Chapter 768

Dong Rui was also starving; he could finish a meat-filled bun in two or three bites, then go to eat the pickled sour vegetables and small melons, which were refreshing and appetizing, crunchy with every bite.

He ate until he sighed to the sky: "This is life!"

The bitter days of the previous few months were merely survival.

Zhu Xiuer did not like human food; to her, it was over-processed, and she only liked the authentic, original flavor.

Keep it simple, keep it even simpler—eat it raw.

She said to the two: "That seventy-year cicada this afternoon, the taste was wrong."

Dong Rui was gnawing on his third bun, his speech muffled: "Mutated variety, of course the taste is wrong."

"The deliciousness of a seventy-year cicada is top-notch among insects. In the ancient times, we would never miss the seventeen-year gluttonous feast." Zhu Xiuer was drinking wine. She had to slow down, otherwise, she could drain a jar in a few breaths, "How do you humans put it? It's the taste of time."

The delicious flavor brewed over seventy years.

He Lingchuan nodded: "Right, right."

He also loved eating cicadas, whether roasted or baked.

"But the seventy-year cicada we encountered this evening was too disgusting."

He Lingchuan glanced sideways. A spider was a creature that specialized in sucking pus; if even she found it disgusting, what kind of taste was it? "We're eating." Dong Rui waved a rabbit leg in dissatisfaction, "Don't talk about this."

He Lingchuan looked at him—why be so squeamish? What disgusting things hadn't this guy tinkered with when doing experiments? He had even seen Dong Rui eat without washing his hands after an experiment.

But he still changed the subject: "Your Ghost Ape, why is it here?"

The Ghost Ape was also eating on the side, besides meat, there were fruits and pumpkins.

Dong Rui looked at it: "After you injured it last time, I didn't take it to the Hanhe front line, but left it in a mountain village to recover. I thought I would return in a month or so, who knew this departure would be for over half a year." At this point, he couldn't help but feel sorrowful; if it weren't for He Lingchuan, this jinx, would he have had to leave for so long?

"As a result, this guy couldn't stand the loneliness and snuck out on its own, wanting to go home to wait for me, but it encountered quite a few things in the Wan Ge Marsh, and that's how it was brought back by Dao Quan's subordinates..."

Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by He Lingchuan: "Wan Ge Marsh?"

It couldn't be that coincidental, right?

Was it the Wan Ge Marsh where he asked Li Qingge to send people to carry the Punishment Dragon Pillar? "Is there also a Wan Ge Forest beside it?"

Dong Rui still didn't suspect anything: "Yes, within the territory of the Ju Nation. Do you know it?"

"I had just arrived in Lingxu not long ago when I heard that strange things were happening in Wan Ge Marsh, and quite a few people died." That was why he had the Punishment Dragon Pillar go to Wan Ge Marsh, so that the people sent by the Tiangong would have phenomena and intelligence to investigate.

He had even found something for the other party to do.

Then, he asked Dong Rui again: "Is your home in Wan Ge Marsh?"

Dong Rui's lips twitched; he didn't want to answer this question. Being entangled by He Lingchuan was not a good thing.

He Lingchuan nudged him with his elbow: "We are now grasshoppers on the same rope."

Dong Rui simply changed the subject: "Aren't you going back to the Yuan Nation? Why did you run to Mount Rong?"

They had left the Beijia territory, and if they continued southwest, they would reach the Yuan Nation, but this guy insisted on taking a detour, saying he had to find someone first.

He Lingchuan snatched a few berries from the Ghost Ape to eat, ignoring its angry glare: "Can't just go back directly like this."

"You still want to pull a whole bunch of people, beating gongs and drums?" Dong Rui was puzzled, "What will happen if you go back directly?"

He Lingchuan thought for a moment: "Probably die a miserable death?"

He was so understated that it left Dong Rui stunned.

This kid was still at ease amidst the heavy crises in Lingxu City; how could he die a miserable death upon returning to his own motherland? "Then why do you still want to go back?"

"Some things need to be investigated for the truth." He Lingchuan said indifferently, "Otherwise, I won't be able to sleep or eat in peace."

When he was on trial in the Tiangong, the gods revealed that the owner of the mark in his mind was Naluo Tian.

This was not just a Heavenly God, but a righteous god with boundless magic power!

Since He Lingchuan came to this world, apart from Mitian, he had not dealt with any other Heavenly Gods, so this mark should have been planted during the time of his original body.

And the original body had always been firmly controlled by his father.

In other words, the Naluo Tian mark in his sea of consciousness was nine-tenths inseparable from He Chunhua.

What good intentions could a Heavenly God have in planting a mark in a human's mind? Ever since he saw the miserable end of Lu Shishi after being possessed by the Baizhantian God, He Lingchuan always felt uneasy in his heart.

When would this mark be activated?

If he didn't want to follow in Lu Shishi's footsteps, he had to eliminate this major hidden danger!

Since both the Heavenly Gods and He Chunhua might not have good intentions toward him, he couldn't just go back empty-handed and foolishly without making any preparations.

"Borrowing people from the Mount Rong Sect is a good idea." Zhu Xiuer said, "The Daoist sects send out disciples every few years."

The Mount Rong Sect was a relatively pure Daoist sect.

So-called pure meant it matched He Lingchuan's previous imagination of an "Immortal Sect"—the base was on a mountain shrouded in clouds and mist, the disciples practiced diligently, and it was far from the smoke and fire of the human world.

In contrast, a Daoist sect like the Songyang Mansion was too deeply embedded in the secular world; after all, Li Qingge herself had a title.

Mount Rong did not belong to any country; it had its own territory, its own borders, and the respect of the surrounding countries. Every time a disciple completed their studies, they had to go down the mountain into the world to be tempered in the red dust.

This was a very traditional style; the predecessor of the Daoist sects, the Immortal Sect, was like this. The difference was that in the past, Immortal Sect disciples would go down the mountain with flying swords, either to slay demons or to establish their own caves, which was truly a happy life in the human world; now, before going down the mountain, they had to consider which force to join, whether there were development prospects, and even down to the specific salary.

When He Chunhua first took office, the local Daoist sect in Xiazhou, the Chuan Yun Pavilion, immediately sent Elder Liang to recommend their disciples to the new Xiazhou Coordinator.

To put it bluntly, practitioners needed to find jobs.

And the reputation of the Mount Rong Sect was far above that of the Chuan Yun Pavilion; many of its disciples were generals and officials in various countries. Among the officials He Lingchuan had dealt with in Lingxu City and at the White Sand Shoal in Chiyan, there were Mount Rong Sect disciples.

With excellent talent emerging from the sect, the Daoist sect was naturally noble.

Conversely, the Yuan Nation was trapped in civil strife and gradually weakening, so the Mount Rong Sect didn't even bother to be on equal footing with it.

That was why Zhu Xiuer said He Lingchuan had come to the right place. Anyway, Mount Rong disciples would eventually have to go down the mountain to sell themselves—no, to enter officialdom—so if Sect Master Xue assigned a few favorite disciples to follow He Lingchuan, wouldn't it be a perfect match and everyone happy? What's more, He Lingchuan had come with Fang Canran's token, so the manpower the Mount Rong Sect assigned to him had to be the best of the best; they couldn't afford to be negligent.

(End of chapter)