Chapter Eighteen: Repaying Kindness with Enmity

  Gu Yun, carrying a white stone, followed Li Jinyang towards the city of Jingyang. Soon, they arrived at the city gate, where two long lines of people stood on either side, with some guards standing in front.

  The ancient city gate in front of him had a plaque with three majestic golden characters that read "Jingyang County". Each city gate was three zhang high, three zhang wide and two chi thick.

  He secretly estimated that if he were to attack with all his might, he should be able to blast these two doors open in just two moves.

  The ancient city wall was over 16 feet high and more than 3 feet thick, surrounding the small town tightly.

  However, in Gu Yun's eyes, these should be of no use to the cultivators. Those masters might just blast down this city wall with two moves.

  Looking at Gu Yun staring blankly at the city wall, Li Jinyang said beside him, "Mr. Gu shouldn't underestimate this city wall, it's been reinforced with array methods, even if a high-ranking master of the Great Vehicle period wants to blast through, it's not an easy task. Moreover, there is a protective city array set up inside the city, once attacked, the protective city array will automatically start, as long as the spiritual stones are continuous, even a high-ranking master of the Great Vehicle period can't do anything about it."

  It's said that Gu Yun has secretly used his tongue to cast a spell, using an array method to support a city. The crystal stones used for the array would probably weigh in at thousands of kilograms, truly not your average wealthy and arrogant person. "Brother Li, is it true that every city has such an array supporting it?"

  "Haha, that won't happen, it's only in some cities on the border, mainly to prevent someone from invading the empire," Li Jinyang said with a smile.

  "Invasion, will the empire still be invaded?" Gu Yun asked inexplicably.

  "Originally, there were none, but in the past few hundred years, every hundred years or so, a group of strange people would come from the sea to try and invade the empire. Although they are always repelled by the empire, the empire's cultivators have never been able to track them down. No one knows where their base is."

  "What kind of strange method is this?" Gu Yun asked.

  "This group of people all have blue eyes and blonde hair, with very fair skin. They speak in a mumbling manner. Their way of attacking is different from ours."

  Their practitioners are divided into two types, one is called Warriors, who generally use large swords and mainly rely on physical strength and sword energy to attack, which is called Dou Qi.

  Another name is Fa Shi, using a staff, when attacking, they need to chant for a while, then release a bunch of fireballs and ice cones and other attacks, the practice is called magic.

  Listening to Gu Yun's question, Li Jinyang explained that these things were not considered hidden matters throughout the empire.

  "Oh, there are actually people like that. Why can't the empire pursue and kill them every time they defeat them?" Gu Yun asked curiously.

  "Alas, let's not mention it. Every time these people are defeated, they quickly board ships and flee westward. The empire also sent people to pursue them, but they can pass through the Sea of Death, and the empire's cultivators have no way to stop them."

  Li Jinyang sighed and said with a somewhat helpless tone.

  "What is this place, the Dead Sea?" Gu Yun asked, puzzled.

  "That place is shrouded in white fog all year round, and cultivators who enter it will completely lose their direction. The most frightening thing is that there are often huge waves crashing against the sky, thunderbolts flashing wildly, and gusts of wind blowing violently. Cultivators who enter it for a moment will be reduced to nothing but bones."

  There were more than a dozen masters of the Mahayana period who entered, but never came out again. Later, some other masters also went in, but there was no news from them either. After that, the place became a forbidden area.

  However, those Westerners didn't know what method they used to be able to come and go freely from there." Li Jinyang also felt a chill when talking about that place, and then he had a puzzled expression.

  It seems that Gu Yun has understood after listening, the Westerners that Long Sheng mentioned are probably these people, but he can't figure out why they would make Long Sheng remind himself to be careful, it seems that things aren't as simple as that.

  After being unable to figure it out, Gu Yun didn't waste any more thought on this matter. Anyway, with his current abilities, even if he figured it out, it would be useless.

  Two people arrived at the city gate, Gu Yun saw those entering the city, anyone who hadn't reached the Golden Elixir stage had to hand over a spiritual stone of the kind Gu Yun found on those three big men in order to enter the city.

  And Jin Dan period can enter without paying any fees, Gu Yun looked at Li Jinyang with a puzzled face again.

  Seeing Gu Yun like this, he was even more convinced of his view that Gu Yun was a fledgling who had just come out, but this was also a fact.

  "This is the imperial decree, cultivators who have reached the Golden Core stage can enter the city for free, while those who have not reached this realm must pay an entrance fee of a low-grade spirit stone and are not allowed to stay in the city for more than a month."

  Gǔ yún tīng le zhī hòu yě shì yí zhèn wú yǔ, nán guài zhèn shàng de rén yí bèi zi zhǐ néng dāi zài nà ge xiǎo zhèn shàng le, méi yǒu líng shí lián chéng dōu jìn bu liǎo, ér yī gè pǔ tōng xiū zhě yě shì hěn nán nòng dào líng shí de, líng shí jī běn shàng dōu bèi dì guó gēn dà mén pài kòng zhòng le.

  It seems like in this world, without real power, you can't do anything at all.

  Li Jinyang took Gu Yun through the long, winding crowds of people, and just as the gate guards were about to intercept them, Li Jinyang tossed a token to the captain of the guard at the city gate. Gu Yun took a glance - each of these guards had cultivation in the Golden Elixir stage, but their squad leader was in the Nascent Soul stage.

  It seems that the Golden Elixir cultivators are also considered to be at the bottom of the social hierarchy in the empire. Upon seeing the token in his hand, the team leader immediately led the entire squad to kneel on one knee and shout "Lord City Master".

  "Hmm" responded Li Jinyang, taking back the token from the small team leader's hand, and then accompanied Gu Yun into the city.

  The guards watched as the two entered the city, and at the same time secretly speculated about Gu Yun's identity. A person who could be accompanied by the lord of the city was definitely not simple.

  Gu Yun heard the words of the guards and couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, thinking to himself that he indeed had a predestined relationship with this city master. He had killed his son and subordinates, yet saved him instead, and was even following him back home.

  I don't know if this counts as the legendary self-inflicted wound. If he had known earlier, Gu Yun might have even added another blow to him at that time, eliminating all possible threats being the kingly way.

  It's just that for now, I can only take it one step at a time. If things really get physical, Gu Yun isn't too afraid either - if he can't win, he can always run away. Besides, whether the other person knows or not is another matter altogether.

  "It turns out Brother Li is still the master of this city, I was rude earlier." Gu Yun said with a bow to Li Jinyang.

  "A small county town lord, how can you compare with Master Gu? With your medical skills, even if the emperor himself saw you, he would have to show three points of courtesy."

  "Oh, I didn't know that," Gu Yun said with some surprise.

  Li Jinyang smiled and said: "It's no wonder Mr. Gu didn't know that the status of doctors in the entire empire is actually very high."

  In the subsequent casual conversation, Gu Yun only then found out what kind of status a medical cultivator like himself who had reached the Revival Realm held in this empire.

  At first, the status of doctors in the empire was not as it is now, but only later, due to the invasion of the West, people in the empire discovered the role of doctors in war.

  A medical cultivator in the early stages of Returning to Spring can release a large-scale healing technique, allowing over a thousand seriously injured cultivators at the Out-of-Body stage to recover. Such large-scale techniques can be released at least three times a day by them, and with the support of elixirs, they can even reach over ten times.

  In the mid-to-late stage, this effect becomes even more pronounced. A late-stage cultivator can restore a thousand Foundation Establishment cultivators with just one spell, and release six large-scale spells without relying on elixirs.

  This created their transcendent status in the empire, and people in the empire showed great respect to doctors.

  And the Medical Deity Sect also became a super large sect from a first-rate sect in just one hundred years.

  The two of them walked and chatted, soon crossing the wide street to arrive at the City Master's Manor. This was a very majestic building, over 16 feet tall, with two vermilion-painted large doors that swung open.

  Inside, it is even more intricately carved and decorated with great beauty and luxury.

  Li Jinyang brought Gu Yun into the hall and sat down, immediately a young maid presented them with fragrant tea. Gu Yun took in the equally luxurious hall and couldn't help but silently curse this guy for being so extravagant.

  "But he said with his mouth: 'Brother Li's mansion is really magnificent'."

  "Haha, sir, this is just a humble abode of mine, not worthy of your attention." While saying so with his mouth, he was still somewhat pleased in his heart.

  Afterwards, Gu Yun asked some more questions about the Medical Deity Sect, and Li Jin Yang explained it all to him again.

  It wasn't until now that he realized the place where he was located was in the southwest corner of the empire, belonging to the border area. The Medical God's Gate, on the other hand, was in the imperial capital, which belonged to the northeast corner of the empire.

  It's still thousands of miles away. Even if a cultivator in the Unity stage were to fly at full force with their sword, it would take at least several days to arrive. Gu Yun thought to himself that he had no idea how long his own dual-winged flight would take.

  After another tug, Li Jinyang arranged Gu Yun to a guest room and went to rest himself. Gu Yun also returned to his room to start practicing, setting up a small array at the door as an early warning.

  Gǔ Yún returned to the Dragon God Ring and told Zei Fēngzi about what happened today, asking him what to do. Zei Fēngzi replied with five words: "Figure it out yourself", making Gǔ Yún feel extremely frustrated.

  Closed the door and went to the training room to practice.

  It has to be said that the Dragon God Ring is now only useful in this practice room for Gu Yun, the various spiritual fruits outside are rare treasures, but Gu Yun's alchemy skills have just begun, and naturally can only watch.

  But in the practice room, one day can be used as ten days, which undoubtedly made Gu Yun much easier. Otherwise, just cultivating these various techniques would have been enough to make Gu Yun worried and anxious, and he wouldn't have achieved anything.

  After all, without enough time, no matter how good the method is, and no matter how high the talent is, it will only make him cultivate into a mediocre person, let alone alchemy and array methods that require even more time to comprehend. Now, these difficult problems have been solved by this practice room.

  This time, Gu Yun stayed in the practice room for over ten days before being startled awake by the warning array outside.

  He immediately came out of the ring, opened the door, and saw Li Jinyang standing at the door. Gu Yun took a look and found that Li Jinyang, who was still weak yesterday, had recovered by 80% today. It seemed that this guy should have some good elixirs.

  Seeing Gu Yun come out of the house, Li Jinyang immediately smiled and said, "Mr. Gu, thanks to your rescue yesterday, I was able to keep my life, I'm extremely grateful."

  "I have collected a few things over the years, and this time I came to invite Mr. Gu to my study to pick out one or two items that suit him, as a way of repaying his great kindness; I hope Mr. Gu will not refuse."

  Ancient cloud listened to him say so, and could only follow him into his collection room, coming to this thirty-square-meter collection room.

  It is said that with a glance, one can see that on both sides of the two rows of shelves, one side has some hundred-year-old or thousand-year-old medicinal herbs, filling up the entire three-layered shelf, while the other side has flying swords and magical treasures, also placed on two layers, among which most are precious instruments, only a few pieces are spiritual instruments.

  Gǔ yún's gaze paused for a moment on the magic treasure shelf before moving away, directly staring at the spiritual medicine shelf, this was what he wanted.

  At this time, Li Jinyang also closed the door of the secret room and walked to Gu Yun's face, saying: "Mr. Gu, don't you think my collection is pretty good?"

  Gu Yun nodded and said: "Not bad, Brother Li's collection is very rich."

  "I wonder if Mr. Gu plans to add some more collections here."

  At this time, Li Jinyang's gloomy voice sounded in his ear, and Gu Yun knew that he had been deceived.

  Turning his head, Gu Yun said to Li Jinyang: "Brother Li is joking, I'm poor and white, what thing would Brother Li look at with admiration?"

  "Haha, kid, stop pretending with me. The bangle on your hand is a Qiankun Bangle, right? It's much better than the one I have on my hand. It should be an extreme-grade spiritual artifact. You said you didn't have anything good, but your vital energy is also very attractive to me."

  "Hiss, the rejuvenating boundary of medical refinement is indeed a precious treasure. At the very least, it can raise my cultivation by another level." Li Jinyang said with a hearty laugh towards Gu Yun.

  It's said that he didn't think this guy's eyesight was so venomous, and he had already added a hidden spirit array to the bracelet. Now this bracelet looks just like an ordinary Qian Kun bracelet, but unexpectedly it was still seen through by this guy.

  And this guy also has a kung fu method that increases his cultivation by sucking human blood, so he said in a low voice: "I didn't expect you to have such an evil kung fu method of sucking human blood".

  "Evil cultivation method? Haha, kid, in this world there's no such thing as evil or not evil, if it allows you to live a better life then it's correct."

  Honestly, I'm not afraid to tell you that the cultivation I have achieved is the result of absorbing the essence and blood of many people. Otherwise, do you think I could have reached the stage of merging bodies so quickly?

  Moreover, there is a medical boundary that can actually withstand two escaping cultivators of the true way, which makes me like your medical cultivator's pure blood.

  Those guys always bring a large group of guards when they go out, I didn't even have a chance to make a move, and unexpectedly you little brat actually delivered yourself to my doorstep.

  "You're actually not even bringing a guard, didn't your master tell you that it's very dangerous outside?" Upon hearing Gu Yun's words, Li Jinyang burst into another fit of maniacal laughter.

  "Oh, does a doctor have to bring a guard when going out?" Gu Yun asked in confusion after hearing Li Jinyang say so.

  "Haha, you kid actually doesn't even know this, your medical practitioners don't have any attacking power. If they were all like you, a foolish little kid without any guards, they would have been killed off long ago." Li Jinyang said with some sarcasm.

  "Hmm, it turns out that a doctor isn't supposed to have any attacking power. But then what's with this? Well, if others think he doesn't have any attacking power, then I suppose he really doesn't."

  Then, he put on a slightly fearful look and said to Li Jinyang: "So what do you want? Do you want to suck my vital energy? Don't forget, your life was saved by me, how can you treat me like this?"

  "Kid, you're really too adorable. Nowadays, how many people still have the idea of repaying kindness? Since you've saved me, then just help me a bit more and let my cultivation increase some more, so I can go take revenge." After saying that, he burst into another fit of loud laughter.