The Great Seminary

Chapter 394 On the right track
The next morning, as the sun rose, it dispelled the darkness that had enveloped Jinhuang Town.

Huang Qigua left home early to visit Zhang Gui and presented him with the promised corpse of the Earth Demon.

Zhang Gui didn't stand on ceremony and accepted it with a smile, but it wasn't a free lunch.

On the spot, they selected those with intact skins from the received demon corpses, skinned them, and tanned them.

Using his extraordinary power, he created several 'Earth Demon Transformation Techniques', assembled them into a set, and gave them to Huang Qigua.

He was so shocked that he was speechless.

"Such superior magical artifacts can be made with just a few earth demon materials."

Brother Caiyang, your masterful skill in 'creating' is even more astonishing than the killing power of the true form of the gods!
How blessed you are by Heaven!

Zhang Gui laughed heartily and waved his hand, saying, "Brother Huang, you flatter me. Creation is indeed wonderful, but it is really just a matter of practice."

Last night, thanks to you, I had a nice bath and a good night's rest on the soft couch, which rejuvenated me.

I plan to go elsewhere to see if there are any more groups of demons to kill.

"We've finally managed to get a chance to go out and fight; we have to make sure we earn enough."

"Brother Caiyang has such exquisite 'creation' skills, no wonder he would risk all his life to hunt down the Earth Demon alone at this time."

Well, Jinhuang Town is now considered a 'suspended' wilderness. Why don't you just wander around and look around, and come back to rest at night?

"If you'd like, I'll go get you a detailed map of about a hundred miles around right away..."

"That's wonderful." This was exactly what Zhang Gui wanted to hear, so he answered before Huang Qigua could finish speaking, "Thank you very much, Brother Huang."

After a night of deep thought, Huang Qigua and his brothers finally came up with a plan: it was unnecessary to go all out to befriend Zhang Gui, but they could use some superficial and insincere methods to build a relationship with him.

Now that his wish had been fulfilled, he couldn't help but laugh loudly, "It was nothing, just a small favor."

He turned and strode away, ostensibly to retrieve the map.

In reality, he was overjoyed to take the strange item given to him by Zhang Gui and hurried to show it to his second brother Zhou Kou, who was known as the "know-it-all," to see what its value was.

This item must be quite valuable, but how "valuable" exactly, he, a martial artist, couldn't estimate.

As Zhang Gui watched Huang Qigua's retreating figure disappear quickly, he felt quite pleased and murmured to himself:
Even if it's a trick that no ghost would believe, as long as you do it seriously and diligently, you can eventually make it seem like a possibility.

Especially when you encounter someone with such a warm heart 'participating,' it feels even more real.

He summoned a whirlwind, sat down on the ground in the courtyard, his buttocks dangling slightly in the air in a five-pointed-center posture, closed his eyes slightly, and waited quietly.

A short while later, Huang Qigua hurriedly returned. Seeing Zhang Gui sitting relaxed in mid-air, he clapped his hands in half-joking amazement and said:

"Sitting in mid-air, given the abilities you displayed during yesterday's rescue, is not particularly surprising."

But the paths of gods and immortals are ultimately different, so such effortless mastery is truly unexpected.

Zhang Gui opened his eyes, stood up, slowly landed, and gently waved his hand, saying:

"It's just some family techniques that I've practiced since I was a child, and a chance encounter that led me to successfully cultivate them. It's nothing special."

He took the map from Huang Qigua and examined it carefully.

He then carefully put the map away, and solemnly bowed.

"Brother Huang, with the help of this map, we can have a complete grasp of the waterways, terrain, and town locations within a hundred miles of Jinhuang Town."

This saved me a lot of trouble; thank you so much.

While it's never wrong to be overly polite, Zhang Gui's rambling and overly courteous manner was completely unexpected by Huang Qigua.

So much so that even though he hadn't believed in his own judgment before, he now firmly believed in his second brother's judgment.

At this moment, however, he began to have a slight doubt about Zhou Kou's judgment for the first time.
"Some people... for some insignificant, unknowable reason... can save thousands, tens of thousands... or... kill thousands, tens of thousands... high above, looking down on all living beings... standing... too high... among living beings... too many, too small... no longer treating people as human beings..."

The second brother is right. And when the Central Dragon Tiger hesitated outside the garrison last night, it did give me a real scare.

But he really didn't need to play dumb in front of me. Besides, he went a bit overboard in pretending to be honest.

So, could it be that he's actually a very honest person, but his divine power is so strong that it manifests outwardly with his emotions, unconsciously swaying the emotions of those around him?

He thought to himself, and politely returned the greeting, saying, "Brother Chanyang, you're too kind."

The two exchanged pleasantries for a few moments.

Huang Qi invited Zhang Gui to have breakfast together, but Zhang Gui declined. Then, Zhang Gui decisively took to the air and disappeared into the clouds.

The next few days.

He really did return to Jinhuang Town to rest at night, and went out into the wilderness to hunt down the Earth Demons in the morning.

During this time, they also helped two or three other towns escape the invasion of the Earth Demon.

However, the defense forces of these towns are all stronger than those of Jinhuang Town, so they are not in imminent danger.

Therefore, although they expressed their gratitude for Zhang Gui's military assistance, it was far less sincere than the sentiment expressed by Jinhuang Town.

Even a city directly under the jurisdiction of the 'Three Holy Swords Northern Sect' showed a hint of disdain for meddling.

So Zhang Gui continued to rest in Jinhuang Town.

Until noon that day.

He was flying freely in the wild when he suddenly heard a faint rumbling sound coming from underground.

Then, a flash of silver light appeared in the distance.

Several dragons, no thicker or shorter than chopsticks, soared into the air, followed by rolling waves.

"The dragon rises and soars three hundred feet into the waves; the one-horned dragon should be comparable."

Was this the work of a descendant of the Great Qi Emperor of Xia Que, who personally intervened to clear underground currents and reopen surface waterways for the common people within the territory of the Three Holy Swords Northern Sect?

"Why don't we take this opportunity to get back on track..."

Seeing this, Zhang Gui pondered for a while and decided to go with the flow.

So they wandered around in the wilderness as usual until nightfall before flying back to Jinhuang Town.

He landed in the courtyard where he had been staying for six or seven days. In the past, if it weren't for Huang Qigua or Zhou Kou, one of the two would always be waiting for him to have a late-night snack, drink tea, and chat idly.

But they were all gone today, replaced by a stunningly beautiful woman whom we hadn't seen in a long time.

Zhang Gui blurted out in surprise:
"Fairy Shijing, how could it be you waiting here? Isn't it too bizarre that the world is so unpredictable?"

Under the moonlight, Shen Shijing smiled gently, like Chang'e descending to earth, and slowly explained:

"Back then, it was the envoy of 'Xia Que', the Grand Master Su Hui, who helped our 'Han Lishen Clan' abandon our ancestral homeland and migrate thousands of miles to the underground world."

Later, he helped the four clan leaders of the clan, namely Chenglie, Yingyang, Xiangong, and Chuanjian, to introduce a direct descendant of Emperor Daqi.

"Thanks to the favor of this noble person, I have been able to pay my respects to Your Majesty's holy countenance..."

"Wait a minute, isn't the Eagle Soaring Sect Master of the Four Sects of Hanli you yourself?"

You saw the Great Qi Emperor with your own eyes!

Upon hearing this, Zhang Gui's eyes widened, and he exclaimed in surprise, half-jokingly.

(End of this chapter)