Chapter 116 Ferry

Chapter 116 Ferry

Chapter 116 Ferry
Twenty-three days later, Li Wuxiang arrived at the edge of the Five Mountains True Form Taoist area - the boundary was a big river and a cliff.

This river has a name in the Shijie Collection, called "Huhe". He initially thought that this was because the river happened to be the dividing line between the parish and other areas, hence the name, but after seeing the river, Li Wuxiang doubted his idea.

In his previous life, he also liked to watch the river. In the middle of the night, he would listen to the sound of the river flowing by the deserted river, or in the daytime, he would look through the gaps between the leaves in the silent forest to see the people playing by the river.

One thing he had always disliked was that most of the rivers in his city were in shackles - the river channels were solidified by gray and lifeless concrete embankments on both sides, with no pebbles, shallows, or lush aquatic plants.

This moat reminded him of those rivers - the river was very wide, and when he looked at the other side of the river, he could hardly see it clearly because of the mist stirred up by the turbulent river. But even such a big river had high and steep stone walls on both sides, with a height difference of three people from the water surface, almost straight up and down, and ordinary people would never find a place to climb up and down.

The stone wall was gray-black, and looked exactly like the stone he had seen along the way. But the stone embankment on the shore was not formed naturally, because there was no crack at all, and it was quite smooth and flat. But when Li Wuxiang looked more closely, he could not find any traces of chiseling or splicing, as if it was completely the work of nature.

This must have been created by the Five Mountains True Form Dao, and even this river might have been created by them. They were originally good at this kind of thing, but he didn't expect it to be this far... How long is this river? How many people and how many years would it take to create it?
The only advantage of such a river is that it made it easy for him to find Pan Muyun and Helian Ji.

There is a ferry crossing by the river, also made of gray-black stone. Two rows of sheds are built on both sides of the road leading to the ferry crossing, and they look quite old. Some carriages and horses are parked under the sheds, and dozens of people are sitting on the roadside in groups of three or five, chatting and resting.

When Li Wuxiang saw Pan Muyun and Helian Ji, they were both carrying a load on their shoulders and dressed like peddlers, with a third load on the ground.

The two men sat on the ground, each holding a melon slice in their hands, eating until their chests were covered with juice. In their other hands, they held a palm-leaf fan, fanning themselves and shooing away mosquitoes and flies. Their hair was originally tied up neatly, but now it looked dishevelled, as if they were real street vendors. When they saw Li Wuxiang, they immediately waved and shouted, "Come! Come! Come this way!"

The people around him looked at him intently, then turned away and chatted with each other.

Li Wuxiang walked up to them, lifted his skirt and sat on the ground, letting out a long breath.

Pan Muyun looked at him with a smile: "How was the journey?"

"It's still pretty peaceful. I found out a lot of things, but I didn't expect the river protection to be like this."

Pan Muyun nodded: "You came faster than we thought. We just arrived yesterday. Don't blame us for not stopping to wait for you. Tracking for thousands of miles is also a lesson that we swordsmen have to learn. Now it seems that you don't need to learn it."

He pointed to the side and said, "That load is yours. We are all peddlers now. The load on your load contains some pickled vegetables, dried fruits and melons. Just think about where you are from, so that you can answer when someone asks you. There is no need to be too detailed. The people at the ferry will not care and cannot figure it out."

"Will the people from the True Form Dao take us across the river?"

"Yes. But they are not monks. However, they know that we are not necessarily traffickers. In the territory of the True Form Dao, according to their own words, there is nothing missing, only some novelties. If you want to cross the river, you must have something good in your hand. I have a coffin nail, and he has a ghost bead. Do you have anything rare?"

Yes. Zhao Kui's "Immortal Remains", but it's not easy for him to take it out - once it leaves the secret realm, it might "come alive". Li Wuxiang thought about it, reached into his arms and felt around, took out a handful of white beard, unfolded it and showed it to the two: "Is this okay? I got it from a monster. It was too late to see clearly, so I only plucked a handful and let it escape, but it's also unique."

The two men came over to look, and each took a whisker. They first pulled it - a whisker as long as a forearm, stretched three or four times longer and still didn't break. Helian Ji exclaimed, pulled out the knife from his waist, and put the whisker on a small stone to cut it - but it couldn't be cut, and it kept rolling around under the blade. It wasn't until he used all his strength that the blade deflected and cut off a small section diagonally.

He said with a sigh, "It's really rare. It's as good as the sword line, but it hasn't yet been transferred into the essence. It looks like a hair. Where did you get it? Let's look for it when we get back. It's a natural treasure."

Li Wuxiang scratched his head. "On a snowy mountain, in a trench, I can't remember which mountain it was. It was too late, I lost my way, and only found the way again at dawn."

Pan Muyun smiled and said, "Your Senior Brother Helian was just joking. The Sword Sect is as close as brothers, but brothers must also settle accounts. You found it, so it's yours. If you don't ask for help, no one can take it from you. It's always been like this. Since that thing will run away when it's frightened, you can deal with it yourself. When you get to Youjiuyuan later, we can share what we have. This thing is really good. I don't know if it can be added to the sword line for refining. You can look for it carefully later."

After he said this, he ate the melon clean in a few more bites and threw it on the ground: "There are some things I need to remind you of. Have you read the story about the six mysterious sects in the Shijie Collection?"

Pan Muyun's behavior reminded him of a colleague from his previous life. He was the elder brother who brought him into the industry. He was a good person with an easygoing temperament. He could provide all necessary help, but at the same time he assumed that the people around him were at the same level of ability as himself. He never asked "can you do it?" but made requests and instructions as if it was a matter of course.

Now it seems that swordsmen are a similar group of people - once they enter the swordsman's door, they are all regarded as the best among men.

To be honest, if he wasn't in this state now, eating and drinking little, and sleeping little, he might not have had the time and energy to finish reading the entire collection of world solutions.

He nodded: "I have seen it. It is said that the territory is very large, and it is blessed by the divine power of the emperor. The practitioners of the Six Mysterious Sects will also be blessed by divine power."

"Yes. The book doesn't explain it in detail, I'll explain it to you clearly." Pan Muyun's expression became more serious. "Our Sword Sect, and even the Thirty Sects, practice by themselves in the end. Absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and store it in the body, and then use various methods to figure out how to use this energy in the body."

"The six Xuan sects are similar to us in terms of Qi training. The difference lies in their divine protection. Sometimes when we do things, we have to ask the true spirits to come down to the mortal world, and we ask them from the sacred mountain. It takes a lot of time and effort to ask them, and we may not get them every time. But after crossing this river, it is the Xuan sect's parish. When the disciples of the Xuan sect use magic in the parish, the magic is followed by the spirits, so there is no need to ask for it."

"Let's put it this way. You should regard every magic they use in the diocese as a gift from their great emperor or the spirit gods under the great emperor. It is extremely powerful. But once the disciples of the Xuan Sect leave the diocese, they will only have half of their ability. Our Sword Sect has fought with the six Xuan Sects for so many years, and that's why-"

"Once we are out of the diocese, none of them who are at the same level can defeat us. Once we are in the diocese, our Sword Sect's skills are okay and we can be considered evenly matched, but the people from the Thirty-Six Sects will be at their mercy. This is because there are true gods in the diocese, but we don't. When we start fighting, we are not only fighting against people, but also against the true spirits of the Six Mysterious Sects."

"You killed a True Form Daoist in Ranshan before, which is a great achievement in anyone's eyes, but I have to remind you that if Xu Daosheng was on the other side of the river at that time, things would not be so simple. Junior Brother Li, after crossing the river, we must be careful in what we do."

Li Wuxiang nodded slowly. What Pan Muyun said solved a long-standing doubt in his heart - the territory of each of the six sects is actually equivalent to a country with a vast territory. There are no external enemies, and there are cultivators to help. The Sword Sect is now sparsely populated, with only a few hundred people. Why has it not been wiped out, but is feared by everyone outside the sect and no one wants to offend it?

It turned out to be due to the matter of "divine protection"... You can't beat me when you come out, and I can't beat you when I go in, so naturally there is this stalemate right now. No, it can't be considered a stalemate.

Xue Baoping said that more than a hundred years ago, Jinshui was still very far away from the diocese of Zhenxing Dao. Now it is still not close, but it is only two months' journey away.

The territory of the Six Mysterious Sects is expanding. On a longer time scale, the living space of the Sword Sect is slowly being compressed. If nothing major happens, it will sooner or later have nowhere to go.

and also--

Li Wuxiang was silent for a while, then said, "Brother Pan, I have something else to ask."

"You speak."

"When I met Xu Daosheng in Ranshan before, he said that he learned from that swordsman... Senior Brother Lou that there is a treasure in the Ranshan illusion that can lead to the Nether Nine Abyss."

Li Wuxiang thought about this matter for a long time, wondering whether he should bring it up. But after parting with the two of them, he thought about it for a few days, and now after listening to what Pan Muyun said just now, he felt that he could bring it up.

With the Sword Sect's style, they would not do such a thing as robbery. And there was no need for him to conceal this matter and cause trouble, which would make him embarrassed in the future.

The two swordsmen looked at each other, and after a moment Pan Muyun said, "As long as that thing doesn't fall into the hands of outsiders, you don't have to worry - is it with you?"

"Yes."

"Don't worry about it. You will go to Youjiuyuan sooner or later. There are not many of these things, but they are not rare either." Pan Muyun paused, "As for Senior Brother Lou's matter, how can I say it? Everyone has their own way of doing things. No one can know all the methods of Zhenxing Dao. Even if he tells it, it may not be what he wants to say. We all believe him."

This trust made Li Wuxiang feel a slight warmth in his chest. But he still had to say something else, even though he thought that the two swordsmen in front of him could also think of it -

"What if the worst happens?" Li Wuxiang looked at him. "Outside the parish, people will know that a swordsman was killed, and there will be fellow practitioners to avenge him. The people of Zhenxing Dao should also know this, right? What if they used Senior Brother Lou to set an ambush?"

Pan Muyun was silent for a moment, then looked at Helian Ji and said, "Maybe. But remember when we were in Deyang, I told you that we had to go ahead and there were things to do on the way. You will know what to do when you go to Youjiuyuan, but for now I can only tell you that when we encounter something like this, we naturally won't rush into the fire with all our energy."

"What we know now is that Senior Brother Lou is trapped in Guancheng. After crossing this river and that cliff, you will reach Guancheng. We have learned about the situation near Guancheng from You Jiuyuan. Your Senior Brother Zeng replied to our letter a few days ago. He is also in Guancheng now, but we don't know what the situation is. We will ask him when we get there."

"As I said before, be careful. When it comes to ambushing, it depends on their ability. Until the last moment, it's hard to say who ambushed whom."

When he said this, he suddenly heard three faint gong sounds from the other side of the river. The crowd on the ferry road immediately became quiet for a while, then everyone stood up, picked up their things, and rushed to the shore to watch.

After a while, a ferry came over from the other side.

Li Wuxiang has taken three boats in the past few days, some large and some small. To put it in a good way, they are full of ancient charm and completely in line with his preconceived ideas about the world. To put it in a bad way, they are all very rough, swaying when crossing the river, and the hulls are also dilapidated and seem to be about to capsize at any time.

But when the boat slowly approached the ferry, he was slightly stunned when he saw it.

Seeing him like this, Helian Ji couldn't help laughing and patted him on the shoulder: "Just look at it a few more times. The things in the parish are more beautiful than ours, but when you go there, you will know that it is just glittering outside, but rotten inside."

He was right, it was a beautiful boat.

It was a long ship with a wide and flat deck, on which stood four men in half-body scale armor, who looked like garrison soldiers.

But what surprised him was that the hull was painted light blue, with red paint below the waterline.

This appearance... is very different from the ships outside the parish. Xue Baoping had said before that the parish was "more prosperous" than the outside, but from the subtle details like this layer of paint, it was almost two different worlds.

There were also people on the ship - in addition to the four soldiers, there were three sailors walking on the deck. Most of the people in this world that Li Wuxiang saw along the way were shriveled and skinny, with numb and tired expressions on their faces. Even in a big city like Deyang, it was rare to see people with happy expressions on the road.

The sailors on this boat were all tall and strong, and they even joked with the four soldiers, seemingly without any worries. He, Pan Muyun, and Helian Ji all looked respectable. However, when he looked at the group of vendors on the ferry in front of him, he felt that this group of vendors was naturally different from the ones on the boat only in terms of appearance and physique.

With the power of the Six Sects of the Mysterious Sect, there is no need to specially select anyone to do superficial work. What should the scene of the city gate within the diocese look like?

Li Wuxiang couldn't help but take another closer look at the people on the bow, but this time he found that the soldier standing in the front was also staring at him. When the boat got closer, he saw the man's face more clearly.

Zeng Jianqiu?!

How did he get in among this group of people? !

　Sorry, sorry, I'm very busy today and will be very busy tomorrow, so tomorrow's update should also be around this time! Sorry, sorry!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)