Master of Strange Dao

The one we invited didn't come, but coming over in person could work too.

Who would've thought, this person was hard to pin down and infiltrate. The damn fellow didn't even stay out of curiosity—go deep in for a look.

Instead, they actually triggered the power of Flame Mountain, forcibly igniting the mud, and to top it off, added a strange Black Fire, like a bone-attached ulcer that couldn't be extinguished.

At this moment, no matter how the Mud Sea roils, the strange fire tinged with black amidst the blood-red still burns quietly, neither fast nor slow, but extremely steadfast.

On his way back, Yu Ziqing glanced back and laughed with a grin.

"Gua Pi, you really think I'd come all this way, working my butt off, just to go in and take a look?

I can wait, wait a hundred years or so, until the mud dries into regular land, then come back. How great that would be.

Why rush these few years, to send yourself to death?"

Yu Ziqing left quite decisively.

He came out of the Abyssal Rift, returned to Almsgiving Town, where the Gatekeeper Hungry Ghost promptly brought out a large stack of accumulated intelligence.

New No. 5 requests an audience, can pass on a message to him.

The rest of the intel is mostly about Daqian's matters.

Since the mass killings ended, there has indeed been a wave of turmoil within Daqian.

Afterward, the new emperor kept his promise, officially decreeing the Second Prince, King Lian, as the Imperial Younger Brother.

This move was somewhat awkward.

King Lian reciprocated by presenting piles of evidence, with support from the northern and eastern armies, and a bunch of strong backers.

Even Langya Institute publicly expressed that the new emperor's decisive action was commendable.

He took the opportunity to demote several high court officials; the farce, on the surface, seemed to be over. Google seaʀᴄh novelꞁire.net

But with the new emperor's opening act, how the local magnates felt and what they planned to do in secret, nobody knew.

In any case, future historians would surely brand the new emperor as a tyrant.

As for the people cheering below, what use is that? Those lower-level civilians and cultivators aren't writing history books or classics.

In another thousand years, after several overhauls of history, everyone will only remember the new emperor as a tyrant, cruelly slaughtering innocents.

Maybe the Mother River's course change, and the massacre of three great powers and dozens of smaller ones, will even become unrelated events.

Turning into two independent incidents isn't impossible.

Yu Ziqing looked at the intel, clicking his tongue. The new emperor seems increasingly likely to follow Dingmao Dui Emperor's path to infamy.

Whatever, just watch the show.

After only a few days in Almsgiving Town, Yu Ziqing, who couldn't stay put, made his way to the Lihuo Institute.

He wanted to find someone to identify the Black Soil he brought back.

Upon seeing Wen Lingyou, Wen Lingyou's eyelid twitched, and he turned to leave.

"Senior, don't go, I'm not here for alms, I need to consult you on something, ask you to help identify an item."

Wen Lingyou hesitated for a moment, then stopped.

He was indeed somewhat afraid; on the Southern Sea side, they've been burning through money too quickly.

No matter how much Lihuo Institute's funding increases, it ultimately reduces the funding for other deans.

Now, even within Lihuo Institute, there are deans wanting to head to the Southern Sea.

Because those deans down there just don't consider themselves human.

They said that when researching in the Southern Sea, the funding was enough, and burning money was particularly delightful.

While at Lihuo Institute, they worked hard to figure out how to bamboozle more funding.

At the Southern Sea, they didn't even have to worry about fooling for funds, just casually asked, and it was enough.

So the other deans at Lihuo Institute were envious and wanted to go to the Southern Sea too.

After all, their projects could go around in circles, hanging under the big Southern Sea projects, which wasn't too difficult.

Continuing their research over there wouldn't be a problem.

Moreover, they guarantee the research genuinely helps the big projects, not just pure fund scamming.

Wen Lingyou had been troubled by this for a long time.

"What do you want to identify? For ordinary things, you could just find anyone. Why come to me?"

"Actually, I wanted to find Dean Nong, but your people said he went out, not here."

"Oh... oh, yes, Dean Nong did go out. Let me help you take a look then."

Yu Ziqing took out a Storage Bag, full of mud left from the Mud Sea, scorched by the Blood Flame and left as Black Soil.

"Senior, take a look and see what this Black Soil is."

Wen Lingyou grabbed a handful of the Black Soil, glanced a few times, then stared at Yu Ziqing.

"You already know it's Black Soil, yet you're asking me?

Come on, what did you really come here for?"

"Black Soil?" Yu Ziqing looked dumbfounded, then quickly realized: "Senior, are you saying this is Five-Colored Soil's Black Soil?"

"It definitely is; Lihuo Institute has some. This stuff is extremely scarce now.

The places still with Black Soil are only those two or three dangerous Forbidden Lands.

I heard those Hostile Ghosts seemed to have offended you.

Did you clear out a Yin Domain Forbidden Land?

That doesn't seem right; the Black Soil from those three places wasn't even this good, let alone finding so much in one go.

Did you discover a new cave heaven blessed land?

I won't ask where you got it from; so much Black Soil is wasted if you can't use it all.

Why don't you share half with us? I'll add ten percent above the current price of Black Soil for you."

Yu Ziqing blinked; this Storage Bag was just one of many, and he hadn't even collected that much at the time.

He only thought it might be useful, so he collected over a hundred Storage Bags.