Chapter 422: Ding Huan

Ding Huan walked again to the Immortal Energy testing device.

Immortal Energy testing involves striking the Immortal Energy sphere with a full-power punch; the sphere can erupt into a brilliant pillar of Yuan force.

Earlier, Ding Huan had scanned with his spiritual sense—the highest score among the previous testers was six chi, and not a single person had passed.

Ding Huan was now puzzled: should he aim for more than one zhang, or more than two zhang? How much of his Immortal Energy should he use?

"Wait, your name is Zhang San?" The Grand Yi Xian reviewing the application materials finally realized, calling out to Ding Huan.

Ding Huan immediately stepped down from the Immortal Energy tester and walked up to the interviewer: "Yes, Senior, please instruct me."

"Test your spiritual sense strength again," the interviewer pointed to the device Ding Huan had just used, signaling him to retest.

Ding Huan sighed helplessly—the fellow hadn't even watched him test earlier; he only asked for a retest after seeing the result, surprised by it.

Ding Huan stepped back onto the spiritual sense testing platform and thrust his spiritual sense into the spiritual sense ring once more.

Again, it barely missed the sixth layer—stuck between the fifth and sixth layers.

"Spiritual Sense Level Five Peak—excellent. Zhang San, you're hired." The Grand Yi Xian was very satisfied.

After all these days, this was the first time he'd seen a free cultivator with Spiritual Sense Level Five Peak—true talent.

As for combat strength, it doesn't matter—this Zhang San is definitely the kind the Young Master likes.

"Thank you, Senior! May I ask where I should wait now?" Ding Huan was overjoyed—he hadn't even known what Immortal Energy score qualified him, and now he was hired.

The brown-haired Grand Yi Xian pulled out a token and handed it to Ding Huan: "Go to the back, wait a while—we're departing tonight."

Ding Huan picked up the token, quickly opened the defensive barrier behind it, and found eight others already waiting inside.

The highest among them was an Xuan Xian at Late Stage; the lowest was a Jin Xian at Early Stage.

Ding Huan guessed these eight were like him—recruited by Gu Dao Immortal Transport.

It seemed the Grand Yi Xians looked down on this job, so none had come to apply.

After observing with his spiritual sense, Ding Huan felt a faint sense of doubt.

Logically, even if Grand Yi Xians looked down on this job and refused to apply, shouldn't the combat strength here be stronger?

Escorting naturally requires the strongest cultivators—so many Xuan Xians were rejected, yet they recruited Jin Xians at Early Stage?

Those few Xuan Xians didn't look like they had remarkable combat strength either.

Even he himself had only tested his spiritual sense—he didn't even need to test his Immortal Energy.

Was this unreasonable, or was he simply unaware of the Immortal World's escort protocols?

"What's your name, friend?" An old man with white hair and beard smiled and stepped forward to greet Ding Huan.

Ding Huan silently thought—Gu Dao Immortal Transport didn't care about age.

His spiritual sense settled on the old man—he thought: this guy's Dao aura is clearly declining, his spiritual sense is weak, and he's so old—how did he catch the brown-haired Grand Yi Xian's eye?

"Oh, Zhang San," Ding Huan replied.

The old man chuckled: "I'm Hu Bujiu, a Level Three Array Master. Brother Zhang San, if you have any array questions, feel free to ask me."

"Thank you," Ding Huan finally understood—it was because this man was a Level Three Array Master.

It seemed Gu Dao Immortal Transport was recruiting people with specific specialties—he himself was skilled in spiritual sense.

Ding Huan didn't understand how this related to escorting, and he didn't care to dig deeper—he was just using this chance to leave Gen Xiandao City.

"How did you get in?" Hu Bujiu asked Ding Huan.

Ding Huan lowered his voice: "I'm related to that interviewer—it was just one word."

"Ah…" Hu Bujiu stared at Ding Huan in shock.

Related to a Grand Yi Xian? His future was limitless.

Perhaps because Ding Huan was related to the Grand Yi Xian, and seeing Ding Huan showed little interest in talking, Hu Bujiu dared not disturb him further—he simply sat beside Ding Huan, thinking he must build a good relationship with him.

Ding Huan waited two full hours; when the last recruit—a young woman dressed elegantly—entered, the brown-haired Grand Yi Xian walked in too.

Behind them came a young man at Early Stage Xuan Xian; he squinted, as if lost in thought, and entered without glancing at anyone inside.

Everyone perked up—clearly, they were about to depart.

The brown-haired Grand Yi Xian announced loudly: "Thank you all for trusting Gu Dao Immortal Transport. I am in charge of this transport—my name is Hu Xiangyang, an official of Gu Dao Immortal Transport and the Biao Xian of this cargo run…"

Ding Huan had heard of the Biao Xian position—Cultivation World still needed to escort goods.

Thus, organizations like Immortal Transport arose—Immortal Transport was, in essence, the same as armed escort.

Each escort mission had a leader—the Biao Xian.

This time, the Biao Xian was Hu Xiangyang, so he needed to recruit those who would accompany him on the escort. In secular terms, they were the escort runners.

What Ding Huan didn't understand was why Gu Dao Immortal Transport's escort runners weren't their own people, and why they had to hire temporarily.

This made no sense—normally, Immortal Transport's escort runners were their own staff; external hires were at most one or two. Hiring ten this time was truly rare.

"Rest assured, friends—once the goods are delivered, your rewards won't be lacking. Each of you will receive at least fifty thousand lower-grade Immortal Crystals and one lower-grade Immortal Artifact."

"Those who make outstanding contributions will receive at least double—the reward of a Grand Yi Xian Pill is no exception…"

Hearing of the Grand Yi Xian Pill reward, everyone except Ding Huan—unconcerned—began whispering among themselves.

These were all free cultivators; their desire for a Grand Yi Xian Pill surpassed anyone else's.

"Friends, Gu Dao Immortal Transport is a branch of Gu Dao Merchant Guild—just like Gu Dao Merchant Hall. You all know the reputation of Gu Dao Merchant Hall; we would never deceive you."

Hu Xiangyang's words lifted everyone's spirits; Ding Huan mimicked their enthusiasm.

Yet inside, he felt Hu Xiangyang's words rang false.

Hu Xiangyang was pleased with their reactions: "For this delivery, I am the Biao Xian, and Shi Nuozhou is the team leader, reporting directly to me."

At that moment, the Xuan Xian at Late Stage stepped forward, nodded to Ding Huan and the others, then sat back down.

Hu Xiangyang's expression turned stern: "You all know the rules—anyone who shows cowardice or flees during this mission will be executed without mercy."

"If there are no objections, we depart now."

Everyone naturally had no objections.

Ding Huan checked his own transformed appearance; the Dao rhyme aura matched his own, with nothing abrupt about it—it should be enough to bluff his way through.

If he was discovered at the city gate, he'd just slip away on the spot and worry about it later.

Hu Xiangyang was very decisive and clean-cut in his actions; once no one had objections, he immediately distributed the unified uniforms of Gu Dao Xian Yun.

Ding Huan naturally changed into the uniform along with everyone else.

This was also a kind of attitude—if the people robbing the escort saw the escort flag of Gu Dao Xian Yun and still dared to rob openly, then they could just wait for the endless retaliation from the Gu Dao Merchant Guild.

The Gu Dao Merchant Guild had the strength to back this up; their merchant houses enjoyed considerable fame and influence throughout the entire Gu Gu Xian Domain, with shops spread across the whole Gu Gu Xian Domain.

After following Hu Xiangyang out of the Gu Dao Xian Yun building, Ding Huan swept his divine sense over the group.

Even Hu Xiangyang—his divine sense didn't skip over him either.

With his current divine sense strength and condensation, no one here could detect his spiritual probing.

In the end, Ding Huan's divine sense settled on that young man; he had been the last to follow Hu Xiangyang in, and hadn't said a single word.

But Ding Huan suspected the real red cargo was on this person, not on Hu Xiangyang.

This was purely a kind of intuition that came from using the Great Divination Art too much.

"Brother Zhang San, I see you looking very nervous—there's really no need for that." Hu Bujiu came over to Ding Huan's side, patted Ding Huan's arm, and offered a smiling word of comfort.

After speaking, he lowered his voice and said: "Brother Zhang San, you were lying to me just now, weren't you? You're definitely not a relative of Escort-Immortal Hu."

Ding Huan said helplessly: "I'm indeed not his relative, but I really am nervous."

"Brother Zhang San, I'll tell you the truth—our trip this time is actually just an escort accompaniment. You think they'd really let us guard the good stuff? Heh heh."

This time Hu Bujiu transmitted his voice to Ding Huan, and even put on a mysterious air about it.

Ding Huan gave Hu Bujiu a speechless look—at least two people had clearly heard that transmission just now, one of them being Hu Xiangyang.

While Hu Bujiu was transmitting, Hu Xiangyang's divine sense had swept across the area of Hu Bujiu's transmission domain.

There was also that enchanting woman who had entered later; her divine sense had likewise seeped into Hu Bujiu's transmission domain.

"Don't talk nonsense—even Senior Da Yi Xian is serving as an escort immortal, so you must take this seriously and not be careless." Ding Huan transmitted to Hu Bujiu with a grave expression.

His transmission domain this time was even weaker than Hu Bujiu's, so naturally it was easily heard loud and clear by both Hu Xiangyang and that enchanting woman.

Just as Ding Huan didn't want to continue the discussion, the voice of that enchanting woman suddenly came to his ear: "This little brother, what Hu Bujiu said is true—we're only accompanying the escort, the red goods aren't here."

Ding Huan deliberately changed his expression; inwardly he was secretly shocked—her transmission had escaped even Hu Xiangyang's notice by half a fraction.

This was an expert; looking at her cultivation, she seemed to be only at mid Mysterious Immortal.

Ding Huan's expression had changed, which naturally couldn't escape that enchanting woman's divine sense; she transmitted a giggling laugh into Ding Huan's ear: "Little brother, my name is Ye Mei'er—don't be afraid, whatever happens, this sis will help you out."

Ding Huan simply lowered his brows and eyes, silently walking at the back of the group, no longer paying attention to this Ye Mei'er.

The group quickly arrived at the north gate of the Ancient Immortal Dao City.

Ding Huan silently thanked Peach Little Sis for the information she'd sent—sure enough, there were layers of checks here, with every departing cultivator being inspected several times.

Not only that, there was also a detection magical artifact here.

"Immortal Court Escort Transport—please clear the city gate." After arriving at the gate, Hu Xiangyang raised a yellow token, his tone carrying a hint of pride.

Ding Huan thought to himself, you're just a Da Yi Xian cultivator. Even if you're helping the Immortal Court transport things, under these checkpoints set up by the great immortal sects, you'd still have to be inspected before passing, right?

That's not right—it's Heavenly Court, isn't it? How did it become Immortal Court?

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