Chapter 45: The Building is Empty

After leaving Mu Jiao Town, Song Qingming traveled north.

He was in no rush on this training journey, walking and stopping along the way. When he encountered interesting places, he would specifically stop to sightsee. It was the time of the Spring Equinox, and with all things reviving and flowers blooming everywhere, he saw many beautiful sights he had never seen before.

Song Qingming secretly made a resolution in his heart: if he ever achieved success in his cultivation, he would definitely leave Song Guo and take a good look at this cultivation world.

During his last trip to the Floating Cloud Mountain Range, Song Qingming had been in extreme danger every step of the way and had no time to stop and appreciate the scenery. When returning to Qinghe County from Guiyunfang, he had been in a frantic rush to avoid making his clansmen worry about his safety, so he had returned to Mount Funiu early and had no mind to view the scenery along the way.

Twenty days later, he crossed Pingyang County and changed his route to the northwest. By the time he slowly walked to Guiyunfang, more than a month had passed. The entrance to the market was the same as it had been three years ago; one still had to queue to verify their identity before entering. It was just that there seemed to be a few more cultivators guarding the gate than three years ago, and the questioning was a bit more detailed than last time.

After entering the market, Song Qingming inquired and learned that a group of demonic cultivators had come to the Floating Cloud Mountain Range in recent years and had already harmed many fellow cultivators. To prevent them from infiltrating the market, the Xiaoyao Sect had increased the intensity of their patrols.

Demonic cultivators are those who practice strange techniques from other realms. After practicing these techniques, cultivators often undergo drastic changes in temperament and will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Some special techniques even have the eerie ability to control others, and there are even acts that violate the Dao, such as blood-sacrificing mortal cultivators.

In this realm, cultivators hold demonic cultivators in deep hatred. Once the traces of demonic cultivators are discovered in Song Guo, the Xiaoyao Sect often launches a massive campaign to exterminate them completely. However, demonic cultivators are all cunning individuals who are adept at hiding among mortals in the wilderness, often leaving these large sects with no results for their efforts.

Song Qingming strolled around Guiyunfang for a while. The market was not much different from three years ago. He soon arrived at the shop where he had bought the Grand Void Sword three years ago, but to his dismay, the scene before him left him feeling quite depressed. The general store where he had purchased the magic treasure had now been replaced by a shop selling various spirit beasts, and the owner of the shop had also been replaced by a scruffy-bearded middle-aged man.

Song Qingming carefully confirmed that he had not come to the wrong place, then stepped forward and asked, "This boss, may I ask if the fellow Daoist Li who was originally here is still around?"

"Fellow Daoist Li? Which fellow Daoist Li? I don't have any assistant named Li here. Are you looking for elixirs? But he transferred this shop to me a long time ago. If you want to find him, you can find him by moving forward a hundred paces." After saying this, the middle-aged man pointed with his finger toward an elixir shop diagonally across the street.

"Elixirs? Wasn't this originally a general store?" Song Qingming looked in the direction he pointed, his mind even more confused.

After spending some time clarifying things, Song Qingming learned that the "Li Family General Store" had long since been emptied of people, and this shop had already changed owners several times.

Upon hearing this news, Song Qingming's heart trembled. He had long since deeply experienced the profound nature of the Jade Profound Scripture technique. He had intended to come here to inquire about who the expert was who had deposited that Grand Void Sword, but he didn't expect that he seemed to have arrived a bit too late. Now that the place was long since empty, he didn't know if the original shopkeeper even knew that a technique was hidden within the sword.

Song Qingming, somewhat unwilling to give up, inquired around the surrounding streets. He was not unfamiliar with the master and apprentice who had opened the shop three years ago, but everyone only knew that the two were master and apprentice and seemed to be itinerant cultivators from out of town who usually just ran this small shop. After asking around the neighborhood, not a single person knew where the two had gone. Now it seemed that it would be very difficult for him to find the answer to this question in the short term.

Even if they were worried about him coming to settle scores, they didn't have to move the entire shop away, did they? Seeing that it was getting late, Song Qingming left the place feeling somewhat disappointed and found an inn in the market to stay in.

Lying on the bed, Song Qingming kept pondering this matter. Now he even suspected that the two had intentionally hidden this technique in the sword.

Now that he had obtained the inheritance of this technique and felt the profound nature of the Jade Profound Scripture, if it were true that the two had intentionally passed it on to him, they could be considered his teachers who bestowed the Dao.

The next morning, Song Qingming left the inn early and came to the market again. Following the largest street in the market, Song Qingming arrived at a plaza on the east side of the market. At this time, many cultivators had already gathered in the plaza. Everyone was either in groups of three or five, or like him, alone, all staring intently at the center of the plaza.

This was the place in Guiyunfang where hunting tasks for demonic beasts were posted. In the center of the plaza stood a high circular wall, plastered with tasks for hunting demonic beasts and purchasing spirit herbs, along with information on all kinds of demonic beasts.

From first-tier demonic beasts at the Qi Refining stage to second-tier demonic beasts at the peak of Foundation Establishment, as long as they were first or second-tier demonic beasts near Guiyunfang, they were all included. Demonic beasts of the third tier and above had magic power and divine abilities equivalent to Golden Core cultivators among humans and generally would not appear near Guiyunfang; they were all active in the depths of the Floating Cloud Mountain Range, and Guiyunfang naturally dared not offer rewards for demonic beasts of that level.

Among the information already posted, not only were the areas where the demonic beasts were active indicated, but their characteristics and weaknesses were also written out one by one, and the valuable items on these demonic beasts were specifically noted. The reason for this was to facilitate the cultivators who accepted the tasks to make some preparations before setting off, so they could better complete the tasks.

For this reason, the Xiaoyao Sect specifically recruited a group of cultivators in Guiyunfang to go deep into the Floating Cloud Mountain Range to investigate the information on these demonic beasts, and then had specialists compile this information together, finally posting it on this plaza based on the demonic beasts' level, difficulty, and corresponding spirit stone rewards.

The market had explicit regulations that any cultivator, whether a direct disciple of the Xiaoyao Sect or an itinerant cultivator, could receive the spirit stone reward indicated in the posted task as long as they successfully completed the task and brought the required token here.

Guiyunfang was the largest market in the northern part of the Xiaoyao Sect, with no less than a thousand cultivators living within it, most of whom were itinerant cultivators. After these itinerant cultivators accepted tasks in the market, they formed hunting teams of various sizes and then went deep into the Floating Cloud Mountain Range to hunt demonic beasts, which also brought an exceptionally prosperous scene to Guiyunfang.

The reason Guiyunfang did this was also to attract more cultivators to come here to hunt demonic beasts, weaken the number of demonic beasts in the Floating Cloud Mountain Range, and make more preparations for the demonic beast turmoil in the future.

When he arrived, Song Qingming had already inquired about some information in this market. His purpose in coming here was to find a place where he could go out to hunt demonic beasts and train himself.

After strolling around the plaza for a long time, Song Qingming made up his mind to start by practicing with tasks that were relatively simple for him. After finding a few relatively simple mid-tier demonic beasts among these tasks, Song Qingming was about to walk toward the center of the plaza to accept these tasks when a voice suddenly sounded beside him.

"This fellow Daoist, please stay for a moment."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 46 =====