The Pure Heart Saintess spread out her Divine Sense, enveloping the two towns.
Upper River Town was not the only dead city; Lower River Town was one too! The so-called lives of the people here were nothing more than a crowd of corpses moving about!
No wonder the Red Dust Ancestor, whose arrival could shake even immortals' Dao Hearts, had failed to stir the slightest ripple here. How could the dead possibly feel anything for a beauty?!
A chill ran down her spine. She had never seen such a scene before.
There were eight small towns near the Red Dust Pure Land. What worried the Pure Heart Saintess was whether the other six towns were also like this.
The other six towns were too far away for her Divine Sense to reach.
Fortunately, Jiang Li soon gave her an answer.
"The other six towns are all normal." Jiang Li thought for a moment, then added, "They're all living people."
The Pure Heart Saintess thought that he might as well not have explained.
The Pure Heart Saintess's Divine Sense could cover two towns because two towns were all she could cover.
Jiang Li's Divine Sense could cover eight towns because there were only eight towns.
Even though the six towns were perfectly normal, the Pure Heart Saintess could not bring herself to feel relieved.
"How long has it been since you people came here? If even one Spirit Transformation Stage cultivator had come, things would not have gotten this bad."
The method of making corpses retain the activities they had possessed in life was extraordinarily sophisticated. Only figures at the Spirit Transformation Stage could detect anything amiss.
The Pure Heart Saintess explained dejectedly, "Spirit Transformation Stage cultivators have already transcended the need for food. To the elders of the sect, Spirit Grain is merely a trivial matter. They do not think there is any need to worry about problems with it, so the sect only sends disciples with no hope of advancing further, those merely at the Golden Core Stage, to be stationed here. One Nascent Soul Realm steward managing eight towns should have been enough. Nothing was supposed to go wrong."
"But now something has gone terribly wrong!" Jiang Li said sternly.
The two arrived at a small tavern below, where the waiter greeted them warmly.
"Well now, you two customers look unfamiliar. You're from outside, aren't you? That's a rare sight. Could this fairy be from the Red Dust Pure Land?"
Seeing the Pure Heart Saintess's peerless beauty, the waiter asked uncertainly. She said nothing, merely nodding.
"Waiter, I'd like to ask you something."
Jiang Li took out a Low-Grade Spirit Stone and placed it on the table.
"Customer, I couldn't possibly accept this, I really couldn't! You two are honored guests from the Red Dust Pure Land. How could I take your money?" The waiter was startled and hurriedly refused.
After some back-and-forth, the waiter still accepted the Spirit Stone.
Copper coins were used for transactions here. A single Low-Grade Spirit Stone was an exceedingly rare thing.
The Pure Heart Saintess raised her brows slightly. The waiter's movements were natural and smooth, without the slightest stiffness. Judging by the naked eye alone, there was no difference between him and a living person.
She carefully examined the waiter with her Divine Sense and discovered a Gu Worm in both his dantian and his sea of consciousness. The two Gu Worms were male and female; one controlled his movements, while the other controlled his thoughts. It was an exceptionally skilled corpse-controlling technique.
It was a corpse-controlling technique unique to the Gu Tribe! And as far as she knew, the disciple stationed here was a Gu Tribesman!
She buried the discovery in her heart and quietly watched Jiang Li converse with the waiter.
"Have any particularly beautiful fairies passed through here these past few years?"
Without hesitation, the waiter said, "You know what, there was one. Two years ago—no, three years ago—a fairy as beautiful as if she had stepped out of a painting passed through here. Everyone stopped eating and ran out to look, but the fairy did not even spare us a glance. She walked straight past barefoot. Some people wanted to follow her, but Fairy Yuan stopped them."
"Fairy Yuan is...?"
"The Fairy Yuan Ling who is stationed here."
"So Fairy Yuan Ling also saw that beauty from the painting. What was her reaction? Did she show an infatuated expression? Did she go up and abduct her?"
The waiter jumped in fright and hurriedly lowered his voice. "Customer, please do not speak nonsense. How could Fairy Yuan Ling lose her composure like that? Her expression remained perfectly normal. She merely praised her faintly, saying she was very beautiful."
The Pure Heart Saintess's delicate brows furrowed. Junior Sister Yuan Ling was from the Gu Tribe, so naturally she could not be a descendant of the Red Dust Ancestor. Why was she unaffected as well?
Strange. Truly strange.
As though he had not noticed the issue, Jiang Li chatted idly with the waiter about matters such as this year's harvest, where Yuan Ling was now, how many Spirit Stones the Red Dust Pure Land paid for Spirit Grain, and whether there had been any skimming.
The waiter assumed the two had been sent by the Red Dust Pure Land to investigate, so he answered every question truthfully.
At last, Jiang Li asked with a smile, "Do you know that you're already dead?"
The waiter said blankly, "Customer, what are you talking about?"
"Haha, just a joke, just a joke." Jiang Li laughed it off and let the baffled waiter return to his work.
"Yuan Ling did this?"
"Don't jump to conclusions so early. You heard it too—Yuan Ling was not affected by the Red Dust Fairy. This matter is not as simple as it looks."
"Yuan Ling should only be at the Golden Core Stage. Yet judging from how developed these Gu Worms are, making these people no different from the living, even unaware that they are already dead, is not something a Golden Core Stage cultivator could possibly accomplish."
"Besides, it is not necessarily only Gu Tribesmen who know how to use Gu."
Jiang Li had roamed the world for many years and seen all manner of strange and bizarre things. Naturally, he considered more than Jing Xin, a Holy Maiden who had only made a token descent from the mountain for a few years before returning to the sect.
Unfortunately, the Gu Tribe had declined and chosen to withdraw from the world, leaving Jiang Li with little knowledge of their affairs as well.
"Yuan Ling isn't here. I don't know where she went."
"Come on, let's go to Lower River Town. I sensed a female Golden Core Stage cultivator there. She should be one of your people." Jiang Li scanned Upper River Town and Lower River Town once more with his Divine Sense, but found no Golden Core Stage aura in Upper River Town.
Du Xiner sat cross-legged within a cheap Spirit Gathering Array, cultivating with all her might. Yet she did not know what had happened in recent years—her spiritual power had not increased in the slightest. Her body felt like a leaky bucket; however much spiritual energy entered, that much flowed out.
"Perhaps I truly am not suited for cultivation. Coming here was fitting for someone like me." Du Xiner laughed bitterly. She felt that choosing to come to Lower River Town had been the right decision. "Someone like me would only be a burden if I stayed in the sect. Better to come out here."
"Who said you were a burden?" A clear voice rang beside Du Xiner's ear. Only then did she realize that the Pure Heart Saintess stood before her, with a rather handsome man standing beside her.
For some reason, tears seemed to be welling in the Saintess's eyes.
How could the Pure Heart Saintess not feel sorrowful? She did not have a deep impression of Yuan Ling, but Du Xiner was different. She remembered her vividly.
The Golden Core Stage junior sisters all considered her an aloof Saintess beyond their reach and did not dare approach her. Among those at the Golden Core Stage, only Du Xiner had dared repeatedly seek her out to ask about the knowledge of cultivation.
Yet after only a few years apart, they were now separated by life and death.
In the Pure Heart Saintess's eyes, Du Xiner was likewise a moving corpse! "Senior Sister has wronged you. Senior Sister has failed in her duty..."
The Pure Heart Saintess knelt on the ground, embraced Du Xiner, and sobbed.
Not knowing what was going on, Du Xiner could only remain seated cross-legged and gently pat the Pure Heart Saintess's back.