Cultivation is just so scientific!

Chapter 246: Chapter 169 Encountering a Fairy_2

Wars raged between nations, and power struggles ensued within them, plunging everything into chaos.

According to the information he gathered, there were legends of immortals in Guanquan City. It was said that people had spotted immortals on Guanquan Mountain nearby, which made the Taoist temples there prosper with the burning of incense.

He didn’t need the help of spiritual energy for now, as his cultivation practice involved condensing the spiritual power within his body each time. The lack of spiritual energy wouldn’t affect his cultivation in the short term.

Li Shiming decided to live among mortals for a while as planned, to completely transform himself into a person from Beishu.

Visiting Guanquan Mountain was to prepare for making contact with Beishu’s cultivation world.

Up till now, he had not found any Beishu cultivators. The region of Beishu was much larger than he had imagined, and without a specific target, he dare not wander around recklessly.

The next morning, Li Shiming waited at the inn’s entrance for the merchant convoy, which was comprised of forty cargo wagons, five horse-drawn carriages, and forty strong men serving as guards.

“Thank you for your trouble, Captain Zhao!” Li Shiming greeted Captain Zhao with a Confucian bow.

“Mr. Li, rest assured, we’ve been traveling this trade route for many years without the slightest problem in safety!” Captain Zhao assured him with a smile.

Li Shiming was arranged to sit in the third carriage. His generous payment guaranteed him the safest spot among the middle carriages.

Seated in the carriage, he had the whole vehicle to himself, as he had rented it exclusively.

In terms of silver coins, gold and silver were still the common currency in Beishu. Such things were useless for cultivators, and his storage bag was filled with a large amount of gold, silver, and jewelry, spoils from previous battles.

He only needed to take out a little, and that would be more than enough for him to squander among the common folk.

“Interesting!” he murmured with a faint smile.

He was still thinking about making contact with cultivators; little did he expect to find three of them within the convoy.

It seemed the trip wouldn’t be peaceful. In Beishu, he wasn’t sure, but on Sky Sea Island, cultivators seldom interacted with mortals.

The three cultivators were clearly hiding from something. Sensing their strength, Li Shiming found the strongest was only at the sixth level of Qi Refinement, while the other two were at the third level, so he wasn’t too worried.

With his spiritual thought, Li Shiming seldom had opponents in the Qi Refinement Realm.

The convoy continued down the road, and he leisurely used his spiritual thought to observe the three cultivators while enjoying the landscape outside the carriage window with his eyes.

Their path was enveloped by mountains, with the road winding through them.

In areas near cities, the mountains had been conquered by humans, transformed into terraced fields, with patches of farmhouses occasionally visible at the foot of the mountains.

The three cultivators were very quiet, without any communication for half a day, but Li Shiming’s spiritual thought noticed that they exchanged glances filled with vigilance and anxiety.

After traveling for a day, the convoy had entered the mountains. Fortunately, the horses were local stout steeds, capable of effortlessly pulling the heavy wagons along the rugged mountain roads while maintaining stability.

Li Shiming opened his eyes wide and stopped compressing the spiritual energy vortex within him.

His gaze turned to the front, where the presence of four Qi Refining Mid-stage cultivators went completely unmasked.

It was only the mortals in the convoy who could not sense the fluctuations of spiritual energy, but all three cultivators in the convoy turned pale at once.

“May I ask which heroes stand before us? What mountain or stronghold do you hail from? Our escort agency has never shortchanged the heroes we pass by!” Captain Zhao, seeing the four men blocking the way, rode forward and said with a clenched fist.

“The Guan brothers, stop hiding. You can’t escape. Hand over the Senluo Order and you will be spared!” The blocking cultivator ignored Captain Zhao completely, his aura erupting as he shouted towards a carriage.

The horse under Captain Zhao buckled and collapsed to the ground.

Captain Zhao tumbled to break his fall, but he dared not utter another word.

Having traveled the Martial World for many years, how could he not realize that they had encountered a formidable presence? The mere aura from before had chilled him to the bone, and even his extraordinary horse couldn’t endure it.

The Guan brothers knew they couldn’t hide any longer and stepped out from the carriage.

“You know about the Senluo Order, and yet you dare to make a move. Aren’t you afraid of the Senluo Sect?” Guan the Elder said with a stern voice belying inner trepidation.

“If you get the Senluo Order, you can join the Senluo Sect. Sadly, the Senluo Order is only useful once you’re at the Senluo Sect. You plan to travel as common folks, quite a good thought indeed!” the opposing Cultivator said with a sneer.

During the conversation, the four Cultivators had already spread out, surrounding the three Guan brothers.

Li Shiming originally didn’t want to intervene. He just wanted to watch the Beishu cultivators fight. However, hearing about the Senluo Order and the Senluo Sect piqued his interest.

To force the Beishu Mingxin Sect out of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains and directly into the Beihai showed just how powerful the Senluo Sect was.

If he could get the Senluo Order, even if he didn’t join the Senluo Sect, at the very least it would allow him to pass through the Ten Thousand Great Mountains more safely.

He hopped down from the carriage, came beside Captain Zhao, and with a gentle pull, he quickly moved Captain Zhao away from the standoff battlefield of the Cultivators.

“Captain Zhao, have the caravan move back, the farther the better. This is not something you can get involved in,” Li Shiming whispered to Captain Zhao.

He was born a common man and, although he didn’t hesitate to kill when necessary, he only killed those who deserved death. With the means to do so, he still wished to protect the lives of commoners.

“Thank you for the heads-up, Mr. Li!” Captain Zhao thought to himself that he had misjudged the situation and gave a clasped fist salute.

He then waved his hand vigorously at the caravan, signaling them to orderly retreat.

The Cultivators in the standoff didn’t pay any attention to the commoners. Whether the commoners stayed nearby or fled made no difference to them.

They also didn’t notice anything special about Li Shiming, mainly because his strength was far beyond theirs. Additionally, Li Shiming possessed Spiritual Thought, which could isolate the fluctuations of Spiritual Power on his body. At least Cultivators at the same late-stage Qi Refining Realm wouldn’t be able to sense his strength.

Li Shiming moved back with the caravan, watching the increasingly tense atmosphere amongst the Cultivators with the detached interest of an onlooker at a play.

The battle commenced in an instant, with talismans and Magic Artifacts flying in all directions.

Captain Zhao, retreating alongside, glanced over and nearly collapsed to the ground, his legs going weak.

The rest of the people all knelt, bowing continuously and incessantly pleading for the Immortals to spare their lives.

Li Shiming paid no heed to these commoners. Saving them once was enough; if they didn’t appreciate their lives and kept near the battlefield, they were responsible for the consequences.

His attention was on the Cultivators’ fight. After a while, it was clear that the four mid-stage Qi Refiners were overwhelmingly suppressing the three Guan brothers.

It wouldn’t be long before the Guan brothers would be defeated.

What Li Shiming didn’t expect was that the Loose Cultivators of Beishu were likewise very poor.

Looking at the talismans and Magic Artifacts they used, the talismans were low-grade, with very few intermediate ones. The best Magic Artifacts were only Mid Grade, and among five mid-stage Qi Refiners, there were only three Mid Grade Magical Artifacts.

Two of the four mid-stage Qi Refiners that had come together were using Low Grade Magical Artifacts despite being at mid-stage Qi Refining. This showed how impoverished they were, at least in Li Shiming’s view.

“Fellow Daoist, please lend a hand. I am willing to offer the Luo Sen Order as a reward!” Suddenly, Guan the Elder called out loudly towards Li Shiming.

Li Shiming was slightly taken aback, but he quickly realized that Guan the Elder had noticed something when he had rescued Captain Zhao.

“The four of you can leave. I’ll protect these three!” Li Shiming wasn’t worried that Guan the Elder would dare to lie. His aura suddenly surged, and the aura of a ninth level Qi Refining Realm burst forth, causing the four mid-stage Qi Refining Cultivators’ expressions to change drastically.

Guan the Elder, however, let out a sigh of relief. He hadn’t been able to determine Li Shiming’s background, but he had made some guesses.

He knew very well that if the four opposing Cultivators succeeded, not only would the Luo Sen Order be lost, but the lives of the three brothers would also be at stake.

Therefore, he would rather take a gamble; if he won, they would survive, and if he lost, it was fate.

Li Shiming’s reaction let him know he’d won half the bet; the other half depended on Li Shiming’s attitude towards the three brothers.