Wanfa Daojun, starting from the Little Cloud and Rain Technique

Chapter 492 'A Crime Committed by an Acquaintance?'

Of the three cultivators, the one with the thick beard was clearly the leader. His gaze was scrutinizing and wary as he demanded:
"Who are you, daring to impersonate fellow Daoists of the Golden Spirit Sect!"

Ji An raised an eyebrow and said softly:

"Why are you so arbitrary, fellow Daoist? I am Ji An of the Golden Spirit Sect, and I have just returned from traveling in the North."

I came here to find out where I am, but I never expected such a tragedy to happen here.

If my fellow Daoists do not come, I will personally visit Yuanhe Mountain to inform them of the situation here.

He was surprised by what the other person said. Even if they suspected his identity, there was no need to say it immediately.

Saying it out loud clearly implies a confrontational attitude, which is not the way to handle problems.

The bearded monk's gaze suddenly sharpened, and he tentatively asked:

"Palace Master Ji?"

Ji An nodded slightly, took out the sect's jade token, held it up for the other party to see from a distance, and said:
"Ji An of the Ministry of Agriculture, greetings to all fellow Daoists."

I have been away from the sect traveling for about fifteen years. Have any new changes occurred during this time?

The identity jade token cannot be given to cultivators outside the sect; they can only view it from a distance.

The bearded monk shook his head, then nodded:
"Nothing bad has happened in your sect and Fallen Maple Valley in the past few years, but our Yuanhe Mountain area has been plagued by disasters."

In previous years, we discovered cultivators colluding with demonic cultivators; in the past year, we've also uncovered traces of demonic cultivators.

The matter of the demonic cultivators was far-reaching, so they informed the other two sects.

Three years ago, Patriarch Beichen accidentally discovered that demon cultivators had infiltrated his disciples. He was furious and thoroughly investigated all his disciples, finding that there were nearly a hundred demon cultivators among them.

Such a scandal is an utter disgrace to Yuanhe Mountain, destroying the sect's reputation built up over thousands of years.

After thoroughly investigating the sect's internal affairs, the patriarch personally led an investigation into the affiliated forces, discovering several small families that had become dens of demon cultivators, as well as a very hidden demon cave.

The bearded monk carefully examined Ji An's jade tablet, then winked at his fellow disciples. The other two walked over to him and stood side by side.

The bearded man cupped his hands, a grim smile appearing on his lips, and solemnly said:

"I am Gao Longxiang from the Martial Arts Hall, and these two are my junior brothers Han Wen and Han Wu. Please forgive me for my rudeness earlier."

Unity among the sects of the Western Continent is the foundation of stability and prosperity. This is a conclusion reached after more than a thousand years of open and covert struggles among the three sects.

Ji An's expression softened. "I admire you for your hard work for the safety of Xizhou. What crime have I committed?"

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Gao Longxiang spoke again:

"Fellow Daoist arrived before us. What discoveries have you made?"

Ji An approached a corpse and pointed to the faint black spots on its forehead:
"Without a doubt, this was the work of the demonic cultivators. The time of their action should have been twelve hours ago, but no more than twenty-four hours ago."

The traces left by the extraction of the soul will completely dissipate after thirty-six hours.

"Even if demonic cultivators use the souls of cultivators to refine demonic artifacts or cultivate demonic arts, they would not make the corpses completely dry. This shows that the lineage of demonic cultivators places more emphasis on blood."

As Ji An spoke, a figure involuntarily surfaced in his mind: the female demon he had encountered twice in the Western Continent.

Could it be a case of 'someone familiar with the crime'? He wondered to himself, remembering that the female demon could manipulate the Blood River.

The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. He grinned, a hint of ruthlessness creeping into his eyes.

He couldn't afford to mess with the demonic cultivators from the North, but if he encountered a local demonic cultivator from the West, he might be able to bully them.

Thinking about this, his depressed mood of the past few days improved a lot.

However, his expression quickly turned solemn. Demonic cultivators improve their cultivation very quickly, so he also needs to work harder.

Once he breaks through to the Golden Core stage, with the help of the Stone Turtle Spirit, his personal strength will experience a period of explosive growth.

In other words, once he breaks through a major realm, he will be qualified to exchange blows with a Golden Core stage demonic cultivator.

Perhaps they wouldn't be a match for those old demons, but they should have a good chance of protecting themselves against demonic cultivators who are also at the early stage of the Golden Core realm.

Ji An now has two channels for obtaining spiritual energy: one is to draw it from the small world, and the other is to draw it from the spiritual vein where his cave is located.

As long as he stays peacefully on Crimson Flame Peak for the next few decades, his spiritual energy will accumulate to an extremely large level.

Gao Longxiang nodded, "Fellow Daoist is right."

After chatting for a while longer, he asked softly:
"Fellow Daoist has just returned to the Western Continent and must be eager to return. I will not keep you here any longer, as this is not a place to entertain guests."

"If you ever visit the northern region again, I will certainly prepare a warm welcome."

Sensing the other party's clear intention to see him out, Ji An gently cupped his hands in greeting.
"The green hills remain unchanged and the clear waters flow on forever. Fellow Daoists, we shall meet again."

Crimson clouds rose beneath their feet, and the two rode the clouds into flight. After flying only a few hundred feet, Ji An turned back and shouted:

"Fellow Daoist, where is this place?"

He's still half-lost and almost forgot the most important thing, which is embarrassing.

"Flying Dragon Mountain".

"Thank you," Ji An flew away again, taking out a jade slip with a map of the Western Continent to search for the location of Flying Dragon Mountain.

After confirming their location, Chi Yun turned around and headed southeast.

Gu Hongming said, "Those cultivators don't like us."

After the initial panic, his emotions have stabilized.

Ji An smiled. "How do you know?"

“My intuition tells me that they maintained a distant attitude throughout your conversation; I could sense it.” Gu Hongming paused. “I don’t like them.”

"Nobody likes having their dirty laundry discovered, and it suits me perfectly well that they don't want to involve me in the investigation."

Ji An stopped speaking and focused all his energy on activating the Fire Spirit Cloud to escape.

half a month later.

Ji An gazed at the mountain city towering into the clouds in the distance and laughed loudly:
"That's the largest immortal city in the Western Continent—Qingyun Immortal City. Once we get there, we'll be almost home."

Gu Hongming's eyesight wasn't as good as Ji Anqiang's. He placed his hand on his forehead, and after a moment, he finally saw the outline of the Immortal City and uttered a blunt truth:

"It doesn't feel as grand as Hongyan Immortal City."

The main spiritual vein node of Red Rock Immortal City has reached the middle grade of the third rank, and its area is much larger than that of Azure Cloud Immortal City.

"Haha, you're right. But in the Western Continent, the main function of the Immortal City is as a trading place. Aren't you a little disappointed?"

Gu Hongming scratched his head. "A little."

Ji An laughed again, thinking to himself that he was truly an honest child.

"The truly prosperous places in the Western Continent are the three sects. I'll take you to visit the Immortal City later."

It's a pity your cultivation level is still relatively low, otherwise we could have used the teleportation array to return.

The distance from here to the sect is relatively far, and disciples in the Qi Refining stage cannot withstand the enormous spatial pressure during teleportation.

Gu Hongming was somewhat disappointed. "I've never ridden a teleportation array before."

"There will be plenty of opportunities in the future. There is a short-distance teleportation array in my dojo within the sect. I can take you to experience it."

"Great!" Gu Hongming cheered and waved his still-childish fist vigorously.

Crimson spiritual clouds descended on the platform outside the immortal city, and Ji An's Taoist robe served as the best pass.

He took Gu Hongming for a half-day stroll around the Immortal City, without staying overnight at the sect's residence, and directly left the Immortal City on a cloud.

Behind him, the lights of the celestial city lit up, illuminating the stars in the sky, and the two seemed to merge into one.

The next day, early morning.

"This is my dojo."

Ji An spoke in a low voice, seemingly talking to Gu Hongming beside him, or perhaps to himself.

A moment later, he rode the cloud back to Crimson Flame Peak, opened his arms, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then let out a long sigh of relief.

These days, he has been on edge almost every moment. To avoid being caught by possible demonic cultivators, he has been flying continuously with all his might, not daring to stop for a moment.

Returning to this most familiar land, his mind suddenly relaxed, and he felt a wave of fatigue wash over him.

As soon as he entered Crimson Flame Peak, Gu Hongming's eyes widened suddenly.

He wasn't a spirit farmer, but he knew that only second-tier spirit plants could radiate light.

A few days ago, when Grandpa Ji introduced himself as the head of the Department of Agriculture, he was quite puzzled! The other party should be the head of the Department of Alchemy or the Department of Talisman Making.

Now, seeing the second-tier spiritual plants covering the mountains and plains, most of my doubts have dissipated. With such a place, of course I should take control of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Gu Hongming swallowed hard, wiped his mouth, and asked with utmost respect:
"Grandpa Ji, how many second-tier spiritual plants are there here?"

“Several thousand, but I’m not at liberty to disclose the exact number.”

Ji An chuckled softly. He had forgotten the exact number. When he first started cultivating second-tier spiritual plants, he knew them all by heart. Now, only cultivating spiritual plants of the second-tier top grade or above could stir his heart.

Zhang Xuening was arranging spiritual food at the table when she suddenly caught sight of a crimson spiritual cloud flying into the mountains.

She opened her eyes wide, wanting to see who it was.

Her pause caught Han Shan's attention. He looked in the direction she was staring at and suddenly stood up.

As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, his eyesight was much better than the other party's, and he immediately saw the face of the cultivator standing on the red cloud.

"Master, Senior Sister, Master is back!"

"what?"

Lin Lan was stunned for a moment, then turned to look up at the sky. She saw that the crimson clouds had already descended, and she saw a face that was both majestic and kind.

Before the crimson clouds had even settled, the women stepped forward in unison, solemnly cupped their hands, and shouted:

"Disciple pays homage to Master!"

"No need for formalities. It seems I've returned just in time. I haven't tasted the spiritual food of Crimson Flame Peak for many years, and I've been longing for it."

"Master, please have a seat!"

Ji An took the seat of honor and waved his hand, saying, "Please sit down!"

"This is my friend's grandson, who will be joining the sect in the future. You can get to know him."

He also introduced his two disciples to Gu Hongming and instructed them to get closer to each other in the future.

Lin Lan smiled somewhat reservedly, "Junior Brother, you'll have to call me Senior Sister from now on."

Having an extra junior brother means sharing the master's favor, but having an extra junior brother or sister makes their lineage even stronger.

In that case, she, as the senior sister, would have even more prestige.

Ji An smiled and shook his head, "Hongming will be joining the Weapon Refining Hall in the future, but that won't prevent you from getting closer."

(End of this chapter)