Chapter 243: Yellow Evil Sickness
As evening bled into the sky, Jiang Chen navigated the bustling streets toward the Fragrance Pavilion.
The city was a sea of unfamiliar faces. Among the crowds, he spotted a significant number of Immortal Sect disciples, their refined auras standing out against the grime of the mortal world. They were all here for the same reason: Huang Yuanhua’s cave dwelling.
Jiang Chen harbored his own curiosity about the place, but he had zero intention of setting foot near it. The memories of six months ago were burned into his mind—the successive shockwaves that had pulverized everything in their path. Trees, boulders, and men alike had been obliterated. It hadn’t mattered if you were in the Qi Condensation or Foundation Establishment stage; in an instant, everyone caught in that wake had been reduced to a fine, crimson mist.
Whether the cave was currently “safe” or not was irrelevant. He wasn’t going.
Twenty minutes later, he reached the Fragrance Pavilion. On the surface, little had changed. The atmosphere was just as heady, the wine just as sweet, though new faces had filtered into the ranks of the workers.
He saw Yue’er, the girl who had attended to him once before. When they had first met, her flirtations had been clumsy and transparent. Now, she was a master of the craft. A single, lingering gaze or a soft word from her was enough to leave a loose cultivator breathless with a sudden, sharp hunger.
Practice, it seemed, truly did make perfect.
Seeking a change of pace, Jiang Chen requested someone else—a girl he recognized from half a year ago named Xiao Taohong. She was petite and young, though the wide-eyed innocence she’d once carried had been replaced by a weary maturity. She had disappeared from the pavilion for a while, only to resurface this month.
Xiao Taohong approached with practiced grace, her right hand offering the cup while her left supported the base in a gesture of deep respect. “Immortal, please, enjoy the wine.”