Chapter 281: Suspicious City and Tournament (1/2)
It was decided that Miaomiao would get the invitation scroll. As for Ma Moxi, he would enter the preliminary rounds.
Since the tournament would be held in a week, Ju Shoufen, Jia Shan, and the Ma Clan's elders packed their belonging for the journey to the capital city.
Jia Wenhe stayed home as usual since he had unfinished business regarding the investigation in the sewer. Mao Xueyan and the beasts also stayed behind to protect the city while two of the nascent soul seniors were away.
As the group was about to leave, Zhao Bao returned with a large group of Buddhist monks and their followers.
Behind the monks, tall burly orcs dressed in orange robes. They shaved their hair, beard, eyebrows, and bodily hair. Some of them had even discarded their fangs.
Moreover, their eyes were bright and serene. No sign of violent or lustful nature was left in them.
The leader of this orc group, Fogan, also wore grey monk robes. A black bead necklace was hanging on his neck, but it glowed in white light. Strange ancient Chinese symbols rotated around him.
Huangjin Monastery monks, the orcs, and their disciples had arrived!
After a brief counting, there were over 5,000 people here!
”What a bad timing,” Ma Ping was annoyed. He didn't know what Zhao Bao was trying to do by bringing his sect members and the orcs here.
Zhao Bao smiled and greeted Ma Ping and everyone in front of the north gate, ”Amitabha. This monk and his colleagues would like to migrate here.”
Although Miaomiao had promised them to let them in, Ma Ping, Jia Shan, and the others were reluctant to allow the group to enter the city. There were still worried about the women, the weak beasts, and the children's safety.
Zhao Bao read Ma Ping and Jia Shan's expressions. He laughed, ”Ah, they will not enter the city since there are many pretty girls in there, and our sect doesn't want our monks to be distracted by the presence of succubi. Therefore, we would like to create a subsidiary town and a sect outside of the city wall. Is that okay with you?”
”Oh?” The elders were delighted. As long as the orcs and the newcomers wouldn't live in the city, they were fine with it. ”Sure. Are you going to build a sect here?”
”Yes. Oh, by the way, would it trouble you if we wish to direct a portion of medicinal water from the Qi tower? If we have the water, it will be helpful for this monk's colleagues.”
Hearing about the water system, Ma Ping thought of Jia Wenhe, ”Ah, crap. A new water system again? Jia Wenhe is going to be pissed.”
Jia Wenhe had his hands full dealing with the mysterious stench and the anomaly in the sewer. Ma Ping could tell that he would be mad if he were to suddenly receive a new job.
Fortunately, several elders were considerate. Ma Shoucheng and Pang Lingming volunteered, ”We'll stay behind and sort the water system. Digging a few rivers isn't a problem.”
It was a lie. It took months to complete the city's current water systems, but Jia Wenhe still needed to fix or adjust it every day.
By the time they had realized it, the prestigious alchemist had already changed his job into a water engineer. Though, Ju Shoufen always messed with her son-in-law and called him a plumber.
”Great!” Ma Ping was relieved, though, he felt bad for Jia Wenhe. He scanned the monks and the orcs, ”So, where are you going to build a new sect or town? Here?”
Zhao Bao looked around. Then, he looked back at the north, where he had tamed the orcs, ”I think we'll use the north area. Since this place is closest to the ruined cities of the Qiang Clan, there might be stragglers or refugees remaining. Our sect would like to shelter them for you.”
”That's nice of you. Well, please excuse us. We'll talk later. We're sort of in a hurry.”
Ma Ping passed the coordination tasks to Ma Shoucheng and Pang Lingming since they had already wasted so much time. They needed to leave Siren City now if they wanted to reach Red Sun City before the tournament began.
Thus, Miaomiao, Ma Moxi, Ma Ping, Jia Shan, and Ju Shoufen left for the tournament. However, a small beast tagged along with Ma Moxi in secret.
…
Zhao Bao gazed at the group, who had just flown away. He sighed, ”They've bitten the obvious bait. Why are they going there for the sake of money? They might die if they fall into a trap.”
Zhao Bao also received the invitation from Li Jue, but he declined since he didn't want to send Xiao Fei or Zhao Yun there. Also, Xiao Fei was not strong enough to join a serious competition yet.
Pang Lingming shrugged, ”It's their choice. Well, let's write down a city plan first. We need to measure your new town structure and the length of the new water pipes.”
”Oh, right. This monk shall let my sect master handle the task. Venerable Zhang, would you please?”
Venerable Zhang Jue, an early-stage nascent soul expert, was a bald elder monk with thick silver eyebrows and a long white beard that touched his stomach. He had been sitting on a flying carpet above the group of monks, meditating.
Without looking at Zhao Bao, the monk waved his hand and created a city map with his light element Qi. Then, he muttered, ”Let's build walls and defensive formation arrays as soon as possible. I've been informed that the sinners from my old clan, the Zhang Clan have come to Aves Continent. We must prepare for the Great Chaos.”
Ma Shoucheng, Pang Lingming, and even Zhao Bao were confused, ”Uh, what?”
Venerable Zhang Jue opened his eyes and gazed toward the east, where Miaomiao's company had planned to visit, ”The catalyst of all chaos has descended, and we must protect him at all costs.”
”???”
Nobody could understand Zhang Jue's monologue. However, Venerable Zhang Jue seemed to know him.
In Zhang Jue's sleeve pocket was a normal scroll with the handwriting of OG-Buddha. The latter had sent the scroll to him via UUPS, aka Uninterruptible Ultimate Parcel Service, which had cost him several 4th-grade soul stones.
It was an expensive price to pay to deliver a direct message to his followers.
Written in the scroll were the analysis of Miaomiao's sponsor, Miaomiao's missions, and Miaomiao's behavior. It also included Buddha's prediction about the future events and future foes of the monastery.
And lastly, OG-Buddha instructed Zhang Jue with simple messages.
”Bless that fool. I like him.”
Zhang Jue smiled, thinking of the message as an order.
'Why does our dao god want to bless an outsider? What's so special about you?'
Zhang Jue looked forward to talking with Mao Miaomiao in person in the future.
…
Due to the panic, Miaomiao and the gang rushed to Red Sun City without stopping. They flew for an entire day and reached the city five days before the event started.
Though they had arrived early, they were still not in the clear. Mao Miaomiao and Ma Moxi needed to find where the tournament would be held.
Strangely, no one came out to receive them in front of the capital city. Only local cultivators wandered around and minded their businesses.
This tournament was urgently and poorly made. The organizers didn't even inform about the exact location where the event would be held other than the city name.
The group should have investigated first before they had arrived. However, Jia Shan, Ma Ping, and Ju Shoufen had experience in competitive events and many tournaments like this.
Sometimes, tournament organizers used this lack of information pretext to start a preliminary round in secret and disqualified tournament candidates who couldn't reach the registration sites on time.
Thus, Ma Ping and Jia Shan believed that the preliminary round might have already started. They rushed here to help the youngster joining the event.
”Are you sure these stupid rules exist?” Miaomiao was skeptical about the rush. It was obvious that the tournament was a bait to reel in him or other naïve cultivators, so there was no point to be serious.
”You shouldn't let your guard down. Anything can happen before and after the tournament,” Ju Shoufen grumbled as she looked around in paranoia. This was their most vulnerable moment as ambushers, thieves, and their hidden enemies could begin tracking them and kill them.
The elders seemed to be in a bad mood. Miaomiao and Ma Moxi started to feel uncomfortable as the elders intentionally leaked their killing intent to scare off nearby local cultivators.