Number 1 In Longshan City (2)

"Mother..."

"Beloved wife..."

"PLEASE..."

Their suffering continues for a week, with three courses Bitter Melon Meal every day. Although the nutritious Bitter Melon Fruit that was well known for their exceptional nutrition for those adolescents, the bitterness often got themselves shush away by them.

Unknown of when did that happened, the nutritious Bitter Melon Fruit turned into a form of torturing for the children, and in this case, even the yet to grow up father cannot avoid being treated as the same.

Of course, the week of melon soup comes with a cut in their pocket money for the whole month. The currency used in this world is differentiated into two types. One applicable to the public, another treated as the premium currency that only usable by those with the right of Designing Path Cultivation.

To the public, their tradable currency comes from a Mineral Vein known as the Natural Qi Crystals. After processing, the rough Natural Qi Crystal is further split into flat Coin-Shaped Crystals to be used as their daily tradable commodities.

Because the Longshan City belonged to the Eternal Flame Nation, the Crystal Coins is known as Eternal Flame Coins.

What was so special about these coins made from Natural Qi Crystal are due to the existence of a tiny amount of Natural Qi inside the Eternal Flame Coins. While they can be used as a tradable commodity, the Eternal Flame Coins also can be used to increase the cultivation strength of a Cultivator, especially one in their Physical Qi Cultivation.

Of course, due to the sustainability level of everyone living in this world, the Eternal Flame Coins is used to purchase necessity, precious, or notable items instead of groceries. Only those well-fared families like the Three Households and some lower ranked households can commonly use the Eternal Flame Coin for food or entertainment.

As for the premium currency, they're known as Natural Qi Essence. This precious item came in the form of a liquid state, known for their miraculous ability to bring out the inner value of a Designer Armament if used frequently. They're also usable as a source of energy to reinforce the Designer Armament and powered them for usage.

Each bottle comes with a standard 10ml size and the material that used to make the bottle comes from the Mineral Ores especially mined from the source of Natural Qi Essence. And because the Natural Qi Essence can be differentiated by grading, they have to be stored according to their own quality.

An Inner-Grade Natural Qi Essence usually stored in a transparent bottle, while for Origin-Grade Natural Qi Essence, their bottle carries a hint of bluish hue. As for the True-Grade Natural Qi Essence, both liquid and container are in red.

While a bottle of Inner-Grade Natural Qi Essence can be purchased with a hundred Eternal Flame Coins, it was a completely different case altogether for an Origin-Grade Natural Qi Essence. Unless in an auction, it is almost impossible for somebody to purchase a bottle of Origin-Grade Natural Qi Essence.

This alone explains the value of a bottle of the Inner-Grade Natural Qi Essence and the Ancient Blueprint that Zhang Yuan purchased for 500 bottles of Inner-Grade Natural Qi Essence. When this value is justified into 5,000 Eternal Flame Coins, which equivalent to the spending of fifty small families for a month, Lady Yue's action on the father-son duo is not overreacted.

And at the same time, it told Lady Yue a secretive matter that Zhang Yuan's been hiding for so long!

This father and a husband, does possess his own stash of hidden money! Luckily it was used on his son, and that soothes the anger exploding inside Lady Yue's mind a little. But if it was used in some random brothel instead, won't Zhang Yuan lost his one and only life at this moment?

Still, nothing beats the suffering of this father-son duo, when they sneak out of the Zhang Household to have fun but have no money in their pocket.

"Son, how much money you got in your pocket?" Zhang Yuan asked.

"Wu Ji is left with three Eternal Flame Coins... My mother actually sweeps the gap under the vases inside my room clean and took away my ten Eternal Flame Coins..." Zhang Wu Ji replied to his father pitifully, but with his father's current condition, how can that losses can be compensated?

"Let's enter the Soil Dragon Forest. We'll hunt one or two Copper Scale Beast and bring their corpse back to the City Trader for a few coins," Zhang Yuan made up his mind to enter the forest in the outer area of the Longshan City.

"Father, don't forget mother's warning." Zhang Wu Ji reminds his father to not causing more trouble, especially this is related to his one and only son.

"Wu Ji, I know you want to visit the Soil Dragon Forest for quite a while now. The Copper Scale Beast love to loiter around the edge of the forest, and don't forget that your father is a Peak Inner Qi Realm Cultivator." Zhang Yuan explained his intention to his son.

"Trust your father. Did you forget the power of your father's Eight-Piece Designer Armament, Flashing Thunderbolt? I can even turn the Mountain Mineral Beast into a deep-fried state when I get serious. Furthermore, you're a Six-Piece Designer Armament user, just one piece more to complete Tier 1 Designer Armament."

"I'll ask you once again. Do you want to follow your father to the Soil Dragon Forest? We'll hunt one to two Copper Scale Beast and then return to the Longshan City." Zhang Yuan questioned his son once again.

"OK!" the youngster failed to understand the danger he might encounter due to his protected environment and agreed with his father without further ado. Confident with himself, Zhang Yuan took his son out with him and left the eastern entrance of the Longshan City, unaware there might be somebody monitoring them.

"That adult and youngster couple looks like my brother in law and little nephew... It's them! Why Third Brother in law went outside of the Longshan City with his boy? Wu Ji is too young to go out in such a small party..." the wife of the eldest of Zhang Yuan's generation caught wind of the two sneaking father and child.

"Brother Yuan! We heard from the woodcutter and hunter that they met a few Copper Scale Beasts running at the edge of the forest. You should be careful if you're going out in person," out of concern, one of the guards warn Zhang Yuan from being too reckless.

"Ting Ting Ting! Take note everyone, there's a Fire-Spitting Lizard running havoc in the Second Layer of Soil Dragon Forest, those below Peak Inner Qi Realm should retreat from entering the forest." the captain of guards in eastern wall warned everyone presents.

As those in charge of the eastern wall, they will remind the others that yet to receive the news about this Fire-Spitting Lizard. Some people may treat the notice as a setback, but some took that opportunity to group themselves and headed to the reported location.

After all, a Fire-Spitting Lizard is a monstrous creature in their Peak Inner Qi Realm strength and carries plenty of treasures worth ten to hundreds of Eternal Flame Coins. If this Fire-Spitting Lizard had its Monster Core refined, the profit from this temporary party will worth even more.

"I understand. I will loiter around the edge of the forest instead of going in. Wish me luck in hunting the Copper Scale Beast, and I'll share you one of its thighs if we got the monster." Zhang Yuan replied and left with his son.

In this world, mankind wasn't the only residence. Cultivating Beast scatters all over the entire continent, running rampage and hunting for human flesh once a while. While humanity appreciates the precious materials dropped by the Cultivating Beast, the Cultivating Beast are the same.

Unlike mankind, Cultivating Beast possess limited intelligence, but impressive cultivating ability. Their body is born to refine the Natural Qi contained within plants, Minerals, and even fellow Cultivating Beast or mankind, which allows them to cultivate without worries.

What's more, unlike human cultivators that will encounter a setback or Realm Shackle, Cultivating Beast may progress through the shackle with age. While the older doesn't mean that the Cultivating Beast is stronger, but compared to juvenile Cultivating Beast, the older they are, the more experienced and threatening they become.

Due to the existence of Fire-Spitting Lizard running amok in the Soil Dragon Forest's second layer, weaker Cultivating Beast like Copper Scale Beast living nearby are forced to escape from their predator. Although they're counted as weaker creatures in the forest, it doesn't mean less threatening in mankind's scale of danger.

"Activates your Designer Armament! Do not keep back any of your ability when fighting against Cultivating Beast that could threaten our lives!" Zhang Yuan warns his son to be prepared in this harsh world.

The moment the activation of their Designer Armament alerted the lone Copper Scale Beast, the monster turns the attention to the two incoming humanoids! When it entered the battling mode, the agile running lizard suddenly turn bigger!

The scales grew from head to tail extends and protrudes out to increase its tackling damage, while the short claws turn longer to extends the attacking reach. In a time shorter than a minute, the Copper Scale Beast turned from a running lizard into a ballooned lizard with protruding scales.

"Father!" Zhang Wu Ji knows that even the weakest Copper Scale Beast possess the ability to fight ten of himself without trouble.

"Why are you getting nervous? Take this as an example! Look at how a cultivator fights using the Designer Armament!" Zhang Yuan swings his right arm and activates a long sword. With the sword pointed upwards, he charged into the Copper Scale Beast with an intention to kill the Cultivating Beast in a single strike!