Chapter 129: This Immortal God Is So Filthy (Nine Thousand Words) |
After leaving the City God Temple, Wei Youyou asked, “Can we buy another sugar-water windmill?”
Chu Xun brought her toward the street.
After a night of heavy snow, thick layers had piled up.
Many commoners wrapped themselves in thick padded clothing, holding brooms and shovels as they cleared the snow.
Before long, their hands and faces became stiff from the cold, forcing them to scoop up snow and rub themselves vigorously.
Wei Youyou curiously copied them, but felt nothing. Her cheeks remained rosy red the entire time.
The sugar-water shop had not yet opened. Chu Xun and Wei Youyou waited for a long while.
The owner of the roasted goods shop nearby opened his door. Seeing them waiting, he said, “Looking to buy sugar-water?”
Chu Xun nodded.
“Then don’t wait today.” The roasted goods shop owner chuckled. “You two are obviously outsiders and don’t know yet. Liu Er, the sugar-water shop clerk, encountered an immortal yesterday and had his lame leg cured.
Today Shopkeeper Qin and Liu Er’s whole family have gone to the City God Temple to pray for blessings. They also need to make longevity tablets and such. The shop probably won’t open.”
“So that’s how it is. Thank you.” Chu Xun nodded.
The roasted goods shop owner asked, “Would you like to try my shop’s roasted snacks? The best in the capital.”
Chu Xun bought a jin of roasted peanuts and a jin of five-spice roasted melon seeds.
Wei Youyou only tried one roasted peanut and judged that it was not bad.
Chu Xun’s opinion was about the same.
For a moment, he found himself missing Zhang Sanchun’s craftsmanship.
His brother-in-law’s roasted snacks had been made with great care and tasted excellent.
Unfortunately, he could no longer eat them.
“Old Master, aren’t we going to see the little flood dragon brother anymore?” Wei Youyou asked again.
In her ranking system, the crow was the eldest, the weasel second, and the rabbit third.
Originally, the field mice had been the little brothers.
Now there was also a flood dragon.
It had nothing to do with strength. It was purely based on who she greeted first after arriving at Pinecone Village.
Chu Xun shook his head.
“No. It has its own things to do.”
The blue-white flood dragon had now received the Water Minister authority bestowed by him.
It needed to remain in the Songliu River, continuing to benefit the region and accumulate merit.
Perhaps one day, after accumulating enough merit and reaching sufficient cultivation, it might have a slight chance of swimming out of the Songliu River, entering a great river, and transforming into a true dragon.
There was another reason as well.
The blue-white flood dragon could not yet take human form.
After all, it belonged to the python family. Its bloodline had advanced against heaven itself to become a flood dragon. A mere hundred years of cultivation was far from enough to transform.
Chu Xun looked toward Wei Youyou and asked curiously, “How long did it take you to transform?”
Wei Youyou blinked her beautiful eyes.
“I don’t know.”
Before transforming, every day had passed much the same.
There had been spring, summer, autumn, and winter, but she had never counted time in her heart.
Even when she followed Wei Ting’s remnant soul to Fenggu City, it had been the same.
Only humans cared so much about time, fighting for every second.
Chu Xun asked again, “Where do you want to go?”
Wei Youyou looked up at him.
“Where can we go?”
Chu Xun replied, “To the east is the fog-covered Wusun Kingdom. To the south is a great river. To the west is Wu Kingdom, and beyond Wu Kingdom lies Great Yan.”
“Great Yan!” Wei Youyou’s eyes sparkled.
“It’s not a really big swallow bird. It’s just the country’s name.”
The interest in her dark, bright eyes immediately faded somewhat.
Chu Xun continued, “To the north are deserts and grasslands. Beyond that is Yue Kingdom.”
“Grasslands!”
Hearing the keyword, Wei Youyou’s eyes lit up once again.
Chu Xun smiled.
“Then let’s head north.”
Only then did Wei Youyou remember something.
“My home is north too.”
“Then shall we go to your home first before continuing north?”
“Okay, yo!”
Chu Xun smiled as they walked together.
With every step, the white hair atop his head lessened.
Wei Youyou seemed to notice something and looked up.
Seeing Chu Xun’s hair gradually darkening and his wrinkles slowly disappearing, she could not help repeatedly crying out, “Yo yo yo!”
Passersby heard the sound and looked over curiously.
They only thought the little girl was extremely cute.
Looking again at the middle-aged man walking beside her, they found him dignified and extraordinary in bearing.
Their vision blurred slightly.
When they looked again, the middle-aged man was gone.
After searching for a long while, they only saw a young man of roughly similar build gradually disappear into the crowd.
By the time they left the capital, Chu Xun had returned to youth, once again looking eighteen or nineteen years old.
His appearance had not changed much this time.
Only his skin had become even smoother, like white jade.
They did not know how far north they would travel, and Chu Xun was in no hurry.
When tired, he and Wei Youyou rode in carts.
When tired of carts, they rode boats.
After wandering about like this for many days and passing through several forests, they still had not reached Wei Youyou’s home.
Only after asking more carefully did Chu Xun learn they had to cross both desert and grasslands.
Chu Xun laughed helplessly.
At this rate, they would at minimum have to reach Yue Kingdom.
Ahead stood a majestic pass called Jixia.
The name was strange and did not match the typical word combinations used by Jing Kingdom.
It was said that Jixia Pass had existed since several dynasties ago.
From the moment it appeared, it had been built to resist invasions by the Horse Tribe.
For hundreds and thousands of years, it had remained a border fortress.
Even the founding emperor had never imagined that one day this place would become an interior city.
Jing Kingdom’s borders had already expanded a thousand li northward.
Like Hulao Pass, Jixia Pass was mainly populated by military households mixed with some merchants.
However, the military households here were not all typical Jing Kingdom people.
Some still bore the characteristics of the Horse Tribe.
Their cheekbones were higher and more pronounced, unlike the flatter and softer features of Jing people.
Their faces were longer, eye sockets slightly deeper, noses broader, and hair dark brown.
Tall and robust, they carried rough and fierce temperaments.
Most of their ancestors had been surrendered Horse Tribe soldiers who later assimilated into Jing Kingdom.
Within the military, they belonged to the lower ranks and usually had no chance of advancing beyond sixth-rank martial officers.
In other words, reaching the level of centurion was already their limit.
Entering the pass, Chu Xun saw crooked and uneven streets unlike the orderly layout of Hulao Pass.
Everywhere were neighing horses, reed-pipe music, and mixed dialects.
Half the shops sold silk, salt, and tea.
The other half displayed saddles, furs, cheese, and mare’s milk wine.
Almost every household had horses tied outside.
Whether faces, arms, or chests, the people here had rough skin from years spent beneath the wind and sand of the grasslands.
After asking Wei Youyou, Chu Xun learned that she had indeed passed through this place while following Wei Ting’s remnant soul.
After considering things for a while, he brought Wei Youyou into a two-story tavern.
The tavern was opened by Jing people, and its food, a fusion of Jing Kingdom and Mobei styles was famous.
Most of those stopping here to rest were high-ranking merchant caravan members.
Ordinary porters and escorts usually only bought flatbread from roadside stalls and stuffed in a few slices of braised meat to fill their stomachs.
No sooner had they sat down than a waiter with a rag draped over his shoulder walked over.
He diligently wiped the already spotless table while subtly observing Chu Xun and Wei Youyou with curiosity and confusion in his eyes.
Few ordinary commoners passed in and out of the pass.
Even though new cities had been built in Mobei, conflicts between the two peoples remained constant, and fights still frequently broke out.
People died at the slightest disagreement.
What was a young man and a little girl doing here?
Still, he did not ask blindly and simply smiled.
“What would the two guests like to eat?”
Chu Xun told him to bring several specialty dishes, along with some fresh fruits and vegetables.
After a long while, the waiter returned with the dishes.
The first was pan-fried lamb ribs with wild grassland sheep meat, local wild onions, coarse salt, and a little grassland wild peppercorn.
After one bite, Chu Xun’s eyes lit up.
The iron pot used no water. The lamb was slowly fried in its own fat until both sides turned golden. Before serving, a handful of freshly chopped wild onions was sprinkled on top for freshness.
The meat was crispy and fragrant without any gamey taste, and even carried a faint milky aroma unavailable within the passes.
There was also thick mare’s milk cheese filling mixed with dried desert-date pieces.
Buckwheat flour mixed with a little white flour was kneaded with warm water, then pan-cooked until lightly charred on both sides.
The outer skin was tough and chewy while the filling was rich and slightly sweet.
Chu Xun could not get used to mare’s milk wine, but the sweet rice wine was excellent.
Even Wei Youyou drank a cup and rarely gave a positive evaluation.
“Tastes good.”
Perhaps noticing that the little girl only ate vegetables, the waiter finally brought over a small plate of sesame vegetable wheat cakes.
Sesame seeds were ground into powder and mixed into wheat flour. After kneading with warm water and letting the dough rest, it was rolled into thin wrappers.
The filling consisted of chopped wild onions, alfalfa sprouts, and wild bitter greens, seasoned only with salt and a little sesame oil.
The cakes were slowly pan-cooked with little oil until both sides turned lightly golden, leaving the edges slightly crisp while the inside remained soft.
One bite carried the rich fragrance of sesame mixed with the freshness of the three wild vegetables, cutting through greasiness while remaining filling.
Wei Youyou’s eyes sparkled as she ate.
“Yo! Delicious!”
Clearly, the sesame wheat cakes suited her taste much better.
It was rare for Wei Youyou to enjoy any kind of flour-based food, so Chu Xun smiled.
“When we leave, we’ll buy more to bring along.”
“Okay, yo!”
At that moment, voices came from the neighboring table.
“Have you heard? Yizuo’a entered the capital to report on his duties and acknowledged the Empress as his mother.”
“That remnant Horse Tribe bastard sure knelt quickly. If the Three Kings had spirits underground, they’d probably be so angry they’d come back to life.”
“Better not let them come back. Things finally calmed down a little.”
“I heard the emperor transferred many generals to local regions. To appease them, he plans to establish some official position called Jiedushi. Know what that is?”
“Never heard of it. What’s a Jiedushi?”
“Who knows where the name came from? But that Yizuo’a might end up becoming one.”
“Well of course. Otherwise wouldn’t he have become someone’s son for nothing?”
Chu Xun glanced sideways.
At the neighboring table sat a merchant caravan, drinking and talking while occasionally bursting into laughter.
These people traveled everywhere and were exceptionally well-informed.
Yizuo’a had once been a great general beneath the final Horse Tribe king.
After Jing Kingdom killed the Three Kings, they allowed Yizuo’a to continue as a general governing this region in order to pacify the Horse Tribe.
Officially, it was called “using barbarians to govern barbarians.”
As for this new official title of Jiedushi, Chu Xun had already heard of it on the way here.
Just as the merchants said, it truly had been established to placate regional generals.
Otherwise, if you suddenly transferred so many accomplished generals away to the provinces, dissatisfaction would certainly arise.
Thus, besides military authority, the Jiedushi would also concurrently hold the positions of Inspection Commissioner and Agricultural Commissioner, effectively providing additional benefits.
In Emperor Yongxiang’s and the nobles’ eyes, this little bit of authority was insignificant.
The most important thing was reducing the military size, lowering military pay, and preventing mutiny.
At that moment, the neighboring table spoke again.
“I even made a special trip to that Pinecone Village this time. Tsk tsk, truly a treasure land.”
“There are flowers and plants left behind by immortals everywhere. So fragrant. One sniff and your whole body feels energized!”
“Once I return from this trip, no matter what, I’m staying in Pinecone Village for a while. Maybe I’ll even become immortal.”
The others all listened with yearning in their hearts.
Who did not wish for immortality?
Hearing this, Wei Youyou bit into her sesame wheat cake and said, “Living in Pinecone Village lets you become immortal, yo.”
The middle-aged man who had been speaking had a weathered face and a large pouch hanging from his shoulder.
He looked toward Wei Youyou.
Rather than getting angry, he seemed to catch her meaning and asked, “You’ve been to Pinecone Village too?”
Wei Youyou replied, “My Old Master is from Pinecone Village, yo.”
Not only did that table’s people brighten with interest, the merchant caravans at neighboring tables all looked over as well.
The story of an immortal appearing in Pinecone Village was widely known.
Anyone hearing the news could not help asking more about it.
These merchants immediately crowded over, talking over one another with endless questions.
Wei Youyou did not know who to answer and blankly continued chewing her sesame wheat cake.
Chu Xun had no choice but to respond with a few casual remarks, saying that he had once farmed there.
It truly was a good place, but immortality was impossible.
As for immortals, those were only rumors.
There had merely been a cultivator there.
The middle-aged merchant curled his lip.
“Young fellow, you don’t look truthful at all. Skin smooth and flesh tender, how do you look like someone who’s farmed land?”
Someone else chimed in.
“Young people just love talking nonsense. Have you ever seen an immortal? How do you know they aren’t immortals? Pure assumptions!”
Chu Xun laughed and stopped arguing.
After finishing the meal, he bought many more sesame wheat cakes from the shop for Wei Youyou to store away. Then they wandered around for a bit before heading outside the pass.
What greeted their eyes was wasteland blanketed in snow.
The grasslands were still far away and did not exist year-round.
At this season, only a few dead grasses remained.
Bells jingled behind them, followed by a voice.
“Oh? Little brother heading beyond the pass?”
Chu Xun turned and saw the middle-aged merchant from the tavern leading horses loaded with goods.
Perhaps because they had met once already, the merchant casually asked, “Where are you two headed?”
“North,” Chu Xun replied.
The merchant laughed.
“The north is huge. You need a place name at least. Judging from your clothes, you didn’t even bring thick padded clothing or food. You probably won’t make it very far.”
“A martial artist?”
In the merchant’s view, anyone daring to leave the pass in thin clothes during deep winter had to be a ranked martial artist.
Ordinary people would already be trembling from the cold, unable even to walk.
Chu Xun did not deny it and instead asked, “Where are you all headed?”
“Yue Kingdom.” The middle-aged merchant grinned. “We sell Jing Kingdom silk and porcelain in Yue Kingdom, then bring Yue Kingdom jade and refined ores back to Jing Kingdom.”
“Yue Kingdom sounds far away?” Chu Xun asked.
The merchant became even more certain Chu Xun had never traveled far before.
“A round trip is over two thousand li. At minimum, three or four months. If you encounter disasters or trouble, even longer.”
Though distant, the profits were astonishing.
Otherwise, why would such a merchant caravan of nearly one hundred people go through the trouble of traveling thousands of li?
Looking at the armed escorts with fierce auras in the caravan, Chu Xun could not help thinking of Wei Ting.
Perhaps Wei Ting had once been one of them.
The journey was long, and there was no time to linger.
The merchant led his horse onward with the caravan.
Chu Xun and Wei Youyou followed behind.
The man walking beside the merchant turned back to glance at them and quietly asked, “Chief Shopkeeper, those two strangers are following us. Should we stop them?”
Merchant caravans that traveled the world encountered countless people and incidents.
Large caravans like theirs were especially vigilant.
The middle-aged merchant known as Chief Shopkeeper He Runpu shook his head slightly.
“It’s fine. He’s a trained martial artist, but as long as he doesn’t cause trouble, it’s alright.”
There were over a dozen escorts in the caravan, all martial artists above fourth rank. They even had a second-rank chief escort.
Nothing serious would happen.
“Besides, the most frightening things in Mobei aren’t bandits or rogue soldiers,” He Runpu said.
The man beside him seemed to remember something and could not help shivering.
Behind the caravan, Chu Xun was not intentionally following them.
Both sides simply happened to be traveling toward Yue Kingdom.
Especially just after leaving the pass, there were already clear tracks left by earlier travelers on the road.
If he did not follow them, was he supposed to deliberately walk through untouched snow?
In reality, with Chu Xun’s abilities, one step now covered several li.
But he had not used Dao arts.
Partly because he wanted to experience the atmosphere of Mobei.
And partly because the aura here differed greatly from inside the passes.
Thanks to the divine office granted by his Water Minister status, he could clearly sense many strange things hidden here.
Those auras resembled incense gods, yet were messy and mixed.
They also carried a faint fishy stench.
Wei Youyou sensed it too and looked up at Chu Xun.
“Old Master…”
Chu Xun said calmly, “It’s fine. Let’s keep walking and see.”
With Golden Core cultivation, the metal-essence treasure sword named Zhenfang, the Heavenly One Divine Water Pearl, the old bat’s wind bone, and his other methods.
There were already very few things beneath heaven capable of threatening Chu Xun.
At the very least, there were none in Mobei.
After leaving Jixia Pass, the merchant caravan only traveled fifty li in one day.
That was only because it was the first day, everyone was well-fed, and their stamina remained strong.
The farther they traveled, the slower it would become.
Once they reached deserts and rocky wastelands, covering twenty or thirty li in a day would already be exceptional.
Night fell, and the caravan camped on the spot, lighting bonfires.
Chu Xun and Wei Youyou also stopped not far away.
He Runpu glanced toward them from afar.
After hesitating slightly, he took a padded coat, several roasted wheat cakes, and a bowl of meat soup and walked over.
Wei Youyou had been eating all day and was already full.
Sitting on the ground, she pointed at the stars overhead and asked, “Old Master, do stars really fall down?”
Chu Xun nodded.
“Of course. It’s just that the pieces that fall are never large. Perhaps they were huge originally, but they burn down to very small pieces during the fall.”
The middle-aged merchant had already arrived nearby. Hearing this, he could not help laughing.
How could stars fall from the sky? Pure nonsense.
And even if they did, how would he know they were originally huge and burned smaller?
There was no fire in the sky. What would burn them?
The logic did not connect at all. It was only enough to fool children.
Still, the merchant had no intention of arguing over such things.
He had met many young martial artists.
Most were hot-blooded and loved boasting endlessly.
When he himself had been young, he had boasted far more than this.
He placed down the meat soup and wheat cakes. When Chu Xun turned around, the merchant said, “You’re a martial artist and physically strong, but a child can’t endure freezing.”
As he spoke, he draped the padded coat over Wei Youyou.
“My granddaughter was about this age too. Last year she caught a cold and couldn’t recover.”
Though his eyes carried memories and sorrow, his tone remained fairly calm.
After wandering the world for so many years, he had seen too much.
Wei Youyou was not afraid of the cold, but she curiously sniffed the lingering horse scent on the coat before saying, “Thank you.”
“She’s a very well-behaved girl.” The merchant smiled and rubbed her head.
Then he looked at Chu Xun.
“The caravan has its own rules. We can’t let strangers join the group. If you want to keep following, you should stay farther away so the escorts don’t misunderstand.”
Chu Xun looked at him and asked, “Not afraid we’re bad people?”
The merchant laughed.
“I’ve never seen a robber buy so many sesame wheat cakes for a little girl.”
Hearing this, Wei Youyou lowered her head to look at the huge bundle of sesame wheat cakes on the ground, confusion filling her eyes.
Why did buying wheat cakes mean someone wasn’t a robber?
Chu Xun understood and laughed as well.
“You really do see things clearly.”
The merchant hesitated before still offering a warning.
“Mobei isn’t like inside the passes. There are no orthodox gods protecting this place. Sometimes you encounter unclean things. If you truly feel something’s wrong, then you’ll have to rely on yourselves.”
Wei Youyou asked, “Yo? What are unclean things?”
The merchant wanted to explain but worried about frightening the little girl, so he simply told Chu Xun, “In any case, be careful yourselves.”
With that, he turned and left.
Wei Youyou still did not understand and continued asking Chu Xun, “What are unclean things?”
“Demons, monsters, ghosts, and strange creatures,” Chu Xun replied.
Wei Youyou froze for a moment and immediately became somewhat unhappy.
Chu Xun added, “You don’t harm people, so you aren’t included.”
“If harming people means unclean, is it because they don’t bathe? If they wash clean, are they still unclean?” Wei Youyou asked again.
Chu Xun was stumped.
After a long while, he finally replied, “Once someone harms people, they can never wash clean again.”
Wei Youyou listened in confusion.
Washed yet still not clean?
Too strange.
Back at the caravan, the route manager responsible for carts, horses, and supplies, Zhang Shikai, immediately walked over and asked, “Chief Shopkeeper seems rather concerned about them. Better be careful of tricks.”
Last year, their caravan had encountered robbers disguised as refugees. After approaching the escorts, they had scattered poisonous powder.
Fortunately, the chief escort had been experienced enough to switch the porters and escorts’ clothing beforehand, allowing them to survive by sheer luck.
Otherwise, the grass on his grave would already be seven chi tall.
Chief Shopkeeper He Runpu shook his head.
“I already told him to keep his distance from the caravan. As long as they don’t approach, whether they’re good or bad makes no difference.”
Zhang Shikai thought for a moment.
“That’s true.”
If they truly were robbers, the caravan would already have been targeted. Driving them away or not would make little difference.
The next day, the caravan set out again.
As He Runpu had reminded him, Chu Xun deliberately stayed even farther behind.
After traveling this way for over ten days, they were already several hundred li from Jixia Pass.
The weather became increasingly cold. Goose-feather snow fell heavily, making the caravan’s progress difficult.
Zhang Shikai was covered entirely in snow. Even with thick padded clothing and furs wrapped around himself, his fingers still stiffened from the cold.
“This damned snow came too fast!”
He Runpu looked up at the sky.
It was dark and gloomy. The storm likely would not stop anytime soon.
“Stop here for now. Clear the snow and set up camp. We’ll continue after the blizzard passes.”
Zhang Shikai immediately acknowledged the order and loudly commanded everyone to set up camp.
He Runpu then looked back again.
Faintly, he could still see the large and small figures following from afar.
He had asked the escorts already.
The little girl carried no martial artist aura and was just an ordinary child.
He hesitated greatly.
Such heavy snow was hard even for martial artists to endure, let alone such a small child.
If it had been an adult, He Runpu would not have softened in the slightest.
But the granddaughter who had died from illness last year made it impossible for him to harden his heart completely.
After hesitating for a while, he still called over a porter and brought an extra tent with him.
When he arrived, he was slightly surprised.
The pair did not have much snow on them at all, certainly far less than himself.
The fierce wind and snow cut into one’s bones.
He Runpu had no time to think deeply. Tossing down the tent, he shouted loudly, “The snow’s too heavy! Set up the tent and take shelter first. Wait until the storm passes before moving again!”
With that, he and the porter returned to help the caravan set up camp.
Wei Youyou looked at the tent on the ground, then toward He Runpu, whose figure had already vanished into the snowstorm.
“Old Master, he’s a good person, yo.”
Chu Xun nodded.
“He truly is.”
Although they had no real need for it, Chu Xun still set up the tent, mainly because Wei Youyou liked it very much.
She had never experienced pitching a tent during a snowstorm.
After it was set up, she watched snowflakes strike the tent one after another with muffled thumps and could not help giggling happily.
By nightfall, the blizzard had grown even fiercer.
Snow accumulation exceeded two chi in thickness. In such extreme conditions, walking was impossible. Simply surviving was already fortunate.
Wei Youyou jumped joyfully through the snowdrifts, playing happily.
After a while, she suddenly stopped and looked toward the caravan.
“Yo!?”
Chu Xun also sensed something and said to Wei Youyou, “Wait here.”
His figure swayed and vanished from the spot.
Wei Youyou looked nervously into the pitch-black surroundings. Her small face tightened, and she immediately crawled into the tent.
In all the world, there was probably only one transformed spirit this cowardly.
After a full day and night of blizzard conditions, the caravan huddled around bonfires drinking heated liquor. Many people had already curled up asleep.
As Chief Shopkeeper, He Runpu naturally could not rest peacefully like ordinary porters.
After drinking a large mouthful of alcohol and warming himself somewhat, he crawled out of the tent again.
The blizzard was too fierce. He needed to check whether the horses had panicked or wandered off.
Losing a single horse meant losing a great amount of silver.
He also had to ensure everyone’s safety.
Tent by tent, he inspected them, confirming the fires were still burning and the horses remained calm.
Rubbing his frozen arms vigorously, He Runpu prepared to return when he saw a familiar figure walking into the distance.
He immediately recognized who it was and shouted, “Zhang Shikai! What are you doing over there?”
Yet the route manager seemed not to hear him and continued walking forward.
He Runpu instantly felt something was wrong and hurried after him.
Not far away, he heard horses neighing and Zhang Shikai loudly scolding the horses.
He Runpu’s scalp turned numb. Without hesitation, he rushed into a tent and grabbed a bowl of hot mare’s milk wine.
The porter inside asked, “What’s happened, Chief Shopkeeper?”
“We’ve probably run into a Snow Hollow Ghost. Everyone stay inside. No one comes out!” He Runpu shouted sternly.
The porters’ expressions immediately changed drastically.
“Did someone get lured away?”
The so-called Snow Hollow Ghost was not a simple ghost.
It was one of the wild gods worshipped by the Horse Tribe in Mobei.
There were no orthodox gods here.
Only evil sacrifices everywhere.
All kinds of wild gods roamed the land, each with many strange rules.
Whenever blizzards came, Snow Hollow Ghosts might appear.
They imitated the voices of familiar people, luring victims into deep snow pits and ice crevices.
Once people froze stiff, the ghosts absorbed their human qi.
In the end, the person became a rigid frozen corpse, while the ghost hid in the nearby snow.
Anyone approaching afterward would most likely die as well.
He Runpu had no time to answer. After crawling from the tent, he pulled out several strands of his own hair, mixed them into the hot mare’s milk wine, and poured it onto the snow.
Then he knelt and kowtowed, muttering:
“Snow child, don’t entangle us. Drink the milk wine and let us continue safely.”
Afterward, he stood and shouted again:
“Zhang Shikai! Zhang Shikai!”
But no response came from ahead.
He Runpu’s heart filled with anxiety, yet he dared not approach recklessly.
If it truly was a Snow Hollow Ghost, he would die too.
Several hundred meters away from the caravan, Zhang Shikai lay stiffly in the snow.
A blue-black figure resembling a half-grown child walked out from the snow.
It left no footprints, and even the wind and snow passed directly through it.
Extremely eerie.
Reaching Zhang Shikai’s side, the blue-black figure slowly bent down toward his mouth and nose.
Human qi, also called yang qi, was one manifestation of vitality.
Zhang Shikai had merely stepped out to relieve himself.
Hearing Chief Shopkeeper He Runpu supposedly calling him to check the horses, he had walked only a short distance before losing consciousness.
Just as the ghost was about to absorb his human qi, a voice sounded nearby.
“It carries the aura of divine office, but resembles a ghost more. Mobei truly is a strange place. No wonder the Horse Tribe always wants to leave here.”
The blue-black figure straightened up.
Before it could react, Chu Xun flicked a finger.
A strand of metal-essence qi transformed into a white streak and pierced directly through the figure.
There was no rolling black smoke, only a shrill scream before it fled into the distance.
Chu Xun’s gaze flickered.
This thing’s aura was not even as strong as a county underworld official.
Yet a mere strand of metal-essence qi could not kill it?
“Interesting.”
Tapping the ground lightly with his foot, Chu Xun condensed over ten strands of Ren Water essence from the endless blizzard, weaving them into a net that descended over the blue-black figure.
The figure was not especially fast and was directly trapped inside.
Chu Xun stepped forward and carefully examined it with the divine ability Qi-Gazing and Fate Perception.
He discovered a thin layer of watery aura upon the figure, though it did not flow. Instead, it resembled something dead.
Just as he had sensed before, it truly resembled an incense-offering immortal god, though its level was far too low.
Moreover, although Jing Kingdom’s wild gods mostly lacked rank, they did not actively harm commoners. They only wished to accumulate more incense and eventually achieve proper fruition.
Unlike this creature before him.
It had clearly received incense worship, yet harmed innocent people.
It did not even qualify as an evil sacrifice wild god.
It was closer to an evil god.
That was why Mobei had almost no temples or divine statues.
The Horse Tribe feared these evil sacrifice wild gods far more than they sincerely worshipped them.
Chu Xun flicked out several more strands of metal-essence qi, shrinking the blue-black figure repeatedly until it finally vanished completely.
Chu Xun also understood the abnormality.
“It devoured large amounts of human qi and possessed half a divine office. That’s why it was so durable. Truly an unclean thing.”
Waving away the Ren Water essence, Chu Xun lifted Zhang Shikai.
Then he struck him once on the body, rapidly warming him.
After bringing him to within a hundred meters of the caravan, Chu Xun departed.
Zhang Shikai opened his eyes in confusion and looked around blankly.
Ahead, he could see the lights of the tents.
Yet he could not remember how he had ended up standing there.
Immediately recalling certain strange rumors, his body trembled violently, and he hurriedly ran toward the camp.
He Runpu had believed Zhang Shikai was certainly dead and was already worrying about how to explain matters to his family upon returning.
Then he heard crunching sounds in the snow.
Looking up, he saw Zhang Shikai sprinting back.
His face immediately filled with vigilance as he shouted, “Stop! Are you human or ghost?”
Zhang Shikai jumped in fright and quickly slowed.
“Chief Shopkeeper, it’s me! I’m human!”
The porters inside the tents and several nearby escorts all crawled out holding torches.
When Zhang Shikai arrived nearby, He Runpu stepped forward and touched his body.
Warm.
Only then did he finally relax and ask, “Why were you heading that direction just now?”
Confusion still lingered in Zhang Shikai’s eyes.
“I don’t know either. I think you called me to tie up the horses.”
He Runpu’s expression changed slightly.
He had done no such thing.
It seemed Zhang Shikai really had encountered something unclean.
But why had he survived?
Zhang Shikai said, “I don’t know either. I just opened my eyes and found myself there. Then I saw the tents.”
Everyone looked at one another in confusion.
Something like that could happen?
He Runpu could not figure it out either.
He did not know whether Zhang Shikai was simply lucky or whether something unknown had occurred in between.
“Everyone stay alert! If you need to leave the tents, bring several others with you. Never go out alone!” He Runpu shouted.
Everyone hurriedly agreed.
Zhang Shikai had been fortunate enough to survive.
Others might not be.
Every year, unlucky people died this way.
None of them wanted to die in Mobei.
He Runpu then remembered the pair following behind the caravan, and concern filled his heart.
Even a caravan this large had encountered danger.
Two isolated people would be in even greater danger.
“I just hope the two of them didn’t run into anything unclean. Otherwise tomorrow we’ll have to collect their corpses.”
Inside the tent, Chu Xun had already returned.
Wei Youyou poked her head out. Only after seeing him did she relax enough to crawl from the tent.
“What did Old Master encounter?” she asked curiously.
“An unclean thing,” Chu Xun replied.
“Yo!?”
Wei Youyou looked both curious and frightened.
She truly wanted to know what unclean things looked like.
At that moment, a wolf howl sounded.
“YO!!! WOLF!!!”
Wei Youyou instantly flattened her ears in fright, turned, and burrowed back into the tent without emerging again.
Chu Xun laughed helplessly.
A transformed spirit actually afraid of wolves.
Ignoring Wei Youyou, Chu Xun looked toward his divine office information.
After killing that half-divine, half-ghost filthy thing earlier, the incense value of his divine office had shifted slightly.
But instead of increasing, it had decreased by a full hundred points.
Chu Xun raised his head toward the sky, his gaze darkening.
Incense points represented merit.
Killing filthy things not only failed to increase merit, it even reduced it.
Was that not openly saying that such creatures should not be killed?
“You grant even things like this scraps of divine office and still don’t want people killing them.”
“Could it be you’re hoping that one day they’ll cultivate proper fruition and serve the same purpose as merit bodies?”
Raising the evil sacrifice wild gods of Mobei like livestock.
Not caring even if those livestock ate people.
Only waiting until they were fattened before slaughtering them.
If that truly was the case, then the corruption of the heavenly order was far worse than imagined.
Chu Xun lowered his eyes toward the vast, boundless lands of Mobei.
In such a barren place, exactly how many filthy things were hidden?
For a moment, he actually began to pity the Horse Tribe.
From the perspective of Jing Kingdom’s people, the Horse Tribe were invaders.
But from the perspective of opposition to the heavenly order, the Horse Tribe were merely pitiful people surrounded by endless fear.
For countless years, the Horse Tribe had used their lives to “nurture” these evil sacrifice wild gods, enduring endless terror and suffering.
Chu Xun’s gaze turned cold.
“The heavenly order… truly is rotten beyond imagination!”
[End of Chapter]
