There is Fox, It Is a Fox Immortal

Under the cultivators' purge of the Sinister Beasts, Smelting Town regained the peace it had enjoyed before the Beast Calamity.

Even if it was merely a facade, it still drew many merchant caravans. After all, everything was waiting to be rebuilt, and all kinds of supplies were in short supply.

Morning sun rose from the horizon, and summer's heat had already begun to show its fangs.

Several merchant caravans were already waiting at Smelting Town's gates. Only farmers who had traveled beneath the stars and moon had arrived earlier than them.

Merchant caravans needed the Yamen's approval in advance before they could enter Smelting Town.

Thus, they usually supported a Smelting Town cultivator as an Attendant, or else the caravan itself had been founded by a cultivator's blood relatives.

Even so, they still had to undergo the soldiers' meticulous inspections when passing through the gates.

The blazing sun climbed halfway up the sky.

Moisture began rising from the ground, warping the air. Annoying flies buzzed around merchants whose bodies had badly decayed.

Click, click, click...

The city gates slowly opened, and the merchant caravans approached in orderly fashion.

Before the Beast Calamity, they would not even have been qualified to come within ten miles of Smelting Town. Usually, the shop stewards had personally gone out to collect supplies.

The soldiers stood in two rows, led by squad leader Liu Danan.

Liu Danan had served for twenty years. Lacking any talent for cultivation, he could only endure by seniority and had barely managed to become a squad leader.

"Chief Liu, look..."

Unable to make up his mind, a soldier pointed into the distance.

Liu Danan shaded his eyes with his palm. At the end of the line was a dilapidated carriage, pushed forward by four burly men.

Generally speaking, anyone who understood Smelting Town's taboos would switch to a flatbed cart.

A carriage without livestock to pull it was difficult to steer. A journey of three or four days would likely take over ten days, truly a thankless task that cost more than it gained.

"Don't be surprised."

Liu Danan hesitated for a few breaths before saying, "Mm, they probably left their livestock ten miles away beforehand. First-timers coming to Smelting Town always do this."

The soldier relaxed, but Liu Danan could not help glancing at the carriage a few more times.

The other merchant caravans were somewhat noisy, yet those burly men alone remained utterly silent. Perhaps the long journey had left them too exhausted to speak.

The merchant caravans entered the city with their passage permits, while the soldiers' money pouches were stuffed with plenty of oil water.

Their expressions could not help turning radiant with joy. Liu Danan also looked satisfied, occasionally glancing toward Smelting Town's side gate.

Compared with the overcrowded entrance and exit, the side gate served the True Persons traveling out of the city. Half a day had passed, yet not even a Ghost Shadow had appeared.

The soldiers at the side gate had no oil water to collect, and they still had to bow and scrape before True Persons.

After all, any True Person capable of leaving the city alone possessed great abilities to slay demons and subdue Demons.

The wheels rolled across the dry ground, making sounds as though they could barely bear the burden.

It was not until noon that the carriage neared the gates. Liu Danan and the other soldiers immediately stepped forward to inspect it.

The carriage pushed by the burly men slowly came to a stop.

As Liu Danan approached to inspect it, he suddenly noticed the four men's vacant expressions. A trail of bloody footprints stretched along the official road behind them.

Only then did he notice that more than half of the cloth shoes on the men pushing the cart had worn through. Walking over the gravel-strewn official road had inevitably turned their feet into a bloody pulp of flesh and blood.

Even though an adult's sense of pain had greatly diminished, it was impossible for them to remain so calm.

Liu Danan placed his right hand on his sword hilt and shouted, "What are you transporting?"

"I'm talking to you?!!"

After Liu Danan repeated himself several times, one of the burly men finally lifted his head and said, "Reporting to the officer, thirty-six Ceramic Embryos. They were sent by urgent delivery."

"Ceramic Embryos..."

Liu Danan lifted the curtain. Before his eyes were indeed ceramic blanks made of clay, though their coloring was slightly dark red.

He lowered the curtain, only to hear an odd sound from inside the carriage.

The carriage had clearly stopped. The ceramics had not been affected by any outside force.

Without the slightest hesitation, Liu Danan drew the long sword at his waist and slashed at the nearest Ceramic Embryo. The sound of metal striking metal rang out.

A sword mark appeared along the ceramic's opening, and blood actually seeped from it.

Immediately after, an infant's crying echoed from within the carriage, sending chills down everyone's spine.

Liu Danan sucked in a cold breath. Without caring about anything else, he turned around and beheaded one of the burly men pushing the cart, then dragged the soldiers back toward the gates.

Bang!!!

The carriage instantly fell apart. The ceramics opened like Flower Stamens, revealing dense rows of sharp teeth, with long, narrow Flesh Vines extending from their ends.

The burly men finally showed terror, then their abdomens began to squirm.

Bizarre Flayed Pythons crawled out from inside their bodies. Their flower-stamen Mouth Artifacts swung casually as they opened their mouths and spewed thick blood mist.

"D-Demons!!"

Liu Danan's face turned deathly pale. He hurled his long sword with all his strength, but it failed even to break the Long Worm Bizarre Beast's flesh. He could only watch as the Mouth Artifact swept away the soldiers under his command.

Despair filled his eyes as he glanced toward the top of the city wall.

There truly were Yamen cultivators stationed at the gates, but their first reaction was not to aid the soldiers. Instead, they closed the heavy city gates.

The sound of chains being pulled rang out, and the gap between the gates gradually narrowed.

Liu Danan screamed as a Flesh Vine pierced straight through his thigh and dragged him toward the saw-toothed Mouth Artifact. He had no power to resist.

He could feel the Flesh Vine extending through his blood vessels toward his internal organs.

By the time Liu Danan lost control of his body, several gate-guarding cultivators had already landed. With tacit coordination, they surrounded the Long Worm Bizarre Beast and gradually closed in.

"A Pseudo Bizarre Beast formed from mortals, but do not let down your guard."

They ignored whether the soldiers lived or died. After releasing Alien Spiritual Power, their limbs showed signs of transforming into beastlike organs.

"True Persons, save me..."

Liu Danan's cries drew no attention from the cultivators. The Flesh Vine suddenly stabbed into his heart and devoured his blood, and his life force dimmed.

At that moment, the gate-guarding cultivators simultaneously retreated several meters.

They looked around in disbelief, as if searching for something.

Boom!!!

Crimson Light Shadow exploded, and thick Haze Mist enveloped the Long Worm Bizarre Beast.

The Sinister Beast shrieked in terror, as though it had encountered something utterly beyond its power. Then, within the Haze Mist, a two-meter fox head flickered in and out of sight.

The Crimson Fox bit down fiercely, spraying blood in every direction.

The Haze Mist vanished in an instant, leaving only shattered flesh, blood, and broken bones of the Sinister Beast behind.

Liu Danan knelt on the ground, trembling all over. As though he had seen something horrifying, he babbled incomprehensibly.

"There is Fox, there is Fox, it is a Fox Immortal..."

The gate-guarding cultivators looked at one another. They had seen only the Spell, yet could not find a trace of its caster. The other party's methods were suffocating.

Li Mo swaggered out through the side gate. After testing the power of Paint Green Clothes, he used the Leakless Body's ability to conceal his aura and evade the watchful eyes.

He tucked the Storage Bag back into his robes. The newly purchased Storage Bags in the warehouse held twenty cubic meters, more than enough to contain a Bizarre Beast Corpse.

Li Mo had accepted a River God Village mission at the Yamen. The destination was at most two days' journey from Smelting Town, and he could visit Niu Family Village along the way.

Most importantly, the target of the mission would be of great use to Paint Green Clothes.

"If I had a Flying Magic Tool, I could save quite a bit of time."

The Pawnshop was most famous for its calligraphy and paintings, ceramics, Jade Ware, and all sorts of miscellaneous magic tools.

However, after obtaining the Artifact Refining Method at the Calligraphy and Painting Hall, one had to submit a finished magic tool every month, effectively becoming a hired laborer in an employment relationship.

Li Mo was very interested in Artifact Refining Methods, but he could only purchase such methods from the Black Market.