The middle-aged man in black-framed glasses set down his water glass and glanced at the personal information form Lin Li had filled out.
Then he looked up and, with a smile, spoke to Lin Li, who was at that moment inwardly ecstatic, fantasizing about eating hundreds of Magical Little Fruits and becoming an incredibly powerful Cultivator.
"Mr. Lin, you're registering as a Cultivator this late... I have to say, you're the first one I've seen do this in all my years."
"Huh? I…"
Lin Li, who had been lost in his fantasy, was snapped back to reality by the man's words. He froze for a moment.
Just as he was about to subconsciously explain that he hadn't intentionally delayed registering as a Cultivator, he swallowed the words before they could escape.
'Keep a low profile. Stay hidden. That's the secret to success passed down by countless predecessors. I can't let anyone find out the secret to my rapid advancement.'
Lin Li just smiled at the middle-aged man in response, offering no further explanation.
"So he intentionally waited until now to get his cultivation tested!"
"Does that mean he became a Cultivator years ago? If he's only getting tested and registering now, wasn't he afraid of being discovered and fined all this time?"
"What a weirdo."
"To think he'd wait until he was a high-level Tier One to register, all just to show off. This guy's a real oddball."
The crowd, who had initially been shocked that Lin Li had tested as a high-level Tier One, now looked at him with strange expressions, whispering amongst themselves.
Even though they were whispering, the testing room was only about a hundred square meters. No matter how quietly they spoke, their words still reached Lin Li's ears.
Lin Li wasn't angered by their criticism. In fact, he was quite happy about it. The more they guessed in that direction, the better it suited his plans.
The middle-aged man in charge of testing, seeing Lin Li remain silent and just smile at him, came to the same conclusion as the others. He simply assumed that this young man in his early twenties was an attention-seeker.
The middle-aged man then wrote down Lin Li's cultivation level on his information form and handed it to him.
"Thanks," Lin Li said, taking the form and leaving the testing room.
......
At 10:30 AM, Lin Li walked out of the government agency, his Cultivator status now officially registered. From this day forward, he was a registered Cultivator.
'Time to head to that place.' Lin Li looked up at the sun, then went to the roadside, hailed a taxi, and set off for his next destination.
Seven or eight minutes later, the taxi stopped in front of a bustling shopping plaza.
"That'll be fifteen yuan."
"I'll scan to pay."
"Alright."
Lin Li paid the fare, got out of the taxi, and walked briskly toward the shopping plaza ahead.
The shopping plaza had a lot of foot traffic. The stores along the street were basically all packed with customers, with one exception.
This store had high-end decor, but since the goods it sold were primarily for Cultivators, not many customers came in to shop.
Looking inside from the entrance, there were only one or two customers, and they seemed to be just browsing.
Spirit Stones, produced in Spiritual Energy Veins, contain vast amounts of Spiritual Energy and are the primary cultivation resource for modern-day Cultivators.
Liu Laosan's Spirit Stone Shop, located in the most prosperous section of the shopping plaza, was a store specializing in the sale of Spirit Stones. Lin Li's purpose here was to buy some Spirit Stones to accelerate his cultivation progress.
After eating the red fruit from the Magical Little Tree on the Mysterious Small Island, Lin Li had become a high-level Tier One Cultivator in one fell swoop.
He should have been content with such immense progress. However, if Lin Li wanted the Magical Little Tree to continue bearing its Magical Little Fruits, he had to break through to Tier One Peak as quickly as possible and become an Exotic Beast Hunter.
Then he would have to personally go into the wild to hunt Mutant Beasts and obtain Exotic Beast Meat that was less than an hour old.
Under normal circumstances, after a Cultivator broke through to high-level Tier One, reaching Tier One Peak would take anywhere from a year to several years.
But the Magical Little Fruit Lin Li had eaten was simply too potent. It had pushed him straight to high-level Tier One, right to the Critical Point of breaking through to Tier One Peak.
Lin Li now had the feeling that he was on the verge of a breakthrough. If he cultivated normally, he could probably reach Tier One Peak in about half a month.
But he couldn't wait any longer. That's why he had come here, planning to buy some Spirit Stones to aid his cultivation and break through to Tier One Peak in the shortest time possible.
A saleswoman in her early twenties with long, flowing hair, a pretty face, and wearing a black uniform and black stockings saw Lin Li walk into the store. She immediately came forward and greeted him enthusiastically.
"Welcome."
"I want to buy Spirit Stones."
Lin Li's purpose was very clear. After entering the store, he stated his intentions directly to the beautiful saleswoman in front of him.
"Please follow me, sir." Seeing that the customer had such a strong intent to buy, the bright smile on the beautiful saleswoman's face grew even more radiant. She smiled and gestured for Lin Li to follow her to her counter.
The other saleswomen in the store saw their colleague snag such a decisive customer and inwardly cursed themselves for being a step too slow and missing out on the sale.
"Sir, how many Spirit Stones would you like to buy?" The beautiful saleswoman gestured for Lin Li to sit in a chair in front of the counter. She then went behind it and asked him with a smile.
"What's the price of your Spirit Stones?" Lin Li asked casually, his gaze fixed on the crystal-clear Spirit Stones inside the glass counter.
"Fifty thousand yuan each."
"Fifty thousand yuan each? The price I found online was forty-nine thousand. Why are yours a thousand yuan more expensive?"
Hearing this, the beautiful saleswoman immediately deduced that the young man before her, who was about her age, must be a first-time Spirit Stone buyer. That would explain his confusion. She promptly smiled and explained.
"Sir, we're not overcharging you. There's a national regulation that stipulates the unified market price for a single Spirit Stone is fifty thousand yuan. It's like the price of tobacco; it can't be set arbitrarily.
The forty-nine-thousand-yuan Spirit Stones you saw online were probably smuggled in from abroad.
Although those are cheaper, there's a risk when buying black market goods. There's no guarantee that the Spiritual Energy in the Spirit Stones you get hasn't already been partially depleted."
......