fame throughout the Ethereal Expanse; it's rumored that countless famed experts once rose in power here. These rumors also claimed that an expert of the [Star Immortal Realm]* was born from this city and saved the Ethereal Expanse from impending doom.

Nevertheless, history of such an expert has now become a legend told throughout the last few thousands of years. A set goal that many cultivators, young and old, had followed on their path of cultivation.

Not far from Wok City, a few silhouettes could be seen afar at the break of dawn. The outlines of a massive city could be seen in the distance as the sun rose to greet the sky.

"We'll reach Wok City soon. It's the second largest city in North Star Kingdom following the North Star Imperial City as the first. Everything in this area is controlled by the Wok City Lord. Rumor has it that this person possesses the strength in the early-stage of the [Spiral Realm]. You could say he has quite a huge influence within the North Star Kingdom," informed Fu Arus.

"Is he married?" asked Yan Li. Her innocent face seem quite cute as she looked up at Fu Arus in curiosity.

Fu Arus couldn't help but feel a cold shiver run down his spine, keeping up his poker face. He truly felt speechless and decided to ignore the little girl.

"Let's hurry up before it becomes crowded at the gate."

Seeing that the chief was intentionally ignoring her question, Yan Li stomped her foot while pouting. The other four beside her shook their head slightly and continued to follow the village chief towards Wok City.

As they approached, they could sense just how majestic this city was. The charcoaled color city walls gave off an elegant gleam from the morning sun. It stood several hundreds of meters tall, almost as if it was trying to reach the sky. Such a towering structure awed the four divine children, giving off an impenetrable feeling.

This city was several dozen times greater than their Windfall Village. Something from their nighttime stories they heard from their parents

Even though it was early in the morning, constant streams of people could be seen flowing throughout the city entrance. The bustling noise increased as they got closer, giving them ample information of the character of the city.

"Let's enter the city," smiled Fu Arus lightly waving his hands as he led the rest of the group into the city.

"We'll search for a place to lodge and then we'll continue to the center of the city where the tournament is taking place. From there, all five of you will spar with many others to obtain recognition from the few sects that are attending. I've already sent a letter to have everyone here registered, so no need to sign up. Of course, you can decide which sect you would like to join."

All five nodded their head in acknowledgement.

Fu Arus then led them to an inn that was quite close to the where the tournament was held. After everyone had settled in their shared rooms, excluding Yan Li who had her own, they went downstairs to the dining area to eat.

The journey took around two and a half days, a bit earlier than the chief estimated. Luckily, their path had been unobstructed since they left. Usually strong demonic beasts roamed the area as they got closer to the city, but somehow it was peaceful all the way.

What Fu Arus didn't know was that Blacky had cleared out the path beforehand. This seemingly harmless small cat, that accompanied Silver's shoulder and their group, didn't want to be pestered so he spreaded out his killing intent to keep the demonic beasts away. Even the most vicious and powerful beasts who controlled a set area cowered before the small black cat.

After breakfast, Fu Arus had informed them he had to go meet and old friend. Naturally, they were allowed to explore the city on the condition that they stayed together and returned before sunset.

Throughout the city, Yan Li lead the four boys and one cat to many shops to buy dazzling items that catches her eyes. Even the fatty, Fey Luden, took multiple stops at the bustling food stalls to gather and eat food. They watched both of them storing their purchased necessity into their storage rings at an unfathomable rate.

How much money did these loggerheads have on them?

As they continued their 'light' shopping, their group gathered quite a bit of attention. Many ordinary citizens murmured around them, thinking that Yan Li and Fey Luden were little nobles and the three behind were servants. Yan Li, although childish, appeared sweet-tempered, playful and charming. Add Fey Luden to the mix, he seem like an prodigal son as he spent an extravagant amount on food alone.

Before the group had left, both Yan Li and Fey Luden wore clothing that could only be seen on and worn by members of powerful clans. But this was something they were used too. Afterall, most of the villagers wore such clothing during ceremonies.

The three helplessly exchanged looks and smiled. It seems the two extravagant spenders had unknowingly caused unwanted attention.

The five of them quickly moved through the bustling streets, only to stop by a restaurant to eat lunch. They entered the restaurant and asked for a table. Since the floor level was already quite packed, they were sent to the second floor and situated beside the back wall.

Not long after, they began ordering their food and begun to chat as they waited for their food.

Silver swept his divine sense around the room as they ate. Usually, in this type of scenario, he'd expected some arrogant brat to pester them. Especially, since they had a seedling like Yan Li who's bound to beautifully bloom during spring.

He'd been through this situation many times before in his past life.

As if on cue, a young noble actually appeared nearby their table.

Everyone, besides Fey Luden who was eating vigorously, swept their eyes onto this youth. He was leisurely fanning himself as he stood half a step away from the table. This noble youth didn't have anything special about his facial feature, barely above average in terms of looks. Sleek, but athletic under his silky, light blue robe. Definitely someone who was prodigal.

Yet, the air he gave off was anomalous, stranger than a stringent clean freak. His eyes, a hint of fondness, shifted towards Yan Li, then Fu Wonton, and finally landing on Long Zhen. He brought up his opened, blue fan hiding his coquettish smile with his sleeves embroidered with white cranes sliding a bit down to his mid forearm.

Beside him was a decrepit looking old man wearing a silky gray robe with the exact same white crane embroidered onto his sleeves. He had little to no expressions, albeit most of their attention were on his left eye lazing about. He appeared quite reserved unlike the young master in front. Although they hid their cultivation, Silver could perceive it without blinking.

The young master was a late-stage Terra Realm expert. In terms of early, mid and late stages, each had their own name. Those who reached the early-stages of the Terra Realm were called True Mortals. Then it would be Spirit Force and finally, late-stage of the Terra Realm were called Nature Form.

As for the lazy-eyed decrepit old man, his cultivation was quite high. Barely touching the threshold towards mid-stage of the Primal Source Realm. Basically, an Initial Source expert just like him.

Just breaking through a stage took time and effort if one didn't have a good cultivation manual. There were no minor stages between these 3 main stages of the Primal Source Realm. Each stage broken through would allowed one to soar into the star brimming with strength. Just gathering such tremendous amount of qi and refining it into source strands was quite taxing already.

If one didn't refine their qi to a pure source strand, it would cause severe backlashes. The worse case scenario that could happen is exploding to death. In most light cases, they would lose their source becoming crippled, unable to cultivate in their lifetime.

"I've never seen your group here before," the young master said with a soft spoken voice. His eyes lingered onto Long Zhen, who already began eating along with Fey Luden, for a few seconds longer.

Of course, no one noticed where his eyes landed besides Silver. It took him a minute to understand the situation, inwardly pitying Long Zhen within his heart. It seems his thoughts truly jinxed their group but who would of known that Long Zhen was actually the one that caught this young master's attention.

"I'm Xin Chuo of the Crane Clan within Wok City. I hope you wouldn't mind me asking if any of you are of the Four Divine Marks?"

Fu Wonton's expression quivered as he looked ahead, gripping the fork with his right hand. The others glared at Xin Chuo, wary if this young master was going to cause trouble. Their chief had warned them not to cause any mischief before the tournament, keeping a low profile.

Everyone had heard the awakening of the divine beasts due to their showy entrance, but they didn't know which four individuals awakened them. Throughout the streets, light rumors travelled along the river of people, murmuring that the divined marked individuals would be showing up at this year's tournament.

Thus, it explained why this year's tournament had more people noisily entering the city. Many powerful sects were joining this time around to scout these four talented youth born with the divine mark. It had been a few thousand years since all four marks awakened simultaneously in the Ethereal Expanse.

"Do not worry, I am not here to cause any trouble. My martial uncle, your village chief had already told our clan about you. Furthermore, I'm here on orders to guide you to our Crane Clan."

"Well, we're almost done eating," smiled Silver taking a quick glance at everyone.

"Let's get going then."

"Allow me to foot the bill," Xin Chuo offered with a toothy smile.

Since Xin Chuo offered to pay, everyone expressed their thanks and waited out front. After a few minutes, Xin Chuo and his servant exited the restaurant, gesturing them to follow.

"Now, let's head to my Crane Clan. Your village chief and my father, the patriarch, are waiting."

Silver slightly knitted his eyebrows as they traveled to the Crane Clan. It seemed that someone with ill-intentions had been following them for awhile now. From the moment that Xin Chuo exited the restaurant, was the moment he felt the ill-intent targeting their group. Specifically Xin Chuo.

'It seems someone has it against this queer young master…' thought Silver locating where the ill-intent was coming from. He wasn't bothered by it too much as long it wasn't killing intent. If it was, he'd make an excuse to get rid of this stalker.

Sadly, it wasn't something life threatening so he allowed this individual to follow to their heart's content.

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[Spiral Realm]* -> [Sovereign Realm] - I'm basically winging the Ethereal Expanse cultivation ranks at this point. Bear with the odd names e.e

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I'll be honest, I had some trouble writing this chapter. My brain was stuck mid-way of writing this for the past week and I couldn't think straight for awhile. The fatigue from work is really getting to me, but I'm trying to be more active in writing…

Please send some stones my way, reviews and/or comments!