Calamity Messenger

Chapter 358 - 292: Demon Gathering Land

Two days later, at the Demon Gathering Camp.

The Demon Gathering Camp is at least two hundred miles from the nearest town in a straight line, with mountain ranges and swamps along the way. It is also not near any trade routes, so it has always been sparsely populated.

But now the Demon Gathering Camp was brightly lit with joyful laughter. Plates of delicious food lined the long tables, one after another, and opened jugs of fine wine followed one after another. The aroma of alcohol and meat spread like fire over the entire mountain, and inside the tents, glasses clinked. Young men blushed as they looked at their favored girls, the elderly reached agreements with forced smiles, and several streets lined with various goods created the semblance of a small marketplace.

Outside the camp, countless wild beasts lurked in the night with glowing green eyes, drooling with desire, but could only linger outside the fences and walls.

The annual opening of the Demon Gathering Land was not just a treasure hunt, but also a social gathering for the Northern Noble Clan. At this moment, there were almost five hundred people at the Demon Gathering Camp, representing over forty noble families, albeit all Commander’s Gate families, wielding not insignificant power. As the middle-tier military merit class directly facing the soldiers and the people, each family could be considered a Hundred Li Marquis, able to command tens of thousands and act as a Local Emperor.

Unlike the prominent water network and trade relations of the Liang Kingdom, the Qi Kingdom, due to its vast territory and abundant resources, had less intimate exchanges between noble families. Events like the Demon Gathering Land, with no barriers and fixed timings, were nearly the only opportunity each year to expand connections and strengthen ties. Some families even arrived half a month early at the camp, bringing many Secret Realm specialties for trade.

Trading, marriages, cooperation, negotiations... Most affairs of the Northern Noble Clan would be settled at the Demon Gathering Land, even giving birth to a saying: "Wait for the Demon Gathering to settle it."

Such a grand gathering naturally lacked no security forces. Bored sentinels on the watchtower gazed at the jungle with frost-like eyebrows, a trademark of the Duan Family’s soldiers, possessing the ’Eagle Eyebrow’ token. A little archery training enabled them to hit coins at a thousand steps in open environments.

Even though they had slept during the day, the sentinels found the night so dull that they couldn’t help but drowse. As they blinked, they suddenly spotted something.

A dark shadow flitted through the jungle.

Was it a beast? A bear or a tiger? They hoped it was a deer, as carnivorous animals tasted bad, and the pelts wouldn’t go to them.

The shadow appeared again, and this time the sentinel became alert. Because he clearly saw that the shadow wasn’t running, but seemed to be floating!

In the Zhou and Liang Kingdoms, the Buddhist sect was flourishing, but the Qi Kingdom issued a Buddhist massacre decree in a moment of passion under Ying Le, slaughtering tens of thousands of monks. Up to today, there were no bald heads in the streets, and even regular people with hair loss had to wear hats, or else getting beheaded by soldiers was no different from death. But precisely for not having the Buddhist sect, Qi People were even more obsessed with various supernatural beliefs.

Spotting the shadow floating through the jungle, the sentinel immediately thought of monsters like the ’Mountain Witch’, ’Forest Demon’, or ’Eight-foot Lord’ from various legends, every pore on his body stood on end. He widened his eyes, trying to discern how the shadow moved, but no matter how he looked, the shadow was floating, without any apparent movement, and was extremely fast, rapidly approaching the Demon Gathering Camp, almost charging in!

Just as the sentinel’s legs were shaking, ready to sound the alarm, the shadow suddenly changed direction and disappeared. Rubbing his eyes, he heard a rustle in the bushes, scaring him so much that his knees nearly gave way, but then he saw a leopard burst from the jungle and head toward the camp.

With a piercing swish, an arrow shot through the leopard’s eye, nailing it to the ground. Another sentry mocked from a different post, "Ergou, scared by a lone leopard?"

"Eat shit!" The sentinel reflexively cursed back, looking at the leopard’s corpse, confused—was the shadow he saw before just the leopard?

...

...

Watching Ye Si finally reach the fog-covered ruins on the screen, Yan Qing sighed in relief, interlocking his fingers and stretching his thumbs, which were slightly cramping.

After two days, Yan Qing finally reached the event location of the Demon Gathering. However, there was a minor mishap on the way—Ye Si’s horse was killed.

With little time left until the next mission, Yan Qing had to complete this event mission before the third mission. So he hurried along, feeding Blood Replenishing Pills to the horse like beans to keep it energetic. However, this made the horse’s Qi Blood extremely vigorous, greatly attracting predators.

Yesterday, after reading an original fanfiction about the Primordial Dao Venerable and the Demon Sect’s Demoness, Yan Qing felt itchy and played a game to calm down, only to watch Ye Si’s horse have its neck bitten off by a tiger, which was then punched to death by Ye Si. But, with the horse gone and no wild horses refreshing in the wilderness, what could Yan Qing do?

He had to rely on the Ranger Rain Boots.

In fact, the Ranger Rain Boots were faster than a horse, but using them consumed ten Spiritual Jades every hundred meters, a luxury only the wealthy afforded. However, Yan Qing, a virtual tycoon, didn’t mind the cost. Unfortunately, while the game character was in auto mode using the Ranger Rain Boots, it was easy to crash into trees in such terrain, requiring Yan Qing’s manual control.

So he spent the whole day focusing solely on the journey, his thumb continuously mashing the Ranger Rain Boots’ hotkey. It wasn’t too dull actually; the complex roads and occasional wildlife encounters reminded Yan Qing of the well-known game, "Euro Truck Simulator". Just traveling and enjoying the scenery turned out to be quite delightful.

But his hands were somewhat sore from the effort.

Unlike Mansu Forest Land, the Demon Gathering Land had no fixed entrance. As long as one entered the fog-covered ruins, they could participate in the event. Therefore, Yan Qing had Ye Si find a secluded and safe spot before using the Immortal Voyage.

In twenty-five seconds, Yan Qing had left the warmth of the Thief’s House, arriving outside the Demon Gathering.

Leaning on Ye Si’s shoulder, he took a deep breath; the mountain air was refreshing, a bit cool. Not to say the air in the Thief’s House was bad, but to describe it, the Thief’s House air was like plain boiled water, whereas mountain air was like ice-cold spring water.

"Wow, you’re filthy," Yan Qing glanced at Ye Si, noticing he was dirty, appearing to have slid through marshes, covered in mud without encountering a river along the way for a wash.

He looked around, plucked two leaves from a tree, helped Ye Si wipe his face and hair, licked his pinkie finger to smooth Ye Si’s messy brows, and patted his shoulder: "Keep up the spirit, don’t lose face."

With a thought, he returned to the Thief’s House.

Thus, Yan Qing successfully set his Thief’s House teleport coordinates outside the Demon Gathering. The reason for not waiting until Ye Si entered the Demon Gathering before teleporting was that events like the Demon Gathering, which forcibly restrict players’ stay time, were likely to limit teleportation. Even the Return Order might not work.

And of course... Yan Qing wouldn’t recklessly rush in!

Although he prepared himself mentally to eventually enter in person, he would first send a low-level account to scout the way!

Ye Si, onward!