Longzang

Chapter 145 Life is not easy
In the stillness of the night, Wei Yuan sat on the edge of the main peak, overlooking the entire realm. He held a map, deep in thought.

There is a narrow pass on the only route the Wu tribe can take, only one mile wide. If they set up camp there, they can delay the Wu tribe's army. However, it will take five days for the entire realm to cover the pass.

There is a small lake to the south, teeming with life and bounded by boundaries. I wonder how many other creatures still live in it.

To the east is a small human town with several thousand ordinary people. It seems there's no need to relocate them; they can simply continue living there.

As problems arise one after another, some can be solved, while others can only be dealt with as they come.

Wei Yuan looked up towards the west, where the sky was a deep, dark black, as if some great danger was slowly brewing. The unease in Wei Yuan's heart grew stronger with each passing day.

Qingming has only been established for five days and has already killed two Great Witches, but none of the True Immortals from Taichu Palace have appeared yet. The Eldest Senior Sister is ready to break through to the Dharma Aspect realm at any time, but for some unknown reason, she has been suppressing her cultivation level.

Master Zhang Sheng's cultivation level has long been reached, but he is clearly still lacking in nurturing skills. He needs to master the fourth immortal sword before he can possibly break through. Judging from the last gift from heaven and earth, two more such gifts should be enough. I wonder if any other conditions are required.

Both Bao Yun and Xiao Yu are in their rebirth stage, but Xiao Yu is progressing faster, since the Immortal Sword Great Sun technique is relatively simple and progresses very quickly. Bao Yun's Seven Wonders Tree also has a nurturing issue; each of the seven branches needs to be nurtured one by one, which is a slow and painstaking process.

There are other cultivators within the realm, such as Yun Feifei and her three senior brothers and sisters. Wei Yuan hasn't decided what to do with these three senior brothers and sisters yet, so he can only keep them locked up for now. Xu Jingfeng is a valuable individual; perhaps he can be exchanged for something from the Xu family at a crucial moment. However, it's still unclear how much he's worth, and that's something that needs to be figured out.

In five more days, the territory will expand to a hundred miles, which is Qingming's current limit. This is actually a fairly large area. The map Wei Yuan has is already the most detailed one, but there are still large blank areas that need to be explored and filled in.

Everything is in ruins and countless things need to be done, big or small.

It's a new day again.

It was still dark when Wei Yuan arrived at Yun Feifei's residence. She was currently living in a simple wooden house with only a bed inside; there was nothing else. As soon as Wei Yuan knocked on the door, Yun Feifei's voice came from inside: "Come in."

Wei Yuan pushed open the door and entered. The room was pitch black, but a sweep of his divine sense made it as clear as day. Yun Feifei was sitting cross-legged on the bed, having just woken up from meditation.

"Go to Quliu Town today and see if you can recruit some people. Be careful of the Xu family," Wei Yuan instructed.

"What?" Yun Feifei seemed to be lost in thought and didn't hear clearly.

Wei Yuan leaned closer and repeated himself, but before he could finish speaking, Yun Feifei suddenly hugged his neck and pulled him down forcefully, but Wei Yuan didn't budge.

Yun Feifei used all her strength, but couldn't budge Wei Yuan an inch. She changed tactics, hooking her arms around Wei Yuan's neck, her two snow-white, fleshy legs emerging like pythons and wrapping around his waist. Even with Wei Yuan's abilities, he couldn't figure out how her legs had slipped out of her skirt.

Yun Feifei used her waist and abdomen to twist forcefully, but Wei Yuan didn't budge. She then swung her arm forcefully, trying to throw Wei Yuan onto the bed, but he still didn't move.

Yun Feifei felt like she was hugging a mountain, and wanted to give it a good tumble.

Wei Yuan couldn't let Yun Feifei continue her antics; if she kept going, something bad might happen if someone's divine sense swept over this area. So he slapped Yun Feifei's bottom with a crisp "smack," and said, "You better behave yourself..."

Yun Feifei was no longer willing to behave herself. Suddenly, she bit Wei Yuan's lips.

Wei Yuan leaned back slightly, just a hair's breadth away from being bitten by Yun Feifei. But then, Yun Feifei parted her lips slightly, and suddenly, like a white snake spitting out its tongue, she struck Wei Yuan's lips with lightning speed!
Before Wei Yuan could react, Yun Feifei had already come downstairs and straightened her clothes in the blink of an eye, so fast that even Wei Yuan could hardly see her. Her clothes seemed to possess a spirit of their own, able to be possessed and disembodied in an instant.

"I'm going to work!" Yun Feifei knew when to quit while she was ahead and fled in triumph.

The saying goes that small victories lead to great ones. Yun Feifei believed that as long as she made a little progress every day, she might be able to take a piece of Wei Yuan's flesh from the surrounding powerful enemies.

Wei Yuan then walked to another small house not far away, which was Xu Wan'er's residence. As soon as Wei Yuan entered, she pounced on him. Wei Yuan moved with lightning speed, pressing down on her forehead and freezing her in mid-air.

"Go interrogate Xu Jingfeng today and see if you can get anything out of him. I want to know what price the Xu family is willing to pay if he lives. I want the truth."

"What scale?"

Wei Yuan didn't understand: "What do you mean?"

"It's about how far I can use torture."

Wei Yuan then understood and said, "As long as there are no permanent injuries or disabilities. Oh, minor injuries or disabilities are fine too."

"Okay. But my injury hasn't healed yet..."

Wei Yuan refused to believe it. He was confident that his medical skills had improved so much that he would have been completely cured the last time. Seeing that one method wasn't working, Xu Wan'er immediately said, "Then hit me, just like you hit Yun Feifei."

Wei Yuan immediately felt a little guilty: "When did I hit her?"

"I heard you slap me. It wasn't a slap in the face, was it?" Xu Wan'er's eyes were so bright that Wei Yuan didn't dare to look directly at her.

"This..." Wei Yuan was at a loss for words and was also a little confused. How could she hear him from so far away, with two walls between them?
Xu Wan'er turned around, bent over, tilted her head back, and stuck out her buttocks, saying, "Hurry up, I have to go to work!"

A divine sense slowly approached from afar, like a net hanging from the sky, leaving nothing behind.

Given the urgency of the situation, Wei Yuan had no choice but to quickly end the stalemate and send Xu Wan'er to do some work.

His divine sense swept over the wooden huts and continued forward, seemingly oblivious to everything. The two huts, in total, were only a short distance away, barely enough time to brew a cup of tea. It was still dark, but Wei Yuan felt utterly exhausted, lamenting how difficult it was to coax anyone into doing any work these days. He wondered if the lords and city chiefs of Xu Wenwu's world had it any easier.

In that world, being even a minute late would result in a deduction of silver. If such a rule can be enforced, then mortals must be very obedient, right?

Returning from the two women's residence, Wei Yuan realized that Xu Wan'er and Yun Feifei's touches were completely different, especially Yun Feifei's; he could still feel the lingering sensation on his hand. However, he hadn't thought about it carefully just now, only realizing something was wrong now. When he hit Yun Feifei, he remembered her skin being smooth and bouncy, as if he hadn't touched any fabric.

A lone lamp lit up on the other side of the mountain, illuminating the rugged road.

Xu Wenwu walked with a lantern, like a solitary prophet. It was as if he were the only one in the world who still held a glimmer of light, while the rest of the people lived in darkness, waiting for him to bring the spark of life to humanity.

Xu Wenwu entered the stone house and saw Bao Yun in the room, placing a glass of water and a plate of snacks on the table.

Xu Wenwu was taken aback. All his air of a reclusive sage vanished, and he stammered, "You, what are you doing here?"

"You've been writing well these past two days, so I've prepared some food and drink for you." With that, Bao Yun left the stone house.

Xu Wenwu stood there for a while before he came to his senses, picked up a pastry, and thought to himself, "So even fairies make pastries for me."

He suddenly realized that coming to this world wasn't such a bad thing after all; at least in the previous world, no girl would agree to treat him to a snack.

Of course, if it were a girl like Bao Yun, she wouldn't even dare to make eye contact with Xu Wenwu, let alone ask him to dinner. So, Xu Wenwu only invited people he felt he was worthy of, but unfortunately, they didn't think so.

He carefully took a bite of the pastry, savored it, and then realized that it wasn't as delicious as Wei Yuan's porridge.

There's no particular reason why, it just doesn't taste as good as porridge, and I don't know what's wrong with it.

Xu Wenwu didn't understand his own mentality. Logically speaking, shouldn't he be able to taste the flavor of a divine delicacy even in a simple steamed bun at this moment?
He sat down at his desk, stopped his random thoughts, picked up his pen, and prepared to write something, only to find his mind completely blank. A moment passed, and the paper remained blank.

Xu Wenwu wrote until late at night that day, and even used the several thousand words he had added the day before to finally reach 30,000 words.

As a new day dawned, Bao Yun prepared food, water, and snacks as usual. But Xu Wenwu still missed that bowl of porridge; for some reason, he just couldn't stop thinking about it.

On this day, Xu Wenwu finally felt the pain of writing. He ate snacks thirty-four times, of course, eating scraps afterward; he drank water more than ninety times, paced around the room hundreds of times, and then only wrote two thousand words in the entire day.

Xu Wenwu never imagined that there would be a day when he couldn't even make up a story.

As night fell and he realized he wouldn't be able to sleep, Xu Wenwu became anxious and began writing furiously, not even knowing what he was writing.

Under the cover of night, a figure staggered through the dense forest.

The forest was filled with puddles, and he trudged along slowly, his steps uneven. Suddenly, he let out a muffled groan, lifted his foot, and saw several finger-sized fish embedded in his calf, biting right through his pants and sucking blood from his leg.

He looked somewhat disgusted and fearful, but remained relatively calm. He took out a handful of white powder and smeared it on the small fish. The fish immediately fell into the water and swam away in a panic.

He leaned against the tree, catching his breath for a while. Suddenly, he wiped his face with his hand, only to find his hand covered in insects, which he then mashed into a paste. His face was already slightly numb and was gradually losing sensation.

This was a face that was originally very handsome, but now it was full of exhaustion, with an open wound on its cheek, the flesh of which was turning white and showing no signs of healing.

Despite being surrounded by water, his lips were cracked and parched. The water here was undrinkable; only the sap from peeled bark was drinkable. But doing so would leave a trail for his pursuers.

He struggled to his feet and continued walking.

The faint sound of wind being cut could be heard in the air, indicating that someone was searching for something. However, despite their high altitude, they failed to spot the young cultivator wading through the dense forest below.

As dawn broke, he finally reached the edge of the dense forest. From here, he could see a distant mountain peak, and the surrounding air was no longer so stifling and humid. The young cultivator's spirits lifted; that was the end of his journey.

Atop the dense forest, several men in black grew increasingly anxious, constantly scanning the area below with their divine senses. The young cultivator tilted his head back and swallowed a pill, his Dao power suddenly erupting like a volcano. He leaped into the air and flew at full speed towards the distant mountain peak!

Caught off guard, the young cultivator had already escaped far away. Shocked and enraged, they hurriedly gave chase, gradually closing the distance.

Just then, an invisible force descended from the sky, slowing the movements of the group, while the young man's speed increased dramatically, instantly widening the distance between them.

Several men in black suddenly stopped, and Wei Yuan stood there with his spear held horizontally, blocking their way.

A man in black robes shouted, "This matter is none of your concern. You'd better not meddle in other people's business, lest you bring trouble upon yourself!"

Wei Yuan brandished his spear and said coldly, "Do you know who I am? I am..."

Several men in black robes were intently waiting to hear their names when they suddenly felt something strange above them. Looking up, they saw more than a dozen flaming golden cauldrons descending from the sky and landing right above them!
The men in black robes were shocked and desperately tried to dodge, but two of them were still struck by the blazing golden cauldron, spitting out blood on the spot. Wei Yuan moved forward like a ghost, his spear instantly piercing through the two men.

Seeing the situation was turning against them, the other men in black robes immediately turned and ran. The leader, who was the most powerful and the fastest, turned back and shouted from afar, "Li Zhi! You just wait! Don't think I won't recognize you just because you're carrying a gun!"

Wei Yuan put away his gun, thinking that he hadn't used his name for very long. It seemed that this man in black robes was probably an old acquaintance, someone he knew from Quliu Town.

(End of this chapter)