Chapter 21: Two Dead Cities

Holy Maiden Jingxin spread out her divine sense, covering both towns.

Not only was Shanghe Town a dead city—Xiahe Town was as well!

The so-called lives of the people here were nothing more than corpses going through the motions!

No wonder Hongchen Ancestral Master, whose beauty could shake even the hearts of Immortals and Gods, had arrived here without causing the slightest ripple. How could the dead feel anything for a beauty?

A chill ran down her spine. She had never seen anything like this before.

There were a total of eight towns near the Pure Land of the Mortal World. What worried her now was whether the other six were in the same condition.

Those six towns were too far away for her divine sense to reach.

Fortunately, Jiang Li quickly provided an answer.

“The other six towns are normal,” Jiang Li said after a moment’s thought, then added, “They’re all alive.”

Holy Maiden Jingxin felt that he might as well have left that last part out.

She could only cover two towns with her divine sense because that was her limit.

Jiang Li could cover all eight because there were only eight.

Even if six of them were normal, Holy Maiden Jingxin couldn’t feel relieved.

“Just how long has it been since you’ve checked this place? Even a single Soul Formation Stage cultivator visiting would have prevented this.”

The method used to keep these corpses moving like they were alive was incredibly advanced—only someone at the Soul Formation Stage could have noticed anything amiss.

Feeling dejected, Holy Maiden Jingxin explained, “Soul Formation cultivators have already entered a fasting state. To the elders in the sect, spirit grains are a trivial matter, nothing to worry about. So, they only assigned disciples whose cultivation had no future—just Golden Core cultivators—to be stationed here, with a single Nascent Soul cultivator overseeing all eight towns. There was never supposed to be a problem.”

“But now there’s a huge problem!” Jiang Li said seriously.

They entered a tavern, where the waiter greeted them warmly.

“Oh, you two look unfamiliar—outsiders, aren’t you? That’s rare. And this lady here, is she from the Pure Land of the Mortal World?”

Seeing Holy Maiden Jingxin’s breathtaking beauty, the waiter asked hesitantly. She didn’t speak, only nodded.

“Waiter, I have a few questions for you.”

Jiang Li took out a low-grade spirit stone and placed it on the table.

“Sir, I can’t accept that! You two are esteemed guests from the Pure Land of the Mortal World—I can’t take your money.” The waiter was startled and quickly refused.

After some back-and-forth, the waiter eventually accepted the spirit stone.

The townspeople used copper coins for transactions; a low-grade spirit stone was an extremely rare object here.

Holy Maiden Jingxin raised an eyebrow slightly. The waiter’s movements were smooth and natural, with no hint of stiffness. By sight alone, he was indistinguishable from a living person.

Using her divine sense, she carefully examined him and found that he had two Gu worms—one in his dantian, one in his sea of consciousness. They were male and female; one controlled his actions, the other his thoughts.

This was an extremely sophisticated corpse-controlling technique—one unique to the Gu Clan!

And as far as she knew, the disciple stationed here was a Gu Clan member!

She kept her discovery to herself and quietly observed Jiang Li’s conversation with the waiter.

“Have you seen any particularly beautiful fairies passing through in the past few years?”

The waiter answered without hesitation, “Oh, now that you mention it, two years ago—no, three years ago—a fairy as beautiful as a painting passed through here. Everyone stopped what they were doing and ran outside just to see her. But the fairy didn’t even look at us—she just walked straight ahead barefoot. Some people tried to follow her, but Fairy Yuan stopped them.”

“Fairy Yuan?”

“The one stationed here—Fairy Yuan Ling.”

“So Yuan Ling saw this fairy too. How did she react? Did she look mesmerized? Did she try to abduct her?”

The waiter was startled and quickly lowered his voice. “Sir, please don’t say such things! Fairy Yuan Ling would never behave that way. She just calmly said, ‘So beautiful.'”

Holy Maiden Jingxin frowned slightly. Yuan Ling was from the Gu Clan, so she naturally wasn’t a descendant of Hongchen Fairy. But why was she also unaffected?

Strange. Very strange.

Jiang Li acted as if he hadn’t noticed the issue and continued chatting with the waiter about mundane things—how the harvest was this year, where Yuan Ling was now, how many spirit stones the Pure Land of the Mortal World paid for spirit grains, and whether any were being embezzled.

The waiter, assuming they had been sent to inspect the town, answered everything truthfully.

At last, Jiang Li smiled and asked, “Did you know that you’re already dead?”

The waiter looked confused. “Sir, what are you talking about?”

“Haha, just kidding!” Jiang Li laughed it off, letting the puzzled waiter return to his work.

“Yuan Ling did this?”

“Don’t jump to conclusions. You heard what he said—Yuan Ling wasn’t affected by Hongchen Fairy’s beauty. This is more complicated than it seems.”

“Yuan Ling should only be at the Golden Core Stage, yet from the level of those Gu worms, these people are so lifelike they don’t even realize they’re dead. That’s beyond what a Golden Core cultivator could accomplish.”

“Besides, the Gu Clan aren’t the only ones who use Gu techniques.”

Jiang Li had traveled the world and seen all sorts of strange things, so he was naturally more cautious than Holy Maiden Jingxin, who had only left her sect a few times before returning.

Unfortunately, the Gu Clan had long since declined and gone into seclusion, so even Jiang Li didn’t know much about their techniques.

“Yuan Ling isn’t here. No idea where she went.”

“Let’s go to Xiahe Town. I sensed a Golden Core female cultivator there—she should be one of yours.” Jiang Li scanned the area again with his divine sense and found no Golden Core presence in Shanghe Town.

…

Du Xiner sat cross-legged within a cheap spirit-gathering formation, struggling to cultivate. Yet for some reason, in recent years, her spiritual power hadn’t increased at all. It felt as if her body were a broken bucket—whatever spiritual energy entered simply leaked right out.

“Maybe I really wasn’t meant to cultivate. At least I found a place where I belong.” Du Xiner chuckled self-deprecatingly. She felt that coming to Xiahe Town had been the right choice.

“Someone like me would only be a burden in the sect. Better to leave.”

“Who said you’re a burden?”

A clear voice rang beside her. Only then did Du Xiner realize that Holy Maiden Jingxin was standing in front of her, alongside an exceptionally handsome man.

But for some reason, there seemed to be tears welling up in the Holy Maiden’s eyes.

How could Holy Maiden Jingxin not feel heartbroken? She didn’t remember Yuan Ling too well, but she had a deep impression of Du Xiner.

The other Golden Core disciples had always seen her as a lofty Holy Maiden and didn’t dare approach her. Only Du Xiner had repeatedly come to ask her about cultivation.

And now, after just a few years, they were separated by life and death.

To Holy Maiden Jingxin’s divine sense, Du Xiner was just another walking corpse.

“I failed you. I was negligent…”

Holy Maiden Jingxin knelt down, embracing Du Xiner as she sobbed.

Du Xiner, clueless about what was happening, remained in her seated posture, gently patting Holy Maiden Jingxin’s back.