【Qin Chuan died, and the cultivator entered the city.】

Meng Jiaqi released a messenger pigeon to deliver a message, silently mourning his colleague Qin Chuan for a while. After that, she returned to Ning Ning and He Zhizhou with a face full of vicissitudes.

The two of them had traveled a long distance to reach the city of Jialan. After entering, they had to face various hidden dangers. Therefore, the immediate priority was not to rush forward like a fool but to eat something to fill their stomachs.

Meng Jiaqi left for a while, citing her desire to be alone. When she returned, the scent of roasted sweet potatoes and meat could already be smelled.

The sweet and fragrant roasted sweet potatoes and the unknown meat chunks skewered by Ning Ning emitted a natural meaty fragrance. At this moment, a faint smoky flavor added to the atmosphere, making her, who was exhausted, subtly swallow her saliva.

“Do cultivators also need to eat?”

Meng Jiaqi, acting like an innocent girl, took a step forward and asked, “I heard that disciples of immortal sects usually need to cultivate and absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and they usually don’t touch worldly food.”

“Cultivate? Occasionally at the XuanxuSect.”

He Zhizhou was peeling sweet potato skin and, feeling the heat, took a breath. Upon hearing her words, he quickly looked up at her and said, “But that’s because the food in the cafeteria is expensive and tastes terrible! Now that we’ve finally come down from the mountain, who can resist the temptation of good food? Forget about the spiritual energy of heaven and earth; the enjoyment on the tongue is the most comfortable.”

Forget about the spiritual energy of heaven and earth?

This person was indeed not normal.

Cultivators often resort to any means to achieve immortality, fighting for opportunities and treasures and sometimes even resorting to extreme measures. He, however, straightforwardly disregarded the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, making him stand out as odd and eccentric.

“Miss Meng, this piece of meat is for you.”

Ning Ning handed her the skewer, saying, “We were in a hurry when we left and didn’t bring much food supplies. We have limited meat; please understand.”

Meng Jiaqi played along, smiling gratefully, “Thank you! It’s a great favor that you two rescued me from the bandits.”

She took the meat skewer and took a bite, like a true lady.

Ning Ning was right; their meat reserves were indeed scarce. This skewer was light, thin, and small. However, after being roasted over the fire, the rich aroma of fat was maximally released, and the taste was surprisingly good.

After chewing for a while, Meng Jiaqi heard Ning Ning ask, “Miss Meng, how does it taste?”

She truthfully replied, “It’s pretty good. What kind of meat is this? The taste is quite unique.”

At that moment, Ning Ning looked at her with a sly smile.

Almost instinctively, Meng Jiaqi felt a chill down her spine.

She had a bad feeling about this.

Before she could mentally prepare herself, the seemingly gentle and pretty girl chuckled softly.

Then she uttered a few words from her throat, like a devil’s whisper: “It’s bird meat. Judging from the appearance of the bird when alive, it should be a pigeon, right?”

Bird meat.

Pigeon.

Meng Jiaqi’s heart skipped a beat.

—Wasn’t that the messenger pigeon she released!!!

The messenger pigeon, you died so appetizingly—oh no, so cruel!!!

He Zhizhou, engrossed in roasted sweet potatoes, nodded absentmindedly. “That bird was all white and suddenly flew over my head. It’s edible; who cares what it really is—Miss Meng also thinks the taste is good, right?”

Meng Jiaqi looked at the meat chunk she had almost finished eating, and all her smiles froze on her face.

She felt that she might not be okay anymore.

However, Ning Ning seemed unaware of her change in expression and continued sincerely, “We found a note on its leg in the city, covered in densely packed characters. It seems that the demons in this city are communicating with each other. Unfortunately, those characters are not a common language, and we can’t decipher their meaning.”

Meng Jiaqi rarely breathed a sigh of relief.

The demonic race in Jialan City possesses their own system of writing, which ordinary humans absolutely cannot understand. If these two were to comprehend the meaning of the letter, she would definitely be in deep trouble.

“When we descended from the mountain this time, we initially thought it was some bold and presumptuous demonic race draining the essence of the people, then hiding here. But from my observation, the characters on that piece of paper are identical to the ones on the stone tablets in Jialan City. It should have been written by the surviving residents of the city. Plus, with the appearance of the messenger pigeon—”

Ning Ning contemplated for a moment and slowly said, “That indicates there is more than one demon in the city, and it’s highly likely to be closely related to this ancient city lost for a hundred years.”

Exactly.

Meng Jiaqi thought she was just a useless fool without any shape, and her heart trembled at these words. She quietly gripped the hem of her skirt. During the intense focus, she heard Ning Ning’s voice again: “Miss Meng grew up in the nearby city. Have you heard any rumors about Jialan City?”

“…I’ve heard my father mention the legend of Jialan City.”

Walking on thin ice, she could only grit her teeth and carry on with the act: “It is said that this city was once splendid, a paradise for demons, but for some unknown reason, it was submerged by a torrential flood.”

He Zhizhou, curious, asked, “A flood? Why?”

A fleeting hint of resentment flashed in the woman’s eyes, but was quickly replaced by a pleasing smile. “How could Jiaqi know about events over three hundred years ago? This question is truly unanswerable.”

“I did hear that the young city lord back then was exceptionally talented and outstanding among demon cultivators.”

Ning Ning said with a hint of gossip and added somewhat regretfully, “Such a remarkable person ended up buried at the bottom of the lake. It’s a bit of a pity—although, thinking about it, who else could have created a barrier for Jialan City to resist the flood?”

He Zhizhou looked up at the massive barrier above his head, where the water flowed gently and occasional fish swam by, creating ripples that touched the heartstrings.

The lake outside the barrier and the mist inside were both reflecting a mysterious light. He was fascinated and muttered to himself, “To withstand such surging waves, it must consume a lot of spiritual power. Can he endure it?”

“Who knows.”

Ning Ning stood up from the ground, looking towards the jade palaces and towers standing tall in the west.

The original story only briefly mentioned that the young city lord sacrificed all his cultivation to resist the flood. However, it never explained the source of the flood or the final fate of Jialan City.

It painted a vague and peculiar picture.

Moreover…since the incident in the ancient forest, Ning Ning couldn’t help but question the original work—

It seemed that there was something invisible and elusive, deliberately concealed, preventing her from knowing.

It was after that incident that Ning Ning, for the first time, began to seriously contemplate the true purpose behind the system assigning her the role of the malicious supporting female character.

But she couldn’t figure it out.

“The person who abducted you told us to head west.”

Ning Ning picked up the Xinghe Sword and smiled slightly, not dwelling on other matters. “As long as we reach the end, we’re bound to discover something.”

=====

It’s almost there.

The dark color in Meng Jiaqi’s eyes suddenly deepened, and a barely perceptible arc appeared at the corner of her mouth.

The elders assigned her to act as an undercover agent, naturally harboring the intention of leading these cultivators to a dead end.

Since the awakening of the city’s residents and to prevent outsiders from invading, they have deliberately set up numerous life-threatening formations within Jialan City. And what they were about to encounter was one of the most dangerous ones.

The Ten Directions Killing Formation.

As the name suggests, it traps the intruders in a space through illusion techniques, making it impossible for them to leave. Moreover, dangers lurk everywhere within the formation. A slight misstep could result in unimaginable calamities for an ordinary person.

Meng Jiaqi smiled—a rare sight.

As long as she could lead these two into the formation, point out a wrong path for them, and wait for them to stray onto the wrong path, she could then disappear without a trace—

No one would notice when a woman walking at the rear of the group disappeared.

The Ten Directions Killing Formation was closing in.

“Strange, why is there fog here?”

He Zhizhou frowned and sniffed the air. “And there’s a fragrance… Is it an aphrodisiac or incense?”