Longzang

Chapter 1188 Missing a Few Mounts

On the Qingming Road, an old-fashioned horse-drawn carriage was moving slowly. The carriage was traveling on a paved dirt road, with several ruts still visible on the surface.

The carriage curtain was lifted, revealing a sweet little face looking out. Suddenly she exclaimed in surprise, and two more little faces immediately appeared at the window, looking out together.

In the distance, a massive flying boat appeared, strangely hovering only a few feet above the ground. This floating boat, tens of feet long, traveled along a pre-arranged road at an extremely high speed, whizzing past the three small faces and disappearing on the other side of the horizon in a matter of moments.

The flying boat passed by, and the resulting gust of wind made the entire carriage shake. But the two old horses pulling the carriage were used to it and steadily walked forward step by step, neither slacking off nor exerting any extra effort, truly seasoned horses.

"what is that?"

A kind voice rang out from inside the carriage: "Qingming has a kind of land-based flying boat that can only travel on designated routes. This should be it."

The girl retorted indignantly, "Then why can it travel on such a good road while we have to slowly grind along on a dirt road? If you ask me, we could sneak up and run on it for a while, and no one would know..."

Before she finished speaking, the earth shook, and another enormous flying ship roared in and sped away.

The girl fell silent, but the other boy wouldn't let her off the hook, saying, "If we had gone up there, this airship would have crushed us!"

The girl whispered, "Why is the flying boat running around on the ground instead of flying properly in the sky..."

The old man in the carriage said, "This kind of land-based flying boat has a much higher carrying capacity than those that fly in the sky. Don't be fooled by its floating appearance; its weight is entirely compressed onto the road through the array. If it were our dirt road, it would have been crushed long ago."

The girl stuck out her tongue and said, "Qingming has so many strange things!"

The old man chuckled, “Don’t just look at what others have. Our ancestors left us plenty of amazing things too. These things from Qingming are ultimately for mortals and low-level cultivators; they’re not up to par. Let me show you some truly good stuff!”

The young boys and girls cheered and returned to the carriage, gazing longingly at the old man. The girl, the boldest of them all, said, "The Immortal Ancestor doesn't tolerate lies; it must be something truly good!"

"Of course!" the old man said proudly, then pulled out a box from somewhere and opened it with great care.

Several teenagers craned their necks and saw that the box contained four clean and adorable porcelain dolls. When the lid was opened, the dolls looked at each other and then, incredibly, crawled out of the box on their own, just like real, living beings.

The boys and girls were fascinated, each reaching out to pick up one and examine it closely. Only the youngest one, looking at the four porcelain dolls, turned pale and kept backing away, bumping into the carriage floor.

The old man's gaze toward the boy held a hint of approval.

The girl suddenly said, "They have names written on their backs!"

The porcelain dolls resisted, but the boys with their youthful spirits forcibly turned them over. The girl was read aloud: "Baoyun? Is that its name? I feel like I've heard it somewhere before."

"Zhang Sheng!"

"I'm Zhang Sheng too!"

"What's written on the other one? Let me see. Oh, it's trying to run away... Ji Liuli? Is that a person's name? How could someone have such a tragic name?"

The boys' initial excitement quickly wore off, and the girl pouted, "Immortal Ancestor, these things are fun, but I don't see anything special about them."

The old man stroked his beard and chuckled, "That's because you lot lack the insight to see through illusions, which is why you dared to make a move. Look at Xiao Wu, he's hiding far away, isn't he?"

The girl asked, puzzled, "They're so cute, why can't I touch them?"

The old man smiled slightly, blew a breath, and said, "The Four Great Kings of Asura are cute? Look again!"

An invisible gust of wind swept by, and the four fair-skinned, adorable dolls instantly transformed into small monsters with blue bodies and red hair, their bodies dripping with blood. They opened their gaping maws, filled with sharp teeth, and began to gnaw at the boys and girls. But each time they bit, a faint golden light emanated from the boys and girls, repelling the monsters.

The girl screamed in fright upon seeing the monster and immediately retreated. The old man laughed and said, "Don't worry, with this immortal ancestor here, these four won't cause any trouble. They're not targeting you."

A young boy suddenly had a flash of inspiration: "Are they the people whose names are written on their backs?" The old man nodded approvingly: "A promising young man!"

He pointed and said, "Go!"

Four hideous monsters appeared and vanished in an instant. The four porcelain dolls then turned into real porcelain dolls, motionless.

The old man closed his eyes slightly, and after a few breaths he opened them, looking somewhat smug, and said, "They have already found the causal thread and have gone to hunt it. Don't be fooled by how little time it has taken; they have already traveled hundreds of miles away."

The girl was stunned for a moment before saying, "So the Immortal Ancestor brought us here to kill people?"

The old man said slowly, "Our lineage mainly does shady things for others. I brought you out here for two reasons: first, to gain experience, and second, to broaden your horizons. Now that you've seen the excitement, get to work!"

As the old man spoke, he slowly closed his eyes and drifted off into a trance.

The group of young boys and girls, though still quite young, couldn't sit still. They urged the girl on, and she, feeling helpless, gently shook the old man and asked, "How long are we going to be stuck here?"

The old man kept his eyes closed and said calmly, "With such an unstable mind, how can you cultivate immortality? Our Hanjiang Tianji lineage is most particular about... Never mind, you little ones are lucky. The Ming King has already found his target. You just need to wait patiently... Hiss!!"

The old man suddenly opened his eyes wide, gasped, and almost jumped off the bed!

Thousands of miles away, along a desolate road on the outskirts of a city, clumps of waist-high grass grew. At this moment, the grass parted to reveal a long, eerie eye, watching a figure walking along the road.

She was dressed in simple clothes, her long hair simply tied up, a long sword strapped to her back. Her eyes were lowered, seemingly looking but not really looking, yet all the worldly affairs were captured in her peripheral vision. She walked forward steadily, a mountain breeze blowing, her clothes fluttering slightly, her aura swirling around her, like a cold moon over a deep pool, exceptionally chilling.

She walked with a seemingly slow but actually swift movement, crossing the road in the blink of an eye, leaving only the silhouette of that eerie eye. The eye, which appeared painted on, suddenly twisted, revealing a murderous intent. It then emerged from the grass, revealing itself to be a porcelain doll covered in fine cracks, from which blood continuously flowed!

Just as it was about to exert its strength, it discovered that there was no one left on the main road.

It suddenly turned around and was surprised to see the woman standing right behind it, her expression indifferent, her eyes filled with disappointment.

"This thing, which hasn't even become an immortal, dares to disturb my peaceful cultivation?" She shook her head.

The porcelain doll was originally extremely fierce, but when it saw her point a finger in the air and a young Taoist priest appear out of thin air, along with four floating immortal swords around him, its eyes suddenly turned extremely terrified, and it turned to run away!
But the woman pointed her finger, and instantly four swords fell simultaneously. One struck the porcelain doll squarely on the top of her head, while the other three disappeared into the void, their whereabouts unknown.

The porcelain doll let out a piercing scream, blood gushing from its body pierced by the immortal sword, as if its body contained a sea of ​​blood. In the blink of an eye, the immortal sword transformed into endless sword energy, refining all the blood into nothingness!
The woman was Zhang Sheng. She frowned slightly and muttered to herself, "Are there four of these things in total? That's good..."

Seeing the sea of ​​blood disappear, Zhang Sheng took a step forward, and his figure vanished from the spot.

Inside the carriage, the four porcelain dolls that had been motionless suddenly exploded simultaneously, each releasing a sword aura from its body! Immediately, the sword aura multiplied, then multiplied into four, then into countless others, and in an instant, the entire carriage was filled with dazzling sword aura!

The sword energy transformed into a hundred-foot storm, sweeping away everything around it and even shredding the carriage into nothingness! The four figures felt as if they were being pulled into the air by a powerful force, and were being torn apart by countless hands. All their disguises were exposed and torn to shreds. Amidst the crackling and sparks, four pained, youthful faces were illuminated!
Four teenagers fell from the sky and crashed heavily to the ground. They looked at each other and suddenly screamed in unison. All their clothes, accessories, and other inanimate objects had been reduced to nothingness in the storm of sword energy; even their hair had not been spared.

Several feet away, there stood two bald horses, completely bald without a single hair.

The group of teenagers then realized that the old man had disappeared. Just then, a woman suddenly appeared in their line of sight, and no one knew how she had appeared.

Where the old man had originally sat, there was a remnant of a piece of fairy cloth, with several drops of blood shimmering with tri-colored light floating in the air.

Zhang Sheng frowned slightly and said, "They run really fast, but they're really weak. I wonder if the patriarch who chased after them back then, when he was in his Yujing form, was also chasing after such lowly immortals?"

The group of teenagers stood there dumbfounded, not daring to breathe. They couldn't believe that their sect's revered ancestor, whom they treated like a god, had been wounded by a sword strike from afar and then abandoned them to run away!

Zhang Sheng finally withdrew his gaze and looked at the four young men and women who looked like porcelain dolls. He said calmly, "You few have followed bandits. Although you are young, you may be spared the death penalty, but you will not escape punishment. It just so happens that I am short of a few mounts in my cave. You will come with me."

(End of this chapter)