1094: Born resident 1094: Born resident Jiang Hao’s jade slip contained the least amount of information compared to the previous two escort supervisors.
It wasn’t that the information was incomplete, but rather that there wasn’t much in Jiang Hao’s life that stood out as suspicious or implicatory.
The predominant part of his story had been spent at Bai Chen’s side, and by extension, in Gold Eagle Town.
From what Yang Qing could gather, and based on the length of their association, Bai Chen seed more like a father than a master to Jiang Hao.
Jiang Hao’s story was a familiar one, shared by countless others across the world.
He was born in a small village, which, like so many others before and after it, suffered misfortune.
A spirit beast that had been hibernating near the village for years awoke from its seclusion, only to find that humans had claid its lair as their own.
It reacted as any other spirit beast might when faced with trespassers—it attacked.
The beast was on the verge of slaughtering the entire village when, by sheer luck, Bai Chen happened to be passing through.
He intervened and stopped it, but not in ti to prevent tragedy.
By the ti Bai Chen arrived, the spirit beast had already killed more than three-quarters of the villagers.
From a community of forty to fifty people, only six survived, with Jiang Hao among them.
Jiang Hao, the youngest survivor, had been less than a year old at the ti.
The other five survivors were all adults.
Tragically, his parents were not among them.
When Bai Chen found Jiang Hao, he had been buried deep in a mound of cow dung mixed with rabbit and pig urine.
A papyrus reed had been placed in his mouth, likely to help him breathe.
Yang Qing guessed Jiang Hao’s parents had likely hidden him in the mixture to mask his scent.
It was a thoughtful attempt, though they had clearly underestimated the keen senses of a spiritual beast—especially one at the Foundation Establishnt realm, which was the strength of the spirit beast in question.
At that level, a spirit beast’s natural senses were as sharp as the spiritual senses of so early-stage Core Formation experts, rendering the effort futile.
But Yang Qing couldn’t begrudge them for their choice.
At least they had done sothing, and while their actions may not have directly ensured his survival, their child had at least lived in the end.
After rescuing Jiang Hao and the other survivors, Bai Chen initially intended to leave the infant Jiang Hao in the care of the five adults.
However, he ultimately decided against it and took Jiang Hao with him though the report didn’t specify his reasons for doing so.
Yang Qing speculated that Bai Chen might have sensed Jiang Hao’s potential—after all, the man was now just half a step away from breaking through to the Palace Realm.
Or perhaps Bai Chen had acted for reasons unrelated to talent.
Regardless, what mattered was that he had saved Jiang Hao and beca the one to raise him.
Yang Qing’s brow raised slightly in interest and amusent when he read that Jiang Hao had gone by only the na Hao for most of his life, only adopting the full na Jiang Hao after reaching the Core Formation realm.
He didn’t need to read further to understand why.
A cultivator’s mories beca sharper and more vivid as they ascended the cultivation realms, their souls and very beings evolving with each breakthrough.
By the Core Formation realm, when most unlocked their spiritual senses, they could recall their childhood mories with perfect clarity down to even their ti in the womb.
Jiang Hao may have been too young to rember at the ti, but his parents had almost certainly called him by his na.
Every interaction he’d had with them during those early days would have co flooding back the mont he broke through to the Core Formation realm.
Not just his na, but also his parents’ nas, their voices, their faces, how they slled, how they interacted with one another—and likely their final acts before they hid him in the mound of cow dung.
Yang Qing surmised that this was why Bai Chen had chosen to give him only a single na, omitting a family na entirely.
Considering the lengths Jiang Hao’s parents had gone to in protecting his life, Yang Qing could understand Bai Chen’s sentints and reasoning.
The rest of Jiang Hao’s report confird his guess.
There wasn’t much in the report that stood out, but it painted a clear picture of who Jiang Hao was.
He was a good-natured individual, with strong relationships both within the escort agency and among the other residents of Gold Eagle Town.
Most of the Silver Eagle Guards spoke highly of his character and conduct, having known and interacted with him since he was a child.
Bai Chen had established his escort agency in Gold Eagle Town when Jiang Hao was just eleven years old.
Over the years, Jiang Hao had grown up in the town, and the guards, along with other residents, had witnessed his developnt firsthand.
In so ways, he was seen as a “born resident” of the town, despite his origins elsewhere.
This familiarity also explained why his report was the thinnest—there wasn’t much about him that was unknown.
It also made sense why the town’s administrative departnt had shown zero hesitation when Jiang Hao requested they deploy a Silver Guard to keep watch over the escort agency.
“Now for the last mber..” whispered Yang Qing, though one could feel a faint excitent in his voice as he reached out for the last jade slip, Bai Chen’s jade slip.
He couldn’t deny that he was more curious about Bai Chen than the rest.
There was much about him that piqued his interest: his cultivation art, his ties to histories Yang Qing himself had a personal connection with, and a few intriguing discoveries he’d stumbled upon recently—like the spirit beast natal bones in the four soul lamps, their relation to Bai Chen’s chosen na for the escort agency, and his deep ties with the Gold Earth Bank.
There was a lot in Bai Chen’s story to make him curious.
Without hesitation, he put Jiang Hao’s slip away as he reached out for Bai Chen’s.
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