The city gate was towering and grand, ancient and vast.
Entering the city gates, the houses were compact and orderly, the streets bustling, with crowds of visitors weaving like threads.
At a glance, there were silk shops, paper shops, bookshops, meat markets, pharmacies, jewelry stores, martial arts schools, and taverns... all with their doors wide open to welcome guests, lively and flourishing, exuding a worldly atmosphere.
Particularly since Fufeng Protectorate was a borderland of the Second Yan Han Empire, there were many different tribes.
Quanrong, White Deer, Jade Rabbit...
Various human-like figures, yet dressed in Yan Han clothes, they mingled seamlessly with those of other beastly styles, without any sense of incongruity.
Er Ha was staring dumbfounded at a certain Quanrong lady who seemed to be of a distinguished canine lineage.
Huang Xie gave his good-for-nothing nephew a heavy smack, "What are you doing? Commander Su had to use a lot of connections to get us here from the camp, how big of an opportunity is this for us to rise to the heavens in one step? Behave yourself, make a good start here, and in the future, won’t you have fine bitches knocking on your door?"
Just as Er Ha wanted to howl, he quickly covered his mouth and chuckled softly, "Uncle, I can’t control it... Besides, life as a dog is short, although we look almost the same as the Yan Han people, our lifespan is much shorter..."
"Idiot!" Huang Xie slapped his nephew again, "That’s why you need to practice cultivation. If you can earn the favor of the adults and they teach you the methods of Qi Refinement, enabling you to enter the Innate stage, you could live as long as humans."
"So that’s how it is..." Er Ha stuck out his tongue.
"This Fufeng City is the core of the Fufeng Protectorate, the place where the Great Protector resides. It is guarded by five thousand troops of the Black Wind Army, as impenetrable as a metal fortress."
Clad in a bright red rider’s attire and leading the way, Feng Xixi smiled as she asked, "Su Daoshi, what do you think?"
"Bustling and lively, it has a charm different from that of Central Earth," Zhong Shenxiu commented, unconsciously comparing it to the cities of Central Earth from Su Daoshi’s memories.
"Do you miss home? Rest assured, once you’re cleared of your criminal status this time, you can leave Fufeng openly and travel around Central Earth." Feng Xixi sighed, "It’s a pity that most of the Su Clan has withered away, otherwise you could offer them protection as well..."
In this era, clans were a person’s support, and in turn, it was only right for a successful individual to take care of the clan.
By all rights, now that Su Daoshi had made his fortune, he had a duty to care for other members of the Su Clan who had been exiled here.
Although Zhong Shenxiu had no relationship with them, he had promised Su Daoshi to take care of the clan members, which was the proper thing to do.
Considering the Su Family was implicated by the Prince’s case and the Emperor issued the orders, it meant that a gentleman’s revenge could wait ten, even a hundred years.
Therefore, he quickly expressed his gratitude, "Please, Colonel, inform me of my Su Clan members’ whereabouts, so I can take them back and look after them one by one."
Feng Xixi nodded slightly and proceeded to the Protector Mansion.
The mansion was extremely vast, with armored soldiers patrolling the entrance, each of them an elite, nonchalantly wearing hundreds of pounds of iron armor as though weightless.
Zhong Shenxiu’s eyes darkened slightly as he also saw an abundance of spell light, forming a protective layer to prevent Daoist skills from invading.
’Indeed, this Great Protector’s Mansion has more luxurious arrangements than Feng Xixi’s.’
"Everyone dismount before the Protector Mansion!"
Seeing the group, an armored soldier immediately bellowed.
"You all wait outside; Su Daoshi, you come with me."
Feng Xixi dismounted and gave the order.
Here, she was but a Colonel, and according to protocol, she could only bring one personal guard inside.
Zhong Shenxiu was indifferent to this and followed Feng Xixi through the gates, immediately feeling the defense tighten to another level, feeling slightly oppressed internally.
But it wasn’t his turn to meet with the Great Protector.
In the Second Yan Han Empire, hierarchy was strict, and he was only there as a personal guard to reflect the treatment due to Feng Xixi.
As for meeting the Great Protector, wishful thinking, huh?
Feng Xixi tossed him into a small hall and went off by herself to pay respects to the highest authority in Fufeng.
Zhong Shenxiu was bored to death and yawned.
He knew that even after Feng Xixi left, they would have to see whether the Great Protector was free; if not, they would have to wait several more hours.
His current status was like that of a leader’s driver or secretary, only good enough for drinking tea in the messenger room.
"Not right, there aren’t even any seats or refreshments here... Indeed, ancient people had it even tougher."
Zhong Shenxiu inwardly sighed, "Why isn’t there any other general’s or colonel’s personal guard to chat with... that’d be nice..."
He was well aware that these close aides to leaders were the ones most likely to leak secrets.
Don’t think that some top-secret news might only be on the desks of generals and above, but to these confidants, it’s no secret at all.
After another half hour, Zhong Shenxiu suddenly looked up toward the entrance of the hall.
A Daoist wearing a Five Mountains Crown, dressed in a Daoist robe, with rosy lips and white teeth, and appearing to be in his twenties, barged in and glanced at Zhong Shenxiu, "Are you Su Daoshi?!"
"That’s me!" Zhong Shenxiu answered with a fist and palm salute, "Does the Daoist have any advice?"
"Good." With a point of his finger, the Daoist sent out a spell, transforming into a black foggy rope that bound Zhong Shenxiu.
"What are you doing?"
Zhong Shenxiu was shocked and tried to muster the Spirit Turtle True Qi but to no effect.
Of course, this was fake, this Daoist was merely in Gang Sha Realm, and although his cultivation was deeper than Feng Xixi’s, Zhong Shenxiu could just summon the Headless Earl and wipe him out with a wave of his hand.
However, this was in the Great Protector’s Mansion, so he had to give some face to the host, or becoming a nationally wanted criminal wouldn’t be so good.
"No harm done, I am the Spiritual Crane Daoist of the Cloud Mirror Sect, here merely for investigation." The Spiritual Crane Daoist moved forward leisurely, looking at the immobilized Zhong Shenxiu with a hint of a contemptuous smile on his lips and pressed on Zhong Shenxiu’s pulse.
A mana distinct from True Qi flowed along the veins of Zhong Shenxiu’s wrist, directly up the arm, circled around his chest, and then looked around his Dantian.
"Your chest injury is severe and dangerous, the True Qi in your body is at the Innate Peak, and it is the Spirit Turtle True Qi, with no traces of mana."
The Spiritual Crane Daoist slowly nodded, but little did he know he had been deceived by Zhong Shenxiu many times over.
The injury was fake, and the Headless Earl was a resentful spirit in the Divine Power Realm, adept at space spells, able to create an alternate space to hide in, akin to having the divine skill of hiding Mount Sumeru inside a mustard seed, not something this Spiritual Crane could see through.
The Spiritual Crane Daoist pondered for a moment, then suddenly another mana arose from his body, turning into golden light, shining into Zhong Shenxiu’s eyes.
He sternly interrogated, "The statement you provided that day, was there any falsehood?"
’Mind-confusing spells?’
Zhong Shenxiu felt a force urging him to tell the truth.
Unfortunately, it was too weak. If it were a hundred or a thousand times stronger, perhaps he might have confessed, "There was no falsehood!"
The Spiritual Crane Daoist nodded, retracted his mana, and didn’t say anything more. He turned and left.
It seemed that, to him, Zhong Shenxiu was just a passerby or even less, not worth the effort of apologizing for his previous rudeness.
After all, in this era, a cultivator in Gang Sha Realm truly didn’t need to curry favor with mere mortals.
’Good, I’ll remember you.’
Zhong Shenxiu watched the Daoist’s back and murmured to himself in his heart.