Martial Cultivator
Chapter 24: Qi Refiner

Ever since Warden Li came to replace him, Chen Chao never viewed this matter as a trivial matter. Whether was it replaceing Lin Cheng previously, or coming to the county government himself to read the files, it was all for his own sake to excavate the truth of this matter.

It was definitely impossible for that old fogey to tell him the truth. Everything could only rely on himself now that he was swept into this matter.

Sitting on the ground, he read finish the remaining files. There were still many fishy areas. Chen Chao looked over those fishy areas repeatedly before slowly standing up and returning the files to the bookshelves.

When he returned to the county government's main hall, he did not see Mi Ke. There was only Registrar Zhang who was secretly sad all by himself.

It seemed like Magistrate Mi getting promoted and leaving was very difficult for him to accept.

Chen Chao quickly walked out of the county government's main hall. When he saw that familiar court underling, Chen Chao nodded his head and asked, "Lord Mi has been promoted to County Chief. When is the new magistrate taking office?"

Over these past few years, his relationship with Mi Ke had been very good. Now that he was going to be changed to someone else, he was still a little not used to it.

The court underlying scratched his head and asked probingly, "It should be after early spring? His Excellency's letter of appointment hasn't arrived yet. Besides, according to Great Liang's law, His Excellency can only leave after that new magistrate arrives."

Talking up to here, the court underlying let out a sigh and said with vicissitudes of emotion, "A good official like His Excellency may come by with luck, but not by searching for it. Who knows whether or not the newly appointed Lord Magistrate can compare."

Court underlings like them were all local natives. There was virtually no possibility of promotion for life. Therefore, whoever came to be the magistrate was destined to be someone that they could not afford to provoke. If they encountered a good magistrate, such as someone like Mi Ke, they would live a more comfortable life. But if the new magistrate was trouble, their days would become harder.

Chen Chao did not follow up. He did not have any dissatisfaction with Mi Ke. It was just that this old fellow had been staying in the county government these few years for too long. The common practices of this county government seemed a little improper...

"When that new magistrate takes office, please let me know so that I can come and pay my respects too."

After Chen Chao gave a heads-up, he left the county government and went straight out of the city.

Calculating it carefully, he already had not left the city for more than a month after bringing Xie Nandu back to Tianqing County previously. Who knew whether or not those demons were missing him greatly?

Chen Chao raised his eyebrows, he did not look forward to going out of the city as much as before but became much more careful instead. His state of mind was like the first time he left the county city to hunt; cautious to the extreme. That trip out of the city was actually incredibly dangerous. He who was merely Initial Realm encountered two demons in the mountains. After finally managing to kill them, he sustained considerable injuries too. What was even more damnable was that after getting injured, he immediately ran into a third demon.

At that time, even Chen Chao himself practically felt that he would die in the mountains.

Luckily, he still killed that demon in the end. After bringing three demon beads and a body full of injuries back to the county town, he lay in bed for over half a month.

After that, Chen Chao was considered to have truly taken his first step, gradually becoming an existence that demons within a radius of dozens of miles feared immensely.

After leaving the city, the direction was still that mountain god temple where he encountered Xie Nandu before. That mine was another two mountains away in the northeast.

Actually, just this one path, few ordinary people could safely travel back and forth before Chen Chao.

Tianqing County's peaceful world did not reflect the Great Liang Dynasty's current situation.

……

……

At dusk, Chen Chao arrived outside that dilapidated mountain god temple.

At present, more than half of the accumulated snow in the mountain had already melted. This mountain god temple had finally revealed its true appearance too.

Leaping lighting, Chen Chao arrived on top of the incense burner in the courtyard and surveyed the surroundings. Apart from the wild grass that started budding in the courtyard, this mountain god temple did not change much compared to a month ago.

Demonic qi could not be seen. It may be assumed that there were no demons.

Looking at the sky, Chen Chao was currently hesitating on whether to spend the night in the mountain god temple when he suddenly heard some footsteps outside.

There were also some conversation sounds that approached from afar.

Chen Chao furrowed his brows. Tiptoeing, he flew up from the incense burner onto the beam of the main hall.

Although this mountain god temple was built by the previous dynasty, it was still considered sturdy now. There was no need to worry about it collapsing.

Finding a place on the beam where he definitely could not be seen from the ground, but he could see the blind spot on the ground, Chen Chao held his breath and converged his breathing. Even his heartbeat became extremely weak at this moment.

Before long, four people walked into the main hall.

Two men and two women. All of them were good-looking and dressed elegantly.

Each of them had some ethereal aura.

After the tallest man walked into the main hall, he surveyed the surroundings. He only smiled slightly after seeing that there were no abnormalities and said, "Two fellow daoists, it's getting late. Let's rest here for a while tonight?"

"This place is good. Although this mountain god temple was built by the previous dynasty and has already experienced hundreds of centuries and loss of joss fire, there's still some left. Just nice, we can borrow it to cultivate."

The other man who looked even younger sat down impatiently. Before long, Chen Chao saw that strands of earthy-yellow aura slowly seeped out of that mountain god statue which had long already turned into an unrefined clay idol turn into a thin thread, connecting with that young man.

Seeing this scene, a hint of displeasure flashed across the faces of the other three people. The young man who spoke in the beginning said with vicissitudes of emotion, "This mountain god has eaten god knows how much joss fire in the previous dynasty. But sadly, we didn't encounter it earlier. Now that several centuries have gone by, less than 10% of it remains. But it's better than nothing too. Fellow Daoist Yan, Junior Apprentice Sister, just nice we can borrow it to cultivate."

Hearing the man speak, that Fellow Daoist Yan said softly, "Join in, Brother Daoist."

The three people sat down cross-legged very quickly and started activating their own sect's daoist magics. Very soon, another three earthly-yellow silk threads emerged from that clay idol, connecting these three people present.

Chen Chao who was hiding on the beam had already started speculating that they were those foreign land cultivators long when he was listening to them address each other fellow daoist. When he saw them cultivating like this, he had already given his verdict. These four were definitely of the rumored qi refiner lineage.

This made him involuntarily recall that young qi refiner who died at his hands previously.

Although these few people were destined to be of a different lineage than that young qi refiner, they had a common ancestry. There was no doubt about this.

But the problem was, why did these few people who were rarely seen qi refiners among cultivators, show up here now?

Chen Chao could not get much information from their conversation for the time being. But he vaguely felt that things would not be so simple.