Yinlan City, part 5

The soaring fire dyed half the sky of the Inner Subsidiary City crimson.

Once it was certain that every single soul beast in the flames had been burned to ashes, Tang Yueling reeled in her fire seed, the Ten Million.

As the earth fire burrowed back into her body, Tang Yueling couldn’t help but let out a breath, much like a dragon exhaling a puff of dragon-flame.

Sparks scorched the air before drifting down like a small burst of fireworks.

She inspected her internal state and found that her spiritual meridians felt as if magma were flowing through them; the scorching flames caused a reflection of crimson to mirror deep within her eyes.

Tang Yueling savored the feeling for a moment, and a sudden flash of joy surfaced across her brow.

“The Ten Million seems to have grown a bit stronger—it has turned into Twelve Million.”

“I felt it.”

Tian Ning patted the sparks that had singed her sleeve.

The Tier 2 disciple robes couldn’t withstand the erosion of a Tier 4 earth fire; as two sparks drifted down, they burned two clean holes right through her sleeve.

Only now did Tang Yueling realize, with delayed comprehension, what it felt like when Tian Ning used to summon snow with a wave of her hand or cause ice to form as she walked.

Tian Ning carried Tang Yueling down to land once more, while Pei Jingzhi leaped onto the roof ridge on his flying sword.

The first team converged once again, reuniting as a group.

At this moment, scattered rays of rosy dawn actually appeared at the horizon.

The great fire had finally died out, but it had thoroughly dispelled the fog in this region, allowing them to at last see the color of the sky clearly.

Within this central area of the Inner Subsidiary City, white flakes of snow began to drift down softly.

As they touched her eyelashes, they quickly melted into a watery mist, making Su Qing realize for the first time that Yinlan City was actually in its snowy season.

However, before the snowflakes could truly touch the ground, they were corroded into nothingness by the toxic fumes.

It was no wonder this poisonous fog felt so damp and cold.

“Let’s go down and see the true face of the First Street.”

With the soul beasts dealt with, exploring the streets became exceptionally easy.

Within roughly half a day, they walked through every corner of the First Street.

Pei Jingzhi’s array disk had been vibrating continuously, as if probing for something.

The other eight teams that could be contacted also accelerated their progress, completing their exploration missions almost concurrently.

At this moment, outside the city, Deng Mingjian sat before a desk inside a tent, his brow furrowed as he conducted a meticulous deduction.

Before him was a black-and-white array disk, upon which sixty golden eyes were scattered.

These were the Sky Eye symbols drawn by Xu Ruiyi, serving as the array counters to crack this formation.

Each eye represented a student; as the students moved, the full layout of Yinlan City re-manifested upon the array disk like a three-dimensional sand painting.

Some sections appeared highly blurred because they hadn’t been fully explored, but this didn’t pose much of an obstacle to Deng Mingjian.

As if playing a game of chess, he pondered deeply before dropping golden anchor points along the longitudes and latitudes of the array disk.

“The fog gradually thins from east to west, converging at the Seventh Street… According to the direction indicated by the array flags, the spiritual meridian should advance along the northwest…”

Following his words, the golden anchor points on the array disk floated into the air, echoing one another from point to point until they connected into lines.

The golden lines interwoven, tangled, and gathered upon the array disk, ultimately intersecting at the exact same node.

Deng Mingjian pressed his fingertip against this node.

His mind cleared instantly, as if the clouds had parted to reveal the mist.

He looked up at Xu Ruiyi and Lin Hebai, who had been waiting for a long time, and said with absolute certainty,

“The array eye is at this spot. It’s solved.”

This turned out to be a nested array consisting of a Tier 5 Top-grade maze formation and a teleportation formation.

It was a good thing he was a Tier 5 array master himself; only thus could he barely manage to crack it within three days.

Of course, this also owed a tiny bit to the implicit pressure of Lin Hebai’s threats.

‘Everyone’s efficiency would naturally boost when discovering someone standing behind them with a dark face, staring intently.’

Lin Hebai looked at the corresponding landmark on the array disk—it was an inconspicuous old temple.

Xu Ruiyi breathed a sigh of relief and immediately said,

“There is likely danger near the array eye. Withdraw the students first. Hebai, destroying the array eye will be left to you.”

Lin Hebai had been waiting for these words long ago.

“Good.”

A short while later, the communication talisman in Lin Ziyue’s hand lit up, and Xu Ruiyi’s voice echoed from it:

[The mission is complete. All teams withdraw from the Inner Subsidiary City.]

Lin Ziyue let out a cough.

A streak of fresh blood flowed from her nose, which she wiped away nonchalantly.

Having spent so much time with the Body School crowd, she had also grown quite rugged.

“Elder Xu sent a message telling us to withdraw.”

Su Qing looked at her scraped face, feeling a strange surge of envy.

By now, it was already the third day since they entered, and also their third day soaking in the toxic fog.

Yet Su Qing still showed absolutely no signs of a rejection reaction.

But this wasn’t a good thing.

‘Body tempering is fundamentally a cycle of destruction and repair. Without destruction, there is no repair; the fact that I am perfectly fine in the toxic fog means I am losing out!’

At the thought, Su Qing’s breathing grew a bit heavier as she strove to inhale a bit more of the toxic fog.

That wasn’t all—she even took out a spatial storage artifact to collect the toxic fog along the way, planning to use it for poison-resistance training when she returned.

This display caused Pei Jingzhi’s eyelids to twitch wildly, and he silently swore to himself in his heart that he would absolutely not provoke her after they returned.

Tian Ning and Tang Yueling merely felt their skin grow a bit dry and itchy.

Both Pei Jingzhi and Lin Ziyue showed faint red spots on their bodies.

Pei Jingzhi had it worst, his lips already turning purple—a preliminary symptom of poisoning.

However, this poison amounted to nothing; with their defensive garments protecting them, it was enough to support them until they withdrew from the Inner Subsidiary City.

On the way out of the city, Su Qing encountered the other teams.

Even the three teams that had lost contact were easily fished out by neighboring teams along the way after the soul beasts were dealt with.

Although some of the students were injured, none were in life-threatening condition.

The most severe case was a Talisman School disciple who had been ambushed by a soul beast and had a massive chunk of flesh gnawed away.

Once he consumed a Muscle-Regenerating Bone-Knitting Pill later, he would be able to nurse himself back to health slowly.

The other students mostly suffered from a layer of skin being burned away by the toxic fog, which amounted to nothing.

In the words of the Body School crowd, once they recovered, they would become a layer stronger anyway.

In their mouths, sustaining injuries was a good thing; as long as you didn’t die, everything was a good thing.

For the first team that Su Qing was in, the person who suffered the heaviest injuries in this operation was Pei Jingzhi—his injury consisted of three broken ribs—while everyone else could be considered entirely unscathed.

Their mood during the withdrawal was far lighter than when they had arrived.

Students from the other teams gathered around to greet Su Qing and the others, their mouths full of words as they chimed in messily, saying,

“That truly was an immense fire; I have never in my life seen such a great fire!”

“The Array School crowd is so annoying with their rambling; fortunately my fist is harder than his skull.”

“Where did you find so much wine?”

“Can we be considered to have accomplished a major feat? Will the City Lord of Yinlan City have to treat us to a meal?”

Everyone was speaking at the same time, making it truly impossible to hear a single sentence clearly.

After a long bout of talking past each other, they shared a glance, fell into a sudden silence, and then continued excitedly,

“The moment we arrived, we burned down the City Lord’s estate!”

“Burned it, burned the whole thing down! Burned it clean, not leaving them a single piece of wood!”

“Formidable!”

“The City Lord’s estate?”

Su Qing finally reacted.

“Who is the City Lord of Yinlan City?”

Tang Yueling’s words were still spitting fire.

“The Yan family!”

In other words, the very first battle the Sword School students fought upon arriving in Yinlan City involved setting fire to the estate of the city’s number one clan, the Yan family—and it was she who had proposed the lighting of it.

And the Yan family was most famous for that Yan Spear technique.

‘Burned or not, the Yan family would still have to thank us.’

Su Qing thought secretly.

A week later, Lin Hebai shattered the array eye, and the thick fog began to recede from that moment on.

That fog truly had been man-made, transported from the Myriad Beast Forest using an array formation.

The person who deployed this formation truly viewed human life as grass, possessing ultimate malice.

As for who exactly had done it, there was currently no way of knowing.

The teachers of the Sword School planned to enter Yinlan City first before discussing a conclusion with the Family Head of the Yan family.

At this point, the Sword School’s Artifact, Pill, and Beast Schools finally arrived at Pinghe City.

Another two weeks passed, and the fog in the Inner Subsidiary City dissipated completely, revealing the thoroughly battered ruins of the sector.

The City Lord of Pinghe City hurriedly sent people to form a search-and-rescue team alongside the Sword School students, entering the Inner Subsidiary City to search for any surviving citizens.

The number of citizens rescued from this man-made disaster amounted to four hundred and fifteen people.

According to the estimates of the City Lord of Pinghe City, the number of people who died in this fog was likely more than ten times the number of survivors.

It was so tragic, yet the deceased hadn’t even been able to leave behind their skeletal remains in the toxic fog.

On a certain morning after the survivors woke up from their state of suspended animation, the snow above the Inner Subsidiary City stopped, and the sun appeared after a long absence.

The sunlight felt increasingly cold in the freezing air, casting a silent blanket over the white snow.

At this time, Su Qing and other Sword School disciples were drawing water by the side of the Pinghe River.

They watched in astonishment as a crowd of ashen-faced people slowly approached from this direction, looking for all the world like a flock of gray shadows drifting over.

Adults led children, and youths supported the elderly, advancing while leaning tightly against one another as if only thus could they hold onto some strength.

When they looked toward their homes from across the wide Pinghe River, tears suddenly welled from the corners of their eyes.

It was unknown who started crying first, but later, an uncontrollable, stifled wailing drifted across the riverbank.

This wailing grew louder and louder, even crossing the wide surface of the Pinghe River to fly into the sky above the empty Inner Subsidiary City, echoing within it for a long time.

This was the agonizing weeping of those who had lost their homeland.

After they finished crying, this crowd wiped away their tears, turned toward the direction where the Sword School was stationed, knelt down, and delivered three kowtows from afar.

To tell the truth, when Su Qing witnessed this scene, her very first reaction was a desire to escape.

The other students of the Sword School also wore expressions of panic, entirely unsure of what to say.

This crowd didn’t dare step forward to disturb these disciples who practiced immortal cultivation.

After lifting their cold foreheads from the snow, they silently climbed back up, slowly rose, and left.

The City Lord of Pinghe City said these people would be relocated to live in other towns.

Ultimately, they had survived.

As long as they survived, even if life was a bit bitter and exhausting, they could slowly build their days back up.

When next spring arrived, they might still return; at that time, the Inner Subsidiary City would once again become their Inner Subsidiary City.

Su Qing frequently thought to herself that she didn’t share much of a difference from them; she had simply been exceptionally lucky.

Therefore, she also couldn’t bear to see people much like herself being pushed down into a mud pit.

She always hoped others could live well.

Consequently, the culprit who had laid this plot and released the toxic fog was truly a source of deep loathing.

Another week passed.

The Yan family sent men to reclaim the Heart-Protecting Mirror, the barrier between the Inner Subsidiary City and the main city was opened, and the Sword School dispatched six cloud-vessels to brave the wind and snow, officially sailing into Yinlan City.

On this day, Yinlan City was hosting a grand celebration.

The entire student body of the Sword School was also included in the invitation to participate in this celebration together.

Therefore, the Sword School elders generously granted a one-day holiday, giving them time to wander around within Yinlan City.

The terrain here was highly different from the Sword School.

The Sword School was mostly mountains but possessed a suitable climate; the terrain here was treacherous and exceptionally cold.

It happened to be snowing today, and most of the pedestrians on the road wore patchwork hides and fur garments, walking in a hurry, making the streets look quite deserted.

From the streets alone, one couldn’t gauge the population of Yinlan City; the weather truly was too cold.

Standing outside for even a short while would leave one freezing until rigid; no one would roam the streets.

‘It was only because I am a cultivator, and an idle person at that, that I am out.’

Furthermore, the architecture was also highly different.

Yinlan City mostly utilized heavy stone blocks and mud mortar to pile up enclosed houses, with small windows that offered mediocre light transmission.

Furthermore, the external walls were frequently covered with wind-dried hides to prevent the freezing wind from seeping through.

The roofs were built with a steeper incline to prevent excessive snow accumulation from collapsing the roof beams.

The road surfaces were mostly rough stone pavements or even snow-tracks; walking upon them made one feel a chill rising from the soles of their feet.

Tang Yueling utterly detested the climate here, hiding in her room and refusing to come out.

In Su Qing’s view, she needed to come out to vent her fiery agitation.

The Twelve Million had burned their only bedding, along with the curtains and tables of the room, and had even nearly burned the cloud-vessel once.

If the cloud-vessel truly ended up burned down, Su Qing didn’t dare imagine how much money the Sect Leader would demand from them.

The Twelve Million would likely escalate into a hundred million, and she would have to work as a s*ave for the Sect Leader for the rest of her life; she could not allow such a desperate moment to happen.

Tian Ning was busy practicing her sword, harboring little interest in coming out to play.

Therefore, Su Qing simply came out to wander alone, genuinely curious about the scenery here.

Following the street, she walked into a shop that sold injury medicines, casually picking out some commonly used drugs.

When checking out, she asked with feigned nonchalance,

– Is there a celebration being held today?

– Indeed, there is.

The pharmacy assistant wore a mouse-fur jacket, his knuckles turning red from the cold, yet he broke into a grin at the mention of this.

– There’s a street procession at twilight, and later in the evening, there’s a bonfire over by the square. Meat and wine are provided; guests can go join in the fun.

Su Qing asked,

– Isn’t the beast tide very urgent? How is there time to host a celebration?

– That’s true,

The assistant said.

– But no matter how urgent it is, it comes in waves; there’s no logic in battling twenty-four hours a day without a pause. Besides, according to the insider news I got—

He drew out his voice, his hands wrapping the medicine even coming to a halt as he puffed out his chest with pride.

– Our City Lord settled a big fellow, leaving the beast race severely depleted in vitality. Shouldn’t this be celebrated thoroughly?

When Su Qing pressed for details, he refused to speak further, only saying she would see for herself when the time came.

Sure enough, once afternoon arrived, the streets began to be decorated.

Almost every household had colorful ribbons tied to their doorheads and various colored banners strung up.

These banners were actually long hemp ropes tied with many colorful scraps of fabric; when they fluttered in the freezing wind, they looked just like unfurled banners.

Wealthier families even brought out various fur-woven tapestries to cover their doors.

With these decorations, Su Qing soon witnessed these cold stone houses rapidly transformed into something rich in color and fluffy.

As twilight neared, the streets began to be lit with hide lanterns and wall-mounted lights.

The hide lanterns were puffed up by the heat of the candle flames, becoming round and exceptionally bright.

Gazing out, the entire street—and indeed all of Yinlan City—was being lit up at a rapid pace.

The orange-red firelight illuminated the cold snow surfaces, actually feeling a few notches warmer than the sun.

At this time, the snow in the sky also stopped, and a long band of rosy dawn appeared at the boundary of the distant dark clouds.

A pinkish-blue dawn light hung right beneath the clouds.

The air was very cold; the snow, clouds, and dawn light mirrored one another, looking both bright and gentle.

Even the deep, pitch-black Myriad Beast Forest in the distance was outlined with a faint golden luster.

Su Qing watched for a while, estimating in her heart that it was about time for the street procession.

She thought of heading toward the main thoroughfare, where an army would ride horses through the street at twilight.

But right at this moment, several heavy drumbeats suddenly echoed from a distance.

These drumbeats felt as if they were striking right against Su Qing’s eardrums, nearly scaring her into jumping up.

Following the drumbeats came the crisp, skipping notes of flutes and the coarse sounds of xiao flutes.

After that came the clanging of bronze drums, striking one beat after another, continuously rising into the air, each strike more forceful than the last.

Drum beats and zither strings joined in as well, resembling the prelude to some massive event.

Su Qing realized this modification seemed to be the music of the celebration.

Very quickly, people surged out of the previously deserted streets, every face full of joy.

“The music is playing; it’s about to start!”

“Hurry out, hurry, hurry! Go grab a good spot on the street!”

“It’s very cold outside; remember to wear that new fur coat out!”

‘How were there so many people?’

Clearly, Su Qing had been lamenting how deserted the streets were during the day; where on earth had all these people emerged from?

The crowd that surged out soon packed the streets tight.

If one looked down from above, it was impossible to distinguish who was who; one could only see crowns of heads decorated with various colored feathers.

This human tide carried Su Qing along, leaving her feeling a bit lightheaded as they surged toward the main thoroughfare together.

When she was swept by the crowd onto both sides of the main thoroughfare, she found that the grand avenues on both sides of Yinlan City were packed with people.

Regardless of men, women, young, or old, they all wore hats decorated with feathers or fur.

The colors were exceptionally vibrant, looking highly prominent against the snow.

Some even had colored paint drawing patterns on their faces, looking both sacred and lively.

The heads surged so densely that the ground couldn’t be seen.

The crowd was like the interior of a washing machine drum, continuously pushing and squeezing.

The clamorous voices wove into a wave of sound, yet they still couldn’t drown out the increasingly intense and soaring music.

Roadside every two meters stood a soldier clad in iron armor and wearing a felt hat, mostly holding a long spear in one hand.

There were also militia holding oil torches standing on both sides, watching those half-grown rascal kids carefully, lest they cause a ruckus and rush forward to block the carriages or horses during the procession.

Furthermore, Su Qing noticed many wine barrels along the roadside, with wooden ladles floating above the red wine liquid, though she didn’t know what they were used for.

At this time, she didn’t feel cold either; people were squeezing tight, and Su Qing sensed the body heat and breath of many individuals.

She heard the laughter of children, the crying of infants, the expectant chatter of young girls discussing the celebration, and the pride of elders discussing the City Lord’s achievements.

Su Qing realized that the people of this city must deeply revere and love their City Lord.

Once the joys of the music had played for three rounds, the sound of horse hooves suddenly erupted from the end of the road.

It was as loud as thunder, like strings of meteors crashing onto the ground, shaking the people on the street until they all turned toward the source of the sound simultaneously.

Su Qing also craned her neck, standing on her tiptoes to strain her eyes.

‘When height was needed, one truly regretted having too little.’

She utilized a tiny bit of skill, using her spiritual energy to let herself float ten centimeters above the ground, but very quickly, she was pushed down by the surging crowd and had to obediently stand on her tiptoes to watch.

“It’s the City Lord!”

“The City Lord is here!”

The music grew increasingly passionate, and the drumbeats became more urgent, yet they couldn’t cover the sound of horse hooves in the slightest.

At the end of everyone’s admiring gazes was a figure riding a warhorse.

The warhorse was exceptionally majestic, its fur black and glossy like ink, yet its four hooves stepped on snow.

For such a fine horse to lead the way ahead, it could easily overshadow its master.

It was a pity, however, that the person it carried was the City Lord of Yinlan City: Yan Jin.

Thus, it was destined not to have such an opportunity to show off.

Yan Jin sat upon the warhorse in a nearly relaxed posture, one hand loosely grasping the reins.

She was tall, standing at about one hundred and eighty or ninety centimeters.

Semi-armored, the silver-black armor plates covered her long, nimble frame, fitting as tightly as if they were dense scales naturally grown by a dragon, outlining her firm, fluid muscles with terrifying deterrence.

Her black hair was braided with gold beads and gemstones into many fine, long plaits that draped behind her.

The outer corners of her eyes were outlined with a certain red paint into patterns, making her brow and eyes look increasingly beautiful and deep.

This was a warrior of threatening majesty.

Yet even though her bearing was relaxed, no one could ignore her, because her other hand grasped the Yan Spear, and upon the spearhead was a massive, hideous beast-head.

The expression on the beast’s face was exceptionally terrifying, looking for all the world as if it had died with its eyes open.

But before Yan Jin, it was destined only to rest in peace obediently—otherwise, she wouldn’t mind killing it a second time.

Su Qing recognized at a single glance that, judging solely by the residual aura, this fierce beast likely possessed at least a Nascent Soul-tier cultivation!

The citizens in the city called out her name in unison, countless voices shouting the name of this one person simultaneously:

“Yan Jin! Yan Jin! Yan Jin!”

The young general riding a white horse beside her appeared somewhat disgruntled, puffing his cheeks and remaining silent.

Another general who looked identical to him and rode an identical white horse bumped into him, signaling him to show a hint of a smile.

Yan Jin guided her horse, advancing lightheartedly toward the front, leading the long Yan family army—which was packed with the aura of iron and blood—into the city, entering the cheers of the crowd.

She looked around and suddenly laughed,

“Splash the wine.”

Receiving her permission, the spectating crowd squeezed toward the wine barrels by the roadside, competing to scoop up the red, transparent wine liquid and splash it toward the Yan family army within the crowd.

The wine liquid lanced through the air, blooming into watery flowers and splattering onto the generals’ bodies—this was a blessing ritual unique to Yinlan City.

Yan Jin, leading the way, was the prime target, completely drenched by the wine liquid within a few breaths.

She minded it not at all, tossing her wet hair backward, flinging out a few drops of crimson wine that trickled down her jawline.

She laughed loudly,

“Follow me to the celebration! We shall drink wine and eat meat!”