Cultivation Chat

The three little ones walked away happily.

Yue Wen let them go not because he was afraid of his knees cracking... well, maybe just a tiny bit.

Mostly he realized quite quickly that they neither had the guts to commit crimes in human cities nor the intelligence to lie and deceive him.

They were merely pitiful little demons living in the shadows of the city.

The Wasteland Zone was dangerous to them, and the city was dangerous to them too; only that cult leader could temporarily protect their safety, leaving them no choice but to obey orders.

Before they left, however, Yue Wen had already warned them that no matter what plans their Meow Meow Cult had, they must not come to the East City Graveyard to make trouble again these next two days.

Once these past two days, the matter would have nothing to do with him.

Given his impression of the three little ones, Yue Wen figured their cult leader might not necessarily be a bad person either... could a true bad person take in a few useless stray cats?

After that, he happily continued farming Lantern Monsters until dawn.

Early in the morning, Old Man Huang rode his small yellow electric scooter tut-tut-tutting over to the graveyard. Looking at the big craters that had been dug out, the old man stood dazed for a while.

"A few demonic entities came to make trouble last night, and the battle was quite intense," Yue Wen said. "Fortunately, I drove them all away single-handedly."

"Ah?" Old Man Huang said in surprise, "No demonic entities have ever come to the East City Graveyard before!"

"I don't know what happened either," Yue Wen cautioned. "Still, after I leave, you'd better pay attention to your safety, Grandpa. If you hear any abnormal noises, report it to the Supervision Bureau early and don't go checking blindly."

"I know that," Old Man Huang chuckled. "Usually when it gets late at night, I stay inside my room and focus on reading. I don't go outside no matter what noises I hear out there."

Yue Wen glanced at the bookshelves over there and couldn't help reminding him, "Take care of your health."

With Old Man Huang here to take over the shift, it was time for him to go back. Having busied himself for half the night and cleared out more than half of the Lantern Monsters, cleaning out the other half tonight would pretty much finish the job.

If not for the three little ones making trouble, he probably could have finished the work in a single night.

Even so, the three little ones had also provided him with information about a mysterious magic artifact, so his trip hadn't been in vain. It was just that Vermilion Bird Peak was indeed somewhat dangerous. He planned to wait until he broke through to the Gang Realm before exploring the Wasteland Zone.

Cultivators possessed a total of nine realms, with the lower three realms being the Outer Realm, Inner Realm, and Unity Realm respectively.

These three realms first trained the muscles, bones, and skin externally, then the true primal qi internally, and finally united essence, qi, and spirit. Once the union of essence, qi, and spirit reached a certain level, one could use raging fire to refine gang, catalysing gang qi that integrated the primal spirit of heaven and earth—this was known as the Gang Realm.

The threshold of the Gang Realm blocked at least seventy percent of cultivators, making it a veritable chasm and moat.

Only by stepping beyond the lower three realms could one be considered a true powerhouse, capable of walking the Wasteland Zone with comparative confidence.

With his current strength, entering the Wasteland Zone was still far too risky.

Returning to the agency, there were still no commissions.

Yue Wen went straight up to the small bed on the second floor, preparing to sleep for a bit. Although cultivators could replenish their mental energy through meditation after reaching the Unity Realm, theoretically achieving a state of sleeplessness, adequate sleep still restored one's spirit nicely—much like adding oil to a lamp; barring extreme circumstances, there was no need to burn that midnight oil.

Naturally, cultivators still had one essential ritual before sleeping: playing on their phones.

He unlocked his phone, tapped into an app called Cultivation Chat, and first opened the search bar to type in the three characters "Meow Meow Cult".

Zero results.

Cultivation Chat had initially been a forum called "Cultivation Chatroom", later developing into a large-scale community used by cultivators everywhere, covering industry news, trading information, chat and socializing, local booking for lessons, and all-encompassing content.

If even Cultivation Chat couldn't search for this organization, it meant they were either extremely mysterious with deeply hidden, massive influence, or absolute nobodies with zero fame and completely unknown.

Yue Wen figured this Meow Meow Cult was mostly the latter.

With no search results, he smoothly proceeded to browse the trending news on Cultivation Chat.

Ranking at number one was a headline about Venerable Mu Yang of the ancient Immortal Gate Tai Chi Eight Desolations Sect breaking into the Whale Swallowing Sea and returning carrying half a dragon corpse!

The most dangerous locations within the Wasteland Zone were designated as "Forbidden Lands". Among the many forbidden lands in the world, while several were extremely perilous and deserved to be called human dead zones, they still attracted countless cultivators to brave danger and explore them because they contained massive amounts of immortal treasures.

These were the four "Immortal Treasure Forbidden Lands".

The Whale Swallowing Sea ranked among them.

That was a gale that rampaged across the four seas like a phantom; once it appeared, whether giant whales or mountain demons, no matter how large their size, they would be sucked into the vortex with not a single survivor. Among the four Immortal Treasure Forbidden Lands, it belonged to the one with the lowest survival rate.

Yet Venerable Mu Yang not only escaped from it, but also brought back half of a gigantic dragon corpse of incalculable value—simply appalling.

Someone happened to take a photo of him carrying the dragon across the sea. Although his face was unclear, the scene of that ancient skeleton blotting out the sky was nothing short of shocking even across a screen.

Some also guessed that since countless rare treasures lay within the Immortal Treasure Forbidden Lands and he managed to return alive, his gains perhaps far exceeded just this.

Beneath this explosive news were some insider rumors of unknown authenticity, with the top comment being:

[Born Sphincter Sacred Body Inspiringly Crushing the Golden-Hooped Rod: I have a friend who is an inner disciple of the Tai Chi Eight Desolations Sect. He said the reason Venerable Mu Yang paraded the dragon corpse around in public was because he obtained a supreme treasure too large to fit into any Storage Magic Artifact, forcing him to hide it inside the dragon corpse to cover it up. As for what it is, he told me to go to his room tonight to find out...]

Many replies waited beneath this comment, with numerous people urging him and asking why he still hadn't come out to drop the inside scoop after a whole night had passed.

Looking at this abstract online moniker, Yue Wen thought to himself that this person's words weren't necessarily reliable either.

Ranking second was a jianghu kill order issued by another ancient Immortal Gate, the Heavenly Nether Earth Mother Sect, with the target being pursued named Gu Nanchao.

This name was likewise known to everyone in the cultivation world.

Southern Dynasty Immortal, number one divine thief under heaven.

The treasures he had stolen in the past were countless, and his victims included several top-tier Immortal Gates, the consequence being that he had at least dozens of jianghu kill orders of varying sizes hanging over his back from various Immortal Gates.

Yet let alone capturing Gu Nanchao, not even a single photo of his actual face had leaked out to this day.

Even the Supervision Bureau had launched large-scale manhunts against him, yet remained completely helpless. Their final conclusion was that his cultivation was top-tier and he possessed some sort of immortal artifact, making successful capture extremely difficult.

Now he had infuriated the Heavenly Nether Earth Mother Sect once again, though who knew what supreme treasure he had stolen yet again.

The trending topic ranking third was presumably pushed up through paid promotion: a missing person notice published by the Tianfu Zhao Family.

However, rather than asking Cultivation Chat netizens to help search for someone, it was because the Eldest Young Lady of the Zhao family had run away from home and nobody could contact her. The Patriarch of the Zhao family publicly issued a message apologizing to his daughter, hoping she would return home soon.

As a renowned cultivation aristocratic family in the Tianfu region, the Zhao family held immense prestige in the southwest cultivation world; who would have thought that even such a large family could fail to handle family parenting issues properly.

The trending comments below didn't contain a shred of sympathy or help, consisting entirely of shameless netizens stirring up trouble.

[Ex-boyfriend fighting five black men in a rainy night for Gang Realm: Father! If Eldest Sister truly refuses to come home, then I am willing to support you in your old age!]

Yue Wen chuckled as he read, scrolled through the news a bit more, and feeling that the drowsiness was setting in, put away his phone to catch up on sleep.

Who would have thought that right at that moment, a knock sounded from outside.

"Why'd they have to come at a time like this?" he muttered, putting his clothes back on, crawling out of bed, and walking quickly downstairs while calling out, "Coming, who is it?"

Just as he reached the landing, his expression shifted from cloudy to sunny.

Standing at the doorway was a young woman wearing a slender, white, body-hugging thin dress.

Her figure was tall and well-proportioned, probably around one hundred and seventy-five centimeters. Her black hair was clipped back slightly, hanging smoothly behind her, and her face was fair and translucent, as if bathed in a layer of soft light. Her brows and eyes were gentle, her pretty pupils clear-gazing, and a faint smile played across her face.

The long dress matched with a cardigan, her hands held lightly behind her, making her entire person standing there resemble a clear and elegant white flower.

"Hello." Seeing Yue Wen come downstairs, the young woman pushed the door open, gently nodded, and asked in a soft voice, "Excuse me, is this place hiring assistants? I'm here to apply."

Good morning.

(End of chapter)