Raising Ducks for Daily Rewards

"Greetings fellow daoist! Why should I not admire the wealth of fellow daoists?" Fengyu cupped his hands in greeting and asked when he heard such a weird statement.

"It’s all just an act. While everything they wear is expensive, if they could, they would rather sell everything and buy a few more potions. What’s the point of having so many items in the city during its safe-time?"

"This... does fellow daoist mean they’re only doing it for show?" Fengyu was a bit surprised but not much. He remembered that in medieval times, nobles would waste all their gold to look presentable, even if it brought them to ruin.

Humans tend to have a similar mentality, so seeing is believing, and hearing is knowing. Feigning wealth has always been an important part of higher-ranking people.

"Fellow daoist is right, it’s all for show. Haha, you look at me! My robe, my shoes, my fan and my umbrella. They’re all so expensive..."

"But fellow daoist, your items have hidden spirituality and a look of elegance. They’re not the flashy robes of the other cultivators," Fengyu shook his head, refusing to mark everyone who had these items as showoffs – among chickens there are always ducks who stand out.

"Haha, well, it’s a bit different for me. Anyways, fellow daoist, I see you’re in our southern main street for the first time. Do you need a guide?"

Fengyu looked at the man weirdly. Why would you be so proactive to help others?

This couldn’t be a scam, and... he wasn’t so handsome as to attract people with different tastes, so, was this guy really just nice?

"If fellow daoist is willing to guide me, then I am naturally willing to ask for it!"

"Then, let me show you around!

Actually, there isn’t much to see on this southern main street.

There are just two categories of things you will find here –

High-quality individual shops selling robes, expensive brushes and ink, special weapons, and so on.

The other category is tea houses, which we have many of.

There isn’t more on this street, and it’s also the smallest street of all.

Fellow daoist shouldn’t think that every street in the city is the same size –

The smallest is this street, then there is the eastern street where fellow daoist came from, then it’s the western street which is several times larger than the two streets combined, and finally it’s the Grand Gate with the largest main street.

The largest market is in the Northwest, a whole eighth of the city is only filled with shops."

As the young man with white hair and purple eyes explained, Fengyu gained a general idea of the city.

"Fellow daoist, you’re likely here to visit the library, right? Let me take you there." The young man smiled as he led him to the end.

As explained by the man, the southern street was really short.

While there were hundreds of shops left and right, it was a lot shorter than the eastern street, probably by half.

He was really curious about how great the western and northern streets were!

Arriving at the end of the street, he saw a grand pagoda –

Nine stories tall, myriad lights falling down, tiles made of jade, huge statues in front...

It was the image of an auspicious place of ancient times –

"It’s grand, isn’t it?" the young man smiled as he looked at the library.

"This is the heart of the whole city, the true foundation. Look at the stream of people from left and right, these are all cultivators who came from the other streets.

This is why we have so many tea houses... with so many cultivators coming and going, their minds on reading and making choices, isn’t it best to build a tea house and invite them in to drink tea while contemplating?" the man smiled while casually walking towards the library, only stopping for a moment when he saw that Fengyu still hadn’t reacted.

On the other hand, while the young man was casually moving forward, Fengyu felt a different sensation –

The glittering light around the pagoda, it was the same as the colourful egg in his dantian!

Every single strand of light around it, every blinking...

He could feel the pull from them, trying to make his own inspiration leave his body and enter it.

Just as he looked at it, he also felt like he gained a wave of inspiration –

The question he had always been confused about, the inspiration he had realised earlier than this one, it seemed so close, just a step further and he could grasp it!

"If you take this step here, you will definitely gain a lower quality inspiration." A voice suddenly called him back.

Fengyu’s glittering eyes dimmed slightly, his focus thrown off, his mind confused.

Closing his eyes, he tried to calm down the sense of annoyance at being interrupted.

"Quack!" Zimu quacked his ’Peaceful Interruption’, causing his mind to once again be interrupted. But this time, he felt a sense of peace, removing the confusing thoughts in his mind.

"Huh? This duck..." suddenly the man looked at the little pet he ignored this whole time.

His eyes gleamed with a special light before disappearing again.

"What a treasure! Fellow daoist is truly blessed!"

Fengyu looked at the man with a smile, "Thank you a lot for reminding me! But, what was that?"

"I didn’t realise you had already awoken a Spiritual Inspiration – else your sense for this wouldn’t be so great, even if it was just a preliminary inspiration..." the man looked at him with surprise.

"This Pagoda is also the House of Inspirations in our city. It naturally contains countless inspirations. Glancing at it for the first time will give you a surge of inspiration to develop your own.

I can see that you were about to develop a second one, but I don’t recommend doing so here.

Let’s... let’s go into the library and discuss it deeper.

Such things aren’t supposed to be spoken on the streets," the young man invited Fengyu in, his steps turning and once again entering the library.

Fengyu followed a moment later, his curiosity suppressed for a moment.