Entering the city

Even though Fang Qiu could already spot the city far into the distance when exiting the forest, it still took him a long time to actually reach it.

It was almost dark outside, yet the massive city with its over 100 meter tall walls still had lights everywhere and the queue outside the walls to enter the city was still hundreds of meters long.

Whilst waiting in line Fang Qiu accessed his void storage and took out a drumstick the size of his arm.

Biting off pieces of meat like a savage made many people give weird glances. "Who is so uncivilised that he starts eating right in the middle of the line to enter the city?"

"Excuse me, do you really have to eat right now? You are making many fellow cultivators uncomfortable..." a burly man in front of Fang Qiu said with a hesitant voice whilst swallowing a couple times. "Everybody is tired and hungry after days or weeks away from the city and can't wait to enter the city and get a nice bed and some good food, so can you please not eat right here as it is very uncivilised."

"Don't worry friend, I can see you are hungry and don't mind sharing...only, are you sure you want to put my big piece of meat in your mouth?" Fang Qiu replied to the burly man in front with a sly smile.

Without realising the double meaning the burly man immediately replied "yes why wouldn't I", only to see everyone around including Fang Qiu taking a step back

With that the burly man immediately looked at Fang Qiu but seeing the weird smile on Fang Qiu's face he immediately seethed with rage. "You!!! Shameless, You set me up!"

"So what if I did? Are you going to attack me right in front of the city gates? Or do you still want my big..."

But before Fang Qiu could complete what he was gonna say he was interrupted by an incoming sword. The man had taken off the sword from his back and slashed it right at Fang Qiu's head with the power of a first tier qi refinement stage cultivator.

But how experienced was Fang Qiu? He instantly used the arm sized drumstick to deflect the blow just ever so slightly allowing him enough room to dodge. Of course the bone of an unranked beast was not sturdy enough to resist a sword so by using it to deflect the top half was cleanly sliced off at a sharp angle.

Not giving the burly man the time to attack again he quickly kicked the top half of the drumstick like a large ball right into...the man's nether regions -_-

Instantly many spectators were filled with pity for the burly man, and most of the men were making a very pained sight as if they were the one that got kicked in the groin. "Why attack such a shameless cultivator? He even dares to hit you in the nuts with a drumstick, this crazy kid must not be messed with or he might just murder your next nine generations with a single kick."

Since the start of the battle from the man slicing with his sword to Fang Qiu kicking the sliced off drumstick into his nether regions, barely a second had passed.

"his face is looking just a bit pale but had this been any other cultivator in the first tier of qi refinement they would have long been on their knees crying for their daddy. So this surely had to be an earth element cultivator that has an innately strong body." Fang Qiu thought to himself.

With that he promptly dropped the sharp bone from the drumstick half that was left and just took the man's place in line. After all the man would still need a bit of time before he was able to walk again even as an earth element cultivator. And the bone itself had no meat left which is why he dropped it. Even if it is a sharp object there is no way he can pierce an earth cultivator's defence with a regular beast bone. Awakening improves a person's body to a nearly inhuman standard which is why even the most common of cultivators were above mortals in all aspects. The earth element cultivator with the shield back in the forest took way longer to kill than the other two combined for this same reason.

The only reason he could hurt the man's nether regions with that kick was because he was a cultivator himself. Otherwise the burly man wouldn't have even flinched.

All of these thoughts came and went in an instant while Fang Qiu went back in line. This time one spot more towards the front of the line than a minute ago.

Everyone in line had witnessed the short but shameless fight between Fang Qiu and the burly man from start to finish since most were already attracted to the smell of food earlier. So seeing Fang Qiu taking out a fresh drumstick made many people in front of Fang Qiu pale. And as they guessed not long later...

"Hello there kind sir, Would you like a taste of my big meat stick...? With that the man promptly made way not even saying anything, or who knew where that drumstick would end up, he still wanted to get married and get kids. His ancestors would turn in their graves if their bloodline ended because of an oversized drumstick.

This scene repeated itself many times, even to young children and old ladies he asked just the same question. "didn't I just offer them some food since everyone in line seemed hungry? Why are they all running away, it's not like the food is poisoned?"

Of course Fang Qiu was not that innocent or stupid. He knew fully well what he was doing and deliberately chose his words every time. Waiting in line was boring so at least he had some good food and fun interactions this way. And it's not like he ever said anything wrong since he just offered them food. It's the way that he did it that made many curse his shamelessness, especially since there was a prime example being the burly man so most were smart enough to just let the calamity pass.

Eventually there were only three people left in front of Fang Qiu to enter the city and not long after Fang Qiu smoothly entered amongst the stares of the city guards and all the people behind in Queue.

By now, the sun was setting yet the city appeared full of life. This was the most beautiful sight Fang Qiu had seen in his sixteen years of living.

he had to struggle every day fighting beasts and finding food sometimes going days without a dry place to sleep or food to eat. The entire city was full of people laughing, smiling, eating and drinking. The skies and all the buildings were lit up by floating light balls created by light magic which was the main source of manmade light in this world. People were still selling their wares, talking about their lives, going in and out of many different shops. Vines were creeping along the buildings and trees were abundant. But instead of seeming desolate this gave the city a warm and cosy vibe.

Making his way to an inn Fang Qiu quickly heard the sounds of cheering and singing mixed with the smell of delicious food and wine. Placing a few dozen bronze coins on the table that he took from one of the corpses he asked the bartender: " I'm new to this city, can you get me ten portions of your best dish and a jar of wine please, and are there any events of note coming up soon in this city?"

Fang Qiu had heard his old man talking years ago about big sects taking in disciples every year and just like he guessed the bartender mentioned that the annual sect entrance examinations would be held in two months.

Besides that he also received some general info about the city and the places that are noteworthy for cultivators, bundled with a very strange look after seeing a sixteen year old kid with dark red bandages all over eat ten whole dishes by himself.

The last piece of information even stunned Fang Qiu quite a bit. Turns out the city lord had ascended to peak foundation realm which is the realm after qi refining! Thus the entire city was celebrating as they would likely enter a period of peace with the city lord having reached the peak of his realm which was the ninth tier. Peak foundation realm cultivators shouldn't be looked down upon. In a city on the outskirts of the continent like this, the city lord could be considered a walking disaster for any opponent.

Of course almost everyone cultivated both qi in their dantian aswell as their elemental comprehension in their core, but nearly no one had higher elemental comprehension than cultivation since elemental comprehension is way harder to raise.

Fang Qiu booked a room for two months after talking to the bartender which cost 3 silver in total using up over half the money he got from killing the three young cultivators. The room was five bronze coins per night with one hundred bronze being equal to one silver coin and one hundred silver coins being equal to a gold coin. "After two months ill be in a sect so I won't have to worry about food for the next coming years at last."

Fang Qiu had lived in the forest for most of his life and after the old man passed away he was all on his own and nearly starved many times. It was only recently when awakening that he didn't have to worry about food anymore being able to store entire corpses into his void storage.

Since the void storage was an independent space where time didn't flow no living things could be stored but food stayed fresh forever. That also explained how Fang Qiu could take out an entire wolf leg at the city gates smelling as if it was roasted just minutes before. But even compared to this basic city meal the wolf leg might aswell have been shit.

___

The next morning in front of a big building named "Pill pavillion" stood a youth wearing a panda for a backpack looking very refreshed whilst he was eating a big arm sized drumstick getting stares from passerby's. The diffirence from yesterday at the city gates was that the backpack was now holding a small scaled drumstick aswell. after all, joy should be shared!

"Let's enter, little black. And finish your breakfast!"