Chapter 984: Chapter 721: Underground Dark City (2)
The mountain village na tried nurous herbal redies to no avail, so they had to ascend the mountain to seek the aid of the divine.
The spiritual deer was gentle by nature, very fond of children, and couldn’t bear to see the mountain children suffer. So, it gathered the nourishing spiritual dicine from the Mountain Realm and secretly ventured out to deliver them to the villagers.
Little did it know, this plague was a trap designed by the mortal cultivators to capture the deer. Just as the deer had finished delivering the dicine and had yet to leave the village, it was surrounded by a dozen cultivators who set up a formation and forcefully captured it.
The villagers, who worshipped Baili An, the master of the mountain, were deeply grateful for the dicine delivered by the spirit beast. How could they stand by and watch a group of outsiders capture the deer?
Yet, mortals were ultimately of little use, and their attempts to resist only brought them painful lessons, leaving them to keep this matter in their hearts and tell Lin Yuan.
“Over the past six months, I’ve been inquiring everywhere. Recently, I heard that the Tianxi Sword Sect is recruiting disciples, and those outside sect cultivators are frantically capturing monsters to attach souls to artifacts. It’s probably for this reason that the deer encountered trouble. Unfortunately, despite my long search, I’ve been unable to find any trace of the deer. Now six months have passed, do you think…”
Lin Yuan spoke with an increasingly worried and uneasy expression, instinctively clutching Baili An’s arm, tears in her eyes: “Do you think that the deer might have already…”
Baili An lowered his gaze, his pupils dark as night. He gently interrupted her, “No.”
He smiled, but it was a smile that chilled to the bone, inexplicably causing a shiver: “Even if I have to overturn these mountains and rivers, I will find the deer.”
In the night, his fair and handso face was montarily marked by a fleeting crimson demonic bone mark at the center of his brow.
Lin Yuan couldn’t help but shudder, feeling that there was sothing different about Baili An since his return.
Baili An sensed her shiver, retracted his smile, and patted her cheek, saying, “Lin Yuan, don’t bla yourself. No one would want to see such a thing happen.”
She had lost weight, with little flesh on her cheeks. Her beauty remained, but she looked weary, suggesting the past six months had not been easy on her.
No matter how angry Baili An was, he couldn’t possibly bla her.
“Master, were you talking about a spiritual deer that is completely snow-white, with antlers as blue as the starry sea?”
The Bat Demon, who entered the Mountain Realm with Baili An, had barely had ti to take in the scenery when it overheard that the deer raised by Baili An had been captured by those damn humans. Amid the warm anger, it recalled having seen a deer in a cage months ago from a distance.
With countless demon trainers in the mortal world, many captured demons naturally beca a common sight.
The countless demons that accompanied her ca and went, many of which she could barely recall, except for the distinct impression of that deer.
The reason was simply that she rembered the deer being singled out and confined in a carriage, and while the demons around her were mostly transford humans, the deer remained in its beast form, not transford.
Under normal circumstances, it could only be considered a low-level spirit monster, but for so reason, the humans treated it so cautiously.
The Bat Demon guessed that the deer either had a unique natural bloodline or had consud so rare treasure that altered its constitution.
Though it hadn’t transford, she had never seen a reindeer so beautifully white in the mortal world, with fur as pure as snow and eyes that were clearer than any demon, resembling more a divine beast raised by an Immortal on a distant spiritual mountain.
A deer with such outstanding beauty was naturally in high demand and certainly would not be sold like cattle or sheep at a market.
Baili An seed stunned, surprised and delighted by the Bat Demon’s description of the deer’s features. He abruptly turned to look at her, even ignoring when she switched the term for addressing him to ‘master’ with Young Ning.
“You’ve seen the deer?!”
Seeing his intense reaction, the Bat Demon understood the deer’s significant place in his heart, reinforcing her belief that she had chosen the right master.
While other cultivators treated demons as tools or accessories, this young man truly cared about the life and death of his demon pets.
The Bat Demon dared not hide anything and quickly said, “Seven months ago, I had just been caught in the demon trainers’ net and was being transported to the black market of a major city in Ze Country when I saw the snow-white deer you spoke of, Master. I vaguely heard the demon trainers say that the deer had pure blood and inherent spiritual power, a rare spirit monster of the era. Despite its low cultivation level, it was extrely prized as a potential soul-attached weapon. The deer was in high demand and would have been sold seven months ago. But then, it was said that several imperial nobles had set their sights on it, resulting in a competitive bidding that drove the price up. The demon trainers, greedy and profit-driven, recognized the deer’s value, paused the auction, and spent a fortune hiring the Dark Raven Chamber of Comrce to escort the deer to the Capital City’s Underground Dark City. Ze Country is a hub for military officials, the backbone of the Empire’s power. By releasing news of the spiritual deer, the demon trainers attracted the attention of imperial nobles, intending to capitalize on the Tianxi Sword Sect’s disciple recruitnt to rake in profit.”
Baili An furrowed his brow, asking, “Underground Dark City?”
The Bat Demon, the oldest, strongest, and most knowledgeable of the captured demons, continued to explain, “The Underground Dark City is an underground trade city controlled by a mysterious and invisible dark web force in the mortal world, akin to black markets where diverse gangs congregate. However, the Underground Dark City’s power is enormous, and its background organization is extrely mysterious and powerful.
According to rumors, the Dark City organization has unethical trade relations in the Four Seas kingdoms and even on the other side of the Endless Sea with Beizhao and the Langya Demon Sect, renowned for their dealings in both legal and illegal trades worldwide.
Nobody knows who the master behind the Dark City is, but it’s said that if you have money there, you can buy anything you want. Undoubtedly, Ze Country isn’t the only place with an Underground Dark City; even in Qin, Shu, Zhao, and several small countries, Underground Dark Cities exist.”
“The Dark City is like countless ant hills, omnipresent and interconnected. To this day, no one has been able to comprehend how the mastermind behind it has grown such a vast organization, spanning the entire World Continent.”
Baili An listened intently, looking up at the Bat Demon and saying, “You said earlier that as long as you have money, you can buy anything in the Underground Dark City?”
The Bat Demon nodded, saying, “Strictly speaking, that’s indeed the case. Even if you’re just a mortal, if you possess treasure and great wealth, you could get channels there to even acquire a top-grade Spirit Root.”
Hearing this, Baili An was shocked at the extent of the Dark City’s power, capable of such grandiose influence?!
Even changing the difference between Immortal and mortal.
What is a Spirit Root? A Spirit Root is destiny’s gift, heaven’s favor, a miraculous entity that only humans can be born with.
It can’t be produced by demons or spirits; it’s a miracle bestowed by heaven upon the birth of extrely rare and uniquely gifted individuals.
Selling Spirit Roots implies that they are being gruesoly extracted from living humans.
The Underground Dark City indeed lives up to its na, with truly dark dealings occurring within.
At this point, the Bat Demon looked at Baili An for a mont, paused, and hesitantly said, “Though the Underground Dark City can provide anything you desire, if you pay enough, but Master, you’re looking for that specific deer, a deer that can’t be replaced by any ordinary one. Now, seven months have passed, and there’s no guarantee the deer is still in the Dark City nor has it been purchased…”
Her words were extrely tactful.
Implying that if the deer had indeed been transacted multiple tis within the Underground Dark City, its fate wouldn’t be favorable. If a buyer had finalized the sale and taken the deer, it could likely have been refined into an Artifact Spirit.
A demon attached to a soul, its life, and even soul, belongs to its master, with life or death irreversibly bound.
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