Thirty thousand li north of Jade Dragon City, a black city stood on the edge of the East Sea.
People with sallow faces emerged from their homes and gathered in the square at the city's center.
Everyone gazed expectantly at the Lotus Dharma Altar, carved from a single massive piece of black jade.
Night gradually fell.
Rumble~~~~
A flame appeared out of nowhere atop the Lotus Dharma Altar.
Over twenty zhang tall, the flame was a demonic blood-red, shooting straight into the sky.
Crackle~~~~
As it burned, the blood-red flame gradually took the shape of a lotus in the air, slowly blossoming.
Whoosh~~~~
Everyone gathered in the square prostrated themselves before the Black Lotus Altar.
"May the holy fire blaze and burn away all evil!"
"May the Blood Lotus Flame bloom, and the Holy King descend upon the world!"
Their frenzied roars and terrifying waves of sound made the entire city seem strange and eerie.
Whoosh!
A gigantic shadow streaked across the city in the night sky and landed in front of a black palace.
"What a bunch of lunatics."
Listening to the seemingly endless waves of frenzied cries, Night Shadow was secretly shocked.
Even a great demon like him felt thoroughly ill at ease every time he came to this city.
"Night Shadow." A childlike voice came from inside the black palace. "Did Motai Xiao send you?"
"Commander Yuan Lie is dead. My master ordered me to bring back Commander Yuan Lie's body and report the killer's information to the altar master."
Night Shadow waved a hand, and Yuan Lie's battered body appeared on the ground before the palace.
Along with the corpse, several shattered pieces of bluestone appeared. Each bore bloody writing, which together read: "Zhou Hao killed two Xiantian Lifeforms from the Black Hand Tribe."
Having done all this, Night Shadow waited for the altar master's response.
"I already knew of Yuan Lie's death. Someone even took his weapon. How could he still be alive?" An old man in a black robe embroidered with lotus flames walked out of the palace. He looked at Yuan Lie on the ground and shook his head with a sigh.
His hair was white and his face wrinkled; he looked like an old man nearing the end of his life. Yet his voice was as childlike as ever, making this already uncanny city all the more terrifying.
"This is the information on that man named Zhou Hao." The black-robed old man flicked his hand, and a roll of black beast hide drifted toward Night Shadow. "He has now joined Jade Dragon City's Green Flood Dragon Army and become a member of the Xiantian Battalion."
Night Shadow hurriedly caught it and curiously opened it for a glance.
The beast hide contained not only a portrait of Zhou Hao and a description of his strength, but also portraits and information about the people from the Iron Ox Tribe who were with him.
"How did the Fire Worship Sect manage this?" Night Shadow was stunned.
He had been the first to discover Yuan Lie's corpse, yet when he came to report it, they already knew—not only that Yuan Lie was dead, but also everything about the killer.
That was terrifying.
"Go back and tell Motai Xiao this." The black-robed old man looked at Night Shadow. "He owes me an explanation."
Night Shadow panicked at once.
The man had already joined the Green Flood Dragon Army. What could they even do now?
"But..." Night Shadow had barely begun to speak when—
Whoosh!
A piece of bluestone with bloody writing on it suddenly turned into a streak of light.
Thud!
The stone slammed into Night Shadow's face. He swallowed the words he had been about to say.
"Don't think that just because Motai Xiao offered the main altar a Holy Maiden, he can throw his weight around here. It's not even certain she'll be chosen in the end!"
The cold look in the black-robed old man's eyes reminded Night Shadow of who he was.
This was the altar master of the Fire Worship Sect's Great Wild Branch, one of the five dominant powers of the Great Wild Plains. They said he could rival a Myriad Phenomena True Person even while only at the Purple Mansion realm—a terrifying existence.
"Tell Motai Xiao not to forget who he is! Get lost."
"Yes." Night Shadow dared say no more. He changed back into his true form, a night owl, and flapped into the sky.
"The headquarters wants to enter the East Sea. Our Great Wild Branch can't afford to sit idle, either." The black-robed old man coldly watched the sky. "Motai Xiao's a fool, but he's just an appetizer. We'll need to arrange a proper main course..."
On the ground, a blood-red flame suddenly sprang up around Yuan Lie's corpse. Before long, it had turned him to ashes.
Jade Dragon City.
Zhou Hao had just come out of the inner city.
After nightfall, the sea breeze blew in from the east. The damp, chilly air lifted his spirits.
"Finally, it's over." Zhou Hao rubbed his aching forehead, thinking of Master Jingzhi, who had still been eager to keep teaching at the end. "Next time I go to the Martial Repository, if I see Master Jingzhi about to start a lecture, I'd better make a run for it."
That said, Zhou Hao was genuinely grateful to Master Jingzhi.
In his previous life, he had read the original novel about this world, but how could he have known he would one day actually come here?
His soul was powerful, and he had already condensed divine sense. Even the tiniest detail in his memories could be recalled as clearly as if it were right before his eyes.
But there was a condition.
He had to actually remember it in the first place.
When Zhou Hao had read novels in his previous life, he had focused more on the story, the plot, and sharing the protagonist's excitement with each victory and his joy with each step of growth.
But as for the details of the worldbuilding... Was that really something a normal reader would pay attention to?
You'd have to be a seasoned veteran who'd read for years, a true expert, to study those things.
So this time, Master Jingzhi had lectured from noon until nightfall.
That incredibly detailed, all-around introductory lesson had filled in the gaps in Zhou Hao's basic understanding of cultivation.
At least compared with the elite juniors raised in cultivation clans, the gap between Zhou Hao and them wasn't so wide anymore.
"It's a pity I still can't figure out what time it is." Zhou Hao furrowed his brow. "The Great Xia Dynasty doesn't even keep records by year. No wonder it's an immortal-and-demon world. Do they really care so little about time?"
The Great Xia Dynasty had ruled this vast world for far, far too long.
It had stood since the era of ancient gods and demons. Its history stretched back billions of years, and ever since the dynasty was established, there had been only one master of the entire world: the Xia Emperor.
Zhou Hao had read the original novel and knew that the Xia Emperor was a Pure Yang True Immortal, a level above a Celestial Immortal. His origins and strength were even more astonishing.
"For the Xia Emperor, a single cultivation session might take hundreds of millions of years. His subjects must have gone through countless generations by then." Zhou Hao sighed inwardly. "To an existence like that, time really isn't all that important."
But time was important to him!
Without knowing what time it was, Zhou Hao couldn't tell whether the original story had begun.
It wasn't that he'd ever planned to steal Ji Ning's opportunities for growth. Well, even if he'd wanted to, he wouldn't have had the chance.
But he had never finished reading about the Immortal Fate Assembly. He had always regretted not learning how it ended, and now he truly wanted to find out.
"Right! The Immortal Fate Assembly." Zhou Hao's heart stirred. "I can use the Immortal Fate Assembly to figure out what time it is!"
It was a grand gathering of geniuses spanning the entire world. He refused to believe that such a major event had left no records behind.
"My strength is still too weak," Zhou Hao thought.
He remembered clearly that everyone who participated in the Immortal Fate Assembly was at the complete Myriad Phenomena realm. At his current level, having only just entered the Xiantian realm, he couldn't even think of participating. Even going out of his way to follow the event would make him stand out like a sore thumb.
Thinking about all the possibilities ahead, Zhou Hao followed the street toward Zhu Da Restaurant, where Iron Ox and the others were staying.
Aside from the Green Flood Dragon Army, Jade Dragon City was also a large city with hundreds of thousands of residents.
West City Market, outside the western city gate, was where most ordinary people gathered. Traveling merchants and traders usually set up their stalls along this street to sell wares that interested the common folk.
Though the sky had already darkened, the merchants on both sides of the street had lit torches and lanterns. Quite a few people had come out for a stroll after dinner, giving the place a feel much like the night markets of Earth in his previous life.
Zhou Hao walked along, taking in the everyday life of this world.
The stalls on either side sold all sorts of things: animal hides, weapons, wild beasts, medicinal herbs... Even slaves were for sale.
Looking at the dozens of slaves with grass tags stuck in their hair, dressed in tattered, filthy animal hides, Zhou Hao silently shook his head.
The Wilderness World was far from as peaceful as the world he'd lived in during his previous life.
"I'm telling you, this is the last treasure I managed to risk my life to take from that cultivation clan. If I weren't completely broke, I wouldn't sell it. Now, I'm asking only fifty pieces of dog-head gold. Whoever offers fifty pieces can take it!" A hoarse voice came from nearby.
Zhou Hao looked toward the sound and saw more than twenty people gathered around. An old man with a huge, red, wine-bottle nose was hawking a red metal animal statue about the size of a fist.
"Is that... a cat?" Zhou Hao looked at the animal statue in the old man's hands. It looked more like a cat than a civet, and he wasn't sure.
After all, he'd never heard of cats existing in this world.
"What is it, anyway? How dare you ask fifty pieces of dog-head gold for it?"
"Old Man Wine, did you drink too much tonight and forget to wake up?"
Someone in the crowd called out at the top of his lungs.
"What do you know? This is called Feifei, a spirit beast from the era of ancient gods and demons. Immortals kept them in their caves to chase away their gloom." The old man with the wine-red nose glared at the two hecklers.
"Even if it's an ancient spirit beast, this is just a statue, not a real beast. How could it be worth so much gold?"
"Exactly."
As the old man with the wine-red nose argued with the two men that his item was definitely a treasure, Zhou Hao sent out a wisp of divine sense to scan it.
It was just an ordinary statue made of red copper. At most, it was finely crafted, and it was so old and so often handled that its surface had developed a thick, glossy patina.
"So I thought it was something good." Zhou Hao smiled and turned to leave.
But when the old man excitedly waved the metal statue in his hand as he argued, Zhou Hao's divine sense caught a fleeting trace of an extremely faint energy fluctuation.
The fluctuation was weak, and the statue showed no unusual signs when it was still. If his divine sense hadn't still been out just then, he wouldn't have noticed it.
A magic treasure? A curious artifact?
Zhou Hao grew interested.
Still, fifty pieces of dog-head gold was worth it just for the energy fluctuation. Even if it was only a red copper statue, it was worth that much.
PS:
"Forty li farther north of Ox-Head Mountain lies Huo Mountain, where many trees of the gu species grow. There is a beast there that looks like a civet, but has a white tail and a mane. It is called Feifei; raising one can dispel sorrow." —Classic of Mountains and Seas, Volume Five: The Classic of the Central Mountains
Thanks to "Qiuran Ke" for the 2,000-point reward.
Thanks to "Pingyijren2014" for the 100-point reward.
Thanks to "Hello World" for the 100-point reward.
Thanks to "Zhang Gaoyao" for the 1,000-point reward.
Thanks to "Eternal Heavenly Emperor" for the 1,500-point reward.
Suifeng bows in gratitude!
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