Yu Ziqing truly had not expected Great Li to make such a grand display while probing so cautiously.
From the current disaster-relief efforts in Western Great Li to the merchant caravan Cècè encountered at the border of Western Great Li, all of it was part of the other side's roundabout probing beyond the Wasteland.
He even suspected that someone in that merchant caravan had already seen through Cècè's identity as a Starvation Ghost, and had secretly used some Spirit Refining secret art that caused Cècè to overlook many things.
Even if the other side had not seen through Cècè's identity as a Starvation Ghost, Cècè's physical body was actually not very strong after transforming into one. She was more like a Spirit Refining cultivator among Starvation Ghosts, naturally possessing control over a domain that could cause Cècè to fall prey without noticing anything, and leave her unaware afterward. In that case, even if the other side was not a seventh-rank great Spirit Refining cultivator of the Yang God realm, they could not be far off.
Cècè had told them that she was from the borderlands of the Kuihou Kingdom, and that she had fled to evade natural disasters as well as the White Sun heretics' pursuit. Most of what she said had been true.
As for Er Han, don't assume he was stupid. From beginning to end, he had played a big, expressionless fool of a guard. To prevent himself from saying the wrong thing, he had actually endured it without uttering a single word.
Yu Ziqing reckoned that the other side definitely knew Cècè and Er Han had eventually gone to the Wasteland.
If the Great Li court investigated backward from there, tracing where Cècè and Er Han had been, they should not come up completely empty-handed.
They would eventually conclude that there were still living people in the Wasteland. It was only a matter of time.
Of course, Yu Ziqing had considered this problem long ago. They could not hide in Jinlan Mountain forever and never go out.
Nor could they keep others from learning forever that there were still living people in Jinlan Mountain, and that they had not been casually killed by the King of Hungry Ghosts.
No matter how beautifully they spun it, the people of Jinlan Village had not died. That alone was the most unreasonable part.
Because if the King of Hungry Ghosts did not care about them, or had deliberately wanted to kill them, they should all have died. They could survive only because the King of Hungry Ghosts had deliberately bypassed them and deliberately preserved them.
Their lack of resources had forced them to make contact with the outside world. Yu Ziqing had already discussed this with Old Yang and the Village Chief.
Their story would remain the same as what Old Yang had said at the beginning. Even the fact that Yu Ziqing had awakened the King of Hungry Ghosts sleeping in the Jade Tomb could be kept as a trump-card secret, to be leaked if necessary.
As Old Yang had said, once a secret was seen or heard by others, it was no longer a secret.
Forget the idea that everyone was on the same side and would keep their mouths shut. As long as you were not strong enough, and the other side was willing to pay the price and could bear the consequences, they would have a way to make you leak the secret without your knowing it or realizing what was happening.
The significance of such a secret was that it could be stabbed out at a critical moment.
Or it could be left for those with ulterior motives to rack their brains digging for it, until they unearthed the truth they believed had been buried deepest.
Contact with the outside world was imperative.
Old Yang was not even certain that he could replant the Jinlan Mushrooms. If they lost that resource, they would have to think about it even more carefully.
In the current Wasteland, the north was already comparable to the former Far-North Icefield. The central and southern regions where Jinlan Village lay were much better, but winter had lasted nearly half a year and still had not passed. It was still snowing.
Old Yang had also said that, according to his estimate, the area around Jinlan Village might become so cold in the future that even summer would hardly warm it enough to grow crops. Or perhaps the summers when temperatures rose would become so brief that they would not last until a harvest.
It was better to prepare for rain before it fell. Contact with the outside world was inevitable, and rather than scrambling around at that point, they might as well take the initiative now.
They absolutely could not remain trapped in one corner as they had before. Otherwise, who knew whether some disaster unrelated to them might one day come crashing down on their heads?
He had heard that sect disciples who reached a certain level of strength were all sent down the mountain to gain experience. Many of the experts within the sects also liked to wander everywhere. Yu Ziqing always felt that, to some degree, they were trying to prevent their sects from being wiped out in one fell swoop.
They definitely had to learn from that.
They had discussed at length where to begin expanding.
West of Jinlan Mountain lay a Wasteland stretching for more than ten thousand li. The farther west and north one went, the colder it became, so that direction was temporarily out of consideration.
That left only Great Zhen to the northeast, Great Li due east, and Great Qian to the southeast.
Of course, these three referred only to geographical positions, not the courts.
Great Qian was the first place Yu Ziqing eliminated.
Its geographical position was too good. The climate was warm, its population was large, its territory vast, and its resources abundant. It also bordered the sea and possessed several major ports. Its overall strength surpassed the other two, and it contained the greatest number of sects as well.
When Yu Ziqing first heard this description, his immediate reaction had been that if the three kingdoms went to war, he would definitely cling to Great Qian's thigh. Its advantages were simply too obvious. If anyone ultimately unified the world, there was an eighty percent chance it would be Great Qian.
Moreover, small-scale conflicts had already continued for nearly a hundred years. He did not know whether the principle that the world must reunite after a long division applied to this world, but if he joined in at that moment and caught the wind, perhaps he could even become a duke of a kingdom someday.
Old Yang's first choice for Yu Ziqing had also been Great Qian. Competition there was fierce, but there were many resources and many opportunities.
But Yu Ziqing ruled it out.
He had not forgotten why Old Yang had become a sheep in the first place.
At least for now, while he was still weak, he would not go to Great Qian.
Cècè had brought back more than just those experiences this time. Along the way, she had also heard quite a few things.
For example, at Great Qian's Langya Academy, one of the academy heads had perished in the Wasteland, during the period of the Great Sun Descends.
There was simply no word on who it had been.
Yu Ziqing had never asked, but he knew that it definitely referred to Old Yang.
At that time, throughout the entire Wasteland, it would have been impossible to find a second person who matched all the following conditions as well as Old Yang did.
A mortal, an old man, with broad and profound knowledge of astronomy and geography, cultivation and alchemy, cultivation methods and secret arts. Even if he was not particularly proficient in some areas, he seemed to understand a little about everything.
Why had he faked his death? Why had he been forced to completely alter the form of his life, turning into a mountain goat and then becoming a demon?
Considering the Great Sun Descends in the Wasteland back then and the disasters that followed, one only had to look at the Wasteland now, with Hungry Ghosts surging like a tide and blotting out the sky.
Taking into account that starving to death did not necessarily turn one into a Starvation Ghost, and that becoming a Starvation Ghost did not necessarily mean surviving until the Hungry Ghost Path opened, it was conservative to say that several million people had died in the Wasteland between the arrival of the disaster and today.
With such an enormous calamity, if it had merely been a natural disaster, why would Old Yang, an academy head, have needed to hide? Why would anyone have wanted to kill him?
And why had they pursued him in secret, hiding their heads and showing their tails, afraid of being discovered?
And what about Old Yang's protectors and accompanying guards? Where had every single one of them gone?
Most likely, they had all died.
Yet to this day, after every side investigated the disasters that had once occurred in the Wasteland, the conclusion was always that they had been natural disasters.
Once that conclusion was reached, the White Sun heretics had eagerly come to ride the wave, claiming that this was a heavenly auspicious sign, a revelation Heaven had given them.
Because of this, Yu Ziqing had an instinctive dislike for those heretics.
An auspicious sign, my ass.
During those first few months after he had arrived, Yu Ziqing had watched with his own eyes as one person after another collapsed within his field of vision. He had watched people driven mad, frenziedly devouring White Meat. He never wanted to see that scene of hell on earth a second time in his life.
So from then on, whenever he saw a White Sun heretic calling these things heavenly auspicious signs, he would kill them.
Looking back, Great Qian had supposedly sent an academy head to personally investigate the Wasteland, and the Imperial Guard had also come to investigate. Yet the result had still been the same.
If Old Yang had not been lying beside him, Yu Ziqing might truly have believed it was a purely natural disaster, and that the fallen academy head had simply been unlucky, with no human influence involved at all.
Taking all the scattered details and various suspicious points together, eliminating suspects one by one, and considering who possessed the ability to accomplish all of this without leaving the slightest trace—
Who else could it be?
Only someone who was simultaneously a contestant, a referee, and a third-party inspector.
Only the Great Qian court.
Old Yang had taught him many things, naturally making him understand that he had to respect many things and not become too arrogant.
Therefore, in his current weakling state, Yu Ziqing truly did not dare go to Great Qian.
He feared encountering the one acting as referee and having the other side detect even the tiniest flaw. The result would only be killing the wrong person rather than letting anyone go.
He would not close his eyes and think of those who had died tragically, then open them to see Hungry Ghosts everywhere and grow resentful toward whoever had caused all this. He was a weakling, and a weakling's resentment was worthless. It would only hurt him.
Of course, once he had the ability and strength in the future, he would not mind investigating whether it had truly been a natural disaster or a man-made one. If it had been man-made, then he would smash the mastermind's dog head, scatter his soul, and ensure he could never be reborn.
With all that considered, only Great Zhen and Great Li remained as choices for contacting the outside world.
Either one would work, actually. In the overall ranking of Body Refiners, Great Zhen was the highest, and Great Li came second. In Great Qian, Body Refiners were famous for having a hard life.
With the entire village practicing Body Refining, Great Zhen was actually the best choice.
But for some reason, Great Li had already begun probing cautiously.
Or rather, it was a grand display that was also a cautious goodwill gesture.
They spent resources scattering huge batches of grain among the common people. Everyone who saw it received a share. They did not ask who you were. As long as you were in Western Great Li, whoever came would receive a large pile of grain. It did not matter if you could not finish it; they would tell you that it was not only food but also seed for you to plant when spring arrived.
And the people of Great Li are all hardworking, industrious souls. To prevent the land you reclaim from being too large for you to plant, we're giving you extra.
This was the Eastern Palace governing in the emperor's stead and widely extending benevolent rule. It was entirely reasonable.
To this day, Yu Ziqing still could not figure out why. If this was treated as Great Li's goodwill, then no matter how he looked at it, Great Li was lowering itself. That was far too unnecessary.
Yet they had already established a certain kind of contact with Great Li: You pretend not to know that I've noticed you, and I'll pretend not to know that you've noticed me.
Only by putting everything together could Yu Ziqing confirm that this might truly be an expression of goodwill.
Toward the mortals of Jinlan Mountain who were still alive.
Before you continue