Master of Strange Dao

That monster lost its mind, ran wildly, and was quickly torn apart and devoured by other monsters.

However, none of those monsters paid Yu Ziqing any attention.

Because Yu Ziqing carried the power of the Jade Tomb, they saw him as one of their own.

Similarly, Yu Ziqing thought that those Evil Dao did not provoke the monsters either, presumably because they, with all their Evil Qi, were also considered kin.

Of course, it's also possible that after arriving here, they absorbed the power of the Jade Tomb dispersed in the Grotto Heaven.

Yu Ziqing understood why the Evil Dao did not elicit a reaction from the monsters.

What Yu Ziqing didn't understand was why there was no commotion over in Jiayin City, and why those monsters were so quiet.

Based on the records in An History Book, Yu Ziqing guessed that the news was utterly false, and it probably couldn't be recorded.

So if one wanted to alter it, they could only use the Spring and Autumn Annals method, recording only true information, but because of some missing parts, the complete context changed the meaning entirely.

The records said that there were countless monsters, although here, the number of monsters, when added together, might barely reach two or three hundred thousand.

With such a small number, they still dared to boast of their thousands and thousands.

Yu Ziqing had been mentally prepared for the sealing discrepancies with the records.

But the deviation was too large, and it wasn't normal.

Yu Ziqing passed through the swarm of monsters, heading straight for Jiayin City, wanting to take a look.

Upon reaching the north of Jiayin City, before entering the city, he heard noisy sounds from the city gate.

A guard at the city gate suddenly raised his voice.

"What do you mean? You need to pay taxes to enter the city, don't you understand? One piece of Spirit Jade per person, not a penny less, one head counts as one."

As the guard spoke, other guards immediately raised their long spears, pointing at the people outside the city.

The person's face turned livid, but in the end, they took out a small piece of Spirit Jade and tossed it into the wooden box beside them.

The city guarding guard looked at the expressions of the people behind and sneered.

"Don't look at me, evil entities appeared north of the city, Jiayin City is the first to bear the brunt.

The number of these monsters is increasing, and if they attack Jiayin City, we'll have to go all out with our heads on the line.

It's been so long, and even the court hasn't managed to intervene, our salaries have been delayed for eight months, do our wives and children not need to eat?

Don't look at me, this is an order personally issued by the County Magistrate.

Everyone entering the city must pay taxes. If you don't pay taxes, when we can't survive, don't blame us for what goes wrong in the future."

People continued to line up, paid the head tax, and entered the city in turn.

Yu Ziqing casually took out a small piece of Spirit Jade and tossed it into the wooden box, entering the city.

Inside the city, it still seemed bustling, but compared to Yu Ziqing's last visit to Jiayin City, it was much more desolate.

The most direct was that there were fewer people.

Moreover, Yu Ziqing also keenly noticed that the city's widest street was different from what he had seen before.

The paved road and bricks were different, on the main street, there were only a few people, all of them cultivators.

Meanwhile, all the peddlers and all the mortals walked on the side paths.

The divide between mortals and cultivators had clearly emerged.

It was entirely different from the scene Yu Ziqing had witnessed in the early sealing of Dadui.

At that time, cultivators and mortals sat together at street stalls, eating plain noodles, which would never appear here again.

The strength of those cultivators might not be particularly formidable, but their expressions already bore a distinct air of superiority.

When mortals walked on the side paths, they stayed close to the edges, avoiding the main road.

As he continued walking, the places with the best locations, the tallest buildings, and the most luxurious decorations were all shops that cultivators frequented.

Stores selling various Spiritual Medicines, Pills, Magical Treasures, and materials, the only tavern was probably also run by cultivators, and those who came and went were either rich or noble, with some being cultivators.

The shops for mortals, however, were not along the main road, but on the side branch roads.

Most importantly, Yu Ziqing walked around for one incense stick's time but didn't find any vendors selling vegetables or meat, not a single peddler was visible near the main road.

Gleaning a little from seeing the whole picture, combined with Yu Ziqing's previous visit to Jiayin City during the Yichou Year.

With this comparison, Yu Ziqing roughly formed an impression of this era's Late Dadui period in his mind.

Indeed, by the Late Dadui period, things started to get chaotic in all aspects.

Jiayin City was considered a large city, yet with many monsters appearing around it, the court hadn't allocated forces to provide aid.

Either the court was in disarray and delayed in making decisions, or they truly didn't have the strength to spare to rescue Jiayin City.

The specific situation was unknown to Yu Ziqing, but just seeing the stark separation between the lower classes and the cultivators, a divide like two disconnected worlds, where even the simplest show of face like using the same roads, was so strictly enforced, Yu Ziqing knew that Dadui would eventually fall apart.

Nowadays in Dazhen, Dali, or Daqian, regardless of the reality, at least on the surface, they dared not go this far.

Elevating cultivators' status, separating classes, as this developed, the barrier between the two would turn into a massive canyon, impossible to mend.