The Journey of Immortal Cultivation
Chapter 103 - 81: Moon Essence (10 consecutive updates upon release 9)

Chapter 103: Chapter 81: Moon Essence (10 consecutive updates upon release 9)

"When have you not tried to shirk your duties?" She had actually picked up this term from him.

"Hehe, bet you can’t guess right."

He raised one of his long eyebrows high, looking quite stylish. Too bad she was too engrossed in her strenuous training to see: "If I guess right, then what will you do?"

"Whatever, you won’t guess right!"

"How hard could it be? You, girl, always get up at the crack of dawn for a profit." His first sentence hit the nail on the head. She turned to look at him and found he was also looking at her, the radiant light in his golden eyes too dazzling to face, "The only things that could drive you to work so hard are either your life or silver. Right now, your life is not in danger, so it must be for Silver Tael. Am I right?"

She quickly turned her head away: "No!"

"Girl, remember a gentleman’s word is his bond..."

"I’m a woman. What’s a ’gentleman’, how much does he weigh, can he be eaten?"

As they were bickering, a situation arose outside.

Along the way, everyone gradually relaxed because the next inn was approaching. For the convenience of traveling merchants, many states and counties would establish inns along the merchant routes for merchants to rest and resupply. Such inns could provide rooms with beds, clean water, piping hot food, and fodder for the animals. Some inns near cities would even offer certain special services for male customers. The men of the merchant team, having battled through wind and rain, exhausted themselves during the day, and often couldn’t even find a decent bed at night, were utterly fatigued and needed these services to soothe their bodies and minds, spending Silver Coin as easily as water.

Therefore, as the Cloud Tiger Trading Team neared the inn, their spirits lifted. He Xiaojiu even began to introduce the new team members to the inn’s delicious wild boar meat.

However, as they approached, the laughter subsided. Where the inn should have been, there was only a pile of rubble and wisps of black smoke rising. Just 15 minutes ago, that smoke had been mistaken for a sign that the inn’s kitchen was busy.

"Spread out and check the site for any survivors," commanded Deng Hao with a grave expression, "and pay attention to your own safety."

After a few dozen seconds, the clerks came back, all shaking their heads with somber faces. The place was only so big and had been smashed to a pile of waste wood; a couple of rounds and the survey was done.

There may have been two small buildings here originally, two or three stories high, but now they were thoroughly destroyed, almost not a complete staircase left, only bloodstains among the broken walls and tiles, no sign of life.

Where were the people? The scene made everyone wonder if the people had been abducted or eaten?

The "Peace Pillar" at the courtyard of the inn had been snapped in two, and whatever was placed on it was gone without a trace. Next to it, the sandy ground bore chaotic marks that looked like the footprints of some enormous beast’s claws.

"This demon even broke the Peace Pillar!" Everyone gasped in shock, exchanged fearful looks, and saw their own fears mirrored in each other’s eyes.

Immortal Sects in charge of the area would leave a token at the inns to ensure their safety and to intimidate nearby demons. These tokens usually carried the might and will of great powers from the Immortal Sect, and demons within a dozen miles wouldn’t dare to approach. Nearly every inn would erect a beautifully carved stone pillar at its entrance, on which a small shrine called a "Peace Pillar" would be placed to house the token.

Without this token, or if the token wasn’t powerful enough to deter nearby demons, the inn would not stand, merchants would not come, and the merchant route might eventually be abandoned. Therefore, no Immortal Sect would tolerate such an incident. In time, in territories controlled by demons, even the leading great demons adopted this method, placing their own tokens at inns. Due to the strict hierarchical structure among demons, their method even proved to be more effective than that of the Immortal Sects.

The Cloud Tiger Trading Team had not seen an inn attacked by demons in many years, although there were some dim-witted and dull-minded creatures among the demons. Including You State, five states were under the jurisdiction of the Clearing Void Sect. This Immortal Sect was not as powerful as the Chaoyun Sect but was still very strict in managing its affiliated prefectures. Having encountered the Belly Drumming Frog yesterday and now seeing the inn attacked, linking the two incidents suggested only one thing: there was an anomaly happening recently.

Deng Hao’s face was as still as water as he ordered the merchant team to continue on their way. With no significant losses along the road and their remaining supplies, they had more than enough to make it to Rock City.