Chapter 82 Jiguan Town

The fog was thick, the ancient trees were dense, and the visibility in the canyon was very low. A strange and piercing buzzing sound came from the air in front of us, which made people's scalps numb, especially ordinary people. They couldn't see what monster made the sound in this valley. The inexplicable panic lingered in people's hearts and could not be shaken off.

Suddenly, several cursive characters transformed from white light shot out from the tip of a strange purple-red talisman pen and rushed towards the direction where the buzzing sound came from in the fog.

Those cursive characters became bigger and bigger, breaking through the fog, and in a moment they split a road more than two feet wide and dozens of feet long in front of the canyon mountain road. At this time, everyone also saw clearly that the buzzing sound was actually emitted by a group of fist-sized poisonous bees with dark green stripes, about a hundred in number. This group of poisonous bees flew from the air in front of them, and the momentum was quite terrifying.

"Hey, it's a group of magic pattern poisonous bees!" Wu Yan jumped from his horse to the ground, touched his chin and looked up at the sky.

At this time, Zhang Feng, who was standing next to him, held a two-foot-long purple-red animal hair brush in his hand and wrote in the air again, "A scholar in a deep mountain valley, his cursive writing swept away the killer bees", fourteen elegant and graceful cursive characters flew out of the pen and turned into a circle of characters, covering the group of magic pattern poisonous bees.

"Haha, Zhang Sheng is indeed worthy of being a scholar, his cursive writing is really free and unrestrained, and powerful! The Confucian Qi-nourishing technique is indeed magical, and it really opened my eyes!" Wu Yan praised with a smile.

The scholar Zhang Feng next to him blushed and smiled with some pride: "Excuse me, this cursive writing is derived from the "Cursive Calligraphy Post" by the Saint of Calligraphy, and is created by drawing talismans with the Haoran Qi cultivated by the "Haoran Jue" passed down from my family. It can be considered a magic spell with both offensive and defensive capabilities, but it is definitely inferior to Brother Wu's magic. My little skills can only deal with these ordinary poisonous insects. If you encounter a large fierce insect or beast, Brother Wu will need to kill it with a big magic spell."

While speaking, the group of more than hundreds of magic pattern poisonous bees have been hit by the fourteen-character cursive rune confinement, stumbling to the ground, and puffing into a burst of dark green ashes. It is unexpected that these cursive characters condensed from the void mist have strong attack power, and can even kill and eliminate such extremely hard-shelled poisonous insects in an instant.

The group of nervous caravan warriors and guards behind him saw such a strange and terrifying poisonous bee being killed by the weak and handsome young scholar in front of them, and they all cast their eyes in shock and admiration, and kept praising and flattering.

Although Zhang Feng was born in a Confucian school and was a monk, he had little experience in the ways of the world and was a little overwhelmed by the flattery. It was Wu Yan who smiled indifferently and pulled him forward, which saved the embarrassment.

Wu Yan walked and pondered silently, and Zhang Feng asked curiously: "Brother Wu, why are you silent? Is there something unpleasant?"

"Zhang Sheng, don't you think it's strange? Why did this group of magic pattern poisonous bees appear here inexplicably? Bee colonies generally don't actively attack people. They will only move in groups when their hives are attacked. This group of magic pattern poisonous bees swarmed down from the mountain, and their hives must have been destroyed. I feel that there will be more powerful things appearing on the mountain road ahead!" Wu Yan frowned.

"Well, Brother Wu, your analysis makes sense. The road ahead looks like it's still full of dangers. We still need to be careful."

"Zhang Sheng, you just said that this month is the day when the Xiuzhen Sect opens its mountain gates to hold the Xiuzhen Grand Ceremony. This kind of event only happens once every five years. Why don't other casual cultivators who want to join the Xiuzhen Sect come here? Did we take the wrong path?" Wu Yan frowned, a hint of worry on his face.

"Haha, so Brother Wu is worried about this. There is no need to worry about this. Most of the casual cultivators who want to join the Xiuzhen Sect stay in Jizui Gorge and Jiguan Town in Jinji Mountain to practice in seclusion. When the mountain gate opens for the five-year Xiuzhen Grand Ceremony, they will go directly to the mountain gate of Xiuzhen Sect to participate in the assessment. There are very few casual cultivators like us who have traveled a long distance to come here. In addition to casual cultivators, the inner disciples recruited by Xiuzhen Sect are mostly the immortal cultivator families of Shen Kingdom who are attached to Xiuzhen Sect. They send some potential disciples to Xiuzhen Sect every year." Zhang Feng knows a lot about Xiuzhen Sect. Hearing this, he explained to Wu Yan.

"So that's it."

The crowd continued to move forward along this canyon. After walking three or four miles away, as Wu Yan expected, two huge golden-haired leopard bears swooped down from the mountain. This kind of golden-haired leopard bear loves to eat honey from the honeycombs of various giant bees and poisonous bees. Presumably, the hive of the group of demonic pattern poisonous bees just now was eaten by these two guys, which caused the group of demonic pattern poisonous bees to flee.

This kind of beast between wild beasts and spiritual beasts is very ferocious for ordinary mortals, but for immortal cultivators, this kind of beast with weak attack power, even inferior to low-level spiritual beasts, can be solved with a few spells.

With the help of Wu Yan and Zhang Feng, two immortal cultivators, the Ma family caravan passed through the Jinjiling Gorge without any danger and arrived at Jiguan Town in the early morning of the second day.

This town where immortal cultivators and mortals live together is located in a large open valley. It is like a paradise, secret and beautiful. No matter who sees this place for the first time, they will love it.

The Ma family caravan arrived just in time. The first mountain protection formation of the Cultivation Sect in Jinji Mountain opened a portal. From the canyon entrance of Jiguan Town, the fog in the air split into two sides with a width of more than ten feet, which was exactly the same as the width of the Jinji Mountain Canyon, allowing the casual cultivators who came here to participate in the Cultivation Ceremony to enter and exit the town at will.

The caravan stopped outside Jiguan Town. Wu Yan and Zhang Feng were attracted by the beautiful scenery in front of them and looked at the mountains hidden in the misty illusion behind Jiguan Town with interest.

However, no matter how the two of them used the Sky Eye Technique, they could not find out what the mountains behind the misty illusion looked like except for a vague outline. Jiguan Town was at least ten miles away from the misty illusion, but standing in the town at the foot of the mountain, one could vaguely feel a majestic spiritual pressure coming towards them. It seems that this should be the spiritual pressure released by the mountain protection formation of the Cultivation Sect.

The town was not carefully planned. The buildings in the town were clustered in the east and west, and were built entirely according to people's preferences. The houses were made of different materials and shapes. There were bamboo buildings, wooden buildings, stone buildings and caves.

Ma Yuan, the head of the caravan, greeted Wu Yan and Zhang Feng, and then led the caravan into the town. After a round of negotiations in a stone building at the entrance of the town, the goods were transported to a courtyard in the town.

Wu Yan and Zhang Feng stood at the entrance of the town. After observing for a while, a middle-aged Taoist priest in a green robe walked out of the stone building at the entrance of the town with a smile on his face.

"Excuse me, fellow Taoists. I am Zhuang Hong. I am the outer gate deacon of our sect in Jiguan Town who is responsible for receiving fellow Taoists from all parties. Are you two also here to participate in our sect's cultivation ceremony?" The Taoist priest in green robe bowed to the two and said with a smile. After that, he looked at the two people, as if checking their cultivation realm and origins.

Wu Yan and Zhang Feng did not dare to be arrogant, and hurriedly returned the greeting, saying: "I am Wu Yan, and I am honored to meet you, Taoist Zhuang."

"I am Zhang Feng, and I am honored to meet you, Taoist Zhuang. I am from Zhangjiashan, Minghe County, Xinzhou. I admire the Taoist arts of the Xiuzhen Sect, and I have come to participate in the Xiuzhen Grand Ceremony to broaden my horizons."

After saying his name, the two also looked at him.

This middle-aged Taoist named Zhuang Hong is actually a cultivator of the eleventh level of Qi training like Wu Yan. He was wearing a green Taoist robe, and there was a khaki pentagonal pattern embroidered on the front of his clothes. In the middle of the pattern, there was an ancient seal character "earth", but no one knew what it meant. He also had a gray storage bag embroidered with the same pattern on his waist.

Zhuang Hong was slightly surprised when he heard the two names. He suddenly looked at Zhang Feng with a look of surprise and asked in surprise: "Are you a disciple of the Zhang family of Confucianism? I wonder how you address the Confucian Saint?"

"Haha, I don't deserve it. The Confucian Saint is my grandfather. From what Zhuang Daoyou said, do you recognize my grandfather?" Zhang Feng said happily.

"Ah, haha, I can't say that I know him. With my lowly cultivation, how can I be compared to a Confucian scholar? When the Confucian sage came to visit our sect, I was indeed fortunate to meet him. Since he is the grandson of the Confucian sage, he is naturally a distinguished guest of our sect. I will definitely treat him well. I will immediately send a sound transmission note to notify the deacon court of our sect to come and pick up Brother Zhang Sheng to the mountain. Brother Zhang Sheng, is this Taoist friend Wu Yan your friend?" Zhuang Hong laughed a few times, took Zhang Feng's hand very affectionately, and led him to the stone building in the town. At the same time, he looked at Wu Yan suspiciously and asked Zhang Feng politely.

"I..." Wu Yan was about to explain, but Zhang Feng pulled his clothes and said to Zhuang Hong with a smile: "Brother Zhuang, this is indeed my best friend. This time we came together to participate in the cultivation ceremony."

Wu Yan rubbed his nose and smiled, grateful to Zhang Feng for helping him out. He was a cultivator from Tianlang Country, and the issue of his identity was a big embarrassment. If the cultivation sect did not accept casual cultivators from other countries, it would be a bit troublesome. With Zhang Feng's excuse, he could make up an identity of living near Xintian City, and this trouble would be easily covered up.

"Haha, since you are my friend, you are not an outsider. Please come in!" Zhuang Hong led the two to the reception room in the stone building and asked the low-level outer disciples who were responsible for reception to serve them tea. At the same time, he asked Zhang Feng: "By the way, my dear brother Zhang Sheng, I would like to ask, are you here alone or with your family?"

"Haha, I ran away secretly by myself. I hope that fellow Taoist Zhuang will not tell Senior Wuzhen about my situation. If he knew that I ran away secretly by myself, how could he agree that I would participate in the cultivation ceremony? This time, I took the initiative to participate in the cultivation ceremony, and my grandfather didn't know about it. I hope that Brother Zhuang will be flexible!" Zhang Feng suddenly showed a cunning expression on his face and winked at Zhuang Hong.

Zhuang Hong shook his head with a smile, then walked out of the stone building, took out a sound transmission talisman, thought for a while, said a few words to the talisman, injected a trace of magic power, and the talisman turned into a red light and flew directly into the foggy illusion more than ten miles away and disappeared.