Chapter 338 - 310: Joyful Funeral

Chapter 338: Chapter 310: Joyful Funeral

Changzhou City.

It was not much different from the other mortal cities he had seen before.

The city walls were all built of brick and stone. In a world where great power was concentrated within individuals, they were more symbolic than practical.

At the city gate, those coming and going were also all ordinary mortals.

But just as he stepped into the city, he keenly sensed something was a little different.

’The Spiritual Qi in this city seems... a bit denser than outside?’

Chu Mu was slightly taken aback, a little unsure.

He extended his Divine Sense to investigate carefully. The Spiritual Qi within Changzhou City was indeed slightly denser than outside.

It was denser by about thirty percent.

’A Spirit Vein?’

Chu Mu was puzzled. Before coming, he had already made inquiries about the Longevity Sect’s layout of Spirit Vein Marketplaces in the Northern Border. This wasn’t a secret; one could buy a detailed map for just a few Spirit Stones.

But he had never heard of any Spirit Vein or Marketplace existing here in Changzhou City.

He examined it for a moment, and the traces of an Array Prohibition clearly appeared in his Divine Sense Perception.

There was actually a Spirit Gathering Array in Changzhou City!

Only... this Array...

Chu Mu’s expression was a bit odd.

The most important function of a Gathering Spirit Array is to gather the Spiritual Qi that dissipates throughout the world.

Normally, a Spirit Gathering Array would use an Array Prohibition to seal off the gathered Spiritual Qi, preventing it from leaking out again, so as to better serve a Cultivator’s Cultivation.

But the Spirit Gathering Array in Changzhou City was not like that.

Rather than a Spirit Gathering Array, it was more like a spirit-gathering core.

It only gathered the Spiritual Qi from the vicinity of Changzhou City toward Changzhou itself, and had no other effect.

’But what’s the use of a spirit-gathering setup like this?’

After wandering around the city for a while, Chu Mu’s expression grew even more peculiar.

With such a spirit-gathering setup, the biggest beneficiaries seemed to be the mortal inhabitants of Changzhou City.

The spirit-gathering core gathered the surrounding Spiritual Qi, but it didn’t seal it off for exclusive use. With this day-after-day cycle of gathering and dissipating, the Spiritual Qi in all of Changzhou City naturally became much denser than in the outside world.

The mortals living in Changzhou City would naturally benefit from long-term exposure to such a concentration of Spiritual Qi, improving their health, lifespan, and even their descendants.

But...

’The Longevity Sect doing a good deed?’

Chu Mu found it hard to believe. Although a Gathering Spirit Array Prohibition didn’t require many Spirit Stone resources, would a high and mighty Cultivator waste resources on mortals for no reason?

He stopped on the street, his gaze locking onto a horse-drawn carriage slowly approaching in the distance.

It was drawn by five horses and escorted by an Inspector, clearly some mortal official from Changzhou County.

With a slight stir of his Divine Sense, he focused it like a beam of light. In an instant, it entered the carriage and enveloped a middle-aged man sitting inside.

Like peeling a cocoon thread by thread, in just a few breaths, the man’s memories in his Sea of Consciousness were laid bare before his Divine Sense Perception.

"So that’s how it is..."

As the carriage passed, Chu Mu murmured to himself, having come to an understanding.

From the memories he had just browsed, this spirit-gathering phenomenon in Changzhou City was apparently not an isolated case.

In every county of the Northern Border, any place with a population that reached a certain size was the same.

Every few years, the Longevity Sect would also send out disciples to test the Spirit Roots of young children everywhere.

Those with outstanding Spirit Root Talent were all accepted as disciples by the Longevity Sect.

Viewed this way, such a Gathering Spirit Array Prohibition was evidently quite normal.

A Sect, after all, was different from a Clan. A Clan’s legacy relied on its own descendants.

But a Sect was like a great river that accepts a hundred streams.

The Northern Border was the Longevity Sect’s private domain, so it was perfectly normal for them to expend some effort to manage it.

A simple Energy Gathering Array Prohibition would, at most, consume a dozen or so Lower Grade Spirit Stones over a year.

Yet it could improve the overall Cultivation environment of the Northern Border and provide the Longevity Sect with a wider and more abundant supply of fresh blood.

After all, something like a Spirit Root was a matter of fate and couldn’t be predicted.

Although if both husband and wife have Spirit Roots, their offspring have a high chance of having one too, this was only a probability, not a certainty.

There was always a ’what if’!

With the enormous population base of mortals, such ’what ifs’ would naturally be magnified infinitely.

With the Longevity Sect casting such a wide net, the existence of the Cultivation Immortal Realm was clearly no inaccessible secret to the mortals of the Northern Border.

’In that case... the Cultivation Immortal Realm in the Northern Border must be somewhat different...’

Chu Mu mulled it over. After a moment, he didn’t dwell on it for too long. For him, this situation seemed to be a good thing.

If Elder Li truly wanted to withdraw from the Cultivation Immortal Realm and live in seclusion among mortals, then he couldn’t possibly settle down in a city where the Longevity Sect’s influence reached.

The most likely possibility was that he, like the old man from Qili Village back then, had retired to a secluded place.

His thoughts drifted. He wandered aimlessly around Changzhou City until sunset before finally leaving.

For the next several months, Chu Mu wandered aimlessly throughout Changzhou County just like this.

Changzhou County was composed of twenty-eight subordinate counties. Perhaps due to the Northern Border’s once desolate nature, the territory of Changzhou County was several times larger than the counties to the south.

The territory was vast, but Chu Mu practically dug three feet deep in his search.

Every time he reached a new place, the first thing he did was to examine the memories of local people of status.

Although the Soul Searching Technique could harm the person being searched, the root cause of this harm was the instinctive resistance of the subject’s Divine Soul.

But when he used Soul Search on a mortal, the gap in power was far too great. There was no resistance to speak of, like entering an unguarded land. There was no harm, and it was impossible for them to even notice.

If he wished, with just a thought, he could easily plant a Slave Seal, or even twist memories and alter thoughts.

The boundary between immortal and mortal was undoubtedly terrifying.

Under these circumstances, Chu Mu’s search progressed very quickly.

After all, Elder Li was a Cultivator. Even if he was determined to return to the mortal world, the fundamental nature of a Cultivator could not change.

If he settled in one place, it would be impossible for him not to leave a trace.

Especially since, according to that man, Elder Li planned to marry and have children, placing his hopes on his descendants. That would surely create some ripples.

Shitang County.

A Patrol Inspector of Hundred Households dazedly patted his head, seemingly puzzled by his own lapse of attention in broad daylight.

On the side of the street, Chu Mu withdrew his Divine Sense, his expression distinctly odd.

’An old tree blooming, and with eight flowers at that...’

This was an amusing anecdote from the Hundred Households officer’s memory, something that had happened in Shitang County about ten years ago.

In Tongyou Village of Shitang County, there was an old man who was said to have wandered far and wide in his youth. Now old, he had returned to his hometown after accumulating a considerable fortune.

Normally, such a person would settle down to live out his retirement in peace.

But this old man didn’t play by the rules. He took eight concubines, all of them young maidens as beautiful as flowers...

In Shitang County, this was undoubtedly an amusing tale that people loved to gossip about.

But to any Cultivator who heard of it, the meaning would be quite obvious.

In the Cultivation Immortal Realm, in any given Marketplace, one could see it almost every day: Cultivators who had despaired of their Immortal Path, given it up, and returned to the mortal world to marry and procreate, placing their hopes on their descendants.

After all, for an ordinary Cultivator, finding a Dao Companion in the Cultivation Immortal Realm was no easy task.

But the mortal world was clearly different.

This "old tree blooming" affair, coupled with the tale of returning home in old age—one didn’t even have to think about it to know this had to be a Cultivator who had retired to the mortal world.

"Tongyou Village..."

His gaze flickered. He took a step, and Wangcai followed closely behind him.

A distance of dozens of li was but a moment’s effort for him.

A mountain village surrounded by peaks came into view. The houses stretched out along the mountainside, all of them ordinary village dwellings.

But outside the village, there was a large mansion occupying several acres, which was very conspicuous.

Only...

Chu Mu stood in the sky, his brows tightly furrowed.

Within his field of vision, the large mansion was currently filled with mourners wearing filial piety garments, white banners stood in rows, and paper money danced in the air.

He descended from the sky, his Divine Sense Perception already penetrating the mansion.

The servants in the courtyard were all dressed in hemp and white mourning clothes. In the main hall, a group of men and women in funeral attire were kneeling and wailing. Inside the coffin, the corpse was perfectly preserved, as if still alive.

He studied the corpse. The aged face of the body perfectly matched the one in his memory.

Withdrawing his Divine Sense, Chu Mu stood stunned in the fields, not moving a muscle.

Finally, he heaved a long sigh, and as he exhaled a breath of stale air, his sorrow was palpable.

Life and death—he had seen far too much of it.

So many in the prime of their lives, their Immortal Paths flourishing, had suddenly fallen. Their Divine Souls were extracted, their flesh and blood refined into Spiritual Materials—far too many to count.

For Elder Li to be able to have children of his own bloodline at the end of his life, enjoy the happiness of family, and then die of old age like this...

...for a Cultivator, this was perhaps a rare blessing.

This should be considered... a joyous funeral!

"Let’s go. We’ll pay our respects."

He waved his hand, his spirits dampened.

The man and his dog, under the effects of a Concealment Skill, walked into the mansion as if no one was there. The hosts, guests, and servants in the residence all failed to notice them.

Once in the main hall, Chu Mu respectfully kowtowed.

After bowing several times, he looked toward the people kneeling and wailing in the hall.

They were mostly women, and among them were three children of varying ages, kneeling in the hall in a daze, not knowing what to do.

His gaze shifted, and he looked at a middle-aged man who looked like a steward. His Divine Sense invaded, and the memories in the man’s Sea of Consciousness were laid bare.

From over ten years ago when Elder Li returned to this place, built the mansion, and took wives and concubines, this man had served as the steward of the Li Mansion, working diligently to this day.

The memories flipped by as he examined every detail, not missing a single thing.

A quarter of an hour passed before he slowly withdrew his Divine Sense. His gaze shifted, finally settling on the several children in the hall.

According to the memories, these three children were the descendants Elder Li had left behind over these years...

...