Chapter 1343: Gathering In Front of the Explorer Union Branch
Moving further into the city following the slight adjustment to his cultivation base, it didn’t take long before Chu Yang found out where the Nascent Soul Realm cultivators that had been hunting down weaker cultivators that could be used as scouts had gone, as all of them seemed to be gathered together in front of a large building that he quickly identified as the Explorer Union Branch of the Demon Mountain City.
Indeed, even though it had been a few hours since he and Lao had hidden away, these Nascent Soul Realm wandering cultivators hadn’t left for the ancient ruins discovered by the Explorer Union yet… And looking at the large number of weaker cultivators who had similarly gathered in front of the Explorer Union, Chu Yang guessed that it shouldn’t be too long before they left.
At least, with his current cultivation displaying a pressure akin to someone in the Nascent Soul Realm, he didn’t get more than a few glances from those Nascent Soul Realm cultivators before they focused their attention back on what seemed to be discussing the ancient ruins they were about to enter.
Continuing to move past the group of wandering Nascent Soul Realm cultivators, Chu Yang couldn’t help slowing down his pace as he listened in on what these Nascent Soul Realm cultivators were talking about.
“I really hope everything works out as expected…”
“Yeah, even if those people from the Explorer Union said that the ruins aren’t too dangerous for someone in the Nascent Soul Realm, I have a feeling they aren’t talking about people like us still in the Earlier Stages of the Nascent Soul Realm, but instead those in the Later Stages!”
“So what? Do you perhaps want to give up an opportunity like this? The ancient ruins are bound to have all sorts of treasures hidden inside and with the city lord himself leading the way, I doubt there will be too much danger for us.”
“Indeed, we will just have to try and stay behind the city lord and his people while picking up the things they aren’t interested in… And considering the weakest among the ones from the city lord’s mansion joining this expedition is at the Domain Lord Realm, we should be able to get a lot of treasures with relative ease!”
Although the conversations between the different wandering cultivators at the Nascent Soul Realm left much to be desired, Chu Yang wasn’t too disappointed by the information he had managed to learn, as it seemed like the city lord of the Demon Mountain City would be leaving the city together with the wandering cultivators and people from the Explorer Union.
In such a situation, the Demon Mountain City would be far safer for him to move around inside of, as the main danger inside the Demon Mountain City was the city lord’s mansion.
The reason for this was that outside of the city lord himself who was a powerful cultivator at the Soul Ascension Realm, there was rumored to be another Soul Ascension Realm cultivator hidden inside the city lord mansion… And that was not mentioning the dozen or so Domain Lord Realm cultivators serving under the city lord.
All things considered; it made sense why even an empire like the Sky Empire would prefer a friendly relationship with such a powerful force. Especially when considering that the Demon Mountain City just existed as a branch of a larger power inside the neutral territory between the Blue Sea Empire and the Wei Empire.
Guess the smartest option would be to wait until those wandering cultivators and the city lord leaves the city before I start trying to ask around about the safe passage through the mountain range. After all, the less powerful cultivators around, the better-
“Hey, you!”
However, just as Chu Yang was lost in his own thoughts and was about to leave the area where the wandering cultivators in the Nascent Soul Realm had gathered, someone called out to him, causing Chu Yang to turn around with a confused expression on his face.
“I don’t recognize you… Oh well, the city lord order for all wandering cultivators at the Nascent Soul Realm to gather in front of the Explorer Union and prepare to head out for the ancient ruins in a short while, I recommend not leaving this place or you risk offending the city lord!”
“This…” Not knowing what to say as he turned around and heard what the one calling out to him just now said, Chu Yang wanted to cry, as he suddenly realized that if the wandering cultivators in the Nascent Soul Realm were looking for someone to scout the way ahead for them, so would the city lord at the Soul Ascension Realm.
The main difference being the strength of the scouts who were now all at the Nascent Soul Realm… And given that all of these people were wandering cultivators without any real background, there was nothing they could do other than listen to the orders of the city lord and follow his command.
At the very least, things weren’t too bad for them, and they would still benefit from exploring the ancient ruins without too much risk with a powerful Soul Ascension Realm cultivator around.
The only problem was that Chu Yang was not really interested in exploring the ancient ruins. Even more so because it would require him to interact with the city lord at the Soul Ascension Realm along with his subordinates at the Domain Lord Realm.
No matter how good his little disguise was at fooling someone weaker than himself, he doubted that it would work against someone at the Domain Lord Realm, let alone someone in the Soul Ascension Realm.
However, if he left the place before the city lord arrived, he might end up offending the city lord like one of the wandering cultivators was kind enough to remind him about, something that would still end up with him catching the attention of the city lord.
Maybe I should just use one of the defensive measures that master left for me to intimidate the city lord into showing me the safe passage through the mountain range before leaving the city.
Narrowing both of his eyes slightly as he thought about this, Chu Yang felt like a good plan.
The main problem was the fact that he would definitely end up getting exposed if he did something like that and would cause future problems for himself down the line.
The only way to avoid any future problems would be to borrow his master’s strength to wipe out the Demon Mountain City and erase any traces of himself, but… Considering that he didn’t want to kill so many innocent people, Chu Yang chose against this option.
Even if he was willing to carry it out and kill off the entire city after getting the information he wanted, it was likely that the destruction of the city would draw the attention of the nearby Blue Sea Empire due to their increased attention on the area because of the large number of demonic cultivators surging into what could be considered territory under their protection. Resulting in them likely suspecting that the destruction of the city was done by a demonic cultivator, that they would then try and chase down before any more damage was caused.
Of course, outside all of this, there was also the fact that his master’s defensive measure might not even attack to destroy the city in the first place…
Shaking his head as he thought about this, Chu Yang ultimately decided to… Not stay, as he quickly left the area around the explorer union branch under the pitying look of the wandering cultivator that had stepped up to warn him only seconds earlier.
Staying might have been a good option under normal circumstances, but Chu Yang didn’t want to run the risk if he could avoid it.
Even if this ended up resulting in him offending the city lord, he didn’t care too much about it as the city lord would be too busy to care about a little Nascent Soul Realm cultivator at the moment. Giving him more than enough time to find out about the safe passage through the mountain range and leave the Demon Mountain City before the city lord and the rest of the wandering cultivators returned to the city.
However, just to be on the safe side, Chu Yang decided to find a small inn a bit further away from the center of the city to wait until the city lord and wandering cultivators left. Lowing his cultivation all the way down to the Qi Condensation Realm as he tried blending in with the locals by finding a secluded spot to order something to eat as he sat down and looked out a nearby window pointed in the direction the explorer union branch.
Rumble~!
Like this, a little over half an hour flew by before Chu Yang saw a small group of people arriving in the air above the explorer union branch before they descended for a short time and soon left again together with the large number of wandering cultivators at the Nascent Soul Realm and below.
