NOVPUBIn his Spiritual Sense.
He saw the shops lining both sides of Central Street.
There were doctors treating patients, tailors cutting fabric for their customers, hawkers shouldering their burdens and shouting along the streets…
He saw outside the city, the farmers laboring, the pedestrians and merchant caravans coming and going...
He saw people beating drums and gongs, witnessed the cries of wailing…
He saw all the joys and sorrows of life within the city.
Just as he had seen in many cities since he had traveled south from the Wanxiang Sect.
His heart did not stir much.
But gradually, a question emerged in his mind that he had never considered before:
"The Sect departed breaking the barriers, the Qin Family will leave too… But what about these common people under Jin’s rule?"
He did not know the answer.
He only knew that beneath the massive flood, perhaps the entire Fenglin Continent might be at risk of collapsing, not to mention the mortals.
He was also clear that the Sect could only preserve itself; it had no further capacity to save these mortals.
Yet, watching the people in every city, oblivious to the impending disaster, living their lives just as in the past years… an inexplicable discomfort surfaced in his heart.
Such feelings grew clearer as he continued his journey.
He repeatedly questioned his own heart during these rising emotions.
Yet he could never pinpoint the source of these feelings.
Sitting by the window in the tavern for a while, he gained nothing.
Ultimately, he stood up.
The tavern keeper hurried over, glanced at the untouched meal, and said apologetically,
"Sir, were you unsatisfied with the meal? I will have the kitchen prepare another immediately."
The man in the green robes shook his head slightly.
Without any noticeable movement, a middle-grade Spirit Stone had appeared on the table.
The tavern keeper, recognizing its value, immediately brightened, but he dared not approach, repeatedly apologizing,
"Sir, you haven’t touched your meal; how can I accept your Spirit Stone… Besides, our tavern serves only mortal food, we surely don’t deserve such—Sir, Sir?!"
He turned around quickly, searching his surroundings, but the man in green robes was nowhere to be seen.
Seeing the man disappear silently, the tavern keeper hesitated a moment before stepping forward, picking up the Spirit Stone.
"This cultivator was so generous, his status must be extraordinary, perhaps even a Profound Mysterious Divine Sense Great Cultivator like my great-grandfather… Could he perhaps be a cultivator from the County Sect or someone from the County Mansion?" 𝑛𝘰𝘷𝑝𝘶𝑏.𝑐𝘰𝘮
The tavern keeper muttered to himself and quickly pocketed the Spirit Stone.
Elated, he looked at the lavish meal on the table, feeling somewhat distressed.
"I can barely bring myself to eat these ingredients… Must not waste them."
Checking his surroundings, he quickly summoned a server to take the meals to the back.
He first picked up a fatty bear paw with bamboo chopsticks and tasted it.
However, after just a few chews, he couldn’t help but spit it out with distaste.
He shouted toward the kitchen in anger:
"Old Li, there’s no taste to this at all! It’s like dead meat! No wonder that cultivator didn’t eat a bite!"
The cook, who was frying dishes, was shocked and hurried over, picked up some with chopsticks, and tasted it—he spat it out too.
With a stunned face, he exclaimed,
"This, this shouldn’t be! I tasted it earlier…"
He, disbelieving, picked up a few more pieces to dip in the sauce beside him, tasted it, and found that even the soup had no flavor, like plain water.
The tavern keeper also noticed something was amiss and hurriedly tried other dishes.
After a short wait, the tavern keeper and the cook looked at each other.
None of the dishes on the table had any taste anymore.
Suddenly, the tavern keeper remembered what the man in green robes had said upon seeing the full table of food, calling it ’wasteful.’ He hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but now, he suddenly understood.
Then, unable to hide his frustration, he grimaced:
"True greatness was before us, yet we failed to recognize."
He hurried out of the kitchen and peered from the window, faintly seeing the figure of the man in green robes walking toward the south at the end of Central Street, gradually disappearing…
…
"Heichi Nation, truly as desolate as its name."
The man in the green robes stood atop a mountain in the ’Baiping Mountain Range,’ holding a bamboo staff.
His gaze, cold as ice, looked down upon the road connecting Heichi Nation and Jin, where numerous people from Heichi Nation, articles in tow, hurried toward the depths of the Baiping Mountain Range.
These people from Heichi Nation appeared gaunt, some sickly, others visibly fatigued.
He hadn’t intentionally sought information, but his keen hearing and Spiritual Sense had already pretty much grasped these people’s circumstances.
"The sea-borne flood turned the southwestern coast of Heichi Nation into marshland, drowning many; it also brought plagues… and the Demonic Beasts rampaged."
He watched a one-armed woman from Heichi Nation carrying a three or four-year-old child with both legs amputated and lifeless eyes on her back, and pulling a plank with her unconscious middle-aged husband. Walking and walking, the one-armed woman finally could not endure anymore and collapsed.
The child on her back fell, not crying out, managing only a faint moan before using frail arms to crawl towards the one-armed woman…
The man in green robes indifferently shifted his gaze farther afield.
There, the stream of refugees stretched as far as the eye could see.
Disability, severe injuries, unconsciousness, starvation, death…
Under natural disaster, mortals were indistinguishable from insects.
