Infinite Save: I Cultivate Immortality Through Reincarnation - Chapter 364: The Chen Family of Suishuo
He only had half a month’s time.
As a cultivator at the Spirit Connection Realm, with his level of cultivation, Ding Qiu could actually completely manage to escape the Qingque Kingdom alone if he wanted to.
And Li Haowen wasn’t the least bit afraid of Ding Qiu escaping either.
The reason why Ding Qiu made Li Haowen feel so troublesome was entirely because of his reputation among the people within the Qingque Kingdom’s borders, which made the situation quite chaotic, making search and suppression operations very difficult to carry out.
After all, this man built his foundation on the word “righteousness.”
And precisely because of this, Li Haowen spent nearly two years and still couldn’t eradicate Ding Qiu’s forces.
But if he abandoned the rogue cultivators who had lived and died with him within the Qingque Kingdom, it would mean he would lose all of his reputation.
A Ding Qiu who had lost his reputation was just an ordinary Spirit Connection Realm rogue cultivator.
Li Haowen was confident he could kill Ding Qiu within ten rounds.
As for Chen Yan, just as mentioned before, he didn’t plan to interfere in any of the enmity between Li Haowen and Ding Qiu.
Regarding these trivial matters, he chose to live in the present.
And during this half-month period, Chen Yan also didn’t plan to stay in Yong’an Prefecture the whole time, or in some Kongshan Sect Stationed Envoy Residence.
Chen Yan gazed at the city named Suishuo before him, riding his spirit horse slowly along the official road as he approached.
Suishuo City.
This city was located in the southeastern part of the Qingque Kingdom, a small city with a population of less than one hundred thousand.
A city of Suishuo’s scale would not be included in the Qingque Kingdom’s “Thirteen Prefectures, Twenty-One Cities,” because the so-called “Thirteen Prefectures, Twenty-One Cities” were all large cities with populations over five hundred thousand.
His memories of this city were very hazy.
Because the last time Chen Yan left Suishuo City was when he was seven years old.
That’s right.
If we’re talking about his place of origin, Chen Yan was from Suishuo City in the Qingque Kingdom.
He was born into an ordinary merchant family in Suishuo City, remembering that his family seemed to make a living selling cloth.
Then, in the year he turned seven, he was taken back to the Kongshan Sect.
The appearance and names of his parents in this life, he had already completely forgotten.
Because for Chen Yan’s experiences, that was a matter from nearly a thousand years ago.
Even though Chen Yan was now a Myriad Transformations Realm cultivator, and the strength of his divine sense and his memory were already far beyond what ordinary people could compare to.
But his breakthrough to the Spirit Connection Realm, counting fully, was only something that happened in the last hundred years or so.
Suishuo City was very inconspicuous.
Even in the cycle of reincarnation when the Kongshan Sect was destroyed, when Chen Yan was searching everywhere for traces of Qiguan Jin, he never returned to Suishuo City.
Before entering Suishuo City, Chen Yan dismounted from his spirit horse, changed out of his daoist robes, and wore only a set of commoner clothes commonly seen everywhere in the Qingque Kingdom, then walked toward the city gate.
The two city gate guards in front of the gate just glanced casually at Chen Yan a couple of times, said nothing, and let Chen Yan into the city.
Just as mentioned before, Suishuo City was an inconspicuous small city.
He had come back this time simply because he wanted to see how the Chen family he originated from was faring now.
Chen Yan randomly found a tea stall by the street and sat down. The surface of the wooden table before him was mottled, looking like it had seen quite a few years.
“Customer, what would you like to drink?”
Soon, a waiter came up to greet him.
Chen Yan raised his hand, “slapped” it on the table, then pressed down lightly, and produced two copper coins from his Storage Treasure, pressing them onto the table.
“Bring a bowl of cold tea. I just hurried into the city, it’s so hot.”
Chen Yan said this in a very casual, straightforward manner.
“Alright, customer! But looking at your appearance, you don’t seem to be sweating at all!”
The tea stall waiter said.
“That’s just my constitution. I don’t sweat easily, which actually makes me feel the heat more.”
Chen Yan replied.
“You’re absolutely right, customer!”
The tea stall waiter said as he placed a tea bowl on the table in front of Chen Yan and picked up the teapot to pour a bowl of cold tea into it.
“I came from Jiangdao Prefecture. This journey took me over a month, it’s really exhausting.”
Chen Yan complained to the tea stall waiter like this.
“Oh, Jiangdao Prefecture is a great place, I hear it’s incredibly prosperous, with countless scholars and literati!”
The waiter responded.
“Not anymore, it’s completely unbearable now.”
Chen Yan drank the cold tea in the bowl in one gulp, then repeatedly waved his hand.
“Customer, what do you mean by that?”
This time, Chen Yan’s words had piqued the shop waiter’s curiosity.
“It’s too close to Anjin Mountain!”
Chen Yan complained.
“No wonder…”
Hearing this, the tea stall waiter instantly understood what was going on.
Anjin Mountain was a famous immortal mountain within the Qingque Kingdom, said to be home to no less than a hundred Qi Circulation Realm Upper Immortals.
And in the past two years, the various immortal cultivation sects and rogue cultivators within the Qingque Kingdom had been thrown into complete chaos.
Even ordinary mortal folk had been greatly affected.
“To be honest with you, I came to Suishuo City this time to seek refuge with relatives.”
Chen Yan said.
“Which relatives?”
The tea stall waiter said:
“Suishuo City is only this big, maybe I might even know them!”
“The relationship is too distant, I’m not clear on the specifics. I only know this family of relatives is surnamed Chen, a household that does cloth business.”
Chen Yan inquired.
“Surnamed Chen, does cloth business…”
Hearing this, the tea stall waiter’s expression changed slightly:
“Could it be, customer, that the Chen family you’re looking for is Squire Chen’s family?”
“Squire Chen?”
Chen Yan looked puzzled.
“Yes, Squire Chen…”
The tea stall waiter nodded:
“It’s said that over twenty years ago, Squire Chen’s family was in the cloth business.”
“And what about later?”
“Later, Squire Chen’s legitimate son, Chen Yan, was taken up the mountain by an Immortal Master wearing white daoist robes to cultivate immortality… I heard Immortal Master Chen is quite valued by his sect, and is now a Qi Circulation Realm Upper Immortal. Moreover, Immortal Master Chen writes letters to Squire Chen and Madam Chen almost every month, guiding the layout of the Chen family’s businesses in the city!”
The tea stall waiter said with a very serious expression.
“There’s such a thing?”
Chen Yan smiled, as if hearing something very interesting.
“How could it be false? Which household in the entire Suishuo City wouldn’t know about Squire Chen’s family affairs?”
The tea stall waiter said:
“After Immortal Master Chen was taken up the mountain, the wealthy merchants and powerful families in the city all rushed to curry favor with Squire Chen. In this city, if Immortal Master Chen takes a liking to a business and wants to buy it, who would dare not sell? Nowadays, at least half of this Suishuo City can be said to already bear the surname Chen!”
Judging from the expression the tea stall waiter showed when talking about the Chen family’s affairs, the Chen family’s reputation in Suishuo City didn’t seem very good.
There was even suspicion that they were using his name to forcibly seize properties and bully others in Suishuo City.
…No, not suspicion.
That’s exactly what they were doing.
Originally, Chen Yan just had a sudden whim, wanting to return to Suishuo City to see how the Chen family that raised him was doing now.
But he never expected that this Chen family could pull off such a big stunt for him.
Hah.
