Death... and me

Even though they saw Cosec City in the distance, they still took almost an hour to arrive at its entrance. That's just how far the walls were. Obviously, the large stream of people entering and exiting the city was enormous as they passed by many caravans, travelers, residents, and other similar types. However, Rean's group hadn't seen a single flying cultivator all throughout. The only exceptions were other cultivators who tamed flying demon beasts, but those were quite rare when compared to the number of people.

"Almost no one flying in a city of this size..." Kentucky could not help but mutter out.

Roan glanced at him before saying, "Even though it isn't a secret, you better stay quiet from now on. Only use Divine Sense to talk with us. The same goes for Celis."

Rean agreed with Roan, reminding them, "Indeed. It's just as Cynthia said. Although it's probably nothing spectacular, it isn't something we should go around showing others either."

Kentucky and Celis nodded and closed their mouths.

Cynthia, on the other hand, talked about the city, telling them, "You probably noticed that we don't have many tamed demon beasts. I don't know how it is back in your home, but beast taming is quite a rare occupation. That's why you see so little flying demon beasts with cultivators on their backs."

Hearing that, Rean asked something else. "What about those at the Transition Realm? Is there any cultivator in the city that can fly on their own?"

Cynthia nodded, responding, "Yes. The City Lord is a Transition Realm cultivator. Other than him, I think only the three top sects of Cosec City each have one ancestor that's also in the Transition Realm."

That number seemed small. However, Rean and Roan knew how huge that already was. 'This is only ONE CITY! However, it already has four Transition Realm cultivators!'

Even Roan was impressed by that. 'As expected of the Realm of Gods. No wonder Sister Orb said it's much easier to cultivate here. For a single city to already have four Transition Realm cultivators is really a huge thing.'

Celis also added, 'Don't forget that Cosec is only considered a small city. That Huvol City Cynthia talked about might have over ten of them.'

'Well, those are people we won't get involved with anytime soon. If possible, I don't want to get involved with them at all.' Kentucky wanted to stay as far as possible from those guys.

Eventually, they arrived at the city gate...or at least one of them. Ream could see in the distance that the city had at least one gate every two kilometers or so.

Cynthia didn't do anything, though. Instead, it was the merchants who hired her and the guards who came out to do the check-in with the city guards.

"How many people?"

The chief merchant came forward to deal with it, answering the guard's question as he said, "We have a total of 3245 people and demon beasts in total. The highest cultivation is Soul Transformation Realm and Stage Six."

The city guard was surprised to hear that. "Your group has tamed Stage Six Demon Beasts? That's quite the wealthy caravan..."

The chief merchant laughed in response but didn't say anything else.

"Alright, the fee is one Divine Stone for every 1000 members." The guard was surprised, but that was more or less it. He had seen such things before. It's just that it wasn't that common. Sure enough, beast taming was quite rare once one didn't consider low-level demon beasts like the ones pulling the carriages.

The merchant quickly paid the fee, and the caravan soon passed through. Rean was quite curious about the price, though. "Isn't four Divine Stones too cheap?"

However, those words made Cynthia look at Rean with a weird expression. "Ch-cheap? Could it be that your home had a lot of them?"

Rean quickly noticed the issue. It was obvious that Divine Stones were much, much more expensive than Spiritual Stones back in the Realm of Mortals. "Errr...not really. It's just that this city is so much bigger than the cities back at our home that I thought you guys were a lot wealthier than us."

Cynthia sighed in relief after hearing that. "I see...well, that makes sense when I think about the small cities you told me about. However, you're mistaken. Divine Stones are just as expensive here. For example, I've only received ten Divine Stones for protecting over this caravan, and I already think I'm being well paid already."

Cynthia's protection mission took over two months to be completed, and she was a Soul Transformation Realm cultivator. That showed how hard it was to acquire Divine Stones. "The guards you saw protecting the caravan probably aren't even getting Divine Stones. Instead, they're receiving gold. The only exceptions are probably the Nascent Soul Realm ones, who agreed to work for two Divine Stones."

Rean was the one responsible for the group's finances, so he immediately took the chance to ask more questions as they moved to the city center. "I see...in that case, it's definitely possible to buy Divine Stones with gold, right? Otherwise, I don't see why cultivators would work as guards. At least, it was possible back at our home."

Cynthia nodded, saying, "Correct. We also can pay for Divine Stones in gold. One Low-grade Divine Stone costs 1000 gold coins. Just so you know, the lowest level guards, the ones at the Core Formation Realm, probably received around 100 gold coins for their job this travel."

Rean nodded as he had already expected something around that level. "That means they would need to work almost two years to obtain a single Divine Stone. Sure enough, Divine Stones are as rare here as they were for us back in our home." Of course, Rean was lying about that 'home' thing.

Cynthia nodded. "Yes. Nevertheless, the four of you are already in the Soul Transformation Realm and the Stage Six level. It's already a lot easier for you to make Divine Stones than others."

Rean smiled in response, saying with gratitude, "It was thanks to Senior Cynthia for letting us use the Divine Stream Lake."

"Hahaha!" Cynthia laughed in response. "It's fine, it's fine! You're already doing a lot by joining my sect. Let me know if you need anything."