Peerless Immortal - Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Better to be Careful

When they suspected Ding Hao to be an old devil, the shopkeeper did not dare ask him to grind his own spiritual rice. He placed down the spiritual rice and left the private room.

Ding Hao took off the cloak. His eyes sparkled when he saw the eight bowls of spiritual rice in front of him!

“Lord Ling was mad that I didn’t practice. But he didn’t know that my Power Absorption Skill is different from other cultivation methods! As long as I have enough money, the speed of my cultivation would be shocking!”

“Young prince and Ding Juncai, you want to fight with me?”

“Power Absorption Skill, absorb!”

Just as Ding Hao was absorbing energy from the spiritual rice, a discussion about him was taking place in the kitchen.

“Boss, the man in black cloak must be rich. He spent a bunch of Yuan Stones like water.” The respectful waiter’s eyes turned sinister.

Many shops in the border village ran scams.

Even if they didn’t do that, they had seen many people do it. They had probably learned something from them!

They would say that you can’t earn money if you don’t scam people.

The shopkeeper started to wonder, “This man had a young person’s voice, but he was decisive; a man of few words, and he carried himself in a matured manner…”

The waiter said, “But if he was somebody powerful why would he wear a black cloak? I’ve seen those old devils. They love to show off.”

The shopkeeper said, “You don’t know anything. Many old devils are weird. Furthermore, I’ve seen the exorcists apprentice of Jiuzhou Academy. Sometimes they wear the black cloak!”

When the waiter heard that he dared not do anything rash. He clenched his teeth and said, “I assure you this man carries more than a hundred Yuan Stones with him!”

The shopkeeper said, “So what?! It is better to be careful! We are not professional robbers. We have a shop to run! We can only scam those we are certain of! Furthermore, there are officers upstairs! We can’t do anything now.

“Argh, forget it!”

…

“Level one is dissolved!”

Ding Hao noticed that the spiritual energy from about three bowls of spiritual rice can dissolve one level. He successfully entered level two!

“It was quite easy to ascend to a higher level. Let’s continue!”

After about an hour Ding Hao had absorbed six bowls of spiritual rice. The second level was dissolved! Ding Juncai practiced every day and hadn’t dissolved the second level. But Ding Hao was able to achieve level three in one afternoon!

After Ding Hao achieved level three, there was a puddle of water in his dantian. It was under the yuandan.

Although it was just a puddle, this was the result of Ding Hao cultivating spiritual energy!

He used to use the spiritual energy in his meridian, and it was spent in a single punch. This time there was a puddle of spiritual energy, and he possessed endless energy!

“This is great. I’m now at Innate Stage level three. I have spiritual energy, I can practice the Nine Layers Blazing Palm Technique!” Ding Hao was over the moon.

At this very moment, there was noise coming from next door.

“Enough already, we have to stop drinking.”

“Enough, enough, I’ve had enough to eat and drink…”

Ding Hao thought, ‘Oh no! The officers are satiated and are about to leave.’

The only reason he had ordered eight bowls was because of the officers. He believed that neither the shopkeeper nor the waiter would dare do anything in front of the officers. He was not under the protection of Heaven’s Will. If someone were to kill him, no one would know.

Then Ding Hao stood up and placed the remaining bowl of spiritual rice into his storage pouch. He donned the black cloak and left the private room.

“Waiter prepare some Spiritual rice for me next time!”

As he was leaving, he wanted to leave the people in the shop with a reminder of him. However, he never intended to frequent this shop in the future.

The shopkeeper watched him walk down the stairs and quickly came over, “Of course, seven days at most.”

“Then I’ll come back after seven days.”

“Alright, how much do you want to reserve?”

“The more the merrier!” Ding Hao chuckled. He didn’t have to pay a deposit anyway. That was why he said that.

The more forthright he seemed the more restrained the shopkeeper and the waiter would be. They would think that ‘We could scam him next the time he comes here…’

At the same time, Zhou Genwei and the officers came down. The shopkeeper had to attend to Zhou Genwei. Ding Hao took the chance to leave quickly.

After he left the restaurant, Ding Hao dashed toward Heaven’s Will territory. Just before he entered Heaven’s Will territory, he hesitated. He was afraid that it would set off the Heaven’s Will alarm.

Luckily, the bowl of spiritual rice that he had was not enough to trigger the alarm.

He felt much safer after he entered Heaven’s Will territory, “It’s safe now.”

He only felt completely safe under the protection of the celestial blessing.

With the power of an Innate Stage level one, he had no fighting strength. Not only that, he wasn’t hurt or scammed when he went walking around the outside territory. He even bought some spiritual rice and achieved Innate Stage level three. This was incredible.

Although he took a chance, he was cautious. If not, he would probably be killed, and it would have gone unnoticed.

Ding Hao became more daring as he entered Heaven’s Will System. He went into a darker area and was about to take off his black cloak.

At this very moment, a yellow shadow flashed past. A yellow colored dog appeared.

Although this yellow dog was not one of those famous breed dogs, it was tall, had a shining and smooth coat of gold-colored fur, and it had a pair of soulful eyes that was almost human-like.

Ding Hao was surprised, “Minion, how did you get here?”

Ding Hao left Wuzhou quietly, then he took a carriage ride. The carriage ride took a day to get to the border village. It was a wonder that Minion was able to follow his scent and got here.

“Good boy.” Ding Hao stroked Minion’s head. He then took off the black cloak and placed it into the storage pouch.

There were benefits to letting Minion walk beside him. Minion had experienced many perfect-stage meditative states. Its senses were extremely sensitive, and it was much stronger than any other spiritual animal. With Minion by his side, he could foresee danger. Minion had battle strength which could come in handy when the time came!

There were drawbacks to letting Minion walk beside him too. If Ding Hao were to wear the black cloak, Minion would still follow him. Should he wear the black cloak or not? What difference did it make?

“It seems that I need a bigger storage pouch.”

There were shop lots in Heaven’s Will, and they were more proper compared to the shops that scammed you in the outside territory.

Ding Hao went into a shop and said, “Give me a moderate grade storage pouch.”

Storage pouches were a necessity for the people in Jiuzhou. Everybody had one as they traveled. The grade of a storage pouch was determined by its storage size. The storage pouch was made by the cultivator with spatial celestial genes. This was a rare celestial gene, thus storage pouches were pricey.

The black cloak that Ding Hao wore earlier was a product of a spatial celestial gene cultivator.

The salesperson said, “A moment, please,” and went and retrieved a storage pouch. “Gentleman, this is a moderate grade. It is one Yuan Stone.”

Ding Hao was taken aback, “So expensive! How much does a lower grade storage pouch cost?”

The salesperson said, “The lower grade storage pouch costs only one hundred and ten taels of silver. Some even cost less than one hundred taels of silver.”

Ding Hao curiously asked, “But why does the moderate grade storage pouch cost so much?”

The salesperson said, “There were many who could make the lower grade storage pouch, but only the masters with spatial celestial genes are able to make the moderate grade storage pouch. They are all masters. They wouldn’t make anything that sells less than one Yuan Stone.”

“Is that so…The making of storage pouches is the same as the making of moderate grade medicinal pills.”

The salesperson chuckled, “You are right. The higher-grade Ex Pills and storage pouches are very hard to come by. When you become a celestial teacher, you’d be able to project your power with divine consciousness. Then you can use the Spiritual Treasure Pouch. That is something inexpensive and useful.”

In this world, they held a high regard for stronger individuals. As the salesperson said ‘masters’, his eyes sparkled.

Ding Hao paid one Yuan Stone and took the moderate grade storage pouch. He placed his hand into the pouch and it was spacious.

“The storage of the storage pouch I had was about one cubic meter, and this new one is three cubic meters. This should be sufficient.”

Then, Ding Hao gave a signal and Minion jumped into the storage pouch and disappeared.

The space of the storage pouches couldn’t be added together. Ding Hao wasn’t going to transfer everything in the pouch in public. Thus, he wore the two storage pouches around his waist and left the shop.

The sky was darkening when he came out of the shop. Ding Hao had spent one day in the border village.

Ding Hao looked far ahead. The sky was turning a shade of grey. The sky of Heaven’s Will was like a colorful muslin cloth.

“Time flies.”

He needed to look for a place to stay for the night.

It was very hard to get a place to stay in the inns when Ding Hao realized that.

Many people conduct businesses in the border village, and everyone was afraid to come across a scheming shopkeeper. Thus, they booked a place to stay within Heaven’s Will territory early on. No one would dare to stay in the inns in the territory outside of Heaven’s Will.

Ding Hao didn’t know about this, and it was already too late to find a place to stay now.

“Opened twenty-four-hours, minimum spending, one thousand taels of silver.”

Some restaurants opened for twenty-four hours. You could order something to eat and something to drink to spend the night. It was an economic and safe way of waiting till the morning comes.

“Although it was cheap to spend time in restaurants, I want to practice the Nine Layers Blazing Palm. Can’t do it in the restaurant, can I?”

Thus, Ding Hao continued to wander in the village. Suddenly a young man called him, “Gentleman, are you looking for a place to stay?”

Ding Hao stopped and turned. He saw a dark-skinned gentleman. He looked like a farmer, but he had a clear and sweet-sounding voice.

“What can I do for you?” Ding Hao had his guard up.

The dark-skinned gentleman smiled and said, “The thing is I have rented a small yard of a village house. I was going to stay there with other partners, but they got delayed and couldn’t make it. The rental of the yard was quite high. I was hoping to look for a friend or two to share the rental.”

Although Ding Hao needed a place to stay, he dared not be too trusting. He asked, “There are many people here, why did you ask me?”

The dark-skinned young man said with a smile, “You have looked at a few signs in front of the inns, you must be looking for a place to stay. But you didn’t go in, you probably didn’t find what you were looking for. I saw the two storage pouches on your waist, so you must have money. That’s why I asked you.”