Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
This was the frightening thing about the Spirit Energy Information Age. Many cultivators who had gone into seclusion back then had never thought that the cultivation world would develop to this extent; with one swipe of a third generation ID card, it could instantly be picked up by systems everywhere.
The Skynet System in Warden Liang’s office was a super computer that could hunt down criminals and which covered the whole country. Currently, it was Huaxiu nation’s largest strike back at crime. Apart from helping to quickly lock onto suspects through facial comparisons drawn from surveillance all over, one of its functions was the third generation ID card network system.
It was just that it worked much quicker than Wang Ling had imagined, and had overturned everyone else’s impression of it. It had been a mere five minutes since their ID cards had been verified, but far away in Songhai city, Odd Zhuo had actually already received the news…
After listening to Odd Zhuo’s voice on the phone, Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal and the rest relaxed.
Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal: “After all that, turns out it was Little Zhuo who sent this car.”
“Who is Little Zhuo?” asked Fatty Luo.
Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal: “His full name is Odd Zhuo, Director of Songhai city’s General Administration of 100 Schools, and also our Ling Zhenren’s disciple. I’ll introduce him to all of you next time.”
“Oh, that Little Zhuo!” Cailian Zhenren and Dharmaraja were hit with realization.
They remained where they were, and that black commercial car with azure government licence plates slowly approached them before coming to a gradual stop.
The window was wound down, and Wang Ling saw a young man about thirty years old in a suit and sporting a typical buzz cut. As soon as the window was down, he greeted Wang Ling with a smile. “Are you Teacher Wang Ling?”
The young man looked at him.
Odd Zhuo knew that since this young man hadn’t met Wang Ling before, even if he was given a photo, it would instantly turn into mosaic tiles, so Odd Zhuo had simply told him that Wang Ling was a youngster with a poker face.
And so, the young man could pick him out with one glance, and was sure that this was the right person!
Teacher… Wang Ling…
Wang Ling’s lips twitched again — when had he picked up this title?
“My name is Victory Zhao. Teacher Zhuo sent me to pick up seniors.” The young man introduced himself simply. “Seniors, please get in. For the next two days, if you have any arrangements, please do not hesitate to tell me what you need.”
Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal raised his eyebrows. “Since when did Little Zhuo accept a disciple?”
Victory Zhao smiled in embarrassment. “Actually, I’m Deputy Director of the General Administration of 100 High Schools in Winter city. I asked Teacher Zhuo to take me on as his disciple not so long ago so that I could watch the way he worked.”
Oh, so it was as a work mentor…
Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal immediately understood.
If Odd Zhuo was the man’s shifu in cultivation, then Wang Ling had become a shigong 1 .
If this was the case, then this young man had truly lucked out!
…
In the car, Victory Zhao gripped the steering wheel firmly and felt a little nervous.
Odd Zhuo had specially told him that the group which had come to Winter city were all renowned great seniors in the cultivation circle in Songhai, and he wasn’t to offend anyone. In particular, he had been told to be especially respectful of Ling Zhenren, the youngest-looking and the most handsome of them all, who had an expressionless face and didn’t like to speak.
Furthermore, as Odd Zhuo had instructed, Victory Zhao had even prepared crispy noodle snacks, which were inside the glove compartment of the front passenger seat.
But until now, he still hadn’t had the nerves to give them to Wang Ling.
Staring at the glove compartment, Victory Zhao sighed in his heart before looking diffidently in the rearview mirror. “Seniors… where do you want to go?”
“Do you know Sanyuan Road?” Fatty Luo came close to ask, a map in his hand.
“Sanyuan Road?” Victory Zhao nodded his head. “It’s a very remote road on the outskirts of Winter city. But this place is enveloped in dense spirit energy, so a great number of sect headquarters from history were located here, like White Dragon Temple, Fortune Dragon Sword Sect and many others. But over time, the chill from the extreme north moved into Winter city, and the temperature here dropped even further. After that, all these sects relocated, since disciples at the Foundation Establishment stage couldn’t stand the chilly weather at all.”
“White Dragon Temple and Fortune Dragon Sword Sect?”
Hearing this, Wang Ling’s interest was piqued; it wasn’t just him, Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal and the others all had intrigued expressions.
White Dragon Temple was well-known for its Eight Diagram Array, while Fortune Dragon Sword Sect was famous nationwide for its Sky-Parting Sword technique. Although these two sects didn’t have long histories, they were cradles for nurturing Foundation Establishment stage cultivators. Furthermore, there were branch institutions all over the country, and were regarded as the Lanxiang of the excavator world 2 .
Victory Zhao was a Winter city native, and had grown up here, so he was familiar with its customs and geography. It could be said that Odd Zhuo had truly found the right person this time to receive Wang Ling and his group.
Seeing the seniors’ curious looks, Victory Zhao thought for a bit before continuing, “Of course, everyone says that the two sects left Winter city because of the environment, but there’s also talk that the two sects had been forced to leave.”
Hearing this, Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal’s heart jumped and he perked up. “Such as?”
“Some say that the heads of the two sects left after receiving a small fortune. There are also others who say that they were coerced. Whatever the case, the situation wasn’t good.” Victory Zhao laughed bitterly. In fact, this wasn’t a secret in Winter city, but though most people had heard of it, no one really knew the details.
Nevertheless, he still told them what he knew on their way to Sanyuan Road.
It had all started with White Dragon Temple and Fortune Dragon Sword Sect’s old sites on Sanyuan Road. These two sects had established their headquarters here, like McDonald’s and KFC opening opposite each other, each of them occupying one half of the spirit vein on Sanyuan Road.
Even now, spirit veins as a resource were very rare in the country, and throughout the years, these two sects had each occupied one half of it. Senior officials from the Land Resource Bureau had tried to negotiate with them numerous times, but all in vain. However, around ten years ago, both sects had moved away one after another.
Victory Zhao didn’t know the reason for this, but Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal thought that it would make sense if Immortal Mansion had been involved.
“So, who is the owner of this spirit vein on Sanyuan Road now?”
“I don’t know; all I know is that it isn’t the nation nor the two sects. Rumor is that the lands which belonged to the two sects have all been bought up,” Victory Zhao said as he drove.
“How can you not know?”
Victory Zhao’s lips thinned as he said, “As for this… the spirit vein is actually highly classified information, and only upper management has access to it. Besides, the strangest thing is that there are no buildings on this spirit vein on Sanyuan Road.”
No buildings?
Were they hidden?
Everyone in the car was bewildered.