The Journey of Immortal Cultivation-Chapter 551 - 316: Desert Oasis_2
As a city in the desert, Kashna City was desperate for all sorts of living supplies. Of course, this is just the surface that mortals see. For all cultivators who understand it, you could nearly buy anything essential here, provided that you have enough Spirit Stones in your pocket and a sharp eye, coupled with an excellent sense of danger.
While other state and county cities are governed by Immortal Sects and Demon Sects, these oasis cities in the desert are ruled by local forces; whoever has the bigger fist is the boss. After thousands of years of such chaos, a semblance of order was born from it, maintained by the local tyrants and factions, preserving the area’s ecological balance.
Immortals and mortals live together here, and people have long been accustomed to the sight of immortals descending from the sky with impressive bearing. However, it’s said that the devil is in the details, so even in a hurry, Ning Xiaoxian ordered Qi Zai to find a corner outside the city for them to descend, and then the three of them walked into Kashna City. She didn’t want to leave too deep an impression on the numerous eyes that might be watching foreigners in the city.
Both she and Tu Jin used a Blinding Technique. Qi Zai’s appearance was too conspicuous; the Immortal Bandits had already seen its White Bird form, so it could only reluctantly transform into a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy in white. The Chongming Bird has a phoenix crown on its head, so when it transformed into a human, it also retained a Moganxi-style hairstyle, much like those young folks she often saw in Huaxia, who liked to wear tight leather clothes and fixed their thick hair with gel.
Kashna City is vast, and the population appears to be at least seven or eight hundred thousand people. The plague that ravaged the Central and Southern Regions of the Southern Continent has not spread here yet, so the city, despite looking a bit disordered and wild, was very vibrant. Tu Jin once activated his Divine Skills to search for Ning Xiaoxian’s Divine Soul Mark in the Purple Cloud Palace; he could use the same old method now, but in this place teeming with mixed fish and dragons, using a greatly noticeable Divine Skill might draw the attention of some great power, bringing unnecessary trouble. So what he needed to track now were the marks he had left behind.
He had left a rather inconspicuous Divine Soul Mark on an unlucky sod he had possessed, who himself was unaware, yet to Tu Jin, this mark shone like a beacon, indicating the direction and location of the target until it would fade after three days.
Now standing in broad daylight, after closing his eyes and sensing for a short while, he followed the direction of the mark and went after it. They were on the main street with a surging crowd, but all three of them were extraordinary beings who could move through the throngs as swiftly as fish swim through water.
After less than half a moment, they stood in front of a square and upright building. The architecture in the Northwest of the Southern Continent was very distinct from that of Central Earth; this building’s outer walls were even affixed with faintly reflective light blue tiles. The two giant columns at the entrance, big enough to require three people to hug them together, also expressed characteristics completely different from those in the mainland. Seeing these two columns, Ning Xiaoxian’s face turned red because the columns were carved with the figures of two semi-nude women draped in thin veils, voluptuous in their rendition.
The porch above the entrance was painted with three curved lines, universal marks across the Pan-continent, so everyone understood that this was the Hot Spring Pavilion, that is, a bathhouse, and perhaps even the kind that provided special services. Anyone who travels to Kashna City would want to indulge in a hot bath to wash off the dust from the journey. Cultivators ascend from mortals and often cannot change the habits they grow up with; who knew that this Desert City would have such an abundance of geothermal resources? Naturally, the Hot Spring Pavilion designed specifically for the esteemed cultivator masters also had VIP rooms.
In short, if you have the money, you can live a divine life in Kashna City.
However, Tu Jin’s expression was not good because he realized he had been careless. The bandit he had marked did not hold a high position in the entire squad, so after each trip to the cities throughout the desert oases, tasks like fencing the stolen items that required skill were done by the leader, leaving him and others to seek pleasure to relax their tense nerves. Being a bandit is not a job any ordinary person could do; although they were cultivators, they were part of the mortal world. Having been in this line for too long, they sometimes needed the pleasures of ordinary people to relieve their stress.
For safety reasons, Fu Yunzhang never allowed his subordinates to accompany him in fencing, so in case someone was caught, the team’s secrets would not be exposed. So now, this guy has temporarily separated from the Immortal Bandits’ leaders and was comfortably lying in the hot water, enjoying a massage from a beauty, severing the trail Ning Xiaoxian and her group had been following.
"Does this person’s memory have a general direction?" Knowing a direction would be helpful; otherwise, how would they find their way in the vast expanse of Kashna City, being completely unfamiliar with the place?
"No," Tu Jin said regretfully, "Fu Yunzhang is very cautious. He always waits until these subordinates scatter before he goes with Qing’er to meet the connect. In the entire squad, no more than three people know the secrets of each city’s hidden sales spots."
"Three? Could they be Fu Yunzhang, Qing’er, and He Lao?" Seeing Tu Jin nod, she pondered, "Fu Yunzhang has gone to deliver medicine, and as a Pill Master, Qing’er likely accompanied him to provide medical attention; thus, the only leader left to fence in this city would probably be He Lao. This guy may not be as meticulous as Fu Yunzhang in dealing with things, so there might be an opportunity to exploit."
Tu Jinqing spoke softly: "I’ll go inside and find those few people; let’s see if I can get any clues." (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for a recommendation ticket or Monthly Ticket at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)
