Chapter 1274

Han Li leaned against one side of the carriage, sitting opposite the four women, and naturally saw the unease on the faces of the young women. Net

His gaze had also swept across the grass outside the carriage countless times. But everything was as usual, with nothing abnormal; it just looked like ordinary green grass.

Han Li was a bit strange, but no strange look appeared on his face, and he did not open his mouth to say anything. After all, he knew very little about the affairs of the Spirit Realm and did not want to make himself appear too suspicious.

However, over these past few days, the four women had become much kinder to him, especially the red-shirted young girl named Quan'er whom he had saved; she was extremely enthusiastic toward him, calling him "Brother Han" at every turn.

Han Li was not quite used to it, but fortunately, this girl was so young that it was not appropriate to be too cold to her. Therefore, during this period, he had quite a lot of conversation with this Quan'er.

He did not blatantly inquire about the affairs of the Spirit Realm, but instead asked the Tiandong Firm about many things.

Through their conversation, he learned that the "Lady" they spoke of was actually the person in charge of one side of the Tiandong Firm, responsible for over a dozen cities, and was also a daughter-in-law of the owner of the Tiandong Firm. Most people had to respectfully address her as "Lady Fang".

The owner of the Tiandong Firm had three sons in total, and this daughter-in-law was the wife whom his second son had married through a formal match. The couple had always been unusually loving, but the man had passed away due to an accident over twenty years ago, leaving behind only two young children, a boy and a girl. Therefore, the affairs of the region that should have been managed by the couple were all managed by this Lady Fang.

As for the four of them, they were the four personal maidservants that this Lady had adopted since childhood. She was very fond of them, and their relationship was somewhat between daughter and servant.

This time, Lady Fang had personally come to a remote place like Anyuan City. While a small part of it was because Anyuan City had paid a high price to purchase goods, the other half was because her youngest son, who had been checked for spiritual roots since childhood and had been accepted into a certain immortal cultivation sect, was also in Anyuan City and had sent a message saying that there seemed to be something that required Lady Fang's help.

With her heart tied to her beloved son, Lady Fang not only went out personally but also left the caravan behind not long after setting off, taking people to rush to Anyuan City first.

In Lady Fang's mind, the caravan not only possessed so many hands but also had several immortal cultivators sitting in charge, so there would absolutely be no trouble under normal circumstances.

She did not expect that a low-tier insect demon and a snake demon would emerge from the Qingluo Desert, almost causing a real problem.

Hearing this, Han Li could not help but probe into the background of the owner of the Tiandong Firm.

After all, possessing such a large foundation was something an ordinary person seemed unable to achieve. The information he heard as a result made Han Li startle again.

This owner of the firm was actually a mortal, and a person without the strength to truss a chicken at that; he had neither spiritual roots nor had he practiced any body-refining arts. Why could such a mortal manage such a large business?

Han Li was suspicious in his heart and asked vaguely, but the red-shirted young girl was also muddled and seemed equally uninformed.

Seeing this, Han Li did not pursue the matter further and changed the subject, keeping it in his heart.

As a result, although Han Li had learned some things during these days, more doubts had arisen in his heart, which also made him feel quite depressed.

This grassland seemed to be much larger than the Qingluo Desert. The caravan had been galloping for a full month, and it still did not look like they were going to get out.

During this period, not only were the guards and those knights in the caravan all trembling with fear and looking unusually careful, but even the several immortal cultivators who had stayed in the carriages and never come out would fly out of the turtle carriages every once in a while to take turns circling in the air to keep watch.

These so-called "Goulu Mountain" cultivators also had solemn expressions and appeared equally afraid to be careless.

Although everyone was facing a formidable enemy like this, after the caravan had traveled on the grassland for half a month, it finally left this area, and ordinary hilly terrain appeared ahead.

The tense nerves of the caravan personnel relaxed instantly. Not only did those cultivators return to the carriages, but the guards also immediately resumed their laughter and chatter.

Even the several young girls in Han Li's carriage let out a long sigh of relief the moment they left the grassland.

The green-shirted young girl even patted her chest lightly and said with a coquettish smile:

"We finally didn't disturb the wolf beasts on this grassland. Although it's not my first time crossing the grassland, I'm always worried to death."

"It's not just Sister Xiang'er who is afraid; who in the entire caravan isn't trembling with fear? I'm afraid that if our luck is too bad and we happen to run into a pack of wolf beasts that wake up before a 'beast tide', our small group will be in big trouble. In the grassland, that's a dead end. Although this kind of thing is not common, every year there are always some firms that encounter such things." Liu'er sighed and said with lingering fear.

"Isn't that so? I heard that this time Anyuan City spared no expense to order so many weapons and a hundred sets of rare 'spirit tools' from our Tiandong Firm just to deal with the 'beast tide'." Quan'er tilted her head, as if remembering something.

"That's strange. Although Anyuan City is not big, it is not a newly built city either. Why would they suddenly order so much equipment from us? You have to know that it seems only those medium-sized cities and above would be willing to spend such a large amount of money on so many spirit tools." The white-shirted young girl was a bit strange.

"What's strange about that? I guess it's either that an overly powerful beast group has suddenly migrated nearby, or that this city has encountered the once-in-a-thousand-year 'great beast tide' and is facing the joint attack of all the beast groups nearby. Naturally, they cannot easily resist it." The blue-shirted young girl shook her head and said indifferently.

"That's right, maybe that's really the case. Sister Liu'er's words still make sense." Quan'er pursed her lips and smiled.

Han Li was sitting cross-legged on the chair, appearing to be regulating his breathing, but he heard the conversation of the young women clearly. When he heard words like "beast tide", his brows could not help but twitch slightly.

He immediately associated it with the fact that when they were in the Qingluo Desert, the scar-faced man Zhang Kui had once mentioned something about a "scorpion tide". Could there be any connection between the two?

But for the time that followed, the four women did not talk much about this matter and instead discussed other things. Although Han Li felt a bit regretful in his heart, he also continued to operate his Diamond Art mental cultivation method on his own, slowly recuperating his meridians.

After this period of quiet recuperation, plus the undying effect of the Wood-Life Bead, the speed of his meridian repair was far beyond his original expectations. Now his body was mostly fine, and as long as he continued to rest quietly for half a month, there would be no problem at all.

In that case, with his fourth-layer Diamond Art, plus his unusual familiarity with various mid-to-low-tier spells of cultivators, he was afraid that even against a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, he could firmly occupy the upper hand. As for Core Formation cultivators, he would only know after fighting one personally.

Of course, this was assuming that the divine abilities of cultivators of all tiers in the Spirit Realm were not much different from those in the Human Realm, and that there were no other unexpected divine abilities.

Once they left the grassland, the caravan traveled for only two days before reaching their destination: a stone city that looked extraordinary in momentum.

Looking from afar through the carriage window, the stone city wall was over thirty zhang high, and with a ten-zhang-high small city tower every hundred zhang or so, the stone city looked extremely majestic. Looking toward both sides along the city wall, one could only see the white city wall stretching endlessly, not knowing how far it extended.

And on such a high city wall, there were actually some unknown exquisite patterns engraved, looking like some strange runes he had never seen before, making this city appear inexplicably more mysterious!

Seeing this, Han Li was speechless.

No matter how one looked at this city, one could not associate it with a small city. Such a tall city was far from comparable to the so-called "giant cities" in the Human Realm.

However, Han Li also noticed that on these tall city walls, there were some tall soldiers wearing uniform iron armor patrolling back and forth, and every city tower was equipped with astonishingly large giant crossbows, all of which were loaded with metallic crossbow bolts.

Each one was three or four zhang long, unusually sharp, and flashing with a faint white light, appearing to be low-tier magic tools.

Such astonishing sharp weapons, if they were indeed magic tools, I am afraid that even a Foundation Establishment cultivator would lose half their life if they were hit by one.

Han Li narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched all this. Just as he was pondering, the caravan had already arrived at the city gate.

There was no one outside the city gate, and a pitch-black gate was already tightly closed. A large number of soldiers were gathered on the city gate, looking down at the caravan from a high position, each with a look of vigilance on their faces.

Zhang Kui urged the giant wolf he was riding to the front of the caravan and, without a word, raised his hand and threw an object directly onto the city gate.

It was actually a golden token.

There was a commotion on the city gate, and a middle-aged man wearing silver battle armor immediately went over, grabbed the token, and looked at it carefully for a moment. Then he turned his head to look at the long caravan below a few times and suddenly ordered:

"Open the city gate and inspect the caravan. They are people from the Tiandong Firm."

Upon hearing the middle-aged man's words, the nearby soldiers were suddenly enlightened, and some immediately ran down the city wall to open the gate.

A moment later, the gate, which seemed to be cast from refined steel, slowly opened. Dozens of fully armed soldiers ran out from inside and lined up in two rows.

The silver-armored middle-aged man finally walked out and arrived in front of Zhang Kui, who was riding the giant wolf. He looked him over vigilantly before asking slowly:

"Are you the leader of the Tiandong Firm?"

"I am Zhang Kui. I believe you should have received the order from your City Lord. Behind are the goods ordered by your city from our firm." Zhang Kui replied unhurriedly.

"I have received the order. But now is a special period, and we must let a few immortal cultivator lords inspect your caravan before we can let you pass." The silver-armored middle-aged man said unceremoniously.

"You are afraid that demon beasts might have mixed in. That's no problem. You can inspect as you please." Zhang Kui agreed fully upon hearing this request, without any hesitation.

"Good, Mr. Li, Master Huang! Please inspect it, you two." The silver-armored middle-aged man nodded with satisfaction, turned his head, and called out toward the inside of the city gate.

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