"Is Senior Brother Jiang here?"
Jiang Che gathered his thoughts and rose to open the door, finding Yan We iwan standing outside.
"Junior Sister Yan, did you need something?"
"Senior Brother Guo found some good food and set up a pot in his courtyard. He sent me to invite you over."
"Of course I have time. Let's go."
The two walked one behind the other toward the opposite end of the lower compound.
In truth, over these eight months, he had buried himself in cultivation every day and hardly interacted with anyone else in the lower compound. He was not a withdrawn person, but cultivation was simply too important, leaving him no time for anything else. In the entire lower compound, the only people he could really call familiar were Zhang Erguo and Yan We iwan, whom he had met when he first arrived at Azure Mystic eight months ago.
There was no particularly deep friendship between them. It was merely that, on one occasion, Jiang Che had cultivated too late and had yet to eat, only to find the lower compound's dining hall closed. Yan We iwan saw him and said little. Before long, she brought a bowl of noodles topped with a poached egg to his courtyard, then left.
Later, after one of Instructor Yan's lessons, held once every ten days, Jiang Che happened to join Yan We iwan for dinner. For some reason, Zhang Erguo was there too.
Zhang Erguo was a chatterbox, rambling from anecdotes about the sect to a newly opened tavern in the town below the mountain. Yan We iwan always listened quietly, occasionally adding a word or two at just the right moment.
Jiang Che felt quite at ease with the two of them.
And so they began eating together often, naturally growing familiar with one another.
Thus, when Yan We iwan came to invite him today, Jiang Che suspected nothing. Having just made a successful breakthrough, he was in good spirits and went along with her.
Yet halfway there, Yan We iwan brought up something unexpected, though understandable:
"Senior Brother Jiang, actually... there's something I wanted to ask your help with today."
"Please, go ahead."
"Senior Brother Guo... he wants to sign up to go to Ailin County. I've been trying to dissuade him for days, but he won't listen, so I thought I'd ask you... Senior Brother Jiang, please help me talk him out of it."
After eight months at Azure Mystic, Jiang Che was no longer an ignorant novice. Outside cultivation, he also spent sect contribution points on opportunities to read in the Scripture Pavilion. He did not go there to study cultivation methods, but instead borrowed miscellaneous writings, leisure books, and Daoist scriptures.
Although reading these "leisure books" could not directly improve his strength, it broadened his knowledge and deepened his understanding of cultivation. Those who knew nothing but cultivation might not necessarily travel far along the Dao Path. They could easily encounter a problem without the slightest idea how to resolve it.
He had learned about Ailin County from those books.
It lay eight hundred li south of Azure Mystic Mountain Gate, nearly at the Wu Kingdom's border, adjoining the Yue Kingdom. Being a poor, remote backwater would have been bad enough, but seven years ago, it had also suffered a calamity that towered to the heavens-
A Demon Calamity.
Records of so-called Demon Calamities appeared in many ancient texts. Their accounts differed, but all mentioned the term "Demon Abyss," a demonic land beyond this world. Occasionally, it connected with the mortal realm, triggering earthquakes. Demonic energy leaked from fissures in the earth, creating Demon Calamities that plunged all living things into misery.
On that day, the earth shook in Ailin, and mountains crumbled. The widest fissures stretched more than ten zhang across, while no one could measure their greatest depth. All anyone knew was that black energy, thick as ink, surged from those cracks, blotting out the sky and sun and spreading in every direction. Plants withered at its touch, while people and livestock went mad upon contact.
Azure Mystic ruled the Wu Kingdom, and it did not shirk its duties. It was Azure Mystic that had suppressed the Demon Calamity seven years ago.
Although powerful cultivators had sealed the fissures with their immense might, essentially eliminating the source of the calamity, the remaining demonic energy had already seeped into Haze Approach's mountains, rivers, soil, and water, becoming a lasting scourge.
After seven years of continuous extermination efforts, true devils were rarely seen, but wild beasts-and even people-infected by demonic energy still remained.
The original Ailin County had been destroyed in the Demon Calamity, with fewer than one in ten inhabitants surviving. The present Ailin had been rebuilt afterward and now resembled a military stockade. Its few civilians were soldiers' families or laborers who had settled there permanently.
Azure Mystic's outer branch in Ailin had likewise been wiped out during the Demon Calamity. After Ailin County was rebuilt, Azure Mystic sent out another outer branch. Its main duty was to work with the Wu army to contain the remnants of the Demon Abyss and seal off contaminated areas, preventing outsiders from straying in and turning demonic, while also keeping demonic beasts from escaping.
It was plain to see that, under such circumstances, Ailin Outer Gate was hardly a desirable posting.
There were no perks to speak of, and a life of hardship would have been bad enough, but they also had to battle those demonic beasts from time to time, fighting for their lives.
Few disciples of the main sect wanted to serve as deacons or stewards in Ailin.
But every outer branch needed its standard complement of three Qi Refining Cultivators, especially somewhere like Ailin.
Thus, those sent there had either committed an offense and been banished to the posting, or were elite sect members dispatched temporarily in response to urgent requests for aid from Ailin, lured by generous merit and contribution rewards.
Qi Refining Cultivators needed some coaxing; those in the embryonic breath period did not.
The sect had ordered Ailin's deacons and stewards to cast aside conventional restrictions and promote local talent. Joining Azure Mystic's outer branch there and obtaining a cultivation method was remarkably easy: anyone who signed up was accepted.
Even so, Ailin was often short-handed. As a result, missions to reinforce Ailin remained posted year-round among the sect missions at Verdant Mist Hall. Yet even with generous rewards, few people went. The death rate was simply too high.
The dangers of this assignment were notorious far and wide. Occasionally, people tempted by profit, seeking a future, or driven into a corner would grit their teeth and sign up, forming a team. But often, only around half returned in one piece.
"Senior Brother Guo has always seemed frivolous on the surface, but deep down, he's someone who prefers a steady life. I don't understand why he insists on going."
By this point, worry weighed heavily on Yan We iwan's face.
Jiang Che sighed.
"I was a little surprised that Senior Brother Guo wanted to go to Ailin, but after thinking it over, it does make sense."
"Did Senior Brother Guo tell you something?"
"No, but I can venture a guess or two."
Jiang Che then explained his conjecture in detail:
"He's been at Azure Mystic for five years now, hasn't he? He only reached transforming force last year. That progress isn't slow, but if he remains merely average, how can he enter qi refining within the fifteen-year limit for nominal disciples? At his current pace, without some great opportunity, he might achieve full aperture in another eight or nine years, but that would be his ceiling. I imagine he wants to take a gamble."
Yan We iwan was not entirely convinced. "Senior Brother Jiang, haven't you heard of people who build up strength quietly before bursting forth? Senior Brother Guo has always been optimistic. He isn't someone who's so impatient."
"Perhaps he wasn't before. But did you know that something happened to his family a few months ago?"
"I... I didn't know. He never told me."
"He didn't explain exactly what happened, and I couldn't very well pry. But ever since then, the cultivation resources his family can provide have dwindled drastically, almost to nothing. You must have noticed that over these past few months, he's taken on more than twice as many menial jobs as before."
Yan We iwan twisted her sleeve between her fingers.
No wonder. Zhang Erguo had been somewhat lazy before, willing to take only jobs such as welcoming new disciples at Verdant Mist Hall, while turning his nose up at exhausting chores. He had been nothing like his recent self, who would do practically anything.
"But surely he wouldn't have to... surely it wouldn't come to that..."
"Senior Brother Guo has moved back to the lower compound from the branch compound. Did you know that?"
Yan We iwan's eyes suddenly widened!
Before you continue