Chapter 1273: An Yuan City
Han Li leaned against the side of the carriage, sitting across from the four women. He was able to clearly see their unease.
He already swept his gaze past the grasslands outside the carriage several times, but he found nothing out of the ordinary. It appeared similar to any ordinary grassland.
Han Li felt somewhat baffled, but he showed none of this on his face, nor did he say anything. After all, he didn’t wish to reveal his lack of understanding of the spirit realm as it could arouse suspicion.
But during these days, the four women treated him with a much friendlier attitude. From his act of saving Quan’er, the red-robed woman, they began to enthusiastically call him Big Brother Han.
Han Li didn’t find the name suitable, but because the women were so young, he found it difficult to be too cold with them. During this time, he spoke much with the girl Quan’er in particular.
Instead of making brazen inquiries about the Spirit Realm, he asked many questions about the Heavenly East Enterprise.
During these discussions, he came to know that the mistress she mentioned was a regional manager of several cities in the Heavenly East Enterprise and the daughter in law of the head of the organization. Normally, one would address her as Mistress Fang.
The Heavenly East Enterprise’s master had three sons. The mistress was officially wed to his second son. They were rather affectionate of one another, but due to an unfortunate accident, her husband died over twenty years ago, but he was survived by two young children: a boy and a girl. As such, what should’ve been governed by the couple was now left entirely by the widow.
As for the four in the carriage, they were the mistress’ personal servants that she adopted from a young age. As a result, the four held an extremely deep admiration of the mistress.
As for their journey to the remote An Yuan City, Lady Fang came here partially for the big business in the city, but it was mostly for her son. Since they found spirit roots in her son at a young age, he joined a cultivation sect located in An Yuan City. They had sent a message hinting that there was a matter that required Mistress Fang’s assistance.
As Mistress Fang still kept her son close in her heart, she made the journey personally and even abandoned that caravan she was traveling with to hurry on her way to the city.
In her eyes, with the number of men in the caravan and the few cultivators escorting them, nothing significant could happen to them.
She couldn't have expected a hoard of low-grade demon worms and a demon serpent to attack the caravan in the Azure Sifting Desert.
When Han Li heard this, he began to make indirect inquiries about the master of the Heavenly East Enterprise.
After all, founding such a large organization wasn’t something an ordinary person could do. Han Li was stunned by what he found out.
The master of the organization was a mortal who lacked physical strength, nor did he have any spirit roots. How was such a mortal able to create such a large business.
As doubts filled Han Li’s mind, Han Li asked an indirect question about it, but as careless as the red-robed woman was, she didn’t give a proper answer.
When he saw this, he didn’t question her any further and promptly changed topics.
As this went on, Han Li managed to understand a few things, but he had even more questions as well, leaving him somewhat gloomy.
Although the grasslands appeared to be far more expansive desert, the caravan quickly passed through it in a little over a month but it still hadn’t reached the end.
During this time, the guards and cavalry remained highly vigilant and fearful. Even the several cultivators that hadn’t emerged during the desert would periodically take turns patrolling the air above the caravan.
These Goulou Mountain cultivators also appeared to be treating this duty with great care.
Although these people appeared ready to face a great enemy, the caravan managed to leave the grasslands after another half month of travel and emerged into a hilly area.
The soldiers and cultivators instantly felt relief after leaving the grasslands, and the caravan’s original banter immediately returned.
Even the young women in Han Li’s carriage let out a sigh of relief after leaving the grasslands.
The young green-robed woman patted her chest in relief and sweetly smiled, “So we didn’t attract the wolves of the plains. Although that wasn’t my first time through them, I still feared for my life.
Liu’er sighed and fearfully said, “Not only was Elder Sister Xiang’er scared, but the entire caravan was holding their breaths. If our luck was any worse, we could’ve woken a beast tide and that would be the end of us. The plains are truly a deathtrap. Although it is rarely seen, there are a few merchant enterprises that encounter it.”
Quan’er tilted her head and added, “That’s right. I heard that An Yuan City didn’t hesitate to spend a fortune to our enterprise for over a hundred rare spirit tools and a huge number of weapons to deal with a beast tide.”
The white-robed woman bafflingly said, “Strangely enough, the city isn’t large and it wasn’t recently built. How could it place an order for so much equipment? That many spirit tools is something only a mid-sized city would be willing to spend.”
The blue-robed woman shook her head and lightly said, “It doesn’t come as a surprise. Even if a group of powerful beasts didn’t migrate near them recently, the city encounters a massive beast wave every thousand years. Against a massive joint attack of so many beasts, they wouldn’t be able to easily block it.”
“That’s right. Liu’er’s words are reasonable.” Quan’er pursed her lips in a smile.
Han Li sat in his seat and meditated. But when he heard their conversation about the beast tide, his face began to stir.
He recalled what the large scarred man Zhang Kiu mentioned in the Azure Sifting Desert, a scorpion wave. Could these two things be somehow related?
But after that, the women dropped the topic and quickly spoke about other things. Although Han Li felt curious, he continued to circulate the Varja Arts and slowly mend his meridians.
With that time to mend and the additional undying effects of the Wood Birth Bead, his meridians recovered at a pace far quicker than he anticipated. As of current, his body was in mostly good health. With another month, there shouldn’t be a problem at all.
As such, with the fourth layer of the Vajra Arts cultivated, he suspected that he would be able to win over late Foundation Establishment cultivators, given his understanding of mid and low-grade magic techniques. As for Core Formation cultivators, he would only find out after he’s given it a try.
Of course, this was assuming that the abilities of low-grade cultivators in the spirit realm were the same as those in the mortal realm.
After they left the plain, the caravan arrived at its destination after two days, a stone city with an unordinary presence.
Looking at it from a distance, one could tell that the stone walls were over a hundred meters tall with a thirty-meter-tall stone tower placed every three hundred meter interval on the wall. It appeared quite imposing.
There were also delicate designs carved onto the walls as if they were unfamiliar talisman characters, adding another layer of mystery to the city.
Han Li was speechless at the sight of it.
The city wasn’t comparable to any small city. In the mortal realm, it could be said to be a massive city.
But then, Han Li took notice of a few large armored soldiers patrolling the walls. There were also ballistas placed on top of the towers with giant metal arrows ready to fire.
Each arrow was over ten meters long and shined with white light as if they were each low-grade magic tools.
Such astonishing weapons would likely be able to kill even Fellow Daoist cultivators.
Han Li narrowed his eyes at the sight and began to ponder as the caravan arrived at the city gates.
There was not the person outside the city gates. They were pitch black and sealed tight. There was a large troop of soldiers on top of the gates though, looking down at the caravan with cautious expressions.
The scarred man Zhang Kui rode his wolf up to the gate and wordlessly tossed an item in his hand up to the gate. It was a golden medallion.
The soldiers stirred up on the gate as a middle-aged man in silver armor closely examined it. Afterwards, he took a look at the caravan and commanded, “Open the gates and inspect the caravan. They belong with the Heavenly East Enterprise.”
Once that was said, the soldiers began to shout with a few of them running down to open the gate.
A short moment later, the metal gates slowly opened to reveal tens of fully armed soldiers running out in formation.
The silver-armored middle-aged man was the last to arrive. He walked up to Zhang Gui and vigilantly looked him, “Are you their leader?”
Zhang Kiu calmly answered, “I am Zhang Kiu. You should’ve received the city lord’s token. We carry the goods that were ordered by the city.”
“I’ve received the order, but it is a peculiar time. We’ll need to have a few of our esteemed cultivators to examine your caravan before we can let you in.
Zhang Kui readily agreed to their request, “So you fear demon beasts sneak among us. We’ll comply with your search of course.”
The middle-aged man nodded and turned out, calling out in the direction of the city, “Good. Mister Li, Master Huang! Please inspect them.”