Chapter 64: Clumsy Fisher

"Looks like we're following the route that stays away from the snowy mountain's highest point, right." Jiang Yu put away the wolf and arrows.

After those three walked out of my spiritual sense range, I went to pick up another arrowhead; after activating the invisibility talisman, I slowly caught up.

"You go in, I'll chase with the Dragon Pearl." Jiang Tu felt this saved more effort.

"Save it for last, just in case." Indeed, the Dragon Pearl flies only a hundred-odd miles a day before it lies dormant and stops moving.

Jiang Yu still had enough stamina; running another few hundred miles could be considered practice for her movement technique.

Fortunately, the farther I followed those three, the more I could see traces of third‑rank demonic beasts, and from time to time I could also spot other Qi Refining squads.

Even so, those three, because they were injured, still encountered five Qi Refining cultivators who robbed them.

This time Jiang Yu took the initiative, helped them deal with several of the rogue cultivators, and then pointed at their storage bags.

Still, the same person earlier grabbed three and threw them to her, saying, "Fellow Daoist, why not head back to the city together?"

However, Jiang Yu couldn't understand; she turned and vanished from their sight.

The other two said, "She's been following us all along, yet we didn't notice."

"She probably means no harm; otherwise she wouldn't have helped us twice."

"Seeing she only wears a leather jacket, it's obvious she's stayed too long on the snowy mountain and lacks supplies."

"Big Brother, I always feel she's like me—a female cultivator—so she's on high alert." Among the three, the most seriously injured woman observed minutely.

"Never mind, we finally managed to hunt a young ice fox; this counts as a small gain—let's hurry back to the city to heal our wounds."

As the three sped up their retreat, Jiang Yu had already burrowed beneath the snow layer, rummaging through storage bags in the space.

Jiang Tu couldn't be bothered to use his spiritual sense; he just flicked and dumped what was in his hand onto the ground.

"How poor—only a few bottles of pills, just a few hundred spirit stones; aside from demonic beast corpses, not even a top‑grade magic artifact." It was quite disappointed.

"Lonely cultivators always have meager resources; I used to have even less than they do." Jiang Yu pulled out all paper, animal hides, and jade slips from her storage bag.

Thinking of the past reminded me of Senior Sister Wan; she wasn't present at the Myriad Sword Sect back then, so she must still be in closed‑door foundation establishment.

Beside him, the silent Ao Ze also finished checking the storage bag allotted to him, and likewise placed only these items on the ground.

Jiang Yu opened each item and examined them for a long time; finally, in one scroll she saw the entire snowy mountain and its surrounding terrain.

Although the script was unfamiliar, one could tell it evolved from ancient characters; the place names were roughly half guessed, half known.

Not long after, they knew they were in a place called the Northern Frontier Snow Mountains; beyond this mountain range lay endless grasslands.

Only after crossing a thousand‑li grassland could they reach a cultivators' city.

Jiang Tu pointed out several possibilities: "Those tents marked on the grassland—could they be the herders' dwellings?"

"This jade slip says that after passing through the grassland into the snowy mountain, one must offer them a certain amount of spiritual rice… and salt, and something else unknown."

Jiang Yu found a jade slip, examined it carefully several times, and then drew this conclusion.

Ao Ze was sharp; he grasped it at once: "It looks like there are primitive herders on the grassland, and among them there are cultivators."

"Otherwise, cultivators going in and out of the snowy plain would hardly bother to trade."

"Let's rest for now; tomorrow we'll go check the actual situation." Spiritual rice—Jiang Yu had plenty planted, and harvesting now was still timely.

The next day, as she distanced herself from others and left the snowy mountain's range, she saw distant hills dotted with green grass and people, and inexplicably felt happy.

Further off, the forests were lush and verdant, forming a stark contrast with the snowy mountain and ice fields behind her.

Jiang Yu eagerly rushed toward the meadow, while those who had left at about the same time had already shed their thick fur robes, mounted their flying artifacts, and sped away.

Upon seeing the open sky, she also wanted to launch her flying boat, but after stroking her storage bag, she still let Jiang Tu retrieve from the wooden house spoils the relatively low‑grade banana‑leaf‑shaped flying artifact.

This was spoil gained at Er Mountain; she later never took any of it to the market for processing, and looked back to see which items were unusable so she could sell them upon reaching the Immortal City.

After all, she couldn't fully exert herself inside the sect; she kept a low profile, following others behind, and flew to a round‑canopy area to land.

Then she discovered that the tents inside and out held not only people dressed as herders, but many more cultivators like her.

However, the pattern of her robes was indeed different from that of the Heavenly Origin Continent; fortunately she kept her homemade leather jacket on, so her other robes weren't exposed.

Jiang Yu didn't squeeze into the queue at the fence; instead she walked toward the scattered cultivator stalls around.

Seeing in the distance a patrol of uniformly narrow‑sleeved, tight‑clad militia, she silently sent a voice transmission: "Jiang Tu, shut down the Dragon Stele."

She didn't buy anything either; she just stood before the most crowded stall, listened to others' conversations, and incidentally observed what each tent area was used for.

Not long after, she had a rough idea: tents with open doors were usually tea stalls or eateries, mostly run by herders without cultivation.

For those with doors and windows closed, she couldn't see clearly, so she didn't investigate further.

As for not understanding the speech, that's fine—she could forcibly memorize it and study it slowly.

Cultivators' learning ability is extremely strong; after listening for less than an hour, she had barely managed to learn a few words, but alas the sky had darkened and buyers and sellers each went their separate ways to the fences.

Jiang Yu deliberately chose the spot with the most herders, paid a low‑grade spirit stone, and received a wooden plaque of unknown number to enter.

She chose this spot because she noticed that the herders' and cultivators' languages also differed.

Moreover, upon entering a eatery, she needed not speak; merely pointing at a dish made the other party understand.

"Jiang Yu, the mutton in the big basin looks delicious." Jiang Tu especially liked meat, and Ao Ze was no exception.

"I'll pack two more portions later." Jiang Yu's attention was entirely on the surrounding diners, observing their eating, chatting, and paying.

However, the specialty mutton lightly infused with spirit was indeed delicious; the milk tea and pastries, though lacking spirit, were top‑notch, and even better priced at one spirit stone.

Moreover, each table was filled to capacity, and regardless of dish, everything cost one spirit stone.

The benefit was that Jiang Yu ate for an hour, then left with two packed portions of mutton, without being charged any extra fee.

That was quite unique.

Upon leaving, she leisurely turned around, found a herder child, gave him a packet of sesame candy, and gestured toward a place to sleep.

The child, upon seeing the candy, was overjoyed, chattering and gesturing as he led her to his family's tent.

Jiang Yu: …

Seeing that the whole family of several lived together in one place, Jiang Yu dared not disturb them.

As she was gesturing her farewells, a young foreign maiden walked in from another tent and, speaking halting cultivator language, told her something.

Jiang Yu was literally at a loss; she simply slipped away and went to look for another place.

Jiang Tu laughed heartily in the space: "I'll tell you, the fourth round tent on the left is an inn."

"How do you know? Did you use your spiritual sense to scout?" She glanced at the space; the dragon‑stele image was in a closed state.

"There's a female cultivator who's finished eating, and she entered with companions but hasn't come out yet."

"Ben Yu, being overly cautious, the cleverness ends up backfiring." Jiang Tu continued his usual teasing.

Jiang Yu went to the tent and indeed found an inn equipped with a spatial‑expansion formation, ten rooms in total, and the innkeeper was a Qi‑refining cultivator.