Page 626

I was actually... let in without any trouble...

Even after entering Northern Wolf City, Shen Qi still felt somewhat dazed and looked at Chen Qing with a complex expression, only to feel that his lord always seemed to have a solution to every problem...

He thought about it and chuckled to himself. Wasn’t it always like this? Why was he still surprised every time?

"Life in Northern Wolf City seems to be unaffected..." Chen Qing observed the surroundings.

Shen Qi nodded: "It appears so..."

The streets were sparsely populated, but in the Northern Wasteland, with its perpetual snow and approaching night, not many were willing to wander outside; after all, this place was not as warm as Jiangnan nor as bustling as the Capital.

Still, it was evident that the lives of the people here went on uninterrupted.

Thousands of households had their lights on, and smoke from cooking rose into the air.

Passing by, one could sometimes hear neighbors inviting each other over for meals.

Their tone and demeanor didn’t seem tense, which was quite different from the report Weichi Feihong had sent.

In his original report, most households were controlled by the Dark Moon Envoy’s influence, with black lights hanging in every home and little interaction with outsiders, and the lights inside were extinguished early.

Now, it seemed that that report had become outdated.

"Does Your Lordship know what monster sent out the distress signal that Lady Ziyue responded to?" Shen Qi asked curiously.

"I have some guesses, but I’m not certain," Chen Qing said, lowering his head. The hints from Mother Poison outside had been quite clear. In this world, the monsters that couldn’t be named directly in the second version are few.

.. And those that would have Mother Poison covetously guarding here, belonging to the category of resentful spirits, are even fewer. ..

"Should we first meetup with Lady Ziyue?" Shen Qi inquired.

Chen Qing shook his head.

"Do you suspect something wrong with Lady Ziyue?" Shen Qi squinted his eyes.

Honestly, having been once deceived by Lady Ziyue, he was initially very distrustful of her, but during the time Chen Qing had disappeared, Lady Ziyue had almost singlehandedly supported the entire Jiangnan region.

She also mediated and suppressed internal power struggles.

Even though Shen Qi had nearly been killed by her deception, he now found it difficult to harbor suspicion towards Lady Ziyue.

Moreover, with Lady Ziyue controlling a monster like the Thousand-Faced Fox, if she harbored any thought of rebellion, the consequences would truly be troublesome.

"Not exactly..." Chen Qing shook his head: "It’s just that I can’t contact her."

"Can’t contact her?" Shen Qi was astonished – there were people his lord couldn’t contact? He remembered that as long as they were within his lord’s Divine Path System, his lord seemed able to locate them at any time, right? He himself could feel that his lord could find him whenever he wished.

"That’s when not hiding," Chen Qing sighed. "Lady Ziyue is a Grand Sorcerer who has lived from the Sorcerer Dynasty era a thousand years ago. Having survived a thousand years of pursuit and assassination by the Grand Sorcerer families, she naturally has her own set of concealment techniques. I’m afraid there’s nobody in this world better at hiding than her. "

"I see..." Shen Qi nodded, then said: "Should I use a wide-ranging Technique to look for her?"

"I’d rather not get targeted as soon as we arrive.

.." Chen Qing shook his head. Since he entered the city, he had been cautioning Shen Qi to suppress his internal power, and he did the same.

.. because if it really was that monster, being targeted would not place him in any better position than Lady Ziyue.

"Let’s find an inn first."

Unlike other tribal nations of the Northern Wasteland Country, Northern Wolf City had its own impregnable mountain fortress, naturally attracting plenty of merchants to stay.

Opening an inn here was highly profitable, where often run-down rooms could fetch prices comparable to high-end establishments in the Central Plains.

The reason was simple: the locals here were not friendly towards people from the Central Plains, especially since the war with them was only a few years past. Youyun’s sixteen cities had been fiercely fought over, with many from the Northern Wasteland People losing men to the soldiers from the Central Plains, all fresh grudges.

In this place, finding homestays was nearly impossible, and even private inns were risky for guests.

Astute merchants preferred staying in official post houses.

The Northern Wolf Monarch of this region seemed to have a knack for making money, capturing the needs of the Central Plains merchants by establishing numerous Royal Inns.

Because of the royal protection, their prices were even double that of private inns, and even so, the influx of visitors was unending.

After all, those who came in search of wealth wanted to safely take their earnings back home, rather than falling prey to some shady establishment and ending up as dumplings in a drawer.

Chen Qing and Shen Qi also chose a Royal Inn, one that wasn’t close to the Imperial Palace of the Northern Wolf City.

They picked almost the most distant one, as under the current sensitive circumstances, it was likely that a myriad of chaotic forces were clustered around the outside of the Imperial Palace, spying for information.

It was too easy to become a target there, so it was better to stay farther away.

Given its out-of-the-way location, even flying the banner of a Royal Inn limited its business. Seeing Chen Qing and Shen Qi, dressed handsomely in distinct Central Plains attire, the beaming proprietress came out to greet them.

The innkeeper, clad in a thick cotton-padded coat, still managed to display her graceful figure and alluring face.

"Oh, dear guests, it’s stormy outside, come in quickly; Lao Hei, hurry up and clean up, bring some charcoal fire for the guests.

" Then with a smile, she looked at Chen Qing, "Have you come from afar and are hungry, dear guests?

Why not start with a pot of hot wine? We have Blood Ginseng from Jiangnan. .."

"Oh?" Shen Qi immediately laughed, "Such a fine thing is out of stock in many places in the Central Plains; madam, you must have an incredible reach to be able to get your hands on such good stuff here?"

"Ah, it’s a Royal Inn after all..." The innkeeper boastfully replied, "It’s always different from those wild inns outside. Our inn is under the name of the Beiyu Empress, you must have heard about it. The Princely Heir of our Beiyu Family is genuinely studying in Jiangnan, so we can get plenty of good goods from there. If the guest is willing to pay the price, we can even warm your room with Warm Jade, which is an exceptional item, much more comfortable than charcoal fire, and it doesn’t suffocate. .."

"Yo, you even have Warm Jade," Shen Qi laughed, "That must not be cheap, right?"

"Naturally, it cannot be cheap..." the innkeeper said, "You’re from the Central Plains, so you must know the price of Warm Jade. In the Central Plains, only members of royalty and the nobility can afford it, and here in the Northern Wasteland even ordinary royalty and nobility don’t usually use it. "

"How much is it? Just give us a number, madam. We’re freezing here. If possible, we’d like to use this rare item so our young master doesn’t catch a cold."

"It’s quite a bit, looking at the young master’s delicate skin..." the innkeeper giggled and said, "Well then, five hundred taels per night."

"Yo, that’s really not cheap..." Shen Qi immediately shook his head and said, "Madam, your price is as high as many merchants make on two trips."

"Well, it depends on who it’s for. Those mud-legged merchants who run business can’t compare with two such gentlemen, can they?

They can’t afford such rare items. Our price is cheap here.

If you’re closer to the Imperial Palace area, less than a thousand taels per night and folks there wouldn’t even look at you, and that’s just the room charge.

It doesn’t include food and drinks. But it’s different here, the room charge includes three meals, enough hot wine, although the Ginseng Blood Wine is priced separately. "

"Tsk tsk... that does sound quite reasonable..." Shen Qi nodded.

Chen Qing then curiously asked, "By the sound of it, the business at this Royal Inn in Northern Wolf City seems to be good? We were pretty scared by that huge serpent outside when we arrived. If it weren’t for the urgent matter at hand and the assurances of some traders that the serpent doesn’t bite, we wouldn’t have dared to come in.

I thought... this place should be quite desolate. "

"Then, dear guest, you’ve got it all wrong," the innkeeper chuckled. "Despite the fearsome appearance of those serpents outside the city, it’s precisely because of them this place has become lively."

"Oh? How so?"

"You must have only recently come to the Northern Wasteland, right?"

"Who dared to come before? After all, there was such a big incident in the north," Chen Qing laughed.

"That’s true..." the innkeeper nodded, "Originally, when the Northern Territory encountered trouble, the Northern Wasteland didn’t suffer the same fate, but the panic that came from there caused enough chaos.

Add to that the demons and monsters everywhere afterward, even the chickens and dogs in the yard might turn and eat people.

At that time... we all thought the end of days was upon us. "

"We in the Central Plains felt the same..." Shen Qi quickly nodded, "No one knows what caused it. Livestock now can’t be raised too big. But what happened after, how did Northern Wolf Country recover and normalize?"

"It’s all thanks to those giant serpents.

.." the innkeeper also exclaimed, "Who would have thought, those man-eating pythons, after coming to the Northern Wasteland, turned into a different presence. Not only don’t they attack the people here, but they also protect the passing traders and even bring us food.

Now, the government stockpiles of frozen meat are enough for us to eat for ten years. .."

"That’s incredible?" said Chen Qing, nodding with a smile, "It seems that the Northern Wasteland has been sheltered this time."

"We don’t know whose blessing or whose shelter we received.

.." the innkeeper bitterly smiled, "Afterward, many missionaries came claiming they were the ones who sheltered the Northern Wasteland.

They told us to hang black lanterns in every household.

Those days... were truly not fit for humans, with evil spirits attacking people even in the daylight.

But later... suddenly our Emperor declared allegiance to Jiangnan. You know about this, right?"

"We know, that’s why we’ve come for business in this field," Chen Qing replied with a smile, "If Northern Wolf hadn’t suddenly declared allegiance to Jiangnan, which of our commercial businesses would dare invest again?"

"Ah, reinvesting? It seems that you, young masters, are here to do big business," the innkeeper appeared quite happy with the prospect that the two gents had the money to afford the Warm Jade room.

"We’re just here to suss things out first," Chen Qing continued with a smile, "Tell us, madam, what’s the actual situation?"