Translator: CinderTL
The city wall was lined with numerous arrow towers, numbering over a hundred.
Jiang Xuan led Song Wen into one of them.
Song Wen noticed that Demon Subduing City seemed to be designed to defend against threats from the eastern mountains.
This was evident from the Main Tower, which stood out among the arrow towers and directly faced the eastern mountains.
The arrow tower Song Wen was in, arrow tower forty-seven, was located far from the Main Tower, on the southern side of the city.
The tower bustled with cultivators of all levels, from Qi Refining to Nascent Soul Stage.
However, most of the Qi Refining cultivators were female, all dressed in servant attire and walking close to the walls.
The arrow tower contained many rooms. Jiang Xuan led Song Wen to a relatively spacious one.
The room's furnishings were extremely simple, consisting only of a wooden table and chairs. There wasn't even a Formation to prevent eavesdropping.
"Ai Kun, since you're new to the mystic realm, you should rest here. Also, I must remind you of something. Now that you've joined the Jiang Family and become part of the Demon Subduing City garrison, you must abide by the city's rules. Unless absolutely necessary, you are not to leave arrow tower forty-seven without permission, nor are you to leave the city walls. If you need to go out for any reason, you must first obtain my approval."
"Yes, Brother Jiang," Song Wen replied.
Jiang Xuan nodded and turned to leave the room.
Song Wen closed the door behind him and began to ponder his situation.
It was clear he had been conscripted by the Jiang Family.
This also revealed the tense state of the war in Demon Subduing City and the Jiang Family's manpower shortage.
The Jiang Family had no intention of cultivating him, a cultivator who had ascended from the Lower Realm. They simply wanted to use him as cannon fodder.
Otherwise, why would they offer nothing to a Divine Transformation Stage cultivator joining their ranks? No Cultivation Methods, Mystic Treasures, medicinal pills, or any other treasures were bestowed upon him. They hadn't even mentioned a salary, as if they expected Song Wen to die within days.
Moreover, aside from learning about a city called Shangchu City, Song Wen knew virtually nothing about this place.
"An inauspicious start," Song Wen sighed inwardly.
As he pondered how to break the deadlock, his Divine Sense suddenly detected a maid passing by outside the door.
Creak!
The door swung open on its own, startling the maid outside. She froze against the wall, unable to move.
The maid appeared to be around seventeen or eighteen years old, with a beautiful face and a cultivation level of Qi Refining Stage, Fifth Layer.
"Come in," Song Wen said.
The maid remained frozen, clearly unsure what to do.
Seeing this, Song Wen didn't waste time. He unleashed a strand of Spiritual Power, forcibly pulling the maid into the room.
Gazing at Song Wen seated on the wooden chair, the maid's body trembled violently like a sieve. Her legs buckled, and she knelt on the floor.
"Senior... this servant..."
"Relax," Song Wen said. "I won't harm you. I just have a few questions to ask."
Without waiting for the maid to speak, Song Wen continued.
"What's your name?"
"This servant... Xiao He," the maid replied, trembling.
"Why are you in Demon Subduing City? Are you also a member of the Jiang Family?" Song Wen asked.
"This servant is not from the Jiang Family," the maid said. "I was originally a rogue cultivator, but I was... I was conscripted by the Jiang Family to serve the esteemed Seniors here."
Song Wen immediately understood that this maidservant named Xiao He, like him, had been brought here against her will.
"Where is Shangchu City?" Song Wen asked.
Xiao He replied, "This junior's cultivation is too low; I've never been there."
Song Wen continued, "Then where did you cultivate before?"
Xiao He said, "West of Demon Subduing City, about tens of thousands of miles away, there's a market for rogue cultivators called Zhaidan Market. I used to live there."
After a moment's thought, Song Wen said, "You may leave."
A flicker of surprise crossed Xiao He's face. She seemed astonished that Song Wen would let her go so easily.
Demon Subduing City was a vital fortress, primarily tasked with defending against the Demon Race in the eastern mountains. It was highly irregular for non-combatant maidservants to be present in such a strategic location.
These maidservants had been abducted and brought here to serve as stress relief for the city's cultivators. How they provided this relief was entirely up to the cultivators' discretion. Aside from being forbidden from killing them, the cultivators could do anything they pleased.
"Thank you, Senior," Xiao He said, quickly rising and hurrying out the door.
Song Wen wasn't disappointed that he hadn't gleaned any useful information from the maidservant. He hadn't expected to learn anything of value from a Qi Refining Realm maidservant in the first place. He had only done it to put on a show for Jiang Xuan. As a newly ascended cultivator, appearing too nonchalant would only arouse suspicion from the Jiang Family.
Song Wen closed the door again and began to meditate, focusing on regulating his breath. At the same time, he extended his Spirit Sense outward, probing the city and its surroundings.
He soon discovered that, besides the stronger gravity, the mystic realm suppressed Spirit Sense differently. His Divine Sense detection range was limited to about a thousand miles, far less than the four thousand miles he could cover in the Lower Realm.
Moreover, the Spiritual Qi in Demon Subduing City was incredibly dense, almost comparable to the top cultivation blessed grotto-heavens in the Tianyuan Realm. If even this border city boasted such potent Spiritual Qi, how dense must the energy be in those blessed grotto-heavens?
No wonder the maidservant, a mere rogue cultivator, had already reached Qi Refining Stage 5 at the tender age of seventeen or eighteen—a feat rarely seen in the Lower Realm.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
Song Wen cleared his mind of distracting thoughts and focused on his meditation. However, someone clearly didn't want him to meditate in peace.
Half an hour later, a somewhat arrogant voice echoed from outside the arrow tower.
"Where is Jiang Xuan? This young master has come to visit. Why aren't you here to greet me immediately?"
The speaker was a young man in a luxurious brocade robe, wearing a jade crown and holding a folding fan. Though only at the mid-nascent soul stage, he was accompanied by two late-Divine Transformation Stage guards.
A figure flashed, and Jiang Xuan appeared before the young man.
"Second Young Master," he said respectfully, "what brings you to Demon Subduing City?"
"Must I report my every move to you?" The young man's voice dripped with haughty arrogance.
"My apologies, Second Young Master. Please forgive my blunder," Jiang Xuan said, bowing slightly in apology.
The young man waved his hand dismissively, unconcerned by Jiang Xuan's slip of the tongue.
"I was traveling nearby when I noticed the Ascension phenomenon above Demon Subduing City from afar. I came here specifically to see the Ascended one. I hear he's in your arrow tower. Bring him out. Let me have a look."
"Yes!"
Jiang Xuan responded and then used his voice to form a line, sending it through the arrow tower's main hall and narrow corridors directly to Song Wen's ears.
"Ai Kun, come out. The Second Young Master wants to see you."
(End of the Chapter)
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