The two sat facing each other around the fire, and time passed quickly without them noticing. As Song Qingming and Xu Ziyan were talking, a white light gradually appeared in the sky.
Seeing that it was already dawn, Xu Ziyan said hello to Song Qingming and stood up to return to the camp. After taking a few steps, she suddenly stopped, as if she thought of something, turned around and asked Song Qingming a question with a serious face.
"Fellow Daoist Song, I have something else to ask you. I heard from Junior Brother Wei Tong a few days ago that you had a good relationship with Fellow Daoist Feng, who died at the hands of the demonic cultivator. I wonder if you know any of his relatives and descendants in the market."
"Feng Daoyou? You mean Old Ghost Feng, right? Actually, he and I only met while carrying out missions together these past few months. I had an agreement with him to ask him for a small favor after I returned this time. Unexpectedly, things are unpredictable and this opportunity is no longer available. I wonder why Captain Xu is asking this?"
Xu Ziyan began, "When a cultivator who was carrying out a mission for the sect unfortunately dies outside, the sect will search for the cultivator's relatives and descendants and provide spiritual objects for their loss. Since I have taken over as the captain of the Eleventh Guard, this matter is now fully under my responsibility. The descendants of several other Daoists have already been found, except for Daoist Fellow Feng. After posting a notice in the market, no descendants of his have come forward to claim the compensation. I thought you knew him well, so I asked if you knew where his descendants are."
Song Qingming thought for a moment before continuing, "Captain Xu, you can ask Fellow Daoist Jia Sixing. He knew Fellow Daoist Feng earlier and might know something about him."
"Okay, thank you Brother Song for your guidance. I wonder what kind of help you need. Why don't you tell me? Even if I can't help you, I can ask other people for you in the future." Xu Ziyan saw that Song Qingming was worried about something, so she kindly asked him.
After a slight hesitation, Song Qingming smiled and said, "It's actually nothing special. When I first saw the puppet beast on Fellow Daoist Feng, I was envious. Later I learned that he bought this puppet beast from the black market of Bailong Mountain. It was my first time to go out for training, and I didn't know how to get to Bailong Mountain, so I made an appointment with him and used some spiritual objects to ask him to help take me to Bailong Mountain to try my luck. But I didn't expect that after we made the appointment, before we could set off, Fellow Daoist Feng would get into trouble." After speaking, Song Qingming sighed with some disappointment.
Xu Ziyan, upon learning of Song Qingming's worries, smiled and glanced at him, saying, "This isn't a difficult task for you. Bailong Mountain isn't too far from Guiyunfang. I went there once a year ago. If you want to go, Brother Song, I can just give you a map of Bailong Mountain."
"Don't you need an introduction to enter the Bailongshan black market?" Song Qingming asked with a puzzled look.
"Black market? Bailongshan is just a market smaller than Guiyunfang, so it can't be considered a black market. Who did you hear that from?"
"After I came back this time, I also asked many shops in the market about this matter. I didn't expect that no one knew about Bailong Mountain. I thought that place is so mysterious, it must be a black market."
Xu Ziyan chuckled after hearing this and said, "It's normal that you can't get any news about Bailong Mountain. Bailong Mountain Market wasn't established by Xiaoyao Sect. It's in competition with Guiyun Market. The sect elders have long issued a rule in the market, forbidding anyone from discussing matters related to Bailong Mountain. The time I went to Bailong Mountain, I went secretly with Senior Sister Gao without telling Master. You better not spread this around, or Senior Sister Gao will cause trouble for you in the future."
After talking with Xu Ziyan, Song Qingming finally learned the specific situation of Bailong Mountain. After hearing the end, he couldn't help but touch his forehead.
According to Xu Ziyan, Bailong Mountain was a small market town jointly built by several foundation-building cultivators near Guiyunfang several decades ago. It was much smaller than Guiyunfang and only slightly larger than Qinghefang.
Bailong Mountain is closer to the Fuyun Mountain Range, and is close to the border between the Fuyun Mountain Range and Wei State. There are also many independent cultivators settled here.
Over the past few decades, in order to compete with Guiyunfang, Bailongshan Market has released many precious spiritual objects that are difficult to buy in Guiyunfang, attracting many cultivators from the vicinity of Fuyun Mountains to go there. It has developed better and better over the past few decades and has also attracted some cultivators who originally lived in Guiyunfang.
In order to minimize the impact of Bailong Mountain, Guiyunfang had no choice but to prohibit people from talking about Bailong Mountain in the market. As a result, it would be difficult for cultivators like Song Qingming who had just arrived at Guiyunfang to find out the news about Bailong Mountain in Guiyunfang.
However, even if Guiyunfang uses this method to prohibit cultivators from talking about the Bailong Mountain market, it will only have a temporary impact. For someone like Song Qingming, who has been in the market for a maximum of half a year and has made some acquaintances, it will be easy for him to find out the news about Bailong Mountain.
At the beginning, Old Man Shi and Old Ghost Feng deliberately described Bailong Mountain as a black market in front of Song Qingming. In fact, they just wanted to take advantage of the information gap and get some benefits from Song Qingming.
However, although these two people had gained some benefits, one of them was now dead and the other was almost half-dead. Song Qingming felt a little amused and helpless about this.
After getting the map of Bailong Mountain from Xu Ziyan, Song Qingming was grateful to her. After Feng Laogui's death, Song Qingming had been unable to find any news about Bailong Mountain in Guiyunfang, and he felt a little lost for a while. Unexpectedly, after meeting Xu Ziyan today, things suddenly took a turn for the better.
After dealing with Xu Ziyan these days, Song Qingming also discovered that she gave him some different feelings.
Although Xu Ziyan is also an inner disciple of the Xiaoyao Sect, she is not like most of the Xiaoyao Sect cultivators who look down on those cultivators who come from small families. Even when facing Song Qingming, whose cultivation level is much lower than hers, Xu Ziyan treats him with courtesy and never looks down on him.
Unconsciously, Song Qingming also developed some feelings for her.
After giving the map of Bailong Mountain to Song Qingming, Xu Ziyan returned to the camp and instructed everyone to pack up and continue on their journey.
After walking for another three days, everyone finally arrived at the area where they were assigned this mission.
This time, because the Eleven Guards had just suffered a heavy blow, and the newly joined Xiaoyao Sect disciples still lacked experience, Liu Xingfeng, who was arranging the tasks, specially allocated a safer area for them.
This mission lasted for more than two months, and everyone did not encounter any major crises. Only a few times, the newly joined Xiaoyao Sect disciples accidentally provoked some difficult high-level monsters, and their situation was a little embarrassing for a while.
However, after they sent out a distress signal, Xu Ziyan quickly took action herself and easily resolved the situation. No one was injured until they returned to Guiyunfang to rest.
The original captain of the Eleventh Guard, Lu Yunfei, assigned tasks rather haphazardly and never left the camp except for necessary support.
In comparison, Xu Ziyan, who took over, was much more meticulous in his actions. He would carefully consider candidates when assigning tasks, and would often visit the areas where they were performing their tasks to protect and guide those monks with less experience.
More than two months later, Song Qingming and his team, who had successfully completed their mission, returned to Qinghefang. After this mission, they were given more than half a month to rest.
Song Qingming returned to Guiyunfang again, but he was not in a hurry to go to Bailong Mountain. Instead, he went against his usual habit and sat in the Feiyunwei base all day.