Raising Ducks for Daily Rewards-Chapter 6: Spiritual Beast City

"By the way, after such a long time, I haven’t given you a name.

Do you want me to give you a name or do you want to choose one for yourself?" Fengyu asked his duck while walking leisurely down a hill.

"Quack? A name? Hmm... you give me one."

"Then... how about Zimu?

In the distant starry sky, there are two stars symbolising chaos and disaster – Ketu stands for chaos and destruction, Rahu stands for disaster and evil.

There is no star countering them, so I want you to take this position and become my peace star!

’Zi’ from purple and ’Ziwei’, the imperial star in the sky, and ’Mu’ from wood and ’Hemu’, which means peace and harmony.

What do you think of this name?"

"Zimu?" the duck ignored his explanation, focusing on the name.

"Quack! It sounds good, purple wood, very good! From now on, I am Zimu the Peaceful!" with an air of dominance, the duck quacked into the sky.

"Say, when will we arrive at the place of great peace you talked about?"

"Hmm... quack? About three hours?"

"So soon? How is that possible? We only left the market for two weeks! If there was something so close to us, then I should have known about it!"

"Quack, how would I know? I just know there is peace!"

Fengyu looked at it, then shook his head, ’Was I right to trust it?’

What if his choice was wrong? Had he run away, abandoning his own field, wasting his money and throwing away the opportunity of stably enhancing his cultivation?

He sighed but decided to trust this duck.

After all, until now, it had been kind and responsible, deserving some of his trust.

He walked for a bit longer before resuming his sprint.

Although he didn’t need to run away from any danger, it was already in the middle of the day.

Dallying any longer might delay his entry into this ’peaceful place’.

Trees passed by, small puddles on the ground still left from the rainfall of yesterday.

He ran and just as he was about to continue, suddenly, a barrier appeared!

It was a thin veil, not even protective, but he could see that it was a kind of warning formation –

"Human habitation!" he realized and stepped forward.

"Is this place really safe?"

"It’s... peaceful." The duck thought about it but didn’t know if it was safe. Maybe it was dangerous, maybe he couldn’t even enter... its own ability was simply to tell whether a place was safe or not.

"Then let’s try!" Fengyu thought to himself – if it’s peaceful, then even if the people inside didn’t allow him to enter, they wouldn’t kill him right away, right?

Tap

With a light tap, he caused a ripple across the visible formation.

At least the person who set this up didn’t plan to ambush him, otherwise, the formation would be hidden...

Or maybe the person was too poor to buy a hidden formation.

A minute passed, two, three... after five, Fengyu saw a cultivator in ordinary garments appear behind a tree inside the formation, looking at him.

"Hey!" Fengyu greeted.

"Who are you and what do you want?" the cultivator stepped out. It was a young girl, maybe eleven or twelve years old...

"Ling’er, what are you doing? I told you to wait for me!" just as the girl looked at him, behind her, a young boy appeared. He looked identical to her!

"Ming-ge, I just came out to look..." the girl pouted and pointed at Fengyu, not caring about her image.

"Senior! Please excuse us!" Ming bowed to Fengyu, trying to pull his sister away.

"You two, please stay. I just came across your formation and wanted to ask you where this place was!" Fengyu took a step back and bowed to them.

"This..." Ling looked at her brother, hesitant but clearly wishing to answer.

Ming looked at Fengyu, observing from head to toe. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Since his parents died, leaving him this spiritual farm, he had been careful of outsiders, not leaving except for going out to sell the plants, still acting like his father was around.

If they answered this stranger and allowed him in, would their secret be revealed?

He hesitated for a moment before finally nodding at his sister.

"Senior, this is the peripheral area of the Spiritual Beast City, the control area of the Green Plum Peak."

"Spiritual Beast City? What’s that?" Fengyu was even more curious and asked again.

Hearing this, the two siblings were surprised to find someone in their vicinity who didn’t know of the city.

Ming explained, "The Spiritual Beast City is a city established by rogue cultivators who hunted and lived in the Myriad Beast Mountains! We’re a fortress at the edge of the mountains, a trade gathering for these hunters.

After many years, it’s said the city lords have made a deal with the several beast clans. In exchange for being allowed to expand, the beast clans wanted to trade within our city!

Because of this, our city has been a major trading point between humans and beasts, even gaining the name of Spiritual Beast City.

Do you really not know of our city?"

"So this is the Spiritual Beast City! I thought it was a myth! A blend of humans and beasts!" Fengyu was genuinely surprised, for he had indeed heard of this rumor.

Although he didn’t care about whether a person was a human or beast, after all, in his past life, dog and cat owners called their dogs and cats ’babies’, treating them like their real offspring, even feeding them with expensive meat and such.

But here, he saw few people keeping pets, and it was normal to see a person hunt a beast without feeling sad, no matter whether the beast was a monster or simply a normal forest inhabitant.

"Then, can I also enter your city? The cultivation of you two is rather low." Fengyu asked aloud, not hiding his own cultivation at the third stage.

Since he felt no danger from them, then they were likely weaker than him.