Volume 4, Chapter 114 – The Messenger

At the same time, high above the route from Maozhou to the Qi lands, the sky had already turned gloomy and dim.

No one noticed the figures of Li Sheng and Wang Ran speeding through the air, except for two even higher shadows pressing down above their heads.

“Making people run around this late at night…”

He Xian sighed as he flew.

“Weren’t you the one who wanted to go around and see things everywhere?” Zhu Canghai glanced at him. “Usually the Venerable Master won’t let you out. Now she has, so what are you complaining about?”

“But I read in books that the order of the main world is very stable, day and night alike.” He Xian spoke as though his reasoning were perfectly sound. “People work and rest according to the rising and setting of the sun and moon. What kind of logic is it to keep toiling after nightfall?”

Zhu Canghai stared at him, seriously suspecting that all that reading had ruined He Xian’s brain.

He, He Xian, and that black-skinned bald donkey had only just arrived in the main world. They were still in that stage where everything felt new.

He couldn’t have been happier to be sent out so he could see more of the main world’s scenery: the stable earth, rivers and waterfalls that would never suddenly reverse themselves, clouds that would not abruptly split open into a blood-filled maw and bite down, forests that would not yank up their roots and migrate elsewhere… all of this was novel to them.

So what in the world was this idiot He Xian fretting about?

That once night fell, they had to rest?

Even ordinary sapient beings didn’t always obey that sort of thing. Why were Venerables like them even thinking about it?

After arguing for a while, Zhu Canghai finally worked it out. He Xian believed that “resting after nightfall” belonged to the will of the main order, and that if one violated it, heavenly punishment might descend.

Put that way, it really did…

Zhu Canghai frowned and suddenly felt uncertain too.

They had been in the main world for half a day already. They had examined and experienced many things, but the one thing they had not sensed was the “will of the main order” they had expected.

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That was very different from the rumors.

Back when they had been drifting in Qingyun Heaven, he, He Xian, and Shen Quan had discussed this sort of topic before. At the time, they had all assumed that the main world must contain an enormous godpool, and that this godpool was maintained and controlled by the “will of the main order.”

If that were true, then many of the rules of the main order would have to be obeyed, because they would all be manifestations of that immense godpool, and violating them would carry genuinely fatal risks.

But now it seemed entirely different.

As the two of them discussed this, they floated high in the air and tailed their targets, feeling the moist night breeze unique to summer brush across their faces. Their minds relaxed of their own accord, and a sense of peace and calm settled over them.

Suddenly, He Xian said, “So this is what it feels like…”

Zhu Canghai looked at him again, only to see him raise a sleeve and wipe at his face, mumbling from behind it, “The feeling of not needing to worry about being driven out…”

This time Zhu Canghai did not make fun of him, because he himself felt it just as deeply.

To cultivate Dao-Void Methods all the way to the Immortal Venerable realm meant that, no matter what, one counted as an exalted being among both humans and demons. Logically, the Immortal Venerables only needed to hold their own territories. Each of them could simply gather sapient beings around themselves, establish an immortal dynasty, and live out three or four hundred years like immortals.

But they couldn’t.

Because all sorts of calamities and troubles would come to harass them.

The coveting of their peers.

The interference of Void Tribulations.

Their own lifespans.

Even if they had achieved success early, and by luck found an unclaimed fragment-plane, they still had to worry about how much life that place had left, and whether the whole plane might collapse just a few years after they established a dojo there.

There were simply too many troubles. It was those very troubles that prevented the Venerable ranks from ever living in peace, even forcing them to cluster together against every sort of risk.

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But the main world?

They had only returned here for half a day, and they immediately found that its order was terrifyingly more stable than the Void Realm’s.

There was no interference.

No strange phenomena either.

All the atmospheric disorders caused recently by the approach of the Void Tribulation amounted to nothing in their eyes, because the most basic order was still there. It was so steady, so reliable. The pull of gravity while they flew was like an anchor mooring a ship, giving one a sense of reassurance for no reason at all.

So at last, they could somewhat understand why everyone fought and killed for the privilege of remaining in the main world.

Perhaps those great figures had some other designs.

But for people like them…

This degree of “stability” was all they sought.

“Stop overthinking it,” Zhu Canghai said.

“Those two seem to have found something.”

“Come on. Let’s follow and take a look.”

Without realizing it, Li Sheng and Wang Ran’s route had already shifted away from the official road.

They were no longer flying along the main course of the road, but had angled off, accelerated northward for a stretch, and dropped into a mountain valley.

“There are traces of fighting here.”

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Li Sheng stared at the sword marks left on the rocky wall.

“There’s blood here.”

Wang Ran crouched down and picked up a small stone stained with blood.

This was already territory close to Zhennan Circuit. They knew that Shenming Sword Dao often dispatched disciples on field assignments, coordinating with dojo forces and prefectural troops to clear out scattered demon beasts in the surrounding mountains and forests. So this sort of scene was anything but normal.

“This way.”

Abbess Li Sheng had always been decisive. She judged that it would not take long to follow the traces, so she immediately sped off along them. In less than a minute, she found an extremely narrow cave mouth, and there at the entrance she saw a corpse.

The corpse was a rat demon. Judging from the condition of the body, it had been dead for over two hours. It wore close-fitting clothing suited for movement, though much of it had burst apart because death had revealed its true form.

A broken sword lay nearby as well. When Wang Ran arrived, he said nothing, only joined Li Sheng in using his sword to cut open the obstructed cave mouth. Inside, they discovered a young man on the verge of death.

The young man was covered in mud and blood. It was obvious at a glance that he had been hunted down and trapped inside the cave with no way out.

“He killed the pursuer instead,” Abbess Li Sheng concluded after examining the traces at the scene.

Wang Ran took out a small medicine bottle, fed the young man a pill, then gave him a little water, trying to see whether he could be awakened.

After a few minutes, the young man slowly came to.

Because of the darkness, he could not see their faces at all. After a brief daze, his instinctive aggression flared up, and he grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it at Wang Ran.

“Easy there, young man.”

Wang Ran casually swept the dirt aside.

“We are not bad people.”

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Perhaps realizing that there was nothing about him worth concocting some elaborate deception over, the young man swiftly calmed down and struggled to pull a letter from his robes.

“They’ve… locked down communications…”

“It has to be delivered to… Shenming Sword… Dao…”

Then his head lolled to one side, and in a posture so classic it appeared constantly in television dramas, he breathed his last.

“This is the seal of the State Chancery.”

Li Sheng searched the items on his body and found a short sword, some money, and aside from that, a green-white jade seal.

“He was from the State Chancery.”

“It seems Fang Xiaochun’s situation is even worse than we thought.”

“When we set out, we hadn’t heard that there were any problems with communications.” Wang Ran frowned deeply as well. “Then it can only have been done specifically for this man.”

At that thought, both of them realized that whatever was written in the letter had to be extremely important, because not just any message would warrant an entire province paying such a price to block it.

The Dao-Void Martial Tournament had not even produced results yet. It had not even begun. And some people were already unable to sit still?

“You take the letter to Dao Master Bai.”

After thinking for a moment, Wang Ran turned to Li Sheng.

“Qiyun Circuit is my home ground.”

“I’ll go see what’s happening first.”