Attacked by the Female Demon at the Beginning - Chapter 127

Chapter 127: Gratitude to the River God

Drunken Immortal Pavilion.

Jiang Hao looked at the food and drink on the table, feeling somewhat emotional.

He had seen others dine here before but had never visited himself.

Now sitting here, his youthful innocence was long gone.

Though, to be fair, he wasn’t exactly in his youth back then either.

“I am Fang Jin from the Mingyue Sect. May I know your name, fellow daoist?” Fang Jin asked politely.

Without his Junior Sister accompanying him, he felt more relaxed.

It also made it easier to interact with others.

“Jiang Haotian,” Jiang Hao replied, giving both his real and a fake name.

“So, you are Daoist Jiang,” Fang Jin said, not inquiring about Jiang Hao’s sect but instead apologizing for the previous night’s incident.

“My Junior Sister Lan is still young and may have offended you last night. I hope you won’t take it to heart.”

“Not at all,” Jiang Hao shook his head.

He didn’t care much about such matters; if it didn’t conflict with his interests, it was best to stay away.

Especially since these people were from the Mingyue Sect.

Any conflict could bring him significant trouble.

Dealing with the Xuantian Sect and the Luoxia Sect was already enough for him; adding the Mingyue Sect would be terrifying.

“To make up for my Junior Sister Lan’s behavior, I’d like to thank you. Also, this spiritual sword isn’t bad; perhaps you’ll find it to your liking,” Fang Jin said with a smile, taking out a simple long sword.

The sword was still sheathed, so Jiang Hao couldn’t assess it fully.

But there were fluctuations of spiritual energy around it, restrained yet vast.

This sword wasn’t as good as the one from last night, but it was much stronger than ordinary magical treasures.

It could sell for a good amount of money.

But giving away such a sword just for a few words exchanged last night seemed too generous.

“Do you need my help with something, fellow daoist?” Jiang Hao didn’t touch the sword, simply voicing his inner doubts.

It’s more frightening if there’s no request.

“Daoist Jiang sees clearly,” Fang Jin smiled, then revealed his purpose.

“The Mingyue Sect is far from Youyun Prefecture, and we seldom set foot here. We came mainly for a Junior Sister this time. We were supposed to come later, but we discovered that this Junior Sister had gone missing, so we hurried over. The leader of our group is an uncle-master, and we are currently acting separately. We’ve been tracking and traced it to Po Lang. The somewhat childish Junior Sister Lan is quite capable. She found the person but lost her sword, and then led us here to look for Po Lang. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get any information from him.”

Jiang Hao looked down.

Were they here for that disciple?

If so, that was unfortunate.

His mission was likely to fail, especially since they mentioned an uncle-master.

This meant that the person who came was above the Golden Core; whether it was Nascent Soul or above that was unknown.

In the end, he shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t learn anything from him.”

“That’s alright,” Fang Jin said, still offering the sword to Jiang Hao.

Jiang Hao declined.

Even if the other party was from the Mingyue Sect, with its substantial resources, giving away several thousand spirit stones was no small matter, and they might not be willing to part with them so easily.

Likewise, he couldn’t be too greedy.

It could easily bring trouble upon himself.

Afterward, Fang Jin didn’t insist further, nor did he inquire more about these matters.

They simply drank and chatted casually.

Jiang Hao also tried a bit of the drink.

It had been a long time since he had drunk alcohol; he mostly drank tea.

After tasting it, he found the flavor to be quite good.

It wouldn’t hurt to carry some with him in the future.

After a long while, Jiang Hao and Fang Jin parted ways.

Watching Jiang Hao disappear from view, Fang Jin sighed.

He felt that Jiang Hao was somewhat difficult to approach and seemingly cautious.

He genuinely wanted to gift the sword to the other party to form a good connection.

If he had a saber, he would have offered that instead.

“Senior Brother, you’re here? We’ve been looking for you for a while,” Fairy Lan approached Fang Jin and said.

“Senior Brother, did you just finish eating?” Fairy Bai asked curiously.

“Mm, I had a drink with that friend from last night. He’s not easy to approach. I couldn’t get any information from him. It seems we’ll have to go to Tiantu City to find Zuo Lan, hoping to find new clues,” Fang Jin said with a smile.

“Tiantu City’s Zuo Lan?” Bai Qiong frowned and said,

“He’s not weak. I’ve had someone check; he might be related to the Great Thousand Divine Sect. If Junior Sister’s disappearance is related to him, there might be the shadow of the entire Great Thousand Divine Sect behind it. And the Great Thousand Divine Sect usually deals with money, which means there might be someone else behind this.”

“It is quite complicated. We just don’t know who the target is,” Fang Jin sighed,

“Our location divination has been interfered with; the other party has really invested a lot.”

“When shall we go to Tiantu City?” Bai Qiong asked.

“Let’s go now,” Fang Jin didn’t want to delay any further.

“Senior Brother, were those two people from last night really that strong?” Fairy Lan asked curiously on the side.

“I don’t know, I observed carefully today, and he’s still at the Foundation Establishment mid-stage. But there are many extraordinary people in the world. Although we come from the Mingyue Sect, the sect’s reputation only serves as a deterrent; it doesn’t make us instantly stronger. When traveling outside, it’s best to keep peace. We can make friends where possible, and with those we can’t befriend, we should avoid making enemies. Of course, the most important thing is to have strong personal strength,” Fang Jin explained with a smile.

“But this place is close to the Demon Sect Tianyin Sect. Could he be a disciple of Tianyin Sect?” Fairy Lan continued to ask.

Hearing this, Fang Jin laughed and said earnestly,

“Does that really matter? I find his demeanor to be good, and he’s worth making friends with. There’s no need to dig too deep into where he comes from. Sometimes, it’s also good to play the fool. It makes things much easier when you’re outside.”

“I don’t quite understand,” Fairy Lan shook her head.

“Why should I go out of my way to make friends? Can’t others come to befriend me?”

Bai Qiong chuckled softly and said.

“Don’t you think that everyone who approaches Junior Sister has an ulterior motive?”

“Isn’t that the case?” Fairy Lan asked.

The group stopped chatting and chose to leave.

At this time, Jiang Hao was walking along the streets.

He was taking familiar paths, or rather, the more he walked, the clearer his memories became and the more familiar he felt.

Of course, some places no longer overlapped with his memories, with some roads altered and some new houses built.

Where there used to be open land in his memory now stood pavilions.

After a while, he arrived at the riverside, where some trees stood and children played and frolicked underneath.

Seeing this, Jiang Hao couldn’t help but smile.

He had played here before, although he never quite fit in with the other children.

“Why did I come here back then?”

Jiang Hao pondered for a moment and then remembered.

Chopping wood was too tiring, so he had sneaked out.

But he never rested for long before his stepmother would catch him and drag him back.

Only occasionally would he stay until mealtime.

Standing still and thinking, Jiang Hao realized that most of his memories were of his stepmother and very few of his birth father.

Perhaps because his father had neither beaten nor cherished him.

Jiang Hao stopped wandering and found a place to sit, watching the clear river flow and listening to the children’s play.

For a moment, he felt as if he had returned to his childhood.

For cultivators, dwelling too much on the past is not a good thing.

Yet, these memories were not something he could deliberately forget.

Of course, he wouldn’t make an effort to remember them either.

It’s just that, at the moment, he felt somewhat… nostalgic.

Splash!

Suddenly, the sound of something falling into the water came.

Jiang Hao turned his head and saw that a child had accidentally fallen into the river while playing.

“Mom, Mom, come quick, Goudan has fallen into the water.”

Seeing this, Jiang Hao walked to the river’s edge, quickly stepped into the water, and lifted the child out.

By the time the adults hurried over, they found Goudan sitting by the river, soaking wet, as if he had climbed out of the water himself, but there was no one else around.

“How did you get out?” Goudan’s father asked.

“I-I don’t know?” Goudan said, bewildered.

He had suddenly fallen into the river, and then just as suddenly, he was by the riverbank.

Smack!

Goudan’s father patted Goudan on the head, excitedly saying, “Aren’t you going to thank the River God for saving your life?”