I Cheated While Cultivating

Chapter 145: The Best of Both Worlds

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Ansong County City is quite close to the Chang Xing Sect, just under fifty li away.

It could basically be considered the front gate of the Chang Xing Sect and thanks to this, Ansong County has been very stable over the years, with hardly any disasters.

It has developed quite well.

Usually, there would often be people entering and leaving the city gates, traveling to various places.

But now, the gates are eerily deserted.

Only two or three soldiers stand guard, and even ordinary pedestrians are rare.

Despite it being summer, they felt chills.

If it’s “deserted” to an extreme, it really gets cold.

Because there were so few people, and those coming and going were mostly familiar faces, the city guard soldiers became even more perfunctory in their duties.

Most of the time, at most, they would take an extra glance and assess the situation, without interfering further.

Squeak, squeak!

The sound of wagon wheels struggling to turn came over, as an old man, driving a donkey cart laden with a pile of firewood and grass, slowly made his way into the city. He seemed to have a good relationship with the city guards. As he passed by, he exchanged a few brief words with a laugh, and then continued on into the city.

There was no real inspection.

The old man, driving his donkey cart, moved along the main streets of the city, turning left and right, passing roads one after another, until he finally reached his own backyard and stopped the cart. Then he went back inside the house to drink water.

As he walked, he mumbled to himself, puzzled, “Why is this firewood so heavy today? Could it be that there’s too much water inside? Looks like I’ll have to dry it out for a few more days before I can sell it.”

After the old man left the backyard, the cart filled with firewood and grass suddenly moved, and a teenager about seventeen or eighteen years old crawled out from underneath it.

It was Zhou Heng.

To avoid alerting the enemy, he hadn’t come in brazenly but had chosen a relatively hidden approach to sneak in.

After all, there were now so few people coming and going in Ansong County City that he, a stranger who had never been here before, would be easily recognized once he showed his face.

That would mean revealing himself to the enemy before finding the source of the incident, which would be greatly disadvantageous as it would put him at a position of known vulnerability.

Moreover, Siming’s whereabouts were currently unknown.

If his rash actions led to Siming’s death, Zhou Heng would feel quite remorseful.

Plus, he wouldn’t be able to claim the additional rewards.

Zhou Heng moved silently, finding a secluded spot in the backyard that was not easily discovered, and temporarily hid himself there.

“This place is indeed full of ghost energy,” he frowned, aware of the problem at hand.

It was because there was a ghostly presence here!

——Benefiting from the addition to his spirit attributes and the nourishment of his Innate Skill, Zhou Heng’s Divine Soul had grown very strong, and his sensitivity to ghost energy had naturally improved a lot compared to before.

Therefore, as soon as he quieted down and concentrated, he felt the powerful, unmatched ghost energy lurking within Ansong County City.

Then, he began to ponder over the missing population cases in Ansong County and Lufeng County.

The mission information sent by the Zhou Tian Boundary Officer included introductions to the situations in Ansong and Lufeng Counties.

Starting a little over a month ago, people in Ansong County began disappearing into thin air, leaving no trace and completely unfindable no matter what.

Moreover, they vanished silently, without the slightest noise.

Many people woke up in the morning to find their husbands, wives, children, or parents gone.

The locals reported to the authorities, but the result was the deaths of several constables and officers, with no alleviation to the situation, which instead intensified, with more and faster disappearances.

Thus, the county leader was out of options and could only report upwards, requesting the Huangtong Mansion’s master Wu Zongshan to handle the matter.

Eventually, Wu Zongshan informed the Zhou Tian Boundary Officer about the situation in Ansong County.

Not long afterward, news came that similar incidents had occurred in Lufeng County as well.

As a result, the Zhou Tian Boundary Officer dispatched a Seventh Rank Warrior codenamed “Siming” to investigate here.

But over the following half month, there was no further sight of Siming.

She hadn’t left the city, and should still be inside Ansong County City, but it was unknown whether she was hiding or had been caught.

After some thought, Zhou Heng decided to find Siming first.

He planned to rescue Siming and ensure her safety before delving deeper into the ghostly matters, to avoid the potential kidnapping by the ghost and the dilemma of being hesitant to act because of her.

At the same time, if Siming could be found, they could also gain a more detailed understanding of the ghostly situation here.

Of course, in the process of searching for her, it was equally possible to investigate the traces of the ghost, as the two tasks did not conflict.

Initially, however, Zhou Heng intended to prioritize the rescue.

“However, to rescue someone, one must first find out where Siming is,” Zhou Heng frowned slightly, with no clues at the moment. Blundering around in search like this was likely to expose his tracks directly.

“Sigh, I really should have added a communication function to the mask, as well as a feature to confirm each other’s location. It would make searching for each other so much easier.”

Unfortunately, that was just wishful thinking.

The Zhou Tian Boundary Officer couldn’t even manage to transmit information back to the star chart through the mask, let alone real-time communication.

“`

“Right, there’s a way!” Zhou Heng had a flash of inspiration and suddenly smiled, thinking to himself, “Since it’s inconvenient to search deliberately, I can ‘accidentally’ stumble upon it.”

He took out the talisman that he kept close to himself for sealing Yang Energy and put it into the Qiankun silk pouch provided to true disciples by the Pure Yang Palace.

With that, the aura of his Pure Yang Body was no longer suppressed.

If Siming was injured by a ghost and unable to leave quickly, her body carrying ghost Qi and following the law of Yin and Yang attraction, even if Zhou Heng was just strolling casually, he might encounter her.

If she was not injured by a ghost, it meant that either she hadn’t encountered any ghosts, or that the ghosts here did not have the power to harm her, and even if he exposed himself, it wouldn’t bring harm to her.

This method could be said to serve multiple purposes beautifully.

“If I can encounter the nest of the ghosts by chance, then it will be even simpler,” Zhou Heng’s lips curved slightly, thinking to himself, “Then I could strike directly at the source and obliterate the ghosts here in one fell swoop.”

Although his current strength was nearly equivalent to the top ten of the human rankings, facing Sixth Rank level ghosts, he would be no match, but that was just the standard of his own strength.

He still had a bunch of unused special ability cards.

The Five-Colored Divine Light was also still available.

…

Beneath the night sky, the moon hidden, the stars sparse.

The northern side of Ansong County City was the busiest area, with many grand mansions built there, alleys intersecting; naturally, there were also many vacant houses.

Chen Yingyu was hiding in a secluded firewood room of a big courtyard. She wore a mask and black clothes, circulating her inner strength to drive the blood Qi, expelling the ghost Qi nestled within her body.

This situation had been going on for six or seven days.

Fortunately, the place was secluded enough, and the firewood room was rarely visited, so she had not been discovered; otherwise, she would have been forced to move and hide again, wasting days of hard work.

“Phew…” Chen Yingyu exhaled a breath of turbid air, feeling the condition inside her body, and was slightly joyful, “The ghost Qi has been cleared quite a bit. In at most three days, I’ll be able to move normally.

“I must report the situation here back to the organization. This small county city has actually gathered a large number of ghosts, and there’s a formidable ghost called ‘Great King,’ extremely dangerous!”

She was the Star Envoy “Siming” dispatched here by the Zhou Tian Boundary Officer to investigate the situation.

Originally, Chen Yingyu thought that this place was merely afflicted by ordinary ghosts since those who disappeared were all ordinary people; logically, the ghosts here shouldn’t be strong.

But after arriving here and truly encountering the ghosts, she realized that Ansong County and the neighboring Lufeng County were actually just traps.

It was a bait for the Zhou Tian Boundary Officer!

The people of these two counties weren’t the ghosts’ true targets; they were merely bait. What the ghosts really wanted were the people from the Zhou Tian Boundary Officer.

That’s why they only abducted ordinary people and never targeted martial artists with cultivation, creating a false impression of weak ghostly strength.

To avoid attracting the strong ones from the Zhou Tian Boundary Officer.

Chen Yingyu encountered three Seventh Rank ghosts at that time, powerful and with extraordinary abilities. Even though she was strong and had the divine skills passed down from the Star Envoys, she was still not a match for them and was injured by the ghost Qi, barely escaping with her life.

“I must recover as soon as possible and make contact with the organization. Otherwise, the organization will definitely send someone to investigate my disappearance. Due to the lack of complete information, it’s unlikely they will send a Sixth Rank.

“However, considering my disappearance, they should send someone stronger than me, perhaps a Peak of the Seventh Rank, an expert who has just started to merge with the exterior scenery. But even with that, most likely they won’t be a match for those ghosts!

“Coming here would just be sending them to their deaths…”

Chen Yingyu bit her red lips, filled with regret.

In the three years since she joined the Zhou Tian Boundary Officer, every mission had gone smoothly, and she gradually lost her vigilance. Had it been in the past, she would have conducted a thorough investigation before taking action.

Not as reckless as she was now.

“Worrying is useless; I should focus on expelling the ghost Qi,” Chen Yingyu thought to herself, preparing to circulate her Inner Qi again, but suddenly her ears twitched, and she heard footsteps outside.

Someone was coming to the firewood room?

Was it a ghost, or a servant of this mansion?

Regardless of who it was, I can’t stay here any longer, I must leave immediately.

Chen Yingyu immediately decided to escape through the window, but just as she was about to move, she felt an icy chill in her legs, losing the ability to move, completely immobilized.

“Damn, why did the ghost Qi have to travel to my legs at this moment?!” She panicked.

She had been severely injured before, with ghost Qi infiltrating her bloodstream, which caused her legs to become immobile whenever the ghost Qi passed through them.

Normally, this would happen at intervals of an hour.

It had just been an hour since the last occurrence, and she couldn’t move.

“Let’s see who it is first. If it’s just a servant of the mansion owner, maybe there’s room for negotiation,” Chen Yingyu thought to herself. “If it’s a ghost, I’ll have no choice but to harm my own foundation and flee.”

Creak!

Just then, the door of the firewood room opened.

The figure that entered Chen Yingyu’s vision was tall and slender, wearing a purple robe of immense luxury, and with a mask bearing the noble visage of an emperor on his face.

Behind this figure was a night sky originally devoid of stars, but for some reason, when he opened the door of the firewood room, the clouds that had been masking the stars and the moonlight drifted away.

As a result, starlight and moonlight poured down, shining through the window into the firewood room, and also enveloping the masked figure, giving him an air of mystery and nobility.

“Siming?” the person chuckled lightly, seeming quite pleased, “I’m here to rescue you.”

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