Chapter 225: An Anomaly in the Red Parasol (Monthly Ticket Bonus Chapter)

"Huh?"

Du En officially flew deep into the Red Parasol Mountain Range, and then, his already mastered Spirit-Seeking technique allowed him to perceive that something here seemed vaguely amiss.

It did not look as peaceful and orderly as it appeared on the surface; rather, it was as if something was lurking beneath?

He immediately became alert, quietly descended into the Red Parasol forest on the edge below, and then stealthily walked, weaving through the woods, approaching that city within the mountains.

As the saying goes, one can glimpse the whole by observing a single spot.

What Du En first observed from the shadows were the bitter, heavy-laboring, lowly workers on the periphery.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The sound of whipping was incessant.

The arrogant and despotic overseers, basically all at the Qi Refining Perfection stage, were waving the red whips in their hands, continuously lashing out at the miserable bottom-dwellers in the various workshops.

Blood splattered, staining the whips red, making it impossible to tell if they were originally that color or had long since been soaked through with blood.

However, it was not because of this that Du En raised his eyebrows slightly.

The reason he raised his eyebrows was that those bottom-dwellers were actually, for the most part, at the Qi Refining Mid-stage; the Qi Refining Early-stage was extremely rare!

One must know that in the shantytowns outside the South End Border City, those at the Qi Refining Mid-stage were already people of status and face, living relatively easy lives.

Yet here, it was the Qi Refining Early-stage that was rare.

This was clearly very abnormal.

"Perhaps the survival of the fittest is happening too quickly, and those at the early stage are whipped to death by these overseers as soon as they arrive, but that doesn't explain this magnitude of Qi Refining Mid-stage..."

Those at the Qi Refining Mid-stage also cultivated up from the early stage; without a sufficiently large base of early-stage cultivators, how could there be such a scale of mid-stage ones?

The Spirit-Nurturing Land primarily nurtures Red-Leaf Parasol trees and their associated spirit objects, which has no direct relationship with people, at most providing a slight boost to corresponding fire-wood dual-element cultivation arts.

At most, it improves cultivation efficiency by about half a percent, so the connection to this situation is clearly not significant.

So, is it the reason of these Red-Leaf Parasol trees?

Du En then quietly left, and deep in the mountains, he found one third-tier, one second-tier, and one first-tier Red-Leaf Parasol tree to appraise and examine, but the result revealed no clues.

"Perhaps it's because the level of appraisal is too low; hmm, let's max it out first."

Faced with the current anomaly, Du En naturally decided to investigate as thoroughly as possible before deciding on a specific course of action.

As for the matter of Shi Lei's children, he had entrusted Meng Changqing to look into it more than a year ago and could confirm they were not dead and were living well, so there was no need to worry for now.

Thus, Du En delved further into the deep mountains, began searching for third-tier Red-Leaf Parasol trees, and performed appraisals to accumulate proficiency.

As for the spirit wood he harvested, it was naturally impossible for it all to belong to him.

Afterward, it needed to be returned to Red Parasol City, though one could request corresponding appraisal rewards.

Moreover, some loss in this back-and-forth was within reason, within the unspoken rules.

"Withholding twenty percent should be fine; that's not a small amount."

Du En hid in the mountain forest for half a month, stealthily appraising one thousand third-tier Red-Leaf Parasol trees, ranging from low-grade to high-grade; what was surprising was that there were actually many high-grade ones, while there were not many low-grade ones.

He tried to trace the path along this strange situation, but relying on his mastered Spirit-Seeking, he could only ultimately obtain a result so normal it was hard to believe.

It was simply that they had grown for too long, gradually accumulating changes, and with the accumulation of quantity, there were more high-grade than low-grade!

"Everything really seems strange everywhere..."

【Hundred Arts: Appraisal (Mastered 0/300)】

"However, these Red-Leaf Parasol trees themselves actually have no problems; that is the strangest thing."

Through his breakthrough in appraisal, he identified the Red-Leaf Parasol trees growing everywhere and could only conclude the situation was normal; he even ate them, gnawed on them, and refined them into dharma artifacts, experiencing and feeling them personally, and there were no problems at all.

Therefore, murmuring in his heart, Du En, having found no cause for the anomaly outside, chose to enter the city for further observation.

He quickly arrived outside the East Gate of Red Parasol City, looked up at the towering city wall before him, and just as he was about to step into the city, he suddenly noticed a situation.

There was a group of people, about several dozen, mixed into the flowing crowd and caravans at the city gate, and even hiding in the flying boats ascending and descending the city wall, secretly peeping at and observing the people entering and exiting.

"This... could it be aimed at me?"

They were hiding very tightly, all at the Foundation Establishment stage, their strength quite decent, the weakest being at a weak second-rate level; judging from the details of their speech and behavior, and the way they concealed their mana, they did not look like local cultivators.

"So the local anomaly is caused by them? Are they secretly setting up some kind of grand array or similar means, attempting to use it to ambush me, which is why it has a slight impact on the local spiritual energy environment?"

"But if it were that Third Senior Sister from my sect making moves, it's impossible she would send such a weak team, so, is this actually not a situation targeting me?"

"After I find that side, I'll ask them while I'm at it; I hope they will answer me..."

Du En did not easily make any judgment, just quietly mixed into the city.

"Grey Falcon, listen well to this mission..."

In a secret basement, dark and lightless, relying on the sharp vision brought by Foundation Establishment Perfection, Grey Falcon still could not see the face of the person in front of him; the other party was completely submerged in the darkness.

He did not care about this, only silently listening to the other party explain the mission.

Perhaps because he was on the verge of a breakthrough and needed to face his true heart, in this rare "gap" where he had a little leisure and could relax his emotions for a moment, Grey Falcon could not help but think of his past.

From the moment he was born, he was gathered up and transferred to a place of cultivation; when he was a few years old, he was further selected and received special instruction; when he reached the age, he was mixed in with other normally selected people and assigned to this city, beginning his cultivation very ordinarily.

As an ordinary outer-city cultivator, he climbed up step by step from the artifact workshop, finally showing signs of breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage a year ago, and came to the Outer City Affairs Office to serve as a deacon, which could be called a meteoric rise, envied by others.

In fact, these were all disguises!

His true identity was a member of the Surveillance Guard planted in various places by the Pivot City, responsible for monitoring the overall movements of the local area, ensuring these cities normally completed various issued requirements, and that there were no collusions with enemy sects or attempts to rebel.

Under the careful cultivation of his superior, who was like a foster father, Grey Falcon was now his most capable subordinate, having completed various surveillance missions very well, and was a very qualified Surveillance Guard soldier.

However, at this very moment, this surveillance soldier looked expressionlessly at the superior standing in front of him, but could not help but think of his true parents.

He had never met them, and relying on his cultivation to recall the scene of his birth, he could only see blurry images, as if there were a pair of struggling, waving hands, while in his ears were faint sounds.

Based on his current experience, that should have been resistance, that should have been screaming, but when he was a child, he inexplicably felt that it was a gentle, murmuring caress.

Grey Falcon did not have any obvious fluctuations of emotion, because he had been carefully cultivated like a dead soldier, but inevitably, there were still some faint ripples.

He did not understand what this emotion was.

"... Did you hear clearly?"

"Understood."

"Then go!"

"Yes."

As always, the brief moment of leisure after receiving orders vanished; under the superior's gaze, Huisun turned around expressionlessly, and that rigid, stone-like figure disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The extra update of over ten thousand characters is finished.

(End of this chapter)