Chapter 281: Suspicious City and Tournament
It was decided that Miaomiao would get the invitation scroll. As for Ma Moxi, he would enter the preliminary rounds.
Since the tournament would be held in a week, Ju Shoufen, Jia Shan, and the Ma Clan's elders packed their belonging for the journey to the capital city.
Jia Wenhe stayed home as usual since he had unfinished business regarding the investigation in the sewer. Mao Xueyan and the beasts also stayed behind to protect the city while two of the nascent soul seniors were away.
As the group was about to leave, Zhao Bao returned with a large group of Buddhist monks and their followers.
Behind the monks, tall burly orcs dressed in orange robes. They shaved their hair, beard, eyebrows, and bodily hair. Some of them had even discarded their fangs.
Moreover, their eyes were bright and serene. No sign of violent or lustful nature was left in them.
The leader of this orc group, Fogan, also wore grey monk robes. A black bead necklace was hanging on his neck, but it glowed in white light. Strange ancient Chinese symbols rotated around him.
Huangjin Monastery monks, the orcs, and their disciples had arrived!
After a brief counting, there were over 5,000 people here!
"What a bad timing," Ma Ping was annoyed. He didn't know what Zhao Bao was trying to do by bringing his sect members and the orcs here.
Zhao Bao smiled and greeted Ma Ping and everyone in front of the north gate, "Amitabha. This monk and his colleagues would like to migrate here."
Although Miaomiao had promised them to let them in, Ma Ping, Jia Shan, and the others were reluctant to allow the group to enter the city. There were still worried about the women, the weak beasts, and the children's safety.
Zhao Bao read Ma Ping and Jia Shan's expressions. He laughed, "Ah, they will not enter the city since there are many pretty girls in there, and our sect doesn't want our monks to be distracted by the presence of succubi. Therefore, we would like to create a subsidiary town and a sect outside of the city wall. Is that okay with you?"
"Oh?" The elders were delighted. As long as the orcs and the newcomers wouldn't live in the city, they were fine with it. "Sure. Are you going to build a sect here?"
"Yes. Oh, by the way, would it trouble you if we wish to direct a portion of medicinal water from the Qi tower? If we have the water, it will be helpful for this monk's colleagues."
Hearing about the water system, Ma Ping thought of Jia Wenhe, "Ah, crap. A new water system again? Jia Wenhe is going to be pissed."
Jia Wenhe had his hands full dealing with the mysterious stench and the anomaly in the sewer. Ma Ping could tell that he would be mad if he were to suddenly receive a new job.
Fortunately, several elders were considerate. Ma Shoucheng and Pang Lingming volunteered, "We'll stay behind and sort the water system. Digging a few rivers isn't a problem."
It was a lie. It took months to complete the city's current water systems, but Jia Wenhe still needed to fix or adjust it every day.
By the time they had realized it, the prestigious alchemist had already changed his job into a water engineer. Though, Ju Shoufen always messed with her son-in-law and called him a plumber.
"Great!" Ma Ping was relieved, though, he felt bad for Jia Wenhe. He scanned the monks and the orcs, "So, where are you going to build a new sect or town? Here?"
Zhao Bao looked around. Then, he looked back at the north, where he had tamed the orcs, "I think we'll use the north area. Since this place is closest to the ruined cities of the Qiang Clan, there might be stragglers or refugees remaining. Our sect would like to shelter them for you."
"That's nice of you. Well, please excuse us. We'll talk later. We're sort of in a hurry."
Ma Ping passed the coordination tasks to Ma Shoucheng and Pang Lingming since they had already wasted so much time. They needed to leave Siren City now if they wanted to reach Red Sun City before the tournament began.
Thus, Miaomiao, Ma Moxi, Ma Ping, Jia Shan, and Ju Shoufen left for the tournament. However, a small beast tagged along with Ma Moxi in secret.
…
Zhao Bao gazed at the group, who had just flown away. He sighed, "They've bitten the obvious bait. Why are they going there for the sake of money? They might die if they fall into a trap."
Zhao Bao also received the invitation from Li Jue, but he declined since he didn't want to send Xiao Fei or Zhao Yun there. Also, Xiao Fei was not strong enough to join a serious competition yet.
Pang Lingming shrugged, "It's their choice. Well, let's write down a city plan first. We need to measure your new town structure and the length of the new water pipes."
"Oh, right. This monk shall let my sect master handle the task. Venerable Zhang, would you please?"
Venerable Zhang Jue, an early-stage nascent soul expert, was a bald elder monk with thick silver eyebrows and a long white beard that touched his stomach. He had been sitting on a flying carpet above the group of monks, meditating.
Without looking at Zhao Bao, the monk waved his hand and created a city map with his light element Qi. Then, he muttered, "Let's build walls and defensive formation arrays as soon as possible. I've been informed that the sinners from my old clan, the Zhang Clan have come to Aves Continent. We must prepare for the Great Chaos."
Ma Shoucheng, Pang Lingming, and even Zhao Bao were confused, "Uh, what?"
Venerable Zhang Jue opened his eyes and gazed toward the east, where Miaomiao's company had planned to visit, "The catalyst of all chaos has descended, and we must protect him at all costs."
"???"
Nobody could understand Zhang Jue's monologue. However, Venerable Zhang Jue seemed to know him.
In Zhang Jue's sleeve pocket was a normal scroll with the handwriting of OG-Buddha. The latter had sent the scroll to him via UUPS, aka Uninterruptible Ultimate Parcel Service, which had cost him several 4th-grade soul stones.
It was an expensive price to pay to deliver a direct message to his followers.
Written in the scroll were the analysis of Miaomiao's sponsor, Miaomiao's missions, and Miaomiao's behavior. It also included Buddha's prediction about the future events and future foes of the monastery.
And lastly, OG-Buddha instructed Zhang Jue with simple messages.
"Bless that fool. I like him."
Zhang Jue smiled, thinking of the message as an order.
'Why does our dao god want to bless an outsider? What's so special about you?'
Zhang Jue looked forward to talking with Mao Miaomiao in person in the future.
…
Due to the panic, Miaomiao and the gang rushed to Red Sun City without stopping. They flew for an entire day and reached the city five days before the event started.
Though they had arrived early, they were still not in the clear. Mao Miaomiao and Ma Moxi needed to find where the tournament would be held.
Strangely, no one came out to receive them in front of the capital city. Only local cultivators wandered around and minded their businesses.
This tournament was urgently and poorly made. The organizers didn't even inform about the exact location where the event would be held other than the city name.
The group should have investigated first before they had arrived. However, Jia Shan, Ma Ping, and Ju Shoufen had experience in competitive events and many tournaments like this.
Sometimes, tournament organizers used this lack of information pretext to start a preliminary round in secret and disqualified tournament candidates who couldn't reach the registration sites on time.
Thus, Ma Ping and Jia Shan believed that the preliminary round might have already started. They rushed here to help the youngster joining the event.
"Are you sure these stupid rules exist?" Miaomiao was skeptical about the rush. It was obvious that the tournament was a bait to reel in him or other na?ve cultivators, so there was no point to be serious.
"You shouldn't let your guard down. Anything can happen before and after the tournament," Ju Shoufen grumbled as she looked around in paranoia. This was their most vulnerable moment as ambushers, thieves, and their hidden enemies could begin tracking them and kill them.
The elders seemed to be in a bad mood. Miaomiao and Ma Moxi started to feel uncomfortable as the elders intentionally leaked their killing intent to scare off nearby local cultivators.
As soon as all local cultivators ran away, a fox cub slipped out of Ma Moxi's robes. She transformed into an adolescent young maiden, who seemed to be in her teen. She had orange hair, red robes, two fox ears, and two fluffy orange tails.
Ku'er, Ma Moxi's girlfriend, revealed her true form.
"Ku'er, why are you out here!? Go back into the clothes!" Ma Moxi was alarmed. He was afraid that Ku'er might be in danger if the local cultivators found her.
"KUU!!"
POOF!
The fox girl's ears and tails vanished. Ku'er had transformed again, altering her humanoid appearance.
As she had used her power, she revealed her cultivation base. Surprisingly, she was a 6th-stage beast.
"Who is this, Moxi?"
This was the first time that Ma Ping had seen the girl's real appearance. He questioned his grandson.
"This is Ku'er, the fox cub that has been with me for a while."
Ku'er smiled and bowed to Ma Ping, "Ku'er greets grandfather-in-law!"
"Huh?"
…
It took Ma Moxi and Ku'er a while to explain their relationship.
Ku'er and Ma Moxi had been dating since the day Mao Xueyan and her company had arrived. Coincidentally, Ku'er had suffered from her first mating season sickness that day, and Moxi had already claimed her while no one was looking.
Ju Shoufen and Jia Shan laughed while Ma Ping facepalmed, thinking of how his grandson got influenced by Miaomiao and turned into a perverted lolicon.
As for Miaomiao, he patted Ma Moxi's back while he tried his best to hold back his laughter, "My condolence."
"Hey! What that's supposed to mean?"
"You did her when she was in mating season, so you should be expecting babies. Did you cum inside her?"
"…"
At that moment, Ma Moxi realized – He was fucked.
Ma Moxi had a thousand words to say, but he was too ashamed to reveal his secret.
"Look, being a father is hard but it's rewarding as long as your kids are human. If they come out as animals or monsters, well, do your best."
"…"
Hearing about the potential race of his future children, Ma Moxi imagined holding several fox babies in his arms while they were yipping, calling him daddy. The thought traumatized him as Moxi didn't want to have animals as sons or daughters.
"I'm surprised that you're cultured enough to fuck an underage fox girl. Oh, don't worry. There is no FBI or laws here. You can eat any loli in this world as long as you don't violate them."
"…"
It was the other way around. The 6th-stage two-tailed fox violated him when he was trying to sleep!
Getting trolled by Miaomiao, Ma Moxi's mood was ruined. He no longer looked forward to participating in the tournament.
…
The gang explored the city for clues. They searched for the city hall first to ask about the upcoming tournament.
Red Sun City was worthy to be called a capital city. Tall condominiums, skyscrapers, and fancy buildings were everywhere. However, there was no tree in sight.
The paved streets, roads, and sidewalks were not as clean as Siren City's stone roads. Smelly rubbish, such as rotten, broken furniture, mysterious juice from wet junk, and torn papers were everywhere.
Local cultivators and commoners ignored the trash and the odor. They only cared about their buildings and their spaces, so they dumped all useless things on the streets.
The group cringed when they found a group of middle-aged cultivators throwing glass bottles, which contained their urine to the street in front of them. The glass broke upon impact, leaking the yellow liquid.
"Disgusting," Ju Shoufen frowned. She didn't like the environment of this city. "How does this city operate when no one is taking trash seriously? Is this city a dumpster!?"
Ju Shoufen's remark caught the attention of a nearby local cultivator. He smirked, "First time, kiddo?"
"Yeah, so what!?"
"You don't need to worry about that. At night, some monsters come out and eat all the trash and clean the streets for us. When the sun rises, everything will be as good as new! Just dump all your shit anywhere as long as you don't throw it in my house!"
"… What?"
Miaomiao and Ma Moxi felt like their brain cells just died. The city was weird.
Still, it was not the time to worry about the city's background or how this city operated. Miaomiao asked him for direction and info about the tournament.
"Excuse me, do you know anything about the upcoming tournament event? I think it's called Imperial Martial Tournament or something."
"That shit?" The man pointed at the imperial palace at the center of the city. The 10-meter-tall brick walls could be seen from here.
"I think they've already started the selection tests. If you're under the age of 20 or something, you can enter the palace and take a shot. By the way," The man glanced at Jia Shan and Ma Ping, "They don't allow guardians to spectate the event. It's weird."
The group finally found clues. However, they didn't like what they had heard.
The rules were strange.
Tournaments usually allowed guardians and spectators to observe the events since they were the main point of having such competitions. People wanted to brag about their disciples, children, or their organizations, so the tournament organizers usually prepared a special place for them to do so. This didn't include gambling and private betting between rival clans, which could net the organizers some money.
However, warding off spectators and guardians were unheard of. This tournament reeked conspiracy.
"Should we go home?"
Even Ma Moxi had concerns.
"I don't like it either. What about you, Miaomiao?"
Jia Shan looked at his disciple, waiting for his final call.
Miaomiao had a wry smile on his face. His deep frown created several wrinkles on his forehead as he also didn't like the tournament format.
"No matter how obvious the bait is, I need to bite it. I'm sorry, but I have to take part in it. Something tells me that we will get into trouble if I don't join this tournament."
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