For this, Wang Zhifan specially took out so fine wine from his personal space as a gift. The other person took a sip and found it quite pleasing, so he simply pulled Wang Zhifan to a small tea stall on the street to chat.
"My eye did not deceive after all! You truly are a traveler from the Dao Realm! The legendary scenes of the Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian heavens are said to be beyond human reach, I wonder if this is true?"
The Confucian scholar before him, nad Zhang Siqian, was slightly younger than Wang Zhifan, just over twenty. He was a native born in the Calamity Realm and a Confucian cultivator. He said he noticed Wang Zhifan on the street earlier because he sensed the aura of the Dao Realm, one of the three upper realms, on him.
"The rumors are indeed not false, but each to their own taste. The Dao Realm has its wonders, and the Calamity Realm also has its benefits."
Wang Zhifan had never been to the Dao Realm, so he had to cleverly cover up at this point. However, the initial identity given to him by the extraordinary ga caused the native youth before him to have no doubts.
"Why, Mr. Wang, since you co from the Dao Realm, didn’t you first go to a city flourishing with Daoist influence? Could it be that you’re touring various places in the Calamity Realm on purpose?"
Zhang Siqian then curiously asked him, as the current location, Shuqiu City, was undoubtedly Confucian territory. Even though the Daoist and Confucian relations weren’t bad, it was a bit odd for a traveler from the Dao Realm to choose this place as a first stop.
"Indeed so. I’m here to travel and to investigate the movents of the Demon Realm..."
Following this line of conversation, Wang Zhifan began to enter the topic he wanted to know the most, having chatted with Zhang Siqian long enough that both no longer felt the initial stiffness.
"The Demon Realm? What could they possibly do? There’s the World Protection Array set up by the three great Saints of Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Even if the Demon Realm harbors ill intentions, they can only keep it to themselves!"
Finally, Wang Zhifan encountered a local who knew about the Demon Realm and began to gather relevant information.
As he had initially anticipated, currently according to Zhang Siqian, there were no strange movents from the Demon Realm. They were obstructed by the Saint Array between the Demon and Calamity realms. Even with ambitions, they were powerless to take this valuable world.
But Wang Zhifan knew clearly that since the quest objective ntioned an invasion of the Calamity Realm by the Demon Realm, it would definitely happen. Based on his understanding of the extraordinary ga, the invasion wouldn’t take long to start, maybe even tomorrow or today.
"You might not know, Mr. Zhang, but I heard from a high personage in the Dao Realm during divination that the Demon Realm’s evil intentions are undying, and they surely plan to invade the Calamity Realm..."
So, Wang Zhifan started to fabricate a story. Though he didn’t know much about the Dao Realm’s specifics, given it’s the ho base of Daoism, it wouldn’t be surprising to have many masters skilled in divination.
He then discussed the topic further with Zhang Siqian, gleaning more information from him indirectly, such as the location of the Saint Array sealing the Demon Realm, the formidable beings in the Demon Realm, and the location of the nearest major Daoist city.
Among all this, the power of the Demon Realm was truly startling. According to Zhang Siqian, based on Confucian historical records, the Demon Realm had at least tens of billions of demons. The number of Demon Generals, whose strength rivaled the Innate cultivators of Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, was definitely no less than a million. There were at least eight hundred Demon Venerables as powerful as the transcendent Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism experts, and even five Demon Lords rumored to match the three Dao Saints. Truly, they were exceptionally terrifying potential enemies.
"With so many formidable ones in the Demon Realm, no wonder the three great Saints collaborated to set up a sealing array back then. But perhaps the divination by the Daoist was not wrong—there will be an evil plot by the Demon Realm. We must be ready to repel a Demon Realm invasion at all tis..."
Wang Zhifan and Zhang Siqian then talked about how to combat the Demon Realm. Wang Zhifan specifically asked Zhang Siqian about his own cultivation level, learning that he was a Postnatal Sixth Layer Confucian cultivator, still far from breaking through to the Postnatal Ninth Layer to reach the Innate Realm. However, for his age, he was already considered a standout in the Shuqiu City Confucian Institute.
"Postnatal, Innate, Transcendent, Saint... these should be the major cultivation levels of this world... The person before claims to be at the Postnatal Sixth Layer, but he feels fairly weak. I wonder what level my strength can be considered..."
With a rough understanding of the strength classification, Wang Zhifan couldn’t help but ponder this question. After all, from his current knowledge, the Demon Realm had roughly five Saints, eight hundred transcendents, and a million innate beings. If his strength fell short, it would be an amusent to watch.
Of course, the war between the two realms wasn’t a solo endeavor; the Calamity Realm would naturally have many experts stepping forward, and the Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian base camps would not stand idly by. The quest was just having the players lend a little assistance. Otherwise, with the small number of players, they wouldn’t even be enough to fill the gaps for the Demon Realm’s appetite.
"No matter how you look at it, it’s going to be a challenging quest... I’m afraid all my skills will have to be utilized this ti."
After finishing his talk with Zhang Siqian, Wang Zhifan left behind a few small trinkets as gifts, then bid farewell and headed to his next destination, the nearest major Daoist city to Shuqiu City, Celestial Essence City.
Even though it’s called the nearest, Celestial Essence City was over five thousand miles away from Shuqiu City. Even at the speed of the Red Deer Horse, comparable to an airplane, it would still take several hours.
But Wang Zhifan wasn’t in a rush to reach there. He planned to slow down a bit on the way to experience the local customs and culture of this world. After all, the Demon Realm hadn’t invaded yet, so there was no point in hurrying.
"I wonder how much my Dao Realm identity will matter in Celestial Essence City, probably just enough to get familiar with the middle-level people there... For such a two-realm war, I truly don’t know where to begin... I’ll have to find a way to make a na for myself once the war starts."
While traveling, Wang Zhifan contemplated his next course of action. To him, this quest involved too many people and events to adequately prepare in advance. Joining directly once the war began seed more reliable.
While on the move, he was suddenly drawn by so abnormal commotion on the ground below and guided the Red Deer Horse to land temporarily at the nearby location, heading to the site of the disturbance.
There lay a desolate plain, slightly cold, with sparse weeds and little vegetation visible, its natural conditions falling far short of the Shuqiu City area.
Yet, over a thousand people gathered in this nearly barren wasteland.
More precisely, over a thousand people were forming a large circle. At the center of the circle, two people stood facing each other, clearly about to engage in combat or a duel.
One of the two was an ordinary-looking young man in his twenties, with a stern gaze and holding a long spear pointing at a tall enemy standing a hundred ters away. Although his appearance and build left no particular impression, the intense killing intent emanating from his entire body, solid like substance, showed he was a master, a martial arts expert.
The other was a tall, authoritative-looking middle-aged monk, wearing a yellow-red kasaya and a string of Buddhist beads the size of a child’s fist around his neck. His eyes held neither sorrow nor joy as he stared at the spear-wielding youth a hundred ters away; this calm alone exerted a terrifying pressure.
"Layman, I’ll ask you one last ti, do you truly wish to begin the challenge?"
At this mont, the tall and imposing middle-aged monk’s lips moved, producing a sound like a deep bell, heard clearly by the young man a hundred ters ahead and by over a thousand spectators at a distance, demonstrating the depth of his cultivation.
"Lord Longshan! No need to say more! In today’s battle, I shall defeat you with my extre spear mastery! By your defeat, I will break through in my martial path!"
The unremarkable spear-wielding martial artist then spoke with equal volu, not losing in montum.
As his words fell, the onlookers around imdiately grew excited and started discussing enthusiastically.
"Wonderful! We get to witness a battle between two Innate Realm masters today!"
"What’s the background of this self-proclaid spear mastery extraordinaire? His title is impressive, but I’ve never heard of him before."
"Who knows? Lord Longshan’s na was earned through years of fighting! This so-called spear mastery extraordinaire has no accomplishnts to his na. In my opinion, he’s courting death!"
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