Cultivating in a Bizarre World

On the day Ren Qing was to meet the Forbidden Guards, the prolonged sweltering heat was suddenly replaced by a sweeping chill as a gloomy drizzle began to fall.

Ren Qing left the Government Office early in the morning, heading toward the South City.

He noticed that the number of Blood Dog Gang members on the streets had decreased significantly. Only outside the Flower House Casinos were men specifically assigned to stand guard.

This showed that the incident with the Mud Association was festering beneath the surface.

Although Ren Qing didn’t know the specific details, the unexplained death of a Half-Corpse Realm Cultivator, with the Mysterious Object still missing, could not be explained away as a simple accident.

Once the Forbidden Guards intervened to investigate, the Blood Dog Gang and other gangs tacitly chose to back off.

For the gangs in Sanxiang City to survive, the one group they could not afford to offend was the Forbidden Guards.

Ren Qing slowly made his way to the South City. The surrounding environment became much filthier, and homeless beggars lay by the sides of the streets.

Compared to the other districts, the South City was a chaotic mix of all sorts of people, and almost every street had gangs of various sizes.

These gangs did not dabble in Magic Techniques, and their numbers ranged from a dozen to over a hundred.

The Mud Association wasn’t really a South City gang. It was spread across all districts and was said to enjoy hiding in obscure nooks and crannies.

Not long after entering the South City, Ren Qing attracted the attention of others, causing some furtive figures to start tailing him.

They all had sallow, emaciated faces. They kept their distance, wary of the Great Miao Blade on Ren Qing’s back, so they only sized him up with their eyes.

He could faintly hear the sound of them swallowing.

Ren Qing felt not the slightest pity. A trace of killing intent brewed in his heart.

He knew that if he showed the slightest weakness, these hyenas would swarm him in an instant.

Ren Qing continued deeper into the South City.

The streets gradually grew livelier, with all sorts of stalls lining both sides. The prices were generally much cheaper than in the other districts.

’It probably has to do with the gangs collecting fewer silver coins here.’

Following the location indicated on the paper, Ren Qing walked to a suburban area near the city wall, where he managed to find a dilapidated wooden hut.

Seeing this, the ruffians quickly scattered, their eyes filled with fear.

Someone had come here a few days ago.

Rumor had it they saw an incredibly terrifying Ghost God. Not only were they scared witless, but they also fell gravely ill after returning.

Ren Qing carefully inspected the surroundings but found no trace of any Forbidden Guards.

He had no choice but to wait patiently for a long time, but not even a stray dog appeared.

Ren Qing simply opened the wooden hut’s door and strode inside.

The hut was piled high with junk, emitting a strange and pungent odor.

After advancing to the Ghost Envoy Realm, Ren Qing’s sense of smell had become much more sensitive. He could even analyze the source of the odor.

As a Fireworker, he would never mistake the stench of a rotting corpse.

Ren Qing’s Double Pupils scanned the room, and he quickly found a white bone in the corner that had been gnawed on by rats. A few scraps of flesh and blood still clung to it.

He couldn’t help but frown. ’Since the Forbidden Guards set the meeting point here, it can’t be a mistake. Could there be something hidden?’

Ren Qing pondered for a moment.

Every detail in the room was imprinted on his mind, down to the motes of dust.

He soon discovered something strange. The gaps between the adjoining floorboards showed a subtle difference, suggesting they had been moved recently.

After stomping on them a few times with his foot, Ren Qing immediately determined there was a secret passage below.

He cleared away the junk, revealing a large wooden plank on the floor that covered a tunnel about half a meter wide.

The stone walls inside the tunnel were covered with the gnaw marks of rodents.

’It must have taken ages of digging to create a tunnel of this scale, as if thousands of rats carved it out bit by bit.’

’Otherwise, there would be no need for Forbidden Guards to seal off forbidden zones; you could just bring a few Cultivators who practice the Rat Pest Technique and easily hollow out a mountain.’

’There are probably other similar tunnels in Sanxiang City.’

However, the tunnels all extended toward the outside of the city, not into the urban districts. This showed that the Forbidden Soldier Hall was at least somewhat aware of them.

The Forbidden Guards would also never allow gangs to expand their territory in secret.

Ren Qing cautiously squeezed into the tunnel and sealed the entrance behind him. His vision was immediately plunged into darkness.

The space was so narrow that he had to crawl forward on all fours. However, after some distance, it became tall enough for him to stoop.

Ren Qing had expected the air in an underground tunnel like this to be incredibly stale, but the ventilation was surprisingly good. He could even feel a slight breeze blowing from various directions.

After walking for nearly half an hour, he suddenly heard faint, fragmented sounds in the distance.

He did his best to muffle his footsteps and placed his right hand on his Great Miao Blade. His legs began to show slight signs of Werewolf Transformation.

The sound stopped abruptly. It seemed the other party had also realized someone was approaching.

Ren Qing cursed under his breath. ’Did I get the meeting point wrong?’

’Wait, why does this scene feel so familiar?’

A dark shadow shot down from the top of the stone wall toward Ren Qing. Its speed was almost invisible to the naked eye, and it made no sound at all.

In a mere instant, the shadow stopped a short distance from him, and a long, narrow tongue shot out like an arrow from a bow.

The tongue grazed past Ren Qing.

A smile on his face, Ren Qing said, "It’s been a while, Elder Huang. You’re pulling this stunt again?"

"Younger Brother Ren, we just so happened to need a Cultivator who has mastered an Eye Pupil Technique, so I recommended you."

Huang Ziwang leaped down from the stone wall, his expression complicated.

’If I’m not mistaken, Ren Qing instinctively began to sidestep my attack ahead of time.’

’And the entrance to this tunnel isn’t easy to find. I thought it would take him several hours, but he was so fast.’

’How long has it been? How could his strength have increased so much...?’

’At this rate, it won’t be long before he can advance to the Ghost Envoy Realm.’

Ren Qing asked curiously, "How did the Mud Association get ambushed and killed on their own turf?"

Huang Ziwang casually pulled a bottle of wine from his robes, took a swig, and said, "Let’s walk and talk. We’ve still got a ways to go before we reach the body."

He truly disliked being in caves, but since the Rat Pest Technique involved plague toxins, he had been resentfully dispatched here.

"This situation is a bit complicated. The state of the corpse is extremely bizarre, and the Forbidden Soldier Hall suspects there are major implications."

"..."

Ren Qing had already noticed something strange. As the two of them drew closer to the scene, the corpses of opossums became visible everywhere in the tunnel.

The opossums all had identical human faces. In death, their eyes were wide with shock. Their bodies showed varying degrees of anthropomorphism, and their teeth were a deep green.

Seeing this, Huang Ziwang reminded him, "The rat corpses here are all filled with plague toxins. Anyone below the Ghost Envoy Realm will die upon contact."

Ren Qing nodded, but couldn’t help but feel a sense of doubt.

’I’ve encountered Cultivators of the Rat Pest Technique before. Turning an opossum clone into a human body comes at a price. It’s impossible to cast the Magic Technique continuously like this.’

’Besides, for a Mutated path like the Rat Mother, the plague toxins shouldn’t be this potent, right?’

The two of them rounded a corner.

Ren Qing’s pupils couldn’t help but dilate.

The opossum corpses were piled up like a mountain. Some had even fully transformed into human bodies, and they all had the exact same face.