In late April, in Central Province, rogue cultivators came and went as usual in a small grassroots market ward called Maofeng Market Ward, gathering and dispersing without any fixed pattern.
It was an ordinary market district of the sort found everywhere under heaven. Though deeply mysterious to ordinary mortals, within the Mystic School's cultivation world, it merited only the assessment, "Small as a sparrow, yet possessed of all five organs."
Fortunately, the Mei aristocratic clan that guarded this place had extraordinary foundations. Three thousand years ago, it had produced a Heaven-Tier Powerhouse, and it had long maintained an alliance with the Spirit Taming Sect, which wielded immense influence over the local factions, securing comprehensive protection as one of its righteous path allies.
The Mei Family had valued commerce for generations, attracting numerous traveling merchants. It had also invested heavily in convenient flying spirit creatures and transportation by land and water, providing direct access to a first-class city a thousand miles away that possessed a Teleportation Array. As a result, it had become a city renowned throughout the surrounding region.
In larger cities, everything was expensive, and high-ranking cultivators stood guard, making many activities inconvenient. Thus, organizations and gangs from all walks of life, such as the Earth Baleful Gate, the Hundred Flowers Tower, and the Blood Saber Society, preferred to establish their principal branch headquarters in unassuming places like Maofeng Market Ward, where transportation was actually convenient and travel swift, rather than in the great city a thousand miles away.
This also gave Maofeng Market Ward greater renown in the jianghu, for spies from the Earth Baleful Gate frequently passed through, allowing news to spread faster.
Disguised as rogue cultivators, Lin Qi and two fellow cultivators from his sect entered the city quietly and discreetly with a merchant caravan. Soon