Old Qingcheng is a protective city built on the edge of the desert.
The majority of people in the world of cultivation are ordinary people, and monks are only one or two millionths. With such a huge population, it is natural that there will be management methods in the secular world.
Imperial power, clan, tribe, all kinds of things.
And these rulers often rely on the immortal sect to seek shelter and survive forever.
However, no matter how the superiors in the mortal world change, the iron-clad sect will not change.
In order to avoid being entangled in karma, monks will not easily interfere in worldly affairs, but monks are always needed to resolve matters such as the chaos caused by demons and ghosts.
Old Qingcheng is the boundary between the Mortal King Kingdom and the Daqiong Kingdom, and forms a tight defensive line with Shanghe City, which is more than a hundred miles east.
The one who sent the distress message this time was the Lord of the Old Qingcheng City. The Shanghe City next door had already become a dead city, and the only one relatively close was Lingchuan City.
The flying boat flew for nearly a day and a night to get here. Each captain led the team to separate and investigate various cities.
Following the team he was in, Tong Yan caught a glimpse of a familiar face and had to sigh at the ingenious fate of fate. He just picked up Liang Zi with someone else yesterday, and they were going to act together today.
The team is all foundation-building monks, and the road to Old Qingcheng is not far from here. Next, they all rush on their way with their swords.
Old Qingcheng has an indescribable feeling of desolation. There are so many foreigners coming and going outside the city, with blue eyes and yellow hair, camels and horse hooves, all of which are full of exotic customs.
The group of people followed the crowd into the city very low-key, and then went to the city four times to inquire about the situation, and agreed to meet at the city lord's mansion in the evening.
Rainfall is extremely scarce in the desert area throughout the year, the air is dry and windy and sandy, and the wind blowing from walking on the street seems to be wearing away at the exposed skin.
Roadside stalls sell easy-to-store flatbreads, and for diners sitting in the store, the store will also provide a bowl of hot soup.
While Tong Yan sat down and waited for the food to be served, he used his spiritual consciousness to listen to the gossips of the diners. Perhaps there were too many people coming and going here, so the language here was very complicated, and some of what they said had to be listened to repeatedly to understand.
'A caravan came the day before yesterday, bringing with it all new things. I bought a lot of them, and I will show them to you another day.'
‘The rain this year is much less than last year, and the crops that had finally survived on the ground have died again’.
The soup and cakes were served when they were hot. She imitated the eating method of the diners at the table next to her, broke off a piece and put it in the soup, took a sip of the soup, and then ate it.
The taste is not that good, the dough is hard and rough, the soup is a little oily, and with some coarse salt, it is barely palatable.
For outsiders like her, it is a snack with local characteristics that is enough to try. But for locals, it is the only thing that can taste preserved fruit.
By the time she finished eating slowly, she had finished listening to the gossip. They mostly talked about whether it would rain in the second half of the month and whether they would be able to eat enough every day.
What are monks and what are monsters? They are both too far away from them.
Some people have never even seen or even heard of so-called monks in their lives.
But... Shanghe City, a hundred miles away, turned into a dead city overnight, and the people here didn't seem to know it at all.
Tong Yan guessed that this might be the reason why the city lord blocked the news in order to avoid panic among the people.
However, what makes no sense is that there are so many traders coming and going in the city. It is at least half a month before the day of Shanghe City's disaster. The distance between the two cities can be reached in one day at most. Even if the city lord blocks the news in the city, what will happen to outsiders?
What about the vendors?
Why does it seem like he is completely unaware of this matter and is not panicking at all?
After shopping around all afternoon to no avail, Tong Yan came early to a fairly good teahouse not far from the city lord's palace and sat there, drinking tea and waiting for others.
Halfway through the tea, someone came upstairs. With a glance of his spiritual consciousness, he knew it was the other disciples who were traveling with him.
Footsteps went straight to Tong Yan's table, and a voice followed: "Junior sister Tong is so free. We are all out looking for news, but you are here drinking tea and enjoying the scenery."
It's not that enemies don't get together, enemies are extremely jealous when they meet. Although she and Cao Yicheng are not enemies, yesterday's small conflict could barely be regarded as an overnight feud.
Tong Yan smiled at the visitor and said, "Senior Brother Cao is joking. I came here specifically to keep an eye on the City Lord's Mansion after inquiring about the news. How can I be considered lazy?"
It was said that she specifically chose a location where she could see the City Lord's Mansion for the convenience of checking if others were there.
There were two other disciples from the same sect who came up with Cao Yicheng. Their names, Tong Yan, had not been forgotten, but they had forgotten their names.
The three of them walked to the table and stood or sat. Cao Yicheng walked to the window and looked toward the city lord's palace.
"After such a long time, Junior Sister Tong has noticed something."
Tong Yan took a sip of tea, thought for a while and said, "Being a city lord should be very relaxing. The gate is closed, no one goes in and no one comes out."
"Is Junior Sister a village girl from the mountains? How can you open the door of a wealthy family at will, let alone the residence of a high official, and those lowly people are worthy of opening the door?" Cao Yicheng sneered.
"Your excuse for stalking is a bit lame, and the city lord is the one asking for help from the sect. If there is a problem here, why are other people in the city okay?"
Tong Yan was speechless when asked. She said stalking casually. How could she have imagined that Cao Yicheng would take it seriously.
The two Mosha Sect disciples had nothing to do with themselves and were watching the show. From just a few words, they could tell the clues of their discord.
They don't need to get involved in who is right and who is wrong, and they listen to whoever is forced to do so, but now it is obvious that Tong Yan is weak.
Not long after, several other Demon Temple Sect disciples came outside the city lord's palace, and captain Zheng Shihui was one of them. The people upstairs stopped staying, picked up their weapons and went down to gather.
When Tong Yan was paying the bill, Cao Yicheng, who was passing by, said in a low-pitched voice, "You country bumpkin, it's so stupid to buy a table of ordinary waste water with spiritual beads to drink."
What the fuck...
Tong Yan heard the veins on her forehead bulging out, a grown man always sarcastically and insinuating himself against others. She had never seen such a shameless person in her entire life.
"I'm happy, you can take care of it." Tong Yan rolled his eyes at the figure walking out of the building, and retorted in the same low voice.
After all the disciples arrived, the closed vermilion gate of the City Lord's Mansion finally opened.
Two rows of servants came out first, followed closely by a bearded man in about forty years old in fine clothes. He trotted up to Captain Zheng respectfully and invited the disciples of the Mosha Sect into the mansion with the sound of an immortal voice.
The city lord was a little too enthusiastic, arranging dinners and singing and dancing, as if they were envoys who came to offer condolences rather than helpers who came to save them.
The ordinary food-eating monks looked down upon him, and they were not very interested in the singing and dancing for fun. The unique dancing skills were still eye-catching, but the temperament and appearance were not as pleasing to the eye as the female monk nourished by spiritual energy.
The city lord raised a glass to Captain Zheng, who gave him a vague look and said: "City Lord, I am accompanied by a beautiful woman and a good drink. I can't believe that the scrawled letter asking for help was written by you.
We senior brothers have traveled thousands of miles and don’t have much free time to chat with you, so just tell us what you know.”
City Lord He held the wine glass for a moment, then put it down with some embarrassment, waving for others to go down. Suddenly, only the Mosha Sect disciples, the City Lord and a personal servant were left in the hall.
City Master He stood up and cupped his hands and said: "Please calm down Master Zheng. The letter asking for help is indeed from me. It's just that the immortal masters have come from afar. As the host, I will naturally treat you well and help the immortal masters to cleanse themselves from the dust."
.There are no good things in the barren land. Please forgive me for the poor hospitality."
A long list without getting to the point, pairs of eyes fell on him, City Lord He felt even more stressed.
After the air was silent for a while, City Lord He spoke seriously again, and explained the cause of the incident: "For more than half a month, the people sent by the official to Shanghe City have not returned. I was confused and sent a letter to the City Lord of Shanghe City, but no one knew.
After receiving the reply, I later sent soldiers to investigate, and I found out that all 100,000 people in Shanghe City had died overnight.
We have also heard about massacres in other cities before, and we all speculated that it was an invasion by the enemy, so we city owners agreed to strengthen our vigilance and support each other in times of crisis.
It wasn't until Shanghe City was massacred that the official suddenly realized that there was a strange force causing trouble, so he wrote a letter asking for help from your ancestor."