The Secret Way of Immortality

The sudden changes in Mount Liuli did not affect Wuwei City in the slightest; most cultivators simply chose to avoid that area.

Only the Changyuan Escort Agency, which happened to be nearby at the time, suffered heavy losses. Chief Zhao, who was at the Completion of Foundation Establishment stage, and more than a dozen of his escorts all disappeared.

The remaining escorts didn't even have a leader to make decisions, so they inevitably began to seek other paths, and the escort agency was already existing in name only.

The location of the Changyuan Escort Agency in Wuwei City was already remote, and now it was even more deserted.

Qingzhu had been squatting at the entrance for a long time, and the passersby thought she was some beggar, subconsciously keeping their distance.

She wiped the dirt off her face and stubbornly pursed her lips.

Qingzhu waited for several days in a row without seeing her escort father return. Before she could figure out what was going on, she received the devastating news.

Creak...

The gate of the escort agency slowly opened, and a middle-aged strong man walked out, carrying a packed bundle, seemingly preparing to move away.

Qingzhu's eyes lit up, and she quickly ran over with her little legs.

"Uncle Li, is there any news about my father? It's been so long. Have the Immortal Elders from the Forbidden Garrison Hall sent someone to go...?"

"A'Nian, it's hard to say. Don't wait here anymore."

Uncle Li sighed deeply. If Chief Liu and the others were indeed dead outside the city, there would probably be many more orphans and widows.

Qingzhu was about to ask more questions, but she noticed that the decorations inside the escort agency had turned into white cloth, clearly indicating a funeral.

She forcibly suppressed the urge to cry and turned around to run out of the Changyuan Escort Agency's area.

Qingzhu had lived with her father, Shen Qiuteng, since she was a child. Due to the upheaval in Jingzhou, they came to Wuwei City, hoping to live a few stable days, but unexpectedly, an accident occurred.

She trotted back to her deserted home and began rummaging through boxes and cabinets.

Qingzhu carried all the useful and useless things with her, and also put the saved silver coins in a bag, and then headed outside.

She came to a remote inn, constantly peering inside with her little head.

The shopkeeper obviously noticed Qingzhu's strange behavior and couldn't help but ask, "Qingzhu, what brings you here?"

Qingzhu cautiously replied, "Shopkeeper, are you an Immortal from the Forbidden Garrison?"

The shopkeeper guessed Qingzhu's intention and nodded with a wry smile, "I'm just a reserve member; I don't have access to confidential information."

Qingzhu lowered her head and said softly, "I want to ask about the Changyuan Escort Agency's matter."

The shopkeeper felt softened by this and said, "There's no specific news saying they're dead. It's said they lost contact near Mount Liuli. Don't worry..."

A glimmer of hope returned to Qingzhu's eyes.

The shopkeeper helplessly continued, "I saw this task on the bulletin board. It's been taken by a Forbidden Garrison senior. They'll probably go to Mount Liuli."

"I see..."

Qingzhu bit her lip and then took out all the spirit crystals she had on her and said, "Then can I commission the Forbidden Garrison Immortal Elder?"

"Don't think too much. I'll notify you immediately if there's any news."

The shopkeeper was dumbfounded. He told Qingzhu to put away the spirit crystals, preparing to explain that the Ghost Market was not a place ordinary mortals could enter.

Just then, Ren Qing walked down to the lobby from the second floor.

Qingzhu's eyes lit up, but before she could ask, Ren Qing threw a bag of spirit crystals from his arms, then turned and walked out of the inn, disappearing into the crowd.

The shopkeeper held the spirit crystals, hesitant to speak, feeling that Ren Qing had given too many.

But he didn't know that his room was almost burned through by the high temperature, and the spirit crystals were actually left by Ren Qing for him to repair the inn.

Qingzhu sighed and took back the spirit crystals, then left the inn.

She walked in small steps to the city gate, where the crowd was surging, with more than a dozen large and small escort agencies passing through, and dozens of giant beasts, the noise was extremely loud.

Qingzhu had never been here on weekdays and couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

The giant beasts were mainly lizards, usually about three meters long. It was said that they were full by eating sand and gravel, and the cost of raising them was very low.

The lizards in Wuwei City were far from being huge. Occasionally, you could see lizards coming from the marsh, at least ten meters in size.

Qingzhu's father didn't have a high status in the escort agency. Even among ordinary escorts, he was considered a handyman responsible for feeding them.

So Shen Qiuteng had always wanted to raise a strange beast to do some small business like trading.

Qingzhu bent over and hid in the shadows, silently listening to the movements of the surrounding crowd, with an unusually focused expression.

Several hours passed like this, until the sky was slightly yellow before she found a target.

Qingzhu vaguely heard some escorts talking about Mount Liuli. They deliberately lowered their voices, seemingly wanting to go to that area.

A middle-aged man dressed as a chief frowned and specially found a remote corner to ask the skinny man next to him, "Are you sure?"

"It is said that a great demon is entrenched on Mount Liuli, which has even attracted the attention of the Forbidden Garrison Hall. The Forbidden Garrison will soon take action to eliminate it."

The skinny man's eyes revealed greed, and he couldn't wait to say again, "We only need to station on the periphery for a few days. When the great demon dies, we can pick up some cheap things that the Forbidden Garrison doesn't care about."

His proposal was very tempting. Even if the so-called great demon was just a rumor, it still made the chief hesitate.

"Are you sure the Forbidden Garrison will take action?"

"You can inquire about this news yourself, but it will be too late then."

The chief nodded heavily. The two leaned against the corner of the wall to discuss countermeasures, after all, they were going to Mount Liuli, which was a forbidden area.

As for the other two forbidden areas.

The depth of the River of Lost Thoughts can reach hundreds of meters, and the river flows endlessly. There are also tens of thousands of demons and beasts in it, which is very terrifying.

The Bottomless Cave is also somewhat similar, located in a certain mountain range. The cave extends for an unknown number of kilometers, and there are naturally countless demons.

Only Mount Liuli was listed as a forbidden area because it exudes a strange Buddhist aura.

The three forbidden areas are far from representing the current situation in Jingzhou, but they are located near Wuwei City, so they are remembered by the Forbidden Garrison Hall.

Qingzhu came to the escort agency's team and found that it was not large.

She quietly groped to the lizard storing the supplies, gritted her teeth and tried to climb into the wooden box tied by the reins on the latter's back.

However, after feeling the strange aura, the lizard immediately became agitated.

Qingzhu was a little at a loss, and the surrounding escorts also came to check the situation suspiciously, just as they were about to approach.

Bang...

Suddenly, the ground vibrated slightly, and a huge monster attacked the city again.

Similar things happened once every ten and a half months, but the city wall was never broken, and the monsters were quickly killed.

The attention of the escorts was diverted to the direction of the city wall. Seeing this, Qingzhu quickly climbed onto the lizard and randomly got into a wooden box.

She herself knew that it was impossible to rescue Shen Qiuteng, but after all, she was not mentally mature, and she inexplicably planned to go to Mount Liuli with them.

The box contained spare clothes, soap pods and the smell of sweat. She couldn't help but frown because of this.

Qingzhu hadn't rested well recently, and soon felt sleepy.

She closed her eyes and fell into a dream, and unknowingly, the escorts had sorted out the supplies and were slowly heading towards the city gate.

When Qingzhu woke up in shock, she only felt that the air was filled with a strong demonic aura.

She was only in the early stage of Qi training, and had a feeling of suffocation like a fish coming to the shore, with a burning sting in her mouth and nose when breathing.

Qingzhu spent several days adapting to the demonic aura, and her consciousness gradually recovered.

She took out a few spirit crystals from her arms and absorbed the hidden yuan inside, enduring the pain, so that the dantian was always in a full state.

The escort team gradually moved away from Wuwei City, traveling along the outer edge of the dense forest, which was the safest known mountain road.

There were also monsters coming to attack, but they were all blocked by the tacitly cooperating escorts.

In the past, the corpses would definitely be carefully disposed of, and the useful materials would be collected and sold when they returned to the city.

But this time, the team had no intention of stopping at all. The monster corpses were randomly discarded on the roadside, and carrion birds pecked at the flesh.

Qingzhu silently calculated the time, presumably it should be approaching Mount Liuli.

She originally thought that she would arrive at her destination smoothly, but then she noticed something was wrong. The communication in the team seemed to be getting less and less.

Not only did no escorts speak, but even the usual movements in life were gone.

Moreover, this situation was becoming more and more serious. The escorts went to Mount Liuli with a calm expression, as if the silence foreshadowed something.

Qingzhu couldn't help but bury herself in the clothes in the wooden box, leaving only a gap to breathe.

Her consciousness fell into a daze again and fell asleep, but was awakened by the sound of murmuring whispers, and cold sweat broke out from her back.

It seemed that someone was chanting some kind of strangely tuned scripture.

The sound drilled into Qingzhu's ears, like worms sucking on brain marrow. She desperately covered her ears with her hands.

The sound of chanting scriptures became deafening.

Qingzhu could hear that it was not related to Taoism, but somewhat similar to what a shaman who specialized in funerals in Jingzhou City used to do.

Finally, the team suddenly stopped, and the sound of chanting scriptures gradually faded away.

She shook her head and opened the wooden box from the inside with force, and couldn't help but look outside, but the escorts in the team were gone.

The lizards were abandoned on the mountain road, eating gravel heartlessly.

Seeing that the sky was still bright, Qingzhu tiptoed out of the wooden box, and used the high point of standing on the lizard's back to look into the distance.

A dreamlike mountain peak came into view.

The mountain stones were as crystal clear as glass, shining with seven colors under the sunlight, setting off the temple on the top of the mountain like a fairyland.

Qingzhu also noticed the whereabouts of those escorts.

They originally wanted to stay away from Mount Liuli, but now they were inexplicably heading towards the temple, and still in the posture of three kneelings and nine prostrations.

The behavior of the escorts like ascetic monks seemed extremely inexplicable.

But what made Qingzhu most frightened was that a fish tail suddenly grew out of the back of their heads, constantly shaking, not knowing what it meant.

Qingzhu couldn't help but look behind her, but found that there was actually a fishing line floating in the air, one end connected to the top of Mount Liuli, and the other end was half a floundering river fish tail.

Then, the river fish tail grew blood and flesh at a speed visible to the naked eye, piecing together a fragmented and deformed monster that looked like a human and a fish.

The monster had six eyes and four arms, but the arms were of different lengths. It said in Shen Qiuteng's tone, "A'Nian, I..."

"What the hell is this?"

Ren Qing came to Qingzhu's side in a Taoist robe, looking at the monster with his eyes.