Qing Yu, unable to hide the truth any longer, reluctantly said,
"That Ding Huan’s arrogance was so overbearing that he even demanded the Condensing Star Bamboo from Deacon Qiong back. I couldn’t stand it, so I told a disciple of the Dual Soul Sect that it was Ding Huan who killed Elder Qu; I just happened to meet him in Yanyue City."
Guan Pou coldly said,
"Elder Qu’s death, Elder Gu, and Elder Liu are both well aware of that it was caused by the poison of the Swallowing Foot Corpse.
You, who has just begun to cultivate your spiritual energy, how could you possibly know that Elder Qu was killed by Ding Huan? Ding Huan is just a cook; could he have killed Elder Qu?"
Qing Yu hastily said,
"Sister Huan, I am helping you. Whether it was Ding Huan who killed him or not, Ding Huan was disrespectful to Elder Qiong and should be killed for it."
Guan Pou felt a surge of disappointment,
"Qing Yu, do you know how we have survived? It was Ding Huan. If it wasn’t for Ding Huan, not just us, but even Elder Gu and Deacon Qiong wouldn’t have survived. Given this, how could you smear Ding Huan’s name?"
Qing Yu dismissively said,
"Sister Huan, Ding Huan is just a mortal cook. If he died, it wouldn’t matter, right?"
Guan Pou no longer spoke; the Qing Yu before her was nothing more than an ordinary mortal.
Had it not been for her bringing Qing Yu to the Taoist Realm, she would have just died of old age in the Mortal World.
Previously, she only knew Qing Yu to be very opportunistic and willing to curry favor.
Now she realized how terribly wrong she had been.
In this moment, Guan Pou thought of Qing Yu’s performance along the road, and that time when she wanted to abandon her and follow Elder Qu’s group.
Most importantly, she remembered the words Ding Huan told her when he was leaving,
"Miss Guan, be careful of this maid by your side. If someone is going to harm you in the future, it will definitely be this ungrateful woman."
…
Ding Huan, along with Yan Mei and Lao Liu, stopped outside an ancient old city.
Having studied Array Dao for so long, if he had an Array Flag, Ding Huan himself could set up a first-level Array.
So, the moment he arrived, he noticed that this old city had no Protecting Array.
Without a Protecting Array, it indicated that no powerful cultivators lived here.
On the city walls of this old city were written a few characters: West Wind City.
Outside the city was an ancient yellow path, its destination unknown, with vehicles coming and going, and animal hooves stirring up clouds of yellow dust.
This reminded Ding Huan of a line of verse, "ancient roads and thin horses in the west wind."
"Brother Huan, I feel this place isn’t bad."
Yan Mei also felt this place was relatively safe; although there were many passersby, none seemed threatening.
Ding Huan calculated a bit, there was nothing amiss, and furthermore, the calculations were somewhat clearer in this place.
It indicated that there were hardly any powerful cultivators here.
"Good, this will be where we live in the future."
Ding Huan agreed with Yan Mei’s opinion, leading the way into West Wind City. He was to find his own path to Foundation Establishment; he didn’t need to seek out a bustling city teeming with spiritual energy. All he wanted was tranquility, preferably without anyone to disturb him.
Upon entering the city, a sense of filth and chaos assaulted his senses.
Streets were littered with garbage and feces, and friction between passersby seemed to erupt at any moment. In a short time, Ding Huan witnessed three fights.
Although no one was killed, every altercation ended with spilled blood.
What astonished Ding Huan was that, no matter how fierce the fights on the streets were, they always ended on their own.
There was not one officer, nor a security soldier in sight. Right, it seemed there had been no City Guard when they entered the city.
"It seems a bit chaotic," Yan Mei whispered.
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Ding Huan smiled, "If it was peaceful and clean, dare we live there?"
Yan Mei thought about it, they and Ding Huan were indeed figures who must avoid the light.
"Brother Huan, I have some real business coins. Let’s buy a house first."
Yan Mei patted his backpack, finally feeling it might be of some use.
Ding Huan shook his head, "Your real business coins probably aren’t worth a thing here; the dealings here should all be in broken crystal stones."
He had already sensed that the transactions here were all conducted in broken crystal stones.
These crystal stones, some only a quarter the size of a fingernail, served the same purpose in transactions. The broken crystal stones here had the same function as fragmented silver pieces in a certain dynasty of Hua Xia.
"Ah…" Yan Mei’s expression turned somewhat dejected, he hadn’t planned to try it out.
If Ding Huan said it couldn’t be used, then it definitely couldn’t be used.
"Is there a house for sale here?" Ding Huan approached a housing agency.
"Yes, all kinds of houses are available. As long as you are a citizen of the Blazing Star Lord Country, you can buy a house," the clerk enthusiastically responded.
"What if one is not a citizen of the Blazing Star Lord Country?" Ding Huan asked.
The clerk spread his hands, "Then you can only rent. I have houses for rent here too, at affordable prices."
"Then, may I ask what one must do to become a citizen of the Blazing Star Lord Country?" Yan Mei inquired.
"I have a brochure here, one Crystal Element Bean," the clerk said as he handed Ding Huan a book.
Ding Huan had no Crystal Element Beans and he didn’t want to crush his Blossom God Crystal Stones either. When Blossom God Crystal Stones are crushed, anyone who cared to look could tell they had just been crushed, which was disadvantageous to him.
Caution over the years had made Ding Huan extremely careful in his actions.
He simply used his Divine Will to scan the situation and gained a rough understanding.
West Wind City was considered one of the cities under Blazing Star Lord Country, which was, in turn, under the protection of the Great Sect, Da Xing Sword Dao.
The term "protection" was employed, but Ding Huan could guess from the text that it was merely a facade.
In fact, many cultivators of Da Xing Sword Dao who couldn’t advance in their cultivation and were of greater age had nowhere to go after leaving the Sect.
Cloaked under the name of Da Xing Sword Dao, they established some lordship countries in places lacking in spiritual energy.
These lordship countries mainly consisted of ordinary mortals, low-level cultivators, elderly cultivators, cultivators who could not advance, and those who could not join Sects...
In short, they were the social underclass of the Taoist Realm, all surviving within these lordship countries.
Cultivators who established lordship countries within the controlled areas of Da Xing Sword Dao were certainly disciples from Da Xing Sword Dao.
If these disciples had made contributions to the Sect, the Sect would provide some support, which was what they meant by protection.
In reality, if anything happened, as long as it didn’t involve Da Xing Sword Dao, there were basically no powerhouses coming to aid.
To become a resident of Blazing Star Lord Country, one had to contribute to the lordship country or be a public official.
Upon reading this, Ding Huan immediately spotted a loophole. Naturally, he didn’t go to take that introduction book, rather, he said,
"I have this book. I just want to ask, after applying for the City Patrol Guard, can I automatically become a resident of Blazing Star Lord Country?"
"Right, right, I saw it too. When we entered the city earlier, we saw the City Lord Mansion recruiting City Patrol Guards. We could go apply."
Yan Mei immediately understood Ding Huan’s thinking.
Indeed, it was during his entry into West Wind City that Ding Huan saw the recruitment for City Patrol Guards, and now, seeing this introduction to Blazing Star Lord Country, felt he had caught onto a loophole.
The shopkeeper chuckled as he put away the book,
"My friend must be new here, right? Do you know that this City Patrol Guard recruitment is a permanent position?"
"Is it because the mortality rate is very high?" Ding Huan naturally understood the implications of the shopkeeper’s question.
The shopkeeper grinned,
"High mortality rate? Let me tell you, once you become a City Patrol Guard, there hasn’t been anyone who has survived more than a month.
The City Lord Mansion is not just recruiting City Patrol Guards, but also a City Patrol Captain, because currently, there are simply no captains among the City Patrol Guards. The few remaining City Patrol Guards hardly dare to come out.
When they do come out, it’s basically to clean up the corpses on the streets."
Having said this, the shopkeeper looked at Ding Huan, with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile: "Do you still dare to apply for the City Patrol Guard?"
At last, Ding Huan understood why West Wind City was so chaotic.
It seemed there was a complete absence of governance, organization, or management.
But since these shops were operational, there certainly must be some tacit powers behind them.
"What about the city lord?" Ding Huan asked suspiciously.
The shopkeeper shook his head and said no more.
Ding Huan knew this fellow probably didn’t dare to continue speaking. He thanked him and left with Yan Mei and Lao Liu.
"Brother Huan, are we still going to apply to be City Patrol Guards?" Yan Mei was somewhat worried. The mortality rate concerned everyone.
"Go, why not?" Ding Huan stated matter-of-factly.
Survival in such a place without any risk was absolutely impossible. That was Ding Huan’s survival experience.
Rather than sneaking around the stronger cultivators trying to survive, it was better to earnestly strive for a peaceful spot at this lower-stratum of survival.
"Brother Huan, after we get hired, do we stay inside like those old City Patrol Guards?" Lao Liu couldn’t help saying.
Yan Mei looked at Lao Liu with disdain, thinking he was foolish.
If one could stay inside without coming out, how could such a good job fall into their hands?
...
City Lord Mansion.
"City Lord Mansion is off-limits to outsiders." As soon as Ding Huan approached the entrance, he was stopped by a few guards.
This was the first time since entering West Wind City that Ding Huan had seen any city guards.
Based on his experience, though West Wind City seemed anarchic and unorganized on the surface, it was likely divided into respective zones of interest. This place, he presumed, was likely a zone of interest for the City Lord Mansion.
Ding Huan pointed to a sign on the side: "We’ve come to apply for the City Patrol Guard."
There was also a sign hanging for the recruitment of City Patrol Guards, it seemed that West Wind City was indeed in urgent need of recruiting them.
"You want to apply to be City Patrol Guards?"
The guards sounded as if they had heard the greatest joke.
After a moment, they came to their senses and said, "Sure, you can go directly to the City Patrol Guard to report."
"No need to enter the City Lord Mansion to report?" Ding Huan asked.
The guard sarcastically replied, "If such trivial matters need the city lord’s personal attention, then the city lord wouldn’t need to rest at all."
From the guard’s words, Ding Huan understood two things; first, the city lord was indeed hiding in the City Lord Mansion, indifferent to the plight of the residents of West Wind City, confirming his guess.
Secondly, the mortality rate of the City Patrol Guards was indeed high.
Before Ding Huan could inquire further, the guard pointed, "See that? The gray house over there is the City Patrol Guard. Please report there."