The cheat system is useless, but I have the strongest living dad.

The True God Sect did put a lot of effort into managing the Immortal Clan. They spent a lot of resources to set up square formations in all cities, counties, and towns.

The Square and Round Formation is a defensive formation that uses the size and orientation of a city, county, or town to create a barrier in the air, preventing invasion by external enemies.

The square formation has four key points, and four boundary gates are set up at each key point. Each boundary gate has a corresponding boundary gate symbol.

The boundary gate is guarded by cultivators from the True God Sect. They open the boundary gate with talismans at dawn and close it with talismans at dusk.

After the gate is closed, the talismans are collected by designated custodians appointed by the city lords, county governments, and town officials, and then redistributed the talismans the following day.

The custodians of the talismans are collectively referred to as talisman officials.

Immortals, demons, and monsters are difficult to distinguish with the naked eye, but they are different in terms of bloodline, and spiritual treasures that can distinguish bloodlines can help identify them.

The boundary gate talisman is a spiritual treasure that can distinguish bloodlines.

The cultivators stationed at the boundary gate are collectively called gate guardians. Every day when the boundary gate opens, the gate guardians use the boundary gate talisman to identify whether the cultivators entering are immortals, demons, or monsters.

To prevent the gatekeepers from colluding with foreign tribes, each gate has four gatekeepers who take turns working every two hours. The shift times are not fixed and are arranged daily by the talisman official.

The immortal race is truly xenophobic.

……

Shen Yao and Xianyu finally arrived in Xizhen before Jishi.

They saw the South Gate of Xizhen in the distance. Just as the immortal and the demon were about to run towards the South Gate, they heard the Purple Cloud Golden Beetle say, "Go if you want to die."

The immortal and the demon stopped in their tracks. Shen Yao asked the golden beetle, "What's wrong?"

Purple Cloud Golden Beetle: "She is a demon."

"What's wrong with the demon race?" Shen Yao said, "No one saw her transform, so let's be careful after we enter the town."

Golden Beetle: "Each realm gate has a gatekeeper who uses a realm gate talisman to verify her identity. The realm gate talisman can recognize that she is a demon."

Shen Yao and Xianyu were dumbfounded.

Salty Fish said, "How about I don't go in? You take the shortcut to Yuanzhou and wait for me. I'll take a detour and swim across the river."

“That won’t do.” Shen Yao refused decisively: “Yuanzhou is a long way away, I don’t trust you to go alone.”

"It's alright," said the salted fish. "The Jiaoluo Sea is so far away, but I still swam here by myself."

“Father has to do it again.” The golden beetle said smugly, “Fish, pluck one of your scales for me.”

The salted fish immediately plucked off a scale.

The Purple Cloud Golden Beetle used its now longer bamboo-like tentacles to fiddle with its scales, and after a few breaths, a golden rune appeared on the scales.

The golden beetle said, "I have infused a trace of my original spiritual energy into your scales, which can conceal your demon bloodline."

The salted fish happily put the scales back in and flattered it with delight: "Little spirit insect, you're so good! You're the most powerful spirit insect in the world!"

Here we go again, Shen Yao thought to herself.

Since meeting Xianyu, Shen Yao no longer needs to use "Number One in the World" to flatter the sect leader.

A fairy, an insect, and a fairy in disguise successfully passed through the Southern Gate and entered Xi Town.

It was getting dark by then.

Flying is prohibited in all cities, counties, and towns of the Immortal Clan, so Shen Suyao and Xianyu had to walk to find an inn.

Fortunately, the Purple Cloud Golden Beetle was a living map, and they quickly found the inn.

This was the first time Shen Yao had used the perfect coin left to her by her master.

In Master's storage ring, there were not only 341,080 perfect coins, but also 679 perfect blocks of varying sizes and 412 perfect bricks.

A coin is about the size of your palm. Fifteen coins can open a small guest room in the inn, and twenty coins can open a large guest room.

Each guest can add three more 10-coins to have two meals at the guesthouse.

That's quite generous of them.

On their way here, Shen Yao and Xianyu came across a pie shop that was about to close up shop. They asked around and found out that one 10-coin could buy two pies.

Thinking about how lazy and sleepy people are, Shen Yao decided to book a large guest room, since it would be safer for everyone to be together.

Otherwise, if the inn's servants found out, his identity as a lazy bum would be exposed.

After paying twenty-six ten-coins, Shen Yao and Xianyu followed the servant to look around the house and decided to go have dinner first.

They set off from Qingtan during the summer break, and now it's already past midnight. Shen Yao and Xianyu are starving.

For the price, the food at the inn was quite good, with one meat dish, one vegetable dish, and two bowls of green rice, all in generous portions.

Green ears of rice are a staple food for the immortals and demons in the world of cultivation. Similar to rice on Earth, but the grains of green ears of rice are round and glossy, and are also known as pearl rice.

The demon race does not have green ears of grain. Their staple food is called Poluo. Poluo fruits grow on the Poluo tree all year round. They can be picked and eaten immediately, and they have a sweet taste.

This was the first time Xianyu had tried Pearl Guest food, and she ate it with great relish, finishing both large bowls of green stalks clean.

After drinking a glass of fruit wine, Xianyu felt quite satisfied and could have a sweet dream tonight.

After the two had eaten and drunk their fill, they went back inside.

Back inside, the golden beetle said, "Let's leave tomorrow. I sense that Zhouxian County is rich in natural energy, and I want to go there quickly to absorb that energy."

Shen Yao paused in closing the door.

He silently closed the door, then asked the golden beetle, "What will you do after your energy is restored? Are you planning to go back?"

The golden beetle knew where she meant by "going back" and comforted her, "Father won't leave. Father just wants to quickly recover his energy so that I can find a new vessel."

The golden beetle glanced at the salted fish and said to Shen Yao, "I'm tired of being inside this insect's body."

Salty Fish looked shocked.

What kind of secret technique is this? The salted fish wondered: What do you mean by changing the carrier? What do you mean it got tired of being inside the insect's body?

Shen Yao glanced at the salted fish and asked the golden beetle, "What kind of carrier do you want to use?"

Golden Beetle: "This sect leader wants to replace him with a handsome and dashing man!"

Shen Yao disagreed: "The golden beetle hasn't developed intelligence, but if you were to replace it with an immortal, this..."

Golden Beetle: "Who said I wanted to change to a different immortal?"

Shen Yao looked puzzled.

The golden beetle was smug again: "Father needs to restore his energy, find a ten-thousand-year-old spiritual yang fruit, and transform into the most handsome man in the world!"

Not wanting to make up excuses to fool Xianyu (a Chinese online forum), Yixian and Yichong said nothing.

Xianyu didn't ask anything either.

In Xianyu's heart, Shen Yao and Xiaolingchong were both trustworthy, and there must be a reason why they didn't say anything.

After practicing the divine-level spirit-restoring technique with Shen Yao for an hour, Xianyu fell asleep in bed.

……

When I woke up at dawn, I found that on the long street outside the inn, some cultivators of different ranks had already set up stalls.

In this world of cultivation, cultivators below the eighth rank have a lifespan shorter than that of low-level exotic beasts.

Their spiritual roots can only support them in cultivating the lowest levels of Spirit Absorption and Body Tempering, so no sect is willing to accept them as disciples.

No sect was willing to take them in. With their scarce spiritual roots, they couldn't cultivate magic and couldn't even defeat most low-level beasts.

If you can't defeat the strange beasts, you can't obtain resources. The world of cultivation is full of strange beasts; you'll encounter them no matter where you go—up mountains or down rivers.

Unable to obtain resources, they had no choice but to seek other ways to make a living.

Living in groups, setting traps to hunt, weaving clothes and making things... exchanging resources with high-level cultivators, or exchanging resources with each other, is their way of making a living.

For cultivators of the ninth and tenth ranks, it would be good enough if they could live a peaceful life until the end of their natural lifespan without any unexpected events.

It would be even better if they could produce an eighth or seventh-class descendant.

In this world of cultivation, the majority of cultivators are those of the ninth and tenth ranks. Wherever they are, there is always a bustling and lively atmosphere...

……