Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 338 The Great Array of Liaodong

The hunter, also known as Li the Conman, wasn't always in the business of swindling and cheating.

Of course, there was no "having no choice" or "unspeakable hardship" involved. It was purely by chance that he tried to cheat a passing merchant and found that it was really easy to make money this way, which led him to start a life of cheating and swindling.

After all, hunting is much harder work than just talking.

But at this moment, Li the Conman was filled with regret for using this story to swindle money everywhere, only to end up with a shrew who was about to lose her life!

Unlike the simple and honest Grandpa Li, for an old farmer like Grandpa Li who has never left the village many times in his life, "death" is a huge deal, especially being killed by someone, which is completely different from dying from freezing, starvation, or being bitten by a big insect. That is a story he has hardly heard in his life.

After all, there are few people in the north, and even fewer in a harsh place like Liaoning. People are a very precious resource. In these villages, people from south to north all know each other, so quarrels and fights are common. It would be quite unusual if someone were to die.

This is also related to regional climate. For example, the southern region is rich in natural resources. After the Central Plains people migrated south, they squeezed the living space of the original native people. The two sides naturally began to fight against each other in order to obtain a better living space. Community-type buildings such as "Tulou" where families and clans live together were created for this reason.

In this context, it was commonplace for ethnic groups to plunder resources and even commit murder. This habit deeply influenced the people of the southern region, leading to frequent unrest in the modern era before gun control was fully implemented. It even gave rise to criminal gangs led by local clans and ethnic groups, who killed investigators sent down from above several times. It was only with the deployment of the military that the local area was finally brought under control.

Well, I've digressed. Let's get back to Liaodong.

The Liaodong Peninsula is bitterly cold and lacks natural resources. The harsh environment means that the people here face more challenges from nature. As a result, they are more willing to live together. Even if they are strangers, as long as they say they are from Liaodong, they are willing to form an "alliance". This is a survival rule that is ingrained in their bones after living in a cruel and cold region for a long time.

The logic is simple: if you don't stick together, you'll starve or freeze to death.

Therefore, people here rarely engage in life-or-death struggles aimed at plundering resources. Most cases of death are actually due to acts of chivalry or loyalty, a survival habit that has developed in this cold climate.

When resources are scarce, helping each other can lead to receiving help when resources are scarce themselves. At the same time, the harsher and more brutal environment has made people in this area indifferent to blood ties and chastity. Many chieftains of the Mohe tribes may have raised more than a dozen "children" who are not related by blood. For a long time, women have been used as men (women also need to hunt, farm, and herd livestock). Under the social labor distribution, women's status is far higher than that of the Central Plains and the southern regions. This is determined by the ownership of the means of production and the social labor distribution.

Therefore, in Grandpa Li's eyes, Murong Ruyan was indeed vicious, but it was not worth killing someone just because she was deceived.

But it was different for Li Dahuyou, who had "seen the world". He had heard stories of martial artists killing without blinking an eye!

Although there aren't many martial arts forces in Liaodong, there are a few. I've heard that they're located in remote areas, so the imperial court doesn't pay much attention to them, and they act with complete impunity...

Having offended these martial artists, how could I possibly survive?
Who knows, just like in the stories told by the storyteller in town, he might actually kill someone on a whim!
Therefore, he was terrified and wished he had never lied to these people or sold bone beads!

No, he now wishes he had never even seen that damn "snow doll" in the first place!

"What exactly is this 'snow doll' you're talking about?"

Before Zhang Chengdao could even ask the question, Li the Great Conman was so scared he wet his pants again.

"My lord, I...I really don't know! I must be seeing things! I'm not human, I'm an animal, I deserve to die! My lord, please let me go, I beg you!"

He begged for mercy while crying, snot dripping from his face into his mouth, making Zhang Chengdao feel nauseous.

Moreover, the other party was so frightened that he was talking nonsense, making it difficult to ask him questions. Zhang Cheng could only reassure him, "Don't worry, as long as you explain the matter of the 'snow doll', I will naturally protect you from death."

Seeing Zhang Chengdao's sincerity, Li the Conman finally calmed down and spoke in a hoarse voice.

According to Li the Great Deceiver, he didn't really see what the "snow doll" was; it was just a white thing that looked the same color as snow.

Because he had never seen it before, he didn't dare to get close, and he never saw it again after that. He only found the bead where the "snow doll" disappeared.

The bead was originally black, jet black, but it gradually faded and turned into its current grayish-white color.

As for the rest...

"I really don't know!"

As Li the Great Deceiver spoke, he even excitedly blew out a snot bubble.

Based on the description, Zhang Chengdao had some guesses in his mind.

This thing doesn't seem to be a naturally born spirit; it seems to be controlled by something.

Because naturally born spirits, especially those clearly of the cold element gathered from "snow," inevitably bring extremely strong cold spiritual energy wherever they go. If the hunter had really been that close to the spirit, he would probably have frozen to death. It would have been impossible for him to have been spying for so long and then run over to pick up the "eyeball" that the spirit had dropped!
Moreover, the places they supposedly passed through, where ice and snow melted and grass and trees sprouted, clearly indicated that the spiritual energy was of the wood and earth elements. While this might not conflict with the cold spiritual energy contained in the bead, it was certainly not the same path, and it was impossible for it to coexist in the body of a spirit in a world with low spiritual energy concentration!

From this perspective, what's truly worth investigating isn't the "snow doll," but rather the entity behind it that manipulates it—perhaps another spirit, perhaps a cultivator, or perhaps a cultivator from another world who, like He Yu, has strayed into this realm…

However, although he had roughly figured out the reason, a new question arose in Zhang Chengdao's mind:
In a martial arts and cultivation world with such low spiritual energy concentration, where did so many cultivators come from?!

Looking at Li the Great Deceiver, who was in tears and on the verge of collapse, Zhang Chengdao knew that he would not get any more information by asking him further, so he got up and gave up.

Although the hunter was of questionable character, judging from his words and actions, the part about the "snow doll" did not seem to be entirely fabricated. It was just that with his limited perspective, he could not understand what he was seeing, and blinded by greed, he embellished it and used it to deceive people.

"That's all."

Zhang Chengdao sighed, flicked a wisp of gentle spiritual energy from his fingertip, and brushed it across Li Dahuyou's sleeping acupoint, causing him to fall into a temporary slumber so that he would stop scaring himself.

"I don't know how Ruyan scared him, but she managed to frighten a perfectly healthy man like that..."

While muttering to himself unconsciously, even adopting the quirks he'd picked up during his temporary stay in Liaodong, Zhang Chengdao took out a gold brick and some loose copper coins, placed them beside him, and gave a few instructions to Old Man Li, who was guarding the door. He told him that the matter was settled, and that he should not make things difficult for the man after he woke up, but also hoped that he would not cheat him again in the future.

After dealing with these trivial matters, Zhang Chengdao returned to the main room and shared his general suspicions with Murong Ruyan, Ye Shuyun, and the others. "Master suspects that the 'Snow Doll' is not a naturally born spirit, but rather controlled by someone?"

Murong Ruyan frowned; she hadn't really considered this possibility.

"If that's the case, what is the purpose of the person behind it? And why would they use a cold-attribute spirit in such a place? Moreover, according to Master's speculation, the spirit can melt ice and snow and make plants grow as it moves around. This is clearly the effect of wood or earth elemental energy containing vitality, which contradicts the extreme cold energy of the bead itself... This is too strange!"

Lu Mao'er couldn't help but interject, "Also, that thing didn't harm the local people, and apart from that hunter, no one else saw it. How come the hunter was the one who saw it?"

At this point, Lu Mao'er inexplicably remembered the "novel" she had secretly read in the sect's library some time ago.

"Hmm... it can't be that the hunter has some special qualities, or that he's some kind of chosen one... right..."

As soon as he said that, Lu Mao'er regretted it—it was really too unreliable!
Sure enough, when she looked up, she saw her master's disappointed expression: "Have you been secretly reading novels? Who taught you that? I'm going to beat him up when we get back!"

Lu Mao'er was startled and stammered, "No, no, no, I just, I only watched a little bit, just a little bit..."

As for Zhang Chengdao standing to the side, he had a blank expression and his expression didn't seem to change much.

But he was already numb inside!

The original purpose of putting those random novels in the sect's library was simply to enrich the collection and provide some entertainment for these people who were called disciples but were actually just laborers. We didn't want them to develop depression from their arduous cultivation in the mountains. After all, the development of spiritual civilization is also very important!
But unexpectedly, this thing is really quite destructive. Now, there is no one in the entire sect who doesn't read novels. Even Huang Wu, who has always hated literacy, has taken the initiative to learn cultural subjects. According to rumors, it's all for the sake of reading a novel called "What Kind of Immortal Can You Cultivate Without Spirit Stones!"

Fortunately, although Murong Ruyan also reads novels, she seemed to have a heavy "master's baggage," and quickly steered the conversation back on track: "Alright, I'll deal with you guys when I get back! Let's deal with the immediate issues first!"

After speaking, she paused for a moment, then continued, "That hunter is a fool. What could he be special about? I think it's just a coincidence."

"However, there are two possibilities for this 'snow doll'."

"Firstly, the being that controls the 'Snow Doll' must have extremely high cultivation or methods, and be able to control or fuse spiritual energy of different attributes at the same time. But even with the cultivation of the senior brother, I'm afraid he can't do that. The person behind this is truly unfathomable."

"Secondly, that 'snow doll' is not a single entity. Perhaps its movement just happened to pass through a place rich in life and spiritual energy, or... perhaps it was 'sowing' or 'stimulating' something? That's why the hunter described the situation?"

"Sowing seeds, inspiring..."

These words made Zhang Chengdao's eyes flash, as if he had thought of something.

What Ruyan said makes sense.

"I didn't notice anything while I was there, but I observed it on the way here. The flowers and trees near Yiwulü Mountain are indeed much more lush than in other places. And from the sky, I could see that it was indeed surrounded by spiritual energy."

As soon as Zhang Chengdao finished speaking, Lu Mao'er suddenly had a flash of inspiration and excitedly tried to get out of bed. However, because she was completely wrapped in a pile of fur coats, she could hardly move. She could only wriggle around on the bed like a caterpillar, which looked quite comical, but this did not affect the excitement in her voice:

"Ah! Grandmaster, could it be that the spiritual energy in the soil of Liaodi is spread from Yiwulü Mountain? Just like the spiritual energy in our Baozhou area, it becomes more concentrated the closer you get to Baishi Mountain. All the trees extending from Baishi Mountain gradually become ordinary. I heard that some of the pine trees closest to Baishi Mountain are so old that they are almost dead!"

Lu Mao'er's words coincided with Zhang Chengdao's thoughts.

What Lu Mao'er didn't know was that before Zhang Chengdao arrived, he had just discovered the Kuandian Valley, which was similar to Yiwulü Mountain, in the westernmost part of Liaodi. In fact, because the terrain there was complex and difficult for ordinary people to reach, and there was no sign of human habitation, the abnormality of the entire valley was more obvious than that of Yiwulü Mountain, which was not obvious at first glance.

They're in the east and west, but what about the south and north?
Thinking of this, Zhang Chengdao couldn't help but feel a little eager to try, but his doubts deepened.

If my guess is correct, and there is such a strange place containing spiritual energy in the four directions of east, west, south, and north, then it must be a design to nourish the entire Liao region, or more like a crude "array" to allow the entire Liao region to accumulate spiritual energy.

Who on earth has such ability to do this?
The most contradictory thing is, why would someone capable of orchestrating such a grand scheme resort to such crude methods?

At least if it were He Yu, or even myself, I wouldn't use such a thankless and ineffective method.

After all, the concentration of spiritual energy in this world is pitifully low, so doing this won't have any effect. Even with my own transmigration bug and Bai Shishan's influence, it would still take hundreds of years to nourish the entire Liao region using this method. Without me and Bai Shishan, this method would probably take thousands or even tens of thousands of years to complete.

After analyzing for a long time, Zhang Chengdao suddenly had another flash of inspiration—

Is it...

Was it done by He Yu's friend?

But if he did it, why did he choose Liaodong and use such a lame method? Isn't that person supposed to be a genius of formations?
That's it?

Countless thoughts raced through my mind, but in reality, it only took a few breaths.

After Lu Mao'er finished speaking, Zhang Chengdao nodded and said, "Yes, that's what I think too. It's even possible that the entire Liao region is surrounded by a large array that nurtures spiritual energy. Because I also discovered a lake in the easternmost mountain range of Liao region where the spiritual energy is more abundant than in ordinary places. Moreover, the lake is surrounded by fire-attribute spiritual energy, which is very strange and does not seem to be naturally formed."

"In that case, I'll go explore other places first to see if Liaodong is indeed surrounded by a great formation as I suspect. You all should rest for a while and then head back to Mingzhu Manor to recuperate. The conditions here aren't good, and besides, we cultivators shouldn't bother the local people for too long."

"As for that hunter..."

As Zhang Chengdao spoke, he glanced at Murong Ruyan, who looked guilty, and added, "You don't need to worry about it. I've already made some arrangements. Just don't do anything that would be considered bullying."

Murong Ruyan lowered her head, secretly pursing her lips in dissatisfaction, but still respectfully cupped her hands and replied, "Yes, Master..."

(End of this chapter)