The Wandering Immortal

Chapter 27 Displacement
When Jiang Yuan and Qing He returned to the grove where they had tied up their horses, both horses were gone. They had really lost out!
Qinghe gritted her teeth, "These thieves..."

Suddenly it occurred to me that I had also been a thief.
Not having time to worry about such things, Jiang Yuan took out a Swiftness Talisman and stuck one on himself, while Qinghe didn't need one, as her escape technique was actually faster than riding a horse, and she caught up with the next house.

At the second store, Qinghe was much more skilled and easily found the large granary, filling it with seven or eight hundred catties, which was only a small portion.

Qinghe was naturally indignant. None of these wealthy families were good people; they watched the disaster victims starve to death without providing any porridge.

She hadn't quite come to her senses yet. If the porridge distribution were to begin and hundreds of disaster victims flocked in, which wealthy family could possibly protect themselves?

In times of chaos, wealthy families would always keep their doors tightly shut, until tragedy struck.

When they arrived at the third house, Qinghe hadn't come out for a long time. Jiang Yuan was wondering what had happened when he saw Qinghe carrying someone out with thorns.

Qinghe said with a dark face, "I encountered a thief in the granary and was almost hurt by him."

"Have you received the grain?"

"Hmm, that's about two thousand catties."

After arriving at a secluded grove, Jiang Yuan had Qinghe help the man detoxify, but the man was still bound by thorns.

Jiang Yuan pulled off his mask, revealing himself to be a young man.

Qinghe whispered, "He's also a cultivator, at the first level of Qi Refining."

Jiang Yuan had a good idea of ​​what was going on; he was probably a kindred spirit.

The boy slowly woke up and found that the two people in front of him were both dressed in black and masked, and he was stunned for a moment.

Jiang Yuan deliberately lowered his voice to appear mature, "Which sect are you a disciple of?"

The young man replied, "I am a rogue cultivator, without any sect affiliation."

"If you're all alone, who will teach you the Dao?"

"Kill me if you want, but I will never dishonor my master's name!"

"Did your master send you to rob the grain?"

The boy hesitated slightly, his face extremely pale. "No, my master said there is a difference between immortals and mortals, and told me to mind my own business. But I couldn't bear to see so many starving people everywhere."

"I'll ask you a few more questions. Answer them truthfully, and I'll let you go."

The boy naturally understood that these two had also come to rob the grain, but he had been too nervous and used a deadly move, resulting in his capture. Since ancient times, cultivators rarely left survivors in their battles, and he hadn't expected to have a chance to live.

"What would you like to know, senior?"

"You are a local cultivator, do you know where the immortal market is nearby?"

"There used to be a Baiyun Immortal City, but it was wiped out half a year ago. I heard that someone tried to kill two powerful cultivators, but ended up being killed instead."

Jiang Yuan could have imagined that Daoist Ruan and Li Qingqing would not dare to stay in Baiyun Immortal City, but he did not expect that everyone else would also run away.

Where are the local cultivators trading now?

"Three hundred li to the east is Mount Luofu, where there is a permanent immortal market. My master often went to the Mount Luofu Immortal Market."

Mount Luofu, one of the ten great Taoist grotto-heavens, should be correct.

Jiang Yuan then gestured for Qinghe to put away the thorns.

The young man rose and bowed, saying, "Thank you both for sparing my life, seniors!"

"Your master is right, this is not something you can meddle in. You should go now!"

The boy bowed again and disappeared into the grove.

Dawn was approaching. After a night of turmoil, the results were decent, and he needed to hurry back to the clinic. But as he approached, he saw thick smoke billowing from the clinic in the distance. Jiang Yuan's heart tightened. Hadn't the disaster victims waited all night?
Qinghe couldn't help but speed up her escape, leaving Jiang Yuan far behind. When she returned to the clinic, the sight was simply appalling.

The house had been burned down, and only twenty or thirty people remained in the clinic, all wounded and looking grief-stricken. There were clearly many corpses in the ruins, and the thousands of disaster victims around had all left.

Jiang Yuan didn't stop and quickly went to check the illusion array in the backyard. Fortunately, the Guan family members were still inside and hadn't come out.

They were locked up for a full day and night. When Old Master Guan came out, he found that the farm and clinic were in ruins.

Qinghe was in tears. Even though she was forced to become a thief, she still couldn't avoid the tragedy.

Jiang Yuan inquired about the situation in detail. One of the injured doctors said that not long after he and his wife left, the disaster victims caused trouble, rushed into the clinic looking for food, and when they found nothing, they beat people and demanded to know where the food was hidden.

Then chaos broke out, with looting and vandalism, and some people even set fire to the clinic.

Jiang Yuan looked around and realized that most of the corpses in the ruins were not from the clinic; their clothes were all different.

Some people say that it was too chaotic at the time, and many of the doctors and servants in the clinic ran away.

Qinghe composed herself and treated the injured doctor and servants. She also took out some grain and asked the Guan family servants to find a way to start a fire and cook, as everyone was hungry.

After the meal, Jiang Yuan summoned the remaining doctors and servants, saying that the clinic could no longer operate, as it had ruined General Dingyuan's property, and he would have no way to explain it when he returned. He could only disperse.

Qinghe distributed some food to the thirty people and gave them extra wages, letting them escape for their lives.

Jiang Yuan then gathered his family to discuss the matter. The fire had already been started and no one could control it. The disaster victims were afraid that the entire town of Qingyuan had been burned down, with thick smoke billowing from afar.

Now the Guan family is forced to become homeless again.

Fortunately, these people were all carefully selected back then, including several young men surnamed Guan, Old Steward Chen and the family members of the two old women, a total of fourteen people, all of whom were loyal and devoted.

They all knew that the young couple in the main family were Taoist practitioners with extraordinary abilities, and that following the Guan family would not be a mistake, so no one had any complaints.

Before Jiang Yuan could speak, Qinghe ran out by herself and returned an hour later in a large horse-drawn carriage. No one knew where she had gotten it.

Only the two elders of the Guan family and Steward Chen were allowed to board the carriage; the rest of the people had to walk for the time being to leave the ruins of the clinic first.

Qinghe no longer bothered to hide from the Guan family. She turned around and threw several large fireballs, burning the clinic even more thoroughly and burning all the corpses as well.

Madam Guan was so frightened that she simply covered her eyes and never dared to give this daughter-in-law a hard time again.

In recent years, Jiang Yuan has also had several young members of the Guan family practice martial arts to improve their physical fitness and guard the house.

In these chaotic times, it's always good to let them carry a few swords for self-defense; ordinary refugees won't dare to harass them.

Jiang Yuan originally intended to head east to Luofu Mountain to find a place to stay.

The route to Guangzhou is also this one. Along the way, we found many refugees heading towards Guangzhou, most of them with their families, looking quite pitiful.

Qinghe dared not do good deeds casually anymore. Even if she had a thousand or two thousand catties of grain, it was not enough to share with thousands of people.

As they approached Guangzhou, Jiang Yuan instructed his family to take a detour south, as they knew that if they went any further, they would encounter roadblocks set up by government troops to stop the refugees.

If the governor of Lingnan doesn't find a way to provide disaster relief after things have escalated to this point, he might not be able to continue in his post. The Guan family shouldn't risk offending him.

Along the way, there were people who coveted the Guan family's carriage, but seeing seven or eight strong young men carrying swords, none of them dared to make a move.

Every night, Jiang Yuan would use an illusion array to conceal his family's residence. After traveling for more than half a month without too many setbacks, they finally approached Mount Luofu.

However, they had no clue where Luofu Immortal City was.

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(End of this chapter)