“Later, I indirectly asked some acquaintances and found out that this news was actually true…”
After that, it was what Hua Jian already knew. Hua Xinjie wanted to take the others and run away, but only Xia Hui’s mother believed Hua Xinjie.
In the end, Xia Hui’s mother escaped, but Hua Xinjie did not.
“To be honest, when Hua Xinjie volunteered to be Hua Jian’s mother back then, she probably had the intention of sacrificing herself to feed the demon.”
“Giving birth to such a lovely and sensible child, I am quite content.” At this point, Hua Xinjie’s voice finally gained a hint of lightness.
It was evident that she was extremely satisfied with this daughter, Hua Jian.
Although due to the influence of Wanhuagu, Hua Jian had some bad habits, overall she was still a good child.
Which mother wouldn’t like such a child?
“Hehe.” Hua Jian laughed proudly twice. A phenomenal good daughter like her was hard to find even with a lantern.
It’s a pity that now that she has a mother, she can’t use the bridge anymore. She doesn’t want to treat her mother as a consumable.
But it doesn’t matter now. She no longer needs to use those tactics. Against enemies of the same rank, she could beat them even with one hand tied behind her back.
Who even uses the bridge these days? It’s better to just drive a tank.
“Heave-ho!” With a grunt, she sat up and said confidently to Hua Xinjie, “My goal, Hua Jian, is to become famous throughout the world! I’ll start my grand ambitions from the Northern Border!”
Regarding Hua Jian’s daily crazy behavior, Hua Xinjie showed great tolerance. It’s good for a child to be lively, right?
Hua Jian’s heroic ambition lasted for one day, and it was shattered after she left the Wanhuagu Secret Realm with the team.
When the Northern Border’s cold wind slapped against her face with a swoosh, she finally understood why her mother had joined Wanhuagu.
In Wanhuagu, it’s spring-like all year round. Compared to the freezing environment outside, it’s so much better.
The Northern Border’s cold wind is not ordinary. It’s more like a wide-area Spirit Technique with an immense coverage. This thing isn’t physical damage, but magical damage.
Even cultivators need to use their Spiritual Power to resist the wind’s invasion.
If they run out of Spiritual Power, unless they can find a place to warm up before freezing to death, there’s only one outcome: being frozen into a warning sign in the snow.
As for the clothes Hua Jian was wearing now, they could only be described as thin.
Inside Wanhuagu, she felt the temperature was just right in those clothes, but once outside, the temperature difference almost made her think she was going to freeze to death.
Almost instantly, she made her Spiritual Garment, which originally only protected her body area, cover her entire body, and added an extra layer of protection inside the garment using Spiritual Power.
“Is the Northern Border really this cold…?”
Feeling her body warm up again, Hua Jian breathed a sigh of relief and turned to look at the unfamiliar Spirit Emperor beside her.
Compared to Huaxinhu and Huaxinyuan, this Spirit Emperor was more mature and more… characteristic of Wanhuagu.
Her clothes were more revealing than the other two she had met, and her body odor was more mixed and unpleasant.
Perhaps due to years of using Wanhuagu’s secret techniques, Hua Jian greatly disliked this person’s smell.
It gave her a disgusting feeling of a mix of dirty things.
But there was no way she could show her disgust on her face, so she had to endure the aversion and put on a smile.
From this, it could be seen that Huaxinhu had not lied. Among the many cultivators of Wanhuagu, this fox spirit was truly the innocent type.
As for Huaxinhu’s claim of having a good temper, Hua Jian hadn’t really felt it.
She only felt that this person seemed to be ignoring her intentionally or unintentionally, as if she and her two little attendants were air.
Not only her, but the others in the team were in a similar situation.
However, unlike the Spirit Emperor, those with lower cultivation, the Spirit Kings and Spirit Masters, seemed to want to get close to Hua Jian but were too afraid to approach.
As for why they were afraid, who knows? Perhaps it was because of the rumors circulating in Wanhuagu, or maybe it was due to the Spirit Emperor’s secret instructions.
In any case, it seemed like no one cared about Hua Jian here.
Only when she asked this question did the Spirit Emperor slightly glance sideways and say a cliché in a flat tone.
“It’s always been like this.”
After that, there was no follow-up. The group thus headed straight to their destination in silence. The atmosphere along the way was downright eerie.
At this time, the Northern Border was still in winter. Although she didn’t know why a world that wasn’t a planet had changes in day and night length, the situation was as it was.
The Northern Border’s winter was like the winter in Hua Jian’s previous world; the daytime would become very short.
Once night fell, the wilderness of the Northern Border would have almost no human presence, becoming the domain of Snow Spirit Beasts.
Only these creatures adapted to the extreme cold could live here. Cultivators could too, but unless necessary, they had no need to take the risk.
Once a cultivator’s power reached the Spirit King rank, the Northern Border’s cold wind wouldn’t affect them much.
As long as they weren’t severely injured and unable to use Spiritual Power, a Spirit King could maintain body temperature without much trouble.
But in this Wanhuagu team, there were still a majority of Spirit Master-rank cultivators.
The time they could endure the cold wind was much shorter. If something went wrong, they could really freeze to death on the snowy plains.
These low-level Spirit Master cultivators couldn’t help much in battle, but they could do some odd jobs.
Wanhuagu didn’t have that many Spirit Emperors and Spirit Kings to waste.
The disaster back then had almost crippled half of Wanhuagu’s core combat strength.
Nowadays, Wanhuagu could only produce a few Spirit Emperors and Spirit Kings.
As for who should take the blame… Well, this time Hua Jian really couldn’t shift the blame.
All those dead core combatants had ended up in her stomach, helping her grow her intelligence.
“There is a city half an hour ahead. It contains one of our strongholds. Everyone, speed up and head there.” The Spirit Emperor finally spoke a second sentence.
Because of the Spirit Masters in the team, they certainly couldn’t brave the snow and ice of the Northern Border night and keep moving.
Whenever night fell, they had to go to a nearby city to rest temporarily and set out again when daytime came.
Much like other cultivators active in the Northern Border.
The difference was probably that Wanhuagu had strongholds in almost all cities of the Northern Border, allowing this team to rest freely.
Even more so because the city they were currently heading to was near the exit of the Wanhuagu Secret Realm, its stronghold was one of the best built.
“Cloud Smoke City. I’ve been there a few times. It’s considered a big city in the Northern Border. The city lord and several forces in the city have secret connections with us.”
Hua Jian, who had already retreated back to her two little followers, heard Hua Xinrui giving her this information.
Hua Xinrui knew very well that Hua Jian hadn’t left the valley even once in all these years and had no idea about the situation in the Northern Border, so she took the initiative to introduce their destination to Hua Jian.
She couldn’t wait for the Lady Saintess to ask, as that would make the Lady Saintess lose face.
‘I see…’ Thinking about it, it wasn’t hard to understand. Cloud Smoke City was so close to Wanhuagu; wouldn’t Wanhuagu exert its influence there?
Not to mention whether it was secretly controlled; Hua Jian felt that the entire city, from top to bottom, was full of Wanhuagu people. Only they themselves might not know.
While listening to Hua Xinrui’s introduction to Cloud Smoke City, Hua Jian nodded slightly. Thus, half an hour passed in the blink of an eye.
Finally, Cloud Smoke City appeared at the other end of the horizon.
What first caught Hua Jian’s eye was a colorful aurora covering about half the sky.
That ever-changing yet exceptionally conspicuous cluster of light seemed to remind passersby that this place had a resting spot. Just like a shop sign…
As the distance gradually shortened, the city’s appearance gradually unfolded before Hua Jian’s eyes.
Compared to the big cities of the Central Continent, this city was indeed much smaller, but it wasn’t very small either. It was even similar to the city where Hua Jian had met Linglong.
After all, her “hometown” had developed relying on the Linglong Pavilion, so it wasn’t small!
Looking down from the sky, the city was filled with colorful pavilions of various sizes, radiant under the illumination of the aurora.
Even more magical, some areas inside the city and outside the city walls were covered in pure white clouds and mist.
People walking within seemed like immortals living in the Celestial Realm.
‘No wonder this place is called Cloud Smoke City. So that’s the reason…’ Hua Jian praised quietly in her heart.
As they got closer to Cloud Smoke City, Hua Jian thought the leading Spirit Emperor would slow down to prepare for inspection by the city guard, but unexpectedly, the other didn’t slow down at all and flew straight toward Cloud Smoke City.
Unlike the cities of the Central Continent, the cities of the Northern Border kept their City Protection Array continuously active to resist the cold wind.
Logically, this Spirit Emperor would crash headfirst into the array.
But it wasn’t the case. She directly passed through the array without any hindrance.
Next, the other Wanhuagu cultivators also passed through the array one by one, the same as her.
Hua Jian blinked. She also tried it like the Spirit Emperor and found that as soon as she touched the array, it was as if something scanned her from top to bottom.
Then the barrier in front of her became passable.
And not far from where they crossed the array, a group of cultivators was lining up at the city gate to be inspected by the Cloud Smoke City guard.
Their entry into Cloud Smoke City was not as simple as Hua Jian’s group.
“Wanhuagu’s control over this place is far stronger than it appears on the surface.”
Even the City Protection Array opened its doors to Wanhuagu cultivators.
Was there any need to say more about the other things in the city?
The City Protection Array is a city’s foundation.
For such a thing to be firmly grasped by Wanhuagu meant that the entire city was in Wanhuagu’s pocket.
Wanhuagu was the true master of this city.
And this point was further confirmed after Hua Jian entered Cloud Smoke City.
The reason was simple: the number of brothels and taverns in this place had reached an exaggerated level.
It could be said that most of the city was in this business.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.