In the first month, Lu Zhaozhao passed by Futu Village at the foot of the mountain, where she quelled bandits and saved dozens of lives.
In the second month, Lu Zhaozhao passed through the outskirts of Xiapi City and encountered a woman in difficult labor. The woman's baby was breech, and no midwife dared to deliver the baby. Just as the woman was about to give birth, Lu Zhaozhao entered the house and delivered the baby. She left the house a full day later, and both mother and child were safe.
Three months later, Lu Zhaozhao arrived in Danyang and met Zuo Rong, who was in charge of building the Nine Mirrors Pagoda. At that time, he and his students were imprisoned for disrupting the imperial examinations. Lu Zhaozhao discovered the truth about the cheating in the imperial examinations, rescued the falsely accused candidates, and jointly promoted the reform of the imperial examination system.
...
Lu Zhaozhao traveled from the Futu Temple in the eastern suburbs all the way to the western border. Along the way, she encountered many injustices and saw even more people struggling to find medical help. As a result, she traveled intermittently, turning what should have been a three-month journey into a year.
For the past year, to avoid unnecessary trouble, she kept her head veiled, rarely lifting it, and seldom spoke to anyone. Whenever someone tried to ask for her name or repay a debt of gratitude, she would simply lift the veil without leaving a trace.
From the eastern suburbs to the western border, folklore tells of a fairy maiden, wearing a veil and holding Buddhist beads, who is otherworldly and ethereal, like a celestial being descended to earth; she possesses superb medical skills, capable of reviving the dead and restoring flesh to bones; and she is a peerless martial artist, once defeating a hundred enemies with a single bamboo sword, and many have benefited from her kindness.
However, because she did not leave her name, she is respectfully called the Silent Immortal.
However, Lu Zhaozhao, the person in question, was unaware that she possessed this title. If she were to hear it, she would surely be shocked, for it was the very same extraordinary person recorded in ancient texts who was famous throughout the cultivation world a thousand years ago.
However, she wasn't in the mood to dwell on those things right now; she had more pressing issues to address.
She cannot enter the Western Region.
In the first month after leaving the temple, she went to find the old woman who was looking for her granddaughter. When she arrived in the village, she was told that the old woman had left the village. However, many newborns in the village who had been given the Black Bird Diagram had disappeared, so she stayed there for half a month.
Within half a month, she discovered that the totem in front of the bandits' stronghold in the mountains was a black bird. So she explored the surrounding routes, captured more than a hundred bandits in one fell swoop, and rescued those who had been taken up the mountain. However, most of them were adults, and there were no infants.
The captured bandit leader told her that the Xuan Bird Diagram was left behind by Zuo Rong, who oversaw the construction of the Nine Mirrors Pagoda. He thought it looked nice and used it, so Lu Zhaozhao went out of the city to Danyang again.
While passing through the suburbs, I encountered a woman in difficult childbirth and helped her. After the baby was born, the family was extremely grateful and wanted to repay the debt.
Unable to resolve the entanglement, Lu Zhaozhao pointed to the veil beside her, instructing them to repay her with this item.
Three months later, she arrived in Danyang and saw that Zuo Rong was in trouble, so she stepped in to help him quell the chaos.
Zuo Rong said that he once passed through the western border and met two young men, one slightly older, about twenty-five or twenty-six, and the other younger, who looked to be under twenty. Both were handsome and dressed in brocade robes, making them quite conspicuous in that small border town.
Originally, this matter had nothing to do with him, but one night, when he was meeting with Danyang's confidant, he accidentally stumbled upon the two being chased.
The pursuers were numerous and their figures were strange, unlike those of people from the Central Plains.
Curious, he followed them and saw the two men swiftly wield their knives, causing others to fall to the ground. Then, the two men entered the western border.
He hid under the clutter, too afraid to move, until dawn before emerging. But the corpse and bloodstains had vanished; what he had seen the previous night seemed like a dream. Fortunately, however, there was a scrap of cloth hidden among the clutter, bearing a picture of a black bird. He had intended to examine it carefully upon returning to Danyang, but he encountered bandits on the road and lost the cloth.
Zuo Rong said that was all he knew.
After hearing this, Lu Zhaozhao decided to set off for the western border. After several months of travel, she finally arrived.
She first went to the small town where she met the two men in Zuo Rong.
The sandstorms have ravaged the city, leaving only a few households, mostly elderly people who are unable to leave.
According to the old man in the city, a riot broke out in the Western Territory several years ago, which attracted many cultivators from the Central Plains. During that time, the sky in the Western Territory was filled with lightning and falling stars, and blood seeped from the earth, staining the ponds red.
Several months later, the internal turmoil in the west gradually subsided. One morning, someone discovered that there was an extra barrier. Some people could go out, but no one could go in. However, the group of cultivators did not seem to come out again.
After hearing this, Lu Zhaozhao went to see the barrier.
It was an extremely powerful barrier, comparable to the restrictions on the back mountain, and the person who cast the spell was probably no less powerful than her master.
The barrier changes with the tides, and it took her more than half a month to figure out the pattern of entry and exit.
People inside can come out at any time, but people outside can only get in once a year.
The calculations show that this year's opportunity is just around the corner!
After two days of quiet meditation, at midnight, the city was still, and the stars in the night sky suddenly began to change direction, as if two people were playing chess with the sky as their board.
The outcome was clear, the bright moon hung high, and where the moonlight shone, an opening appeared in the barrier.
With no one around, Lu Zhaozhao steadied herself against the veil and quickly entered.
Ancient texts record that the western border was a place where demons and monsters roamed, a desolate and terrifying place with thousands of miles of Gobi Desert.
After entering the Western Regions, Lu Zhaozhao thought that the ancient books were written in a rather subtle way.
She had barely stepped halfway in when she saw a tiger demon devouring its prey, which had been disemboweled and was of indistinguishable species.
The tiger demon's entire face was buried in its prey's chest. Upon hearing the sound, its beast-like ears twitched, and it slowly raised its face to look back.
He still had half a heart in his mouth, blood splattered all over his face, and his fangs were showing as he gave Lu Zhaozhao a vicious grin.
"You are a human being."
He swallowed the half of his heart, straightened up, and walked step by step toward Lu Zhaozhao.
Lu Zhaozhao quickly glanced at him. He was at the Golden Core stage, but his qi and meridians were weak, indicating that he had only recently broken through.
Under the veil, Lu Zhaozhao also let out a cold smile.
"boom--"
With just one palm strike, the tiger demon was sent flying backward.
He coughed up blood, got up and tried to run, but the bamboo sword had already quietly landed on his shoulder.
"If you want to live, you'd better obey."
Upon hearing this, the tiger demon immediately collapsed to his knees, begging for mercy. He had initially thought that the person before him looked thin and was human, so he must not be very capable; making him a dessert wouldn't be a problem. He hadn't expected this person to be so strong, and he had no chance to fight back at all. Now, he could only obediently admit defeat.
"Let's talk this out. You're so kind as to spare my life. I promise I'll tell you everything I know, hehe."
Lu Zhaozhao looked it up and down and asked, "Have you ever seen this before?"
As he spoke, he took out a picture of a black bird from his bosom and showed it to him.
Unexpectedly, the tiger demon trembled at just one glance.
He spoke tremulously, "This...this, I..."
"What's wrong? Is there something you can't say?"
Lu Zhaozhao turned her head to look, and the blade was a fraction closer to his neck.
The tiger demon was so frightened that it begged for mercy repeatedly, its voice trembling as it said quickly, "I'll talk, I'll talk, these are patterns from the outer walls of the Ming Palace!"
"Ming Palace?"
"That is, that is where the Demon Lord resides."
"Oh?" Lu Zhaozhao raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you a demon? How come you know so much about the demon realm?"
"This..." The tiger demon's expression stiffened. "My lord, you are unaware of this. Three years ago, two important figures arrived in the Western Territory. One of them slew the dragon in the dragon's lair, defeated the former Demon Lord, and succeeded to the Demon Lord's position. The Western Territory has long been his territory..."
The tiger demon's voice grew softer and softer until it was barely audible, demonstrating the immense pressure he exerted.
Lu Zhaozhao frowned and thought for a while before asking, "What is the Demon Lord's name?"
The tiger demon shuddered and muttered, "How could a nobody like me possibly know the name of the Demon Lord?"
"Alright," Lu Zhaozhao said, not wanting to make things difficult for him. "Then do you know how to get close to him?"
Lu Zhaozhao squatted down to look him in the eye, her smile widening.
The tiger demon trembled even more. At that moment, he wanted to slap himself hard. Why did he have to go out today?
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