Chapter 213: Chapter 113: Doppelgänger in Hiding

A month later, Liuyun City’s inner city square was packed with people.

The newly appointed City Lord, Situ Yan, sat high on the City Lord’s seat, overlooking the Immortal City cultivators who came to donate, with a faint trace of cold arrogance at the corner of his mouth.

Having resided in a Tier Four Spirit Vein mansion for a hundred and twenty years, with the pinnacle of the Fire Element Celestial Spirit Root—Southern Netherworld Fire Spirit Body, he formed a Golden Core, and it took only thirty years to break through the Early Stage of Core Formation, becoming one of the top ten cultivators of his age in the Yan Kingdom.

He finally received his father’s approval to enter the world and temper himself.

Faced with Liuyun City, and even millions of cultivators in the entire southern Yan Kingdom, regardless of whether they were loose cultivators or sect family cultivators, not a single one caught his interest.

Only those peers in the top ten of the Hidden Dragon Ranking were worthy of his notice, but only just a glance.

He was confident that if it weren’t for his father purposely preventing him from showcasing himself, he would unquestionably be the leader of the Hidden Dragon Ranking.

“Father, this time I will show you, Situ Yan is not one to only seek shelter under your wings. Leading the ten southern cities will let the Yan Kingdom know my name, Situ Yan!”

Although he had lived for a hundred years, he had always been protected by his family since birth, strictly guided by his father in cultivation,

never having had to worry about resources for cultivation. Apart from cultivation, it was just cultivation, and with his innate Spirit Body, his cultivation journey was without hindrances, and he barely had opportunities for worldly training.

It was only now, as he gradually hit a bottleneck in the Middle Stage of Core Formation and due to the ongoing war with the commerce alliance and the Ten Thousand Poison Swamp, which left them short-handed, that he agreed to enter the world for training.

Before he left, his father repeatedly exhorted him, saying he was inexperienced in worldly matters, unfamiliar with the complex nature of people in the cultivation world, and advised him to heed the suggestion of the old servant protecting him, never to underestimate anyone.

Upon his arrival in Liuyun City, the old servant, at the Peak of Core Formation, advised him to first win over the wealthy merchants in order to complete the commerce alliance’s financial supply tasks,

However, he paid no mind, especially after releasing a bit of his magical power from the Middle Stage of Golden Core during a meeting a month ago, observing everyone’s reactions, further ignoring the old servant’s warnings.

“The cultivation world respects the strong!”

Looking at the long line of people below coming to donate, his contempt grew even stronger.

“Like ants!”

Li Jizhou stood among the crowd, calmly watching the Liuyun City official on the stage who was still vehemently denouncing the scourge of the Wuxiang Sect, waiting for the forthcoming display.

In front of him were representatives from influential shops in Liuyun City. This time, many of the owners didn’t come.

Soon, the speech concluded, and the donations began.

The spokespersons of Liuyun City were to step onto the stage first to make their public donations.

Under normal circumstances, the largest special cooperative merchant in Liuyun City—the Seven Sects Alliance of Jindui Mountain, as the head of all merchants, should have been the first to step up and donate spirit stones.

However, today was different. The Jindui Mountain representative appeared on stage hand in hand with dozens of major cooperative merchants, donating together.

First, they stood united in endorsing the commerce alliance’s righteous action against the Wuxiang Sect,

then they each took out a bag of spirit stones and opened them publicly.

“Our Jindui Mountain is grateful for the commerce alliance’s selfless contribution and donates a thousand middle-grade spirit stones willingly!”

“Our Lingqiu Lake… a thousand middle-grade spirit stones…”

“Fiery Sun Sect… a thousand middle-grade spirit stones…”

…

A dozen or so large cooperative merchants all only donated a thousand middle-grade spirit stones.

This was truly too little given their assets of at least tens of thousands of middle-grade spirit stones.

Previously, when the old City Lord was around, there had also been calls for donations when two Immortal Cities in the west were overrun by the Wuxiang Sect,

At that time, these large cooperative merchants generally donated tens of thousands of middle-grade spirit stones when stepping up.

Large cooperative merchants with assets of tens of thousands donating a thousand middle-grade spirit stones meant the subsequent merchants needed to calculate proportions.

The first-tier cooperative merchants in the second batch all donated five hundred middle-grade spirit stones.

When it was the turn of second-tier shops like Li Jizhou’s, most of them only donated one or two hundred middle-grade spirit stones.

Li Jizhou feared becoming a targeted example but didn’t want to stand out too much either, so he donated three hundred middle-grade spirit stones.

With influential large merchants such as these, the donations from smaller shops were naturally even more pitiful.

Fifty middle-grade spirit stones, ten middle-grade spirit stones… fifty lower-grade spirit stones…

The scene grew increasingly lively, with enthusiasm in the air for donations,

but the faces of the Liuyun City hierarchy grew more uneasy.

Situ Yan, in particular, had a face as cold as frost!

The task given to him by the commerce alliance was to raise a total of three hundred thousand middle-grade spirit stones from the ten southern cities!

The target for the largest Immortal City, Liuyun City, was one hundred and fifty thousand.

Yet, by the end of the day, less than fifty thousand middle-grade spirit stones had been raised.

Had it not been for the old servant at the Peak of Core Formation restraining him, he would have wanted to kill all these commoners right then and there.

Li Jizhou stayed hidden within the crowd, distancing himself from those major cooperative merchants.

He understood their thoughts,

and he understood.

Only by doing so could they preserve long-term profits, since they were all backed by a sect or family.

They considered themselves in a collaborative relationship with the commerce alliance of Immortal City.

Cooperation for mutual benefit was acceptable, but squeezing them dry was wishful thinking.

Blind obedience would lead to being seen as easy targets.

Under normal circumstances, such behavior might be acceptable.

But now it was dangerous.

Li Jizhou didn’t know whom Situ Yan would choose to make an example of, but it certainly wouldn’t be him, a small, unbacked, second-tier shopkeeper.

Because his death would not serve as a warning.

Situ Yan needed to thoroughly subdue this group by selecting a representative target.

Those with large backgrounds would not be chosen, as it might incite resistance. Now that the commerce alliance and Wuxiang Sect were at a stalemate, no new enemies were desired.

Targets too small wouldn’t be intimidating.

So, those first-tier shops backed by moderate families or sects might become the target for a warning.

After the donation conference ended, Li Jizhou returned calmly to his residence, immediately hanging up a sign for secluded cultivation stabilization, activating the Tier Three grand formation.

Then, his vision shifted to “Master Han.”

In the eastern Yan Kingdom, the Immortal City closest to the Wei Kingdom, Cold Frost City.

This city, situated on a Tier Three Lower Grade Spirit Vein, was considered a small city compared to Liuyun City,

three thousand miles away from the Wei Kingdom, serving as the gathering ground for most of the sect forces in the eastern Yan Kingdom.

Master Han had stayed there for three days.

At this moment, he was sitting at the top of a three-story pavilion, sipping wine while gazing eastward.

This stand-in puppet “Master Han” shared all of Li Jizhou’s main body’s secret skills and traits, though the power was less than a tenth, but its sensory aspect was almost identical.

“Eighty percent of the cultivators deliberately suppressed their aura levels.”

After sitting idly for three days, Li Jizhou felt speechless about the people coming and going in this city.

Almost everyone was in disguise and hiding their aura.

Hardly anyone in Liuyun City used disguises because the City Lord’s mansion frequently inspected for the Wuxiang Sect using Spiritual Treasures for source investigation, and everyone feared being mistaken.

But Cold Frost City, being on the border and a small city, naturally didn’t have Spiritual Treasures for source investigation, and it was far from the western Wuxiang Sect.

Li Jizhou was there to observe the situation of those coming from the Wei Kingdom and think of ways to infiltrate it.

However, with everyone in disguise, he couldn’t differentiate who was from the Wei Kingdom.

Time swiftly passed; three months went by in the blink of an eye.

That day, as Master Han was normally drinking and gazing afar, a pitifully appearing female cultivator in the Early Stage of Foundation Establishment shakily approached him.

Li Jizhou’s mind was immediately stirred,

Her lifespan, sensed by the age wheel, turned out to be four hundred and eighty-seven years.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep