The King of Black Fog

They were practically a collection of little high towers.

Standing less than two meters tall, Li Changzhou appeared like a grain of rice before them.

Yet these little high towers regarded him with the gaze one would give a bullet flying out of a barrel.

"Where is the gentleman planning to go?" Xiang asked.

"I originally intended to see Candle Nine Yin..."

These little high towers, over thirty meters tall, shook as if experiencing a magnitude three or four earthquake.

Candle Nine Yin illuminates the world, who can resist?

While ordinary people can't stay away fast enough, he actually dares to go looking for them?

"Originally?" Xiang's granddaughter, Jiao, asked with curiosity.

Li Changzhou turned his gaze to this girl, over ten meters tall, yet at most fourteen or fifteen years old.

"Yes, originally. But now, where the wind blows, that's where I must go," Li Changzhou said with a smile.

"Is the gentleman of the Wind Queen tribe?" Xiang probed further.

"Among the Jianghu, they call me 'Chaser'."

"Jianghu? Is the gentleman a descendant of the Wind Queen tribe and the Netherworld Clan, or a direct lineage of the Gong Gong Clan and the Wind Queen tribe?" Xiang was somewhat confused.

"What's the difference between 'tribe' and 'clan'?" Li Changzhou asked.

The little high towers stood up en masse, some intended to flee, others prepared for a fight; all were as if facing a formidable enemy.

"What is happening?" Li Changzhou laughed as he brought the tip of the Emerald Bee Sword to eye level and confirmed its sharpness.

"Apologies, I didn't realize the gentleman was of the Demon Clan!" Xiang, tightly holding a burning branch, said vigilantly yet respectfully.

"What's the matter with the Demon Clan?" Li Changzhou placed the meat back on the fire to continue roasting.

"The Demon Clan is—"

Swoosh!

Xiang pointed the branch in his hand, the light of the campfire causing the burning branch to flicker like a spark, swiftly darting toward Li Changzhou's face.

A flash of jade light, a cracking sound.

"Grandpa!"

"Elder Xiang!"

Xiang fell backward, caught by the crowd.

"Pfft!" Xiang spat out a mouthful of blood.

Ignoring his injuries, he lifted the branch tightly held in his right hand; the ignited part had been cut off.

"Fire branch... pfft!" Xiang spat out another mouthful of blood.

Li Changzhou looked at the meat turned to charcoal on the ground with a feeling of regret; after all that time roasting, he still didn't get to taste the barbaric roast.

Casually, he skewered more onto the Emerald Bee Sword, and this time, without the patience to roast slowly, he thrust the sword, as thin as jade light, into the campfire's edge.

Then, he addressed the little high towers, "Sit."

No one responded.

"Sit, I said."

Their expressions ranged from fierce to hesitant to flustered, about to speak when Xiang, having caught his breath, raised a hand to stop them.

Xiang struggled to stand, and with his granddaughter's help, moved his enormous body to slowly sit again before the campfire.

"I can't understand," Li Changzhou said in confusion, "why would you dare to make the first move?"

Xiang gave a bitter smile, "I left the tribe as a child and wandered the world for over two hundred years. It's the first time I've ever faced someone of the Divine Realm."

"What?!" the crowd exclaimed in astonishment.

Those who had previously wanted to gang up on him were now filled with dread.

The small and thin figure before them was not only due to inherited bloodline but was also a divine realm master of unparalleled skill!

Such individuals were clan leaders, elders in each major tribe, capable of killing them without even a glance.

In the presence of such a person, they would typically only kneel from afar, watching as the person walked past.

Even the young girl, Jiao, forgot about her grandfather's severe injury, unable to restrain her curiosity about Li Changzhou.

"If my guess is right, sir, you must also be here for the Heavenly Emperor's Order?" Xiang said with some certainty.

It sounded like a significant event.

The wild winds blew from all directions, and the Wind Bird chose this path, likely related to the Heavenly Emperor's Order.

Li Changzhou nodded slightly.

Having guessed Li Changzhou's purpose, Xiang appeared slightly more composed; at least the opponent wasn't completely unknown.

"Tell me about the Heavenly Emperor's Order," Li Changzhou continued.

"..." Xiang felt as if his two hundred years were lived in vain, "The Heavenly Emperor's Order is a decree issued by the Heavenly Emperor; whoever completes the order can receive the Heavenly Emperor's reward. This time, the Heavenly Emperor's Order is to find the Daiyu and Yuanjiao Immortal Mountains."

Daiyu, Yuanjiao?

[Those are two of the five immortal mountains, alongside Fangzhang, Ying State, and Penglai.]

[Are you familiar, Bodhisattva?] Li Changzhou asked.

[I can't ensure the accuracy, for it happens in the barbaric era.] Guanyin recalled, [According to legend, under the Heavenly Emperor's command, Yu Qiang, the God of the North Sea, found fifteen divine turtles to carry the five immortal mountains, changing every sixty thousand years.

[But a giant from the Dragon Bo Country caught six of them using the divine turtles' shells for divination, which caused Daiyu and Yuanjiao to drift into the depths of the North Sea, and thereafter, the two immortal mountains disappeared from historical record.]

Retrieving the two immortal mountains that vanished from history sounds quite like a valuable game quest.

After some contemplation, Guanyin continued:

[Cultivators in this era, even the Three Emperors and Five Sovereigns, could only perform simple divinations of fortune and misfortune. Without the Heavenly Mechanism, relying solely on the Yu Gong's Moving Mountain method to seek them would probably require hundreds of thousands of years of hard work.]

The wildlands, even the mountains were this vast, Li Changzhou had no doubt about the expanse of the North Sea; a 21st-century Earth might merely be a slightly larger pearl within the North Sea.

Temporarily setting aside his concerns, Li Changzhou continued to ask Xiang, "You previously mentioned the 'Wind Queen tribe' and 'Gong Gong Clan,' what are they?"

Xiang already regarded him as a god-level expert who had been in seclusion for years and was encountering the world for the first time, showing such ignorance would be expected.

After all, only figures like Nuwa, Fu Xi, and Suiren would be innately knowledgeable.

As for others, it's said that Emperor Yan Shennong even tasted grass personally to learn if it was edible.