translator: ahad
proof reading: shaheer
Read Chapter 1006: A Strange Village
A short while later, various figures flew over from all directions. They were clearly local creatures who had come to investigate the commotion caused by the meteor shower.
For cultivators in any world, these meteorites that fell from the sky contained large amounts of rare minerals that could be used for refining Spirit Artifacts. Naturally, it was enough to make people flock to them.
At this very moment, with Dao Thirteen carrying him on his back, Lu Ye had already sprinted out for over a hundred miles.
During this period, they had encountered local creatures flying over their heads. Fortunately, Lu Ye, through his Divine Sense perception, was well-prepared in advance, which prevented them from being exposed.
After sprinting for several hundred more miles, Lu Ye finally found a mountain cave and dived in with Dao Thirteen.
His cultivation base was too severely suppressed to set up any array formations, so he could only try to be as vigilant as possible.
He didn’t know what kind of world this was, what the creatures of this world were, and even less did he understand why the Heavenly Mystery had sent him here.
As for how to return to Jiu Zhou, he had absolutely no clue.
Therefore, the most urgent task at hand was to collect information about this world; at the very least, he had to figure out whether the creatures of this world were Human or some other species.
Restoring his cultivation base was also a top priority. In such an unfamiliar environment, a cultivation base at the Third-Order Spirit Creek Realm simply couldn’t give Lu Ye any sense of security.
With his thoughts reaching this point, Lu Ye slowly formulated a plan.
Sitting cross-legged at the bottom of the cave, Lu Ye attempted to activate his own Spiritual Power, wanting to see if he could break through the confinement of that inexplicable power.
His cultivation base had been suppressed, not fallen. Therefore, as long as he could break the confinement of that inexplicable power, he could recover.
However, after much effort, Lu Ye had no choice but to give up, because he discovered that the inexplicable power was extremely firm and simply wasn’t something he could shake.
But what gave him a slight sense of comfort was that the power confining his cultivation was slowly dissipating at an extremely slow speed.
This meant that even if he did nothing, his cultivation could eventually recover. As for how long this process would take, it was impossible to determine.
With his cultivation temporarily unrecoverable, unable to cultivate, and unwise to leave this place rashly, Lu Ye was somewhat bored for a time.
He raised his eyes to look at Dao Thirteen, who was standing to the side like a wooden stump, and a thought occurred to him. “Sit down.”
Having had the Soul Domination Divine Glyph implanted in him, Dao Thirteen obeyed his words implicitly and sat cross-legged obediently.
“Who is your Venerable Lord?” Lu Ye asked. With nothing else to do, it was the perfect time to probe Dao Thirteen for intelligence on that Venerable Lord.
Although he was currently trapped in this unknown world, he would eventually return to Jiu Zhou one day. Based on his brief encounter with the Venerable Lord, this person had grand ambitions and miraculous methods; it was highly likely that he would stir up bloody storms in Jiu Zhou at some point.
Learning more about the Venerable Lord would allow him to respond accordingly when he returned to Jiu Zhou in the future.
Dao Thirteen shook his head, indicating he didn’t know.
Lu Ye frowned. “What is his name?”
Dao Thirteen still shook his head.
Lu Ye asked several more questions in succession, but Dao Thirteen was either silent or shook his head, leaving Lu Ye feeling quite helpless.
He had long discovered that Dao Thirteen wasn’t very bright, but only now did he realize that while this guy wasn’t exactly a fool, he wasn’t far off from being one.
“Dao Thirteen is a Dao Soldier!” Dao Thirteen suddenly uttered a baffling sentence.
“A Dao Soldier?” Lu Ye was confused.
“En,” Dao Thirteen nodded.
What was a Dao Soldier? Although Lu Ye had never heard of such a title, he vaguely sensed something.
Dao Thirteen was highly likely to have been catalyzed and refined by the Venerable Lord using some mysterious method. Hence, he possessed a powerful cultivation base but had a dim, ignorant intelligence. A thought occurred to him. “Your name is Dao Thirteen. Are there others like Dao Twelve or Dao Fourteen?”
At this, Dao Thirteen shook his head again.
Lu Ye instantly lost the interest to continue talking.
In truth, it wouldn’t have been difficult to extract the information Dao Thirteen knew; Lu Ye only needed to cast the Spirit Link Divine Glyph on him. Once this Divine Glyph was cast, any secret in Dao Thirteen’s brain could be investigated by Lu Ye.
But if he truly did that, Lu Ye’s own secrets would likewise be exposed to Dao Thirteen. Therefore, Lu Ye was unwilling to use this method.
Even though Dao Thirteen’s intelligence was dim, Lu Ye still had to be on guard.
Extinguishing the thought of probing for information from Dao Thirteen, the cave fell into silence, with master and servant sitting opposite each other without a word.
Time flew by, and three days passed.
Lu Ye frowned deeply. In three days’ time, his cultivation base had recovered a little, but it was still only at the Third-Order Spirit Creek Realm!
At this rate, he didn’t know how long he would have to wait to recover his original Real Lake Realm cultivation base. And as long as the confinement of that inexplicable power wasn’t broken, it would be of no use no matter how hard he cultivated.
He truly couldn’t understand why the Heavenly Mystery had to confine his cultivation, and exactly what it was concealing.
He had originally planned to wait until his cultivation was restored before leaving this place to see what kind of world this was, but now that plan wasn’t feasible.
He couldn’t possibly stay here for ten or twenty years.
Helplessly, he could only leave the mountain cave that had served as his shelter with Dao Thirteen.
Unfamiliar with the land and the people, Lu Ye didn’t know which way to go and could only choose a direction at random.
Master and servant traveled along the way, occasionally encountering some beasts on the road, all of which were dealt with casually.
Although their cultivation was currently inadequate, their Divine Sense remained intact, so some minor beasts naturally couldn’t threaten them.
His luck wasn’t bad. After only half a day, the two left the dense forest and saw a village at the edge of the woods.
The village seemed to have a large population because there were many houses. Lu Ye didn’t dare to barge in rashly but instead investigated from outside the village for a long time.
Under the perception of his Divine Sense, there were about a hundred households in this village, with a population of nearly a thousand.
What made Lu Ye feel delighted was that the inhabitants here were Human, not some other strange species. Having had his previous experiences in the Secret Realms, how could Lu Ye not know that in this vast universe, there wasn’t only one world called Jiu Zhou, let alone only one species called Human?
However, there were also some things that left Lu Ye feeling puzzled.
Because this village didn’t look like much, yet every household seemed to be well-off. Moreover, there were many children; the people here seemed exceptionally fertile. Every household had at least two or three children, and some had as many as six or seven.
Outside the village were vast Spirit Fields, planted with something resembling Spirit Rice. Lu Ye casually picked some and tasted it; the Spiritual Power contained within that Spirit Rice wasn’t considered dense, but if consumed year after year, not to mention how much it could enhance one’s cultivation, it could at least prolong one’s life.
If this were true, there should be many long-lived people in this world.
Yet, there were no particularly old people in the village. Even those over forty were extremely rare; most were in their twenties or thirties.
There were cultivators in the village, and the number wasn’t small—over a hundred. What was bizarre was that their cultivation wasn’t high, all at the Spirit Creek Realm level. However, they didn’t have the appearance a cultivator should have, seemingly just like ordinary farmers, laboring in the fields just like other ordinary people.
Logically speaking, a village with such a well-off foundation should have been a place where everyone lived at ease. Yet, in Lu Ye’s observation, regardless of gender, the people in the village seemed to be living in an atmosphere of constant, impending doom all day, as if some danger might descend at any moment.
Even those innocent children who knew nothing of the world rarely had the carefree smiles that children should have.
These various bizarre aspects left Lu Ye very confused.
After observing for half a day, Lu Ye still decided to enter the village.
No matter what, only by contacting the native Human race of this world would he have the opportunity to probe for information about this world. Otherwise, if he hid in the mountains with Dao Thirteen, he would never accomplish anything.
Before revealing himself, Lu Ye put away his Panshan Saber and even stuffed his storage bag into his bosom, leading Dao Thirteen into the village from one end.
Some of the people laboring in the fields saw them, but they merely took a few glances before ignoring them again.
This left Lu Ye even more confused. Logically speaking, when strangers arrived, one should normally be vigilant. Yet the people here chose not to, acting as if seeing them was the same as not seeing them at all.
It was the children playing at the village entrance who, upon seeing him and Dao Thirteen, ran toward the depths of the village in a flock. One slightly older child ran while shouting, “Village Chief, refugees have come.”
Refugees…
It seemed that this world wasn’t as peaceful as he had seen. There must be some unknown danger weighing down on these humans like a great mountain, causing them to exhibit that sense of unease.
Moreover, this kind of danger was the type that could descend at any moment.
Exactly what kind of danger was it?
Lu Ye was left in deep uncertainty.
Perhaps the shouting of the child from before had alerted the people in the village. People opened their doors one after another to investigate but did not approach.
It wasn’t until a middle-aged man around forty years old came to greet them.
Lu Ye focused his gaze to observe and discovered that he also possessed cultivation, but the other party hadn’t activated their Spiritual Power, so he couldn’t judge their realm.
The middle-aged man should be the Village Chief of this village. Although he possessed cultivation, he was dressed as a farmer, leaving Lu Ye completely baffled.
In Jiu Zhou, anyone capable of cultivation wouldn’t engage in things like laboring in the fields, because every Sect and family protected a large number of mortals, and the secular items needed by the Sects could be provided by the mortals.
Yet in this unknown world, it seemed like a common occurrence.
There was a somewhat miserable expression on the Village Chief’s face. He didn’t know what he had encountered; his eyes were red-rimmed, as if he hadn’t rested well. He sized Lu Ye up and down, then looked at Dao Thirteen following behind him, and said, “Refugees?”
Lu Ye nodded silently, his eyebrows tightly locked together, wearing an expression of deep-seated bitterness.
He had absolutely no understanding of this world, so he naturally adhered to the principle that “the less said, the fewer the mistakes.” Since they mistakenly thought he was a refugee, then he would just act as one. Since he was a refugee, having a look of sorrow and indignation was only natural.
“You have cultivation?” the Village Chief asked again.
Lu Ye nodded once more, activating his own Spiritual Power, revealing the pathetic fluctuations of the Third-Order Spirit Creek Realm.
The Village Chief sighed. “Your life is quite tenacious. Since you’ve come, stay then. Whether it’s a blessing or a curse, it depends on your own fate.”
Saying this, he beckoned to Lu Ye.
Lu Ye then brought Dao Thirteen and followed him.
Not long after, under the Village Chief’s guidance, the three arrived in front of a small courtyard.
(End of Chapter)