Riding a White Horse Doesn't Necessarily Mean He's a Monk; He Might Also Be...

The moment these words were spoken, the situation changed dramatically.

Of the group, aside from the two who were clearly not from the Central Plains, the rest of the people who were talking in hushed tones all turned to look at them!

The scholar who called himself Ning Cai Chen turned pale, clearly not understanding why these people were reacting this way.

What made people even more uneasy was that even the short-sleeved man in front of them, who usually seemed serious and unsmiling, suddenly started laughing.

"Ning Caichen —good! good! good! What a good name, truly a good name."

"What perfect weather!"

"I knew it—cough, that thing—why would it leave us in this desolate wilderness? We've walked for half the night and half the day, and we can't even find anyone to ask for directions. We could only try our luck along this path. Turns out, this is where it was waiting for us."

The man grinned, revealing a set of perfectly white teeth. At first glance, there was a chilling aura about him, as if he were being stared at by some ferocious beast.

"Ning Caichen, no, Scholar Ning, Young Master Ning, may I ask where you are headed in all this attire?"

Although he didn't know why the other person was laughing, Ning Caichen instinctively sensed something was amiss.

"I... I have urgent business to attend to and must temporarily travel to Jinhua. I wonder if my benefactor..."

"Excellent! Absolutely wonderful! We were just on our way to Jinhua, but we lost our way and didn't know where to go. It just so happened that we rescued Young Master Ning here. It's truly a deep connection, a Heavenly Will!"

The other person clapped his hands as if he had heard some good news, and turned around without saying a word, "Gentlemen, this Young Master Ning is also going to Jinhua. Why don't we team up and travel together, so we can look out for each other? What do you say?"

The Daoist priest who had been vomiting earlier now happened to be the one with the shortest reaction time.

"Yes! Yes! What this layperson said makes sense, we should go together!"

I agree!

"This road is indeed difficult to travel. Just to be on the safe side, Ning Shusheng, you'd better come with us."

The two black-and-white "savages" hadn't quite grasped the situation when they saw that everyone else was already agreeing. Helpless, they could only remain silent.

This is naturally taken as the default.

Only Ning Caichen, the scholar who was the center of attention, felt a sudden sense of unease.

- Have I escaped one tiger's den only to fall into another?

Feeling extremely uneasy, he intended to refuse the unusually strange "enthusiasm" of these benefactors, but he couldn't find a suitable reason to refuse their polite and benevolent manners.

In the end, he could only sigh and let the others happily join the journey.

He resembled a monk from the Tang Dynasty in the East, flanked by a horse, a monkey, a pig, and a luggage stretcher.

The capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the Imperial Capital.

Inside the teahouse, several men who seemed to be in a hurry entered and quickly huddled together in a corner, whispering among themselves.

"Time is too short, and we cannot gather or verify more information. We can only confirm for now that Yang Su and Yuwen Tuo are not currently in the court."

"Isn't that obvious? Yang Su was a big figure in the Sui Dynasty. This isn't the Sui or Tang Dynasty; this is the Zhou Dynasty."

"Although it has absolutely nothing to do with the Shang and Zhou dynasties in our minds, it's just a case of sharing the same name."

The man who spoke first didn't rush to refute; instead, he picked up the teacup on the table and gulped down several mouthfuls before letting out a satisfied sigh of relief.

"Li Two, don't forget, putting aside the Array in the Scar of the Sky setting that can travel through time and repair the Formation of Loss Heaven's Scar," just consider the Kunlun Mirror among the Ten Divine Artifacts, which is said to be related to time and space but whose whereabouts have always been unknown. It is said to have the effect of traveling through time and space."

"If these divine artifacts didn't exist, that would be fine, but if they really did—"

"Hey, even if you told me there's a living Yang Su right now, or that Grand Tutor Yuwen is stuck in this so-called Great Zhou Dynasty, I wouldn't be too surprised."

"Don't forget, in the game setting of Xuan-Yuan Sword Scar of the Sky: The Scar of the Sky, Yuwen Tuo himself was a reincarnation of the Kunlun Mirror."

These few words left everyone thoughtful.

But someone quickly pointed out the problem. "Zheng Five's words make sense, but the probability of this is indeed not high. After all, in the information I was responsible for investigating, there seems to be no rumor about Ancient Gods in this world."

"Even the Xuanyuan Divine Sword in Yan Chixia's hand, a cursory search of the local history reveals it to be almost entirely obscure and unremarkable."

"Furthermore, since everyone has split up to inquire around today, you should all know something by now. There is a Grand Preceptor in the Great Zhou Dynasty named Cihang Pudu."

"That old demon has been sitting in the court for quite some time now, yet he hasn't been dethroned. That alone speaks volumes."

"In this world, it seems the righteous are one foot high, but the evil are ten feet high—"

It must be said that the capital city, right under the emperor's nose, is indeed a place of countless comings and goings and excellent information flow.

In less than a day after their arrival, this group had already gathered a considerable amount of information.

"Yang Three, what about you over here?"

Unlike the others, this "Yang Three" was dressed quite well, with jade ornaments hanging from his waist and a lotus-scented sachet, looking every bit the young master, clearly not an ordinary person.

"Zhao One, everyone, today I spent a hefty fifty taels of silver to buy information from the brokers in the capital. I confirmed that the Lanruo Temple in the Jinhua of Jinhua should not have had any strange news circulating for at least three to five days, let alone any incidents of the temple being destroyed."

"In other words, the events depicted in 'A Chinese Ghost Story' have most likely not yet occurred, or are about to happen in the next few days, or at most within the next ten days or two weeks. Otherwise, based on past experience, it's unlikely that He would put us into the Mission World at an unrelated time."

When "He" was mentioned, "Yang Three" raised his hand and pointed upwards; without needing to say more, everyone knew what he meant.

"But the problem is, according to the locals, even if the journey is easier by foot and involves boarding boats when crossing water, it will still take at least seven or eight days to get there from the capital."

The man called "Zhao One" couldn't help but stroke his thick beard. "So you mean—"

"Travel in ancient times wasn't like it is back home," and we were in an unfamiliar place.

Yang Three wore an extremely complicated expression.

"I especially doubt that even if we buy mounts, supplies, and get everything we need now, and we ride at top speed, exhausted, and without encountering any monsters, demons, or bandits, and without any unexpected incidents, we'd probably be too tired to even catch a whiff of exhaust fumes by the time we get there."

"Also, speaking of which, which of you can ride a horse?"

With everyone's eyes on each other, only one person slightly raised their hand.

"When I traveled to Inner Mongolia before, I rode a horse and galloped around the grasslands a few times. Does that count?"

"Okay, then Chen Four will barely count. Are there any others?"

Seeing that the others were all shaking their heads, Yang Three spread his hands, "I don't know either, so that's the problem."

Even though stirrups exist in this era to reduce the skill requirements for horsemanship, we are simply not capable of riding there!

"Therefore, I believe we have basically no hope left regarding the Lanruo Temple storyline. Or rather, the cost-effectiveness is probably extremely low in any case."

"Even the identity he assigned to us might itself be a hint."

Since they "landed" in this area near the capital late last night, let's leave aside the identities of the others.

This "Yang Three" checked his identity information and found that he was the only son of a wealthy family.

Not long ago, after his family contracted the plague, almost all his relatives and servants died, leaving him the only survivor. After some troubles, he took refuge under the patronage of a figure in the imperial court and successfully inherited part of the family business, becoming quite wealthy.

This is undoubtedly a very useful and indispensable "advantage".

"Therefore, my opinion is that we should focus our attention directly on the potential storylines in the capital!"

"By the way, Zheng Five, how's your investigation into Fu Tianchou going?"

Upon hearing this, Zheng Five nodded emphatically. "There is indeed such a person. His storyline matches that of A Chinese Ghost Story II. He is currently being pursued by the imperial court and I heard that he will be escorted back to the capital soon."

"Very good, then it all matches up. I obtained a secret piece of information from the dental clinic. Feng Shui master calculated that next month, the full moon will become waning, as if a celestial dog is devouring the moon."

"----You mean, in the middle of next month, there's the climax of the movie 'A Chinese Ghost Story II,' the scene where Cihang Pudu and Ning Caichen's group confront each other?"

"If the plot really does develop this way, I think the probability is definitely not low."

After pondering for a while, Zhao One chimed in with a comment.

"----I'm afraid it might have completely deviated from its original trajectory, then all my efforts would have been in vain."