Wu Hun
Hu Mang expressed skepticism about the so-called Mountain-Opening Sword Intent, after all, Heavenly Gate had far too many tricks up its sleeve when it came to this kind of thing.
Moreover, the only restaurant with a view of this mountain is your Mountain-Gazing Pavilion. If you want to study "sword intent," you need to rent a place to eat. Do you have the nerve to sit here all afternoon with just two steamed buns?
Ignoring the other man's previous words, Hu Mang asked again, "Xiaoer, since you know everything, let me ask you, do you know where Rainbow Path leads?"
The Xiaoer was taken aback. Not only the Xiaoer, but many other Rogue Cultivators also looked over with surprised expressions.
"My lord, aren't you going to the Liang Kingdom? Liang Kingdom has a national protective array on its borders. The only ways to enter and exit are these few ancient Spirit Paths. Moreover, Liang Kingdom has two Heavenly Gate Divine Sword Sect and the Mysterious Peak Sect. Aren't you going there to try your luck?"
"Hmm, let me test whether you really know it or are just trying to fool us," Hu Mang said without changing his expression.
"I see. Would you like a room, sir? I can find you a superior room, but the rent is a bit expensive, 10 low-grade Spirit Stones a day."
Converted to Spirit Coins, that's 10,000 a day. In Heavenly Gate, that price could even buy you a Nascent Soul suite.
He wasn't short of Spirit Stones, but he wasn't stupid either.
Hu Mang grinned.
"Thank you, but no need."
On the street, Hu Mang ate a local specialty, a spirit beast-shaped pancake, while observing this "ancient cultivation world" with great interest.
To be honest, it's quite interesting. He can sense that almost everyone in this small county town has Spirit Root.
Even the Xiaoer who promoted the three treasures of Wangsong had some level of cultivation.
This is completely different from what my mother described, where Dao of Alchemy finds a disciple with Root Bone and wants to inform the ancestors of the sect.
It is precisely because the people of this county all possess cultivation, and many of the constables are even close to the Nascent Soul stage, that these unorthodox Rogue Cultivators maintain a relatively friendly relationship with the locals.
Next, Hu Mang strolled around the local market, vegetable market, and even some shops, and found that all transactions here were settled with Spirit Stones, even when hiring a carpenter to make furniture or a blacksmith to make ironware.
Correspondingly, whether it's meat sold in the market, furniture made by carpenters, or ironware made by blacksmiths, all of them possess Spiritual Qi. Although most of them are the lowest-level Law Artifacts, even the lowest-level Law Artifacts are still Law Artifacts.
Oh, Hu Mang also discovered that there were several martial arts schools in this small county town. These schools taught methods for strengthening muscles, bones, skin, and flesh. According to what he had heard, once muscles, bones, skin, and flesh were fully developed, one could fight against Three Flowers cultivator.
According to Hu Mang's combat strength classification standards, an ordinary Three Flowers cultivator is even stronger than a typical Golden Core cultivator.
Hu Mang was initially puzzled as to how the other party had managed it, but when the martial arts school's backyard opened at noon, and the school's cooks dragged in cart after cart of Demon Beast corpses, Hu Mang immediately understood why the martial arts school's head chef had been so arrogant. Based on the concentration of Yao Qi and bloodline, most of them were on the list of protected Demon Beasts of Heavenly Gate.
This isn't martial arts training, this is training for the Asura Body!
Fortunately, there were no foxes among these Demon Beasts, otherwise the Hu Mang would have been in a real predicament.
The county town itself wasn't very big; Hu Mang finished exploring it in about half a day. After a moment's thought, he decided not to go and worship the local Lord of the Land, but instead headed out of the town.
On Earth Star, the saying "There are gods three feet above your head" is just a saying, related to faith and morality.
But here, the saying "Heaven sees all" truly applies. It's best for the Earth God of the Great Mystic Imperial Dynasty and the former Thunder God of the Jade Firmament Divine Dynasty to avoid each other, since gods Seeing the God.
In particular, although the Lord of the Land sounds like a very low-level Land God, he is actually one of the forty-nine righteous Orthodox Gods of the Azure Mysterious Realm, and is quite Divine Ability.
Therefore, Hu Mang was not keen to provoke them, even though, according to the Xiaoer, if one sincerely worshipped, one could even receive the blessings of the Lord of the Land god, such as a Thousand Miles in One Line talisman, the coordinates of a rare and precious treasure, or a sacred place for cultivation.
Hu Mang felt that such benefits should be enjoyed by others; he should just honestly use connections and rely on tokens to join the Peak-Subduing Sect, and avoid any unnecessary complications.
Moreover, although he didn't quite believe the Xiaoer's explanation, Divine Pine Mountain was right across the street, so why not take a look? Besides, he didn't necessarily have to pay to see it; he could see it from the restaurant, and he could see it from the city gate tower as well.
Hu Mang didn't even spend money to bribe the gatekeepers; he simply said a few words, and the gatekeepers made way for him, the "Two-Flower True Person," to do him a favor.
"Although there's no Spiritual Qi detector, these two guards must have practiced similar Law Technique."
When Hu Mang was communicating with the other party, he clearly felt a special Law Power fluctuation falling on him. After confirming that he was a practitioner of both essence and qi cultivation, he became much easier to talk to.
"So, the relationship between ordinary people and unorthodox Rogue Cultivators here isn't that of mortals and immortals; if you had to describe it, it's more like that of merchants and customers, or arms dealers and mercenaries?"
While he was in the restaurant, he even saw hunters actively selling local Ganoderma lucidum and other medicinal herbs, and surprisingly, some Rogue Cultivators actually bought them.
Hu Mang leaned against the top of the city wall, opened a pot of "Jade Spring Famous Brew," and sipped the wine while entering a state of Unity of Heaven and Man. He wanted to see if he could really comprehend any sword intent. Wasn't it said that besides the Mysterious Peak Sect, Liang Kingdom also had the Divine Sword Sect? What if this was their entrance test?
He sat there for a whole day and night.
Then Hu Mang demonstrated through his actions that, following "wine scammers" and "meal scammers," "mountain scammers" have emerged.
Lao Tzu spent the entire night trying to understand the concept of "Unity of Heaven and Man," but he couldn't figure it out. He even used the Heavenly Devil Field in the latter half of the night, but still found nothing.
Unless there truly is a peerless sword intent that only a genius like Gu Yunshu could discover.
But in a place that can't even be called a beginner's village, how could such a thing exist?
"Excellent wine! I didn't expect that not only did I think of this, but you, fellow Daoist, did as well."
Not only Hu Mang thought of this, but other quick-thinking Rogue Cultivators also thought of this: why let someone rip you off when you can get something for free?
Of course, the results were all the same.
"Hu Mang."
Jiang Mingshan.
Jiang Mingshan glanced at the wine jar and knew that only those with considerable wealth could produce such wine, so he couldn't resist going up to them to strike up a conversation.
"Fellow Daoist, your appearance is refined and your foundation in Dao is solid. You are clearly from the Aristocratic Clan. I wonder if you intend to join the Divine Sword Sect or the Mysterious Peak Sect when you go to the Liang Kingdom this time?"
"Where is my fellow Daoist?" Hu Mang asked in return.
"Of course, it's the Divine Sword Sect," Jiang Mingshan's eyes gleamed. "Although the Divine Sword Sect's swordsmanship can't compare to the top-tier lineages of the righteous and demonic paths, it still ranks among the top five of the innate sects. If one can forge a good sword, one can even refine one's spirit with the sword. If one joins the Mysterious Peak Sect, one might only be able to become a mountain-moving Daoist or a mountain-strengthening warrior. Cough cough, of course, the Mysterious Peak Sect's Three Mountains and Five Peaks Dharma Lineage is also profound in its Daoist methods and powerful in its Law Power, but that's just a matter of personal interest, personal interest."
Jiang Mingshan realized he had let something slip and quickly tried to cover it up. After all, both the Divine Sword Sect and the Mysterious Peak Sect were like gods to him, and he couldn't possibly offend them.
However, Hu Mang didn't care. After all, sword cultivators, even in an environment like Heavenly Gate where fighting was forbidden, could still cultivate a group of people like the Flying Sword Gang. In the Azure Mysterious Realm, a "high-end ancient world," it was perfectly normal for them to have a large following.
But what did the other person mean by that?
"Fellow Daoist, do not panic. I am not some gossipy villain. But what is the meaning of these Mountain-Moving Daoists and Mountain-Resisting Warriors?"
"Fellow Daoist, do you not know what the Mysterious Peak Sect does?" Jiang Mingshan asked in surprise.
"Uh, I am of limited knowledge and skills, and I would be grateful for your guidance, fellow Daoist."
"In fact, this one sentence can explain it all: the Three Mountains and Five Peaks Dharma Lineage is the way to move mountains, repair peaks, stabilize veins, restore the spiritual energy of mountains and rivers, and govern the spiritual mountains and great rivers..."
With the other party's explanation, Hu Mang gradually understood what the Three Mountains and Five Peaks Dharma Lineage, also known as the Mysterious Peak Sect, was all about.
I never imagined that there would be a sect in the Azure Mysterious Realm that specializes in civil engineering!
What a coincidence!
Seeing Hu Mang's strange expression, Jiang Mingshan thought he had said something wrong again, and quickly said, "Fellow Daoist, for Rogue Cultivators like us, let alone those who seal mountains and build trees, even ghost cultivators and yin cultivators, as long as we can join a major innate sect, it is a first-class fortuitous opportunity. Moreover, the Divine Sword Sect has extremely strict entry requirements, and will not accept anyone without top-notch Root Bone or temperament. On the other hand, the Mysterious Peak Sect, if one has a kind and honest temperament, it doesn't matter if Root Bone is a little lacking."
Hu Mang nodded repeatedly, looked Jiang Mingshan up and down, and suddenly laughed, "Then I wonder what kind of Root Bone you have, fellow Daoist, that makes you so confident in joining the Divine Sword Sect?"
"Of course I am--"
Jiang Mingshan was just stunned, not stupid. He quickly came to his senses, laughed it off, and got away with it.
Although the other party didn't say it, Hu Mang could vaguely sense the surging sword intent emanating from them, which was only one level below Gu Yunshu's.
Hu Mang's gaze fell to the other side. It wasn't the two of them who wanted to get the sword intent for free. The middle-aged man who looked like Three Flowers Sword Master that they had bumped into at the restaurant earlier was eavesdropping.
Seeing the two looking over, the man coughed lightly. "Wu Hun, greetings to you both."
"What a... powerful name," Jiang Mingshan remarked.
However, a city gate guard quickly jogged over, bowed, and said, "Chief Instructor, the magistrate requests your presence."
"I know," the middle-aged man said, bowing to the two of them. "Gentlemen, I'll take my leave now."
"He's actually a local," Hu Mang muttered to himself, then asked the remaining city gate guard, "What's the background of that Senior Wu?"
"That's our head instructor. He used to be the owner of a martial arts school in our county. He's a body-refining cultivator with perfected tendons, bones, muscles, and skin. However, because his innate Root Bone is lacking, he's never participated in the assessment of the major sects. But every time you Rogue Cultivators come here, the head instructor goes to the restaurant. It seems like he'll be going to participate in the selection soon."