Chapter 558: Investigation (1)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After leaving the Devil Palace, Lu Sheng patrolled the surroundings again. With his current speed, patrolling the Autumn Moon County would have only taken him 30 minutes. It merely took him half a day to determine the level of threat from the Evil Spirits in the entire Nine Bright Province.
With his spirit’s senses, he could reach 500 kilometers in an instant. The Evil Spirits were like fireflies in the night. He did not need overly precise senses. Rough and abstract sensing was sufficient for him to determine their location and numbers.
After looking around Nine Bright Province, Lu Sheng was still unclear about the powerfulness of a Weapon Grandmaster. When he could not find an answer after a long search, he decided to personally go to the Yin Capital.
The Yun Capital was the most important place of the Three Sects and the Three Tribes. Besides the base of two Weapon Grandmasters, the headquarters of the Three Tribes and the Three Sects were also located in the vicinity of the Yin Capital.
Lu Sheng’s objective was to visit the Yuanguang Family and the other n.o.ble Families to gain more detailed information regarding the Weapon Grandmaster tier.
Autumn Moon County’s Nine Bright Province was more than 450,000 kilometers away from the Yin Capital. However, Lu Sheng merely spent a day as he traveled at full speed, and was already at the border.
….
Yin Capital, Underworld Illumination’s defense circle. Cong Shan defense line.
The towering and majestic city walls roamed across the rising and falling mountains like a great black serpent.
The city walls were blackish and filled with ferocious spikes. Golden s.h.i.+ning runes could be seen at several intervals. Groups of patrolling cultivators could also be seen shooting past the skies every now and then.
At the base of the city walls near the county city’s gates, two troops of big and tall guards in black full armor and battle gear stood with watchful eyes trained on the pa.s.sing individuals. The level of alertness was unusual.
Horses and oxen pulled caravans along, while the peasants and farmers hurried along on foot. The traffic in and out of the city’s gates was endless.
“You there! Where did you come from?” A troop of guards stopped several carts. The leader of the group posed the question with a stern tone as he scanned the driver with a fierce gaze.
The driver was a young man in his prime. He wore a yellow and black tunic which was patched at some places. The expression on his square face was dull. Even his eyes seemed sluggish.
“Sir, we come from Broken Mountain County. We’ve been inspected many times already.”
“Show me your papers.” The guard extended a hand and shook it around.
The man hastily produced a faint yellow parchment. He unfolded it and handed it to the guard.
Behind the carts, Lu Sheng covered himself in black robes and walked at the very end with calm eyes. Unlike the driver, when he pa.s.sed the city gates, the Thousand Sun Sect’s insignia on his robes earned him looks of respect from the guards. They said nothing as they allowed him to enter.
After pa.s.sing through the city gates, Lu Sheng was met with a vast green field where wheat danced in the wind.
Winter was gone, and the disaster of the Evil Spirits had been taken care of. The surviving civilians had started to work the fields again.
Lu Sheng had no intention of stirring up the forces of the land. If he went about his business conventionally and applied for the information regarding the Weapon Grandmasters, he could be sure that he would not get it unless he was willing to showcase his strength as a Weapon Grandmaster. However, if he did that, it would be too shocking for the world.
It had to be known that it merely took him less than 30 years to slowly rise to his current prominence. To have achieved a breakthrough from an ordinary person to a Weapon Grandmaster in three decades surely had been unheard of, and the feat would certainly not be repeated. It might even pique the interest of some great powers in the World of Pain, and they would start investigating him.
Hence, Lu Sheng decided to never fully expose his own strength unless he had no other choice.
It would also be best for him to go about gathering information secretly.
Lu Sheng made his way through the farmland at an ordinary person’s pace. Along the way, he took in the most developed and powerful city in Great Yin with his eyes.
When the farmland ended, the second ring of defense formed by ring-shaped buildings stood before him.
The grayish-white buildings were like tall towers, and a wing-like grayish radiance lingered in their surroundings. It was clear that there was some unknown effect at work here.
When he pa.s.sed by this land, Lu Sheng attempted to scan the buildings with his spirit. However, he discovered that these buildings were equipped with anti-spirit scanning abilities.
“Moo!”
On the huge patch of barren land on the road’s right side, a wide piece of land was cordoned off. It seemed like a horse field. When Lu Sheng pa.s.sed by, he could see many humans and demons trying their best to pull a giant five-meter-tall black single-eyed ox.
Runic chains with curse marks kept entangling the black ox. However, it immediately shook them off.
Lu Sheng stopped and looked at this scene for a while longer.
“Another Black-eyed Ox? Why’s the Jing Family buying ferocious beasts like this recently?” Quite a number of people stopped to look just as Lu Sheng had done.
Some of them were conversing softly. Although they used the Art of Voice Projection, with Lu Sheng’s extremely powerful senses of his spirit, using the Art of Voice Projection at this distance was no different from holding a loudspeaker to his ear.
“It’s said that they’re planning to carry out a Blood Offering. Before this, Jing Family’s External Affairs director has purchased 500 kilograms of black tangerines. Whether it was for good or bad intentions aside, the major orchards around the city had earned a great deal.”
“Do they still need black tangerines now? I’ll go get my hands on some after this.”
“Now they want something else…”
Lu Sheng glanced at the Black-eyed Ox. He had never seen such a creature before. Judging by its brute force, it should be about four or five veins strong. For an ordinary person, they were very powerful.
After a slight pause, he continued forward and increased his pace. He finally set foot on the Yin Capital’s main city area before the sun went down.
The entire Yin Capital seemed to have been carefully sculpted out with precisely calibrated rulers and sharp knives.
Every house was no more than 10 meters in height. Every tower had a uniform design. The penthouses all had square roofs. There was no diversity.
Lu Sheng blended into the immense foot traffic and walked into the city lane of the Yin Capital. After pa.s.sing through a grayish-white memorial archway, he was flanked by shops selling artifacts, antiques, and burial equipment.
The citizens here did not register any fear that was brought about by the Evil Spirits. It was as if they were still living in a peaceful era.
Amid the hubbub of conversations, Lu Sheng could pick up people discussing the latest tavern with delicious food or urban legends that spread among the people. There were also those who were talking about a lady who would be organizing a flower fair or a dance in some brothel.
For a time, Lu Sheng felt as if he had returned to ancient China back on Earth. If it were not for the occasional strange-looking demons pa.s.sing him by, he would have believed that he had somehow returned to Earth and traveled back in time.
“Bam.”
Suddenly, a pet.i.te frame rammed into Lu Sheng’s right shoulder.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! It wasn’t on purpose!” A girl with a gentle appearance was fl.u.s.tered as she hastily apologized.
The girl wore a pure light green dress. The grayish-black silk cord that was tied around her waist accentuated her slender form. Her long black hair fell loosely on her shoulders, and her red lips were in stark contrast to her snow-white complexion. She appeared every bit like a lady from a n.o.ble family.
“It’s alright. Just be careful next time.” Lu Sheng nodded slightly.
The girl smiled sheepishly. She bowed slightly at Lu Sheng and quickly walked past him.
She shuffled along the street and quickly went into a small alley. Three young ladies wearing gray clothes with the character Wasp on their backs were waiting for her. Two of them were puffing clouds of smoke with cigars in their hands.
“How’d it go, Xiu’er?” asked the lady nearer to the alley’s mouth. She took another long puff from her cigar before throwing it to the ground and snuffing it out.
“How else could it go? Have I ever failed?” The green-dressed girl lifted her head and smiled. “I got it. That guy’s a foreigner. From the moment he entered the city, he looked around him like a village b.u.mpkin. Besides, he dresses like he has quite the fortune. It’s just that he’s not that smart street-wise. One smile from me and he doesn’t even know where he should look. You can say that I’ve given him my first today.”
She reached in between her voluptuous bosom and produced a nifty black money pouch.
She gave it a shake. The pouch jingled with crisp tones.
“Sounds like there’s a lot.”
“Open it and see. This is our third catch of the day. I didn’t expect us to catch such a juicy sheep right now.”
“I’m guessing that there’s seven to eight hundred!”
Xiu’er wore a triumphant smile. She hooked her slender fingers around the pouch and tugged at it. The cord of the pouch was immediately undone.
Inside the pouch was an impressive collection of brilliant golden leaves.
“A great catch!” Xiu’er was first stunned, but it was quickly replaced by joy.
“Little child, is money that important to you?” Suddenly, a low and deep voice came from behind her.
Xiu’er’s pretty face immediately froze over. The smile on her face did not even have the time to dissipate when she saw her good sisters stiffen. Their complexions slowly paled, and beads of sweat started appearing on their foreheads.
Lu Sheng stood at the entrance to the alley as he watched the girls silently. An unexplainable and immense pressure bore down on the girls.
The pressure Xiu’er felt was especially strong. She felt her heartbeat instantly quicken, and cold sweat kept forming on her skin.
Lu Sheng was very interested in her. He had just arrived in the Yin Capital and was met with a surprise. A little girl was capable of getting close to him and even running into him without him noticing. On top of that, she had stolen his coin pouch.
He did not allow this to happen on purpose. Instead, his money pouch was actually stolen from him.
The little girl did not rely on tricks. Instead, she had used some unique ability, one that seemed capable of making her move about while going undetected.
‘As expected of the Yin Capital. There are sleeping dragons and crouching tigers everywhere. I never thought that there’d still be someone capable of stealing something from me.’ Lu Sheng stared at Xiu’er’s back with emotion.
“Urm… Sir… It’s just a small pouch. I’ll return it to you. Please be merciful…” Xiu’er turned around slowly. A pitiable look was shown in her eyes.
“I can give you the money,” Lu Sheng interrupted her. “Tell me, what did you use to steal this from me?”
Although he did not take careful notice, he was sure that those who were able to steal something from him were no simple individuals.
Throughout his journey into the Yin Capital, he had encountered more than a dozen pickpockets. However, he’d easily fended them off.
This girl, Xiu’er, was the only one who had succeeded without him even noticing.
“Uh… Can I not tell you? Big brother, I have my own reasons as well…” The girl wore a miserable look.
“Of course. It’s your freedom to tell me or not,” said Lu Sheng as he nodded. “However… after taking my money, you must pay the price.”
“What price?” Xiu’er had a bad feeling.
“For instance, this.” Lu Sheng extended an index finger slowly.
“Boom!”
In an instant, countless waves of force lifted the ladies in the alley and threw them mercilessly into the wall behind them.
Sounds of cracking bones resounded throughout the alley. The girls’ eyes rolled back into their heads as they spat blood and fainted.
“No!” Xiu’er hastily screamed. However, it was already too late. A huge puddle of blood had already formed under the other girls. They were clearly on the brink of death.