When Chen Xiao and the others saw Tong Nuonuo, he was happily eating a bowl of noodles. Seeing Chen Xiao and Du Rong suddenly follow the homeowner into the room, he almost sprayed the noodles from his mouth.
"Chen… cough cough cough!!" Tong Nuonuo choked hard from his surprise, nearly coughing up a lung.
"Nuonuo!" Chen Xiao rushed over, both worried and amused as he saw Tong Nuonuo's eyes water from the coughing fit. The scene was strangely familiar, it was just like when they had reunited on the ship a few months ago. Tong Nuonuo had looked just as flustered back then.
Du Rong set down his pack outside the door, and the three of them entered the room. The space Tong Nuonuo was living in wasn't very big, barely over ten square meters. The furnishings were extremely simple, even bordering on shabby: just a single bamboo bed, a small bamboo table, and two bamboo chairs with backrests. No wonder Tong Nuonuo was holding his bowl while eating, there wasn't even a proper dining table to set it on.
The homeowner, Ah Shou, was delighted to see his guest reunited with old friends. Cheerful and hospitable, he said, "Honored guests have come! According to our village's customs, we must prepare good food and strong wine to welcome you. You all catch up, I'll head into the mountains to hunt some wild game for tonight's feast!"
Du Rong, standing near the door, raised a hand to stop him. "Brother, please, there's no need for all that!"
But Ah Shou just lightly brushed his arm aside, smiling even more broadly. "You're calling me brother now? If a brother comes to visit, of course I have to treat him well! You relax. I'll be back soon!" With that, he turned and left. Du Rong stood there stunned, unable to stop him.
Du Rong stared in disbelief at his own hand, then at Ah Shou's retreating figure. He was a high-level cultivator, and yet a mere village man had brushed his arm aside with a single effortless move? No one would believe that if he told them!
He turned back around, wanting to share his shock with someone, but Chen Xiao was already deep in conversation with Tong Nuonuo, and Immortal Immortal Master Xi had just withdrawn his gaze. Du Rong didn't dare to make small talk with Immortal Immortal Master Xi, he always felt like he'd somehow gotten on the man's bad side. So, in the end, he had to swallow his astonishment in silence.
Compared to Chen Xiao, Tong Nuonuo was even more emotional about their reunion. Clutching Chen Xiao's arm tightly, his round face almost bursting into tears, he exclaimed, "I really didn't expect to see you here, especially in such a hopeless situation! I'm not dreaming, am I?!"
Chen Xiao chuckled. "Of course not. You're a cultivator, can't you tell if you're dreaming or not?"
Tong Nuonuo let out a silly laugh, his joy written all over his round face. "Chen Xiao, did you guys come because you heard something? Did someone from our group make it back and send for help?"
Chen Xiao's expression turned serious as he shook his head. "No, it was just a coincidence that brought us here. Nuonuo, what are you doing in this village? Where's the rest of your group? What happened?"
Tong Nuonuo's smile froze. He looked a little stunned, then slowly began to recall. "After we split up in Hanshan City, I joined up with another group and headed into the mountains. The team was led by a cultivator at the ninth level of the Golden Core stage, with a few other Golden Core cultivators as the main force. At first, when we got the mission from the Zhishi Hall, it just said we needed to capture a juvenile Black-Eyed Azure Beast."
Black-Eyed Azure Beast, so it really was related. Chen Xiao and Xi Yunqing exchanged glances.
"With a ninth-level Golden Core cultivator in charge, we figured it would be a piece of cake to capture a juvenile beast. That's not even an adult, and the reward was great. So we all felt pretty secure." Tong Nuonuo let out a heavy sigh. "But we were wrong. Very wrong."
Chen Xiao interrupted, "Wait a second, aren't juvenile beasts usually accompanied by their mother? Savage beasts are most dangerous when they're either mating or raising their young. Even I know that. You all must have known, right?"
Du Rong calmly explained to his employer, "It's not quite like that, Boss. Savage beasts that are raising newborns keep them in the nest, they don't have any survival skills. But once those babies grow into juveniles and can hunt on their own, the mother kicks them out to live independently. What Immortal Immortal Master Tong's team was after was one of those already-weaned juveniles. Such creatures aren't as lethal as adults, and capturing them is much less risky than going after newborns."
That made sense to Chen Xiao. Tong Nuonuo nodded in agreement. "Exactly. That's why I felt safe taking on the mission. The pay was good, and there were no strict requirements on who could join. It seemed like a perfect fit for me." At this point, he looked regretful. "If only I'd been more cautious back then, I might've realized something was wrong. They were recruiting anyone, no matter what path of cultivation, high or low level, everyone was accepted."
Chen Xiao's sense of foreboding grew stronger. A mission that took in anyone without question, it smelled like they were being rounded up as cannon fodder.
And indeed, as Tong Nuonuo continued recounting, that turned out to be pretty close to the truth.
"Once we were deep in the mountains, we realized the truth: the target wasn't a juvenile at all. It was a mother Black-Eyed Azure Beast with her young!"
Du Rong drew in a sharp breath. "With her young? That team leader must have lost his mind! That's just sending people to their deaths!"
Tong Nuonuo's nose twitched, and his lips quivered. His eyes were even turning red. "That was the plan. The people in the team who didn't know the truth were completely stunned. Most didn't even make it out alive, it was a bloodbath." His round face made him look even younger, and in that moment, everyone could imagine how terrified and helpless he must've been.
Chen Xiao sat beside him and gently patted his back in comfort.
Tong Nuonuo looked at him gratefully and clung tighter to his arm. "Someone yelled for everyone to scatter and run. I guess I got lucky and ran in a totally different direction from everyone else. The Black-Eyed Azure Beast chased after the larger group and ignored me completely."
"Talk about a misstep turning into a miracle," Chen Xiao and Du Rong muttered to themselves.
Tong Nuonuo gritted his teeth. "That Golden Core cultivator had planned it all out, use the crowd to lure the beast away so he could snatch the cub. But in the end, they didn't gain anything. After killing most of the team, the beast turned back and tore into them too." He looked up and added, "I only know what happened afterward because another Foundation Establishment cultivator told me. His name was Wu Qing, I called him Brother Wu. He survived, but just barely. The beast clawed out a huge chunk from his back, bone exposed, spine shattered. He couldn't move anything except his head."
Chen Xiao immediately caught onto something. "Just now, you thought we were here to rescue you. Does that mean... you and this Wu Qing weren't the only survivors?"
Tong Nuonuo nodded. "Yes. Back then, everyone scattered while escaping, and some were lucky enough to evade the Black-Eyed Azure's pursuit by hiding. It wasn't until the beast went off chasing after the Golden Core cultivators that they dared to come out. According to Brother Wu Qing, those survivors were furious. They said the team leader had treated our lives like nothing. Some even suspected that the mission was anonymously posted by the leader himself, only for him to take it on under a different name. He used our lives as bait just to earn a reward. This is blatant fraud. If the Zhishi Hall finds out, they'll definitely investigate!"
Du Rong nodded. "Indeed. Such a vile act is outrageous. And to do it under the name of the Zhishi Hall? That's a direct smear on their reputation. If they hear about this, those people won't get away with it."
Tong Nuonuo added, "Exactly. So, that group decided to return to Hanshan City and report this to the Zhishi Hall, exposing the scam and how it cost people their lives. But because of that Black-Eyed Azure, its cub's father was enraged too, and he started rampaging through the area. Their cultivation wasn't very high, so they had no choice but to travel together for safety. Brother Wu Qing was too badly injured and had no medicine, so he asked them to take his name tag and leave him there to die."
Tong Nuonuo sighed. "It really was a desperate time. When I found him, he only had one breath left. Thankfully, I still had a life-saving elixir my master gave me. That was the only reason I was able to pull him back from the brink."
Chen Xiao said, "That Immortal Master Wu must have had incredible luck to survive... So how did you get here? Were you discovered by the villagers?"
Tong Nuonuo's cheeks flushed slightly. "Not exactly. The villagers here know how dangerous the fierce beasts are and never venture deep into their territory. I carried Brother Wu Qing on my back while he guided the way, and that's how we left that area. We just happened to run into Ah Shou while he was out hunting. Brother Wu Qing's injuries were too severe, and I wasn't confident I could get him safely back to Hanshan City. So, we decided to stay in this mountain village temporarily until he recovered. Unfortunately, I only had that one life-saving elixir, and just a small bottle of recovery pills. Once those ran out, his recovery slowed. Even now, his wounds have only just begun to close, and his body is still numb."
Because of Tong Nuonuo's poor sense of direction, neither Wu Qing nor Ah Shou dared let him go out alone. Tong Nuonuo was obedient, too, he knew that once he got lost, it would only trouble others. So he strictly followed Chen Xiao's earlier advice: if he ever realized he was lost, he would stop right there and wait to be found, never wandering off on his own.
Since Tong Nuonuo couldn't really do anything to help, all their food and daily needs fell on Ah Shou to handle. Ah Shou lived alone and didn't have much stored food, as he only had to feed himself. Luckily, while rummaging through his belongings, Tong Nuonuo found a little box Chen Xiao had given him before, inside was a pouch with eighty spirit coins. Holding it up, he thanked Chen Xiao, "If it weren't for these spirit coins, we would've starved."
He continued, "Because this village is so remote, ordinary people rarely leave the mountains in their whole lives. But strangely enough, many people here have spiritual roots almost every household has someone who can cultivate. A few families have even cultivated to a decent level. Even though this mountain village is far from Hanshan City, there are still occasional trips for daily goods, so spirit coins can still be spent here."
Chen Xiao understood the situation instantly. Places like Fancun, blessed with good feng shui, often produced extraordinary people. In his past life, such places would easily produce scholars and officials. In this cultivation-based world, it naturally meant they produced young talents and cultivators.
At that thought, something clicked in Chen Xiao's mind. He remembered! Back when he was standing on the hill above Fancun analyzing the feng shui, he had sensed a flash of insight but hadn't quite grasped it. This was it!
His thoughts began to spin rapidly, and the idea became clearer and clearer in his mind. He had just discovered the fastest way for a feng shui master like him to rise in status in this world!
There were countless Immortal Sects out there, like prestigious universities. Their disciples were like students, and a location with good feng shui was like a place that produced outstanding students. And he just so happened to possess the ability to identify such talent hotspots. If he could collaborate with Immortal Sects eager to find talented disciples, he might even become an honored guest.
These major sects needed good talent, and he could use that to form connections with high-ranking members of the sects, elevating the standing of feng shui masters in the cultivation world. That would give him a much better starting point. It would be a win-win situation. They'd have no reason to say no.
With his thoughts now organized, Chen Xiao suppressed his excitement. Now wasn't the time to think about this, he could plan it out carefully once they had some downtime.
After Tong Nuonuo finished sharing his story, Chen Xiao also updated him on his recent experiences, leaving out the part where he posed as a noble in Hanshan City. He started from the moment he set out for training, described his unexpected meeting with Immortal Immortal Master Xi, and how they had saved each other's lives.
Tong Nuonuo hadn't expected their ordeal to be even more terrifying than his own. He looked serious, his round face filled with concern. "The beast you encountered must have been the cub's father that chased after everyone. Brother Wu Qing told me that Black-Eyed Azures have very strong territorial instincts. A region will usually have one male and one female pair, they don't live together, but they mate during breeding season. The male sometimes brings prey to the mother while she's raising the cub. So the male probably happened to be nearby when the cub was taken."
Xi Yunqing, who had been listening quietly, suddenly spoke. "After the male beast was killed, I visited the Zhishi Hall in Hanshan City. There was no news of any cultivators bringing back a cub. Nor were there signs of the mother's corpse or battle on the way. So the question is, where is the mother beast?"
This was the first time Tong Nuonuo had heard of this. He thought for a moment, then his eyes widened in horror. "Could it be... that group didn't just go after the cub, they ambushed the mother too?!"
Xi Yunqing said calmly, "Highly likely. If they want to use the cub as leverage, a Black-Eyed Azure is intelligent enough to comply."
Du Rong slammed the table in rage. "Those heartless bastards, they're vile beyond belief!"
But Chen Xiao offered a different perspective. "If Hanshan City has been completely silent, then even if any survivors made it back, the news might have been suppressed before it ever reached the Zhishi Hall."
Tong Nuonuo was shocked and stood up. "You mean, they were silenced?"
Chen Xiao stood up too, quickly pulling Tong Nuonuo back down. "Not necessarily. They might have just been detained or placed under house arrest."
Though unlikely, such ruthless people wouldn't usually leave loose ends. Chen Xiao couldn't help but feel thankful that Du Rong had taken refuge in the mountain valley after being injured. If they'd returned to the village or Hanshan City at the time, they might have been killed too.
Du Rong remained silent, his face clouded with worry.
Xi Yunqing looked at them and spoke bluntly, voicing an even harsher truth. "It's also possible that they never made it back to Hanshan City, perhaps they were all slaughtered by the male beast before they got there."