Chapter 765: About Mortals Living in a Cultivation City.
After exiting the shop, Yasenia sent one of the maids back for a few minutes with an extra person while their group continued exploring the city. Evelyn asked. "Why didn't you take the shop's merchandise, Yasenia?"
Yasenia smiled at her. "There is no need. We don't know who the backers of that person are, and there might be some important items in there that the power behind it doesn't want to lose. Hence, risking being bothered for a few mid-level Earth rank items is just not worth it."
Angel clung to one of Yasenia's arms and whined. "Yasenia, can we visit a formation room?"
Yasenia looked at Kaleina and Flame and asked. "What do you two want to do?"
Angel realized and nodded. "Right! Today is Kaleina's and Flame's day. Where do we go play?"
Flame smiled, hiding her laughter. She always found it very amusing being with her Aunty Angel. 'She is so big but acts like a child with Aunty Yasenia.'
Even if she was young, she understood that Angel could do so because of Yasenia's pampering. Flame looked at Yasenia and smiled inside. 'I hope to have someone like Aunty Yasenia in the future.'
Kaleina tilted her head. "I don't know. Flame, where do you want to go?"
Flame blinked, her red phoenix wings flapping as she thought. "Can we visit a park?"
Yasenia nodded with a smile and looked at Alaia. "Guide us to the closest park; we can take a walk there and see if there are other children for them to play with."
Alaia made a formal bow, and they all moved quickly, arriving at an open space enclosed in walls in the city where trees and other meticulously taken care of vegetation could be seen. There were stone paths, ponds, and other types of landmarks like small bridges and such."
At a glance, Yasenia and the others could see parents or grandparents with the young ones following them as the little ones played.
There were all kinds of races and beasts running around, making quite a relaxing but similarly lively atmosphere.
Yasenia held Tatyana's and Flame's hands while Kaleina coiled around her body, with her head sticking from the back and resting on her shoulder.
The little dragoness exclaimed. "There are so many people in the park! Look, there are many mortals there!"
For Kaleina, who was surrounded by high-level cultivators in her everyday life, mortals were even rarer than some exotic animals.
Mortals and cultivators rarely mix together outside business matters. The most contact they had was when a cultivator hired mortal people as servants.
Flame also looked around while happily swinging Yasenia's hand and commented. "There are more people than in Astral Sky City."
Yasenia chuckled. "Well, this is one of the most important main cities of the Mermaid Race, with over 800 million inhabitants. That's why each street is around 300 meters wide, with main streets being almost 1.5 kilometers wide. The buildings are also large to be seen from the sides. Although not too large, as most of the important buildings aimed at cultivators don't need the size because a cultivator can notice them."
Angel asked. "How do mortals live in these large cities?"
Yasenia looked at her with smiling eyes. "Baby, did your parents not explain mortal living conditions in cultivation cities to you?"
Angel shook her head. Yasenia nodded and explained. "Well, it is an environment that it's not easy. After all, with a mortal's walking speed, even crossing those main streets from side to side would take them about 15 minutes. Not to mention that crossing such large streets with a mortal body is dangerous. That's why one of the main causes of death for mortals living in these main cities is actually being bumped by speeding cultivators or their mounts while they cross the streets."
Andrea added. "There are special transports in cities to help mortals cross the streets, something low-level cultivators can do to earn a decent living. After all, the ratio of cultivator to mortal will always be abysmal. Even if each mortal pays a small fee, the cultivator can make a decent profit from just helping mortals cross the streets."
Kaleina, Flame, and Angel listened closely, nodding their heads.
Kaleina blinked and commented, scratching her cheek with her claw. "Mommy, what were the Parus levels? I can't remember."
Yasenia answered. "I've told you before, so I know you can remember. Come on, baby. Think a bit harder."
Kaleina frowned and closed her eyes, her tail slapping the ground as she thought. Then, her eyes opened, and she exclaimed. "Ah! I remember! There are Flawed, low, mid, high, and flawless levels!"
Yasenia nodded. "Very good, Kaleina."
Kaleina got thoughtful and commented. "So Knowing that the exchange is 1000 for each coin One Flawless Parus is equivalent to One Trillion Flawed Parus?"
The dragoness nodded. "That's right."
Kaleina blinked a few times and asked. "Don't we have a mine that gives a few thousand Flawless Parus a day?"
Yasenia chuckled. "That's right. We've even built formations to stimulate the Spiritual Ore Vein so that it can naturally grow with time and give us more Parus a day in the future. After all, a Spiritual Ore Vein has a certain capacity to replenish itself with the energy of the World. With the right methods, it's an inexhaustible source of income."
Kaleina blinked repeatedly. "So We are earning a few quadrillion flawed Parus a day, enough to feed around one trillion mortal families a year, which is around five trillion people?"
Yasenia nodded calmly and praised her with a kiss. "You are so good at math, baby. But Mommy is not that poor. That's the gains of the Parus Mine. We have plenty of other sources of income that far overshadow the Parus Mine."
Kaleina felt somewhat speechless. 'My Mommy is a super tycoon!'
Flame, at the side, remembered something and suddenly asked with trepidation. "A-Aunty Yasenia, how much do all the medical concoctions and pills Kaleina and I consume cost?"
Yasenia pondered, tapping her chin with her finger. "Hm It doesn't cost anything. We grow all of those things in my spatial ring and craft it ourselves. So, the only cost is the cost of the manual labor."
Flame, curious, continued to ask. "Yes, but if placed on the market, how much would it cost to train like us?"
Yasenia asked. "Like taking everything into account?"
Flame nodded a few times.
The dragoness tilted her head, calculating in her head. "Let's put aside the cost of tutoring because there isn't really a staple price in the market. So, for the herbs we use, it should be around 800 Flawless Parus a year. Then If we add the pills' cost, training rooms, and if we add the clothes, food, etc" Yasenia did a quick estimate and commented. "Kaleina consumes about 3,000 Flawless Parus worth of resources a year, and you, Flame, consume about 1,700."
Kaleina and Flame froze in place, their minds doing numbers and being somewhat overwhelmed. Yasenia took it as if Flame was hurt that she didn't invest as much, so she used her hand to pat her head. "You consume fewer resources because your body can't take it. It's not that I'm unwilling. Don't feel bad about it, okay, love?"
Flame stiffly nodded and continued to play with the potato robotically, her mind spinning at the ridiculous numbers she had just heard.
Evelyn commented, curious. "So, how many resources do we consume?"
Yasenia looked at Evelyn with a puzzled expression. "You should know that, right? It's quite easy to calculate by adding the cost of everything."
Evelyn's lips twitched. "Love, while we are good at arithmetic, you far surpass us in that matter. I can give you an estimate, but not something as precise as yourself, who takes care of most of those things."
Yasenia nodded, thoughtful. "Well, I'm the one consuming the most resources. About three times more than the most expensive of all of you. Moreover, the expenditure increased after I got the Body Refining method. But the cost should be nearly five million or so a year for you. We use a lot of high-level and peak-level materials that we personally grow. Even one of those can fetch a few hundred thousand in the market. Of course, thanks to my spatial ring, all costs related to Spiritual Herbs are more than covered. Moreover, we have literal mountains of high-level ores, so we are also not lacking there."
Evelyn nodded calmly while Kaleina and Flame petrified even more.