Chapter 357: Chapter 252: Old Ascender Is Always One Step Slower Than Me_2
"Recently?" Zhang Ze took the strange magical artifact and inspected it.
"That’s right. You can use this to see the Ghost City within Wind Chime City," Lin Wei finally revealed his secret.
A few days ago, while standing on a high platform in the wind, he took out this item out of boredom and looked towards Wind Chime City, and an image appeared in the black lens.
The Ghost City that had disappeared forty years ago reappeared.
"This is yours now, goods first, payment later. I hope you will keep your promise, senior."
Zhang Ze looked at Lin Wei, feeling this person was quite interesting, speaking slickly yet not annoyingly.
"The root of your ailment lies in this magical artifact; without it, there’s no big deal. I can help you cure it now."
Zhang Ze did not take out a Spirit Stone but instead took out a medicine box from his Hundred Treasures Bag.
This was also something from Medicine King Valley.
[Medicine Box for Dummies]
When he opened the box, there were only five compartments inside, each with labels and some small words written beside them.
[This one for internal injuries, won’t die from eating, eat freely]
[This one for external injuries, up to three pills]
...
Zhang Ze took out one pill for internal injuries and one for external injuries and handed them to Lin Wei, "Take these, you’ll be fine by afternoon."
After Lin Wei took the pills, Zhang Ze said to him, "I find your way of speaking interesting. Why don’t you go find a job at the shop opened by the Demon Race? It’s much better than setting up a stall here."
Lin Wei gave an awkward smile, "I fear you’ll laugh, senior. I’ve never seen the Demon Race before; I don’t know if they are like the rumors say..."
This place is too remote, and demons who love excitement rarely come here.
The Demon Race here isn’t much different from the legends.
The receiving station for Zhendong Trading Company was just opened a few days ago, and the residents here aren’t familiar with the Demon Race, even hesitant to do business with them.
Lin Wei had ventured out, but whether due to bad luck or not, he had never seen a single Demon cultivator.
"Don’t worry, it’s nothing." Zhang Ze smiled.
"But that Demon cultivator seems to always look unhappy, wearing a scowl at everyone." Lin Wei recalled the image of that Demon cultivator.
Zhang Ze thought to himself, no wonder that brother is unhappy. Being sent here is basically an exile thousands of miles away; you’d be a ghost to be happy.
He wondered which leader at Zhendong Trading Company painted a rosy picture of promotion and a raise to deceive him into coming here.
"Seriously, it’s fine. Demons are all pranksters; he’s only unhappy because no one chats with him. You’ll see when you go there."
Speaking as someone who’d been through it, Zhang Ze said.
...
On the outskirts of Wind Chime City, the yellow sand had replaced the soil, and the Nameless Town had disappeared behind them. Zhang Ze and his junior sister rode the Wind Traveling Ship heading towards the depths of Wind Chime City.
Lin Wei wasn’t fooling; that strange magical artifact truly allowed one to see the Ghost City.
Placing the black lens before his eyes, he could see that illusory city.
Within the black lens, the city seemed to enter a cycle, endlessly repeating from prosperity to destruction.
"This Secret Realm is likely related to some kind of Spatial Taoist Technique, perhaps even a man-made Secret Realm. Brother, should we be careful?"
"Alright, we’ll... careful!" Before Zhang Ze could finish his sentence, he leapt off the Wind Traveling Ship, transforming into a golden light as he fled to the distance, then slashed with his sword.
The position he had just vacated was now engulfed by a plume of black poisonous mist, as a giant worm lunged from within, straight into the sword light Zhang Ze had unleashed.
Chen Qin also attacked simultaneously, but instead of striking the Earth Worm, she slashed around it.
There was more than one Earth Worm.
These Earth Worms were quite formidable, with circular mouths lined with three smaller mouths spewing poisonous smoke.
They looked eighty percent like some kind of death worm.
As for the remaining twenty percent...
The bodies of these worms weren’t smooth but were densely covered with protruding bumps.
Absolutely disgusting.
However, although there were many of these Earth Worms and they were disgusting, not many could withstand a single sword strike from Zhang Ze and Chen Qin.
After slaying dozens of Earth Worms, Zhang Ze finally noticed something odd—they weren’t hunting them; they were fleeing.
Seeing this, Zhang Ze instinctively took out the black lens and looked towards the direction from which the Earth Worms were fleeing.
The Ghost City, which had been far away just a moment ago, was now close at hand; the strangely colored brick walls were clearly visible through the black lens.
Then, the black lens in Zhang Ze’s hand flashed, and he was sucked into it.
At the moment he disappeared, a sword Qi of Shattering Void slashed towards his location, and the figure of Chen Qianhu appeared where Zhang Ze had vanished.
The pebbles and everything around the worms were instantly cleared, yet Zhang Ze and that Ghost City seemed nonexistent in this world.
However, Old Ascender was a step too late.
He failed to breach that Secret Realm, and the Ghost City escaped under his watchful eye.
Chen Qianhu felt torn; whenever he didn’t see him, he wanted to hit him, but now that he’s gone, he’s worried.
"Father, I..." Chen Qin shed her disguise, came to Chen Qianhu’s side but hesitated to speak.
"Where did that lens come from?" Chen Qianhu asked, looking at his daughter.
"It’s from a merchant in that small town..."
"Let’s head back first."
...
In the town.
Lin Wei took Zhang Ze’s advice to heart; after taking the medicine, he went to the Demon Race’s trading post, where indeed, as Zhang Ze said, they were easy to talk to.
Now the two were almost sworn brothers.
However, good times are always short-lived. Soon, a form of authority Lin Wei couldn’t even comprehend descended upon him.
Then he was transferred to another place.
The Demon didn’t even have time to react, "Where did he go? Drinking where?"
When the Demon crouched on the ground, poking stones, looking for Lin Wei, Lin Wei returned.
With trembling hands, Lin Wei thought to himself how badly impressive his day had been.
Not only did he meet a Beast Taming Sect disciple specializing in veterinary medicine, but he was also taken for questioning by a big shot of unknown rank.
Those few seconds felt like an eternity to him. He even confessed to peeking at the neighbor’s sister bathing when he was little.
Luckily, he truly knew nothing and had no ill intentions; it was all just a misunderstanding.
"Hey, where did you drink? Drink... drink wine, keep drinking."
"Alright..." Lin Wei’s hand was still shaking.
...
In the desert of Wind Chime City, the Chen family of three stared at the endless yellow sand, their big eyes glaring at each other.
The Sect Leader was somewhat regretful. He shouldn’t have lifted this brat’s confinement order; he was just too much trouble.
Previously, it might have been tolerable—worry, but not to this extent.
But the current issue is that Zhang Ze, that little bastard, had gotten involved with his daughter. If anything happened to this little rascal, what would his daughter do?
Especially since this was a troublesome Secret Realm, inherently fortuitous, with expert casting and refining techniques, even he had no good solutions for now.
To cut open a path, the prerequisite was to know where the thing was.
Finding an intermittently appearing Secret Realm was much harder than capturing Zhang Ze.
Oddly, Chen Qin was the first to calm down among the family of three.
"Brother is fine!"
Saying this, Chen Qin pulled out a round Golden Core from her sleeve.
"I borrowed brother’s Golden Core to play a few days ago. Look, it’s not broken and still warm, which means brother is fine!"
The couple simultaneously fell into silence.
Golden Core used for playing?