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Chapter 1034 The Chaos in Putuo Prefecture
Putuo Prefecture is a chaotic place, devoid of normal residents.

They all had fierce eyes and pretended to be innocent and harmless, but at night they transformed into robbers and thieves, killing people on the road and robbing houses.

They even gathered and abducted large numbers of people, then tortured and dismembered them to practice evil arts.

As soon as Zhou You entered the border of Putuo Prefecture, he encountered a large mass grave.

The bottom of the pit was piled with countless bones, and the ground was covered with bloody smears. Every step left a blood pit, and when you lifted your feet up, countless bloody threads stuck to the soles of your feet. Large patches of hair and human skin were squeezed together into a felt-like substance.

Such a scene is rarely seen elsewhere, because even if no one in the nearby cities and villages cleans up the mess, the Shishen Sect will step in to burn the bodies, preventing them from being left to rot in the wilderness.

However, the Shishen sect in Putuo Prefecture is different from other places. The main practice of cremating corpses has been abandoned for many years, and instead, they have turned to fighting against evil martial arts.

"Wow wow wow!"

The large flock of crows circling overhead would occasionally scatter to forage, but when they saw one of their kind find a piece of undissolved carrion, they would gather together to fight and tear at it, and the sky was filled with swirling black feathers falling everywhere.

Near the mass grave, a giant, transparent hand shot into the sky, grabbed a flock of crows, and squeezed them tightly, instantly crushing hundreds of crows.

In broad daylight, a rain of mixed flesh, blood, and fur began to fall.

Hmm, expert!

Zhou You asked loudly, "Which esteemed figure from the Buddhist sect are you, sir?"

The transparent giant hand was clearly a sophisticated move similar to the Wheel of Fire Seal, a style distinctly characteristic of the Buddhist sect.

"The Northern Heavenly King of the Buddhist sect, willingly swears to rest."

A young man with short hair walked around the mass grave and approached. He was slightly surprised to see Zhou You and his group, and asked with his hands clasped together, "Where do you come from, esteemed guests?"

"Leaving Huozhou, Nanchen Prefecture."

"So it's Lord Nanchen in person! I've heard so much about you!"

Gan Shixiu, one of the Five Heavenly Kings, was someone Zhou You had heard the name of from Jiang Nie before.

This person's strength is unfathomable. He once killed the Sheep Demon's henchman, the Eye Eater, a peak-level evil martial arts master of the Earth Sect.

However, when Zhou You saw him today, he was only at the level of a newly stabilized Human Sect Realm expert. In other words, he might not have been a Grandmaster at that time, yet he still managed to kill a powerful enemy who was stronger than himself while at the Strong Martial Realm.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Gan Shixiu asked, "Did Lord Nanchen come in response to the omen of the title of Lord Feng?"

"Yes, the Great Gentleman and his entourage have arrived one after another and have settled in Mingjian Prefecture."

Zhou You clasped his hands in thanks, "Thank you for telling me. I was just about to go to Mingjian Prefecture."

The power structure within Putuo Prefecture is quite chaotic, with the Evil Martial Cult and the Buddhist Cult locked in a tug-of-war, resulting in many cities being fought over and seized.

Their spheres of influence were also unstable. Mingjian Prefecture was one of the few cities that was firmly controlled by human warriors and obeyed the orders of the capital.

Putuo Prefecture has no governor; the last governor was killed by the Sheep Demon, and there are only a few scattered prefects.

If Xie Wu wanted to gain fame and rise to power, he would kill the governor as a mark of achievement. Before Yang Mo, Ma Gui also killed two consecutive governors as a reward.

In the capital, they simply didn't send any governors, leaving many positions vacant.

Lord Myoken, being able to establish himself in the area, must undoubtedly be a follower of the Shakya religion.

He was a middle-aged man with a long beard, dressed in a five-colored robe. When he came to greet Zhou You upon his arrival in the city, he performed the courtesy due to an equal.

Indeed, he and Zhou You were at the same cultivation level, both at the Human Sect realm, and their positions were also comparable, both being local lords. They even shared some commonalities in private, both having secondary identities: Zhou You belonged to the Golden Immortal Path, while he was a semi-public follower of the Shakyamuni Sect.

"Lord Nanchen, it's a pleasure to meet you. You've come all the way from Lihuo Prefecture; I'm so sorry for not greeting you sooner."

"Come with me into the city quickly, and I will arrange lodging for you so that your entourage can wash away the dust of their journey."

Lord Mingjian was very polite, which prompted Zhou You to reciprocate with the same polite manner.

He brought Zhu Ruoxuan, Yan Baihu, two thousand guards for the Demon Transformation Cauldrons, and a group of elite pharmacists, including the Bitter Soup Pharmacist.

The number of people was not large, but it was enough to match his status as a prefect.

Lord Akishino had already made arrangements; the locations were all ready, and everyone was quickly taken care of.

Within the city, the number of followers of the Buddhist religion far exceeded previous expectations. Every household had incense burning to worship the gods, and the accumulated smoke rising into the sky was quite considerable.

This has created a unique local spectacle, with the smoke columns inside the city being much denser than the smoke from burning outside.

After the Bitter Soup Pharmacist settled in, another pharmacist immediately inquired about the news: "The two pharmacists, Sanwei and Wuwei, from the capital, arrived in Putuo Prefecture two months ago. After passing through Mingjian Prefecture, they stopped briefly and then disappeared without a trace."

Yes, Putuo Prefecture is not safe. Except for a few places, it is dangerous everywhere else.

Why are these two alchemists hiding their whereabouts? Aren't they afraid of danger, or do they have a mission that no one knows about?
On the other hand, Zhou You also learned that none of the Heavenly Sect members sent by the capital were in the prefectural city; only their attendants and deputies remained in the prefectural city.

He sensed something was off and wondered what Di Jing was doing, abandoning a stable base to venture deeper into the territory ravaged by evil martial arts.

Zhou You did not chase after them, but patiently assigned Zhu Ruoxuan and others to capture a few evil warriors and investigate their intelligence.

Incidentally, the Bitter Soup Pharmacist was also tasked with overseeing the Demon Transformation Cauldron to refine medicine in preparation for the upcoming great battle.

The Demon Transformation Cauldron is designed for demons and produces a stable supply of demon essence and ore. However, Putuo Prefecture has no demons and only produces evil weapons.

Since the evil martial arts are all living beings, they cannot be refined into demonic creatures. Therefore, the Demon Transformation Cauldron is only used for refining medicine and providing logistical support.
As soon as the Bitter Soup Pharmacist started working, he discovered that the environment of Putuo Prefecture was far from ideal. The density of medicinal fields was the highest he had ever seen. In Mingjian Prefecture alone, the number of rare and precious herbs and plants around it was comparable to that of the entire Lihuo Prefecture.

This is too terrible.

No matter how barren Lihuo Prefecture is, it is still adjacent to the southern border and has abundant resources. It only occupies a large area, but it loses to Mingjian Prefecture in terms of "abundance of resources".

The rare and precious medicinal materials that Mingjian Prefecture can collect are produced steadily from medicinal fields and gardens all over the land, and the quantity is quite considerable.

From first-grade to ninth-grade medicines, all kinds of main and auxiliary materials are available, and even spiritual herbs are not lacking.

Any pharmacist who comes to such a blessed place is like a mouse falling into a vat of boiling oil.

As a mere greeting gift, Lord Mingjian generously provided tens of thousands of tons of rare and precious materials.

No wonder the Evil Alchemist has thrived here; this place is just too good, the dream of every alchemist.

Zhou You captured and interrogated many evil warriors, concluding that this environment was caused by population reduction and the abandonment of cities.

The evil martial artists and evil alchemists joined forces to massacre the population, suppress population growth within the state, and degrade vast tracts of land to a primitive state, artificially creating an environment conducive to the cultivation of rare and precious medicinal herbs.

This practice has continued for hundreds or even thousands of years, leading to the situation in Putuo Prefecture where human lives are used to feed natural treasures.

The mass grave that Zhou You encountered when he first entered Putuo Prefecture will be the site of a planned medicinal herb field after it is filled in.

What's even more chilling is that this was already the result of a consensus reached by several parties, and no one has broken it.

(End of this chapter)