Pureheart Saintess spread out her divine consciousness, covering these two towns.
Not only Shanghe Town is a dead city, but even Xiahe Town is also a dead city!
The so-called lives of the people here are nothing more than a group of corpses in action!
No wonder the Red Dust Ancestor, who could shake even the hearts of immortal gods, came here and didn't cause a stir. How could the dead have feelings for a beauty?
She shuddered, having never seen such a scene before.
Near the Red Dust Pure Land, there are a total of eight small towns. Pureheart Saintess is worried whether the situation in the other six towns is the same as here.
The other six towns are far from here, beyond the range of her divine consciousness.
Fortunately, Jiangli quickly provided an answer.
"Everything is normal in the other six towns," Jiangli added after a moment of thought, "They are all living people."
Pureheart Saintess thought to herself, you might as well not explain.
Pureheart Saintess's divine consciousness can only cover two towns because she can only cover two towns.
Jiangli's divine consciousness can cover eight towns because there are only eight towns.
Even if the other six towns are all normal, Pureheart Saintess still didn't feel happy.
"How long has it been since you've been here? Even if a Nascent Divinity came, it wouldn't be like this," Jiangli solemnly declared.
The two arrived at a small tavern below, and the waiter warmly welcomed them.
"You two guests look unfamiliar, must be from out of town, and this lady is a fairy from the Red Dust Pure Land?" the waiter asked uncertainly, as Pureheart Saintess remained silent, only nodding.
"Waiter, we have something to ask you," Jiangli took out a low-grade spirit stone and placed it on the table.
"Guests, you really can't do that, you two are important people from the Red Dust Pure Land, how can we take your money," the waiter was taken aback, quickly refusing.
After some insistence, the waiter accepted the spirit stone.
Transactions are typically made with copper coins here, and a low-grade spirit stone is a very rare item.
Pureheart Saintess raised an eyebrow slightly. The waiter's movements were natural and smooth, without any stiffness. Merely by their naked eyes, they couldn't tell the difference from a living person.
She carefully examined the waiter with her divine consciousness and found that there was a gu worm in his lower abdomen and sea of consciousness, with one controlling his actions and the other controlling his thoughts, a highly technical method of controlling corpses.
This is a unique corpse control technique of the Gu clan!
As far as she knew, the disciple stationed here is a member of the Gu clan!
She buried her findings in her heart and quietly watched Jiangli and the waiter talk.
"Have any particularly beautiful fairies passed through here in recent years?"
The waiter replied promptly, "You know what, not two but three years ago, a fairy who appeared as beautiful as a picture passed through here, everyone didn't even eat dinner, and went out to see her. But the fairy didn't even look at us, she walked straight past barefoot, and there were people who wanted to follow her but were stopped by Fairy Yuan."
"Is Yuan Fairy..."
"It's Fairy Yuan Ling who presides over here."
"So, Fairy Yuan Ling has also seen a beauty like a painting. How did she react? Did she show any infatuated look? Did she go forward and take the person away?"
The waiter was startled and quickly replied in a low voice, "Guest, please don't speak casually, how could Fairy Yuan Ling act like that? She remained calm and just lightly commented on how beautiful the fairy was."
Pureheart Saintess frowned slightly. Yuan Ling is of the Gu clan, so she wouldn't be a descendant of the Red Dust Ancestor. Why isn't she affected?
It's strange, very strange.
Jiang Li seemed to have not noticed any problem at all. He chatted with the shopkeeper casually, asking about this year's harvest, the whereabouts of Yuan Ling, the amount of spirit stones Red Dust Sanctuary used to purchase spiritual valley, and if there were any deductions, or similar issues.
The shopkeeper thought that these two were sent by the Red Dust Sanctuary to investigate, so he answered truthfully one by one.
Finally, Jiang Li smiled and asked in a playful manner, "Do you know that you are already dead?"
The shopkeeper looked bewildered and said, "Sir, what are you talking about?"
"Haha, just kidding, just kidding," Jiang Li chuckled and let the confused shopkeeper continue with his work.
"Was it done by Yuan Ling?"
"Don't jump to conclusions so soon. You also heard that Yuan Ling is not influenced by the Red Dust Fairy. This matter is not as simple as it seems to you."
"Yuan Ling should only be in the Golden Core stage. From the degree of nurturing the gu insects, these people won't act like living beings, and they may not even realize that they are already dead. This can't be achieved by someone in the Golden Core stage."
"And it's not necessary that only the members of the Gu clan will use the gu insects."
Jiang Li, having travelled the world for many years, had witnessed all kinds of bizarre things, so naturally, his perspective was broader than that of Pure Heart, who had only roamed the mountains symbolically for a few years and then returned to the sect.
Unfortunately, the Gu clan was declining, choosing to stay hidden, which meant that Jiang Li didn't have much knowledge of the Gu clan.
"Yuan Ling is not here. I don't know where she went."
"Let's go to the Xiahetown. I sensed the presence of a female cultivator in the Golden Core stage there, she should be one of your people." Jiang Li scanned Xiahetown with his divine sense again but didn't find the aura of a Golden Core stage cultivator in Shanghetown.
...
Du Xiner sat cross-legged in a cheap spirit gathering array, striving to cultivate. However, she was unable to raise her spiritual power at all in the last few years. She felt like her body was a leaking bucket, with as much spiritual energy entering as leaving.
"Maybe I'm really not suited for cultivation. Coming here is probably the right choice for me," Du Xiner laughed self-deprecatingly, feeling that staying in the sect as someone like her would be a burden, so it was better to come out.
"Who said you're a burden?" A clear voice sounded in Du Xiner's ear. She then noticed Pure Heart, the saintess, standing in front of her, with a handsome man standing beside her.
However, for some reason, there seemed to be tears swirling in the saintess's eyes.
How could Pure Heart not feel sad? She didn't have a strong impression of Yuan Ling, but Du Xiner had left a deep impression on her. Among the Golden Core stage disciples, Du Xiner was the only one who dared to frequently approach her to seek knowledge about cultivation.
And after several years of not seeing each other, they were now like two different worlds.
In Pure Heart's eyes, Du Xiner was also just a moving corpse!
"I'm sorry for letting you down, I've been derelict in my duties..." Pure Heart knelt on the ground, hugging Du Xiner and sobbing.
Du Xiner didn't know the situation, so she could only maintain her cross-legged position and gently pat Pure Heart's back.