What's wrong with him?
The newcomer exuded a powerful aura, clearly not someone at the Golden Core or Nascent Soul stage.
Mu Qiao, with her head slightly bowed, remained calm and expressionless.
"I got a little agitated during cultivation and almost suffered a qi deviation, but it's not a big problem."
The newcomer scrutinized Mu Qiao for a while, then shifted his sharp gaze to the other two people in the hall, asking if anything unusual had happened before.
The two men shook their heads in unison, indicating that everything was normal, and then described what had happened that day.
“Someone came in to complete the formalities, and Steward Mu… well, I processed it for her. Then Steward Mu was cultivating in her seat when she suddenly screamed and then fainted.”
The two men said almost the same thing, and even the steward, who slowly woke up, said the same thing.
The powerful figure who was originally hiding in the shadows recalled that only one female cultivator at the Golden Core stage had come and gone.
"Senior... has something happened?"
The lean male cultivator felt uneasy. Seeing that Steward Mu was being helped away again, he cautiously asked.
The Nascent Soul cultivator naturally wouldn't say, but he had some doubts and was still a little uneasy. After thinking for a moment, he said:
"Bring out today's photos, let me see them."
The two realized that something might have really happened, but they didn't really know what had happened, so they could only find the image and give it to the Nascent Soul cultivator.
The two waited anxiously for a long time before the Nascent Soul cultivator finally threw the image back to them, his face showing annoyance.
"Alright, it's nothing. Go back and advise that kid from the Mu family. It's fine to accept offerings, but at least be nicer to people. Be careful he doesn't run into a brick wall one day!"
After saying that, he muttered "I told you it was just an illusion," then flicked his sleeve and disappeared into the hall.
Mu Qiao, who had been expressionless, tightened her grip on the syringe almost imperceptibly.
That iron plate... it seems they've already kicked it.
That person's methods were just too clever. Not only could he take action with so many powerful figures guarding the outside, but he also didn't notice anything wrong when looking at the commemorative image?
Mu Qiao really wanted to see what the scene looked like in the photo, but in the end he only glanced at the direction where the photo stone was placed and left without saying anything.
If someone really could have done it, Mu Qiao felt that finding that person was more important.
In fact, Zhenru didn't do anything; she merely vaguely altered the memories of the three people in the hall.
While the person at the counter was not cooperating, Zhenru had already secretly created a false impression in the hall. The scene recorded by the recording stone was the one that Zhenru had altered.
It sounds impressive, but these things are not without flaws.
The three people's memories will automatically recover after a year and a half, or even three to five years. If they deliberately try to recall them, they will be able to see the truth.
The images captured on the photo stone can only be preserved for a short time before returning to their original state.
Even that powerful being could have noticed some unnatural traces in the image if he had been a little more careful when looking at the image stone.
Unfortunately, no one would randomly recall unimportant scenes, nor would anyone bother to look at the memory stone. Of course, no powerful being would really care so much about the life of a Golden Core steward.
So although this behavior may seem risky, it is actually very safe.
The only unexpected thing was that the one who discovered the strangeness was just a medical cultivator who was not well-liked by the Mu family.
Of course, Zhenru would never know any of this, much less that because of her actions, someone wanted to find her.
Unfortunately, the person's direction was somewhat off.
Every hundred years, the Hidden Wood Realm holds a "Needle Fighting Festival," which not only causes a stir throughout the Hidden Wood Realm but also attracts many cultivators from other realms.
The so-called "Needle Fighting Festival" is, as the name suggests, a grand event that involves competing in needle fighting.
Is there any explanation for this?
If you really know, in order to exchange ideas and encourage cultivators to cultivate, different realms will hold similar competitions.
The scale ranges from small-scale trials among the peaks within a sect to large-scale competitions involving the entire realm.
But no matter how those competitions are organized, they ultimately test various professional skills or combat abilities.
Zhenru had never seen a competition like this before, where a contest was held specifically for a particular type of magical artifact.
When the man saw that Zhenru had asked, he looked her up and down and realized that this female cultivator was probably not from the Hidden Wood Realm. Instead, he introduced her very enthusiastically:
"Hey, fairy, don't underestimate this grand event."
"This 'Needle Fighting Festival' was originally a family event held by the Mu family to commemorate their greatest ancestor."
"Later, as the Mu family grew and prospered, more and more people came to participate in the needle-fighting competition, which eventually became a major event in the world of wood collecting."
"Because the Needle Fighting Festival includes competitions on healing, participants discover that their old injuries can be healed or alleviated, which enhances their reputation. As a result, many cultivators from outside the region also come to participate."
So the Mu family started out as a medical practitioner?
But the atmosphere she sensed seemed to be something else entirely.
It seems that the ancestor of the Mu family was indeed an extraordinary legend. When the cultivators who were introducing the Needle Fighting Competition mentioned the ancestor of the Mu family, their faces showed no trace of genuine admiration.
"That ancestor of the Mu family became famous in the Cangmu world for her medical cultivation. She not only led her family from a small family with the highest cultivation level of only Foundation Establishment to become the most powerful family in the Cangmu world, but also promoted the development of the entire Cangmu world."
"In the past, the Hidden Wood Realm was not considered a large realm among the three thousand lower realms."
"..."
Such a remarkable person inspired Zhenru to admire him greatly.
The person's words also revealed that the ancestor who led the entire Hidden Wood Realm to upgrade was actually a female cultivator.
"Hey, to be precise, the Mu family has more than one female ancestor. In fact, a large number of the ancestors who made the greatest contributions and achieved the highest level of success were all female cultivators."
"Actually, there was another sword cultivator ancestor from the same era as that medical cultivator ancestor. She was also a female ancestor, but she had different areas of expertise and her contributions were not as great as those of the medical cultivator ancestor."
Zhenru listened intently, her eyes shining. It seemed that this trip to Zangmu was worthwhile, not only in search of the Golden Crow's essence blood, but also in the unexpected joy of the "Needle Fighting Festival".
"Thank you for the introduction, fellow Daoist. May I ask when this acupuncture competition begins?"
After the man roughly stated the time, Zhenru got up to take her leave.
There's still a year until the Needle Fighting Festival. Zhenru can go about her own business first, but she needs to go to the Mu family's place in charge of the festival to buy a pass to attend.
Because there were too many people attending the event, but the venue could not accommodate everyone, the only option was to use spirit stones for selection.
If you buy the token a year in advance, it's not considered early, and the location is quite remote, but you still managed to buy it.
"Hey, is this fairy's first time participating in the Needle Fighting Festival? She's really lucky; usually, these spectator passes would have sold out long ago!"
Zhenru smiled, not intending to chat any longer, and turned to leave with the token she had bought.
Not long after she left, Mu Qiao hurriedly walked into the counter where the tokens were sold.
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