Chapter 1412: Chapter 1413: Is she really pretending to be a person?
Li Xiaobai smiled warmly and spoke, seemingly like a newcomer making his debut.
With Nangong Menglu as cover, his cargo could be safely delivered into the city.
“Brother, don’t worry. My Nangong Family and the Baihe Family of Cangtian City have been close allies for generations. Stick with us, and you’ll surely live the high life!”
Yang Xiu hadn’t noticed at all the subtle tension in the atmosphere, continuing to speak obliviously.
In their eyes, Li Xiaobai had already been marked as a countryside bumpkin with some resources. The plan was simple: keep this bumpkin nearby for now, wait for the opportunity to snatch the resources and wealth from his hands, and then kick him to the curb.
“May I ask, which clan is this Nangong Family part of? Are they a renowned family within Cangtian City?”
“And the Baihe Family—they sound like they might be connected to the Cangtian White Crane Sect?”
“I don’t know much, Brother Yang, don’t trick me!”
Li Xiaobai asked, putting on the persona of an unworldly bumpkin. Nobody would find him suspicious this way.
“The Nangong Family belongs to the Heavenly God Academy’s lineage. In terms of strength and status, they far exceed anything in a small place like Cangtian City!”
“Our young lady is the direct descendant of the Nangong Family. Her noble status is beyond imagination. You need only know that we come from a higher echelon. If you manage to perform impressively at tonight’s banquet and gain the favor of our young lady, you might even be brought into the Heavenly God Academy as a gatekeeper. Mind you, that’s an opportunity countless others desperately wish for!”
“As for the Baihe Family, they are indeed somewhat connected to the Baihe Sect. More than half of the disciples recruited by the Cangtian White Crane Sect each year come from the Baihe Family—it’s considered one of the prominent families within Cangtian City.”
Yang Xiu spoke proudly, carrying an air of arrogance as he mentioned the Nangong Family. This family was extraordinary, far beyond what ordinary clans could compare to.
Today, their journey to the Baihe Family was indeed for a business deal, but Yang Xiu had looked down on Cangtian City from the very beginning.
Heavenly God Academy?
Li Xiaobai silently committed the name to memory—it sounded like a formidable force worth investigating if given the chance in the future.
“I didn’t expect Miss Nangong to be so impressive. At the banquet tonight, I’ll make sure to perform well. Brother Yang, I must ask for your kind words on my behalf!”
Li Xiaobai’s eyes lit up, and he spoke excitedly.
“That’s more like it. Brother, I saw your golden war chariot earlier—it’s quite spectacular. That’s as much of a hint as I’ll give; I don’t need to explain any further, do I?”
Yang Xiu observed Li Xiaobai’s compliance and nodded satisfactorily.
“Got it, got it. Many thanks, Brother Yang!”
Li Xiaobai’s face beamed with joy as he nodded eagerly like a pecking chick, behaving incredibly obediently.
…
Cangtian City, sprawling and grand.
It was only after truly stepping inside that one could grasp the breadth of its vastness. Calling it merely a city seemed an understatement—it was more akin to a nation. In fact, if one were to compare it, this city alone was equivalent to one of the four continents of the Central Origin Realm. Its expansive scale was simply astonishing, and this was just a single city. One could scarcely imagine how magnificent and vast the entirety of the Immortal Gods Realm must be.
The roads were so wide that Li Xiaobai briefly thought he was walking in open fields. The buildings on either side were grand and imposing, stretching endlessly into the distance.
This was what one would truly call a city. In comparison, the sects of the Central Origin Realm seemed like mere backyard gardens. However, what surprised Li Xiaobai was that despite such a vast and bustling environment, there were unexpectedly no cultivators setting up stalls to sell resources.
The streets were teeming with people, yet not a single one stopped by the roadside to conduct business.
The carriage advanced steadily. Nangong Menglu and her entourage were clearly accustomed to this, heading straight toward a specific destination.
A short hour later.
The group arrived at an estate.
The gates were tightly shut, and a plaque hung high above, with four bold characters carved in an elegant, sweeping script: Cangtian White Crane!
This wasn’t the Baihe Sect; rather, it was the Baihe Clan, the largest supplier of cultivators for the sect.
“Once we’re inside, don’t look around aimlessly. Don’t gaze where you shouldn’t, don’t ask questions, and act as though you’re deaf and mute. Do you hear me? Otherwise, your personal loss will be minor, but if it implicates our young lady, I’ll make sure you don’t walk away unscathed!”
Yang Xiu whispered to Li Xiaobai, though he still harbored thoughts of robbing him of his resources. Now was not the time to act rashly.
“Understood, understood. I’ll just follow my goods and go nowhere else!”
Li Xiaobai nodded earnestly and kept close to the rear of the carriage, looking nervous and unsophisticated as if he were someone inexperienced in dealing with all this.
The carriage halted before the gates, and Nangong Menglu, the woman in the plain dress, stepped out gracefully. She glanced at Li Xiaobai, her brows furrowing slightly as she said, “Each person should stick to their own matters. How can you be this careless? Quickly return the goods to their rightful owners—don’t break the rules!”
“Miss, this Brother Li is new to the area and unfamiliar with customs. I took the liberty of contacting a buyer on his behalf to forge a bit of goodwill. Let him accompany us for now,”
Yang Xiu said with a grin.
“Don’t make trouble!”
Nangong Menglu’s eyes flickered briefly. After tossing out those words, she paid him no further heed, turning instead to knock on the door and speak to the cultivators within.
“Move, move, move!”
“Miss is ahead heading into the main hall. We servants should park the carriage aside and await orders—don’t give others cause to criticize. Come help!”
As the gates opened, Yang Xiu quickly called out. He and Li Xiaobai began to pull the carriage to the side.
The rest of the group followed Nangong Menglu into the main hall, while the two of them accompanied the Baihe Clan’s servants to a side room, where the stables and storage for miscellaneous goods were located.
“Brother Li, unload the cargo!”
“Tonight, you’ll rest here. Tomorrow morning, I’ll personally find you a buyer among the city’s most reputable merchants. You won’t be short-changed, I promise!”
Yang Xiu tied the reins forward and spoke to Li Xiaobai enthusiastically.
He could already imagine the moment later tonight when this bumpkin offended the Baihe Sect and met a tragic end. The foolish man actually believed he had encountered a benevolent soul in Yang Xiu, when in reality, Yang Xiu was already plotting his demise.
“Thank you, Brother Yang! You’re truly a wonderful person!”
Li Xiaobai cheerfully carried sack after sack into the storage room, each bag heavy enough to make the ground reverberate with dull thuds.
As the room filled with dust and debris, Yang Xiu’s curiosity was piqued. It couldn’t just be medicinal ingredients—such weight wasn’t right. Each sack felt as though it was filled with lead—it couldn’t possibly be as simple as mere materials.
The bumpkin had lied; he was playing some kind of trick!
His eyes narrowed shrewdly, and Yang Xiu stepped forward eagerly to help lift one of the sacks: “Brother Li, take your time—let me help you!”
He wanted to test its contents. But as soon as his hands touched the sack, the grin on his face froze.
His palms grazed something hard yet warm, and faintly, he felt a weak shift of hot breath escape. The sack’s contents were alive!
A Demonic Beast?
No, that wasn’t right!
The texture was off! Demonic Beasts were coarser and more rugged—the touch here was slender and smooth. What lay inside the sack was human-shaped!
The breath he felt earlier was unmistakably someone’s faint breathing!
Yang Xiu’s wrist trembled subconsciously. If there was a person inside, and counting the hundred-plus sacks scattered across the ground, then didn’t that mean over a hundred people were inside them?
Just what was this bumpkin involved in? Was he really just a harmless countryside bumpkin?
At that moment, Yang Xiu’s mind involuntarily conjured the city gate guards’ recent warnings—the unrest across Cangtian City, the rumors of a mysterious figure who had slain some vile Pure Land cultivators and kidnapped numerous disciples from major factions in the city!
Watching the bustling figure ahead, busy in the storage room, Yang Xiu felt an overwhelming shadow of dread envelop his heart. Could this seemingly clueless man be the infamous kidnapper?