Chapter 4: to the royal city.

Lingtian's regretful expression disappeared in an instant, replaced by a cold and indifferent gaze as he surveyed the headless corpses on the ground.

His previous show of concern was nothing more than an act; all he desired was to comprehend the situation. Now that he had gleaned what he needed, there was no reason to spare any lives.

After looting the corpses of everybody on the ground, he managed to find 36 Lew Essence Crystals, adding the 27 he already had, he now had 63 of them.

As for the other valuable stuff, there was a bottle of four Essence Enhancing Pills and some Essence Gathering Realm cultivation techniques.

There were three of them, one on every ninth-stage cultivator corpse, The first one was called the elemental essence technique, the second one was the blood essence technique, the two of them were normal Essence Gathering techniques with nothing special about them.

He also found some gold coins, 360 to be exact. As the Essence Crystals were a really valuable commodity, it was impossible to use them as currency for everything like food, accommodation, and other simple services.

Gold and silver were the currency of mortals, but that didn't mean cultivators didn't use them. Normally, you can exchange Essence Crystals for gold, but not the other way around. The exchange rate was 100 gold coins for a low-grade Essence Crystal.

As for silver, it wasn't something that cultivators carried around with them as it was way too low in value. Just one gold coin could be exchanged for 100 silver coins, so it was impractical in their eyes.

The last technique, however, caught his attention. It was called the Great Essence Cycle Technique. It actually had some information about the Foundation Establishment Stage. This technique recorded a way to make the body and the essence energy of a cultivator greatly in sync with each other, which, after cultivating it to perfection, would result in the best optimal condition to try and establish a foundation.

As stated in the technique, if a cultivator who perfected this technique used a Foundation Establishment Pill, they would have a twenty percent chance of succeeding regardless of talent. The more talented the cultivator was, the higher his chances would grow.

Lingtian was really confident about his talent. even though he has a null-affinity spirit root, it was still a high-grade spirit root after all, and the fact it was null-affinity would not matter in this particular aspect.

He swiftly organized everything and then left. He didn't bother with trying to hide the scene as the wild beasts would take care of that anyway. And even by any chance, this place was discovered before that, he didn't care as he would be long gone by then.

In the remaining fifteen days of his journey, Lingtian studied the Great Essence Cycle every day and was able to master it relatively quickly, as comprehension was always Lingtian's strongest point.

He planned to cultivate it and estimated that with the four Essence Enhancing Pills he just got, it would take him a year at most to completely perfect it. But that has to wait for now, as at this moment, he was standing in front of a huge city surrounded by tall walls in every direction.

The city was square-shaped and had a really interesting design as it actually had just one huge gate, the sole opening in the walls and the only way in and out of the city.

As he approached the grand gates of Zhang Royal City, the air buzzed with spiritual energy, and the city's towering walls were adorned with intricate formations. The guards at the entrance wore imposing armor, each showcasing their cultivation level with the emblem of the city.

'I already knew that this city was huge, but damn it's way bigger than I imagined,' Lingtian marveled in his heart with great surprise, but his expression never changed. His control over his body meant that he always had the ability to control his expression, keeping him from revealing too much.

Composure was a really important thing in his opinion, as the slightest change in expression can reveal many things. He didn't want to be a poker face all the time, though; he just controlled what he showed and what not.

And like any city, the guards at the gate monitored the people going in and out. The average cultivation base of the guards was at the sixth or seventh stage of the Essence Gathering Realm.

Lingtian already knew the drill, so he directly walked to one of them and handed him his name plate. He didn't hide his cultivation stage this time however unlike in the Border Stone City, as in the latter, a ninth stage could be seen as a top expert and would draw a lot of attention. in other hand it was not that rare seeing experts at this level here.

Strength meant respect, and Lingtian wasn't going to hide his cultivation if that meant it would make his life easier. Even though ninth stage Essence Gathering Realm cultivators weren't that rare here, they were still respected.

"Mister Lingtian, you can go in," sure enough, sensing Lingtian's cultivation base, the guard respectfully handed back the name plate and spoke.

"Thank you," Lingtian responded politely too and then walked into the city.

As he passed through the gates, the atmosphere changed drastically. The city was a vibrant hub of cultivators engaged in various activities. Stalls lined the main street, offering a plethora of spiritual herbs, rare materials, and mystical artifacts.

The Zhang Royal City's interior unfolded as a captivating fusion of essence energy and bustling activity. Majestic structures, adorned with intricate spiritual formations, stood tall, casting shadows on the crowded streets below. The main thoroughfare thrived with cultivators of varying strengths.

Lingtian forgot that he needed to find a place to stay and just kept walking around. It was quite the novel experience for him; his Border Stone City was incomparable in any aspect. The sheer number of experts alone made him always be on guard.

But the sun was already going to set, so he forced himself to find accommodation and rest for the night as traveling for twenty days straight without stopping put a strain on his body. He made up his mind that tomorrow was going to be a day of exploration.