For something this big, surely someone has to be there to take charge.

Two and a half days passed in the blink of an eye.

Although Tianshui City was open on all four sides, its southern gate was the true “Golden Gate.”

Countless purchasing agents from major inland sects and merchant caravans from prominent clans entered through the southern gate. Compared with the independent cultivators who came through the northern gate, reeking of blood and living by the edge of the blade, those entering through the south were mostly well-dressed and generous spenders.

That was why the old saying went: the breeze blowing through Tianshui City’s southern gate carried the scent of spirit stones.

Of course, to Su Ji, those words went in one ear and out the other. They were nothing more than idle chatter.

Su Ji and Su Jiu were currently in a small tavern near the southern city gate called the Drunken Immortal Residence. The two had taken a table by the window on the second floor, drinking wine and watching the endless flow of carriages and pedestrians outside.

Su Ji was quite wealthy these days. He had ordered a table full of sumptuous dishes and was determined to enjoy his meal by the window.

Su Jiu felt that this was a little too much like shirking their proper business, but when she saw the table covered with spirit delicacies that looked, smelled, and tasted delicious…

Well, it would be a waste not to eat them.

That was one good thing about Su Jiu: she was easygoing and easy to keep fed.

After eating and drinking her fill, however, Su Jiu sat across from Su Ji with a deeply displeased look on her face.

“So why aren’t you building a harem?”

Su Ji stuffed a huge chunk of sauced spirit beef into his mouth. Chewing as he spoke, he replied indistinctly, “Don’t ask, don’t ask.”

The girl shot him an irritated glare. Holding her chopsticks, she poked at the rice in her bowl, her little mouth pouting so hard it could have held an oil flask.

Su Ji swallowed the meat and let out a long, satisfied sigh. Then he glanced sideways at Su Jiu.

“Anyway, you’re an idiot. Even if I explained it to you, you wouldn’t understand.”

Su Jiu stiffened. She instinctively wanted to argue, but when the words reached her lips, they turned into a soft sigh.

“Senior Brother, you’re right. I really am an idiot.” Su Jiu lowered her head dejectedly. “Back in Great Xia, everyone said I had excellent talent. But after coming out and seeing the wider world, I realized that aside from knowing how to eat, I can’t help with anything.”

“It’s fine. A Silly Fox has a Silly Fox’s luck. You’ve got a good fate—you met me.”

Su Jiu stared blankly at Su Ji.

Looking at the man’s handsome profile, which seemed especially striking in the sunlight despite its hint of laziness, Su Jiu suddenly felt her face grow warm.

“Why are you staring at my face?”

“If you want to look, we can go back and press our faces together so you can take your time. For now, look outside.”

“Outside?” Su Jiu came back to her senses and hurriedly shifted her gaze toward the window. Hiding her embarrassment, she muttered, “What’s there to see? Isn’t it just a bunch of people coming and going?”

Su Ji pointed toward the bustling crowd outside. His tone turned calm.

“Take a good look. It hasn’t rained in Tianshui City yet, but the wind has already arrived.”

Su Jiu was still puzzled when a faint commotion suddenly came from the city gate.

It was not the noisy uproar of someone causing trouble. Instead, it was the quiet that came when a crowd instinctively parted in awe.

The registration officer at the city gate, who normally looked down his nose at everyone and had made so much money collecting entry fees that his hands were practically soft with it, had actually stood up. At that moment, he bent at the waist like a boiled shrimp, respectfully handing several specially made jade tokens to the people before him.

There were three of them in total.

None looked particularly old.

The leader was a middle-aged man with a sallow face and a dull expression. He wore a gray robe that had been washed until it had faded white, and a huge, elongated wooden box was strapped to his back.

The box was enormous and pitch-black. It looked like a coffin, yet also like the case of some kind of musical instrument. It weighed heavily on his back, but every step he took landed without stirring even the slightest speck of dust.

Walking beside him was a young woman who looked to be just over twenty. Her appearance was merely pretty, but her eyes were startlingly bright, carrying a cold, metallic quality.

The last was a half-grown boy holding a rattle drum. He shook it as he walked, producing a dull “thump, thump, thump.”

These people looked utterly ordinary, and there was barely any fluctuation of spiritual energy coming from them. They looked just like common street performers.

Su Jiu leaned over the windowsill, puzzled.

“Why does this group look so much like people from the Puppet Heaven Sacred Land?”

The moment she finished speaking, the middle-aged man in front looked over.

“I think so too.”

Su Ji’s voice came at just the right moment. One hand pressed down on Su Jiu’s shoulder, and the heart-pounding sensation of being locked onto vanished instantly.

He raised his wine cup and gave the group below a distant toast, as though greeting them.

Down below, the middle-aged man carrying the wooden box seemed to sense something. He looked up, nodded expressionlessly, and then led the others into the crowd.

“What are they here for?”

“What else could it be?”

“Of course they smelled something good.”

“The sword the Tong Clan is putting up for auction is made of unusual materials.”

“Old Fossil said that the sword contains Deep-Sea Sunken Silver and Extraterrestrial Meteoric Iron.”

“For sword cultivators, those two materials only increase a sword’s sharpness and toughness, but…”

Su Ji paused, his eyes gleaming with amusement.

“They’re even better materials for crafting the cores of top-grade puppets.”

The group from the Puppet Heaven Sacred Land vanished around the street corner, melting into the sea of people without causing the slightest ripple.

Su Ji withdrew his gaze.

“Running around the streets with a coffin on your back. Aren’t they worried about the bad luck?”

Just then—

“Stop staring at those puppet-makers.”

The Old Emperor’s voice suddenly rang out in his mind. It carried a rare gravity and directly interrupted Su Ji.

“The big one has arrived.”

Su Ji’s expression did not change. He merely replied lazily within his sea of consciousness, “How big? Older than you?”

The Old Emperor ignored his vulgar joke. His voice was low.

“The Imperial Court Mountain has sent people as well.”

Su Ji raised an eyebrow.

Tianshui City was truly lively now, with every kind of strange character gathering in one place.

The Puppet Heaven Sacred Land had barely arrived before the Imperial Court Mountain followed.

It seemed the allure of that “Sword of Shame” was even greater than he had expected.

“What?” Su Ji teased within his sea of consciousness. “Have they come to collect you?”

“Are you sick?” the Old Emperor cursed. His tone carried the disdain of someone looking at a country bumpkin who had never seen the world. “I’m nothing but a wisp of remnant soul right now, hiding in your lousy sea of consciousness. As long as I don’t jump out and perform a striptease on my own, who the hell could sense me?”

“Then what did they come for?”

“With something this big happening, of course someone had to come and take charge.”