After Guangshen and the other two left.
Within two days.
Several more groups from different factions entered Canyun Mountain—
White Whale Martial Arts Hall, Fangcun Sword Hall, and the Four Seas Gang.
Whether Meng Qingshan or Yun Tianliu, both were prominent figures in their respective factions.
Even Zhao Wei was a hall master in his own right. Once they realized something had happened, the major factions couldn't simply turn a blind eye. Their people would lose heart.
Sadly, they were fated to arrive in grief and leave disappointed.
Worse, Wu Dao had erased the bodies so thoroughly that even every trace of Flesh Tai Sui was gone.
They couldn't even determine whether the killer had been a person or Flesh Tai Sui, let alone come up with a vague suspect.
For a long time to come.
This was destined to remain an unsolved case with no leads.
As for Wu Dao.
After leaving Canyun Mountain.
He had done some asking around and learned the location of White Whale Martial Arts Hall's main hall. He had also gotten a general sense of its personnel and structure.
White Whale Martial Arts Hall was a rising power in Guangqing Prefecture, one that had emerged over the past few decades.
With the legacy of the old Giant Whale Sect and the iron-fisted methods of its leaders, it had quickly become one of Guangqing Prefecture's dominant powers, strong enough to contend with the Four Seas Gang.
Its Chief Hall Master was Qi Canghai.
According to rumor, he was an Innate Qi Sect who had crossed the Third Rebirth and opened the Heaven-Man Bridge in his Qi Sea Dantian.
His Tyrant Whale Fist was a force to behold.
His Giant Whale Art had tempered his body to perfection.
His skill was peerless, his reputation fearsome.
Behind his back, the jianghu of Guangqing Prefecture called him the "White Whale King." He was as renowned as Meng Huaishan, the Four Seas Gang Leader in the south, known as the "Black Whale King."
The White Whale Martial Arts Hall under his command was even more extraordinary.
Over the past few decades.
Da Li had steadily declined. Local governments had been gradually corrupted, and official rules and constraints had become little more than empty words.
All sorts of jianghu factions and people from every walk of life had expanded rapidly during this period. White Whale Martial Arts Hall was the largest of them all.
By now.
Its martial arts halls had sprung up everywhere, its experts were as numerous as clouds, and it had nearly ten thousand disciples. Its reach extended into every trade in northern Guangqing Prefecture.
Brothels, gambling dens, docks, taverns, escort agencies, mines—even monopolies in the security trade...
Though nominally a martial arts hall, White Whale Martial Arts Hall.
By now, it had become a vast organization combining "fists, power, and money."
Countless poor wretches dreamed of joining it, becoming someone important, rising above the crowd, and living without worry over food or clothing.
It was no exaggeration to say that in northern Guangqing Prefecture, the will of White Whale Martial Arts Hall carried more weight than the prefect's word. It was the undisputed emperor of the underworld.
Once you held power within it.
You could summon wind and rain at will, with wealth and beautiful women within easy reach. You could practically strut across all of Guangqing Prefecture.
If Wu Dao wanted to leverage its power to quickly gather information about anomalies, the White Whale Martial Arts Hall's vast intelligence network would certainly meet his needs.
After learning about White Whale Martial Arts Hall.
Wu Dao didn't immediately set off for its main hall in Lancang City.
He knew very little about this unfamiliar world, especially its supernatural side. He was ignorant of even the most basic common knowledge.
So after leaving Canyun Mountain.
As he headed toward the city of Lancang Commandery, where White Whale Martial Arts Hall's main hall was located, he slowed his pace and questioned all sorts of people, learning about the supernatural side of this strange world.
As the old saying went.
Traveling ten thousand miles was better than reading ten thousand books.
After several days.
Information from all sides came together.
Wu Dao had finally shed his illiterate status. He understood one thing and then another, truly integrating into this world. He had also gained a basic understanding of the various workings of humanity's supernatural path.
As for the anomalies he cared about most.
Although information about them was scarce in the jianghu, they existed, so someone was bound to know something.
The basic facts.
Wu Dao had already learned and verified through many inquiries.
Broadly speaking.
The anomalies currently appearing in the world fell into three categories—
Ghosts, demons, and ferocious monsters.
Ghosts were the supernatural.
They were formed from the souls of dead living beings.
Because life itself was instinctively afraid of death.
These beings, which embodied death.
Had acquired a sinister, dark, and terrifying reputation through tales passed down over the ages and accounts of strange happenings.
Gradually, they had become synonymous with the supernatural.
Now, with Da Li's Human Luck in decline.
These terrifying beings, once found only in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, had truly appeared in the world.
Because they had appeared so rarely.
The supernatural world had yet to develop a complete understanding of ghosts. It could only classify them by the degree of danger they posed.
All Ghostly Entities.
Bore a Yin Lotus mark between their brows.
White lotuses marked Wandering Souls. They were formless and mindless, able to possess and kill whether by day or night. An ordinary person who touched one would die on the spot. Only Foundation Establishment Cultivators with Great Success of Divine Strength and blood vitality blazing like a furnace could resist them.
Black lotuses marked Fierce Ghosts.
They possessed all the abilities of Wandering Souls, but also had full intelligence. Their minds could already affect the physical world. They could control ordinary people and even cultivators below Divine Strength, corrupt minds, and create illusions. They were highly dangerous.
A single bloom of a black lotus.
Was equivalent in strength to one Rebirth Realm.
Two blooms, the Second Rebirth.
Three blooms, the Third Rebirth.
However.
This comparison was rather strained.
In truth.
Apart from the Immortal Dao.
Martial Dao and Soldier Dao cultivators who hadn't opened the Heaven-Man Bridge and attained the Innate realm kept their distance from Black Lotus Fierce Ghosts.
That was because, relying on brute force alone.
It was difficult to hurt them.
Though after the Second Rebirth, Martial Dao cultivators gained Mental Armor, while Soldier Dao cultivators could cover themselves in Soldier's Edge Intent and attack Ghostly Entities.
Ghosts weren't wooden dummies that stood there and let you hit them.
Formless and invisible, passing through walls, flying low, possessing and hiding...
They were an endless nuisance.
And they were plenty clever, too. If you provoked one and failed to get rid of it, it would cling to you like a bone-deep parasite. Let your guard slip just once, and it would get you.
Most importantly.
You couldn't "eat" the things.
Those above the Innate realm might be able to capture them with a powerful flame of the spirit and refine them with the power of heaven and earth to nourish the soul.
But even that was troublesome.
After all, Martial Dao and Soldier Dao focused on tempering the body. Unlike Immortal Dao cultivators, they didn't specialize in the soul, much less kindle a Divine Soul Dao Fire.
It took time and effort, and the benefits gained from refining a ghost couldn't make up for the energy spent. It simply wasn't worth it.
As for those below the Innate realm, even if they managed to catch one, they could only kill it and come away empty-handed.
In such circumstances.
Cultivators outside the Immortal Dao generally avoided Ghostly Entities. If they could keep away, they wouldn't touch those thorny, stinking turds.
In the trade.
There was even a special slang term for ghosts: "Hedgehogs."
As for saving people.
Not every cultivator was a great hero with all the people in their heart. Why risk life and limb for nothing? You'd have to be sick in the head. Besides, it wasn't as if the ghosts would harm you.
Whether there were ghosts more terrifying than Black Lotus Fierce Ghosts.
Wu Dao had no way of knowing.
The jianghu had no records of them, nor had any such information circulated.
The same was true of demons.
Demons were ranked by the number of years they had cultivated.
From one hundred to four hundred years.
Was the process by which demons gained human understanding and developed intelligence, corresponding to the Four Realms of Foundation Establishment.
At five hundred years, they took human form and completed their innate wisdom. Their intelligence and spiritual nature became no different from a human's.
Up to eight hundred years.
Corresponding to the Three Realms of Breaking the Cocoon.
But.
Demons' bodies were tempered by spiritual energy over the course of many years, giving them exceptionally tenacious vitality. They had also developed some innate Demonic Arts.
In terms of actual strength.
They were much stronger than cultivators of the same realm.
Take Flesh Tai Sui, for example.
Its transformation was far from complete.
Yet it had still beaten one Breaking the Cocoon cultivator and four peak Divine Strength experts until they dropped their helmets and abandoned their armor. You could even say it had wiped them all out.
Above eight hundred years.
As for those corresponding to Innate experts.
There were no records yet.
As for the last category, ferocious monsters.
The jianghu had even fewer records of them. They were the rarest of all.
Ferocious monsters were formed from wicked things beyond living beings, and came in every shape and size.
Stones, houses, utensils, clothes, shoes...
Even a natural phenomenon might, through some twist of fate, resonate with the energy of heaven and earth and transform into a ferocious monster.
The only recorded case of a ferocious monster harming people came from neighboring Wanshan Prefecture.
According to the story.
A rusty sword in an ancient tomb had turned ferocious and drained the blood of several hundred villagers in a single night.
However.
It was later subdued by a group of mysterious people.
Some suspected.
That group might have come from Jingzhe, an organization founded by the Grand Ancestor of Da Li to watch over the shadowed side of the realm and known as the Blade of the Nation—
Jingzhe!
Aside from information about anomalies.
Wu Dao had also wondered about the Heavenly Treasures he'd heard of before—things capable of breaking the shackles of the Three Innate Organs and allowing ordinary people to embark on the supernatural path.
After speaking with quite a few people of the jianghu, he'd finally figured out what sort of things they were.
Whenever he thought of these things.
Wu Dao felt a strange sensation.
Strictly speaking.
Heavenly Treasures had been "beaten" into existence by the supernatural cultivators of this world!
A little setting exposition to bridge the gap.
Before you continue