A week later, beside a long-abandoned farmland, in front of a dilapidated and deserted town, a burly figure walked through the air.

The air behind him made muffled sounds, and soon the sturdy figure gradually slowed down, and his feet landed lightly in front of the town.

Qitu Town is located on a major transportation route and is the intersection of seven official roads. It has well-developed transportation and a constant stream of merchants coming and going. It was once prosperous and was a rich place that many people envied.

There are thousands of acres of fertile fields outside the town, and wealthy families inside the town. Although they are now in ruins, one can still see their former prosperity.

As for why the Qitu Town has become what it is now, the young man with a strong build but a young face looked at the two dried bones hanging on the archway at the entrance of the town.

The evening breeze blew, and the two dry bones swayed in the wind. The sound of the dried bones colliding with each other was like a hoarse wind chime with a sense of vicissitudes.

What destroyed the peaceful life in this small town was a war, a mortal war that has not ended yet.

The figure standing at the entrance of the town in the sunset was undoubtedly Jiang Li, who had accepted the sect's mission to subdue demons.

Jiang Li tapped his fingers lightly and two streams of spiritual energy shot out, lowering the corpse hanging on the archway. Then he waved his hand and dug two holes on the ground next to it, and buried the dried bones in them.

After compacting the soil of the grave and planting two grasses on the grave, he nodded with satisfaction and walked into the spooky Qitu Town in front of him.

Originally, disciples in the Qi training stage were not allowed to carry out demon-killing missions alone, but Jiang Li proved that he had the ability to act on his own during the sect's martial arts competition. With the approval of Elder He, he came here alone.

The town was devastated, with weeds growing on the roadside and dead bones everywhere, and the tragic traces of war were everywhere.

It is said that the battles in the world of immortals are brutal, but this mortal world is so brutal that you don’t even have a chance to fight.

Jiang Li didn't bother to bury the body. He just used the Yin attribute spiritual energy to immerse his eyes and searched for the ghost in the town.

"It seems that those little demons didn't lie to me. Nothing can be seen here before the sun sets."

Jiang Li looked around but didn't find any ghosts roaming around. So he went to a well at the other end of the town and sat down, quietly waiting for the night to fall.

Sitting next to the well, Jiang Li took out a map and looked at it. On the map, there were five locations marked with red circles, three of which had been crossed out with red crosses, and the Qitu Town where he was currently located was the fourth marked location.

Jiang Li came here to carry out the sect's mission of subduing demons.

But this demon-slaying mission itself was based on the information provided by Jiang Li, and was released after it was confirmed.

A week ago, Jiang Li and Yan Hong went to the Foreign Affairs Hall together to choose a store address, which was in a sleepless city built by many sects.

The reasons for choosing this place are, first, prosperity, second, safety, and third, the average life expectancy of mortals in the surrounding countries does not exceed twenty-five years.

There are dozens of nomadic tribes, four kingdoms that are hostile to each other, and civilian rebels who are ready to revolt from time to time.

The complicated hostile relationship has caused the region to be in constant war for many years, and the people here have almost forgotten what peace looks like.

However, the land in this area is extremely fertile, the climate is warm and there is plenty of rainfall, so with just a little cultivation, there will be a bumper harvest every year.

This resulted in the people in this area never fearing hunger, and with the encouragement of the kingdom, the birth rate was extremely high, and it was common for a couple to have eight or nine children.

Finally, there are the mortals here, who are constantly born and die, and for decades, the population has not decreased much.

Jiang Li came here originally for the souls of the dead, so this area naturally became his first choice.

After letting Yan Hong contact the weak monsters nearby, he still had two problems to solve.

The first was the issue of cheap remuneration, which was quickly resolved after discussing it with Ma Donggui.

Ma Donggui gave Jiang Li some samples of spiritual ore scraps, which indeed contained very slight spiritual energy. This was useless to cultivators, but was a good thing in the eyes of low-level monsters.

With just one word from Ma Donggui, a flying boat from the sect would pass through the City That Never Sleeps in a few days, bringing him a huge amount of spiritual ore.

Then the second problem is that there are several ghost gathering places in this area. The souls in a large area nearby will be attracted to these dark places, which should be more convenient for centralized capture.

However, this place is full of yin energy and is often home to powerful ghosts. How could the group of little demons who have barely awakened their intelligence and have to avoid human hunters dare to come and collect souls?

Therefore, in order to smoothly expand his soul purchasing business in the future, Jiang Li had to go there in person to eliminate demons and defend the way.

But since he is a member of the Demon Subduing Hall, why not get an extra share of the sect's mission rewards?

So he reported the situation himself and took the task on his own.

Of course, if it were someone else, they would not be able to do this, but Jiang Li is the first disciple of the Demon Subduing Hall, so this little operation is not considered a violation at all.

Jiang Li was just applauding himself for his cleverness when he heard the sound of wheels rolling and voices coming from the end of the road in the distance.

Jiang Li looked in the direction of the sound and was somewhat surprised to see a group of merchants slowly approaching.

There are many people who are not afraid of death for money. Even in such a war-torn situation, there are still traveling merchants coming here.

"Little brother, this little brother, please ask for help."

The team was neither big nor small, with five carriages, a dozen horses, and about thirty people. It was certainly not comparable to the caravan of Shengxian Pavilion back then, but it was also considered a medium-sized caravan.

At the front, a middle-aged man leading a horse trotted over and came to Jiang Li, the stinky smell of sweat hitting his face.

Jiang Li did not wear the sect disciple uniform on this trip, but only wore a set of coarse cloth clothes like an ordinary civilian.

After all, wearing disciple uniform outside is impressive, but the consequence is that you will be exposed completely. This was a lesson learned during the mission in southern India at that time. Jiang Li still plans to keep a low profile this time.

So the other party just thought that Jiang Li was a civilian nearby and didn't care too much.

"Young man, you are a local, right? Could you tell me which direction to go to Qitu Town?"

Jiang Li looked at the small town behind him, and then looked at the middle-aged man in front of him. He didn't expect that he would ask such a question. It seems that this man is not blind.

"You are here to look for Qitu Town? What is the purpose of looking for Qitu Town?"

Jiang Li thought the other party was speaking out of turn, so he asked again.

"Little brother, what you said is true. This place is desolate and uninhabited. It is getting dark soon. We are tired from the journey, so we naturally want to find Qitu Town to rest."

The middle-aged man smiled, looking honest, and the caravan behind him also gradually stopped.

"The visitor is lucky. Behind me is Qitu Town."

Jiang Li was still sitting by the well, pointing to the huge Qitu Town behind him.

"Little brother, don't make fun of me. How can this be Qitu Town? I was here years ago. How could Qitu Town be so dilapidated in just one year?"

The middle-aged man didn't believe it, and said with certainty that he had been here not long ago, and described it as prosperous, bustling and crowded. He insisted that this was definitely not Qitu Town.

Jiang Li looked at his expression carefully and didn't look like he was lying.

But according to intelligence, this town has been abandoned for twenty years.

Jiang Li turned his head and looked at the town behind him, his eyes flashing with fear and curiosity.

Seeing that Jiang Li no longer paid attention to him, the middle-aged man, who was already irritated by the heat and thirst, became slightly agitated, and his tone of voice became unpleasant.

"Uncle An, what's wrong?"

Seeing that the middle-aged man here had been asking for directions but to no avail, a young woman in a blue skirt got out of the carriage on the other side of the convoy and asked this side.

The woman also had an exquisite long sword on her waist, which looked expensive and feminine. But if you look closely at her palms, you can see that they are smooth and tender without any calluses. They don't look like hands that have ever held a sword.

Upon hearing this, the middle-aged man named An stopped asking Jiang Li, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and ran back.

"Miss, that kid is talking nonsense, saying this is Qitu Town and he refuses to show us the way. What should we do?"

The woman in the blue skirt looked at Jiang Li, then looked at the remaining ray of sunlight on the horizon. It was obviously not suitable to continue traveling now.

"It's getting late, so we shouldn't go on any further. Let's first go to this deserted town and find a house to rest for the night, and then we'll set out to find Qitu Town tomorrow morning."

After the young lady spoke, the servants and guards in the convoy breathed a sigh of relief, and then the convoy set off again and slowly drove into the town.

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"Young Master, can you give me and my granddaughter some well water? The sun is very hot during the day and I am really thirsty."

When the convoy entered the city, Jiang Li saw that there was a grandfather and grandson and a donkey following behind the convoy.

The old man led the donkey forward to ask for water, and his granddaughter sat quietly on the donkey.

Jiang Li looked at him expressionlessly, ignored his request, stood up and walked towards the town.

The old man looked at Jiang Li's back and seemed to show a bit of regret.

Then he walked to the well, turned the wooden windlass on the well, and pulled the rope under the well up little by little.

But in the dim well, the thing pulled up by the rope was not a bucket, but a skeleton that had also long since turned to bones.

At this moment, the last ray of sunlight disappeared between heaven and earth.

The skeleton, hung by a rope by the neck, turned into a long-haired female ghost with tattered clothes, bite marks all over her body, and who was tortured to death the moment it emerged from the well.

The female ghost suddenly opened her eyes, dark tears flowed down her cheeks, and she was about to pounce on the grandfather and grandson in front of her.

But in the next moment, the old man grabbed the female ghost's neck with one hand, and then slapped her, turning the evil ghost into ashes.

The old man threw the corpse, which had turned into a skeleton again, away as if it were just a piece of garbage, and then led the donkey back to the town.

"The old man is thirsty. He didn't get any water. The old man is thirsty."

Jiang Li, who entered the town, and the merchant convoy in front.

As night fell, they were walking in the city when they suddenly heard noisy voices ahead. Looking along the street, they saw bright lights and crowded places ahead.

After hurrying forward for a while, I saw a bustling and lively street scene.

The vendors on the street were constantly hawking their wares, and pedestrians were constantly coming and going on the road. How could this be a dilapidated dead town? This was the prosperous Qitu Town.

"Miss, it's right here, it's right here!"

"My master and I exchanged those jade jewelry and silks here years ago!"

"The prices here are very cheap. If we go back and resell them, we can get ten times the price! The An family is saved now! The An family is saved now!"

The woman in the blue skirt got out of the carriage and was very excited when she saw the lively scene in front of her.

The An family is a merchant family in a nearby kingdom. Although the family is not very large, it is considered wealthy.

Years ago, his father and his eldest brother went out to do business together. Just like today, they accidentally entered the town of Qitu. They bought a lot of high-quality jade and silk there. After returning and selling them, they made a fortune.

But the good times did not last long. Afterwards, his father and elder brother fell seriously ill and died. The family lost its support and soon suffered malicious targeting from other families.

The family business went into a slump and someone even deliberately set fire to it, burning a batch of important goods and causing heavy losses.

In less than a year, the An family could no longer hold on.

At this time, the clan's steward, who was given the surname An, suddenly suggested that if they could go to Qitu Town again, perhaps the entire An family could be saved.

He only stayed in the town for a short while before being assigned to look after the horses. However, the prosperity here was still deeply engraved in his mind.

"Okay, there's an inn ahead, Uncle An. Take your people there to get a few rooms to park the carriage. I'll go ask about the price..."

At this time Jiang Li also came over from behind.

He looked at the excitement of everyone in the convoy, and then looked at the shadowy figures around him.

I didn't expect that there would be a ghost market in such a place.

When you buy things at the ghost market, you are spending your energy and vitality instead of spending silver or gold. How can this not be “cheap”?

"Hey, little brother, I'm sorry, we misunderstood you just now. Thank you for showing us the way!"

The woman in the blue skirt noticed Jiang Li coming from behind and actually took the initiative to apologize.

Jiang Li glanced at her, a little surprised, and then he showed kindness for once, taking out a small bag of jade scraps from the mine and throwing it to her.

"If you want to buy something here, use this. Don't be greedy. Just buy and leave."

After saying that, he didn't pay any more attention to it and started strolling along the ghost market where a hundred ghosts were parading at night.

"Is this... a piece of broken jade? Such a pure and transparent texture."

The woman in the blue skirt untied the cloth bag in confusion, and inside was pieces of cut jade.

The jade produced by the spiritual stone veins, although not much different from stones and weeds in the world of immortal cultivation, is first-class fine jade in the mortal world. A small bag of it is enough to exchange for a four-story house.

She quickly looked up and looked for Jiang Li again. An idea came to her mind. She could give such a thing away casually, and it didn't seem like a bad thing if she got married.

But in just a short while, Jiang Li had already disappeared from her sight.

Jiang Li was walking in the ghost market at this time, and he also held a large bag of spiritual ore and broken jade in his hand.

It was obvious that they were taking advantage of the ignorance of these ghosts. They directly used broken jade of no value as spirit stones and spent lavishly on buying everything they liked.

_(:*∠)_Money, money, my brain has been stuck these past two days, can you give me some money to nourish me?

(End of this chapter)