Bamboo Mound

Ning Chang clapped his hands and continued heading towards Changge City.

As evening approached, he finally saw the city walls in the distance.

Therefore, he no longer cared about the consumption of spiritual energy, as the distance was only a few steps and would not consume too much spiritual energy.

In a few breaths, Ning Chang stood in front of the city gate. He stopped and looked up at the two large characters above the main gate.

Several cracks extended from the stone brick engraved with the character "长" (long), bearing the marks of time.

"This is Changge City." Seeing these two words in person, Ning Chang couldn't help but feel a sense of desolation.

These two characters were almost identical to the name he remembered her as.

Since the second year of junior high school, he has lost his original rich emotions, as if he lost his love for everything overnight.

From then on, he never felt genuine joy or anger again, and even the smallest, unprovoked anger would be extinguished involuntarily.

It wasn't until he entered high school and met her that it was like a ray of light shining into his heart, stirring up his dormant emotions once again.

She is lively, quirky, and interested in everything.

He was calm, indifferent, and nonchalant about everything.

To others, they were equally outstanding, but he knew they were destined to be from different worlds, and he had long been accustomed to loneliness.

So, Ning returned the feelings that had arisen because of her to her.

On the eve of her graduation, she commented: "He stood too high, with that sense of inevitable loneliness, so aloof that people dared not approach him."

.........

Ning Chang raised his hand to wipe away the tears from the corners of his eyes, shook his head with a bitter smile, sighed softly, and walked heavily into the city gate.

Changge City was larger than he had imagined. Although it was already dusk, the city was still bustling with activity, with people coming and going and shouts rising and falling.

As Ning Chang walked, he came to a restaurant.

He hesitated for a moment, but ultimately went inside.

The restaurant was bustling with noise. Ning Chang found a seat in a corner, ordered a pot of wine and a few side dishes, and quietly savored them by herself.

Since it was already evening, several tables in the restaurant were empty, but only a small portion of them were occupied.

The patrons, dressed in various styles, chatted about all sorts of strange tales from all corners of the world. After sensing each of them, they found not a single cultivator among them!

"Have you heard? The Cai family in the north of the city has been robbed again."

"I knew it all along. If you ask me, the Cai family deserves it. They've done all sorts of bullying and harassing men and women all the time!"

........

"A giant worm has appeared outside Changge City and has already eaten several people. Now many people are afraid to go out alone, which is a boon for those who escort goods!"

"Yes, I wonder when a chivalrous hero will finally slay that giant worm."

..........

At this moment, a group of burly men dressed as镖客 (bodyguards/escorts) walked in. One of them shouted, "Waiter, the usual, bring two more jugs of wine this time!" After saying that, he found an empty table and sat down.

"Alright~" the waiter replied loudly, and soon brought out a table full of dishes.

Once the dishes were all served, the lead镖客 (bodyguard/escort) poured wine and called to his companions, "Come, come, we've all managed to transport goods back together, we should have a good get-together!"

After exchanging toasts for a while, the leader spoke up again: "Actually, the purpose of gathering everyone together this time is secondary; the main thing is to remind you not to go on any escort missions that go too far away recently."

The restaurant suddenly became much quieter, with everyone's attention focused on the group of镖客 (bodyguards/escorts).

When it comes to interesting things, everyone knows that these traveling镖客 (bodyguards/couriers) have seen the most.

He paused, "It's alright here in Changge City, right in front of the Qingyun Sect's gate, with immortal masters protecting us. But if we were further away... tsk tsk!"

Another person hurriedly asked, "What's wrong, Brother Liu? Is there some kind of monster?"

The镖头 (bodyguard/escort) surnamed Liu took a sip of wine. "That's not it. It's just that the world is too turbulent, and we mortals are not in control of our own lives!"

He picked up another piece of meat and put it in his mouth, chewing. "Half a month ago, I was escorting goods from Guanxuan City to Changge City. On the way, I passed through Changle City. When I went into the city to resupply, guess what happened?"

The person opposite him asked, "What's wrong?" Everyone held their breath, waiting for what would happen next.

"Chang Le City has been massacred!" Liu, the head镖师, said in a low voice, and everyone gasped.

Hearing this, Ning Chang felt a little nervous. Lintou Village was not far from Changle City. If Changle City was massacred, Lintou Village would most likely be implicated.

"That's a large city with tens of thousands of people! Who could have done this?" someone exclaimed.

Liu, the head镖师 (bodyguard/escort), shook his head. "I don't know. When we got there, the whole city was in ruins. There were corpses everywhere, and even the blood had been drained, leaving them all dried up!"

We searched the entire city, but didn't find a single living person! And after leaving the city, we passed through another village, and it was the same thing – the whole village was massacred!

This drew gasps of surprise from the crowd. "Could it be a demonic cultivator?" someone speculated.

"Hmm? This sounds a lot like the Bloodthirsty Sect's style that Elder Xie described?" Ning Chang had a guess in his mind. "How can there be such a drama? A demonic sect that was destroyed has risen from the ashes?"

Liu, the head镖师, sighed, "Alas, who cares what it is? You have to know that it's a place where the Qingyun Sect recruits students. It's definitely being deliberately targeted at the Qingyun Sect."

People who dare to do this are definitely not people like us ordinary folks.

So I'm telling you all, don't go too far on escort missions lately; survival is the most important thing.

Ning often heard that villages near Changle City had also been destroyed, and wanted to lash out, but couldn't think of any reason.

"Tsk, I have no choice but to get stronger now. There's no point in acting crazy now."

Firstly, Village Chief Lin took him back for treatment when he first arrived, and Lintou Village had been kind to him by taking him in. Moreover, he had served as a teacher for a year, and the flowers he taught withered before they even began to grow, which made Ning Chang somewhat unhappy.

"My cultivation level is weak, my benefactor was killed, ha, I never thought I would get this protagonist treatment."

So he chuckled awkwardly, shook his head, and continued eating.

Then the group of镖客 (bodyguards/escorts) began to share their strange and wonderful experiences.

After eating for a while, he calculated the cost of the food and drinks, which was only about five hundred coins. He then threw down a tael of silver, got up, and left the restaurant.

He had already learned about the world's currency in Lintou Village: one tael of gold was worth ten taels of silver, and one tael of silver could be exchanged for a string of copper coins, which was one thousand coins.

As for spirit stones, one is generally worth ten taels of gold, but gold is useless to cultivators, so few cultivators would exchange spirit stones for gold. Moreover, spirit stones are basically not circulated among mortals.

Once outside the restaurant, there were far fewer people around in the city, and it was completely dark.

Ning Chang then began looking for an inn; he hadn't expected that the restaurant he had just visited didn't have any guest rooms!

After wandering around for about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he finally saw a sign at a corner.