Bamboo Mound

However, the ending was not as happy as imagined.

The soldiers did not cheer after their victory; instead, they remained where they were.

A few breaths later, they almost simultaneously swung their weapons at themselves, then collapsed onto the corpse platform.

Ning Chang didn't react at first and was stunned for a moment.

"what?"

"Suicide? There's more to it?"

But before he could see clearly, one of the Chu soldiers took out a talisman and a small fragment of a spirit stone from a seam in his armor before committing suicide.

He then stuck the spirit stone fragments onto the talisman paper, whispered something, and the talisman paper turned to ashes.

Upon seeing this, all the soldiers committed suicide.

At this moment, Ning Chang suspected that there might be more battles to come, but he knew it was time for him to leave.

It was dusk, and he had been watching this place all day. Now, he should find his way back.

However, the main reason is that with his current level of cultivation, he is not yet capable of surviving 100% of the planned area of ​​someone who could carry out such a large-scale massacre.

If we don't leave now, we won't be able to leave once the mastermind behind it all arrives.

He expanded the spiritual energy shield covering his entire body, making it an oval shape that could envelop his whole body.

This is a spiritual energy shield that he created to avoid being tainted by the pervasive blood energy.

When he's still, it's fine; he can simply cover his entire body. But now that he's about to start traveling, if he continues to cover himself, he'll needlessly increase his energy expenditure in order to maintain the complex shape.

Taking advantage of the moment when all was quiet again, he jumped down from the treetop and walked a distance into the depths of the forest before turning around and heading towards the State of Chu.

Because of the forest, he could not move at full speed, and his speed was reduced by more than half.

As night fell, he didn't stop, but activated his eyes again to see if he had night vision.

However, the result was better than nothing. Although it didn't have the effect he had hoped for, it did add some brightness.

This surprised him somewhat, since in the world of cultivation, these things can be strengthened; the difficulty is never growing from small to large, but from nothing to something.

He ran for another hour or two until he could no longer sense the blood energy in the air, then he stopped and prepared to find a place to rest for the night.

Although he can now go for days without sleeping, he simply doesn't want to travel continuously, doesn't want to cultivate, and has nothing else to do.

But after looking around, the ground environment was not so easy to accept.

There weren't any particularly thick trees that would allow him to spend the night in a tree branch.

Left with no other choice, he found a relatively clean spot under a tree, used his spiritual power to clear a space, and then dug a shallow pit. He picked a pile of leaves, spread them out, lay down in the pit, and hastily fell asleep.

Nothing happened all night.

The next morning, Ning Chang woke up, stretched, yawned, and set off on his journey again.

Half an hour later, the surrounding trees became increasingly sparse.

After walking for a while, once they emerged from the woods, they could see a city on the plain ahead.

The distance of only a few thousand meters in between caused him some worry.

"If only I hadn't thrown those clothes away..."

Looking at his snow-white Qingyun Sect disciple robes, the fiery red pattern on his chest clearly highlighted his uniqueness.

"We need to think of a way, otherwise we might be spotted as soon as we go in."

Right now, he not only needs a set of clothes that fit, but also needs to find a place to exchange some money.

The city had a gate on each of its four sides, from which a dirt road extended into the distance.

One of them was right next to the grove of trees where he was hiding!

Let's see if we can run into a caravan along the road.

Having made up his mind, he walked straight along the road.

He didn't activate the Azure Cloud Step, since it wasn't worth wasting spirit stones and spiritual power right now.

However, after walking for quite some time, they still didn't see any carriages or horses passing by.

"That shouldn't be the case. We've traveled for so long and haven't seen a single village, nor any caravans or wagons. Is there no trade here? Or is this the only road to that city that's not open to trade?"

Disappointed, Ning Chang gave up on continuing the search and turned to head towards the city.

He thought to himself, "So what if I get noticed? How powerful can someone be in a border town? Even the Bloodthirsty Sect can't be everywhere, right?"

He picked up his pace slightly and arrived at the border town gate again before noon.

The guards on both sides of the gate became extremely nervous when they saw Ning Chang dressed in snow-white clothes, looking like a disciple of a sect.

Although they had heard of the existence of cultivators, this was the first time they had encountered one.

Or rather, it was the first time they recognized him as a cultivator.

After all, they had never seen a cultivator wearing cultivation robes or walking on the ground before.

How could their small border town possibly attract cultivators?

They exchanged a glance, both understanding each other's meaning, then turned their heads back and waited patiently for Ning Chang to enter the city.

As for the two hundred copper coins entrance fee, why would they risk their lives to guard the gate? Apart from caravans, hardly anyone enters the city each day. They can just go back and say no one came today, and the higher-ups can't verify it.

If all else fails, it's just a matter of each of them contributing one hundred copper coins; compared to their lives, they can still tell the difference.

Ning Chang was also a little nervous. He hadn't thought of how to answer if the two guards stopped him and asked for an entrance fee or anything else.

So all three of them kept their eyes straight ahead, and the guards pretended not to see Ning Chang, while Ning Chang walked straight into the gate with a stern face.

The moment Ning Chang stepped through the city gate, the three of them breathed a sigh of relief in unison.

Looking at the somewhat deserted city before him, he felt a faint sense of melancholy permeating the air.

"It's no wonder it's a border town; it's not even a quarter as lively as Changge City or Changle City."

It's understandable that he thinks that way, after all, this is only the third city he has entered since coming to this world.

As for the first two, one is the only recruitment point for the Qingyun Sect, and the other is the city closest to the Qingyun Sect, so prosperity is inevitable.

Even during festivals, a normal city is only about half the size of two cities.

"Since there aren't that many people, there's no need to rush to hide our identities."

Seeing that there were only a few pedestrians on the street even at noon, Ning Chang unconsciously slowed down his pace.

He decided to first find a place to exchange money, exchange some silver to buy two sets of clothes, and then go to a restaurant for a treat.

After all, it's been ten days since I last ate meat. Although I'm not hungry, my mouth just can't help but crave something to eat.

While we're at it, we should also inquire about some news along the way, mainly to find out the direction back and the war between Han and Chu.

Secondly, he had very few fasting pills left, less than a week's supply. If there was no solution, he would have to start preparing dry rations.