Chapter 4272 — The Ruins of Aoduo Cultivation City

Huang Xiaotao, for her part, was somewhat nervous, but she was not the hot-tempered sort. Even when her face had been ruined and people had mocked her to her face—something that had once been a daily occurrence—she had never taken it to heart.

Brother Chang had not thought much of Wei Zhao and his companion at first, but now, seeing how the two of them behaved, he could not help but regard them more highly. To be surrounded and jeered at by so many and still keep their composure, betraying not a flicker of emotion—such people were rare indeed.

Had anyone else stood in their shoes, they would not have dared talk back, given the disparity in strength, but neither could they have remained as calm as Wei Zhao and his companion. That air of unruffled poise, that self-possession, made even a man of Brother Chang's experience and vision feel his eyes light up.

"All right, everyone, enough mocking. Who among us wasn't a novice once? We all went through that stage—there's no need to be so sarcastic." Brother Chang waved the crowd off with an indifferent flick of his hand, carrying himself with the aloof magnanimity of a great Nascent Soul expert. The crowd immediately fell silent, and only then did he address Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao: "You two, from the look of it, this must be your first time in Lufeng Forest?"

"That's right, it is indeed our first time here," Wei Zhao said, lifting his head to look at the man and replying calmly, neither haughty nor humble.

"Oh-ho, you've got some nerve, kid—putting on airs right in front of our Brother Chang!" The lackey at the peak of the late Golden Core stage jumped out at once, rolling up his sleeves and making ready to teach Wei Zhao a lesson.

But Brother Chang gave him a single glance, and the lackey slunk back sheepishly, not daring even to grumble another word.

This man commanded tremendous authority! Wei Zhao had already sensed that he was no ordinary figure, and now he was all the more certain of it. Moreover, men who wielded such authority were usually domineering sorts with an iron grip on control: if you went along with their wishes, all was well, but cross them and let matters slip beyond their control, and you were in serious trouble.

"What they said just now was rather unpleasant, but one thing they said was right. Take a word of advice from me, you two—these spirit herbs around here may look decent enough, but even if you filled ten baskets with them, they wouldn't be worth the ten thousand spirit jade you paid to use the teleportation array. It's simply not a good trade," Brother Chang said, offering his counsel.

"Oh?" Wei Zhao exchanged a somewhat surprised glance with Huang Xiaotao. This Brother Chang seemed unexpectedly warm and genial—and easier to talk to than they had imagined.

In the cultivation world, where deceit and treachery were the norm, encounters in a place like Lufeng Forest usually ended in only two ways: kill and seize the treasure, or pass each other by. Very few would do as he did—stop of their own accord to offer advice—let alone a lofty Nascent Soul expert.

"Thank you for the warning, sir. My junior sister and I came to this place for the first time, but we got separated from the rest of our team. In this dense forest we don't dare wander about at random, and we've no idea where to go, so we can only gather these spirit herbs to console ourselves—better than going back empty-handed, at any rate," Wei Zhao said, inventing an excuse on the spot.

"Mm, no wonder you're here gathering spirit herbs. Most people who come here are after rare heavenly treasures like the Myriad Crossing Golden Core Fruit—only that makes it worthwhile, and among all the treasures Lufeng Forest has ever produced, it's far and away the most renowned," Brother Chang said, a look of understanding coming over his face as he spoke to them with a faint smile.

"We've heard of the Myriad Crossing Golden Core Fruit too, and of course we'd like to have it. It's just that we have no idea where to look for it, and having lost our teammates, with only the two of us and our level of strength, I doubt we could get there even if we knew the place," Wei Zhao said, heaving a sigh of feigned helplessness while secretly laughing to himself.

He had already obtained the Myriad Crossing Golden Core Fruit—going looking for it now would be idiotic. He and Huang Xiaotao were not the insatiably greedy sort.

Rather than take pointless risks, it was better to lie low and gather more spirit herbs, then leave through the teleportation array once enough time had passed. That was the safest course.

"That's true enough. To keep your heads in the face of a treasure like that, to know your own limits—that's no small thing," Brother Chang praised, then changed tack: "Still, rather than stay here and waste your time, why not come along with us?"

"Come along with you?" Wei Zhao was taken aback and exchanged a look with Huang Xiaotao. They were complete strangers to this man, and normally people wanted teammates they knew inside and out. He had not expected the other to spring such a proposal on them.

"That's right. We're on our way to the ruins of Aoduo Cultivation City. For an expedition to a place like that, the more people the better, of course—it's just a pity the teleportation array can take at most six. I never expected to run into you two here; it must be a rare stroke of fate." Brother Chang, looking quite approachable, took the initiative to explain: "Come with us, and the rewards you stand to gain will be far better than staying here pulling weeds, won't they? And we can look out for one another—it'll be safer too. What do you two say?"

"Oh? The ruins of Aoduo Cultivation City? What kind of place is that? Are there treasures inside?" Wei Zhao could not help asking.

Back when they had been with Chu Bubai and the others, everyone's attention from beginning to end had been fixed solely on the infant ginseng; matters unrelated to it were seldom mentioned. As for these so-called ruins of Aoduo Cultivation City, he had never even heard of them.

"You haven't heard of it?" Brother Chang was slightly taken aback as well. The place was practically one of the hallmarks of Lufeng Forest—though, considering it was their first time here, it was hardly surprising they hadn't heard of it.

"No, we're not locals, and our knowledge is limited—forgive us for making a fool of ourselves," Wei Zhao said, cupping his hands with a touch of embarrassment.

"Not at all. The ruins of Aoduo Cultivation City were once an important city of the spirit beast race. It's said it was quite large at the time, the symbol and center of power of the whole of Lufeng Forest. But later, for some reason unknown to anyone, every spirit beast in Aoduo Cultivation City, from the highest to the lowest, fell under the sanction of the Spirit Beast King and was put to death overnight. From then on it became a deserted city—what we now call the ruins," Brother Chang explained, taking it upon himself to enlighten them.

Only then did Wei Zhao understand, and a doubt that had been lingering in his mind was finally resolved.

Lufeng Forest lay at the edge of South Island, but it was still within South Island's bounds, and powerful spirit beasts made their dens there. So why did the spirit beast race pay it no heed at all? R1152