Zhu Ziyang's worries were clearly a bit excessive, because the day after he returned, Zhu Changhe and his group also returned to Anyang City.
He saw Zhu Changhe, beaming with joy, at the Academy.
After reaching the Spirit Elder realm, Zhu Changhe was hired by Hong Zhen as the vice-dean of Anyang Academy.
To celebrate Zhu Changhe reaching the Spirit Elder realm, Liang Ying specially prepared a table of delicious dishes at home, and both Zhu Ziyang and Jiang Nannan were brought home by Liang Ying.
At the dinner table, Zhu Changhe proudly showed off.
His third spirit ring came from a thousand-year Blazing Light Armored Beast, and its Spirit Ability was an amplification type, which perfectly compensated for the limitation of his first and second Spirit Abilities both being attack-type Spirit Abilities.
Perhaps due to accumulated effort, Zhu Changhe's spirit power also jumped to level 32.
Zhu Changhe was truly excited and even specially showed Zhu Ziyang and Jiang Nannan his thousand-year spirit ring, looking incredibly happy and proud.
However, when Zhu Ziyang revealed his second spirit ring, Zhu Changhe was dumbfounded, almost doubting life itself.
Although Liang Ying was also very excited, she was more critical of Zhu Ziyang's risky actions, only letting go of his ear after Zhu Ziyang promised he wouldn't do it again.
That night, Zhu Ziyang ate the bright yellow fruit, and its medicinal effects were excellent.
His spirit power reached level 23.
---
The next day.
Zhu Ziyang followed Zhu Changhe to Dragon City.
Dragon City, the main city of Tianhun Empire's Zhenbei Province, is the largest spirit tool material trading market in the northern part of the continent.
Anyang City is an affiliated city under Dragon City's jurisdiction, and its City Lord Hong Zhen needs to report to Dragon City's City Lord, Duke Blue Lightning, here annually.
The reason for Zhu Changhe and his son coming to Dragon City, however, was because of the Blazing Light Mantis forelegs Zhu Ziyang had collected.
Zhu Changhe, familiar with the route, arrived at Dragon City's spirit tool material market.
Without much hesitation, he went straight to a large stall, clearly having visited this stall before.
Zhu Ziyang took note, seeing a black Tyrant Dragon skull painted on the stall's signboard.
Earth Dragon Gate!
Zhu Ziyang immediately knew the origin of this stall; it turned out to be a business of the Earth Dragon Gate.
The Earth Dragon Gate, one of the two major forces in Dragon City, consists entirely of Earth Dragon Spirit Masters within its Sect, hence its name.
Because the Spirit of its disciples are all sub-dragon Spirits, the Earth Dragon Gate's strength is well-known throughout the entire Tianhun Empire.
With Zhu Ziyang's Frost Tyrant Dragon Spirit, if he were to join the Earth Dragon Gate, he would definitely receive Key Pointstraining.
Unfortunately, Zhu Ziyang's aspirations were not here.
Opposite to the Earth Dragon Gate, the other major force in Dragon City is called the Heaven Dragon Gate, and the Spirit of its members are all Sky Dragon-type Spirits.
The Heaven Dragon Gate's strength is definitely superior to the Earth Dragon Gate's, because Earth Dragons are generally sub-dragons, while Sky Dragons include true dragons!
Not to mention the Spirit's intensity, true dragon Spirits are absolutely stronger than sub-dragon Spirits, because the bloodline suppression between Spirits is no weaker than that between Spirit Beasts.
Legend has it that the predecessor of the Heaven Dragon Gate was the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect, one of the Upper Three Sects from ten thousand years ago, and their core disciples were all Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Spirit Masters.
The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, a typical true dragon Spirit.
Dragon God Douluo Mu En, who dominated the continent a hundred years ago, was said to have a mutated Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Spirit.
The City Lord of Dragon City is the Sect Master of the Heaven Dragon Gate.
When the Heaven Dou Empire split, the Heaven Dragon Gate's ancestors achieved considerable military feats and were ennobled as Duke Blue Lightning by the Tianhun Empire royal family, tasked with guarding the Empire's northern border for generations.
There is a deep connection between the Heaven Dragon Gate and the Earth Dragon Gate.
It is said that the Earth Dragon Gate was initially an affiliated Sect of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect, later coming to Dragon City with the Heaven Dragon Gate's ancestors, and then, for various reasons, it separated from the Heaven Dragon Gate to establish itself as the Earth Dragon Gate.
Judging from the Heaven Dragon Gate's tacit approval of the Earth Dragon Gate's presence in Dragon City, it seems the Heaven Dragon Gate was in the wrong when the Earth Dragon Gate became independent.
"Oh! Changhe, haven't seen you in a while? What have you been busy with?" The stall owner saw Zhu Changhe, his face showing pleasant surprise, and said.
"Things have been peaceful lately, so I've come less often." Zhu Changhe replied with a smile, a hint of relief in his expression.
"That's great!" The stall owner, hearing this, also showed a happy smile, and then his gaze turned to Zhu Ziyang, saying, "This must be Ziyang, right? He's grown so big!"
"That's right! Ziyang, this is your Uncle Liang Yu." Zhu Changhe, seeing the stall owner look at Zhu Ziyang, said with a touch of pride.
"Uncle Liang Yu!" Zhu Ziyang was a little surprised inside, but he didn't show it.
This stall owner's surname was Liang, clearly a relative from his mother's side, but he had never heard his mother mention that she had a connection with the Earth Dragon Gate.
"Ah! Good! You really resemble your mother." Liang Yu showed a delighted expression, sighed, and then looked back at Zhu Changhe, saying, "What good things have you brought this time?"
"Blazing Light Mantis forelegs!" Zhu Changhe said with a smile, then released ten huge mantis forelegs from his storage spirit tool.
The appearance of so many mantis forelegs in front of the stall immediately attracted the attention of the surrounding people, all showing expressions of shock.
Liang Yu was no exception; he widened his eyes and exclaimed, "Good heavens, Changhe, did you poke a mantis nest? So many mantis legs, and, if I'm not mistaken, these are all thousand-year Blazing Light Mantises!"
"Never mind if I poked a mantis nest or not, just tell me how much these mantis forelegs are worth." Zhu Changhe said with a smile.
"The forelegs of a thousand-year Blazing Light Mantis are priced between five hundred gold coins and five hundred fifty gold coins.
Your scythes are perfectly preserved, rich in elemental power, and since we're old acquaintances, I'll give you five hundred fifty for each one." Liang Yu examined the mantis forelegs, then took out a special instrument to test them once, and after doing all this, he said to Zhu Changhe.
"No problem." Zhu Changhe agreed readily upon hearing this.
Zhu Ziyang was also very satisfied with the price Liang Yu offered; five hundred fifty gold coins per piece was already considered an overvalued purchase.
Thus, ten thousand-year Blazing Light Mantis forelegs brought the Zhu family an income of five thousand five hundred gold coins.
Currently, the unified currency used by various countries on the continent includes the bronze coin, the lowest in value, the silver coin, of medium value, and the gold coin, the highest in value.
Among them, bronze coins and silver coins are the most commonly used currencies by ordinary people, while gold coins are the primary hard currency circulated among Spirit Masters.
The exchange rate between the three currencies is one to ten to a thousand, meaning one gold coin equals ten silver coins equals one thousand bronze coins.
To use rice as an example, the price of one kilogram of ordinary rice is between fifty bronze coins and one hundred bronze coins.
An ordinary person's family of three would eat about twenty-five kilograms of rice a month.
Twenty-five kilograms of rice would require at most twenty-five silver coins, or two and a half gold coins.
Therefore, for ordinary people, five thousand five hundred gold coins is definitely a huge sum.
However, for a family with Spirit Masters, five thousand five hundred gold coins is somewhat insufficient.
After delivering the goods and receiving the payment, Zhu Changhe and Zhu Ziyang purchased some supplies and then returned to Anyang City.
On the way home, Zhu Ziyang received two hundred gold coins as hush money, because Zhu Changhe had kept three hundred gold coins as his private stash, and the other five thousand gold coins needed to be handed over to Liang Ying.
Watching his father's somewhat awkward behavior, Zhu Ziyang chuckled unkindly.