Chapter 150: The Forgotten Town
Chapter 150: The Forgotten Town
The fortieth day arrived quickly.
Li Si burned incense, bathed, held his breath, and focused his mind in advance. He waited from dawn until sunset, and then from dusk till dawn again, but Big Fly did not come.
His mood was extremely complicated, and this meant one thing—he was only eighteen thousand steps away from financial deficit!
What a dangerous distance, what a terrifying fact.
He had to ensure enough risk buffer for his six wallets: the tip wallet (gray), allowance wallet (black), secret stash wallet (white), marriage fund wallet (blue), funeral savings wallet (gold), and fixed assets (purple).
A person without long-term plans would surely face immediate worries!
As for cultivation, Li Si was not opposed to it. He wished he could become a True Immortal overnight.
But that was not realistic.
First, using up his Fate to advance his realm was too extravagant.
Second, at this stage, being a True Immortal might not solve the real problems. Otherwise, with twelve True Immortals on their side, why were they in such a state? Not to mention, the True Immortal remains he had retrieved as a ferryman a few days ago—that should have been enough to sober him up.
These days, when the sky falls, it really does hit the tallest first.
Third, Li Si worried there might be a Blood Coffin Curse 3.0…
Well, the first two reasons were just excuses. The third reason was the most important.
According to Floating Cloud Sect records.
The Blood Coffin Curse had appeared over five hundred years ago. At first, as long as someone reached Divine Transformation, Void Refining, Heavenly Tribulation, or Great Ascension, the Blood Coffin Curse would rain down on them without cost. Then they would cut it down, cutting and cutting, and it was said at least hundreds of millions of mortals died before the big shots investigated the cause.
It could only be said the enemy was too vicious.
So at this stage, Li Si did not want to advance to Divine Transformation. Whether it was Cheng Tianhao, Xu Shen, or other Divine Transformation cultivators in other sects, every single one of them would surely be hit with the Blood Coffin Curse in the future.
If it was Blood Coffin Curse 2.0, Li Si had a way to break it—just Statue Avatars, he had plenty. But what he worried about was this: what if it couldn’t be broken, or the cost of breaking it was too high for him to bear?
Ah, right? Forethought leads to success, no forethought to failure.
You couldn’t say this possibility was low and bet that the enemies were all idiots.
Starting from now, this year was the golden time for their side to buffer, develop, and grow. But wasn’t it also the fermentation period for the enemies to rack their brains, conduct multiple investigations, and plot various schemes?
The first round had just ended, and the second round was about to begin.
Brothers, building small accounts quietly, creating layers of decoys, setting up full-coverage firewalls—that was the right way out.
With this core idea in mind, Li Si waited one more day at home for Big Fly. Only after confirming that the other party had truly broken the appointment did he set out. The first thing he did was to search for the remaining population of the Sacred Raven Kingdom, because not all humans would choose to migrate over.
One teleportation took him three thousand miles away. This place was already at the edge of the area suppressed by Yunhua Law Seal. One side was bright with sunlight, blue sky, and white clouds, while the other side was covered in dark, gloomy clouds. Well, the flesh-and-tendon-like clouds were no longer visible.
Li Si glanced back at the bright sunlight, then walked out without hesitation.
Ahead was desolate and uninhabited, and behind him was the same.
But the sky was quite bright. He walked forward for about seven or eight hundred miles in one go. Looking back, he could still see a patch of brightness on the horizon. Because of that brightness, it wasn’t very dark here; the naked eye could see several hundred meters.
Finally, a city appeared ahead—an empty city.
The buildings in the city were mostly well-preserved. On the ground, many wheel ruts and footprints were still visible. It was clear what had happened.
The people here had probably migrated to his territory a month ago.
Entering the city, Li Si took out the Thousand-Eyes Mask and put it on. Soon, he saw groups of Strange Tribe members reveling here. Their presence made the empty city less lonely.
But there were three areas these Strange Tribe members did not approach because there were three Evil God Idols here.
This was interesting. Those who migrated to Li Si’s territory, whether large forces or small ones, had all abandoned the Evil God Idols.
So, Li Si gladly accepted them.
One intermediate Evil God Idol could yield 600 White Fate Firewood. Three made 1800—quite a substantial gain. The key point was that Li Si didn’t have to pay anything for it.
Then, following the official road from this city leading in another direction, he flew swiftly away. Soon, a recently abandoned small town appeared before him. Inside, there was a small Evil God Idol—great, 300 White Fate Firewood obtained.
Around a city with tens of thousands of people, there were bound to be three or four small towns, spaced no more than a hundred miles apart. This was based on experience.
Of course, if there was a river nearby, the number of cities and towns along its banks would be denser.
Li Si was like a garbage collector, darting around nonstop. By the end of the day, he had traveled at least ten thousand miles. In total, he scavenged 12 intermediate Evil God Idols and 48 small Evil God Idols. Just this haul amounted to 21,600 White Fate Firewood, equivalent to two portions of Azure Fortune.
The key was zero cost.
Thanks to the Sacred Raven Empire, thanks to the Evil God Mushroom, thanks to Big Fly.
“What’s our current location?”
Li Si asked the Thousand-Eyes Mask. After running around all day, he still knew the general direction but couldn’t determine the straight-line distance.
Luckily, the Thousand-Eyes Mask was an expert in this. By leaving some ‘eyes’ along the way, it could quickly pinpoint their position.
“Southwest direction, about 3,000 miles straight-line distance from the Shipwreck Harbor.”
“Oh, I see.”
Li Si nodded. Shipwreck Harbor was a city along the Blackwater River, at the southernmost edge of his territory. It was also about 3,000 miles from Yunhua Sect’s base. According to the information provided by Xu Shen, another ten thousand miles south would be the ruins of Spirit Sword City. And from the ruins of Spirit Sword City, thirty thousand miles further south would be the former mountain gate of Floating Cloud Sect and the mountain gate of Jiuxuan Spirit Sword Sect.
That area was once one of the most prosperous city clusters in the Mortal Realm and one of the most flourishing cultivation holy lands.
Within a hundred-thousand-mile radius, it nurtured billions of humans. The largest cities there spanned thousands of miles.
However, that place was now hell—a severely affected area of Aberrant Corruption. No living beings remained there. At least one True Immortal, nine Great Ascension cultivators, eighteen Heavenly Tribulation cultivators, hundreds of Void Refining cultivators, thousands of Divine Transformation cultivators, countless Nascent Souls, and billions of mortals had died there.
The death of that True Immortal was still a taboo subject.
The only good news was that he died in the Mortal Realm, not in the Illusory Realm.
Li Si even predicted that the first place where he, as the Calamity-Bearing Human King, would face a crisis was in that area.
This was also why he chose to go out now to gather human survivors.
Once this stable period passed, that hellish pollution zone would inevitably erupt northward.
“Three hundred miles to the left front, there is a small town with over three thousand people.”
The Thousand-Eyes Mask suddenly sent a message. This radar was very useful.
Hearing this, Li Si felt energized and flew low across the ground toward it. As for flying treasures or artifacts, better save them—he didn’t want any complications now.
A moment later, a small town surrounded by heavy mountains, with only one outward path, appeared before Li Si.
Immediately, he sensed the Evil God Idol in the town. This meant it was not a paradise. In fact, without the protection of an Evil God Idol, no mortal could survive here.
However, this place was a bit special. Li Si looked at the huge stone wall encircling the town. Various symbols were carved on it, and every hundred meters, three different types of Talisman Papers were pasted. This showed that the town did not lack Magic Power.
Inside the stone wall were cultivated fields. Large numbers of tamed Anomalous Weeds were planted there—roughly ten thousand acres in total.
The harvest here was quite substantial.
Behind these fields was the main part of the town. The town wall was not high, only about five meters, and no one was seen patrolling on it. Instead, red lanterns were hung. In these wild mountains, as night fell, it looked quite stylish…
Li Si took off the Thousand-Eyes Mask. He was a bit curious. The area where this town was located had about seven days without blood cloud cover when the sun came out a month ago. Why did they choose to stay?
Just as he prepared to approach the stone wall, a cold voice spoke.
“This place does not receive outsiders. You may stop right there.”
An old man suddenly appeared outside the stone wall, hunched over, with his back to Li Si, like a ghost.
“What is this place?” Li Si acted as if he saw nothing unusual and still asked.
“The Land of Forgetfulness.”
“Why didn’t you migrate? A month ago, sunlight appeared. Following the sunlight would lead to hope.”
The old man fell silent. Then, he slowly turned around. His wrinkled old face stared at Li Si. In his gray-white eyes, something squirmed and fell out, rustling.
“We wanted to leave, but we couldn’t.”
“And you, I advised you to leave, but now you can’t leave either.”
Li Si smiled, cupped his hands, and said, “I am Ji Chang, a disciple of Floating Cloud Sect. Passing through this place, may I rest here for a night?”
“Please!”
The old man said nothing more, turned, and headed toward the town. He walked unsteadily but very fast, leaving clumps of maggots behind.
Where the maggots fell, the ground instantly turned scorched black.
The nearby Anomalous Weeds withered and rotted.
In a blink, the town entrance was reached. Surprisingly, two Black-Armored Warriors were on guard duty. They seemed not to see the old man but only saw Li Si. They looked shocked but couldn’t speak.
Oh, they were actually alive.
The town was very quiet but not dark, because red lanterns hung everywhere. Almost every household had them. The eerie red gave a feeling of being in the wrong place.
There were also beggars on the street, disheveled, each facing the wall, huddled in corners, whimpering and eating something—very forcefully and loudly.
After turning two corners, two red lanterns faced them. It was a large mansion, its gate wide open. The old man leading the way walked in without looking back, squatted in a corner, and started whimpering and eating.
Very Bizarre.
Li Si took out the Thousand-Eyes Mask.
“Are you sure you’re not screwing me over?”
“No, there really are over three thousand living people here.”
“That makes perfect sense.”
Saying this, Li Si stepped into the mansion. Nothing dangerous happened, but he didn’t see anything else either. He just felt that, late at night, he was a bit hungry…