Whenever there was some major or minor matter to handle within the sect, Liu Yunan would send Baizhu to lend a hand and gain some firsthand experience.
This was not a matter of latching onto Baizhu, a convenient source of free labor, and squeezing him dry. It was simply that Brother Xiao had once told him that Baizhu, as the disciple who had passed through the Path of Questioning Heart the fastest, was certainly no ordinary person.
Moreover, after spending this period of time with him, Liu Yunan had come to genuinely like Baizhu. Whatever task he was given, Baizhu would complete it conscientiously. If he occasionally made a mistake, he would immediately find a way to fix it. He never made excuses for his errors, and whenever he received praise, he never showed the slightest hint of pride or complacency. He cultivated quickly, worked diligently, and treated others with kindness and gentleness. One could say that he was excellent in every way.
There was only one issue: he was a little too inconspicuous. To put it in a single phrase, he was like “a gentle rain that silently moistens all things.” He took his work seriously, but only buried his head and did it himself, making it difficult for him to lead others as a leader.
Still, Liu Yunan remembered that Brother Xiao had also said everyone had a position and a role suited to them. There was no need for every person to excel in the same area. Thus, he did not insist on turning Baizhu into someone with outstanding leadership and charisma. He merely wanted to give it a try. In his opinion, Baizhu had plenty of potential.
That was why Baizhu could often be seen wherever something needed doing.
Within Xiushui City.
The streets were packed with people, while carriages and horses flowed constantly through the city.
The shops stood in neat rows, shop assistants bustled about welcoming customers and seeing them off, and peddlers and laborers called out their wares. Who would have thought that this city had only been built a month ago?
The cultivation world’s spies had been caught, which could be considered wonderful news for the cultivators of the mortal world. No one liked the feeling of being watched every day.
As for whether the cultivation world would discover what had happened and come looking for trouble afterward, there was no use worrying about it. The deed was already done. The low-level cultivators in particular did not care in the slightest.
In any case, matters in the future would naturally be handled by the sect masters and elders of the great sects. As for low-level cultivators like them, they could not decide anything at all. They might as well happily enjoy the present.
After hearing that the Pusi Kingdom had a Xiushui City, many cultivators in the mortal world had saved up their spirit stones and come over for a look. After all, it had been countless years since there had been such an exciting spectacle in the mortal world’s cultivation circle.
Seeing the business opportunities pouring in, merchants among both the mortals and cultivators arrived in droves. There were even more tourists and people hoping to settle here.
Quite a few cultivators who had not joined their sects long ago began considering moving their families here after seeing the city’s various facilities and the measures in place to maintain order. This would keep their mortal relatives safe and provide them with a better life, while also allowing the cultivators to properly settle their worldly ties.
There were also many cultivators who wanted to set up small stalls here. Most were disciples of the great sects, selling little items they had accumulated within their sects, while some were rogue cultivators offering various special objects they had happened to acquire in the past.
Naturally, a great many mortal merchants also came here hoping to open shops or set up stalls to do business.
Upon entering the city, anyone who wished to trade would be directed to the Commerce Affairs Center to register. As a result, the center had been extremely busy lately.
There were simply too many people.
Wen Liyun walked through the crowd with his father holding his hand, his eyes darting left and right as he took in all the strange and wonderful sights and people lining the streets.
“Father, it’s so lively here! It’s so much fun!” he said to Wen the Eldest.
Wen the Eldest looked at his son with loving affection. Then he saw Wen Liyun suddenly raise his hand and point toward a man in a Daoist robe up ahead. The man had just sent out a streak of light when a thick bolt of lightning came crashing down on his head.
Wen the Eldest knew his own child far too well. He immediately reached out and clamped a hand over Wen Liyun’s mouth, preventing him from saying anything.
“Be good, Liyun. Don’t point at people or say things carelessly.” As he spoke, Wen the Eldest lowered the arm his son had raised. Then he took his hand and hurried away. “Come on, let’s hurry to the bookstore and buy the brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone you’ll need when school starts in a couple of days.”
The Lingxian Academy had begun its entrance examinations some time ago, and the admission notices had arrived at the Wen family home yesterday. All the Wen children had been accepted. They had simply been placed into different classes according to their general level of learning. The academy would officially open in three days.
Today, father and son had come out specifically to purchase the Four Treasures of the Study. In the past, the family had essentially only supported Wen Liyun’s studies. Now that all the children could attend school, they naturally needed to purchase many more supplies. Wen Xiangzhi, the head of the household, had given Wen Liyun’s old things to his younger brothers and sisters, and sent his eldest son to take his grandson into the city to buy new ones.
Wen the Eldest and his son hurried away, while quite a few people nearby who had seen the man struck by lightning also put some distance between themselves and the scene.
Over the past month, the city’s residents had grown somewhat accustomed to such incidents. The cultivators had been clearly informed upon entering the city that all offensive and destructive techniques were forbidden, yet there were always some who refused to listen and insisted on trying it for themselves before they would give up.
This was also because no such city had ever existed in the mortal world before. Cultivators who were accustomed to settling matters with their fists were naturally unlikely to be persuaded by a simple warning that something was “forbidden.”
These cultivators had not grown accustomed to the rules yet. Once they became familiar with Xiushui City’s existence and strength, they probably would no longer dream of breaking them.
Although the mortals were protected by Xiushui City, they still did not dare say anything when cultivators came looking for trouble. They simply pretended not to see anything and hurried away.
The cultivator who had triggered the city’s lightning punishment, however, stood frozen in place.
He was not stunned by the lightning. He was simply shocked.
The mortal world actually had a defensive city formation of this level?
Wasn’t this something that only existed in the cultivation world?
Where had the mortal world gotten the ability and resources to build such a formation?
He had never heard of it before!
Before coming here, they had clearly purchased intelligence from Wanwantong. Hadn’t they been told that Wanwantong knew the mortal world like the back of its hand?
How could they have no information at all about such a massive city as Xiushui City?
Could it be that Wanwantong had deliberately concealed it?
So much for the mortal world being an extremely barren place.
Moreover, the spiritual energy here seemed to be much denser than elsewhere.
In the supposedly impoverished mortal world, there was such an extraordinary city. Why had Wanwantong not revealed a single thing about it? Could it be that Wanwantong harbored ulterior motives?
Even if Wanwantong had kept silent, logically speaking, other cultivators must have come to the mortal world over the years and seen this city. There was no reason for the cultivation world to have received no information about it at all, was there?
The only possibility was that someone had been able to control the spread of this information—and that someone was Wanwantong.
In the space of a moment, countless doubts arose in the cultivator’s mind. He even forgot to deal with the injuries caused by the backlash.
He had gone from wondering why the mortal world possessed a place so similar to the cultivation world to considering the reason behind Wanwantong’s concealment.
Suddenly, a possibility occurred to him.
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
