Longevity Gu Dao: Start From Refining Infatuation Gu

Chapter 71: One Year of Siege, Rent Increase, Price Surge

In the blink of an eye, a year had passed.

The cultivators in Misty Cloud City had been surrounded by Shadow Demon Sect cultivators for almost a year.

The cultivators in Misty Cloud City were still unable to leave, and the Shadow Demon Sect cultivators showed no signs of retreating. They continued to attack the second-tier formation of Misty Cloud City every day, depleting its energy.

Basically, this had become a habit for the cultivators of Misty Cloud City.

It seemed that both sides were in a state of balance, unable to do anything to each other.

The cultivators inside the city were becoming increasingly restless, as no one knew when this war would end.

"Hoo!"

At this moment, in a quiet room, Zhou Sui sat cross-legged on the ground, finishing a day of cultivation.

After a year of hard work, his cultivation had made significant progress, reaching 40% progress in Qi Refining Seventh Layer.

This was unavoidable.

After all, the later stages of cultivation became slower and more difficult to improve.

Of course, his gains in this year were not just in cultivation.

More importantly, his understanding of alchemy had reached a new level. His alchemy cultivation had reached 99% of the first-grade level, just one step away from becoming a second-grade alchemist.

The reason he hadn't become a second-grade alchemist yet was simply because he lacked the knowledge and inheritance of a second-grade alchemist.

In addition, his Five Elements Pill Refining Technique had also reached a state of completion, greatly improving his alchemy skills and success rate.

His Illusionary Demon Transformation Technique had also advanced from the level of mastery to a state of completion. At this level, even a Gold Core cultivator would not be able to see through his disguise or his cultivation level.

He could confidently walk in front of a Gold Core cultivator without worrying about being exposed.

Of course, after reaching the state of completion, the speed of improvement slowed down significantly, almost to the point of being difficult to make progress.

If it weren't for the help of the Book Gu, even a talented demonic cultivator would take more than a hundred years to cultivate this technique to a state of completion.

It could be said that his progress was quite astonishing.

"Master, it seems that the rent in Misty Cloud City is going to increase," Ji Bingyu said to Zhou Sui, who had just walked out of the quiet room.

"Increase the rent? What does that mean?" Zhou Sui squinted his eyes.

Because the rent in Misty Cloud City was already quite expensive, requiring two medium-grade spirit stones per month, equivalent to two hundred low-grade spirit stones, which not many cultivators could afford.

Even though there were plenty of spirit stones in the Cloud Mist Mountain Range, causing the price of spirit stones to not be particularly high, this was basically the limit that cultivators could bear.

If the rent were to increase, these cultivators would probably rise up in protest.

"It is said that Misty Cloud City is facing a shortage of spirit stones," Mu Ziyan explained. "After all, maintaining a second-tier formation requires a large amount of spirit stones as energy. Over the past year, the continuous attacks by Shadow Demon Sect cultivators have depleted the reserves of spirit stones in Misty Cloud City.

If there are not enough spirit stones, the large formation of Misty Cloud City will naturally be unable to sustain itself. In order to maintain the operation of this formation, the Immortal Mist Sect has decided to increase the rent for the cultivators living in the city.

All cultivators living in the city will need to pay expensive rent in order to continue living in Misty Cloud City. Otherwise, they will have to leave Misty Cloud City."

She briefly explained why Misty Cloud City needed to increase the rent, as it was a situation forced by circumstances.

If there were not enough spirit stones, the formation of Misty Cloud City would eventually collapse, and no one would benefit from that.

"If we want to increase the rent, how much spirit stones should we add?" Zhou Sui asked.

"It is said that the minimum increase in rent is double, which means four medium-grade spirit stones per month," Xia Jingyan stated a number.

"Four medium-grade spirit stones? That's not bad," Zhou Sui breathed a sigh of relief. For him, four medium-grade spirit stones were not much of a burden or a heavy expense.

After all, he currently had five thousand medium-grade spirit stones.

If he could solve everything with a few spirit stones, then it wouldn't be a big problem.

Even if he had to pay rent for four or five years, he could afford it completely.

"For us, it may not be a big deal, but it is not the same for other cultivators," Ji Bingyu shook her head. "Because now it's not just the rent that has increased, but also the prices of runes, Law Weapons, spiritual medicines, elixirs, and more. Compared to before, they have more than doubled in price.

What's even more shocking is the price of spirit rice and spirit meat. Compared to a year ago, they have at least tripled in price, and even if you have money, you might not be able to buy them. Now, Misty Cloud City is everywhere in need of rice and meat. It is said that some neighboring cultivators have been hungry for three days and nights, and they have started to gnaw on wood and look for people to borrow food, but no one pays attention to them."

She indicated that the prices of goods in Misty Cloud City have started to skyrocket, changing every day.

If Misty Cloud City had not been sealed off by the Shadow Demon Sect, then food would be everywhere.

Because outside the city is the Cloud Mist Mountain Range, where there are a large number of demonic beasts.

Each demonic beast has hundreds or thousands of kilograms of meat.

Previously, demonic beast meat was worthless and cheap.

As for spirit rice, a large number of farmlands have been cultivated outside, and there is a good harvest every year.

This also means that the cultivators in Misty Cloud City have no sense of crisis, and the price of food has always been stable.

There is even a sense of grain being cheap and harming farmers.

They never thought that they would one day face a shortage of food and meat.

So, the food reserves in Misty Cloud City are not very large.

Just one year of blockade, and Misty Cloud City has started to experience a large-scale food shortage.

"It is said that the cultivators of the Immortal Mist Sect in Misty Cloud City have started to reduce the supply of food. The shops on the streets no longer sell food and meat, and there is a daily limit," Xia Jingyan said in a deep voice.

Now, in order to maintain the stability of order and prevent these hungry cultivators from starting riots, the sale of food has been restricted, and each person can only buy a limited amount every day.

This has temporarily stabilized the food market.

After all, there is no other way. Cultivators are also human beings and will feel hungry.

Even Foundation Building cultivators and Gold Core cultivators will get hungry and need to eat.

"Husband, luckily we made preparations in advance and stocked up on a large amount of supplies. Otherwise, we might also be starving now," Mu Ziyan said with great relief.

She never thought that one day she would worry about food. As a cultivator, being starved to death would be a huge joke, but in the besieged Misty Cloud City, it could become a reality.

However, because they had already stocked up on more than ten years' worth of food and spirit meat, they didn't need to fight for the limited supply of food. They could still enjoy a lavish diet every day.

Compared to other cultivators, their lives had improved by countless times.

Fortunately, her husband had foresight; otherwise, they might have ended up like those cultivators.

(End of this chapter)