Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Yi Qing didn’t speak any more with Tang Han, but stood up to leave soon after asking about the general direction of Mystic Daoists. He was only scared that he would be impulsive and really want to send them to Mystic Daoists himself. After leaving Tang Han’s place, he immediately started sword-riding towards Longxing City with Shen Ying.
Tang Han said that the Qing He County was massacred because of a sudden attack by deviant ghosts. This seemed to be real. The horrible looks of those ghosts in the city indeed didn’t look like what would appear with a normal disaster. But the loss of memories by the whole city’s ghosts and the misplacement of the River of Forgetfulness was not something that mere deviant ghosts could achieve.
Though he didn’t know what the deviant ghosts Tang Han mentioned were, all ghosts besides exceptions like Song Ren would be sent into reincarnation at Underworld once they get near the River of Forgetfulness, so the River’s misplacement was absolutely not the doing of deviant ghosts. It was actually more possible that it had something to do with the Mystic Daoists who chased deviant ghosts.
What actually happened in the city at that time? And why would Song Ren have such deep grievances? It seemed only possible to know by taking a look at Mystic Daoists.
The Longxing City which Tang Han mentioned it to be at was hundreds of kilometers away from here, but for sword-riding, it would take less than half an hour. Yi Qing glanced with his Divine Perception and saw a large city in front. The spirit qi was obviously thicker than that of the other places which was almost too thin to be seen. But it could still not be compared to immortal cities of other small worlds. And the aura was extraordinarily messy too, full of humanly auras.
Yi Qing hesitated, before descending to a remote place outside the city. He turned to look at a certain cowardly ghost which was afraid of heights, and his brows tightened.
“Great… immortal?” Song Ren trembled at his look, as the bottom of his heart chilled for no reason. He felt that ever since they came out of that ghost city, the attitude of this immortal whose surname was Yi towards him was much worse. His look looked like it could freeze him to ice any second.
“You are a ghost and you can’t just enter like this.” All those so-called Mystic cultivators seemed unfriendly towards ghosts. Should Song Ren enter like this, he might be beaten until his soul dissipated. “To prevent trouble, I’ll make you a projection from an immortal item. You may possess it temporarily.”
With that said, he immediately took out a green Chinese onion from his storage bag!
Song Ren, “…”
Why is it a green Chinese onion? I thought you were talking about an immortal item? Why would you bring about you such a thing as an onion?
“Go inside.” Yi Qing waved that green Chinese onion which overflowed with immortal qi and said with all seriousness.
“Great… immortal…” Song Ren’s mouth twitched, and after a long while he ventured to say, “Can… can I use another instead?” He did this on purpose, right?
“…” Little bitch, you have a lot of requests.
Yi Qing’s face darkened, as he snorted but continued to dig in his storage bag.
Song Ren let out a sigh of relief. Yet in the next instant, he saw a great many of the following dug out from the bag: garlic, chili, leeks, pepper, coriander…
“All here. Choose one yourself. Quickly.”
Shen Ying, “…”
Song Ren, “…”
This is not choosing a projection but choosing an ingredient, right?
(╯‵□′)╯(┻━┻
Yet the other party’s face was all fierce and threatening, and Song Ren who was always timid had to go forward and glance at the ingredients all over the floor. To his surprise, he found an item of a different type, and his eyes brightened.
“I choose this!” He pointed to a white dandelion which stuck in between some coriander.
Yi Qing took it out casually and remembering something, his mouth twitched. He turned to look at Song Ren. “You are… sure?” This was apparently private goods put in by a certain Radish.”
“Yes please, great immortal.” Song Ren nodded hard. It was always better than garlic and chili. “Flowers has always been elegant things, and must help great immortal produce a good projection.
Yi Qing didn’t speak. He looked at him with an uninterpretable look. Even Shen Ying who focused on eating fruits at a side turned back and glanced over in surprise.
What… what’s the matter? Song Ren felt a chill in the bottom of his heart. Are dandelions very bad?
“This is it, then!” Yi Qing showed no intention to explain at all. He directly produced a seal and captured Song Ren’s soul into the dandelion. With a wave of hand, an array appeared underneath his feet. The dandelion immediately became a white light which flew into the array. The white light became brighter and brighter and started to take form. In a short while, a young man of sixteen or seventeen years old appeared inside the array.
He wore a green and white gown, and not surprisingly looked rather similar to Radish.
“I… I have a body again!” Song Ren looked over his own body with an expression full of excitement. He was an immortal indeed. He changed back to human.
“This is merely a projection,” explained Yi Qing, “Don’t stay too far away from us, or when the immortal qi from the dandelion is used up, you will return to your original form immediately.”
“I get it.” Song Ren nodded and hurried to make a salute. “Thank you so much, great immortal!”
“Let’s enter the city. He glanced at him once more, and his look stopped briefly at his lower body, before he dragged Shen Ying habitually and went into the city.
Song Ren hurried to follow.
The city was very lively and there were people everywhere. Yi Qing once thought that this would be similar to an immortal city of cultivators, but strangely, more than half of those in the city were ordinary mortals with no cultivation at all. By right, cultivators don’t live mortals unless they have to, lest they get contaminated with mortal aura which was harmful to cultivation. But this didn’t seem to be the case here at all. It seemed exceptionally… diverse.
Yi Qing asked around about the location of Mystic Daoists, before taking the two all the way into the city.
Along the way, many passers-by carried a peach wood sword similar to Tang Han’s, or swords made from tying up cotton coins, on their backs. Upon those swords there was very weak movement of spirit qi, but it couldn’t have counted as even a first-level dharma artifact. It seemed that they were Mystic cultivators who wanted to join the Mystic Daoists as well.
The trio walked across the main street, and a palace faraway appeared before them. The palace floated in the air. But the palace wasn’t huge, and probably due to the thinness of spirit qi, it floated a mere four or five meters from the ground. Nevertheless, it looked rather grand and magnificent. Upon the palace roof, there were two large golden words: Mystic Daoists.
In front of the palace was a very big square, on which hundreds had already gathered. There was also a stage on the square. The people seemed to be waiting for something.
Yi Qing looked around. He took out that recommendation letter from Tang Han, and just as he was about to go forward and hand it to the person in front, who seemed to be in charge, a thick voice was suddenly heard from the stage.
“Thank you very much, Fellow Daoists, for coming here from far away to help us Mystic Daoists chase away deviant ghosts.” There was a middle-aged man dressed in a blue robe on the stage.
The place quieted immediately. Everyone looked toward the stage.
“The situation is urgent. Please forgive me for not being able to greet all of you one by one.”
“Sect master Ying, what actually happened?” As he finished speaking, someone from below asked hurriedly, “Why is Mystic Iron Order sent suddenly to gather Mystic cultivators from around the world in a rush?” This was the first time that Mystic Iron Order was sent since the formation of Mystic Daoists.
“The matter threatens a worldwide disaster, and I was forced to do that.” The sect master on the stage whose surname was Ying took a step forward, and with a very gloomy expression he looked towards the crowd and said, “A few days ago we received the news that a large group of deviant ghosts have appeared in the Southwest. The number is large. Mystic Daoists have tried to stop them for many times but reaped no results. Right now deviant ghosts have already broken into Jiangyue City, and they are approaching our direction. Within less than three days they would reach Longxing City!”
“…”
