Homeland

The airship service doesn't have the permission to land directly in the city, they have to land outside the city before getting through the city gate normally.

"We'll go through the north-eastern side gate." Peng Fan said as he led the way.

The capital walls form a circle with a radius of 50 kilometers, with 4 main gates in each direction north, east, south, west, and 4 side gates between them.

The side gate they're going through has the most people in line. All of them have to pay a toll into the city after the city guards check them for any matching wanted criminal records.

"Grandpa! Grandpa! Why don't we have city walls like this at home?"

The capital's city walls are as high as 50 meters, for reference, the River Wind City walls are about 10 meters in height.

Peng Fan sulked; his eyes darken.

It wasn't just the materials, the River Wind City walls only had a basic strengthening array, while the capital city walls had layers of arrays and formations. It could be said that every brick in the walls is worth its weight in gold. Let alone the entire city, just a 100 meters section of the walls would bankrupt him.

As Peng Tian was teasing his grandpa, he was also analyzing the strength of the city guards. There were more than ten thousand guards on the walls as far as he could see, each of which he wasn't able to see through at all.

After paying the toll, they finally get to see the insides of the city. Rows upon rows of 2 to 3 stories buildings with carriages and crowds of people moving on the roads. The most important part though was the Spiritual qi. The Spirit qi in the air was higher than the outside by four fold. Cultivating in the capital will literally yield twice the result with half the effort.

Peng Fan's face brightened and proudly said "Anything you want in the outer city? I can buy it for you."

Peng Fan sneakily adds the 'outer' part. The capital is divided into 3 parts; the outer city, the inner city, and the Royal Family Palace. The outer city being the more rural part of the capital.

"Anything?" Peng Tian asked.

Peng Fan sweat drop a bit "A-anything"

...

In the Soul space...

The souls were gathered in the auditorium once more.

"What's this for?" One of the souls that had just arrived was asking around.

"Another shopping spree. This time it's the last portal guy."

"Nice!"

As they're all still a child. Any time they were able to have the adults pay for them; the things they were buying were usually way out of their league. Many times though, they were able to spot some unknown treasures with the knowledge from all the corners of the world.

"Hey, hey, I think that's the Rabbit Essence Blood Seal"

"Hey, that's the nine headed snake poison dagger!"

"Wait wait wait, you're walking past the...oh, nevermind"

Just in case though, Peng Tian secretly soul-bonded with the item and used the status panel to check.

For example...

'Status'

[Three Headed Hornet Poison Dagger]

Rank: grade 1 human weapon

Description: A dagger with minor poison, enough to kill a mortal.

Weapons and equipment in the cultivation world are ranked like the cultivation manuals. Human, Earth, Heaven, and immortal. Each divided into 9 grades.

...

As Peng Tian was busy choosing stuff, Peng Fan grew increasingly surprised at his grandson's ability.

'Tian'er has an eye for this.'

Peng Fan noticed that the things Peng Tian was buying were pretty much the cream of the crops in each store. Although he didn't notice what was special about some of the stuff. He concluded that it was just his grandson just not being experienced enough.

Just as he was about to tell him that it was the time to go visit the main family, he noticed that Peng Tian was staring at one of the glass cases.

Inside of the case were three amulets showcased together.

...

"You sure, man?" Peng Tian asked the 'Sugar Daddy' Zhang He. The guy that wasn't participating and was just here to look at the show suddenly jumped up and pointed at the glass case.

"Yes, yes, this is definitely the Three Moonlight Amulets. I didn't think that they'd be such good stuff in the outer city market." Zhang He Confirmed.

"What does it do?"

"Well, it has two functions, first, by letting it absorb some moonlight, each amulet can do different things. One can attack, one can protect, and one can seal the opponent's movement. The second function is that each amulet can send an emergency signal requesting help to the other amulets. The second function is really strong, even a grade 4 Silencing Formation wouldn't be able to block it. Normally, you wouldn't be able to buy it even with 100 mid grade spirit stones."

'Status'

Peng Tian eyes sparkles.

...

After shopping, Peng Fan led Peng Tian to the inner city walls.

A guard at the gate shouted at them "Halt!"

Peng Fan took out a white token. The token has the word 'Peng' imprinted on it.

The guard looked at the token for a while then shouted "Pass!"

The inner city was different from the outer city. There was no crowd walking around, the buildings were at least 4 stories tall, and the Spiritual qi in the air was double that of the outer city. For comparison, this was equivalent in qi density to the best cultivation rooms in the River Wind City lord's mansion.

After they just walked out of the inner gate, Peng Fan widened his eyes a bit before going back to normal.

"Come on Tian'er, it's time to go see the clan, and remember what we practiced '' Peng Fan reminded.

In front of them was a 20 meters tall gate with the sign 'Peng Clan' over it. Two guards stood at each side in front of the gate pillars.

Peng Fan bowed deeply and shouted "Outer Elder Fan! Returning to the clan!"

Peng Tian soon followed with his torso parallel to the ground. "Descendant Tian! Returning to the clan!"

But dissatisfaction can still clearly be seen in the guards eyes. They promptly ordered back with a stone face.

"Have the kid kneel down-"

"Have the child kneel down-"

Massive killing intent instantly flows down their spines. A white phantom of a roc shows up behind the old man's back.

Peng Tian turned his head left to look.

"Grandpa it's f-"

Peng Fan sends a compressed voice transmission into his ear. His voice was soft but left no room for disobedience.

"Shh-, I'll handle this"

They walk to the giant tower just after the gate. Above it a sign saying 'Reception Pavilion'.

Inside the tower are nine reception desks, with one main desk and eight side ones. Peng Fan goes to one of the side desks. The old reception lady busy with transmission calls didn't even raise her head as she called out.

"Name?"

"Outer Elder Fan"

The old lady suddenly turns her head up to get a good look and notice the little boy beside him for a while before nodding in understanding.

"Elder Fan shouldn't have come to me, sir. Your status qualifies for the main desk."

"I know, but you're the only one I can trust to make appropriate arrangements for him." Peng Fan said as he pointed at his grandson.

"Rest assured, sir. I'll do what I can. Will the third residence be enough?"

Peng Fan pondered a bit before he nodded "It will have to do." He then turned his head to face Peng Tian and solemnly said

"Tian'er, once we reach the room, don't come out, no matter what, ok?"

Peng Tian noticed the strange atmosphere but didn't point it out. "Okay."

As if in a hurry, Peng Fan instantly picked him up and dashed along the path before dropping him into the residence. After that, he reinforced the door from the outside and reminded him "Remember, don't come out, no matter what, grandpa will be right back."

Once he finishes reinforcing the door, he instantly breaks through the sound barrier and dash back onto the path they came from.

Even an idiot would know that something was wrong. First of all, the usual formality for the descendents didn't require them to kneel at the gate, and the suspicious upheaval in Peng Fan's actions was very concerning. It was just that, he didn't have the power to do anything at the moment.

'It looks like I can only try calling them.'

...

In the Soul space...

The souls were gathered once more.

"What is it this time?" One of the souls asked.

"It seems that the last portal guy has got into trouble" Another one answered.

Hearing this, many souls grew serious. The death rate these past two years was going up, the number of souls was reduced to 494. The cultivation world was just too harsh. This death ratio was already the result of the souls working together to survive.

"What's the situation?"

"It's like this...."

Once everyone gets up to speed, every soul starts to brainstorm.

"This is troublesome..."

"Anybody in the capital?"

"I'm there, but I'm in the outer city. I don't have the permission to go into the inner city."

"Even if you could, that wouldn't help, would it?"

"Heck, even if all of us were there, what could we even do?"

Zhang He couldn't help but say "If I could bring in my royal guards..."

"Aren't you like, on the other side of the continent? By the time you got there, Peng Tian's grandfather would probably have died of old age already."

Everybody tries to think of a solution, but the number of the ones who had enough power help doesn't exceed one's fingers and none of them were even remotely close to Saint River Kingdom.

One of the souls that was there for the shopping spree spoke up."What about the Moonlight Amulets he just bought? They should be able to at least help, right?"

"The Moonlight Amulets require moonlight, and the sun hasn't even gone down yet." Another one reasoned.

"Really? But it's already almost midnight isn't it? Oh wait....I forgot, time zones." He smacked his own head.

Even after a long period of time, no progress has been made. And just as everybody was gonna let fate do its thing, one of the souls spoke up.

"Hey, why don't we just ask around? Sure, Peng Tian is still stuck in the room, but with so many of us, rather than trying to solve the problem directly, we should still be able to get some information about the situation in the Peng clan, no? Maybe the situation isn't even that bad." The soul pointed out.