Chapter 697: Formagua City
In the forests just north of the Southward River Province, the bushes could be heard jostling with movement as a group of men and women came walking out from behind it.
Looking at the sun setting behind the mountains, Bai Yunfei turned to Zheng Kai, “Ah Zheng, are you sure it’s this way? Didn’t you say there’d be a city here?”
In Zheng Kai’s hand was a map in which he was studying. Turning around to look at the place, Zheng Kai pointed a slight ways right. “Don’t worry, look there, that’s ‘Teapot Mountain’. It’s a local landmark that has Formagua City right next to it. It’s a small one, but we should be able to reach it by nightfall. In any case, Teapot Mountain is a nice tourist spot, so we can rest a few days here.”
“Wow, it really does look like a teapot pouring water! How interesting!” Huangfu Rui cried out with great interest at the mountain.
A great distance away was a single large mountain. It was circular from bottom to top and had a large ‘bump’ on the top and upper right side so that it looked just like a teapot. Even more strange was the fact that on the left side, there was a singular large pillar that stemmed outwards like the spout to pour water from.
But the most prominent feature to this landmark was the fact that water was actually pouring out from the ‘spout’ of the teapot.
The water pouring from the spout of the teapot was tinged slightly red like the tea water of a teapot. Combined with the setting sun behind it, the water sparkled with a shining lustor as it poured out from the spout, making for an amazing sight for everyone to wonder over.
“Let’s hurry along then, it’d be great if we can find an inn in the city to rest for a few nights.” Bai Yunfei nodded.
Three days had passed since they left Vacancy Inn. For those three days, the group had been camping in the great outdoors for the night. Both Bai Yunfei and Zheng Kai were well accustomed to camping in the outdoors, and so were the girls for that matter, but neither of the two wanted them to go for so long without a proper bed and such.
“Finally we can sleep in a nice bed! Sis Kou, sis Yun, come on, let’s go!”
Huangfu Rui was the happiest to hear that bit of information. Skipping ahead, she called out to the others to catch up.
“Whoosh.”
While the group was walking and minding their own business, a sudden gust of wind blew across the area. Then, a streak of green light shot out from up ahead and flew towards the left of the group.
“A late-stage Soul Exalt….”
Bai Yunfei raised an eyebrow as he stared at the streak of green light fly away from them.
“A peak late-stage Soul Exalt using a flying soul armament to fly. Wonder what he’s in a rush for?” Zheng Kai wondered aloud.
“He looked like he was running for his life.”
Xiao Qi piped up from on top of Bai Yunfei’s shoulder.
“He also looked injured, and quite badly too.” Said Bai Yunfei.
“Hm, you think someone is trying to kill him?? Must be some sort of grudge match between him and an enemy. That other party has to be strong if they can make a peak late-stage Soul Exalt run away like that. But why aren’t we seeing anyone chase after him yet?”
Zheng Kai was staring in the direction the man had came from. There should’ve been at least someone here by now, but as he said, no one was here.
Bai Yunfei shrugged, “Who knows? Maybe they don’t care to chase him? No point in thinking about it, we’re not involved in their mess. Let’s just get going.”
……
A great distance away from Bai Yunfei’s group, a single figure was flying as fast as he could on top of his flying sword. It was a middle-aged man with his right hand pressed against his stomach. Pained from his wounds, the man was doing his best to urge his flying sword to go faster.
“Cough….cough….” Excess blood dribbled from his mouth with each cough. Turning his head back, the man looked in the direction of Bai Yunfei’s group. He looked indecisive for a moment, as if wanting to go back, but he ultimately looked away and continued flying in the same direction he was going.
“Forget it, I don’t know them, I’ve no obligation to warn them. Their deaths have nothing to do with me.
“What the f*ck was that? I nearly died back there…..Since when did Formagua City become something like that? Why hasn’t anyone said anything about it yet? Did….were there no survivors?
“Tch. I shouldn’t stick my head into this. The Tianhun School should take care of it…”
……
The sun was now gone, and the moon was rising up in its place. Bai Yunfei and his friends finally made their way from Teapot Mountain to see a giant city a little ways away.
Though Zheng Kai had said Formagua City was a ‘small’ one, it still looked decently large to everyone else. They couldn’t even see the other end of the city from here. Plenty of tall buildings littered the place with most of them alight with beacons of lantern light.
“We’re finally here.” Bai Yunfei sighed when he saw the outline of the city.
“We are.” Tang Xinyun smiled. “We’re close now, I didn’t think it would take this long to reach it.”
“That’s why I said we should fly,” Huangfu Rui muttered from the side, “but everyone said we should walk. We could’ve been eating by now.”
“Haha don’t be so impatient, little Rui. We’re here now aren’t we? Let’s go in and find the best restaurant there, I’ll treat you to whatever it is you want to eat.” Zheng Kai laughed.
“Really? Then let’s hurry up and get going! I want to hurry up and eat!”
It was with smiles and laughters that everyone picked up their paces to reach the city. But when they reached the gates, Zheng Kai frowned, “Hm? Why aren’t there any guards here??”
Bai Yunfei thought it was odd too. Motioning for Tang Xinyun to hold Huangfu Rui, Bai Yunfei slowly stepped forward to look around the place first.
“It’s not just the guards,” Kou Tingting spoke, “why aren’t there any people on the streets? It’s night time and all, but surely they can’t all be resting for the night?”
Now that the group was fully in the city and could see the inside streets, they all noticed that not even a single person could be seen on the streets.
Not only that, they couldn’t even sense the auras of anyone in the buildings on the side of the streets.
“It’s far too quiet…” Bai Yunfei muttered. Indeed, the city was extremely silent. Ever since they entered the city in fact, absolutely nothing could be heard.
Throughout the entire city, not even a single peep could be heard.
Zheng Kai’s soulsense was being used to search the surrounding area. “I don’t sense anyone here. Strange, is everyone gone from their houses to go somewhere or something?
“Is today a special holiday? Why isn’t there anyone here?” Zheng Kai sent his soulsense even deeper into the center of the city.
“Wait, I found someone!”
He spoke up in excitement, “And a decent amount of people too. There’s probably something going on in the center of the city. Maybe an event or something? But everyone’s over there.”
Bai Yunfei looked to where Zheng Kai was pointing at. With his own soulsense, he could see several auras over there as well. With how weak they were, they were most likely just commoners, but there were also a few soul cultivators there too.
“Strange.” He muttered, “What kind of event would bring everyone in the city there?”
“Heh, who cares? Why don’t we look ourselves?” Zheng Kai shrugged, “I want to see what it is that’s got everyone looking. Let’s go take a look.”
“Alright.” Bai Yunfei nodded, “Let’s go over and see what’s going on, and then we can find ourselves a place for the night. Come on….”
Now that they had a plan, the entire group headed for the city center. Two steps ahead of Long Lan, Bai Yunfei turned his head back, “What’s wrong?” He asked him.
Long Lan had been staring at a well just two hundred meters away from the right of the gates the entire time. Looking back to Bai Yunfei when he was called out to, Long Lan shook his head and walked back to the group, “It’s nothing, just felt something was strange.”
“Strange?” Bai Yunfei asked, “Is there something else about this place strange to you?”
“It’s nothing.” Long Lan shook his head. “The atmosphere here feels uncomfortable. But I can’t tell what it is….”
“It’s a little strange, but we should figure it out when we get to the center. Let’s find someone and ask to see what’s going on.”
Long Lan nodded and took his place behind Bai Yunfei so they could continue down the streets to the center of the city.
……
At the bottom of the well Long Lan had just been staring at was a small body of clear water. Unmoving, the water was clear and calm enough to reflect the stars up in the sky on it.
Then, a series of bubbles started to form underneath. Popping as they reached the surface of the water, the bubbles began to pick up in quantity and churn the waters. Originally clear on the surface, the water began to turn a murky red….
“Blip blip blip….”
Even more bubbles started to form now. A murky black figure rose out from the waters for a moment before submerging itself back into the depths….