The Tianyuan Dynasty, Tengzhou Prefecture, Mingquan Post.
Mingquan Post was an ordinary post station by the seaside, merely twenty miles away from Tengzhou City.
Standing at the entrance of the post station, one could overlook the vast plains and see the walls of Tengzhou Prefecture from twenty miles away.
On normal days, Mingquan Post was sparsely populated, with hardly any visitors.
The Sea of Mist was regarded as the edge of the world, where Cultivators could not set foot and ordinary people dared not stray too far from the coastline.
Therefore, resource-poor Tengzhou Prefecture was a marginal and impoverished place, historically overlooked by mainstream society.
Yet recently, Tengzhou Prefecture had become bustling with continuous arrivals of imperial Technique Forms from the Qintian Supervisor and many martial experts from various factions on the jianghu, all hurrying over, travel-stained. With the influx of numerous outsiders, the entire prefecture had become lively.
Inside Mingquan Post, there even came a legendary immortal maiden.
With the arrival of that immortal maiden, the post station seemed to glow with added splendor, constantly attracting prestigious figures from both the jianghu and the imperial court to visit her.
It was said that the immortal maiden was the disciple of the True Immortal Qingye, the only student he had accepted in a thousand years since his attainment of the Dao.
Among the True Immortal Qingye’s disciples, she was the youngest yet the most favored, and even important imperial officials had to carefully send in their names at the gate when coming to visit her.
If it were not for the Glass Immortal Maiden’s refusal, the governor of Tengzhou Prefecture would have long since ordered Mingquan Post to be sealed off, prohibiting the approach of uninvolved folks.
However, although Mingquan Post was not sealed off today, there were no brash fools who dared to approach it.
The Qintian Supervisor had deployed two powerful Magicians outside Mingquan Post to protect the immortal maiden day and night.
Ordinary people, upon seeing the two Demon Suppression Magi standing guard, dared not come near.
The Qintian Supervisor’s Demon Suppression Magi had a notorious reputation among both the common folk and the jianghu.
But this afternoon, a reckless figure was seen ambling towards Mingquan Post, leisurely riding a donkey.
He was a white-robed young man, perhaps due to traveling, his once dashing white robe now appeared slightly dirty and disheveled, with faint stains on the cuffs and chest.
The skinny donkey carried him wobbling down the official road, making one worry whether the frail donkey would collapse under his weight.
Yet the young man lay back, legs crossed, in an exceedingly odd posture on the donkey’s back, his body swaying with each step the donkey took.
A woven bamboo hat covered his face, shielding him from the sunlight, while beneath the brim, the edges of his face showed traces of stubble.
He seemed both very young and very old at the same time.
The two Demon Suppression Magi stood one to each side outside the Mingquan Post’s main gate, frowning at the approach of this peculiar white-robed youth riding a donkey.
“Who are you, and what business do you have at Mingquan Post?”
The white-robed young man in front of them gave the two Demon Suppression Magi a sense of danger.
But then the young man lying on the donkey sat up abruptly, looked at the two Demon Suppression Magi with a lazy gaze, and said, “Shen Tujing of the Mysterious Sword Sect, here to see my junior sister… Do you two gentlemen disapprove?”
Upon the white-robed young man’s self-introduction, the two Demon Suppression Magi instinctively took a step back.
Among the disciples of True Immortal Qingye, this Shen Tujing was notorious and had the worst relations with the Qintian Supervisor.
The two Demon Suppression Magi were still hesitant, but inside Mingquan Post the voice of the Glass Immortal Maiden was heard.
“Has Brother Jing arrived? Please, come in.”
Hearing this voice, the white-robed youth chuckled.
He flipped off the donkey’s back and then whistled at the Demon Suppression Magus at the door, “Watch my donkey for me. If you let it run away, I’ll break both of your legs!”
The Demon Suppression Magus, whom common folk feared like evil spirits, faced Shen Tujing’s provocation without uttering a word and silently led the donkey to the stables.
Seeing that the Demon Suppression Magus didn’t respond to his taunts, Shen Tujing shook his head disinterestedly. He entered the Mingquan Posthouse and happened upon his junior sister, Chu Qingxue, who had come to meet him.
The Glass Immortal Maiden looked at him in surprise and asked, “Senior brother, why have you come?”
Shen Tujing let out a sigh. Facing his own junior sister, he dropped the carefree ruffian demeanor and became serious.
“Master sent me.”
Glancing at the tumultuous white mist rolling over the distant sea, Shen Tujing sighed and said, “The Sea of Mist is restless, and the Demon Suppression Magus have emerged in full force. Master said that Tengzhou Prefecture might be headed for disaster, so he sent me here to keep watch.”
“In a few days, the other senior brothers and sisters will also arrive one after another. This time, almost everyone from the Mysterious Sword Sect has come out. Besides preventing these Demon Suppression Magus from recklessly killing, we also need to guard against the evil spirits in the mist bringing calamity to the world.”
Shen Tujing had a rare solemn expression and a grave tone of voice.
The Glass Immortal Maiden was taken aback by her senior brother’s grave demeanor, “Is the situation that dire…”
She followed her senior brother upstairs, and the two of them sat down by the window.
The mist above the distant sea churned violently as if terrifying evil beings were struggling and stirring within.
The chilly breath carried by the sea breeze went unnoticed by ordinary people, but for a cultivator like the Glass Immortal Maiden, such a cold breath was hair-raising.
Looking at his junior sister’s puzzled expression, Shen Tujing sighed.
“The old geezer, our master, said that everything in the mist is wickedly troublesome and incredibly powerful. No matter what comes out of it, in this era where True Immortals do not appear and deities have vanished, it will be a disaster that brings widespread suffering.”
“The Demon Suppression Magus from the Imperial Observatory may be skilled at suppressing the Demon Path and eliminating the others, but facing what lies deep within the mist, they might not be reliable.”
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“Therefore, our Mysterious Sword Sect must be fully prepared this time to prevent the situation from spiraling out of control.”
Shen Tujing, who was usually carefree, now gazed at the rolling mist from afar with an unusual seriousness.
Even before the creatures within the mist made their revelation, they had already sent a bone-chilling presence to the outside world, alarming the entire land.
If that thing really came out…
Shen Tujing sighed, “The old geezer has painted such a terrifying picture of the things in the mist that it’s got me feeling a bit shaky.”
The Glass Immortal Maiden asked curiously, “Does master know what the evil beings inside the mist are?”
That world of mist, isn’t it inaccessible to cultivators?
Why does it seem like master understands it…
Shen Tujing shrugged his shoulders and said, “The old geezer is crafty. He definitely knows something but refuses to tell me.”
“He only said that what’s inside the mist should not exist in this world and is a terror beyond human understanding.”
“I even suspect that the mist might actually be the old man’s hometown; otherwise, how could he know so much? Maybe he’s in cahoots with those evil beings in the mist, and that’s why he is so powerful.”
Shen Tujing complained about their master’s secrecy, starting to concoct stories about the old man.
The Glass Immortal Maiden gazed at the thick fog over the distant sea, her eyes filled with worry.
The incessantly rolling mist had suddenly become terrifying.