The difficult path of cultivation for a grassroots female practitioner

Xiao Han had never expected that a foreign cultivator would be charged an entrance fee of five spirit stones for their first entry into Zixiao City. The entrance fee to Fuyuan City, on the other hand, was only one spirit stone.

As expected, prices in big cities are much higher than those in remote small towns, and this has been the case both in ancient times and today.

The four members of the caravan all had Zixiao City identity jade cards, so they just had to show them. They said hello to Xiao Han and left.

Xiao Han was no longer the clueless newbie who had just arrived at the Immortal Mountain. Following the directions to the City Lord's Mansion she had previously inquired about, she headed straight there and began processing matters such as obtaining a new identity jade token and renting a cave residence.

The entrance fee was five spirit stones, but the processing fee for the identity jade card was only one spirit stone. Clearly, no matter which immortal city, they all hoped that outsiders could become permanent residents.

Only when there are many cultivators living in an immortal city can the City Lord's Mansion collect more rent. When there are many cultivators, the businesses will do well, and the City Lord's Mansion will collect more commercial taxes.

Xiao Han still rented the cheapest cultivator cave. However, the rent for the cheapest cultivator cave here was still thirty spirit stones a month.

Xiao Han secretly rejoiced that the caravan had refunded the 200 spirit stones for the journey. For Yan Zhe and the other merchants and cultivators, this amount of spirit stones might have been just enough for a meal at a restaurant, but for Xiao Han, it was half a year's rent.

When Xiao Han saw the house he was about to move into, he didn't know whether to praise it or complain about it.

Like Fuyuan City, the monks' cave is also built on a small hill.

The difference is that the monks' caves in Fuyuan City are cave dwellings, with only the outermost part of the mountain being built with caves built one by one. However, the monks' caves in Zixiao City are built inside the mountain.

Xiao Han followed the steward of the City Lord's Mansion into the mountain.

As soon as you enter, you will see the sunstone inlaid on the top rock of the corridor, which looks like a modern ceiling lamp.

The only difference from the ceiling lamp is that the light emitted by the sunstone is very soft and has a wide range of illumination. The entire corridor is really as bright as day.

Xiao Han's cave was on the fifth floor, and one had to walk up the stone steps to the corridor on the fifth floor. The stone steps were also equipped with sunstones, making all public areas bright.

If you think of this hill as a modern apartment building, Xiao Han and his family would be the households living within it. The only difference is that this isn't an elevator building, nor is it a two-unit-per-elevator layout.

According to the steward who led the way, the spiritual energy concentration in the caves within this mountain varies. The first floor has the highest concentration, and the rent is fifty spirit stones per month.

The second level is 45 spirit stones per month. The third level is 40 spirit stones, and the fourth level is 35 spirit stones.

Because Xiao Han rented the cheapest price, he was assigned to the fifth floor.

Seeing the separate rooms next to each other in the corridor, Xiao Han inexplicably felt like he was renting a house while working in modern society.

When she opened the door of her cave, she saw that although it was not large, it had a layout of one bedroom, one living room and one kitchen. The feeling of living in a rental house in a modern coastal city was even stronger.

The living room, bedroom, and kitchen are all the same size, with each room probably less than ten square meters.

There is a stone table and stone benches in the living room, a place to make a fire and cook in the kitchen, and a drain hole to drain away sewage, which is very convenient.

In the middle of the bedroom, there is a stone bed.

Xiao Han had always believed that the concentration of spiritual energy in Zixiao City should be much higher than that in Fuyuan City. However, after entering the mountain, although she felt that the spiritual energy concentration was indeed richer than the spiritual energy in the cave she rented in Fuyuan City, it was not enough to make her feel refreshed.

It was only after she heard the steward's explanation and walked into the stone chamber belonging to the bedroom that she understood.

It turns out that not only is there a spirit gathering array under the entire mountain, but there is also a small spirit gathering array in the bedroom of each cultivator.

Walking into the bedroom, Xiao Han felt the rich spiritual energy that she had never felt before. It made her feel as if every pore in her body had opened up, and the rich spiritual energy entered her body through every pore, making her wish she could start sitting cross-legged and practicing right away.

The cheapest caves have such rich spiritual energy, how much richer must the spiritual energy be in places with higher rents!

She must earn spirit stones so that she can rent a more expensive house in the future.

After transferring his few belongings out of the storage bag, the bag, which was originally stuffed full, finally no longer needed to contain these worthless mortal items.

The rent here is paid every six months, and the refunded travel expenses are just enough to pay the rent this time. Looking at the only 500 or so spirit stones left on him, Xiao Han turned around and left the cave again.

Finding a way to make money is still her most important thing at the moment.

After strolling around the shop selling storybooks, I finally found storybooks with both of my pen names.

It seems that my story has already spread to Zixiao City.

However, she had no way of proving that she was "Wandering in Different Time and Space" and "A Pool of Autumn Water".

Everything has to be started from scratch.

With the intention of giving it a try, Xiao Han took out the first few tens of thousands of words of a new storybook he had written in his last month in Fuyuan City, ready to test the waters.

To be on the safe side, she chose a bookstore that was guarded by a female nun.

However, after Xiao Han explained his purpose and showed her his manuscript, the female cultivator read a few pages and then refused with a smile.

"Your story is quite well written, fellow Daoist, but we don't accept books like this."

Xiao Han knew his biggest drawback was that he could only write stories using modern, slang, so he hurriedly explained, "The brilliance of a storybook lies in the plot. Although I can only express it in slang, the story is really wonderful. You can find a scholar to help polish it, and then you can sell it, right?"

After all, when she was in Fuyuan City, Qian Wanshan had someone rework and polish her scripts.

The female shop owner still smiled and refused, "Then you can find someone to write it yourself. We only accept books that can be printed immediately."

Xiao Han said hurriedly, "You have contact with many scholars and monks. You can ask them to help you polish your writing. I will only charge a few spirit stones for the story."

The female shop owner shook her head. "No scholar would be willing to do such a thing. Besides, a storybook isn't worth that many spirit stones. If we split the bill, how much will you get? If I give you too little, I'm embarrassed to ask for more. If I give you more, it won't be worth it either."

Xiao Han finally left the bookstore in shame.

Undeterred, Xiao Han took her manuscript to two more bookstores. However, the shopkeepers in these stores all had the same attitude: no matter how wonderful the story was, they were too lazy to buy such a sloppy book. To put it simply, they just didn't want to bother.

Although Xiao Han had already prepared himself mentally to no longer earn spirit stones from storybooks, when the storybooks really couldn't be sold, it would be a lie to say that he didn't feel bad.

After all, she was once a well-known writer who was admired and rewarded by readers!

Well, the safest way to make money was ruled out first.

She is truly a worker, a worker's soul, a worker's life. Coming to this great immortal city comparable to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, for a working girl in the world of immortal cultivation to achieve work freedom, she has a long and arduous journey ahead!