EHRPS CH176

Although it wasn’t his first time visiting Yongge City, it was Tu Tianba’s first time walking through the main gate.

The plaque right in the center of the city gate was engraved with the Wondrous Immortal Sect’s unique lotus crest. In the morning light, the hidden patterns refracted a seven-colored halo, shining brilliantly.

Tu Tianba had long since put away the flying boat and lined up empty-handed. He was dressed plainly in black robes, but around his neck hung a crimson brocade pouch suspended by a red string.

The pouch was slightly bulging, resting quietly against his chest.

He craned his neck, looking front, back, left, and right, discovering that there were many tender-faced young cultivators around, as well as ordinary people bringing patients to visit the immortal city…

No one paid him any mind, as if he were just an ordinary passerby.

Behind the city-guarding cultivators stood a full-length bronze mirror. Anyone entering the city would inevitably be illuminated by it. Tu Tianba was unafraid. He raised a hand, squeezed the brocade pouch on his chest, and strode proudly through the city gates.

The bronze mirror showed no reaction.

The clever inner demon gleefully claimed credit from him:

“Like I said, anything produced by the system is guaranteed to be a premium product. Host, you can rest assured, a mere Demon-Revealing Mirror could never break through the system’s data defenses!”

“Not even the most powerful cultivator could do it!”

Tu Tianba also offered some rare praise:

“As expected of me, to actually spawn such a capable inner demon. Ordinary demonic cultivators can clearly use spells and artifacts to mask their overwhelming demonic qi, yet I couldn’t…”

“Now, the righteous cultivators and mortals in the city look right past me. It’s truly peaceful!” He stood by the street, a satisfied expression on his face. “Every time I went out before, I was either besieged or forced to flee in panic. I got completely sick of it.”

After speaking, he scratched his cheek and asked the inner demon,

“Ah, the guy guarding the gate just now said wandering cultivators need to go to the Immortal Spirit Plaza to register. Which way do I go? By the way, was Yongge City always this big?”

N001 was a strategy-based roleplaying system with highly limited external functions. Its electronic voice instantly dropped an octave.

“…Well, the system doesn’t have a map function.”

“Why doesn’t the Host just ask someone for directions…”

Tu Tianba snorted coldly in his mind, ignoring this useless trash of an inner demon. He looked around and found that there were quite a few medical clinics on this street. Hanging in front of every door was a sign:

[Array Inside. Medical Disturbances Prohibited.]

In the past, Tu Tianba had set foot in every single medical clinic in Yongge City, but now they didn’t even catch his eye. After all, he himself was already an excellent medical cultivator now, not needing to beg others when trouble arose.

He skipped past these clinics, his feet taking him straight toward a steamed bun stall by the street. The moment he opened his mouth, he demanded ten buns.

Hearing this, the stall owner sized him up a few times, proactively opened the steamer, and said kindly, “Young man, look here, my meat buns are quite large, and the price isn’t cheap…”

Following the owner’s words, Tu Tianba looked down.

“It’s not quite enough, make it twenty instead.”

He thought about it and corrected himself:

“Add one more, I want twenty-one.”

The stall owner was taken aback, but there was no logic in pushing away business that came knocking. Giving a word of warning was already an act of conscience. He deftly packed twenty meat buns and quoted a price.

“A total of two hundred and ten low-grade spirit stones.”

The Wondrous Immortal Sect boasted outstanding people and spiritual lands, making Yongge City the most prosperous town in the region. The position of City Lord was even held by an outer disciple of the Wondrous Immortal Sect. Cultivators and mortals coexisted in the city, and the currency for trade wasn’t worldly gold and silver, but spirit stones.

Tu Tianba rummaged through his sleeve-dimension for quite a while. With great difficulty, he dug out a small pile of low-grade spirit stones from a mountain of mid-grade, high-grade, and supreme-grade stones, counted out two hundred and ten, and handed them to the owner.

“Here.”

Seeing the youth’s troubled expression, the owner thought he had a big appetite but a light purse. Unexpectedly, upon taking the spirit stones and looking, the other party had actually given ten extra.

Being an honest businessman, he hurriedly handed the extra ten stones back, saying honestly:

“Young man, you gave too much.”

Clutching a whole paper bag stuffed full of buns, Tu Tianba suddenly heard the useless inner demon whisper in his ear:

“Host, are you…”

Tu Tianba: “No.”

“I haven’t even said…”

Tu Tianba: “Absolutely not.”

He took a bite of a bun, suddenly remembered something, and raised his voice at the stall owner: “Because the buns are too delicious, I gave a little extra. Just keep it.”

While speaking, Tu Tianba’s eyes kept darting downwards. He wasn’t looking at the owner at all, but rather at the crimson brocade pouch on his chest.

“Someone as intelligent as me, how could I possibly miscount spirit stones? Wow, Boss, your buns are really delicious!”

“Delicious, delicious, one bite after another.”

Holding the extra spirit stones, the owner watched the youth turn and walk away. Full of confusion, he muttered softly to himself,

“…But you hadn’t even tasted my buns when you paid, eh?”

Tu Tianba fiercely bit into the bun, resolving to head to the next baked flatbread shop. The moment he opened his mouth, he ordered several people’s worth of portions. Then, without even batting an eye, he tossed out an amount of spirit stones that clearly exceeded the market price. Under the shopkeeper’s ecstatic gaze, he asked for the route to the Immortal Spirit Plaza.

Inside the system space.

The white orb watched the host, who seemed to have the words “Rich Sucker” plastered across his forehead. Whenever he passed an eatery, he would buy in bulk, spending with exceptional extravagance, looking for all the world like a sheltered scion from an aristocratic family who didn’t understand the value of worldly money.

The white orb: “…”

So, to avoid losing face again by miscounting money, you just start off by paying double directly?

…Wow, the pride of a 327-year-old teenager is truly too strong.

Tu Tianba was unaware of his inner demon’s silent ridicule.

He ate and strolled his way all the way to the Immortal Spirit Plaza.

Many onlookers crowded around the plaza, pointing at the scene inside and chattering incessantly. Their mouths were full of the latest gossip regarding the Immortal Sect Grand Competition; it was very noisy.

Fortunately, Tu Tianba was very accustomed to noisy atmospheres. With a wave of his hand, he stowed his armful of food into his sleeve space and strolled toward the center of the plaza.

“Wandering cultivator Shi Xuanyi, Foundation Establishment stage, ninth level.”

“This is your jade tag, please keep it safe.”

Just as he approached, Tu Tianba heard a slightly deep, hoarse voice say this in a flat, waveless tone.

Subsequently, some wandering cultivators waiting in line whispered:

“Foundation Establishment ninth level?! Just half a step away from Core Formation. He might not be inferior to those sect disciples.”

“Perhaps better than disciples from small sects, but the profound foundations of major sects are not something we wandering cultivators can compare to. I heard the Guiqing Sect has a genius who reached Core Formation before turning a hundred…”

“Sigh, we can’t compare.”

Tu Tianba stood at the back of the crowd, ignoring these hushed whispers, and tilted his head to look inside.

An array platform was set up in the center of the plaza, with a table and chairs placed beside it. Behind the table sat a middle-aged man wearing blue-and-white robes. Two young disciples stood behind him, clearly cultivators from the Wondrous Immortal Sect.

The man called ‘Shi Xuanyi’ took the jade tag. Hearing the low discussions of the wandering cultivators behind him, a very faint smile appeared on his face, his expression unable to hide his smugness.

The next wandering cultivator in line quickly followed, stepping into the array. His cultivation level was quickly measured, and he left with his participant jade tag.

Soon, it was Tu Tianba’s turn.

Standing before the table, he followed the example of those before him and stated his name and the Dao lineage he cultivated.

As soon as his voice fell.

The middle-aged man behind the table raised an eyebrow, unable to resist looking up at the youth before him. A slight ripple appeared in his flat tone:

“You said your name is Doctor Tu, and you are a medical cultivator?”

Tu Tianba nodded.

The middle-aged man asked him again,

“Is that your real name?”

Tu Tianba was fiercely competitive all his life, but he also knew that as intelligent as he was, he inevitably had some small flaws. Instead of answering, he retorted:

“Is that not allowed?”

The middle-aged man seemed amused and said casually,

“It’s allowed, it’s allowed. It just sounds like a randomly chosen name, not very thoughtful.”

Tu Tianba: “…”

Afraid that the host would get upset and further complicate the already unclear plot direction, the white orb hastily raised its voice and cursed:

“Bah, what a tasteless thing!”

“Those who cannot appreciate the subtlety of the name ‘Doctor Tu’ are in for trouble!”

Following that, the middle-aged man spoke again:

“Little medical cultivator, the Immortal Sect Grand Competition involves magical combat. For a medical cultivator like you to take the stage, are you looking to take a beating?”

Tu Tianba remained expressionless, not wanting to pay him any mind, but still responded with full confidence:

“Relying on them?”

Unexpectedly, the man suddenly changed his tune on his own accord:

“Hmm… However, since this year’s Immortal Sect Grand Competition is hosted by the Wondrous Immortal Sect, an extra medical skills competition has been added. Medical cultivators do not need to compete in magic with the other participants, but all the participating disciples are from the Wondrous Immortal Sect’s Medical faction. You’ll have to do your best.”

After speaking, he gestured for Tu Tianba to enter the array.

The next instant.

With a flash of array light, Tu Tianba stepped out of the array. The middle-aged man handed over a jade tag recorded with the cultivator’s information, saying somewhat surprised:

“…Another Foundation Establishment ninth level. Not bad.”

Tu Tianba took the jade tag, turned, and left.

The useless inner demon was gossiping about the middle-aged man in his ear. Halfway through listening, Tu Tianba took a turn and walked into an inn. Casually tossing out a mid-grade spirit stone, he let the waiter lead him upstairs.

“Host, don’t stoop to that guy’s level! Right now, keeping a low profile is key!”

Tu Tianba remained silent for a long time before snorting coldly:

“Although that person is inferior to me, he is somewhat intelligent to actually suspect me… Inner demon, did your disguise method leak a flaw?”

He detailed his analysis one by one:

“That person first held back on mentioning the medical cultivator competition, only bringing it up after discovering I didn’t know about it. After I entered the array, he kept one hand behind his back, secretly forming hand seals. He was clearly on guard against me.”

“It seems he suspected I was a demonic cultivator in disguise, using some trick to bypass the demon-revealing bronze mirror at the city gate…” Entering the third-floor guest room alone, Tu Tianba continued, “Hmph, that inspection array had a demon-slaying array hidden inside it. Too bad it was useless.”

“This Venerable is terrifyingly strong!”

Inside the system space.

N001 fell into an eerie silence.

…Wait, you actually have a brain??

Isn’t this incredibly smart!!

What exactly is going on with this wildly fluctuating IQ?!

Hearing the host blame it, N001 hesitated to speak. Keeping quiet felt terrible, but if it spoke up, it would be despised by this lunatic—Why did he suspect you, do you really not know?

It’s all because of your crap name!!!

Tu Tianba was unaware of his inner demon’s rollercoaster-like thoughts. He didn’t take being suspected by the Wondrous Immortal Sect people seriously, tossing it to the back of his mind as soon as he finished speaking.

He took a few steps to the table and plopped down. Chuckling ‘hehe’, he untied the crimson brocade pouch hanging around his neck, pulled open the drawstring, and poured the ‘thing’ inside onto his hand.

—It was a tiny little person.

“…”

·

Immortal Spirit Plaza.

A young man wearing the attire of a Wondrous Immortal Sect inner disciple hurried over on an auspicious cloud. The moment he landed, he profusely apologized to the middle-aged man behind the table.

“Many thanks to Martial Uncle Xu Que for helping me. If you hadn’t happened to be here, your martial nephew wouldn’t have known what to do…”

Xu Que waved his hand dismissively.

“If there’s nothing else, I’ll go back to reinforcing the arrays.”

He stood up and took off the outer blue-and-white robe, revealing a heavily patched Dharma robe underneath, and slowly walked away.

The young man cupped his fists respectfully, saying, “Take care, Martial Uncle Xu Que. Thanks to your arrays, everyone in Yongge City is grateful for the righteous actions of the Ten Thousand Dharmas Sect!”

Xu Que smiled. As he walked, he pulled out a wooden sign. With a brush in his other hand, he swiftly wrote a few characters on it with a swish swish swish:

[Array Inside. Medical Disturbances Prohibited.]

Although the Wondrous Immortal Sect had profound foundations, they could not establish protective arrays for all the surrounding towns. The change occurred three hundred years ago.

One day, a seemingly crazed person suddenly appeared in Yongge City. He barged into every medical clinic along the way, grabbing Wondrous Immortal Sect disciples who had entered the world to practice medicine, asking,

“My head hurts so much, can you cure me?”

The man was overflowing with demonic qi, wreathed in a blood mist, his true face hidden beneath a demonic manifestation. Every time he opened his mouth, it was—

“So many voices are constantly shouting in my brain. It’s so noisy. They keep shouting, keep shouting, telling me to kill you.”

“…”

Later, that person charged straight for the Wondrous Immortal Sect’s mountain gate, nearly breaking their mountain-protecting grand array.

And even later, he gained a resounding title.

Demon Lord, Tu Tianba.

Xu Que shook his head, recalling the communication jade slip from the Ten Thousand Dharmas Sect informing him that yesterday, a heavenly lightning tribulation had descended upon Lianlu Peak, and the Demon Lord Tu Tianba seemed to have gone missing…

“Sigh, let’s hope this year’s Immortal Sect Grand Competition can proceed smoothly, with fewer demonic cultivators coming to muddy the waters.”