Chapter 190: Linhai Town
Chapter 190: Linhai Town
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
When he heard Mo Tiange wanted to leave the fisherman village, Xiaobao felt very reluctant. Moreover, Mo Tiange had given him very delicious presents—he had never eaten such sweet fruits before.
The Shui couple naturally wouldn’t let their child make a scene, so they immediately tried to soothe him. In the end, Mo Tiange gave Xiaobao several harmless medicinal pills form her failed concoction attempts as candies, thus managing to coax him.
“Alright,” Mo Tiange said while looking at the four members of the Shui family, “You better tell me first; which direction should I take to go to Linhai Town?”
Upon hearing her question, Shui San promptly answered, “Fairy just needs to go straight to the north. After about half a day’s journey, Fairy will reach Linhai Town.”
What the mortals considered half a day’s journey would probably take Foundation Building cultivators like her only about ten minutes. Mo Tiange nodded and said, “Thank you.”
She was about to set off, but Shui San hastily called out, “Fairy, Fairy, please wait.”
Mo Tiange stopped in her tracks then turned sideways as she asked, “Was there anything else?”
Although she had a gentle character, she was a cultivator after all—she had a certain status when dealing with mortals, so Shui San instinctively became rather intimidated. But after Shui San’s wife nudged his back, he finally summoned up his courage again. “This lowly man has a request; I hope Fairy can agree to it!”
“Oh? What is it? Let’s discuss it first.”
Shui San was delighted Mo Tiange didn’t directly refuse his request. He then turned to look at An’an and said, “Fairy, my family’s An’an possesses spiritual roots, but the fairies from Bixuan Court said An’an’s spiritual roots are a bit poor, so she can only wait until there’s an empty spot to join Bixuan Court. Our Shui family finally managed to have a child with spiritual roots, so I was worried, thinking that if my An’an can—”
He continued on in a long-winded manner. Shui San’s wife, who noticed that Mo Tiange was wrinkling her brows slightly, immediately nudged her husband then took over with a smile. “Fairy, my husband can’t talk directly, so I’ll get straight to the point. My family’s An’an said if she learned the Law of Immortality, she might be chosen first during the selection process next time. The Law of Immortality manual can be purchased in town, but it would require spirit… spirit stones or something—how can my family possibly have some of those? After helping Fairy perform a few tasks in the past few days, Fairy has given us a lot of gold, so we really shouldn’t make any more demands, but—”
“You guys want a manual of the Law of Immortality, right?” Mo Tiange cut her off.
The madam repeatedly nodded then added a few sentences: “Fairy, we’re not asking for your gold; it’s enough for us as long as you give us a manual of the Law of Immortality. If that’s still not enough, Fairy can directly take whatever Fairy likes…”
How could these insignificant mortal fishermen have anything she wanted?
Mo Tiange looked at An’an, who was watching her nervously on the side, then Mo Tiange raised her hand to put a stop to the madam’s lengthy speech. “That’ll do. I understand.”
She then took out several Jade Slips from her Qiankun Bag, but on second thought, she put them back in again and took out a book instead. An’an was still a mortal now, so she couldn’t use the divine sense needed to read a Jade Slip yet.
“Gold is useless to me. An’an and I could be considered to meet under fate, so just take this manual as a present.”
An’an accepted the thin book, feeling so excited that her whole face flushed deep red. The Shui couple even directly pulled her down to kowtow to Mo Tiange. “Thank you, Fairy! Thank you, Fairy!”
Mo Tiange waved her hand and said nothing further. With a wave of her sleeve, she flew up along with the breeze.
From Shui San’s family to everyone in this small, unnamed fisherman village, everyone’s attention was turned towards her.
Mo Tiange saw An’an, who had raised her head to look at her, had eyes filled with hope and admiration.
She gave her a small smile then transformed into a Flight Light which disappeared into the horizon.
Obtaining this kind of rudimentary cultivation technique would be as simple as lifting a finger for her, but for this little girl hoping to walk on the path towards immortality, it would be extremely difficult; Mo Tiange didn’t mind being generous once in a while. In fact, it could even be said that because she was born as a mortal, she was a bit kinder towards mortals than cultivators. However, whether that little girl could really walk on the path towards immortality or not still depended on herself.
She shook her head, tossing these matters to the back of her mind and focused on proceeding with her journey.
Linhai Town wasn’t far. In just about ten minutes, Mo Tiange could already see its wall from the distance.
But something came as a surprise to her. She originally thought since Linhai Town was situated in this kind of small, remote area, it would just be a small town. However, she didn’t expect its wall to look so majestic—it didn’t lose at all to some medium-sized towns in the heartland.
Something surprised her even more. When she approached Linhai Town, her Cloud-Treading Boots unexpectedly went a bit out of control. It was as if… there was a flight-prohibition laid on the town.
After giving the matter some thought, Mo Tiange finally landed outside the town then proceeded towards Linhai Town on foot.
It was midday at that time, but the town gate seemed deserted as there were only a few people passing through. Even the gate was guarded by only one soldier. He was now leaning against the wall next to the gate and dozing off, without a care for the people passing through the gate.
Mo Tiange was somewhat baffled. Was this Linhai Town not part of any country? How could there be a soldier?
But an even more baffling thing was already waiting for her. Just as she was about to enter the town, the soldier dozing off glanced at her in his half-asleep state. Right afterward, he instantly awoke, rubbed his eyes then ran over to block her path. He respectfully bowed to her and said, “Fairy, please stop a moment.”
Mo Tiange raised her eyebrows. “How did you know I’m a cultivator?”
Right after she asked that, the soldier was flabbergasted, so he blurted out: “Is Fairy not an immortal from our Linhai area?”
Mo Tiange frowned and didn’t answer. The misgivings in her mind became even heavier.
Noticing that her expression looked off, the soldier hastily said, “Fairy, please quell your anger. All the immortals from our Linhai area know we can differentiate immortals from mortals. I noticed Fairy seems to have no idea about this, so I guess Fairy isn’t from Linhai area.”
“Oh.” Mo Tiange nodded. “I’m indeed a foreign cultivator who came here by accident, but is there any reason for you to stop me? Could it be that this Linhai Town doesn’t permit outsiders entry?”
The soldier repeatedly waved his hand. “Fairy misunderstands me; there’s no such thing. Our Linhai Town exists only because it’s supported by all the master immortals and fairies, so how could we ban a fairy from entering?”
“Then you’re trying to…”
The soldier explained, “The individual cultivators of Linhai area have to register their names to enter the town, so could Fairy please register your full name here?”
“Oh?” Mo Tiange felt rather annoyed. This rule of Linhai Town was really over the top. She’d been to many places, and none of them dared to impose this kind of rule on cultivators. It had to be known that cultivators disliked being controlled by others the most. Having to disclose one’s name just to enter a town would indeed make people feel conflicted.
Mo Tiange’s current expression made the soldier immediately explain further: “Fairy, this is the rule set by the fairies from Bixuan Court. I’m just a mortal acting as instructed…”
“In other words, if I don’t disclose my name, I won’t be able to enter the town?” Mo Tiange glanced coldly at him.
Although she wasn’t tall, the soldier couldn’t help but feel small when faced with the momentum she emitted unconsciously. However, he still said insistently, “Forgive me, Fairy, but that’s the rule…”
In her heart, Mo Tiange was already certain that the flight prohibition above Linhai Town was also placed by Bixuan Court. It seemed… the power Bixuan Court held in this small waterfront region was indeed extraordinary. Not only did it control a town, but it was also so controlling towards the individual cultivators in the vicinity.
Mo Tiange pondered her next course of action before she finally said with a cold expression, “Where do you want me to record my name?”
The soldier was afraid he’d angered this fairy. Although he was working for Bixuan Court, mortals like him couldn’t afford to offend immortals, no matter which immortal it was. Because of that, once he heard what Mo Tiange said, he was delighted. He immediately took a name book from the side and handed it over. “Fairy, please write your name here.”
When the name book was open, Mo Tiange saw many names were written inside it. Their time of entry and exit were also recorded clearly.
She didn’t pause at all. After taking a brush from the soldier, she immediately wrote “Ye Xiaotian” on a blank space.
She then threw the brush back at the soldier and said, “Is this enough?”
The soldier repeatedly nodded. “Enough, enough—Fairy, please come in.”
Without saying anything further, Mo Tiange strode into the town.
As she proceeded into the town, that soldier earnestly wrote behind her name: “Ye Xiaotian, female, unknown cultivation level, entered the town on the twentieth of the eighth month.”
Mo Tiange was quite unhappy. Her impression of Bixuan Court was already poor from the three female Bixuan Court disciples she met in Ziwei’s Immortal’s cave but now, her impression of it was even worse than before. Even though Bixuan Court was the only cultivation group in this area, acting so controlling over other cultivators was still too tyrannical!
In Kunwu, even large cultivation groups that were considered the greatest cultivation groups like Tiandao Sect and Xuanqing School never forced cultivators who visited the towns in their domain to register their names, let alone such small cultivation groups like Bixuan Court. Even in certain private towns, the most they’d do was asking the cultivators’ origins then issuing identification papers—they’d never allow mortals to record the comings and goings of cultivators so rashly like this.
However, the fact that Bixuan Court dared to do so already showed how much power it held in the area. It wouldn’t matter whether she entered the town or not if she was in Kunwu, but here, this was the only large town in the area and moreover, she also didn’t want to have a falling out with Bixuan Court, so she had to register her name.
Hence, she helplessly made that choice and entered the town. In any case, her real name wasn’t recorded, and Ye Xiaotian also wasn’t a renowned name; there’d be no issues in disclosing it.
Nevertheless, this matter made her think of something. Considering how tyrannical Bixuan Court was, what should she do if she broke her own escape route when she asked for a way back to Kunwu from them? She was all by herself now, and no matter how bad Bixuan Court was, it would definitely have a few Core Formation cultivators.
That being the case, she better gathered some information first and asked others what kind of entity Bixuan Court was in this Eastern Sea region.
Now that she had this plan, Mo Tiange started to examine the situation of this Linhai Town.
If she didn’t know beforehand, she would’ve never thought this Linhai Town would actually be located in such a remote place like the Eastern Sea coast. It had wide streets and many buildings with two or more floors—it didn’t lose out to the towns in the heartland.
However, its residents were indeed quite different. For example, there were lots of people dressed like fishermen here. Even the guests inside the restaurants also dressed in very ordinary clothes. Presumably, this area didn’t have rich resources, so the residents couldn’t have any beautiful brocades.
After contemplating her next step, Mo Tiange turned into an extraordinarily bustling restaurant then went directly to the manager.
Just as she was about to speak, the manager happened to look up and a split second later, he showed a respectful expression. “Fairy, please come inside, please come inside.”
Mo Tiange felt a bit confused. The gate-guarding soldier wasn’t abnormal; after all, since he was tasked with guarding the town gate, he certainly knew how to differentiate immortals from mortals. However, why was this ordinary restaurant manager also able to recognize her identity as a cultivator at a glance?
“Manager.” Mo Tiange didn’t move. “How did you know I’m a cultivator?”
The restaurant manager looked surprised. “Fairy, are you not from this area?”
“En?”
The fat shopkeeper rubbed his hands as he explained with a smile: “The immortals in our Linhai Town live together with us mortals. After a long period of coexistence, we’re now able to pick them out in an instant. Fairy, you have a calm bearing, and you’re also elegant like the deities, so you’re definitely an immortal!”
“Oh, so that’s how you knew.” Mo Tiange nodded. “But I’m indeed not from this area.”
“Aiya, a foreign cultivator is a rare sight! Fairy, what you want to eat and drink today? We’ll give it to you for free!”
Mo Tiange softly shook her head. “I didn’t come to eat. I only wanted to inquire about some news from Manager.”