“Eighth disciple of the Martial Tower Lord?” Feng Feiyun astonishingly stared at this bronze-colored muscular youth standing before him. [1. There seems to be a weird skip here even in the master raw. The author used all of his power to write Hongyan’s letter last chapter. The context is Feng Feiyun getting ready to leave the tower and meeting Wang Meng again. Read 187 if you don’t remember Wang Meng.]
“Well, it is because I am young with great cultivation and awesome talents!” This big fellow had a thick beard and was at least two meters tall with arms as thick as a water bucket. However, he was only thirteen years old.
Because of his freakish constitution, Zhang Badao had taken him in to be his eighth disciple.
This big fellow was Wang Meng, a bandit that came to the tower together with Feng Feiyun. Feng Feiyun eventually accepted the fact that he was extremely young. The males from the Jiang Clan were indeed as tough as bulls.
“Senior Uncle, let’s go together!” Wang Meng grinned. His thick lips looked like two sausages hanging on his face.
“Hehe, you should go ahead first!” Feng Feiyun was the Divine King’s disciple, the junior brother of the Martial Tower Lord, so he was naturally Wang Meng’s Senior Uncle.
“Senior Uncle, you should go first!”
“You first!”
“After you, Senior Uncle!”
***
“Fine then! I’ll go first!” Feng Feiyun got tired of this, so he jumped onto a bull around five meters tall. While holding the iron reins, he began his journey southward.
Wang Meng jumped on another bull and followed right behind him.
These two bulls resembled gigantic monsters. Their hard and black horns looked just like dragon fangs. Their legs were as big as pillars while their black fur was a foot long. There were scales on their body as well that reflected a black shimmer.
The two guys were dressed in white scholarly robes with white feathered bands on their heads and black belts on their waists. This was the uniform unique to disciples from the Wanxiang Pagoda. However, their temperaments were completely different.
Feng Feiyun was riding ahead. His body had grown considerably compared to the last several months. He looked less childlike and became more chic and charming.
Wang Meng, on the other hand, grew even bigger. He had a sky piercer as thick as a rice bowl and weighed 18,000 pounds. This was a weapon given to him by Zhang Badao. Even though its power was not as heaven-defying as a spirit treasure, its destructive power was still abnormal. Ordinary people wouldn’t be able to withstand a single blow.
The upcoming changes to the rankings of the pagoda made all the disciples quite excited. They crazily ran to the southern prefecture. Feng Feiyun and Wang Meng naturally joined this group.
As long as they killed enough evil corpses to get more points, they could exchange for better treasures and show off their worth on the Pagoda’s Hundreds List. It was possible to become famous in just one battle; no one could withstand this temptation of fame and fortune.
“In the twenty-eight counties down there, nine of them have completely fallen into the hands of the Evil Woman with corpses everywhere. They have become a land of evil. Twelve have also begun to be devoured by this army, but the local cultivators are still putting up resistance. Alas, they suffered continuous defeats by the great army. A total loss was only a matter of time.
“Only seven remain completely untouched by this army. Only super ancient powers were able to keep this army at bay.
“Well, when the Evil Woman personally takes action, even these ancient powers would be destroyed in an instant.
No one could refute this last statement.
After one day, Feng Feiyun and Wang Meng had entered an old city in the Brilliance County. This was along the path from the pagoda to the southern prefecture.
Many cultivators ran away and gathered in this city. Many sects were coming to seek shelter in the pagoda as well. They felt that by staying close to the pagoda, they could escape the massacre of the corpse army.
Because of this, the city was completely crowded with carriages and people everywhere. It seemed to be a heavenly grotto, completely free from the smoke of war.
Many young disciples of the pagoda had arrived. Their presence caused quite a commotion in the city.
The young talents passed by in a hurry. Some hired slaves and servants and bought great quantities of salve and medicines. They didn’t stop for more than four hours before leaving right away.
Of course, some were not in a hurry and decided to rest for the night. They searched for the most famous brothels in the city in order to have some romance. After one night of joy, they would finally embark on their journey.
“Yesterday, I saw a top genius from the pagoda bringing along more than two hundred slaves and ten golden chariots outside of the city. They were quite fast with an all-encompassing momentum. I think they might be ten thousand miles away now.”
“Same. I saw a grand achievement God Base hero with a violent aura last night. He had a fling with the city’s prettiest, Miss Yanhong, and left in the morning with his Silver Divine Lion for the south.”
The great deployment of the Wanxiang Pagoda shocked every cultivator. All of them were speculating what was happening until a message came at noon.
“The Hundreds List is changing, 100,000 talents have left their closed cultivation.”
“The pagoda is finally taking action. These prodigies are probably going to the twelve counties that are still struggling. That will be their battlefields.”
“I think so too. After all, who would dare to go to the nine fallen counties? There are too many corpses there, no one can survive in those places.”
“I heard several old Heaven’s Mandate cultivators have been killed in the nine counties. From then on, no one else dared to take a single step inside.”
***
Feng Feiyun had received a lot of information in this city about the recent events at the Grand Southern Prefecture.
Nine large counties had fallen completely. They were now considered hell dens in the words of cultivators. Intruding humans would die without a grave in those places.
The talents from the pagoda did want to hunt some corpses. However, they didn’t dare to enter the nine counties and rushed for the other twelve instead.
Wang Meng spoke: “Senior Uncle, the danger level of the twelve counties varies. Some have just been attacked, so they aren’t as dangerous. A few of them have been plunged into desperate straits, so even Heaven’s Mandate cultivators don’t want to go there.”
The more dangerous locations had more corpses which, in turn, meant more corpse palaces. However, the risk of being surrounded and killed was higher as well.
The relatively safe locations certainly had fewer corpses. Moreover, the younger corpses weren’t as strong as the older ones. The disadvantage here was that their points would be less as well.
“Information for sale, information for sale. A map with a complete analysis of the situation at the frontlines, power divisions of the evil corpses, the destinations of the remaining immortal gates, an order of the danger level of the twelve counties. Everything is here at the right price! Come, come, don’t miss it! Hi, pretty lady, do you want a copy? Only 100,000 gold coins, what great value!”
Feng Feiyun looked at the peddler and noticed that this youth’s face was darker than the bottom of a kettle. He was carrying a large basket that contained a thick pile of paper made from sheepskin. There must be around a hundred copies.
At this moment, this dark youth was stopping two pretty girls dressed in white. He enthusiastically promoted his merchandise while spraying spit everywhere.
“Impossible, there is no way. The twelve counties are too dangerous right now, not to mention being extremely broad. No one can go through it even with three lifetimes, so how can anyone draw a map with so much information in such a short period of time?”
“This is definitely a swindler. This black-faced youth has an even darker heart. Selling his deceptive map for 100,000 gold coins? I can’t believe he has the nerves to try this.”
“There are a lot of crooks nowadays and even more fools… Just this morning, he sold more than twenty of them, the most expensive being 800,000 gold coins while the cheapest being 300 gold coins! What is this difference in price?!”
“It is too easy for him to make money.” Every time this youth sold a map, he would change locations right away. Since morning until noon, he had made two million gold coins, but the key here was that they were fake maps. Many cultivators were quite jealous of him.
“100,000 gold coins is too expensive, how about five?” One of the girls with crystal-clear eyes waved her five fingers before him while blinking cutely.
The youth said: “Darling, you are being too cruel. I can’t sell this for five coins! I’ll be honest, these maps were made by a supreme character. I spent 90,000 gold coins to buy it from him, so as you can see, the profit margin just isn’t there. However, because you grew up to be so pretty and lovely, I’ll slash the price for you — 95,000 gold coins.”
“But I only have five coins!” The young girl took out five shining coins and showed it in her palm.
“It’s too much of a loss! Please, take it easy on me. I can’t sell it for five coins! Fine! Fine! Because you two are from the Wanxiang Pagoda and we are pretty much classmates, I will sell it to you at the cost of 90,000 gold coins.” The youth frustratedly pounded his chest while biting his teeth as if this price was hurting him.
He seemed to be on the verge of vomiting blood!
“We only have five gold coins from my sister selling medicinal herbs. We wanted to buy two dresses with it, but now, we’ll give it all to you.” The girl’s eyes were as pretty as pearls. She was exceptionally charming with her long, slightly quivering eyelashes, revealing her innocence.
The youth looked at these two stunning girls. They wore very simple and cheap dresses — definitely not the rich type. Nevertheless, they were still prettier than daughters from the big clans.
He could definitely sell these maps for a higher price to rich young masters. On the other hand, he was disgusted with tricking innocent girls, so he had to force himself to stop making a fortune.
‘Fuck, damn my bad luck this time! Looks like I found two poor girls!’
“All right! Five coins then! Shit, this will be the lowest deal today. Pretty girl, you mustn’t tell anyone about this price! This is pretty much a gift to you now.” The youth threw the sheepskin map to the girl and took her five gold coins before slipping into the crowd to find a new place for business.
It was obvious that this map wasn’t worth five gold coins or else he wouldn’t have sold it.