Chapter 377 – Arriving in Qi City

　　Liu Zhaoyue frowned, “What on earth is the matter with the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest? Could it be possible that a great demonic beast really caused this much trouble? What exactly is that demonic beast?”

　　“The demonic beast is secondary; the most important thing is that the aura surrounding the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest has changed.” Liu Mengchen explained, “I suspect that there was once a great demon-sealing array in the hinterland of the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest. I speculate that the inexplicable appearance of this barrier was caused by the loosening of the great demon-sealing array.”

　　“Great demon-sealing array?” Liu Zhaoyue’s expression changed.

　　In the previous Myriad Dao Era, the five sovereigns of the Nine Lands sacrificed themselves to seal the demon. They simultaneously activated an Ancient Great Demon-Sealing Array from five directions and finally sealed the ruler of the Divine Devils, only to have ended in mutual destruction, which had ensured peace in the cultivation world for several thousand years thereafter.

　　How could a reclusive family from the Nine Lands not know anything about the great demon-sealing array?

　　However, he didn’t know that a demon-sealing array actually existed in the Five Continents as well.

　　What’s more, it was located precisely in the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest.

　　Liu Mengchen looked at Liu Zhaoyue and spoke lightly, “What do you think the existence of reclusive families really means to the smaller realms?”

　　Liu Zhaoyue didn’t even need to think about it, “We are the claws of the nine great Celestial Clans of the Upper Realm. We monitor each and every move of the Lower Realms for them.”

　　“It’s fine if it was only that. The greatest significance of our existence is to maintain the stability of the Lower Realms. Whenever there are demons, there will be people from the reclusive families around. The reason why we came to the Five Continents and settled our family in the center of the North, Central, and West Continents is because these three continents all have great demon-sealing arrays.”

　　Liu Zhaoyue gasped and looked at Liu Mengchen in disbelief. After a long time, he asked, “Eldest Brother, then the location of the Jian family was also specially chosen?”

　　Liu Mengchen nodded, “Although the Jian family is located in the East Continent, it is also close to the South and Central Continents, and is diagonal to our family.”

　　Liu Mengchen felt chills down his spine and was on the verge of getting goosebumps.

　　The great demon-sealing arrays couldn’t be touched casually, because demons that require great demon-sealing arrays to seal were all great demons that couldn’t be destroyed by ordinary means. Inferring from Liu Mengchen’s words, there were actually more than one great demon-sealing array in the Five Continents!

　　At this very moment, Liu Zhaoyue felt: What kind of bullshit are these reclusive families? Such fraud!

　　Liu Mengchen felt that his goal had been achieved, so he continued, “Therefore, I must enter the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest. You should stay in the Liu family.”

　　Liu Mengchen, “…”

　　The conversation had actually circled back to the beginning. Right now, he had some suspicion that Liu Mengchen was deliberately trying to scare him, which was why he intentionally made it sound so terrible.

　　Liu Zhaoyue frowned, “But I still want to go. Eldest Brother, since it is so dangerous, I’ll scout for you.”

　　Liu Zhaoyue opened his mouth but was rendered speechless.

　　He was the heir of the Liu family. Liu Mengchen had no children, so it was natural that Liu Zhaoyue would become the leader of the Liu family after Liu Mengchen left.

　　This was the responsibility borne by Liu Zhaoyue, although this responsibility felt extremely heavy.

　　Liu Zhaoyue acquiesced in silence. Moments later, Liu Zhaoyue spoke, “Eldest Brother, you should leave a few days later.”

　　Liu Mengchen shook his head. “I don’t think so. Lin Xuanzhi and the others came to the West Continent this time for the Colorful Caterpillar Grass and the Icy Heart Water Lotus. Saving a person is akin to fighting a fire. The fact that they could even stop here for a day is because of Zhu’er’s face.”

　　Liu Zhaoyue asked, “Is Sister-in-law going too?”

　　“The Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest is his hometown. Naturally, he also wants to go back and have a look.”

　　Liu Zhaoyue hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Okay!”

　　The next day, Lin Xuanzhi and the other people indeed came to bid farewell to Liu Mengchen.

　　However, as Qing Zhu said before, Liu Mengchen decided to go with them to the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest. Even though on the surface, he said that he would accompany Qing Zhu to his hometown to sightsee, it had caused Qing Zhu to roll his eyes countless times.

　　Liu Zhaoyue used all kinds of tricks in an attempt to persuade them to stay. However, Lin Xuanzhi and Yuan Tianwen still had firm attitudes towards this matter. After eating breakfast, they left the family and moved on quickly towards the west.

　　This time, along the way, with Liu Mengchen’s guidance, the party’s speed was much faster than expected. Within three days, they had arrived at Qi City, one of the main cities in the West Continent that was closest to the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest.

　　The West Continent’s Qi City, referred to as West Qi for short, was the largest main city in the West Continent, where commerce and trade were prosperous. Numerous cultivators came and went, and it was even home to the Black Owl, the largest mercenary group in the Five Continents.

　　There were two big families in West Qi’s mainland — one was the Su family and the other was the Ji family. The Su family was a gathering place for miscellaneous specializations. Apart from the ordinary sword cultivators, the Su family also had a balanced development in alchemy, talisman, equipment crafting, and other aspects of Dao. Some people once joked that the Su family was a microcosm that included all types of cultivators in the entire Five Continents.

　　Of course, this was a bit exaggerated, but one could fully see the style of the Su family from this.

　　Not much needed to be said about the Ji family. They were a family of beast tamers whose skills had been passed down from generation to generation. It was quite in line with the style of the West Continent.

　　Qi City was full of bustling cultivators and there was great mobility. Lin Xuanzhi and the others had yet to even arrive at the gate, but they had already seen more than one wave of fully equipped mercenary teams riding a variety of demonic beasts going away to perform their assigned quests.

　　Yuan Tianwen looked back, “Their direction seems to be the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest.”

　　Lin Xuanzhi explained, “The Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest is the most suitable hunting place near Qi City.”

　　At this time, all the people had already gotten off the carriages and those flying unicorns had been led away to be settled somewhere by the Yuan family’s shadow guards.

　　Although the customs of the East and West continents were different, some rules were universal. For example, one must dismount before entering the city. Without permission, giant demonic beasts and multiple demonic beasts were not allowed to enter the city.

　　In order to avoid unnecessary troubles, Lin Xuanzhi and the others avoided these taboos in advance.

　　At the gate of the city, Lin Xuanzhi and the others were stopped.

　　A guard at the city gate had asked them to show their passage tokens. Liu Mengchen showed the guard a purple passage token with silver edges. The guard’s expression immediately changed and respectfully invited their party to enter.

　　Yan Tianhen asked curiously, “What token is that? How is it so useful?”

　　Liu Mengchen glanced at Yan Tianhen and handed him the passage token. “This is a passage token that only the Master or Young Master of a family can have. It can be used throughout the entire West Continent. Those who have it can bring no more than 20 people into the city.”

　　Yan Tianhen carefully examined the patterns on it and showed it to Lin Xuanzhi. After studying it, Yan Tianhen returned the token to Liu Mengchen.

　　“When we reach Qi City, we won’t be far from the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest.” Yuan Tianwen informed. “I have already booked our accommodations before we arrived. We can put our luggage in the inn and rest first, before making plans in the evening.”

　　Qing Zhu asked, “The place that you’ve picked, is it reliable enough?”

　　Yuan Tianwen assured, “Senior, don’t worry. It’s my Yuan family’s inn.”

　　Qing Zhu was stunned and smiled, “It’s been too long. I almost forgot that your dad had long since opened inns all over the Five Continents. In every major city, there are restaurants and inns belonging to the Yuan family.”

　　Yuan Tianwen laughed, “Compared with those opened by Uncle Lin, although our quantity is a little more, the quality is a lot worse.”

　　Qing Zhu smiled and did not answer.

　　Speaking of which, back when Su Mo and Lin Zhan were building their business empires hand in hand, they had intentionally avoided conflicting interests — if Su Mo opened restaurants, then Lin Zhan would open brothels; if Su Mo opened material shops, then Lin Zhan would open Serene Grass Manor.

　　In this way, not only did the two of them not form any competition, but they could also complement each other. If one looked carefully, their businesses combined covered almost everything that would be capable of making money.

　　Su Mo had a wide range of friends and was also from a large family. Before he married Yuan Zheng, he could often be seen everywhere in the Five Continents. It could be said that Su Mo took care of the external affairs while Lin Zhan took care of internal matters.

　　Su Mo was a well-known smiling tiger, someone whose smile hid evil intentions. Meanwhile, Lin Zhan was a fox who could devise strategies.

　　When both of them joined hands, it allowed the Yuan family and Lin Zhan’s businesses to cover the whole Five Continents very rapidly.

　　However, in some aspects, their businesses would still inevitably overlap. For example, the Wishing Lane opened by Lin Zhan.

　　Like brothels, teahouses and restaurants were places where all kinds of rumors and news could be most easily heard. Su Mo’s biggest goal in opening restaurants was to expand the information network and know the latest gossip as soon as possible. It’s just that teahouses and restaurants needed to be opened widely and in large quantities in order to gather more news. Therefore, Su Mo valued quantity over quality.

　　Lin Zhan, on the other hand, opened only three Wishing Lanes at first, then seven, and finally nine. After Lin Xuanzhi took over, he expanded it to twelve. The total number added up wasn’t even half of the number of the Yuan family’s restaurants in the West Continent.

　　However, Wishing Lane valued quality over quantity. Any information received must be correct. After all, the hidden organization behind Wishing Lane was a place to buy and sell information from all over the world. If false information was detected, the hidden information broker business would face extreme difficulties later.

　　A group of people turned up at the Yuan family’s restaurant together. As soon as the shopkeeper here saw Yuan Tianwen, he became so excited that his beard was on the verge of curling up. He personally welcomed them to the celestial-grade rooms upstairs.

　　“Is this wall thick enough?” Lin Xuanzhi asked.

　　“Of course, there is an array on the ceiling to prevent people from eavesdropping on us and magic treasures are also hung outside. We will know if someone approaches.” Yuan Tianwen was very confident.

　　At this point, everyone was gathered in one room.

　　Although Liu Mengchen was the head of a reclusive family, he did not demand anything on the journey and spoke with these younger generations on an equal footing. The feeling he gave was very comfortable, so he was not deliberately excluded.

　　Lin Xuanzhi looked at the crowd and then his gaze finally fell on Liu Mengchen. “Liu Family Head, after entering the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest, are you going to join us or act alone?”

　　Liu Mengchen looked at Qing Zhu, “Naturally, I will go with you all first.”

　　“First?” Qing Zhu asked.

　　Liu Mengchen smiled and tapped his palm with his folding fan. “If you want me to be with you all the time, I naturally have no complaints. It’s just that the journey ahead will be dangerous. Is Zhu’er ready to die with me?”

　　Qing Zhu’s expression darkened, “Shut up, you. After we get the items, we will go our separate ways. Let’s not get entangled again.”