607: Chapter 423 607: Chapter 423 The Marquis had passed out in the shopkeeper’s storage bag before and had no idea how the shopkeeper managed to get to this place.
It was only later on the ship that he realized the shopkeeper wasn’t very capable; no wonder he was tracked and killed.
At this moment, he truly felt the advantages of being a powerful being in the Cultivation World, where each of their magical treasures was more formidable than the last.
This was also something he envied but could not emulate; his practice was not the kind of cultivation spells of the Cultivation World.
His training belonged to the martial arts of their Blood Clan and, like him, who had inherited a magic wand, it was all about using the magic wand to vanquish enemies.
A drawback of the magic wand was that if someone restrained him, he couldn’t use his own physical strength, and thus, the magic ark was useless.
The Marquis had a magic wand that could cast illusion techniques, allowing him to escape quickly and restore parts of the forest that were destroyed to their original state or repair objects that were damaged.
But he didn’t possess a flying treasure that could keep him soaring through the high skies indefinitely, nor did his family’s heritage include one; witnessing Su Chang’an place spirit stones into the magical treasure left him in awe.
Such spirit stones were beyond his means to use; occasionally, he had some gold coins, which were obtained by trading medicinal herbs.
For thousands of years, his family had lived on the mountain, and the little foundation left by his ancestors had been used up in secrecy.
When the Marquis set out, he was like a country bumpkin, enviously eyeing the treasures others carried on their person.
Under the Marquis’ envious gaze, Su Chang’an felt somewhat unnatural.
Although many of his possessions were first-rate and desired by many, no one looked at him with such envious eyes.
He knew that the Marquis truly envied him because of their different cultivation methods.
Perhaps the Marquis’ family wasn’t as wealthy and had never encountered such remarkable magical treasures.
This reminded him of his initial encounter with Jiang Tang, who, despite struggling to sell goods and save money for setting up a shop, was not very capable.
Hence, upon seeing that Su Chang’an was already a Nascent Soul at such a young age, he looked at him with envy.
In the blink of an eye, a month had passed, and Jiang Tang had made a triumphant return, laden with secret treasures.
It was then that Su Chang’an found himself envious of Jiang Tang.
Even now, Su Chang’an still didn’t fully grasp the secrets that Jiang Tang held, or how he acquired his profound Alchemy skills, the secret manuals he possessed, and where he sourced the ingredients to auction and sell Supreme Elixirs.
With so many secrets and mysteries surrounding him, it was no wonder that Great Power Holders pursued him.
Perhaps not everyone knew it was him, but something had been exposed that drew these powerful beings to track him.
At this point, Su Chang’an was still unaware that it wasn’t Jiang Tang who had exposed the secrets outside, inciting these Great Power Holders to track them down.
Instead, it was their partner, Ye Tian, who had revealed the gold and silver energies, leading these powerful beings to follow the trail and even seek help from Jiang Tang.
Several days had already passed, and the situation was becoming increasingly complex, eventually drawing Su Chang’an into it as well.
Su Chang’an’s flying artifact took a whole hour to reach the harbor of another country.
He and the Marquis looked down and saw only the charred remains of ships at the harbor, with an unpleasant scent still lingering in the air.
Far from the dockside, a crowd surrounded the area.
These people’s appearances and stature made it clear they were foreigners, with some sneaking glances as if they didn’t belong to this nation—perhaps another group was spying.
Dead bodies lay on the dock; the women who had been confined in cages had their ropes untied.
However, dressed in scant clothing and huddled together in a shivering, wretched state, they looked upon the people on the shore as if they were seeing ferocious beasts.
In their blank expressions, silver spots kept swirling above their heads.
The women’s eyes tracked the bright, colored spots in the sky, believing them to be Heavenly Gods coming to their rescue.
They prayed in their hearts for salvation and dared not hope for help from the well-dressed people onshore—among whom were some of their own kin calling them to land.
How could the women trust those who appeared kind but harbored the hearts of demons, when betrayed by their own relatives?
At that moment, in their eyes and hearts, only the silver spots flying above were their benevolent saviors, and they trusted only these silver beacons of hope.
Time ticked away slowly.
As the villains of our story departed, an hour had elapsed.
The silver luster gleamed protectively above their heads, yet had not taken them away to a place of safety.
The women’s hearts slowly began to sink, believing that God, who had saved them, now found their bodies too defiled and no longer wished to shelter them.
The girls felt that if they returned, they would certainly be sold and abused like before, living lives akin to that of beasts.
Some began to cry again, ceaselessly praying for the Heavenly God to take them to a safe place where they would never have to see these demons again.
Those Great Power Holders in the sky, although they didn’t physically intervene to save the people, felt that these insects were offering help.
Interfering at this moment would have seemed less kind than the insects’ actions, and as the highest-powered beings, they felt somewhat ashamed.
This was also why they didn’t act when the insects didn’t make any moves; they watched without intervening.
Even though they had no intention of rescuing these suffering women, if it had been people from their own country, perhaps they would have acted, allowing their nation’s officials to handle the matter.
But right now, they were standing in the airspace of another nation, where one wrong move could lead to conflict.
The Great Powers did not wish to cause trouble.
Every nation had its own strong warriors, and if no one from another country was harassing their own, they adhered to peace, never initiating conflict but also unafraid to face it.
Seeing that the insects only rescued people of that nation, with no relation to their own race, they simply observed without acting or preventing the insects from doing good deeds.
These capable beings started to admire and envy the master who had trained such formidable pets.
Judging by the insects’ behavior in rescuing people, their master must be a kind person, certainly not someone evil.
These beings, who had lived for over a thousand years, wondered if the other was an ancient being like themselves or if it was a young person with such clear insight.
If it were a young person with such impressive abilities, by this time, they all believed that one who could so deftly control these formidable insects was surely at the Divinity Transformation Stage, and definitely an older individual than themselves.
Su Chang’an noticed that the onlookers took no action, and he wasn’t afraid to stir up trouble.
He asked the Marquis how he intended to settle those women.
“I will ask them, if they wish to return to their homeland, we will send them back; if they do not wish to return, I must trouble you, my friend, to help take these women back with us.
I can arrange for them to stay in my stockade,” said the Marquis.
Su Chang’an nodded without saying much and began to descend in the Flying Artifact, which caught the attention of the Great Power Holders.
The insects, too, saw it and realized it was time to leave as this was someone sent by their master; thus, they quickly flew away unnoticed by the others.
The Great Power Holders…
were caught unprepared again; these insects were cunning indeed.
The people on the shore saw it too, and the group of trembling women saw it as well.
Su Chang’an watched the Great Power Holders give chase, knowing there was no longer a greater power threatening him here.
He and the Marquis stood aboard the Flying Artifact, clearly seen by the women and the people on the shore as two handsome and dashing men, one of whom was a member of their own family.
The insects that had protected them left when the two men appeared, and the women believed these were the saviors sent by God.
The Marquis, upon seeing the women in such dire straits, felt a great anger and wished to find the trafficking ring and destroy them all to prevent further harm.
He then gave the women a choice, to return to their homeland or to come with him to another place to live, a location also inhabited by hidden members of their kinfolk.
Though the women considered them to be Heavenly Gods sent to their rescue, the ordeal had left them deeply scared, and they were not so easily trusting anymore.
After the Marquis’s family had moved to the Cultivation World over a thousand years ago, the family members still spoke their native language and only learned the language of the Cultivation World when interacting with the outside world.