181: Chapter 171 181: Chapter 171 “Really?
Didn’t see the girls outside?” Liu Jiaojiao’s adoring eyes revealed the thoughts of a young girl on her face, looking a bit cute and naive.
“I didn’t pay attention…” Luo Yaxuan shook his head, feeling that his junior sister’s mind was filled with such thoughts.
Generally, women in the Cultivation World marry late; considering his junior sister’s young age, her overtly expressive demeanor was a bit too much for him to handle.
Liu Jiaojiao clung to Luo Yaxuan until after they had dinner, keeping guard to prevent Luo Yaxuan from going out and staying in his room the whole time.
Finally, under Xiao Xiang’s calling, Liu Jiaojiao returned to her own room.
Luo Yaxuan, feeling somewhat helpless, shook his head and went on patrol in the high skies with his master as arranged.
At dawn, after they had completed their patrol, Luo Yaxuan received a transmission from Lai Jianlin.
Master He, while patrolling high above during the night, also felt that Immortal Venerable City was somewhat eerie in the darkness—a premonition of danger approaching, though the exact threat was yet to be discovered.
After receiving the transmission from Lai Jianlin, which mentioned that a person from another nation had arrived in Immortal Venerable City and installed some sort of dangerous device that posed a threat to cultivators,
Luo Yaxuan confirmed the news was true and then told his master, Liu Yong.
Upon hearing this, Liu Yong contacted his wife, Xiao Xiang, and they reached out to various sects, urging them to take strict precautions and arranged for their own Immortal Sect disciples to patrol in shifts.
******
Tang Feiyang had gone out last night and encountered a man in black, but as if that man had seen him, he became invisible, and Tang Feiyang couldn’t trace him.
He searched all around and found something resembling the explosives mortals use for blasting rocks.
Tang Feiyang brought the item back to his residence, where, by now, daylight had broken, and his cousin was in his room.
“Cousin, where did you go?
You weren’t out all night, were you?”
The maiden in red saw her cousin’s somewhat haggard face and looked at him with concerned affection.
“I’m fine,” Tang Feiyang said after drinking a cup of tea and finishing the breakfast the servants had brought him.
He summoned a group of Juren.
All of them were scholars from the academy, studying at the Imperial College.
Mostly from rich families or royal nobility, they found everything quite novel in this place.
They all drank and ate meat last night, and having just woken up from their drunken stupor, they had agreed to go out for a street stroll today.
Upon hearing the summoning call, the scholars who were eating their breakfast hurriedly ran out to the courtyard, some with pastries in hand, some with stuffed buns.
“Tang senior brother, couldn’t you have let us finish our breakfast before summoning us?
Look, we’re all still hungry.
You’re not going to put us to work, are you?” said one of the scholars, shaking his head with evident resentment in his voice.
The others nodded in agreement while snacking on the food they had in hand.
“Tang senior brother, you’re not going to stop us from going to the streets, right?
We haven’t even had a chance to explore Immortal Venerable City yet,” another disciple spoke up.
“Yeah!
What’s fun in Immortal Venerable City?
We don’t know anything about it.”
Tang Feiyang listened to each of their comments, his expression serious as he looked at them and took a package out of his bag.
“If you came here to play, then go ahead, play to your heart’s content.
But if you get killed out of the blue, your senior brother here won’t take responsibility.”
“What, we’ll be killed?
Senior brother, what’s going on?” A wealthy student, unaccustomed to talk of death, asked anxiously.
“We were told on arrival that we have a mission to gather information, and there might be danger here.
If you aren’t careful, you could be killed without even knowing what happened.
You should be aware that you’re here on a mission, not for amusement.
If you indulge in play without doing your work, being killed would served you right.”
Tang Feiyang glanced at his company.
Which of them looked ready to get things done?
Why had he brought a bunch of obstinate disciples on this mission?
What he hated most was that when tasked with a mission, these people secured their names on the list through connections.
Instead of being helpful, they could end up being a liability and make him responsible for any consequences.
“Brother Tang, what is this?” one of the stubborn disciples asked.
“This is the explosive used for blasting rocks.
You must know that some quarries use this stuff to break big rocks into smaller ones,” he explained.
“Brother, why do you have this?
Could it be that someone wants to blow up Immortal Venerable City?” A slightly more perceptive disciple figured out the troubling implication, which caused him to break out in a cold sweat.
“That’s correct.
Last night, when I was on surveillance, I noticed some dark figures walking the streets.
Those people had the art of invisibility.
Eventually, I traced their footsteps and found this.
It’s possible they’re related to the target of our mission, but this is all I found.”
“How vicious they must be, wanting to doom us all.
And we don’t even know where they are; we could have been dead already.”
“Brother, just tell me what to do.”
Tang Feiyang, who had been watching these obstinate disciples carelessly playing around, felt somewhat relieved when they seemed to develop a sense of responsibility once the matter became about life and death.
He immediately assigned them duties to patrol in shifts.
Thus, the wealthy young disciples started to take responsibility, keeping watch in their residences by turns and forming several groups to gather information on the streets.
“Cousin, let me help with something too,” the lady in red appeared, standing in the yard and causing the students from the Imperial College to widen their eyes.
They had seen this beautiful woman yesterday.
They had seen more beautiful women in the Imperial City and were unimpressed but, after arriving in Immortal Venerable City, found the women from the imperial capital to be even more enchanting.
They realized that they couldn’t touch the women of the Cultivation World; they were simply too formidable.
Their different cultivation paths meant they could not be partners.
“Cousin, you can’t go out.
I’ve heard that this group of people is very strange; they might even kidnap women.
Cousin, I can’t guarantee your safety.
There are just too many powerful individuals here.”
Tang Feiyang looked at her earnestly and spoke to the lady in red.
The lady in red pouted, looking at her cousin, and saw that he did not seem to be lying.
“Alright then!
But can I at least go watch when there’s an Immortal Sect competition?” she asked.
“You can’t.
It will be even more complicated then.
You know that with the appearance of such items, chaos might ensue.”
“Isn’t that why you all will be there?
Won’t all the sects be vigilant?”
“There will be vigilance, but it’s hard to completely safeguard against dangerous items.
And our abilities are not strong enough yet, especially yours, cousin.
It’s safer for you to stay inside the residence.”
“No way, it would be a pity to come to Immortal Venerable City and not be able to stroll the streets or watch the competitions,” she protested.
“What’s more important than safety?
That settles it.”
Tang Feiyang arranged for disciples to go on the mission and assigned two to specifically watch over his cousin.
After such an incident, he felt the need to consult with those who had accompanied him on the mission.
At that moment, he thought of Ye Tian.
Although their cultivation was different, they shared the same responsibility of guardianship.
Tang Feiyang did not consider Liu Tao, feeling that man was unreliable.