Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Knowing that he and the eccentric merchant were likely to also get swept up in the exploration of the ancient ruins if they didn’t leave the city, Chu Yang turned to look back at the eccentric merchant. Only to turn around and see that he had already finished packing up and was in the process of leaving.

”What are you standing there for? We have to get out of here fast before those Nascent Soul Realm cultivators show up here as well!” Not caring the slightest bit about the shocked expression on Chu Yang’s face, the eccentric merchant stepped forward and grabbed hold of him before rapidly leaving the somewhat secluded corner of the street that he had set up his stall in.

Not feeling any threat from the merchant, Chu Yang allowed himself to get dragged along. Curious about how the merchant planned to avoid getting forcibly recruited by the Nascent Soul Realm cultivators. After all, it would definitely be impossible for them to leave the city at this point in time, as those Nascent Soul Realm cultivators would definitely be stationed around that place to pick up anyone trying to run away.

Hm? We are not going to leave the city, but instead moving further into the city…?

Feeling a bit surprised when he noticed that the merchant wasn’t dragging him towards the outskirts of the city for somewhere to hide, but instead deeper into the city where the more powerful cultivators would be located, Chu Yang felt even more curious about what kind of escape plan the eccentric merchant had come up with.

After all, given what he had managed to learn about him so far, he seemed to be prepared for most situations and had a solution to them.

Given that he had decided to stay in the city, even though he knew about the danger that came along with it, meant that he should have a way to avoid the Nascent Soul Realm cultivators…

Splash!

Just as Chu Yang was wondering what kind of method the eccentric merchant planned on using to avoid the detection of the Nascent Soul Realm cultivators, he suddenly saw him jumping into a large river running straight through the city.

”Follow me or you will have to find a way out of this place on your own!”

And along with those few words, he dived beneath the surface of the water. Disappearing from view.

”…”

Seeing this, Chu Yang could not help slightly raising an eyebrow.

Although hiding in the river might be a good option when facing weaker cultivators, when confronted with the powerful divine sense of someone in the Nascent Soul Realm, it wouldn’t make much of a difference whether someone was hiding inside a building or below water.

Splash!

However, curious about what the eccentric merchant was planning to escape the sight of the Nascent Soul Realm cultivators, Chu Yang still decided to follow him into the river. Soon catching up to the eccentric merchant who skillfully swam through the strong current. Soon enough stopping in front of a small hatch located at the bottom of the river.

This… A concealment formation? Although relatively low quality, it should be more than enough to avoid the divine sense of someone in the Nascent Soul Realm if they don’t pay attention. Indeed, this fellow is quite prepared when it comes to escaping danger…

Seeing the small hatch at the bottom of the river, Chu Yang could not help showing a slightly surprised expression on his face, as he realized that the hatch actually had a concealment formation placed on top of it.

Even if the quality of the formation was low, it still showed that the eccentric merchant had far more talent when it came to formations than he had first let on with his small but useless trinkets.

Follow me!

Not aware of Chu Yang’s thoughts, the eccentric merchant turned around and signaled for him to follow, as he used all of his strength to open the hatch and swim inside.

Following closely behind, Chu Yang soon found himself inside a narrow tunnel that was still filled with water, as he watched the eccentric merchant quickly swim past him before closing the hatch behind him. Not wasting a second after that before he moved past him and rapidly moved through the tunnel.

Considering that someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm couldn’t hold their breath forever, he had a limited time on his hand and clearly wanted to get out of the water as fast as possible, as they had already spent close to five minutes under the water by the time they reached the small hatch.

Like this, close to fifteen minutes flew by with them moving through the increasingly narrow tunnel filled with water before they finally managed to reach the other side of the tunnel-

”Haaaa!”

Where the eccentric merchant almost collapsed on the ground as he greedily breathed in air after having spent twenty minutes under water. Almost having reached the limit of what was possible for someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm when it came to not breathing, a truly impressive feat on its own.

However, compared to the eccentric merchant who was now laying on the ground recovering from the long underwater escape through a very narrow tunnel that made it hard to move towards the end, Chu Yang stood up completely fine without any sign of water on his body as he looked around the small dark space that he now found himself inside of.

Outside of the fact that the small space wasn’t made by hand but should instead be some kind of natural underground cave that had been formed over a long time, Chu Yang almost instantly noticed that there was only a small tunnel connected to the space that he would only be able to move through by crawling.

”What is this place?”

Unable to contain his curiosity as he finished looking around the small cave, Chu Yang could not help turning back towards the eccentric merchant who had somewhat recovered at this point in time as he asked him outright.

”This… Is a place I found in the past during my time looking for safe locations to hide in case something happened in the city. The cave itself might be small, but there is a constant supply of fresh air coming from the small tunnel connected to this cave, we can stay here until things calm down back in the city and then make our way back through the underwater tunnel.”

”What about the tunnel connected to this cave? Given that it provides a constant stream of fresh air, it means that it should be connected to the outside, why not follow that instead of swimming through that place…?”

”I… Tried in the past, but the location it leads to is somewhere inside the city lord’s mansion at the center of the city. Although the formation guarding that place didn’t discover me as it seemed to be in the process of undergoing maintenance or something along that line, I doubt something like that will happen if I try going through that place again. Especially considering that there are currently a lot of wandering cultivators present in the city at the moment.

Even if the formation needed some kind of maintenance, I doubt the city lord would choose this kind of time to shut it down and do so.” Thinking for a brief moment before saying this, the eccentric merchant helplessly shook his head before going back to recovering his strength.

Considering that he would once again have to fight his way back through the underwater tunnel to get back out again, he had to fully recover his strength as fast as possible if he wanted to leave alive with his current strength.

”Leads straight to the city lord’s mansion…” Narrowing both of his eyes as he muttered this to himself after hearing what the eccentric merchant said, Chu Yang could not help feeling like there was something wrong with what the eccentric merchant said.

First of all, a formation going through maintenance would still be active to some extent… And the merchant would have never been able to avoid detection with his strength.

Instead of that, it was likely that instead of the formation being under maintenance like the eccentric merchant suspected, Chu Yang felt that it was far more likely that the eccentric merchant had managed to unknowingly find a flaw in the formation guarding the city lord’s mansion. Essentially allowing him to freely enter the mansion without alerting the people inside.

Of course, the merchant was far too weak and would almost definitely be spotted if he tried to actually enter the city lord mansion sneakily.

However, if it was someone stronger, it could prove fatal to the city lord and the people in the mansion. Especially if that someone happened to be their enemies…

Luckily for them, Chu Yang wasn’t their enemy nor did he feel interested in selling the information on this flaw in the formation, as it would also end up ruining the hiding spot of his new friend.