Wei Changgen withdrew his hand, the spiritual light at his fingertips dissipating.
"How strange. Such a huge commotion, yet not a trace of spiritual energy?"
He frowned slightly at the black ash on the ground, a flicker of doubt in his eyes.
What is this?
He crouched down, pinched some of the black ash, and held it under his nose to smell.
Hmm?
Why does this smell so similar to when those old geezers on Dan Peak have a cauldron explosion?
Did someone's pill refinement fail?
Wei Changgen paused, then shook his head.
What was he thinking?
Who would refine pills in the middle of the street? This definitely wasn't cauldron dregs.
Wei Changgen clapped the dust from his hands, stood up, and waved to the other disciples. "Continue your patrol."
No spiritual energy fluctuations, no signs of a fight... although it was strange, it shouldn't be anything serious.
"Yes, sir!"
The disciples bowed and left the alley, returning to their designated areas to continue their patrol.
Wei Changgen glanced around again. Just as he was about to fly off, he suddenly heard curses coming from an adjacent alley, faintly catching the name "Feng Yang."
Who's cursing an elder of our Dan Peak?
With a stern expression, Wei Changgen shot toward the source of the sound, appearing at Feng Ling'er's side in an instant.
"Who are you, and why are you spouting such insolence here?"
Feng Ling'er was sitting on the ground, still cursing loudly in the direction Bai Chen had left.
Wei Changgen's sudden appearance gave her a huge fright.
After a moment, she recognized the Hexu Sect elder's token hanging from Wei Changgen's waist and asked tentatively, "Are you an elder of the Hexu Sect?"
Wei Changgen's brow furrowed slightly.
*What a rude little girl.*
Feng Ling'er immediately burst into tears with a loud "Waaah!"
"I want to see my uncle! Someone bullied me! The Hexu Sect has to get justice for me!"
Wei Changgen couldn't help but shut his eyes, assailed by her wails, which were like a demonic screech piercing his ears. He raised his voice and barked.
"Silence! Who are you, and who is your uncle? Stand up and answer me."
The shout, imbued with spiritual energy, instantly stunned Feng Ling'er into silence.
Feng Ling'er hiccupped, sniffling as she got up from the ground. "My name is Feng Ling'er. My uncle is Dan Peak's Elder Feng Yang."
"You're Feng Yang's niece, Feng Ling'er?"
Wei Changgen couldn't help but size her up in surprise.
"Weren't you supposed to be brought directly to the sect by the escorting envoys? How did you end up here?"
On the Xuancang Continent, aside from children who could trigger celestial phenomena at birth and were taken into the sects for protection early on, everyone else could only have their Spiritual Root aptitude tested at the age of fifteen.
Ordinary people who wanted to find out if they had a Spiritual Root had to go to the various sects themselves to be tested at the Disciple Recruitment Ceremonies.
However, for the great clans with immense power and numerous kin, nearby sects would dispatch escorting envoys to their family estates to test their recommended candidates.
Those who qualified would be escorted directly back to the sect, bypassing the need to attend the Disciple Recruitment Ceremony.
Feng Ling'er's family, the Feng Clan, fell into this category thanks to their connection with Feng Yang.
And since she was considered "kin of the sect," more than one envoy—all with considerable cultivation levels—had been sent to escort her.
There was no reason she should be here all by herself. It was too abnormal.
Hearing Wei Changgen's question, Feng Ling'er was overcome with a fresh wave of sorrow and began to tell her story through sobs.
"I was on my way from home to the Hexu Sect, escorted by the envoys, when we were suddenly ambushed by the Demon Clan! The Hexu Sect envoys were no match for them at all. I was almost killed on the road!"
At this, she cried even harder, her shoulders shaking with sobs.
"I barely managed to make it into Shunhe Square. I thought I'd finally be safe on the sect's territory, but then I ran into three disgusting hooligans who cornered and harassed me!"
She abruptly lifted her tear-streaked face and accused him indignantly.
"And then there was this sneaky lecher! He popped out of nowhere and set off something that made a huge bang. It scared me to death!
"As if scaring me wasn't enough, he grabbed my hand and dragged me away! I cursed him, but he wouldn't listen! Elder Uncle, you have to find that bastard! He took such liberties with me! I swear I'll skin that bastard alive!"
Feng Ling'er's face was a mess of tears and snot as she spoke, looking as if she had suffered the greatest injustice in the world.
But Wei Changgen's frown only deepened.
*So she was the girl from the pair Chen Shouqing mentioned earlier, the man and woman who were being chased.*
*Based on Chen Shouqing's report and her own account, this girl seems to be a White-Eyed Wolf.*
After entering Shunhe Square, she was accosted by local thugs, and it was the so-called "lecher" who saved her using an artifact called a "Thunderous Firecracker."
But not only was she ungrateful, she even called her savior a lecher and now wanted to hunt him down to repay his kindness with cruelty.
Displeasure was already evident in Wei Changgen's eyes as he looked at Feng Ling'er.
That fellow Feng Yang was usually quiet and unassuming, seemingly without desires or ambitions.
How could his own flesh and blood have such a character?
"Quiet."
"I'll take you back to the Mountain Gate."
With a stony face, Wei Changgen grabbed Feng Ling'er by the scruff of her neck and shot into the air, heading for the Mountain Gate.
He would hand her over to Feng Yang. He was curious to see how Feng Yang would deal with this "fine" niece of his.
*
Every time Bai Chen rounded a corner, he would first stop, listen intently for any sound, and quickly scan the alley behind him with his peripheral vision.
Only after confirming no one was following would he continue weaving through the alleys.
He took three winding turns, deliberately went down a dead-end alley, and then climbed out the back window of an abandoned warehouse before finally making his way toward the small courtyard he rented.
The courtyard he rented was in the most remote corner of Shunhe Square.
With its earthen walls and a wicker gate, it looked no different from the surrounding farmhouses.
When Bai Chen reached the gate, he didn't push it open immediately. Instead, he crouched down and peered into the gap beneath the threshold.
Before he left, he had wedged three thin blades of grass there.
The three blades of grass were still in the same crossed pattern he had arranged them in that morning, showing no signs of being disturbed.
Bai Chen nodded slightly, pushed the gate open, and walked in. He went to his front door and once again examined the latch.
He had tied a single strand of hair to it, with one end on the door ring and the other tucked into a crack in the wooden latch.
The strand of hair was also intact, neither broken nor displaced.
Moving to the window, he confirmed that the leaf he had wedged in the frame was still there before finally pushing the door open and entering the house.
Once inside, he latched the door behind him and dragged a stone slab from beside the entrance to brace it shut.
Then, he scurried under the bed and finally let out a long sigh of relief.
"Phew, safe for now."
He knew that in a world of cultivation, these measures couldn't stop anyone with actual power, but he was guarding against petty villains.
He had spent too much money these past few days; it was inevitable that he'd be targeted by hooligans like Skinny Monkey.
Better safe than sorry.
Just now, his focus had been entirely on escaping. He had only heard the System announce the successful copy, but he hadn't caught the gibberish it spouted afterward.
*Something about the first successful copy? Whatever it was, I didn't remember it.*
Bai Chen pulled off the cloth covering his face and excitedly called up his status panel to check it.
Proofreader: Peter Pan