167 Bone Spirit Town 1 (1/2)

The candied hawthorns were neatly speared on thin sticks of oak, standing upright on either side of the stall's counter as though pronouncing their elegance.

The caramel coating on the hawthorn glistened in the evening rays of sunlight, causing the young girl's mouth to water at the thought of the taste.

”Then…”

An Fei mulled for a brief moment, her eyes roaming from the array of speared hawthorn as though to gauge their quality.

She then pointed towards the stick in the middle, one where her eyes informed her that they were the freshest out of the rack.

”I want that one.”

”Here you go, Young Lady!” the man beamed, his eyes revealing a joyful revelry at his success of obtaining a new customer.

With a quick nod, An Fei stuffed her left hand into the leather bag, rummaging through the contents until she found the grey silken pouch.

Prying open the drawstring of the satchel with her fingers, the young girl stabbed her index finger and thumb into the small pouch until her fingers were submerged in a literal sea of coins.

At that moment, the young girl spectacularly froze, her mind grinding to a halt.

All of the coins were of the same size and shape, so how was she going to extract three specific copper coins without drawing attention to herself?

An Fei didn't dare bring the pouch into open air; she clearly recognized the implications of such a baseless and unintelligent act.

Helpless, her fingers ran rampant throughout the satchel, jumping from the metallic surface of one coin to another in absolute cluelessness.

”Young Lady, is something wrong?”

The man rubbed his chin in thought, his eyes inspecting the young girl before him.

Regardless of how he viewed the circumstance, it seemed improbable that the current situation would occur.

She was dressed in a linen coat that was plain but clean, meaning that she wasn't from a bottom-feeder family as him.

Not to mention, though her appearance wasn't eye-catching or of spectacular appeal, the slightly pretty face brought forth a refreshing aura that calmed his nerves.

…she wouldn't be able to afford three coppers, right?

Unless she was a maidservant of a prominent family, then perhaps…

Caw!

The little raven perched on An Fei's shoulder released a sudden cry, the crimson eyes flashing with an indeterminate gleam.

At the same time, An Fei's mind shook with a thought, one that made her wish she could slap herself on the forehead.

”Spiritual essence, and the sea of perception!”

The young girl directed a strand of spiritual essence to coalesce at the tips of her left hand's fingers, rummaging through the contents of the pouch once more.

To her delight, the sea of perception was indeed capable of conveying basic information equivalent to the quantity of spiritual essence infused to the task; she was able to differentiate between the composition of the coin, but no more than the single statement.

A copper coin by her index finger, a gold one by her thumb, five silvers brushing against her pinky…

”Owner, here you go.”

Aided by the spiritual essence, An Fei quickly fished out three copper coins, handing them to the owner whilst fighting down the embarrassed flush that threatened to spoil her image.

As he watched the young girl quickly run off with her chosen stick of hawthorn, the thirty-three-year-old man tilted his head with a confused expression on his countenance.

She definitely shouldn't have be so poor to be unable to afford a single stick of candied hawthorn…

Unless she was a maidservant of a prominent family?

At the end, it was the same conclusion.

–

Bone Spirit Town.

That was the name of the town that An Fei had managed to glean from the nearby passerby whilst walking down the streets.

As expected, the town was indeed under the jurisdiction of Great Yong, but the young girl had never found where the Bone Spirit Town was located.

The town apparently wasn't anything special within Great Yong; there were hundreds of thousands of identical towns throughout the empire's grasp.

From what some of the more spectacularly dressed and refined people spoke from their awkwardly moving lips, the Bone Spirit Town was a bottom-feeder town.

A town that was consisted mostly of ordinary mortal commonfolk; one where even Body Tempering Realm cultivators were highly respected.