There is Fox, is Fox Immortal

Under the purge of the Sinister Beasts by the assembled cultivators, Smelting Town had returned to the stability it enjoyed before the Beast Calamity.

Even if it was merely a facade, it still attracted quite a few merchant caravans to come, as everything was in ruins and all kinds of supplies were in short supply.

Morning Sun rose from the horizon, the heat of summer already beginning to show its face.

At the city gate of Smelting Town, several merchant caravans were already waiting, with only the farmers who rose before dawn arriving earlier than them.

For a merchant caravan to enter Smelting Town, they had to obtain prior approval from the Yamen.

Thus, they would usually offer patronage to a cultivator from Smelting Town, or the caravan itself might be established by a cultivator's blood relatives.

Even so, entering and leaving the city still required submitting to a meticulous inspection by the government soldiers.

The blazing sun rose to its zenith.

The moisture on the ground began to steam, causing the air to appear distorted, and annoying flies buzzed around the severely rotting merchants.

Creak, creak, creak...

The city gate slowly opened, and seeing this, the merchant caravans lined up in an orderly fashion.

Before the Beast Calamity, they wouldn't have even been qualified to approach within ten li of Smelting Town; supplies were usually handled by the shop managers themselves.

The government soldiers formed two rows, led by Squad Leader Liu Danan.

Liu Danan had served for twenty years. Lacking the talent for arduous cultivation, he could only rely on seniority to scrape by, barely making it to Squad Leader.

"Chief Liu, look over there..."

A soldier, uncertain, couldn't help but point into the distance.

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

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

A carriage without livestock to pull it was hard to steer, and a journey of three or four days would likely take over ten days—truly a thankless task.

"Don't be surprised."

Liu Danan hesitated for a few breaths, then spoke: "En, they probably stabled their livestock ten li away beforehand. All newcomers to Smelting Town do this."

The soldier relaxed, but Liu Danan couldn't help glancing at that carriage a few more times.

The other caravans were making some noise, but those few burly men were completely silent. Perhaps they were exhausted from the long journey.

The caravans entered the city with their passes, and the soldiers' money pouches were also stuffed with plenty of grease.

Their expressions couldn't help but turn gleeful. Liu Danan also looked satisfied, occasionally glancing toward Smelting Town's side gate.

Compared to the crowded main entrance, the side gate was used for the travel of true men within the city. Half a day had passed, and not even a ghost had been seen.

The soldiers at the side gate had no grease to gain, and had to grovel before true men.

After all, any true man who could leave the city alone possessed great skill in exorcising demons and subduing monsters.

The wheels rolled over the dry ground, making a sound of strain.

The carriage only neared the city gate at noon. Liu Danan and the other soldiers immediately stepped forward to inspect it.

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

Liu Danan stepped forward to inspect. He suddenly noticed that the four burly men had vacant expressions, and behind them on the Official Road was a trail of bloody footprints.

Only then did he realize that the cloth shoes of the men pushing the cart were mostly worn through, and walking on the gravel-strewn Official Road had inevitably left their feet a bloody mess.

Even if an adult's sense of pain was dulled, they couldn't possibly be this calm.

Liu Danan placed his right hand on his saber hilt and barked: "What are you transporting?"

"I'm asking you a question!!"

Liu Danan repeated himself several times before the burly men looked up and said: "Reporting to the officer, thirty-six Ceramic Embryos, sent express."

"Ceramic Embryos..."

Liu Danan lifted the curtain. What met his eyes were indeed pottery clay embryos, but their color was slightly dark red.

He let the curtain fall, but heard a strange noise from inside the carriage.

The carriage had already stopped, and the ceramics hadn't been affected by any external force.

Liu Danan didn't hesitate. He drew the long saber from his waist and slashed at the nearest Ceramic Embryo. A sound of metal striking metal rang out.

A cut appeared on the ceramic mouth, and blood actually seeped out.

Then, the cry of an infant came from inside the carriage, sending chills down one's spine.

Liu Danan sucked in a breath of cold air. Without a second thought, he turned and decapitated the burly man pushing the cart, then pulled the soldiers and retreated toward the city gate.

Boom!!!

The carriage instantly disintegrated. The ceramics opened up like flower stamens, revealing rows of fine, sharp teeth. At the end was a long, narrow Flesh Vine.

The burly men showed belated terror on their faces, and then their abdomens began to writhe.

A bizarre, nameless Flayed Python burrowed out from within their bodies. Its flower-stamen-like Mouth Artifact swung about carelessly, opening wide to spew a thick cloud of blood mist.

"De... Demon!!"

Liu Danan's face turned pale with terror as he hurled his long blade with all his strength, only for it to fail to even break the skin of the Long Worm Bizarre Beast, leaving him to watch helplessly as the soldiers under his command were swept away by the Mouth Artifact.

Despair filled his eyes as his gaze drifted to the top of the city wall.

There were indeed Yamen cultivators guarding the city, but their first reaction was not to support the soldiers—instead, they slammed the heavy city gates shut.

The sound of iron chains pulling rang out as the gap between the doors slowly closed.

Liu Danan let out a miserable scream as his thigh was pierced straight through by a Flesh Vine, dragging him toward the jagged Mouth Artifact, utterly defenseless.

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 of the city-guarding cultivators had already landed, silently encircling the Long Worm Bizarre Beast and closing in step by step.

"A Pseudo Bizarre Beast born from mortals, but do not take it lightly."

They paid no heed to the soldiers' lives or deaths, and as they released their Alien Spiritual Power, their limbs began showing signs of transforming into beastly organs.

"True Man, save me..."

Liu Danan's cries failed to draw the cultivators' attention as the Flesh Vine stabbed fiercely into his heart, drinking his blood, and his vitality dimmed.

Just then, the city-guarding cultivators retreated several meters in unison.

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

Boom!!!

A Crimson Light Shadow exploded, and a thick Haze Mist enveloped the Long Snake Bizarre Beast.

The Bizarre Beast shrieked in terror, as if facing an existence it could not contend with, and within the Haze Mist, a two-meter-tall Fox Head flickered in and out of view.

The Crimson Fox bit down hard, blood splattering everywhere.

The Haze Mist vanished in an instant, leaving only the Bizarre Beast's shattered flesh and broken bones on the ground.

Liu Danan collapsed to his knees, trembling all over, his mouth letting out incoherent screams as if he had seen something horrifying.

"There are Anomalies, there are Anomalies, it's the Fox Immortal..."

The city-guarding cultivators exchanged glances; they had only seen the Spell but could not find the caster's trace—their opponent's methods were suffocating.

Li Mo swaggered out through the side door, having tested the power of Paint Green Clothes and used the Leakless Body's aura-concealing ability to slip past the watchers.

He tucked the Storage Bag back into his bosom; the newly purchased Storage Bag from the Warehouse had a capacity of twenty cubic meters, more than enough to hold a Bizarre Beast Corpse.

Li Mo had taken on a mission from the Yamen for River God Village, with a destination at most two days' travel from Smelting Town, and he could pass by Niu Family Village along the way.

Most importantly, the mission's target was of great use to Paint Green Clothes.

"If I had a Flying Magic Tool, it would save a lot of time."

The Pawnshop was most famous for its various artifacts in calligraphy, ceramics, jade ware, and miscellaneous items.

But after obtaining the Artifact Refining Method from the Calligraphy and Painting Hall, he had to hand over finished artifacts every month, effectively becoming an employee in a hired relationship.

Li Mo was very interested in the Artifact Refining Method, but he could only buy the method from the Black Market.