Pu Sa Man — a remote corner within the already remote Western Ox Continent.
Spiritual energy was nearly depleted here. Perhaps due to the lack of spiritual nourishment, this place had all but ceased to produce any cultivators.
It bordered the Endless Sea, a vast ocean without bound or horizon. Once, cultivators had attempted to explore the secrets beyond the Endless Sea, but none had ever returned.
Rumors told of terrifying demon beasts in the Endless Sea, a hundred zhang long, whose tails swept across the water and raised hundred-zhang waves.
There were also heaven-reaching treasure trees, rooted in the Endless Sea itself, bearing the fruit of Heavenly Dao. One taste, it was said, and a mortal would ascend to immortality.
Mortals naturally loved to talk of such things. But for cultivators who had truly set foot upon the immortal path, the first rumor — never having been seen firsthand — might hold some probability.
But the second, the so-called heaven-reaching treasure tree, was pure nonsense.
If such a tree truly existed, then the Eighteen Immortal Sects would not be fighting over spiritual veins.
The heart of the world would no longer be the Central Continent, but the Western Ox Continent.
Cultivators understood better — there was truly no such good thing in this world.
Pu Sa Man was also somewhat different from other places in the Western Ox Continent. Perhaps because it was so remote, the fires of war had not raged fiercely here.
It was not prosperous by any means, but it was far better than the ashen wastes of the Western Ox Continent left behind by cultivators' battles.
Being by the sea, one could also live by catching sea fish.
However, perhaps because it was too remote, this place was also far from civilized lands.
Most of the people here could not even speak the standard tongue of the Central Continent, let alone the local dialect of the Western Ox Continent.
Communication could basically be summed up as — shouting to converse, and a red face meant either anxiety or an urgent stomach.
And here, fights were truly lethal, because killing someone truly carried no consequence.
The few who could communicate with the outside were either those who had gone out to learn and returned, or those who had too many enemies outside and had nowhere else to go but Pu Sa Man.
Since doctrine and written learning had never existed here, the people of Pu Sa Man were still organized in tribal structures, and the clothes they wore were exceedingly sparse.
The very name of this place had been given by outsiders — meaning a land so wild that even a Bodhisattva would become barbaric upon arrival.
Such a place had its good and bad sides for different people. But for Xu Jin, who had scouted the situation early, it was naturally good.
For no other reason than this.
Xu Jin's barbarism had reached an entirely different level.
Only, sometimes being too highly respected was not a good thing either.
"Wait... I don't eat rats..."
Xu Jin frowned and waved his hands repeatedly, his face full of helplessness as he looked at a group of middle-aged wild men whose coverings seemed to be there and yet not there.
Their hair was twisted into knots. When one of them opened his mouth, the smell of fermented raw meat wafted over, leaving not a breath of fresh air in the thatched hut.
The middle-aged wild man held in his hands something burnt completely black, apparently roasted without even removing the hair.
On closer inspection — the innards had not even been removed.
Unfortunately, the wild man clearly did not understand what Xu Jin was jabbering about.
He only understood that from the moment he had first met Xu Jin, this person had eaten nothing and drunk nothing.
The wild man naturally acknowledged that Xu Jin was very strong in a fight — a single punch had reduced a maddened, absurdly powerful wild beast to paste, and he could also glow.
But even so, not eating, not drinking — this meant death.
For the savior of this precarious tribe, he did not want to just watch Xu Jin starve to death.
Seeing Xu Jin so uncooperative and apparently of rather doubtful intelligence, the wild man hurriedly began gesturing.
He held the burnt-black rat, its mouth gaping wide, and waved it before Xu Jin for a long while, simultaneously speaking:
"Ga-wu-ya-ya, bu lie ha-ci."
After completing this performance, the wild man once again extended the burnt-black rat toward Xu Jin.
Xu Jin's face was silent as he held his breath and looked at the smiling wild man.
Holding his breath was not because this wild man could not understand human speech.
It was because when the wild man smiled, the foul stench from his mouth came wafting out.
Xu Jin had initially wanted to use arts to establish communication. But it seemed that because the people of Pu Sa Man had never received any spiritual nourishment, their reaction to spiritual energy was most peculiar.
They appeared somewhat as if in raptures, and also somewhat as if about to drop dead.
Moreover, those who had been touched by spiritual energy displayed extreme fear toward Xu Jin's methods.
The experience, presumably, was not pleasant. Unless one did not care about the lives of these wild men, Xu Jin's communication with them could only return to the gesturing stage.
This burnt-black rat — Xu Jin would not eat it even if beaten to death. Leaving aside the wild man's food preparation skills, even from the gesturing just now, this wild man's spit had flown everywhere, thoroughly defiling the rat.
Looking at the rat being pushed ever closer, Xu Jin did not dare take it directly. Instead, he used spiritual energy to stuff the rat into the wild man's mouth:
"I'm not hungry! Eat it yourself."
The wild man chewed the delicacy in his mouth, his eyes wide as he looked at Xu Jin, his expression one of reluctance.
Xu Jin did not give the wild man another chance to speak. He pulled out a piece of cloth upon which was drawn a moon pattern, with several fine lines sketched at very slight angles.
This had not originally been drawn by Xu Jin, but by the wild man.
Xu Jin had studied it, and even used spiritual energy to outline it. The result was approximately a ritual array.
At first Xu Jin had not paid it much mind. Only later, the wild man had begun gesturing at the moon, drawing the moon, and then drawing a maddened demon beast.
Naturally, these drawings were somewhat abstract. Xu Jin was not certain that what he understood was what the wild man wished to express.
Many things had been drawn, but few allowed Xu Jin to make any association.
When Xu Jin wished to leave, he had also been stopped by the wild man, who gestured wildly, pointed to these drawings, and extended his fingers back and forth.
It seemed he wished to express that after some number of days, what the wild man had drawn would take effect.
In the end, looking at the gesturing back and forth with few clues, Xu Jin looked again at the abstract maddened demon beast, and decided to wait and see what this ritual array — perhaps ten-plus or twenty-plus days away — actually was.
Whether it was connected to the maddened demon beasts. Whether a demon had used methods in this remote place.
Whether this place was the source of the tide of demon beasts ravaging the Western Ox Continent.
Of course, all this was premised on Xu Jin having thoroughly understood the wild man's gestures.
Xu Jin tapped the cloth he had drawn:
"How much longer for this thing? Can you first take me to this place to have a look?"
The middle-aged wild man's chewing grew louder, as if savoring this delicious roast rat.
He looked at the drawing Xu Jin had made, nodded quickly, then extended both hands and counted again with smacks of his lips.
Xu Jin still could not understand this count. He only saw the wild man's face full of pity, gesturing many times over without stopping.
"Hey... you just keep gesturing. Without intervals, how am I to calculate?"
Xu Jin sighed and could only reach out to take the drawing back.
He did not know what the situation in the Western Ox Continent was like now, or whether Chu Xingchen had gone to Huangliang City and saved Litchi.
The middle-aged wild man also swallowed the roast rat in his mouth, then sucked on his own fingers, wiped his mouth, and then sucked them once more.
Xu Jin's expression was hard to read as he watched the wild man's actions, and he quickly waved him out.
The wild man gestured and shouted some more. Seeing that Xu Jin, beyond waving him out, made no other movement, the pitying look once again surfaced on his face.
Just as the wild man was gesturing passionately, a lightly-clad female wild woman walked into the small thatched hut with an excited expression.
Strange sounds and gestures appeared together.
Xu Jin frowned, not understanding what this was about. Could it be that demon beasts were attacking?
His divine sense swept outward, and his eyes immediately brightened.
Paying no more attention to the still-gesturing wild man, he walked directly outside.
[
Dear Readers,
I post multiple high-quality, human-polished chapters every day. If you enjoy the story, consider supporting the release schedule to unlock massive advanced chapter buffers!
Support Options:
$6 — Read 20+ Chapters Ahead (High-speed daily updates!)
$8 — Read 40+ Chapters Ahead + Exclusive Character Images
$10 — Read 60+ Chapters Ahead + Character Images + Patreon Community Chat
(Note: These chapter counts are guaranteed minimums. Because of my rapid update schedule, you will often get even more!)
⚠️ Apple Users: Please subscribe via your web browser (Safari/Chrome) instead of the Patreon App to avoid a 30% fee and massive payment delays.
Thank you for reading and keeping these daily releases going!
Support Here: patreon.com/Alex_Cruise
]