Chapter 266: The Old Immortal Tang Luo

"That's not right."

Entering An City, Tang Luo also sat on the edge of the carriage, looking outside and frowning.

"What's not right, Master?" King Kong asked, immediately becoming alert.

Even the Master says it's not right—could something major be about to happen?

"It's different from what I saw when I came here before," Tang Luo said.

The situation in An City isn't exactly the opposite of what Tang Luo saw back then, but over sixty percent of it has changed, and the layout of the entire city has undergone certain alterations.

Many more temples and Daoist academies have appeared, with both Buddhists and Daoists present.

On the streets, one can also see monks and Daoists walking about, and the surrounding people seem to hold them in considerable respect.

There are also some who sneer at these monastics, showing disdain and anger, but they keep their distance and dare not confront them directly.

"Basically, they're all ordinary people, with only one considered to have Dao cultivation," Tang Luo said. "It seems this world is now far removed from the time I last entered—quite a while has passed."

The increase in monks and Daoists is not surprising to everyone.

After all, this is a turbulent autumn, with demons and monsters causing trouble, and many require cultivators with Daoist power and magical ability to resolve.

The Longya Dao Sect remains the state religion, with someone holding the position of National Preceptor—one person below, ten thousand above.

When the superiors favor something, the inferiors embrace it even more—so the numbers of Daoists and monks will certainly increase.

And the changes in An City clearly reveal four characters: "the passage of time."

In the real world, Tang Luo has spent about half a year, but in this mission world, it's likely been tens of years or more.

Indeed, after finding a decent inn to stay in, Tang Luo inquired a bit and confirmed it had already become "the sea has turned to mulberry fields."

Under the reward of silver, the waiter boasted extravagantly, wishing he could pour out everything in his mind.

This gave Tang Luo and his companions a deeper understanding of the Great You and An City's situation.

Years ago, the several major families of An City—such as the Ding and Lu families—have all completely vanished, leaving only the Kong family with a few stray cats, clinging to the title of "century-old family," but no longer resembling their former prosperity.

Yes, it's been over a hundred years since Tang Luo last entered this mission world and took away the Heavenly Howling Dog.

Now, the prominent families of An City consist of only the Wang family, and even the prefect of An City would give them some respect.

The prefect referred to here is certainly not some insignificant ninth-rank sesame official.

An City is the capital of a prefecture, and the prefect also holds the title of Governor, being a fourth-rank official in the Great You.

From this, one can see the influence of the Wang family.

The prefect also gives the Wang family some respect, largely because the military official of this prefecture—the Commander-in-Chief who guards the region—is the adopted son and son-in-law of the current head of the Wang family.

The Wang family is truly a local tyrant.

Once, a prefect dissatisfied with the Wang family's dominance planned to suppress or even eliminate them, but in the end, he slunk away in disgrace, his official career dimmed, and now no one knows where he is.

However, this also reminded the Wang family: to maintain their prosperity, they need not only support from below but also from above.

Moreover, their relationship with those above must be as close as possible.

Thus, the current situation arose.

Regarding gossip about the Wang family, there are many versions in An City, but the most widely discussed is their founding story.

The person who founded the Wang family was named Wang Bo—not a nickname people gave him in middle age, but his actual name.

Originally just an ordinary cart driver, once while driving his cart, he encountered an old immortal who bestowed gold and silver treasures, transforming him from a cart driver into the owner of a caravan and escort agency.

He also routinely performed good deeds and accumulated virtue, and his children were quite promising, leading to the Wang family of today.

To this day, An City still spreads the legend of the old immortal bestowing gold and silver treasures.

However, the caravan and escort businesses are now basically controlled by the Wang family, so no one else has had the luck to encounter the immortal who bestowed wealth again.

After the waiter left and the private room door was closed, King Kong said: "This Wang family is quite interesting."

"I noticed that the gatekeeper's attendant also has a faint trace of aura—could it be the influence of the Great You's national fortune?" Tang Yuhan said. "It probably corresponds to the totem power of the Northern Plains."

They can now be completely certain.

In this mission world, besides cultivators, "ordinary people" also "possess" special power—or rather, the power of the nation's fortune envelops them.

In the Northern Plains, it's called totem power.

In the Great You, it's referred to as "Xuan Qi," said to be a name coined by the immortal masters of the Longya Dao Sect.

Officials of the Great You possess Xuan Qi protection—ordinary minor demons and ghosts cannot approach them, let alone harm them.

Clerks might have a trace of it.

But ordinary commoners are not so fortunate—when facing demons and monsters, they almost have no power to resist.

"I don't feel anything," King Kong said, naturally lacking Tang Yuhan's sensitivity in this regard.

Those attendants merely have a thread or two—almost imperceptible.

Unlike officials, who usually show it upon first meeting, then it disappears, only to reappear at certain moments.

For those walking among gods and demons, this is actually a very good "discriminator"—though I don't know if it's a convenience given by "gods and demons."

After all, this mission requires protecting the Great You's hundred-year national fortune, so dealing with court officials is unavoidable.

Although Tang Luo and the three can now return, they also cannot act recklessly.

After everyone analyzed thoroughly, they felt that if the Great You's situation worsens, they might also have a chance of losing their return eligibility and would need to continue safeguarding the Great You.

Protecting the hundred-year national fortune might also require maintaining stability for a period.

Following Kongming's method of inference, the task Tang Luo and the others completed should have safeguarded the Great You's national fortune for several decades, but it hasn't reached the "hundred-year efficacy."

However, for them personally, this level of completion is already sufficient.

So they can leave first.

The remaining people still need to settle the remaining decades of "time" and maintain stability for a while before they can truly depart.

If they fail to complete it, they'll just keep dragging on—until too much time passes, something like ten years of years, and they'll probably be sent back anyway.

If the gods and demons are even harsher, they might say they'll have to stay in this world forever, unable to return—if the Great You were to rot and be destroyed in this way.

Tang Luo had encountered a case where a Divine Demon Walker stayed in a mission world for a very long time.

That "Xu Xian" from the modified White Snake and Calabash Brothers mission was a Divine Demon Walker, who remained in the mission world for over a decade in a state of nearly degenerating into a fallen evil entity.

No one knew what his mission was; anyway, the Divine Demon had no intention of letting him return.

It was only when Tang Luo and the others came to complete the relevant mission that that Divine Demon Walker was liberated.

Speaking of which, if it weren't for Tang Luo being overly strong, just like this time stopping the Great Wu, turning all requirements like "stop" and "suppress" into salvation.

Under normal circumstances, that Divine Demon Walker would still be maintaining a half-human, half-scorpion state, breaking out of the seal and wandering the mission world.

The Divine Demon might not have thrown him back to the real world — with that ghostly appearance, the probability was very high.

Feeling-wise, missions that wouldn't take too long are fine; there are also failure counts, so if you can't finish, you just lie low.

But this kind of mission has a very long cycle itself, and you still have to lie low; it's estimated you'd just lie low yourself to death, dying of old age in the mission world is entirely possible.

Not just any random person can easily extend... that thing.

Tang Luo and the others will definitely go to the Central Capital next, rendezvous with Kong Ming and the others, and maintain Great You's long-term peace and stability.

Become Plane Friends.

Plane Friend Vajra asked: "Master, you say should we arrive at the Central Capital early, or wander around along the way, see what demons and monsters there are, and eliminate them?"

He knew very well that Tang Luo really liked punishing evil and promoting good, acting on behalf of Heaven.

This might be related to Master Xuanzang's equipment.

And exterminating demons and devils certainly counts as punishing evil and promoting good, acting on behalf of Heaven, right?

"No need to deliberately force it," Tang Luo said, "Just go to the Central Capital like this; if we encounter any on the road, this poor monk will just conveniently save them."

"Good." Vajra nodded, "Tomorrow I'll go to the Wang family to exchange for a few good horses; aren't they a carriage firm or something? They also deal in a small amount of horse trading; our current horses are about to be exhausted."

Tang Luo's group's traveling speed was still quite fast; the horses were exhausted enough.

If they maintain this speed, in another ten days or half a month, the horses won't take it either; switching to a new batch is best.

As for thousand-li fine steeds or not, Tang Luo and the others truly didn't care.

It's not like they're props or equipment that can be freely brought in and out of mission worlds; they're all horses that can only be used in this mission world for a period of time, selling them doesn't feel heart-wrenching either.

"Speaking of the Wang family," Tang Luo said, "Didn't expect that coachman really made a fortune."

His tone carried some sighing emotion, but it wasn't lamenting the vicissitudes of life or the changing world.

From the modern era to Journey to the West, and from the Journey to the West world back to the modern era, Tang Luo never lamented, let alone lament over this kind of century-long change.

The reason his tone carried some sighing emotion was that the good deeds the Wang family did before weren't credited to him at all.

The Merit Jade Lotus proved once again that farming merit is impossible to farm merit, impossible in this lifetime, one can only earn a little by doing good deeds and being a good person.

So Tang Luo super likes mission worlds; there are so many bad guys inside, each one jumping around, often delivering merit to him.

"Made a fortune?" Tang Yuhan thought of something, "Master, you said you've been here before, that so-called Old Immortal wouldn't be you, would it?"

"It's me, but why would it spread as Old Immortal?" Tang Luo looked puzzled.

"Could it be because of white hair?" Vajra said enthusiastically, touching his head; he had no hair.

This is a side effect of his skill; growing stronger while also going bald, hair follicles completely dead, never growing hair again.

Fortunately Vajra himself doesn't mind; he actually likes having no hair, easy and convenient.

Unlike Tang Yuhan's hair which is more troublesome; although tied in a ponytail, does it really not affect her during combat?

What if someone grabs her hair?

"Rumors distorting through retelling, it's a legend story," Tang Yuhan said, "I've never come to the same mission world twice; is the time flow difference between mission worlds and the real world this large?"

"There's no pattern," Tang Luo shook his head, "Some are fast, some are slow."