Cultivation Chat

The three little critters left in high spirits.

Yue Wen had let them go not because he was afraid of his knees popping... well, maybe a little.

Mostly, he had quickly realized that they had neither the courage to cause trouble in a human city nor the brains to lie to him.

They were just a few pitiful little demons living in the city's shadows.

The Wasteland Zone was dangerous for them, and so was the city. Only their cult leader could offer them temporary protection, so they had no choice but to follow orders.

Before they left, however, Yue Wen had warned them that whatever the Meow-Meow Cult was planning, they were absolutely not to cause trouble at East City Cemetery again over the next two days.

After those two days, it would be none of his business.

Judging by his impression of the three little critters, Yue Wen felt their cult leader might not necessarily be a bad person either... would a truly bad person adopt a few useless stray cats?

After that, he happily went back to farming lantern monsters until dawn.

Early the next morning, Old Huang puttered into the cemetery on his little yellow electric scooter again. The old man stared blankly for a while at the massive craters that had been gouged into the ground.

"A few demons came to cause trouble last night. The fighting got pretty intense," Yue Wen said. "Fortunately, I drove them all off single-handedly."

"Huh?" Old Huang exclaimed in surprise. "We've never had demons come to East City Cemetery before!"

"I don't know what happened either," Yue Wen said, then reminded him, "But after I leave, you'd better be careful too. If you hear anything unusual, report it to the Supernatural Affairs Bureau right away. Don't go investigating on your own."

"I know that." Old Huang chuckled. "Once it gets late, I stay in my room and focus on my books. Whatever noises I hear outside, I don't go out."

Yue Wen glanced at the bookshelf nearby and couldn't help adding, "Take care of your health."

Now that Old Huang had arrived to take over, it was time for him to head back. After working for most of the night, he had cleared out more than half the lantern monsters. Another night of work should pretty much finish the job.

If those three little critters hadn't interrupted him, he might have finished it all in one night.

Still, they had provided information about a mysterious magical artifact, so their visit hadn't been entirely pointless. Vermilion Bird Peak really was rather dangerous, though. He planned to wait until he broke through to the astral realm before exploring the wilderness.

Cultivators had nine realms in total. The Lower Three Realms were the outer realm, inner realm, and unity realm.

In these three realms, one first trained the muscles, bones, and skin externally, then cultivated true essence and qi internally, and finally united essence, qi, and spirit. Once that union reached a certain level, one could forge astral qi with blazing fire through Astral Refining, producing qi that incorporated the spiritual essence of heaven and earth. This was the astral realm.

The threshold of the astral realm barred at least seventy percent of cultivators. It was a chasm, a seemingly impassable divide.

Only after leaving the Lower Three Realms could someone be considered truly strong and venture into the Wasteland Zone with some confidence.

With his current strength, entering the Wasteland Zone was still far too risky.

When he returned to the agency, there were still no commissions.

Yue Wen went straight upstairs to the little bed on the second floor, planning to sleep for a while. Once cultivators reached the unity realm, they could replenish their mental energy through cultivation and theoretically go without sleep or rest.

But adequate sleep still nourished the mind, much like adding oil to a lamp. Unless circumstances were extreme, there was no need to burn through that oil.

Of course, cultivators had another essential bedtime ritual-playing on their phones.

He unlocked his phone and opened an app called Cultivation Chat, then went straight to the search bar and typed in "Meow-Meow Cult."

Zero results.

Cultivation Chat had started as a forum, its full name being Cultivation Chatroom. It had later grown into a massive community used by all cultivators, covering everything from industry news and trading information to socializing, making friends, and booking local lessons.

If even Cultivation Chat had no search results for an organization, it was either an extremely secretive, deeply hidden major power or a bunch of nobodies without the slightest reputation.

Yue Wen figured the Meow-Meow Cult was probably the latter.

After his search came up empty, he went ahead and browsed the trending news on Cultivation Chat.

The top headline reported that Venerable Muyang of the ancient immortal sect, the Taiji Eight Desolations Sect, had ventured into the Whale-Swallowing Demon Sea and returned with half a dragon's corpse!

The most dangerous locations in the Wasteland Zone were designated "forbidden zones." Among the world's many forbidden zones, a few were so perilous they could be called death traps, yet their abundance of immortal treasures still drew countless cultivators to explore them, one after another.

These were the four "immortal treasure forbidden lands."

The Whale-Swallowing Demon Sea was one of them.

It was a ghostlike storm that roamed the four seas. Whenever it appeared, whether a giant whale or a mountain demon, no creature was too large to be sucked into its vortex, with no hope of survival. Even among the four immortal treasure forbidden lands, it had the lowest survival rate.

Yet Venerable Muyang had not only escaped it but brought back half of an enormous Da Long's corpse worth a fortune. It was simply staggering.

Someone happened to have photographed him carrying the dragon across the sea. Though his face wasn't visible, the sight of those ancient remains filling the sky was breathtaking even through a screen.

Some also speculated that, with the countless rare treasures hidden in the immortal treasure forbidden lands, his haul might have been far greater than that if he had managed to return alive.

Beneath this explosive story were a few supposed pieces of insider information of uncertain authenticity. The most popular comment was one of them.

[Born with a Divine Sphincter, Snapped the Golden-Hooped Staff at Five: I have a friend who's an inner disciple of the Taiji Eight Desolations Sect. He says Venerable Muyang paraded around with the dragon corpse because he'd found an enormous treasure that wouldn't fit inside a storage artifact, so he had to hide it in the corpse to conceal it. As for what it was, he says he'll only tell me if I go to his room tonight...]

A large number of replies beneath that comment were waiting for an update. Many urged the commenter to hurry up. An entire night had passed, so why hadn't they come back to spill the beans?

Looking at that absurd username, Yue Wen thought, Whatever this person says might not be reliable anyway.

In second place was a pursuit-and-kill notice issued by another ancient immortal sect, the Heavenly Nether Earth Mother Cult. Its target was named Gu Nanchao.

That name was known to everyone in the cultivation world.

Immortal Nanchao, the greatest master thief under heaven.

He had stolen countless treasures, and his victims included some of the foremost immortal sects. As a result, at least several dozen immortal sects, large and small, had issued pursuit-and-kill notices against him.

Yet never mind catching Gu Nanchao-not even a single photograph showing his face had ever surfaced.

Even the Supernatural Affairs Bureau had launched a large-scale operation to capture him, only to find itself utterly helpless. Its final conclusion was that his cultivation was exceptional and that he possessed some sort of immortal artifact, making him extremely difficult to catch.

Now he had enraged the Heavenly Nether Earth Mother Cult too. Who knew what priceless treasure he had stolen this time, yet again?

The third trending item had probably been paid to appear there. It was a missing-person notice posted by the Zhao Family of Heavenly Capital.

But it wasn't asking Cultivation Chat's users

to help find someone. Rather, the Zhao Family's eldest daughter had run away from home, and no one could reach her. The family head had publicly posted an apology to his daughter, hoping she would come home soon.

As a renowned cultivation family in the Heavenly Capital region, the Zhao Family enjoyed considerable prestige in the southwestern cultivation world. Who would have thought even such a prominent family couldn't handle its parent-child issues?

The top comments below offered neither sympathy nor help. They were all shameless users stirring up trouble.

[The Rainy Night My Ex-Boyfriend Battled Five Black Men to Achieve Astral Refining: Father! If my older sister absolutely refuses to come home, I'm willing to support you in your old age!]

Yue Wen smiled at that and scrolled through a little more news. Feeling sufficiently sleepy, he put away his phone and prepared to catch up on sleep.

Just then, however, a knock came from outside.

"Why show up right now?" he muttered. He got dressed again, climbed out of bed, and hurried downstairs, calling out, "Coming! Who is it?"

The moment he reached the foot of the stairs, his expression went from cloudy to sunny.

Standing at the entrance was a young woman wearing a fitted dress of fine, lightweight white fabric.

She was tall and well-proportioned, probably around 175 centimeters. Her black hair was loosely clipped back, falling smoothly behind her. Her face was fair and clear, as though bathed in a soft glow. Her features were gentle, her lovely eyes clear, and a faint smile rested on her face.

With a cardigan over her long dress and her hands resting lightly behind her back, she stood there like a delicate white flower.

"Hello." Only when she saw Yue Wen come downstairs did the young woman push open the door and enter. She nodded gently and asked in a soft voice, "Are you hiring an assistant here? I've come to apply."