Western Desolation Was Different

The two hurried onward, wanting to leave as quickly as possible.

Cècè's expression was cold, and a hint of killing intent had appeared between her brows.

The main reason she had brought Er Han was that although his Body Refining progress was slightly slower than the Village Chief's, his foundation was the most solid. In a real clash of strength, that outrageous Village Chief might not necessarily be Er Han's match.

Besides, Er Han had learned nothing else and had no idea how to conceal himself. Anyone who wasn't blind could tell at a glance that he was a Body Refining cultivator with astonishingly vigorous Blood Essence. Normally, someone with such a foundation would at least be a Blood Sea Realm body cultivator.

In the Three-Way Land, where there were no true powerhouses, only a chaotic mix of ghosts, monsters, and freaks, that was already extremely impressive.

Though body cultivators had low status, once they reached the Blood Sea Realm or the even higher Body Transformation Realm, many cultivators who followed other paths liked to keep one such body cultivator by their side. They were incredibly useful as meat shields, to say nothing of how keenly sensitive their bodies were. Many things whose nature they couldn't even identify could still be sensed as dangerous in advance.

As for the even higher Supernatural Realm, no one would call body cultivators trash anymore. On the contrary, these hard-to-kill fellows were even more intimidating.

It was only because high-level body cultivators were too rare, while low-level body cultivators were as common as oxen and horses, that people often used "poor wretches" as a nickname for them.

If a seventh-level body-cultivator grand cultivator really stood before you, let's see who would dare address him that way.

Er Han was currently at the third stage, Returning to the Apertures, with nearly six hundred apertures opened and Blood Essence as vigorous as the sea. He was even stronger than ordinary Blood Sea Realm body cultivators. Moreover, Er Han looked just like a guard, so ordinary people definitely wouldn't dare provoke him. It simply wasn't worth it.

They might fail to kill him today and let him escape, only for him to gather people tomorrow and come back to hack them to death with a storm of blades.

That said, Cècè still maintained the proper caution. Whenever she sensed something amiss, she immediately fled. Their main purpose in coming out this time wasn't to fight.

After traveling for a whole day, they had gone from the Three-Way Land where the three nations met to the border between Great Li, Great Qian, and the Wasteland. Thick snow once again blanketed the earth, and only then did Cècè slow down a little.

She looked around and confirmed that there was no danger before taking out a bottle of pills and handing it to Er Han, letting him replenish his strength in preparation for anything unexpected.

She stood still with her eyes closed. A phantom of the Abyss of Despair flew out from within her body. After becoming insubstantial, it rapidly expanded, then vanished in the blink of an eye.

Yet within an area invisible—and even imperceptible—to the naked eye, the Abyss of Despair had already expanded to cover a radius of dozens of miles. After turning insubstantial, the Abyss of Despair no longer possessed any offensive power, but it had become an all-encompassing, dead-angle-free detection field.

Within dozens of miles, there was only one living person. That person was heading south and should merely be a passing cultivator. Their strength was not high.

Once Er Han had taken the pills and recovered from his Blood Essence expenditure, Cècè was just about to withdraw the Abyss of Despair when a hooded cultivator in white robes came rushing toward them through the air, three feet above the ground.

The instant he entered the detection field, he seemed to notice something. His white robes stirred without wind, and in an instant, several white-robed people appeared around him, scattering in all directions.

Another white-robed person was holding the innkeeper from that earlier establishment by the collar.

The innkeeper said something. In the next moment, his head was separated from his body, and he died horribly in the snow.

Cècè withdrew the detection field and glanced at the jade bottle she had just taken out before casually tossing it to Er Han.

"Crush it."

Er Han's two great hands were like cattail fans. He gripped the jade bottle and rubbed his palms together once. The bottle instantly crumbled into powder. Whatever tricks someone had tampered with it, they were useless now.

"Let's go. Head north to Great Li."

She recognized the white-robed man's clothing and the secret technique he used while traveling. She had previously thought the innkeeper might be trying to fleece them, but she had guessed wrong. That fellow had sold Er Han's information to the Joy Lantern Priest of the White Sun Evil Sacrifice.

It made sense. No Joy Lantern Priest would probably remain unmoved after encountering a humanoid ferocious beast like Er Han.

These lingering pests stirred up storms wherever they went. Their appearance in a place like the Three-Way Land wasn't surprising at all.

Cècè extended her hand. A chain shot from her sleeve and wrapped around Er Han's waist. With a twist of her body, she swung Er Han up and flung him high into the air toward the north.

Then her figure blurred. A Hungry Ghost aspect faintly emerged, and her entire body floated into the air. Wrapped in the snowstorm, she flew north three feet above the ground.

After flying for a while, the chain shot out again and caught Er Han just before he fell, flinging him onward once more.

Half a day later, after traveling five hundred miles north, neither of them had set foot on the ground again. Er Han was dizzy and disoriented from being flung around, yet he endured without making a sound. He could tell that Cècè was struggling badly. The Hungry Ghost aspect had already fully manifested.

They finally came across a stone cave, giving them a chance to rest.

Cècè took out a wooden bowl filled to the brim with Sweet Dew. Yu Ziqing had specially prepared it for her before they departed.

She took out some more pills meant for Ghostly beings, soaked them in the Sweet Dew, and swallowed them. Only then did the Hungry Ghost aspect that had already appeared on her body slowly fade away. The Yin energy around her also drew inward, and a trace of living human aura returned to her.

As Hungry Ghosts, there were many things they couldn't eat directly, while the effects of the things they could eat would be greatly reduced. There was nothing to be done about it. No one had yet specifically researched such things for Hungry Ghosts.

The only solution was to mix in the Sweet Dew from the Alms Sacred Artifact. That produced the best effect and could also conceal the aura of a Hungry Ghost.

She liked the appearance of a human body very much. Even though her strongest state came after manifesting her true Hungry Ghost form, she still preferred how she looked now.

After resting for a while, she glanced south. After thinking it over, she waved to Er Han.

"Er Han, come here."

As Er Han walked over, he failed to notice that he had already stepped outside the stone cave, leaving two footprints in the snow.

"Let's keep going." Cècè smiled and swung out the chain again, carrying Er Han into the air with her.

At the same time, the Joy Lantern Priest who had taken a liking to Er Han continued pursuing them relentlessly. Yet when he reached the Wasteland border, he could no longer track any trace of them.

After searching for a long while, he found only the jade bottle Er Han had crushed into powder.

He thought for a moment, then looked up at the sky. Someone must have been waiting to receive them here, or perhaps they had possessed a flying Dharma Treasure that carried them away. Otherwise, a body cultivator couldn't possibly have left no traces.

He looked left and right, completely unsure where to pursue them. Great Li lay above and Great Qian below. After thinking about the chaotic list of things the innkeeper had given him—containing practically everything—he decided that people from Great Qian probably wouldn't have come here to buy them.

He turned and pursued them toward Great Li. A perfect White Robed Dao Soldier was worth far more than several hundred or several thousand disposable fillers.

After pursuing them for several hundred miles, he still hadn't caught up. If not for the immense temptation of a perfect White Robed Dao Soldier, he would have given up long ago. A body cultivator with such vigorous Blood Essence and a physique like a savage beast could accompany him as he grew. Perhaps one day, when the White Robed Dao Soldier had reached the seventh level while he was still at the sixth, it could even carry him through the air in return.

The temptation was simply too great. He couldn't give it up.

At last, a day later, he reached the entrance of a stone cave. With a gentle wave of his hand, he swept away the snow there and saw two footprints that were already difficult to make out.

He was overjoyed. After laughing loudly several times, he continued chasing toward Great Li.

"Cècè, big sister, what are we doing?"

"Someone wants to capture you. I'm saving you. As it happens, Young Master already dislikes those White Sun heretics, and Great Li dislikes them even more. We'll just dig a pit and bury him. Otherwise, with that dog chasing us, it'll be hard for us to return safely."

After they entered Great Li's territory and began to encounter traces of human habitation, Cècè discovered that Great Li was a tiny bit different from what she had imagined.

There were refugees fleeing the famine, but she saw none of the scenes of corpses from starvation littering the ground. Every so often, people could be seen preparing food for the refugees and pointing them in the right direction. There were even soldiers escorting the commoners and maintaining order.

She had just seen a flying boat transporting provisions. It was practically extravagant...

She had seen quite a few things while alive, and had heard even more. On the journey fleeing to Jinlan Village, she had witnessed scenes of corpses littering the ground and hell on earth.

But a scene like the one before her, with cultivators piloting flying boats and continuously unloading provisions along the way, was something she had never even heard of.

The spiritual jade consumed by that flying boat alone was worth far more than the provisions it transported.

After thinking it over, Cècè couldn't help laughing. Great Li really had ideas. When she returned and told Young Master, he would definitely laugh out loud.

Seeing this, Cècè also slowed down. They had already traveled nearly a thousand miles into Great Li, and now that she had witnessed this orderly scene...

If there weren't several Shadow Division spies within ten miles, that was absolutely impossible.

"Remember this. If a white-robed fellow like the one who caused trouble in the village before tries to capture you, I'll give you a signal. Then immediately shout the words I taught you at the top of your voice."

"Oh. But I heard Brother Ziqing say that I might not be able to beat someone like that..."

"What did the Village Chief tell you?"

"I understand."

Half a day later, a long migrating line stretched across the snowy ground. Er Han and Cècè followed at the very rear, wrapped in blankets and looking no different from the commoners.

Suddenly, Cècè shouted sharply at Er Han.

"Shout."

Er Han froze, then immediately leaped up. The energy in his chest erupted, and his voice boomed like thunder exploding across a flat plain.

"White Sun bitch, do you think my Great Li has no one? How dare you run rampant here! I'll fight you to the death!"

His furious shout shook the land for more than ten miles.

Within that several-mile-long procession, one person heard the words "White Sun," and his scalp nearly exploded.

Thinking of this mission, he pulled something from his robes without hesitation. It transformed into a streak of light that shot into the sky, becoming the phantom of a gigantic golden halberd.

After Er Han's furious shout, he immediately charged out of the procession, whipping up a sky full of snow. He looked as if he were going to fight someone to the death, and within a few breaths, he vanished without a trace.

Cècè, who had been in the procession, also disappeared at some unknown point.

Several miles away, the Joy Lantern Priest had finally caught up with them. Before he could even make a move, he heard the distant curses. That cry of "White Sun bitch" struck him right in his weak spot.

When he saw the phantom of a golden halberd appear in the sky, he shot upward without hesitation and turned to flee.

Someone had cursed him—and cursed him so viciously. The signal of the Great Li Western Desolation Army had already exploded, so there was no room for any wishful thinking.

The instant he fled, he exposed himself. At a time like this, how could Great Li think of anything else? They would kill this White Sun heretic first and worry about the rest afterward.

A hundred miles away, a flying boat rapidly approached. The Great General of the Western Desolation was fully armed, and he hadn't removed the armor on his body for many days.

When he saw the signal flare and the message sent back—White Sun heretics had appeared—the Great General of the Western Desolation's face turned green.

He was stationed in western Great Li and knew quite a bit about what had happened in the Wasteland. If he hadn't been held back, he should have gone to the Wasteland to reinforce them at the time.

He naturally understood that the Eastern Palace had issued a death order and had even sent the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue here personally to take charge and coordinate matters. It wasn't because of the "winning the people's hearts" those useless censors had talked about. What did those good-for-nothing censors, who ate and drank well in the imperial capital, know? No wonder Emperor Li had summarily ordered two of them executed.

These past few days, he had been mentally and physically exhausted. He truly felt that making sure not a single commoner starved to death while also protecting next year's spring plowing was far harder than fighting Great Qian.

Fortunately, he was only assisting from the sidelines.

That Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue was so pressured that he could barely eat. He hadn't even listened to music, and he hadn't so much as glanced at the two courtesans from the Kuihou Kingdom sent to him...

Under normal circumstances, everyone knew that these White Sun cockroaches could never be completely killed or eradicated. Unless something major happened, no one had the energy to stomp each one to death individually. After all the commotion, most of the time they merely circulated at the bottom levels.

But at a time like this, a White Sun heretic had actually come here to cause trouble. Wasn't this trying to kill him?

If one came, he would kill one. If two came, he would kill both!

The Great General of the Western Desolation stepped out of the flying boat, his eyes bloodshot. He couldn't wait any longer and flew out personally...

Thanks to White Dog Passing Through a Gap for the ten-thousand-coin tip, and thank you for your kindness and support.