Chapter 2536

He Lingchuan already had a plan: "Why don't we impersonate someone again?"

"Impersonate someone?"

"We should leave the city. Let's go back first and bring some people." Their reconnaissance mission in the city was basically complete, so there was no need to stay longer.

Ling Jinbao smiled at Xiaolong: "You wanted to leave the city, didn't you? Come with us now."

First, take this kid back to Dimu's place.

With their abilities, sneaking out of Baishong City without the gods or ghosts knowing would be a piece of cake.

As for those three little spiders, they were lying with their antennae in the cracks of the cargo boxes. When this squad sets out to leave the city, they will take them along as well.

This way, when the demons sense that the group has left the city with the troop, they will no longer pay attention to them.

Many outsiders enter and leave Baishong City every day; as long as their movements show no abnormality, the demons are too lazy to give them another glance.

For He Lingchuan, the city's defenses at midnight were unusually lax. This time he chose to exit through the West Gate and saw many cloth hoods and paper hoods piled against the wall—some with demonic appearances, some with beautiful female forms, and various tiger, ox, and wolf shapes.

Banners and red flags were countless.

Someone was on duty on-site to prevent theft, but at this late hour, the guard was leaning against the wall, dozing off.

Hundreds of carrying frames were covered with red cloth. He Lingchuan casually lifted one to take a look and found inside were various candies wrapped in red paper, plus local specialties: small green tangerines and small apples the size of copper coins.

Of course, there were also strings upon strings of firecrackers.

"What is this for?"

Xiaolong replied: "Tonight night there will be the Spring Yuan Blessing Parade. At that time, a vast crowd will hold these items and parade from the western part of the city, making a loop, passing through the North Gate, then the East Gate, and finally arriving at the South Gate. Along the way, it will be lively and fun. The parade troupe will also toss candies and small pastries to people by the roadside."

To say the least, Baishong City's spiritual and cultural life is still quite rich.

"I heard people say that in the past, the blessing parades went from one village or town to another, but now they just loop around inside the city."

……

After more than an hour, the east began to lighten.

A convoy that had exited Baishong City's North Gate, while passing through the Gefei Farm in the northern suburbs, happened to pick up a man and a woman along the way.

The man was very sturdy, the woman very slender; both were bound with ropes and looked terrified.

"Where are you taking us? Who are you, and why are you arresting us?"

The convoy's drivers were unlike ordinary ones—each seemed to be a trained martial artist, and the oxen pulling the carts were as tall as small hills, just strong enough to drag the specially made heavy cargo compartments.

The man's questions went unanswered; the driver treated them like cargo and forcibly shoved them onto the cart used for transporting rice and flour.

This cart had a canopy; once the curtain was dropped, no one could see what was inside.

After getting in, the man looked left and right, his face still showing panic, but he muttered:

"Fortunately, what's loaded on this cart isn't pickled vegetables."

Baishong City has several shops specializing in pickled vegetables, and it seems the people of Yanxia Bay also like them, so the city regularly sends several large vats of pickled vegetables there.

The smell of those pickled vats—needless to say, it's explosively foul.

This fellow naturally is He Lingchuan.

The woman beside him is not human, but Xiao'an transformed.

The lord of Baishong City once instructed Mengmeng: there is a man and woman who privately escaped from Baishong City, detained at the northern suburbs farm, and today they will be handed over to the convoy to be taken to Yanxia Bay.

He Lingchuan decided to make good use of this information, so before dawn he rushed to the farm and once again changed faces to impersonate.

Given his standing, the farm's guards didn't even notice the prisoners had been swapped, so when the Yanxia Bay convoy arrived, they took He Lingchuan and the other person away.

As for his many companions, at this moment they were all crowded in Douke Garden, sipping tea, chatting, eating melon seeds, and watching Jiuxiao being dragged hard onto the cart by people.

After He Lingchuan and the other entered the cargo compartment, they discovered that behind the pile of rice bags stacked like a small mountain lay four people, all with eyes tightly shut, their bodies already cold, some even stained with blood.

One of them was exactly the cultivator who had hurried past outside the noodle shop window that evening, whom He Lingchuan had seen with a red thread on his head.

This person had been stabbed in the heart from behind with a single blow; the others died in different ways, but it was clear the killer was swift, clean, and experienced.

He Lingchuan gave Xiao'an a look; she immediately screamed a few times, letting the driver outside hear, to show her own fear.

Sure enough, the driver paid no attention.

Then she lowered her voice and asked: "Why were they killed?"

"Judging by their attire, these four were together; judging by the fabric, they don't seem to come from a major sect or powerful state." He Lingchuan pointed to the torn collar of one person: "They may have also sensed something wrong in Baishong City, or perhaps came here on business, but they themselves had already been targeted, and the Yanxia Bay people just eliminated them."

Ling Jinbao in Douke Garden snorted: "No wonder Baishong City's secrets have lasted so many years—besides being remote and obscure, it also promptly removes threatening outsiders from the city. Thanks to us blending into the convoy to enter the city, we also evaded the surveillance of the divine gaze."

These four cultivators had suspicious appearances; as soon as they entered the city, they were specially marked without knowing it, and at midnight they were running wildly in the streets, so naturally they came to no good end.

Baishong City and Yanxia Bay handled them without a sound—evidently they were well-practiced at it.

The convoy headed straight north; the road was very flat and straight, but the further they went, the more desolate it became.

If it were an ordinary official road, there would be relay stations or tea pavilions at intervals along the roadside for traveling merchants to rest.

But on both sides of the official road leading north from Baishong City, there were simply no relay stations, because very few ordinary travelers or convoys used this road.

After traveling more than twenty li like this, they arrived at Yanxia Bay.

The convoy passed through an invisible barrier, and everyone felt a chill on their bodies, as if a cold breeze had brushed past.

But that was all.

He Lingchuan looked up and gazed into the distance, discovering that the convoy had reached the seaside. The beach of Yanxia Bay almost had no sand, only large and small pebbles, and stretch after stretch of reefs extending into the sea.

Today the wind was strong and the waves high, but this inland sea was relatively calm; seawater striking the rocks only sent up splashes three feet high.

Soon two guards came over and asked: "Are there any idlers in the convoy?"

It could be seen that the barrier had indeed been triggered immediately.

The driver pointed at the two: "These are fugitives from Baishong City, caught again. Also four people who kept asking east and west—they are cultivators whose companions previously went missing in Baishong City, and they came to investigate."

As it turned out, these four themselves also got trapped in Baishong City and from then on vanished from the human world.

"Alright, we also need fertilizer here."

The guards sized up He Lingchuan twice, then ordered them to get off the cart. One of them asked: "Should we also take them to Bai Chao?"

"Are you stupid? Still sending white nests now? Just put them to work!" another guard glared, "This is exactly when we're short-staffed—why not use able-bodied men if we have them?"

(End of Chapter)