Chapter 37 (Part 1)

Song Yuanxi had spent nine years challenging levels inside the Trial Tower, and in that time, he had honed a body full of dodging ability. The unfamiliar environment put him on extreme alert. He immediately took out an invisibility talisman and a Concealment talisman and stuck them on himself.

Only after several breaths, once he confirmed there was no danger around him, did he calm down and examine his surroundings.

The place he was in was extremely remote. As far as the eye could see, there was no village, no sign of people, let alone any city buildings where human activity gathered. The temperature was fairly suitable. There was no snow, so he should have already left the northern lands. But it was also unlike Xuantian Sect’s year-round springlike climate.

How should he put it? It was more like an artificially constructed climate, forcefully dragged into being to create a false feeling of basking in a spring breeze.

Song Yuanxi’s heart immediately tightened. “With my cursed luck, I didn’t fall into some kind of array, did I?”

To verify whether his idea was true or false, Song Yuanxi ran toward the lush green mountains. Two hours later, he shot back out as though fleeing for his life and ran in another direction without even looking back.

Behind him, a group of demonic beasts that looked like wild boars, with steel spikes growing all over their bodies and tusks curving toward the sky, were chasing him relentlessly.

Those demonic beasts were comparable in size to modern elephants. On flat ground, their running speed reached one hundred and twenty kilometers per hour, almost on par with cars speeding down a highway.

As Song Yuanxi ran, he threw explosive talismans behind him. Because he had been running too fast, the backside that had been stabbed by steel spikes earlier was still aching faintly.

“Moo-woo—moo-woo—”

The leading demonic beast let out an enraged roar and abruptly sped up, charging forward.

Song Yuanxi was unprepared. By the time he sensed it, he only felt a burning pain near his rear. He had nearly been skewered somewhere unspeakable!

What terrified him even more was that these demonic beasts seemed to have locked on to one attack point and one attack point only: his rear. To launch their attacks, they would stop at nothing.

“What the hell! You bunch of bastards—”

Song Yuanxi ran for his life. In the end, he used five teleportation talismans before finally shaking off that terrifying herd of creatures.

At that moment, he was standing beside a small stream, drenched in sweat as though he had just been fished out of the water. The soreness throughout his body left him utterly exhausted, but the even more indescribable pain in a certain place made him want to curse someone’s mother!

“Why did they have to stab there? What grudge, what grievance? I only interrupted your great demonic beast harmony. Who does that kind of thing in broad daylight…”

Song Yuanxi rummaged through his storage bracelet, searching for usable healing pills. In the end, he tragically discovered that he had no more pills for internal use. He did, however, have quite a few external-use pills.

Because his own father was an alchemist, Song Yuanxi had never lacked pills growing up. Other than pills that rapidly increased cultivation, Daoist Master Yunxi allowed his son to take whatever else he wanted at will.

However, pills for internal use were over ten times more effective than external medicines. Usually, when low-grade pills were produced unsuccessfully, alchemists would remove the pill toxins and turn them into external-use medicine. It could be considered a transformation of failed pills.

Song Yuanxi had never imagined that the external-use pills he had collected out of a momentary interest back then would actually come in handy one day.

The injured place was indecent, so Song Yuanxi very decisively found a hidden cave. Only after activating the Defensive Array did he begin applying medicine to the wound.

“Hiss… ow… hiss… mm…”

The process of applying the medicine was indescribably sharp and sour, comparable to the pain of having hemorrhoids cut out in his previous life. Back then, when he had soaked in the Ice Spring until his muscles and bones felt as though they were exploding, he had never shed a tear. Yet now, the pain made physiological tears fall.

He could not control it at all. Tears poured down, not to mention that he still had to pull out by hand the steel spikes broken off inside his flesh.

“Those demonic beast pigs better wait for me. Later, I’ll catch every last one of them and roast them whole!” Song Yuanxi thought furiously.

Just as he finished pulling out the steel spikes, movement suddenly came from the entrance of the silent cave. Footsteps gradually approached, and then three people walked in.

Song Yuanxi froze in the middle of pulling up his pants. Very quickly, however, he realized that he was still inside the Defensive Array and the people outside could not see him. Only then did he leisurely straighten his clothes and start eavesdropping.

“We were clearly the ones who discovered the Blazing Porcupines first, but they seized the chance to snatch them away. The Xu family is simply going too far!”

“The Xu family relies on having produced a junior with a single spiritual root. Their eyes have long since grown onto the tops of their heads. Over the years, the lion’s share of Jin City’s cultivation resources has been occupied by the Xu family.”

“Our Song family also has a single-spiritual-root genius, and a mutated lightning spiritual root at that. What does his Xu family have to be proud of?”

“That is the Song family’s direct line. Our Jin City Song family barely even counts among the fallen branch lines. In these years, the resources sent over from the main family have been fewer and fewer. Who still remembers our Jin City Song family?”

“Don’t be discouraged. Blazing Porcupines aren’t that easy to catch either. The Xu family failed to seize them and got chased instead. We still have a chance.”

The three of them rested in the cave for a short while, each taking pills to heal their injuries. After that, they hurriedly left.

Song Yuanxi opened the Defensive Array and looked at the empty cave, sinking into thought. “Jin City, Song family…”

Two days later, Song Yuanxi finally found traces of human habitation. After making some inquiries, he confirmed the approximate direction of the nearby city, which was Jin City.

“Walk five hundred li east, pass Broken Sky Cliff, then cross the great river, and you’ll see Jin City… Along the way, you’ll have to climb mountains and cross ridges. It’s dangerous, young man. Be careful.”

The old man in the village was a mortal. He could not tell that Song Yuanxi was a cultivator. He only felt that the young man before him looked tender-faced, like a fair-skinned scholar.

Song Yuanxi smiled at him and stuffed a low-grade spirit stone into his hand. “Many thanks. I still have important matters, so I’ll take my leave here.”

As soon as the words fell, he had already run dozens of li away.

The old man cried out in shock and fell to the ground, shouting that an immortal had manifested, his eyes filled with utmost reverence.

Song Yuanxi ran for most of the day. When he reached Jin City, it was just at sunset. The city gates were about to close, and he almost failed to make it in time.

After entering the city, Song Yuanxi found an inn to stay at, then asked the waiter about the situation inside the city.

“What would this immortal like to know? This humble one will certainly tell everything I know and hold nothing back.” Although the waiter was a mortal, cultivation clans lived inside Jin City, and most of the guests coming and going from the inn were cultivators. He had long since grown used to it.

Song Yuanxi asked, “I have come to Jin City to seek refuge with relatives, but my family clan is small and weak. Therefore, I would like to understand the situation of the major clans in the city.”

“Immortal, you’ve asked the right person. I really do know a thing or two about the major clans in Jin City.”

“The one drawing the most attention is the Xu family. Forty years ago, the Xu family produced a genius with a single earth spiritual root. The Xu family head was overjoyed and directly sent that person to Sifang City. The lord of Sifang City accepted them as a disciple. Jin City is under Sifang City’s jurisdiction, and from then on, the Xu family flourished. In just a few decades, they surpassed the Song family and became the number one clan in Jin City…”

“After the Xu family comes the Song family. Apart from the Xu and Song families, the other clans are all third-rate and not worth mentioning…”

The waiter rattled on and on, soon explaining all the powers inside Jin City clearly.

Song Yuanxi got a rough understanding and tossed him a low-grade spirit stone. The waiter thanked him gleefully and left.

The next day, Song Yuanxi changed his appearance and clothes, then went to the Song family dressed in ordinary garments.

When the Song family head heard that a Song family disciple had come to visit, her expression turned surprised. “You’re saying he is a Song family branch member from elsewhere?”

The servant thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, “Reporting to the family head, that person said he is from the Song family’s direct line.”

Song Dongyou found this even harder to believe. The Song family’s direct line was far away, millions upon millions of li from here. Why had one of them suddenly come running to a place where even birds would not bother to shit? Could it be that a secret message had come from the main family?

Song Dongyou did not dare delay. She ordered the servant to quickly invite the person in, while she herself hurried to the front hall.

“You are a junior from the Song family’s direct line?” Song Dongyou looked at the young man before her. He was only at the fourth level of Qi Refining.

Song Yuanxi did not know the identity of the person who had arrived. “May I ask who you are?”

“I am the head of the Jin City Song family, Song Dongyou.”

Song Yuanxi froze for an instant. He probably had never imagined that the Song family head would personally come out to receive him. He truly felt flattered beyond measure. But he very quickly adjusted his state of mind so as not to reveal timidity.

He had never dared look down on any female cultivator in Canglan Realm. The cultivation world did not judge by gender, only cultivation level! The person before him could become the head of the Jin City Song family, so she must certainly have something extraordinary about her.

Song Yuanxi hurried forward and bowed respectfully. “This junior, Song Yuanxi, greets Family Head Song.”

“Song Yuanxi? Song Yuanxi… You are Song Qing’s son?!” Song Dongyou’s eyes suddenly brightened. Then, as though remembering something, she smiled and said, “When I went to the main family back then, I even held you. At the time, you were still in swaddling clothes, such a tiny little bundle. I didn’t expect you to have grown so big now.”

Song Yuanxi had not expected there to be such a connection, but he quickly extracted useful information from her words.

Since birth, he had been in Xuantian Sect and had even never left Redcloud Peak. Because of the old ancestor, the Song clan had a close relationship with Xuantian Sect, but that did not mean everyone could enter and leave the sect.

For a Song family branch line as remote as Jin City’s, even if its family head traveled to and from the main family, she would not make a special trip to visit Xuantian Sect. Unless that person had a rather close relationship with his elders.

She held me before? She should have a pretty good relationship with Father?

Song Yuanxi guessed inwardly and asked tentatively, “Family Head Song, I actually had the honor of being held by you? You and my father must have a very good relationship, right?”

Song Dongyou had lived for several hundred years. The bit of thought in the child before her could not be hidden in front of her no matter how he tried.

She laughed and said casually, “I have a decent private friendship with your mother. Your father and I, however, don’t get along.”

Song Yuanxi was rendered speechless. This was something he never would have expected.

Since he was the son of a friend and also a junior of the clan, Song Dongyou could not help showing concern for his situation. “Why did you suddenly come running to Jin City when everything was fine? Were you exiled by your father?”

Song Yuanxi said helplessly, “I was taking a teleportation array back to the sect. Who knew something would go wrong halfway through the teleportation array? I encountered a spatial current, and by the time I woke up, I was here.”

As for what he had encountered earlier, he skipped over it directly.

Song Dongyou lowered her head in thought. “In that case, I’m afraid you’ll have to stay here temporarily. Jin City’s teleportation array is currently under maintenance, and the nearest city to Jin City is tens of thousands of li away. Right now, it also happens to be the competition period, so I cannot spare myself to send you there…”

Only then did Song Yuanxi learn that he had actually arrived just in time for Jin City’s once-every-ten-years clan resource competition.

“The clan forces inside Jin City are complicated. To maintain balance and restraint, Sifang City has the cities under its jurisdiction hold competitions every ten years, using them to select and allocate resources. Although the Song family is a branch line, it has always been considered first-rate in Jin City and occupied half the resources. That was until forty years ago, when the Xu family produced a genius with a single earth spiritual root, and Sifang City secretly supported them…”

Song Miao had been assigned by the family head to look after Song Yuanxi. In her free time, she told him about Jin City’s situation over the years. Seeing that Song Yuanxi listened seriously and seemed quite interested, she unconsciously became talkative and complained a few lines.

Song Miao knew she had misspoken and awkwardly changed the topic. “I’ve been tired from cultivation lately, so I was just talking nonsense.”

Song Yuanxi nodded, but said, “Actually, I also think the Song family is being targeted. But even if it weren’t the Xu family, it might have been some other clan. That is an unchangeable fact.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The Song family’s old ancestor has a close relationship with Xuantian Sect, so the family can be considered naturally attached to the sect. The relationship between the three great sects and the four great powers has always been subtle. Jin City is under Sifang City’s jurisdiction, yet the Song family occupies more than half the cultivation resources here. If I were the lord of Sifang City, I’d also find the Song family unpleasant…”

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