Chapter 103: The Besieged City

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After Zhou Bai formulated his plan, the entire city of Hangdu began operating in an orderly manner. Large numbers of dogs were captured and taken to the horse farm outside the city.

The common people raised no objections. After all, demons were involved in the matter.

Stray dogs, however, proved rather difficult to catch. In the end, they were only able to capture them all with the help of a spiritual material possessed by Wen Meng—one that animals found impossible to resist.

Although it could not be said that not a single dog had been missed throughout Hangdu, the vast majority had already been gathered at the horse farm.

Daoist Hou then set up an array, and fortunately nothing went wrong.

Once he had some free time, Zhou Bai began experimenting with the Daoist cultivation technique he had comprehended from the One-Qi Purification Method.

Although he had chosen the path of demons, the methods of immortal cultivation were simply too tempting. Who would not wish to live forever and roam freely through the heavens and earth with a flying sword beneath their feet?

Of course, heterodox supernatural abilities could also increase one’s lifespan. However, according to the Daoist cultivation manual, at the same realm, the lifespan gained through the former was only half that gained through the latter.

A true body like Zhou Bai’s could live for slightly less than two hundred years under normal circumstances, while reaching the True Soul realm would grant him more than four hundred years. Naturally, if one followed the demonic path and mastered the true body of a tortoise-like creature, one’s lifespan would be somewhat longer than normal.

Yet compared with the dangers of that path, such a tiny increase in lifespan was hardly worth mentioning. Most members of the Nether Canon Bureau never lived to die of old age.

Thus, Zhou Bai tried cultivating the Daoist technique. He began inside the house, but sensed no spiritual energy between heaven and earth.

He then tried in the courtyard, yet still gained nothing. The only things nearby were yin energy and demonic energy formed from moonlight.

Zhou Bai could not sense the existence of spiritual energy. Perhaps he simply lacked the talent for immortal cultivation. Another possibility was that there was no spiritual energy anywhere near Hangdu to begin with.

As for the techniques originally practiced by Daoist Hou and Wen Meng, they mainly followed the method of refining essence into qi, which was an entirely different path from absorbing spiritual energy.

The absence of spiritual energy in the world was probably the most likely explanation. His Eyes of Yin and Yang could even see dragon qi; surely he would not have failed to detect spiritual energy.

His failure to cultivate immortality left Zhou Bai feeling somewhat regretful. It seemed that his dream of riding a flying sword would have to wait until he awakened a similar supernatural ability.

He arrived at the horse farm outside the city and looked at the countless dogs packed quietly together behind the fences. The array Daoist Hou had set up clearly had some effect.

At that moment, Xiao Wu and Lin Chong came looking for him. Zhou Bai led them to a pavilion beside the horse farm. To ensure that nothing unexpected happened, he and Daoist Hou took turns guarding the place.

They had not seen each other for several days, and Zhou Bai was rather curious to know whether they had discovered anything.

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“Lord Zhou, shall I give you an oral report?”

“No need. You should have kept records, right? Just hand them over.”

Xiao Wu pulled out a thick stack of papers densely covered in writing and passed them to Zhou Bai.

Zhou Bai took them and began reading on his own. He made full use of his ability to read ten lines at a glance, flipping through the entire stack in only a few breaths.

Most of the information was useless: fights breaking out in various places, or wandering martial artists taking revenge and killing people.

Several entries, however, caught Zhou Bai’s attention. Their contents seemed strange on the surface, but concealed a great deal of information.

“Xiao Wu, are you saying that the merchants in Hangdu have recently begun staying indoors to recuperate, as though they had all agreed to do so beforehand?”

“Yes. I don’t know whether they made some arrangement among themselves, but that is indeed what’s happening.”

Xiao Wu nodded. If he had not spent years gathering snippets of gossip in teahouses, he would never have noticed it.

Lin Chong added, “There are quite a few merchant caravans arriving in Hangdu. But for all of them to choose to rest here at the same time, with not a single caravan leaving the city, is rather strange.”

“Come on. Let’s take a look at the official road.”

With a thought, Zhou Bai led the two of them toward the official road. It was not far away, and they could see it clearly from the slope above.

They sat cross-legged on the hillside and waited for a while. Before long, people began appearing one after another.

As a famous city of Yangzhou, Hangdu naturally attracted many merchant caravans and travelers. Yet after more than half an hour, it was exactly as Xiao Wu had said: merchants entered the city, but none left it.

The more closely Zhou Bai observed, the more he realized that it was not merely merchant caravans. Not a single person had gone more than ten miles beyond Hangdu.

Some travelers did walk outward, but after reaching a certain distance, they would suddenly seem to remember something, turn around, and return to the city.

Knowing that the matter was far from simple, Zhou Bai sent Xiao Wu to ask passersby why they had turned back. He told Lin Chong to find a gentler dog at the horse farm.

A short while later, Xiao Wu returned, his face filled with confusion.

“Lord Zhou, all those travelers said that once they reached the outskirts, they suddenly remembered some important business they had not yet finished, so they went back. I tried it myself, and it was exactly the same for me. It felt as though something inside me resisted leaving Hangdu.”

“An array? Or some other strange influence...”

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Just then, Lin Chong came over, leading a yellow dog. Zhou Bai simply took the two of them to the outskirts of Hangdu.

The nearby pedestrians watched them with puzzled expressions, whispering among themselves.

They first tried making the yellow dog leave the ten-mile boundary around Hangdu. It had taken only a few steps before turning back. After that, no matter what they did, it refused to leave.

Lin Chong tried next. He managed to go somewhat farther than the yellow dog, but before long he could no longer suppress the thoughts rising within him and returned as well.

During this time, Zhou Bai examined the area carefully several times with his Eyes of Yin and Yang, but detected nothing unusual.

Yet the strange event before him was clearly no coincidence. There had to be something amiss.

He wrapped his entire body in yin energy and demonic energy, then tried taking one step forward. No unusual thought arose.

Zhou Bai took several more steps. Still, nothing happened. It was not until he reached the distance Xiao Wu had previously attained that a thought suddenly welled up inside him.

It was a longing for his family, concern over the crisis soon to descend upon Hangdu, and perhaps even the temptation of the Yin Jade.

These distracting thoughts brought him to an abrupt halt. He continued forward for several steps, and the thoughts grew heavier, reaching a point he could no longer endure.

What troubled Zhou Bai most was that if he continued onward, he would be acting against his own nature. That might create a flaw in his state of mind and, in turn, affect his cultivation of the True Soul.

Turning back, on the other hand, was extremely easy. The moment he turned around, his thoughts became clear again.

He retreated to his original position, his heart filled with uncertainty.

Zhou Bai did not know whether this was an omen of something happening to the Yin Jade. But one thing was certain: tens of thousands of people throughout Hangdu had been trapped inside the city.

Meanwhile, a steady stream of merchants and travelers continued arriving in Hangdu from outside, with more than a hundred appearing every day.

If the Sky Hound truly emerged, the resulting casualties would be even greater. They would have to proceed with still greater caution.

There were fewer than ten days left before the lunar eclipse. Zhou Bai could only hope that nothing unexpected would happen.