The Cultivators who had entered Red Fox Town didn’t stay long. After just one day of investigation, they left quietly.
Besides this group of Cultivators, many others were also secretly investigating last night’s events.
The results shocked many.
Last night in Red Fox Town, more than two thousand people should have been killed.
Most of their deaths were witnessed by others, and they themselves believed they had been killed.
But when they regained consciousness, they found themselves outside of Red Fox Town.
As for why they hadn’t died and had instead mysteriously appeared outside of Red Fox Town, they had no idea themselves.
For a time, all sorts of rumors and theories spread wildly.
News of the event spread throughout Da Xi, but most people dismissed it as a distorted rumor. After all, how could the dead come back to life?
Moreover, before most commoners had time to dwell on it, an unprecedented event shook the nation of Da Xi.
Grand General Wu Qingning led a host of generals in a rebellion, and Military Officers all over the country rose up in revolt.
In an instant, the nation of Da Xi was thrown into chaos!
...
In the nation of Da Xi, if one had to name who was most unconcerned by these events, it would have to be Great Black.
After escaping from Red Fox Town, Great Black followed Jiang Zuo’s scent, tracking his every move.
When it grew tired, it would lie down to rest for a while. When it got hungry, it would hunt for prey in the mountains or along the road.
It tracked him like this for six days straight. Finally, on the evening of the sixth day, Great Black could see a figure in the distance.
The figure looked a little unfamiliar to Great Black, but the scent was unmistakable.
Jiang Zuo was right there, but Great Black hesitated, not daring to go forward and reunite with him.
’What if Master doesn’t want me anymore? Where would I go then?’
Hesitating with these thoughts, Great Black decided to simply follow from a distance.
...
Jiang Zuo’s appearance had changed several times along his journey. He now looked like a scholar.
After traveling for ten days, he had reached the eastern border of Da Xi.
The border crossing was just ahead. After passing through it and traversing a stretch of wilderness, he would reach Liuyun Kingdom.
Liuyun Kingdom revered scholarship. Scholars held a high status there, and they particularly enjoyed interacting with students from other nations.
Foreign students who came to Liuyun Kingdom would receive all sorts of preferential treatment after revealing their identity.
Most of the young people passing through the border crossing from this direction were scholars.
By disguising himself as a scholar, Jiang Zuo could minimize the attention he attracted.
In truth, now that he had come this far, as long as he didn’t publicly reveal his identity, Jiang Zuo no longer needed to be so deliberate about avoiding people.
On his journey so far, he had barely entered any towns, eating and drinking on the road.
He had also done his best to avoid contact with people, so as not to leave an impression.
’I’ve traveled here so cautiously. If my pursuers can still find me, then any further caution would be pointless.’
The road ahead was a muddy mess, as if it had rained the day before.
Jiang Zuo didn’t mind. He could always find a place to step. Even if some spots were far apart, he could easily leap across.
After walking for a while, Jiang Zuo saw a horse-drawn carriage stuck in the mud at the side of the road.
The driver, a portly, middle-aged man, and a woman were all pushing from behind. Only a little girl remained on the carriage.
But even with the three of them pushing with all their might and the horses pulling desperately, the wheels just kept spinning in place.
"Wanwan, get down for a moment. Don’t stay in the carriage."
Defeated, the portly middle-aged man called out to the little girl in the carriage.
"Okay, Daddy."
The little girl named Wanwan obediently jumped down from the carriage, landing carefully and trying her best not to step in the thick mud.
Without the little girl’s weight, the three of them pushed again, but they still couldn’t free the carriage from the mud pit.
"Master, we’ll have to take all the luggage out of the carriage first. It won’t work otherwise."
The driver said, letting out a breath, to the portly middle-aged man.
Huang Youqi was about to agree when he suddenly saw Jiang Zuo approaching in the distance. He hurriedly shouted, "Hey, young man over there! Could you come give us a hand? Once we’re on better road, we can give you a ride!"
Hearing the call, Jiang Zuo thought for a moment and walked over.
With Jiang Zuo’s help, there was no way the carriage wouldn’t get out.
However, Jiang Zuo carefully controlled his strength, making it seem as if he was using all his might just to push the carriage out.
"Thank you, young man! May I ask your name? I’m Huang Youqi, a merchant who deals in medicinal herbs."
Huang Youqi said gratefully, while briefly introducing himself.
"This humble scholar’s surname is Liang, and my given name is Yu."
Jiang Zuo casually made up a name.
"A fine name! One can tell you’re a scholar just by hearing it! Calling you ’young man’ is too distant. I’ll just call you Liang! I’m a good dozen or so years your senior, so if you don’t mind, you can just call me Huang!"
As expected of a businessman, Huang Youqi closed the distance between them in just a few sentences.
"Of course. A name is just a title, after all."
Jiang Zuo said with a smile.
"Liang, let’s get through this muddy patch first. The road ahead should be better, and then the carriage can travel normally."
Huang Youqi lifted Huang Wanwan back onto the carriage and pointed into the distance.
The road was muddy, and if they got stuck again, it would be another hassle to push it out.
Except for the little girl, Huang Wanwan, the rest of them all walked slowly alongside the carriage.
Huang Wanwan, who wore her hair in a ponytail, curiously sized up the scholar Jiang Zuo from her seat on the carriage.
"Liang, since you’re taking this road, it looks like you’re headed to Liuyun Kingdom. That’s a good choice. Da Xi is about to get more and more chaotic. As a scholar, you’ll be much better off in Liuyun Kingdom than staying in Da Xi."
Huang Youqi said with a sigh, his voice full of worry.
"Da Xi is getting more chaotic? What happened?"
Jiang Zuo was taken aback.
He had avoided pedestrians and towns throughout his journey and knew nothing of what had transpired in Red Fox Town.
"You don’t know yet, Liang? It seems you really have your nose buried in your books! Well, it just so happens that Older Brother Huang knows a bit more, so let me tell you all about it!"
Huang Youqi first praised Jiang Zuo, then said with great enthusiasm.
The recent events in Da Xi were so bizarre they could make a storyteller a fortune in fame and silver taels.
Just the chance to personally recount these events to someone who was still unaware made Huang Youqi eager to begin.
As Huang Youqi recounted everything he had heard, Jiang Zuo was shocked to learn that just three days after he had left, Red Fox Town had been attacked by Cultivators.
And the legendary Venerable Red Fox was indeed still alive. He had appeared that night and annihilated the bandits and the two Cultivators, leaving no trace of them behind.
When he heard that the several thousand people who should have died that night had all returned from outside the town the next morning, completely unharmed, staging a scene of the dead returning, Jiang Zuo couldn’t help but fall silent.
’Halfway through the story, I was thinking that with the hiding spot I showed them, Blacksmith Li and the others should have been fine.’
’I never expected things would take such a sudden turn at the end.’
’Thousands should have been slaughtered, but in the end, only a hundred or so were injured by the bandits. Not a single person died.’
’This must have been some Great Power and Venerable Red Fox having a magical duel in Red Fox Town.’
This was the only possibility Jiang Zuo could think of.
Jiang Zuo didn’t know if a Magic for resurrecting the dead existed in the Cultivation Realm.
But even if it did, it would be impossible to revive several thousand people at once.
Before Subai had left, Jiang Zuo had asked her a number of questions about the Cultivation Realm.
He had specifically asked her whether strange, inexplicable phenomena existed in this world.
’If such unknowable oddities existed, this world would be even more dangerous. It would be hard to live peacefully even among mortals.’
But Subai had answered him with certainty that no such things existed.
If there was one thing different about this world’s Cultivation Realm compared to what Jiang Zuo knew, it was the division of Cultivation Realms.
The cultivation system of this world wasn’t the usual set of Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Divinity Transformation. Instead, it was a system that even Jiang Zuo found interesting after hearing about it.
Qi Cultivation, Dao Foundation, Divine Body, Three Flowers, Dao Fruit, and Manifestation.
Broadly speaking, after a Qi Cultivation Cultivator reaches the Perfection stage of Qi Cultivation, they can forge a Dao Foundation in their Qi Sea. The Dao Foundation is a plot of land within the Qi Sea, from which a sprout will grow. This sprout matures into a Divine Tree, the Divine Body. The tree can bloom with Three Flowers, and each flower can bear a Dao Fruit.
At the Manifestation realm, one could turn the illusory into reality, manifesting the Divine Tree they had cultivated into the outside world to form a unique domain to suppress and attack enemies.
If one could cultivate to the Third Realm of Manifestation, they could ascend to the Upper Realm.
Jiang Zuo had found it all very novel when he heard it.
Unfortunately, he had no Cultivation Talent, so he could only sigh in admiration.
’Reviving thousands of people at once... that’s reversing life and death. It involves the level of fundamental laws, something not even a Cultivator in the Manifestation realm could achieve.’
’So, the people who seemed to have died that night didn’t actually die.’
’Instead, another Great Power must have been involved in that night’s events.’
’When the people of Red Fox Town were in mortal danger, that Great Power interfered. They pulled a switch, swapping the real people out for fakes and making everyone nearby see an illusion.’
’That’s the only way to explain it.’
’It seems there really is something strange about Red Fox Town.’
Jiang Zuo thought.
’Take Venerable Red Fox, the legendary Cultivator of Red Fox Town, for example.’
’After confirming he was still alive, I felt something was off about him.’
’You’d think he cares about Red Fox Town, but he didn’t set up any defensive measures at all, allowing a Cultivator with a mediocre Cultivation to nearly slaughter the whole town.’
’But if you say he doesn’t care, he was able to rush over at the first possible moment to eliminate the culprits.’
’I don’t believe Venerable Red Fox never considered something like this could happen.’
’If he really wanted to protect the town, even if he couldn’t set up a Guardian Formation because of the Heaven and Earth Sealing Spirit Array...’
’...according to Subai, Venerable Red Fox could have easily stationed a Dao Foundation Cultivator in Red Fox Town.’
’A Dao Foundation Cultivator would feel uncomfortable within the Heaven and Earth Sealing Spirit Array, but as long as they didn’t use their Spiritual Qi, they would only need five low-grade Spirit Stones a year to maintain their Cultivation level.’
’For Venerable Red Fox, that’s less than a trivial effort, yet he was unwilling to do it.’
’Instead, he rushed over from thousands of miles away the moment trouble struck.’
’No matter how I think about it, something isn’t right.’
"Whatever, it has nothing to do with me anymore."
Shaking his head, unable to figure it out, Jiang Zuo decided not to overthink it.
He had already escaped the great vortex that was Red Fox Town. Whatever secrets it held were no longer his concern.
’The Cultivation Realm is just too dangerous, as I thought. Great Powers fighting, matters of life and death at every turn.’
’For now, it’s best for me to hide in the Mortal Realm, raise my Pet Beast, and grind for stats.’
"This is a robbery! If you want to live, hand over all your valuables!"
They were just about to reach the end of the muddy road, where they could get back on the carriage.
But at that moment, five masked figures suddenly emerged from the side of the road ahead and surrounded the carriage.
Each of them held a gleaming broadsword, looking ready to kill for money at the slightest disagreement.
"Bandits?"
Seeing the masked men, Huang Youqi’s expression changed, and he cursed his luck inwardly.
’Bandits never used to appear on this road.’ Huang Youqi had felt it was no longer safe to stay in Da Xi, which was why he was in such a hurry to get to Liuyun Kingdom.
He hadn’t expected that Wu Qingning’s rebellion would make even this road unsafe.
While Huang Youqi sensed trouble, Great Black, who was following from behind, perked up.
It had been following far behind Jiang Zuo for almost a full day.
Seeing the bandits blocking the road, it shot out from the rear without a moment’s hesitation.