Some people extended a helping hand because they regarded you as a friend, but if you kept thinking about returning the favor, it would hurt you instead.
Despite Jing Xingzhi's frivolous appearance, his actions clearly showed that he regarded Qin Xi as a friend.
Qin Xi spent half of his life crazily cultivating. He knew a lot of people, but he didn't have many friends. Jing Xingzhi was one of the few people he was willing to trust.
Mo Tiange didn't want him to lose a friend because of this.
The path to immortality was dangerous, but it didn't mean there was no family and friendship. Recalling what happened in Carefree Valley, if Tian Zhiqian didn't misunderstand, how lucky he was to have a friend like Ling Yunhe?
Sincerity was even more valuable because people's hearts were sinister.
* * *
A ray of golden light appeared in the sky, rushing in the direction of Chang Ling City.
Yan Feng looked up at the disappearing flight light and secretly rejoiced that he had been restraining his breath, so the other party didn't notice him.
"This flight light … should be Fellow Daoist Jing's, right?" he murmured, "Why is he alone?"
After Mo Tiange and the other two left Changling City, he ordered the cultivators under him to pay attention to their whereabouts.
But how could it be easy to follow a Nascent Soul cultivator?
It didn't take long for him to lose track of them.
Yan Feng decided to act himself, wanting to see if the three of them had other purposes. Unexpectedly, he couldn't find any traces until he finally saw Jing Xingzhi's flight light.
Judging from the direction of the flight light, it seemed to be heading toward Changling City. Yan Feng hesitated for a moment and didn't follow.
If they went back to Changling City, Jing Xingzhi's whereabouts would be within their grasp with so many people in the Merchant Union. On the other hand, if Mo Tiange and Qin Xi wanted to hide, it would be very difficult to find them.
What were the three of them doing?
Yan Feng didn't believe it was an internal conflict. This Fellow Daoist Jing was only in the early stage of Nascent Soul. Even if he was a sword cultivator, he shouldn't be able to fight against the Qin couple. Besides, judging from his flight light, he didn't seem to be injured.
After thinking for a while, Yan Feng waved his sleeves, released his flying magic weapon, and decided to take a look around.
The Qin couple was nowhere to be seen, and he didn't know what they were doing. He couldn't be at ease if he wasn't sure. He sighed with some annoyance. Yuanzhou was facing a crisis, so he hoped these three people wouldn't harm Yuanzhou Merchant Union.
Stepping on the flying artifact, he circled around the surrounding waters but did not find anything unusual.
Yan Feng thought to himself. Even though he was only in the early stages of the Nascent Soul Realm, his divine sense was one of the strongest among the Nascent Soul Realm cultivators in Chang Ling City. It seemed that the two of them had extraordinary breath-concealing techniques. He actually could not sense anything.
Shaking his head, Zhang Xuan was just about to return to Changling City when he suddenly sensed something. Turning around, he stared at the distant sea, and his face warped in shock.
The surface of the sea was calm and there was nothing out of the ordinary. However, his Divine Sense could sense that there were many sea beasts nearby. The weakest of these sea beasts were only at the first or second rank, while the strongest were at the sixth or seventh rank. There were even a few that were at the peak of the seventh rank and were about to transform!
Yan Feng stepped on his flying treasure and flew towards the depths of the sea. The more he flew, the paler his face became.
Finally, he stopped in his tracks, turned around, and rushed towards Chang Ling City.
※ ※ ※
Jing Xingzhi left for seven days before returning.
During these seven days, aside from cultivating and meditating, Mo Tiange studied the Transporting Formation.
As for Qin Xi, he was focused on refining his Vermilion Bird Bow.
After obtaining the Vermilion Bird Bow from the Vermilion Bird Sacrificial Temple, he spent many years slowly absorbing all the Vermilion Bird's breath and could finally take the Vermilion Bird Bow out of the Yang Spiritual Bead.
The Vermilion Bird's breath on the Vermilion Bird Bow was very strong, and it was also combined with the Yang Spiritual Bead, so its power was extraordinary. However, it was precisely because of its great power that it was difficult to control.
During the Heavenly Tribulation that day, he could barely take the Vermilion Bird Bow out of the Yang Spiritual Bead. Even with the Vermilion Bird's flames on his body, he could only shoot one arrow.
The power of that arrow actually scattered most of the golden lightning of the ninth layer of the Heavenly Tribulation. This made Qin Xi realize that if he could refine the Vermilion Bird Bow to the point where he could control it at will, no one in the Nascent Soul realm would be able to resist his arrow with all his strength.
Returning to the cave, Jing Xingzhi saw that Mo Tiange and Qin Xi were safe and sound inside the Concealment Formation. He heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Are you two okay?"
Mo Tiange asked curiously, "What could happen?
What happened to you? "
Jing Xingzhi wiped his face then casually sat down to rest. He looked a bit tired. "Something big happened in Changling City again. Oh, no, something big happened in Yuan Province again."
"What happened?" Qin Xi stopped cultivating and stared at him.
"… Where should I start?" Jing Xingzhi scratched his head then said, "Forget it, let's start from the beginning."
"On the day I returned to Changling City, a large number of sea beasts appeared in the surrounding waters.
These sea beasts were of both high and low ranks. They were densely packed and rushed ashore, attacking many mortals and low-level cultivators. "
Mo Tiange and Qin Xi glanced at each other. Both of them were a bit surprised.
Every few decades or a hundred years, demonic beast riots would occur in Kunwu. Could it be that Yuan Province was also the same?
But judging from Jing Xingzhi's tone, this didn't seem to be normal.
"There's no demonic beast riot in Yuan Province." Jing Xingzhi knew what they were thinking, so he said, "The waters around Yuan Province have always been very peaceful. Such a thing has never happened before."
"Could it be because of the Sea of Returning Ruins?"
Mo Tiange guessed. "The Sea of Returning Ruins was originally the territory of high rank sea beasts. Yuan Province Continent suddenly appeared here, so these sea beasts attacked humans because their territory was occupied?"
Jing Xingzhi shook his head. "If it was only the appearance of a lot of sea beasts, that might be the explanation. However, a few days later, I heard shocking news from the Castellan's Mansion in Changling City."
He stared at Mo Tiange and Qin Xi and said slowly, "A new continent appeared south of Yuan Province — a continent occupied by demonic cultivators."
"What?!" Mo Tiange and Qin Xi exclaimed at the same time. They looked at each other, both feeling incredulous.
Since Yuan Province, Yunzhong, and Xiaoyang had all moved, it wasn't strange for a new continent to appear. However, it was strange that this continent was occupied by demonic cultivators.
In the Celestial Pole, Kunwu was the territory of cultivators, and a large number of demonic beasts lived in the forest south of Kunwu.
Demonic cultivators were the best among demonic beasts.
As far as they knew, although demonic cultivators and demonic beasts shared the same origin, their statuses were very different.
In the eyes of demonic cultivators, even if they were of the same race, demonic beasts weren't their own kind. Only demonic cultivators who succeeded in taking human form could be considered their own kind.
Therefore, demonic cultivators could be said to be a new race built on the basis of demonic beasts taking human forms. They broke away from their beast forms and possessed the same intelligence as humans, thus forming a new society.
However, it was much harder for demonic beasts to take human forms than it was for human cultivators to form their Nascent Soul. If one out of tens of thousands of cultivators succeeded in forming their Nascent Soul, then only one out of hundreds of thousands of demonic beasts could cultivate to take human form. Moreover, they might not necessarily be able to pass the Transformation Heavenly Tribulation.
Of course, demonic beasts had a much stronger reproductive ability than humans, and the number of low rank demonic beasts also far exceeded that of humans. Nevertheless, there were very few demonic beasts who could become demonic cultivators. There were about a hundred Nascent Soul cultivators in the Celestial Pole, but perhaps less than half of them were demonic cultivators.
A continent was actually occupied by demonic cultivators — how many demonic beasts lived there?
"What about the human cultivators on this continent?" Qin Xi asked. "Could it be that only a few of them reached the Nascent Soul realm?
They actually let demonic cultivators occupy this continent! "
Jing Xingzhi shook his head. "You guessed wrong. It's not that the human cultivators on this continent are too weak — it's that they don't exist at all!"
Qin Xi was stunned. "They don't exist?"
"Yes!"
Jing Xingzhi said, "Several months ago, after the continent shifted, Yuanzhou's Merchant Union sent people to explore the way.
Those who went north found Xiaoyang, and those who went south found this Demonic Cultivator Continent. They ventured into this continent only to find demonic beasts and no humans at all. "
"…" Qin Xi sighed. "Sure enough, the world is so big that nothing is too strange. I thought all continents were dominated by human cultivators, but as it turns out, there are still continents occupied by demonic cultivators."
"Is this related to the sea beasts?"
Mo Tiange asked. "Could it be that these sea beasts aren't from the Sea of Returning Ruins but from this Demonic Cultivator Continent?"
Jing Xingzhi still shook his head. "No, of course the sea beasts are from the Sea of Returning Ruins, but …" He stopped, stretched out his hand in the air, and drew a simple map with his spiritual aura. "Look, this is the Sea of Returning Ruins, and this is the Demonic Cultivator Continent. Yunzhong used to be in this position … Did you see anything?"
Mo Tiange stared at the map for a long time and frowned. "The reason why there are so many high level sea beasts in the Sea of Returning Ruins is because it's next to the Demonic Cultivator Continent?"
Jing Xingzhi nodded, very satisfied with her cleverness. "Yes, the people of Yuanzhou's Merchant Union found out that this time, the Demonic Cultivator Continent only moved slightly to the north, but its position wasn't much different from before. It's still next to the Sea of Returning Ruins.
Before, Yunzhong's people only knew that the Sea of Returning Ruins was dangerous and there were many high level sea beasts, but they didn't know that was because there was a Demonic Cultivator Continent in the Sea of Returning Ruins. "
"So the Demonic Cultivator Continent also discovered the existence of Yuanzhou?" Qin Xi asked, "Did they mobilize so many sea beasts to occupy Yuanzhou?"
Jing Xingzhi smiled bitterly. "It's very possible.
When it rains, it pours. I'm afraid Yuanzhou is doomed. There's Xiaoyang in front and Demonic Cultivator Continent in the back. Let alone maintaining its current prosperity, whether it can protect itself has become a problem. "
The three of them were silent.
They saw the prosperity of Yuanzhou with their own eyes, but the development of the situation was becoming more and more disadvantageous to Yuanzhou. They could almost imagine that in a few decades or even a few years, Yuanzhou would be in chaos and its talents would wither.
As the same kind, they naturally didn't want Yuanzhou to be occupied by Demonic Cultivators. However, the fate of an entire continent wasn't something they could change.
"What about the past few days? How's the situation?" Qin Xi asked after a long silence.
Jing Xingzhi sighed. "It's passable. Right now, no demonic beasts above the eighth rank have appeared, and there are so many Nascent Soul cultivators in Changling City, so it's naturally fine.
However, the surrounding islands were in a miserable state. Many mortals and cultivators were killed or injured. The survivors were all moved to Changling City.
Right now, Changling City is heavily guarded. If I didn't take the opportunity to kill sea beasts to leave, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to get out. "
"Did you get that thing?" Mo Tiange asked.
The situation was chaotic. Presumably, most of Changling City's commercial market was also closed. If she didn't buy the thing to lay a formation, it would be difficult.
"Of course."
Jing Xingzhi spread out his hand, revealing a transparent yellow object lying in his palm. "The merchant continent truly lives up to its reputation. I took this object and asked around, and someone told me it was called Jade Rosin. It's a top-notch material for setting up arrays. After some trouble, I finally managed to buy it."