Jing Yan did not expect that as soon as he left the capital, his father would come up with the idea of abdicating and becoming the retired emperor.
After the young couple left the capital, they rode Bai Xiaoshi all the way to Su Prefecture, arriving in just over half a day.
The higher Jiang Yuqing's cultivation level, the greater Bai Xiaoshi's abilities, and the faster he could fly.
There was already some chill in Northwest China in early October. Dressed as ordinary travelers, the two rode a horse on the grassland to play wildly for half a day. Along the way, they met a herder's household.
The herder cordially invited them home to drink milk tea, killed a sheep, and made roasted whole lamb to treat them. Jiang Yuqing also took out the fruit cans and other things she brought as gifts and gave them to the herder.
She was very social, eating while chatting with the herder's family about their current living conditions. Jing Yan listened attentively beside her.
The herder said that selling wool, fur, cattle and sheep was easy, and that grain, tea, salt from outside was also readily available. Life was happy.
After leaving the grassland, early the next morning, the two went to Sha Qing County again to pick black goji berries for half a day.
Now the black goji berry planting base in Sha Qing County has expanded from the original 3,000 mu to nearly 40,000 mu, becoming a pillar industry in Sha Qing County.
In the afternoon, the two went to Su Prefecture City.
Nowadays, Su Prefecture City was developing better and better. Not only was it a major grain producing area, the woolen products produced here were also famous throughout the world, and it was now a veritable Gansu Jiangnan.
Since they were in Su Prefecture City, they inevitably had to go back to Anhe Hospital to take a look.
She and Jing Yan did not dare to show themselves in public, but they did not have this concern about Master Lu Yi.
Seeing the young couple suddenly appearing before him, even Lu Yi, who was bold, was frightened by the jump.
Unfortunately, she came at the wrong time. Her son, her lovely nephew, had gone with her sister-in-law to visit her maternal grandparents and was not in Su Prefecture.
Lu Yi knew that she and Jing Yan came to Su Prefecture purely to play, so he left her alone.
After saying goodbye to the third brother, Jiang Yuqing secretly went to see Ju Fan of Warm Wool Spinning Workshop.
This guy's ability was really extraordinary. Over the years, he had expanded the scale of Warm Wool Spinning Workshop by at least ten times. It had become the largest employer and biggest taxpayer in Su Prefecture City.
He was absolutely loyal to the Jiang father and daughter who gave him absolute trust and enlightened him.
At this meeting, Jiang Yuqing saw that he was overworked and had gray sideburns.
So she directly gave him a life-extending elixir that could prolong his life by five years. This pill was made by her from refined spiritual milk, recently obtained. It was an affirmation of his dedication over the years.
Ju Fan was moved to tears.
After leaving the Su Prefecture City and heading west all the way, it was Yumen Pass. Jiang Yuqing did not visit acquaintances, but took Jing Yan directly to the Yumen Pass Martyrs Cemetery.
Although he was mentally prepared, when Jing Yan saw with his own eyes row upon row of tombstones that stretched as far as the eye could see, the shock in his heart was still indescribable in words.
Under each of these mounds was a vibrant life. If they were still alive and arranged in battle formations here, how magnificent and joyful would that scene have been?
Jiang Yuqing took out her treasured monkey wine from the spiritual realm, filled a large bowl, set up fruit snacks, and three sacrificial animals, lit incense and paper money, shouting loudly: "Comrades, I have come to see you!"
Jing Yan clenched his left fist and swore an oath to the sky with the utmost solemnity: “I, Jing Yan, as the heir to the throne of Da Xia, hereby swear here. As long as Da Xia exists in the world, we will sacrifice to martyrs every year, for thousands of years to come, and will never dare to violate this.”
Then he silently lit a pile of paper money and burned it as an offering.
The cemetery was well maintained by the soldiers of Yumen Pass, and not a single grave had collapsed. After the memorial service, the two walked around the cemetery to make sure nothing was amiss before leaving.
The two headed south, turned into Jinma County, and stopped at a small restaurant at noon.
But they heard discussions at the next table, saying that two young brothers of a family were watching the sheep, and the sheep wandered into Jingma Gully by mistake. Fearing to be beaten when they returned home, the elder brother followed the sheep into the gully to find them.
The younger brother waited outside for a long time without seeing his brother come out and cried out in fear.
When the father learned about this, he couldn’t bear to lose his son, so he also entered Jingma Gully. It had been three or four days now, yet the father and son had still not come out.
They were most likely doomed already.
Jiang Yuqing casually set up a sound-proofing shield around them and said to Jing Yan: “Ah Yan, there is a mountain called Jingma Mountain in Jinma County.
When my father and I first came to Su Prefecture, we had wiped out bandits on Jingma Mountain.
I heard from the local hunter guide that there is a valley in the mountain called Jingma Gully.
For hundreds of years, no person or animal that entered has ever come out of it. It is extremely dangerous and something that the locals talk about with dread.” Today I want to go take a look.”
“I'll go with you.”
Jiang Yuqing shook her head: “No need. We have to leave someone outside for support.
My cultivation level is high. I believe that even if there are real monsters and ghosts inside, they can't do anything to me. After I confirm there is no problem inside, I will send a message to notify you.
If there is something I can't solve, you going in would just add to the death count.”
...Dear, we can be more tactful.
The two left the restaurant and went straight to Jingma Mountain.
Jiang Yuqing relied on her vague memories to find the entrance of Jingma Gully.
The vegetation here was messy, and there were many trampled traces, presumably from the family members of the father and son wandering around in anguish.
To be cautious, Jiang Yuqing swallowed a Qingxin Pill for mental clarity and a detox pill to guard against the miasma in the valley.
At the same time, she summoned her spirit sword and even roused little Jing who had been sleeping for many years.
Since Jing Yan knew he couldn’t stop her, he had to repeatedly urge her to be careful.
When all the preparations were ready, Jiang Yuqing carefully rode Bai Xiaoshi into the valley.
To be safe, she fully spread out her spiritual sense, wanting to place the entire valley under her vision. But she found that her backlash-stage spiritual sense was actually unable to penetrate this valley.
Something deep inside the valley seemed to be covered by a transparent cover—that was a spirit shield!
Realizing this, Jiang Yuqing became tense all over.
Ancient, towering trees in the valley blocked out the sun, without a hint of sunlight. Miasma lingered and the silence around was terrifying.
The deeper she went, the denser the miasma became. On the various strangely shaped trees around, there hung pitcher plant-like nets woven from vines.
Under the trees were rotten bones of animals and humans, eerie and stretching into the shadows ahead, giving people the feeling of walking in the underworld of the Yellow Springs.
Even with Jiang Yuqing’s courage, seeing this situation, she could not help feeling creeped out.
Suddenly a "meeh" of a sheep cry gave Jiang Yuqing a shock.
Looking in the direction of the cry, she saw several huge cocoon-like things hanging from a tall, crooked-necked tree about a zhang from the ground (about 3.2 meters high) straight ahead.
The sheep's cry came from one of these cocoons.
Jiang Yuqing’s heart stirred, and her spirit sword instantly slashed out, cutting several huge cocoons from the tree.
Then with spiritual power, she pulled them over to examine them one by one.
As it turned out, inside the six large cocoons, four sheep and two people were hanging wrapped in disgusting green mucus.
Whether it was sheep or human, they were all covered with filthy green mucus.
Jiang Yuqing threw cleaning spells at the two people to finally see their appearance.
It was a middle-aged man and a boy about ten years old.
Judging from their clothes, they should be the father and son who unfortunately had to venture in here to find the lost sheep. It just wasn’t known why they were hung up here.
Their eyes were tightly closed, faces pale. Fortunately, they still retained a thread of life, which was really surprising.
Jiang Yuqing first infused them with a wisp of vitality to ensure their lives were safe.
Then she stuffed them with detox pills and carried them onto Bai Xiaoshi’s back, preparing to take them out of the valley.
Just then, a sudden change occurred.
Countless swishing sounds came from all sides, and Jiang Yuqing instinctively leaned back to narrowly dodge a green shadow that brushed against her cheek.
After that, several green shadows attacked again, extremely fast, startling Jiang Yuqing into constant dodging.
In crisis, the shape of little Jing expanded, and she whipped out a dozen vines to lash out at those green shadows. Her blows were deadly, lashing them so fiercely that those green shadows didn't have the slightest chance to fight back.
Only then did Jiang Yuqing see clearly that these green shadows turned out to be carnivorous rattan vines.
They did not possess any intelligence, merely clinging by instinct to the surrounding tall trees, surviving by feeding on the blood and flesh of humans or beasts that accidentally wandered into this place.
Naturally, Jiang Yuqing would not allow such a scourge to remain.
Her spirit sword glided smoothly along their roots, slicing them apart. As soon as she finished chopping, spirit fireballs followed, thrown to burn them completely.
To ensure these things were thoroughly incinerated, Jiang Yuqing increased her spiritual power output, only stopping once every branch and leaf was burned away.
Suddenly, the sound of rushing wind came again from behind. Without hesitation, Jiang Yuqing whirled, sword raised to slice, but was blocked by someone crying, "Yuqing, it's me!"
The arrival was Jing Yan.
Seeing that Jiang Yuqing had not emerged for a long time and did not respond to his transmitted messages, Jing Yan grew worried. Catching sight of the black smoke rising from the valley, afraid she was in danger, he stuffed two elixir pills in his mouth and charged in to find her without a second thought.
Pulling her along, he anxiously looked her over, "Are you alright?"
Jiang Yuqing shook her head, "I'm fine. I burned some harmful things and found the missing father and son."
She gave Jing Yan a simple summary of what happened. The two decided to first take the rescued out before returning to further investigate this place.
By the time they reached the valley entrance, they happened to run into the villagers who saw the black smoke and rushed over.
Seeing such a handsome couple emerge unharmed from the notorious Jingma Gully, even managing to rescue the father and son, the villagers assumed they must have met divine immortals.
Among them were the relatives of the rescued father and son.
The wife embraced her regained husband and son, wailing loudly in grief, a sigh-inducing scene.
When she finally finished weeping, the woman dabbed her tears and repeatedly kowtowed in gratitude toward Jiang Yuqing and Jing Yan.
After much effort sending off the villagers, the two entered the valley again, determined to get to the bottom of this mystery.
Perhaps because Jiang Yuqing had chopped down many parasite-infested trees earlier, the obstructing aura within the valley seemed to have dissipated somewhat, and the fog turned much thinner.
Stepping over the ashes left from the earlier blaze, they continued forward, circling a moss-filled marshland to discover behind it a faint, shimmering barrier.
Jiang Yuqing gathered her spiritual energy and forcefully struck the barrier.
Like an overfilled water balloon, the barrier quivered then remained unmoving, completely useless against her efforts. Jiang Yuqing could only increase her spiritual output, unleashing several continuous attacks that still failed to penetrate it.
Seeing this, Jing Yan also joined in. Despite both attacking with their full might until they panted for breath, the barrier remained impervious.
Just as they felt completely discouraged, Bai Xiaoshi came sauntering over, flicking his tail leisurely.
Lowering his head, the deer thrust his antlers forward and stuck his rear up. His sharp antler tips easily pierced the barrier, eliciting a crisp "pop!" before the barrier shattered.
Bai Xiaoshi arrogantly lifted his head, throwing Jiang Yuqing a look of utter disdain. With a contemptuous sniff, he then swaggered inside.
Jiang Yuqing's fists tightened as she grated out between clenched teeth, "Bai Xiaoshi..."
She was determined that nothing could stop her from righteous fratricide.
And so, a certain prince could only watch helplessly as his consort fought violently with his steed, explicitly banned from intervening. His expression was quite complex.
