Chronicles of the Green Vine: A Mortal’s Path to Immortality

Half an hour later, a figure suddenly appeared at this location.

The figure was Zhang Ling. He circled the area but found no one. It seemed the old man had left.

Zhang Ling looked at the ashes under his feet, the remains of the killed rogue cultivator. He had returned to see if he could find any items left behind by the cultivator.

But judging from the situation, the old man had taken all the useful items, and even the corpse had been destroyed to eliminate any traces.

"Sigh."

He sighed, as this was within expectations. However, he did manage to get a map of Falling Star City from the old man, so it wasn't a wasted trip.

"Eh?"

Suddenly, Zhang Ling's eyes narrowed. With a wave of his hand, a wisp of breeze swept away the ashes on the ground, revealing something.

Zhang Ling's face lit up, and he grabbed a golden page in his hand. This page was very thin, like a piece of gold leaf, covered with densely packed small characters.

After a brief look, the small characters on the gold leaf were divided into two parts. The first part was a spell manual called Illusion Sword Technique, while the other side was a strange script.

He could only recognize a few of the characters, which seemed to be an ancient script. There were also some complex meridian diagrams, seemingly a method for cultivating a spell.

Zhang Ling chuckled, put away the gold leaf, and searched around again. Seeing that nothing else was left, he left the area.

...

Three days later, Zhang Ling stood on a mound, looking at the distant scenery. Several miles away was a towering mountain peak.

That was where Falling Star City was located.

The mountain peak appeared to be a large mountain to ordinary people, but at this moment, it looked different in Zhang Ling's eyes.

"So this is it. This is the formation set up by cultivators? To be able to hide such a large city in the mountains, truly the means of immortals."

In his eyes, the scene in front of him was not a large mountain, but a giant valley.

On each side of the valley stood a tall mountain peak, like giant bull horns erected on the ground, with a large open space in the middle where a large city was located.

Using his Spirit Eye Technique to see the scene, he did not venture forward rashly. Instead, he observed the area for two days and discovered the presence of many cultivators.

Today, Zhang Ling decided not to wait any longer. He straightened his clothes and used the Wind Control Technique to walk towards the Immortal City.

With the observation of the Spirit Eye Technique, he proceeded unhindered. After a quarter of an hour, he arrived at the city gate of the giant city.

The city gate of this Immortal City was five or six zhang tall, and the city walls were more than ten zhang high. There were two lines of people queuing at the city gate. Zhang Ling immediately noticed the difference between the two lines.

In his observation, the two lines were clearly distinct. One line was all mortals, mostly with their heads lowered, entering the city through the side gate.

The other line, although also queuing, consisted of cultivators with various expressions.

Seeing so many cultivators, Zhang Ling was surprised and stood there for a moment, then joined the queue behind the cultivators.

In front of him was a fat young cultivator, dressed in brocade robes like a merchant. Using the Spirit Eye Technique, he saw that this person was also a Qi Refining sixth layer cultivator like himself.

While he was observing this person, the fat cultivator turned his head and looked at him with a gloomy face, then snorted coldly.

Zhang Ling's face changed, and he gave an awkward smile, no longer casually observing others.

Just now, he felt a mysterious force sweep over him, as if he was being stared at by countless people.

Coupled with the fat youth's cold eyes, Zhang Ling knew that the feeling just now came from this person.

Although he had become a cultivator, he knew nothing about some common sense. His actions just now seemed a bit offensive. It seemed that he could not casually look at these cultivators, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble.

Zhang Ling lowered his head and waited in line. Soon it was his turn. Several city guards in black armor were checking.

"Do you have a city entry token?" A black-armored guard looked at Zhang Ling and asked expressionlessly.

There was that feeling again. When this black-armored guard was observing him, Zhang Ling felt like his whole body was being watched again.

"No."

"It seems that you are entering Falling Star City for the first time, fellow Daoist. Please complete the entry procedures here." The black-armored guard pointed behind him.

Following the direction of his finger, he saw a red wooden table with a gray-haired old man in black sitting behind it.

The old man was lying on a rattan chair, lazily dozing off.

"Senior."

"Senior, I'm here to apply for a city entry token."

Zhang Ling called out twice before the old man opened his eyes, yawned, and said slowly, "New here."

The old man took out a black brush from his pocket and asked Zhang Ling, "New cultivators entering Falling Star City must pay three spirit stones to receive a city entry token."

"If you don't have a token, you can also enter the city, but you can only stay in the city for three days. Once the time is up, you will be expelled."

Listening to the old man, Zhang Ling's face remained unchanged. He reached into his storage bag and took out three thumb-sized, glittering jade stones.

The old man saw that he readily took out three spirit stones and didn't say much. He took out a black token.

Then he asked him to inject a stream of spiritual power into it, and then tapped it with the brush in his hand. Several runes flashed and disappeared into the token.

"Alright, here's your city entry token. You can freely enter and exit Falling Star City within one year. Once the time is up, you must pay the spirit stones again."

The old man chuckled and took out a beast skin booklet.

"Falling Star City allows cultivators to freely enter and exit, but fellow Daoist must remember two things. The city has a no-fly restriction. Those below the Foundation Establishment stage cannot fly. The second is that private fights are not allowed in the city. If discovered by the enforcement team, your cultivation will be abolished and you will be expelled from the Immortal City. Little friend, please remember."

"Thank you." Zhang Ling picked up the beast skin booklet, cupped his hands to the old man, and entered the city.

Falling Star City was very large, no smaller than Ming City where he used to live, and could accommodate hundreds of thousands of people. The proportion of cultivators among them was conceivable.

Passing through the city gate, Zhang Ling saw the prosperity of the city. A wide street was filled with people, and shops lined both sides. It looked similar to a mortal town.

However, the signs of those shops mostly emitted a faint spiritual light. In front of some shops, there were also various items on display.

There were weapons such as long swords and halberds, spirit talismans floating in the air, and in front of one shop, there were several small beasts of various shapes, attracting the attention of many female cultivators.

Zhang Ling walked to the side, picked up the beast skin booklet, and flipped through it. This was a map of Falling Star City, marking the main buildings of the city.

After flipping through the booklet, Zhang Ling, like a country bumpkin entering the city, strolled around the streets.

He had never seen the things sold in the city's shops, which aroused his great interest. Walking and watching along the way, Zhang Ling also gained a lot of knowledge.

At the same time, he also discovered that cultivators needed to use spirit stones everywhere. It seemed that this was the currency of cultivators. He had a dozen or so spirit stones on hand, and he didn't know how many days he could stay in Falling Star City.

"It seems that I need to brush up on the common sense of the cultivation world. Otherwise, knowing nothing about cultivators will easily lead to being tricked by others."

Zhang Ling thought to himself and wandered around the streets, looking for shops related to books.

Soon, he stopped in front of a shop called Guangyuan Zhai.