The newcomer had a slender, tall figure and an old, stern face with a goat’s beard under his chin. His expression was tense and very severe.
“Is this person… Lu Ding?”
Yu Ci recognized him. Like Lu Yang, Lu Ding was also an overseer in the estate, notorious for his harshness and strictness. However, while Lu Yang managed the daily operations, Lu Ding was responsible for miscellaneous tasks, placing him at the bottom among the overseers. Yu Ci remembered him well because Lu Ding was the one who handled the acquisition of Shrimp Whisker Grass. Just yesterday, it was Lu Ding who decided to have people from the store track and investigate Yu Ci, revealing his background. Of course, all of this was captured in the Divine Map, which Yu Ci had observed.
Lu Ding was obsequious to his superiors and domineering to his subordinates. While he usually put on airs, away from the meeting hall, he called over a nearby servant to summon others, then slowed his pace, strolling leisurely with his hands clasped behind his back, unaware of an invisible eye watching his every move.
Before long, the leader of the estate’s warriors and some stewards arrived to take orders. Lu Ding sat on a stone by the roadside and spoke slowly, making sure Yu Ci could see and hear him clearly. His first words made Yu Ci smile.
Lu Ding said, “The master has given an order: the entire city is to be on alert, seal the city gates, and ensure that the person who exchanged for four Nine Yang Talisman Swords remains in the city. Find their whereabouts—whether they can be invited or not, they must be ‘invited’ to the estate!”
The warrior leader went off to carry out the order. The steward, familiar with Lu Ding’s ways and the internal affairs, couldn’t help but ask, “Why the sudden mobilization? Though four thousand Shrimp Whisker Grass is a lot, if one is ruthless enough to deal in such a no-cost transaction, gathering them isn’t too difficult.”
Lu Ding glanced at his subordinate and stroked his beard with a smile. “If it were ordinary, not to mention four thousand, even forty thousand would be nothing remarkable. But the master has an eye for quality. He said that if there are three mature plants out of four thousand, it means that the herbs picked are not only of excellent appearance but also highly active, with much stronger medicinal properties than usual. Such herbs are usually rare, with only a few dozen being good, but to find over a thousand at once… Heh heh, if someone didn’t have a special harvesting location or method, who would believe it?”
It was indeed a clever insight!
Yu Ci felt like applauding even from the inn. The steward, realizing the situation, made Lu Ding very pleased, and Lu Ding continued, “Now, there are many people with ulterior motives inside and outside the city, eyeing the estate’s ‘special authority’ with envy. It’s quite troublesome. You must be extra cautious and diligent to relieve the master’s concerns…”
The steward nodded repeatedly, and Lu Ding was quite satisfied, then instructed, “Whether tonight or tomorrow, the master will be going out. Prepare food and water for ten people as usual, and don’t make any mistakes.”
The steward understood and went off to handle the matter, clearly as Lu Ding said, it was a routine task not needing further explanation.
Yu Ci, however, was curious about where Jin Huan was going again after just returning.
He stood up and retrieved the Divine Map. Despite his disdain for the daytime estate’s operations, he couldn’t ignore the danger inside. Cliff City was the only large settlement within a radius of ten thousand miles. Although there were hundreds of thousands of residents, there weren’t many unfamiliar faces. For a local power like the daytime estate, it wouldn’t be difficult to find out who was in the city within a short time. The reason they hadn’t done so before must have been to maintain a certain facade.
But now, with Jin Huan’s order, that facade was stripped away.
Clearly, Yu Ci could no longer stay in the city. He slowly walked out of the inn. Although his pace was slow, he moved decisively towards the nearest East Gate, gradually increasing his speed.
Cliff City had city walls and gates, but there were no guards stationed at them. This was because the city had no external enemies, and even if there were, the walls wouldn’t be a hindrance. The city walls were mainly for guarding against fierce beasts from the mountains. The daytime estate had also organized some civilians into armed forces to form a garrison, responsible for maintaining order in the city and occasionally assisting the estate with tasks like city-wide alerting and sealing the gates.
However, when Yu Ci passed by the east gate guard post, there was still no sign of activity. Yu Ci smiled slightly and casually walked out of the city gate, leaving Cliff City behind.
A few miles beyond the city gate, Yu Ci was surprised to find the area unexpectedly bustling. Pedestrians were everywhere, and many well-to-do families from the city were out for an excursion. The calls of small vendors on the roadside were incessant, a stark contrast to the previous days.
He casually grabbed someone to ask, and the person, with a pleasant demeanor, was not annoyed despite being stopped. After looking him up and down for a moment, the person smiled and said, “Today is the day of enlightenment for Immortal Xuanyin. As a Daoist, you should go worship the Three Pure Ones. Why bother paying respects to Immortal Xuanyin?”
Yu Ci immediately understood. It turned out to be the day of enlightenment for Immortal Xuanyin. About twenty miles outside the west city gate was the “Seeking Serenity Temple,” which enshrined the golden body of Immortal Xuanyin, and Yu Ci was aware of that.
The Mysterious Moon Sect had only recently established itself in Cliff City over the past decade but had developed rapidly, soon becoming a significant force in the surrounding area. The rapid expansion was partly due to the Sun Light Sect’s large-scale acquisition of Shrimp Whisker Grass. The sect was said to be a branch of an ancient shamanic sect, possessing methods to ward off beasts and spirits. If one joined the sect and obtained a talisman blessed by the sect’s immortal masters, it was said to be highly effective in avoiding danger.
Many of the city’s residents who went to Sky Rift Valley to gather medicinal herbs believed in the Mysterious Moon Sect. Additionally, the sect was particularly favorable to female believers, with most of the sect’s immortal masters being women. This led to many women in the city converting to the sect, seeking blessings for themselves and their families, which further boosted the sect’s influence and incense offerings.
However, for cultivators like Yu Ci, what he saw was something different.
In just ten years, the Mysterious Moon Sect had become one of Cliff City’s major powers and preached openly in the city, a situation largely attributed to the Sun Light Sect’s leniency. Yu Ci had heard rumors in the mansion that the sect had a deep background, allegedly a branch of a major sect in the Eastern Extremes. Even though they were thousands of miles apart, the Sun Light Sect had to show respect. Furthermore, the Mysterious Moon Sect was content to develop civilian followers and never gathered top experts or cultivators, which was also an important reason why it did not pose a threat to the Sun Light Sect.
Yu Ci was indeed very interested in visiting the Seeking Serenity Temple, but at that moment, there was some commotion near the west city gate, likely indicating that the Sun Light Sect’s orders had finally arrived. Unfortunately, this was now meaningless, only causing confusion. Yu Ci sneered inwardly and blended into the flow of incense-bearing devotees, moving away with apparent ease.
By the time Yu Ci resumed his Divine Map, the sky was already darkening.
Yu Ci had chosen a location thirty miles west of the city. Although he couldn’t see the entire panorama of Cliff City, he had a clear view of the entire Dan Cliff. The search operation within the city was destined to fail, and the festival for Immortal Xuanyin was likely to end in failure as well. Such results might lead to some friction between the two sides. While the Divine Map could not reveal these details, Yu Ci could guess them. He couldn’t help but smile.
In contrast to the Sun Light Sect’s attitude, Yu Ci was very conscious of his position. The cultivators and immortals in the mansion were unaware of these results. Even if they knew, they would merely laugh and dismiss it as “overestimating oneself” and would not have any further concerns. They continued to prepare for departure and deal with the aftermath in the city in an orderly manner. Of course, such tasks were left to those below, like Lu Yang, the chief steward, who only needed to wait in the courtyard for departure.
When Yu Ci redirected his focus to Lu Yang’s courtyard, he was somewhat surprised by the scene there.
In the small, two-yard square courtyard, two people were engaged in a sort of duel. It wasn’t a true duel; they stood about a yard apart, merely waving their sleeves, lifting their legs, and occasionally changing positions. Although there were gusts of wind and sounds of whistling, the rhythm was clear, and it seemed to be either a test of skills or practice.
Among the two people fighting, one was Lu Yang, while the other, with a similar build, had a round face and always wore a smiling and amiable expression even during the fight. This person was another steward of the estate, Kuang Zheng. He was also the biological uncle of Lu Yang’s disciple. These two stewards had formed an alliance through this young man, creating a substantial force within the estate.
Lu Yang’s disciple was named Kuang Yanqi. Besides serving as the link between the two stewards’ alliance, he was also remarkable in his own right. Just half a year ago, at only twenty years old, he had already reached the Divine Connectivity realm, surpassing his peers by a significant margin with astonishing talent.
Lu Yang was very focused on this disciple, seeing him as the greatest hope for passing on his legacy. Recently, he had been diligently teaching him all the knowledge related to the Divine Connectivity realm. Even fragments of this knowledge had greatly benefited Yu Ci, who enjoyed coming here. His skill in lip-reading had improved significantly, largely due to the training in this courtyard.
Standing under the eaves at the edge of the courtyard was Kuang Yanqi. At that moment, this young man stood amidst the gusts of wind, squinting as if he was experiencing something.
“Having a teacher’s guidance makes all the difference…”
Yu Ci did not hide his jealousy, but when he turned his gaze back to Lu Yang and Kuang Zheng, he noticed something unusual. What he initially thought was fatigue from looking was actually due to the fact that the image projected by the divine mirror in this area was not as clear as in the surroundings.
Yu Ci focused and gathered his energy before looking again. It was strange, but as he strained his eyes and his gaze touched the shifting image, the space before him suddenly became hazy, as if a layer of light gauze had been placed over and then removed. After this change, the world he saw was different.
In the divine mirror, the battle between the two continued. However, in Yu Ci’s view, Lu Yang’s head had become transparent!
Of course, it was not truly transparent, but rather a layer of light was emanating from inside his skull. It was orange-red, and neither the flesh nor the skull could block this light. Through this light, he faintly saw a blurry light source lingering inside Lu Yang’s brain, creating an extremely strange scene.
Looking again, Kuang Zheng was also in this situation, but the light emitted from his brain was not orange-red but a faint purple. This light was less penetrating than Lu Yang’s, making it even harder for Yu Ci to discern what was inside Kuang Zheng’s brain.
Over the past few days, Yu Ci had been casually wandering around the Sun Light Sect and had learned some details about the two stewards. He knew that both had achieved the level of Yin Spirit, capable of out-of-body experiences. So, the glowing things he saw must be the Yin Spirit?
It turns out that even through the flesh, one can see them.
Yu Ci suddenly realized that his previous understanding seemed to have been somewhat mistaken.
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