Both guards looked at Xia for a while, trying to discern the identity of the one wearing the bamboo-hat. Despite both of them wearing the same red cultivation robes, only Mei Lin had a strange aura around her, which was a clear signal to the guards, that she was a cultivator. As they looked at each other, they saw, that her white veil was stained with blood. Realizing that Mei Lin was unlikely to speak, the guards decided to stop waiting and proceed.
"What is your purpose of entering the city."
Xia didn't understand why would they ask them such an obvious question after what happened along the way and the fact that there must be many more people, who also came here.
"We are here to find someone. We were separated from the caravan when the bandits attacked it and they left us there to move on our own."
The guards looked at each other as confused with Xia, because they didn't understand the simple fact that they were able to survive out there in the middle of the winter. After asking them many questions and providing some basic information about the city. Mei Lin in the meantime started to get strange feelings about how was the city managed after discovering that cultivators in the city had far more privileges than non-cultivators, but had to pay significantly more for identification tokens. Xia started to struggle to answer more and more simple questions as the conversation continued and was quite bad at lying.
Just before Xia was about to say something completely false which could expose the fact that she was not with Merchant Caravan, but with the bandits thanks to that everything around happened. Mei Lin intervened just at the best moment and took over the conversation.
"How much for two cultivator tokens?" Mei Lin asked them before they would not gonna let them inside and with that ruin everything.
"One mid-grade spirit stone for the green zone token and one low-grade spirit stone for the miss here. She is not a cultivator, so she can't get a cultivation token just like that." the guard replied.
Xia didn't know if that was a lot or not, but Mei Lin instantly took out two mid-grade spirit stones and handed them over. The guard, surprised by her quick response, said nothing and gave them each a green token. Mei Lin, now with ninety-eight mid-grade spirit stones left, pocketed her token. Both she and Xia waited for further instructions from the guards.
Guard pulled the spirit stones away and two green tokens appeared in his hand. They looked completely normal with no special properties, more like pieces of wood.
"This token is for identification. With it, you can go anywhere in the green and yellow zones. The city is split into three zones. The first is the yellow zone, where non-cultivators live. It's the most crowded and dangerous part of the city, but it's not safe so be careful. The second is the green zone, designated for cultivators and more wealthy people. This part of the city is the biggest and most of the green zones are under main family control. The third is the blue zone, which belongs to the sect of Peng City. You can go to the yellow and green zones, but not the blue zone. The blue zone is only for sect disciples and those with cultivation potential seeking to be awakened or be invited into the sect."
"For you, Miss, it's not possible because you are already a cultivator and did not awaken in the sect. However, your friend here could try if she has enough luck and good cultivation potential. She could take the entrance examinations, and if successful, she could join the sect. As for the tokens use your spirit sense and imprint it inside. If you will be stopped by the guards or want to buy something, you need to show this token, and when you want to buy something."
Both of them quickly left and flew back somewhere high in the walls leaving them alone. Mei Lin and Xia looked at each other and finally entered the city.
As they went throw the city gate, hot air enveloped their body making their frozen-to-the-bones bodies slowly warm up. Both of them quickly became wet as the ice melted from their clothes looking like wet chickens. Everyone around was looking at them as they were standing right under the gate. Both of them looked around and saw the strange-looking ptform with a hole simir to the put token they got inside. Mei Lin moved close, and before she pced her hand on the token, Mei Lin stopped right before she pced her token in the hole.
"Xia, where do you want to go? Do you have any pce where you want to go?"
Asked Mei Lin a turn to Xia. Xia thought for a while and then smiled at Mei Lin.
"I don't know, I have never been in the city only in our vilge. Where should we go?"
Mei Lin was looking only for a pce, so she chose to stay in the yellow zone. She didn't want to attract attention before they took care of their looks. They both didn't look well and she smelled more like dead bodies. Also, Mei Lin's fancy cultivation robes were attracting too much attention even from the cultivators from the sect. After Mei Lin found a tea-house in the yellow zone, she stopped searching for more and turned forward to Xia.
"I found us a pce to stay for a few days. It's in the Yellow Zone and not too far from here. We'll rent a room there for a few days, and then we can find where the Merchant caravan is staying and travel with them to the Jade Green Sect," Mei Lin expined, her voice calm and reassuring ready to go.
"Let's go there. I'd like to see what the tea-house looks like and find out where they get their tea leaves, or if they have any tea pnts I can buy one," said Xia excitingly ready to leave right away. She was so excited that she started moving in one direction relieved they had found a pce to stay and eagerly led the way to the tea-house. Mei Lin first corrected their way, so they would move in the right direction and start moving through the Yellow zone.
When they moved through the Yellow Zone, Mei Lin quickly found out why that pce looked extremely bad and disgusting. Despite being a cultivator drinking blood like water, she was not happy about being near such a pce. Everything around them looked disgusting and people were lying in the side allies in a half-dead state completely out of their senses. Strange senses were lingering from all sides as they walked deeper and deeper inside the Yellow zone. After more than half a house, they finally found the pce.
Mei Lin was not happy with the tea-house as soon as they saw it. The street where it was located was shabby and smelled like the rest of the Yellow zone they went through. Both of them looked at a two-story high tea-house looking not very good. Windows on the second floor were covered to conceal the missing holes and on the first floor were more or less torn in pieces. From the outside, the tea-house didn't look very appealing.
Despite its rundown appearance, Mei Lin led the way inside, hoping the interior would be better. As they entered the first floor, it was empty with no customers or staff in sight. They waited for someone to attend to them, but no one came. Mei Lin, displeased with the situation, headed towards the kitchen.
"Mei Lin, we should wait for the staff to come and greet us," Xia suggested, hesitating to explore further. She settled at a tea table, marveling at the unfamiliar surroundings of the tea-house. Xia was happy, that they were inside and sheltered from the snow not ready to move away despite samely bad interior like the outside of the tea-house.
Mei Lin was not ready to wait for someone to come, so she tried the first doors she saw. As Mei Lin entered she appeared in the kitchen. The kitchen had two more doors leading somewhere and from one of them, she heard strange sounds coming. Listening closely, she also heard the clinking of bottles. Preparing herself for the worst, she cautiously opened the door and was greeted by an unexpected scene. A rather fat man with short bck hair y on the bed, two girls in their early twenties sprawled atop him.
He appeared to be gasping for air, his face smothered by one of the girls' ample ass. Both girls had long hair, one blonde, the other brunette with deep blue eyes. Their slender, well-toned bodies with smaller C-cups were contrasted sharply with the man's fat body making them tinny compared to him.
The girls were non-cultivators, while the man was at the third stage of BT. Mei Lin instantly assessed his cultivation level for some reason, her abilities allowing her to detect his strength with ease, because consuming the blood of the third-stage of BT cultivators made her distinguish other third-stage of BT cultivators.
