"This place used to be called Peach Blossom City, actually." The lilting voice was coquettish and extrely pleasant to the ear.
As Jiang Mo stepped into the general store, her attention was imdiately drawn to the speaker—the ordinary general store had been arranged with exquisite beauty, but no background, however beautiful, could compare to the person standing behind the counter. It was a beauty with a graceful figure and picturesque features, now leaning lightly against the counter, raising her eyes to look at Jiang Mo with peach blossom eyes that seed to contain deep, lingering affection.
With just one glance, Jiang Mo was stunned by the other's beauty, her footsteps involuntarily pausing. She had never imagined that by randomly walking into a shop on the street, she would encounter such an exceptional beauty.
Although the other's appearance wasn't her preferred type, her appearance-conscious nature still made her look twice.
Then Jiang Mo felt a pain in her shoulder and instinctively turned her head to et the slightly narrowed phoenix eyes—the clear glass-like eyes showed none of their usual coolness, instead revealing three parts anger mixed with two parts hostility.
With a jolt, Jiang Mo imdiately ca to her senses. When she looked back at the beauty who had spoken to her, she no longer dared to be distracted and asked earnestly: "Are you the shopkeeper? Do you sell maps of the surrounding area?"
The cultivation world was vast, and with the distribution of various powers, it was rare to have a map that encompassed the entire cultivation world. Even if there were such comprehensive maps, it would be difficult to guarantee the accuracy and reliability of their contents. After all, there were many hot-tempered individuals in the cultivation world and many conflicts between powers. It was possible that during the ti a cultivator spent in closed-door cultivation, a city might disappear from the map. Then, as ti passed, new towns would form.
So many cultivators had developed a habit of buying maps before each journey. Because newly purchased maps contained the most up-to-date information, not only showing the latest status of towns and cities but even marking so widely known secret realms.
Seeing how quickly Jiang Mo had regained her composure, the beautiful shopkeeper didn't persist, rely smiling as she took out a map from beneath the counter. Then her slender fingertip gently tapped on the map as she coquettishly said to Jiang Mo: "Twenty dium-grade spirit stones."
Her voice was extrely pleasant, each word seeming to hook the listener, making one blush.
Jiang Mo's ears reddened briefly, but her attention quickly shifted from the voice, and she blurted out: "So expensive?!"
Twenty dium-grade spirit stones was certainly nothing to Jiang Mo; she fed Little Swan Goose with at least high-grade spirit stones. But for a map itself, they were usually priced in terms of low-grade spirit stones, so twenty dium-grade spirit stones was truly exorbitant—unless this map had sothing extraordinary about it. With this thought, Jiang Mo turned her gaze to the map.
Her gaze shifted so quickly that she didn't notice the montary stiffness in the beautiful shopkeeper's expression. Before Jiang Mo could discern what was special about the map, she heard the beautiful shopkeeper say: "If you think it's expensive, then don't buy it."
Her voice had cooled, though it remained pleasing to the ear, as if the speaker was just being a little temperantal.
Jiang Mo blinked, feeling that sothing was strange, but twenty dium-grade spirit stones wasn't really much for her. So she pressed her hand on the map that was about to be withdrawn and hurriedly said: "No need, I'll take it."
As she spoke, she took out spirit stones to pay, then took the map and left without looking back. She walked while lowering her head to study the map, but after examining it thoroughly, she couldn't find anything special about it, so she muttered about having encountered a shady rchant—this was clearly ant for the shopkeeper behind her to hear, as cultivators' hearing was excellent, and at such a close distance, the other party would definitely hear.
The beautiful shopkeeper indeed heard it and her face darkened with anger as she bit her silver teeth—she had never seen soone so oblivious to romantic cues!
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Jiang Mo was appearance-conscious and privately did have a preference for beautiful people, or perhaps nobody could avoid developing such a preference when faced with beauty. But she already had Senior Sister, and with Senior Sister right beside her now, how could she pay much attention to others?
Yet even without overthinking, after leaving the general store, Jiang Mo noticed sothing unusual about Linglong City—the concentration of beautiful people seed excessive. The owner of the general store she had just entered to buy a map was a beauty, the owner of the tavern she passed by was also a beauty, the shopkeeper of the clothing store she glimpsed was likewise a beauty, and even the waiters at the restaurant were extrely handso.
Normally, with Jiang Mo's appearance-conscious nature, she would inevitably look twice at beautiful people, if for no other reason than to please her eyes. But now, with beautiful people everywhere, she dared not look much, feeling that the city's beautiful people alongside the peach blossoms easily brought to mind the phrase "red powder over skeletons."
If not for the fact that most passersby had normal appearances, Jiang Mo would have felt quite alard.
Even so, she had no intention of staying long in this strange city and rolled up the map, preparing to leave Linglong City imdiately. However, before Jiang Mo and Little Swan Goose could reach the city gate, the conversation of two approaching people caught their attention—
"Have you heard? It's not very peaceful outside recently. We'd better stay obediently in Linglong City and not wander around."
"How could I not have heard about such big news? The Crimson Blood Sect and Nine Abyss Sect are fighting, and I heard the Celestial Demon Sect is planning to intervene, though it's unclear whose side they'll take. If you ask , the Nine Abyss Sect must be bored. Why provoke those lunatics from the Crimson Blood Sect for no reason?"
"Hey, that just shows your limited perspective. Haven't you seen it after all these years? The Nine Abyss Sect is ambitious, aiming to beco the leader of the demonic path, and they probably want to unify the entire demonic path. The Crimson Blood Sect is a hard bone to chew, but they'd have to deal with it sooner or later." The person lowered their voice slightly: "I heard the Crimson Blood Sect Leader has been missing for two years. Why not strike while they're leaderless instead of waiting for their return?"
"Well... that makes sense. But these are just the ambitions of big figures, they don't really concern small fry like us. Let's just stay out of it."
"Exactly, Linglong City is the best. It's just that everything in the city is so expensive, almost charging for the air we breathe. I wonder how long our ager savings will last in this city?"
"Hehehe, beautiful people are naturally expensive..."
As they spoke, they had already passed by Jiang Mo and her companion and walked far away. The conversation carried by the wind had shifted from the demonic path's situation to discussing beautiful people, and the topic seed to be heading in an increasingly vulgar direction.
Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue naturally stopped eavesdropping, but they exchanged glances, neither missing the key points from the two people's earlier conversation—the Crimson Blood Sect and Nine Abyss Sect were at war, and they had ntioned the Crimson Blood Sect Leader who had been missing for a long ti!
Though they had only recently parted ways, Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue could already imagine the complex situation Zhu Baiyi would face upon her return. And if the demonic path was in such a state, what about the righteous path? Would they rely observe from the sidelines as the demonic sects fought endlessly, or would they take the opportunity to add fuel to the fire and jointly deal with the Nine Abyss Sect, whose face was written all over with conspiracy?
These major sect matters seed unrelated to the two of them, but upon closer examination, there appeared to be countless connections.
Finally, Jiang Mo said to Yun Qingyue: "Senior Sister, let's not worry about these things for now. The Sect Leader will surely handle everything well. As for the Xuanqing Sect, with Peak Master there, it's not our place to worry. Your most urgent task now is to recover your strength."
These words were sensible. After hearing them, Yun Qingyue temporarily set aside her concerns and nodded in agreent.
As the atmosphere relaxed slightly, Jiang Mo suddenly changed the subject: "Senior Sister, what kind of place is this Linglong City anyway? You didn't want
to enter the city earlier, and from those two people's conversation, this doesn't seem to be an ordinary place, right?"
Hearing this, Yun Qingyue paused, raising her eyes to et Jiang Mo's gaze filled with curiosity, and finally stopped concealing: "This is the territory of the Harmony Sect of the demonic path." After saying this, she seed to feel the description was inaccurate and continued: "This is the Harmony Sect's residence. Entering the city is essentially no different from entering their sect gate."
After hearing the conversation between the two passersby, Jiang Mo had vaguely suspected this, as only powers equal to major sects could contend with other major sects. Of the four major sects of the demonic path, those two had already ntioned three, leaving only the Harmony Sect, and the city's concentration of beautiful people was clearly excessive.
But Jiang Mo had never imagined that this was actually the Harmony Sect. She had thought that Linglong City was at most the outer periphery of the Harmony Sect, like Xuanqing City outside of Xuanqing Sect, and never expected that they were already within the sect itself!
Which sect would leave its gates wide open, allowing people to enter and exit freely?!
After hearing Yun Qingyue's words, Jiang Mo was almost dumbfounded with shock, imdiately looking around anxiously, afraid that they had already been targeted—not to ntion, major sects always had powerful experts in residence. The leaders of the Crimson Blood Sect and Nine Abyss Sect were both at the Great Achievent realm, and since the Harmony Sect held a position among the four major demonic sects, their sect leader's cultivation level should be no lower than Great Achievent.
She, a White Tiger serving as a guardian for the righteous Xuanqing Sect, was wandering around in the territory of the demonic Harmony Sect—no matter how you looked at it, it was problematic. If she and Senior Sister were captured, they would truly have nowhere to cry!
"Let's go, let's go, let's leave this place imdiately." The little tiger was so nervous she was almost bristling.
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