Chapter 4299 — Now They Could Not Leave Again

Half a month had passed, and the scene in Zhenduan City now surpassed what it had been before—not only had the crowds failed to thin, they had grown larger still, until the place was more packed than ever.

Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao exchanged a helpless glance. This clamor, fit for a vegetable market—and yet every one of these people, set loose anywhere else, would be a cultivator of no small skill. Now they were so thick on the ground they were worth less than dogs. The situation truly left one speechless, though it also showed plainly enough just how magnetic the Lu Feng Forest was.

But in this, Wei Zhao had it wrong. By now, only a scant dozen days remained before the miasma mist returned; to go adventuring in the Lu Feng Forest at this hour was already too late.

So many people gathering in ever greater numbers—it was not for the Lu Feng Forest, but for another matter altogether, one more important and far more stirring!

Wei Zhao, however, had no intention of concerning himself with all that. Right now he wanted only to go to the docks and see how things stood. The ship they had booked was not due yet, but there might be other routes, and it never hurt to make preparations in advance.

Yet when he and Huang Xiaotao reached the docks, they discovered to their surprise that the place was heavily guarded. No one was permitted in or out; the entire harbor had been placed under martial law.

"What's going on here?" Wei Zhao could not help but wonder. When they had come before, there had been no such host of guards, still less a full lockdown barring all entry and exit!

"You two are from out of town, aren't you, young sirs?" A middle-aged man dressed like a boatman at the side glanced at Wei Zhao and his companion as he spoke. By the look of him he must have made his living at the docks, but he too had been driven out now and could not get in.

"Yes, yes—uncle, could you tell us what's happening here?" Wei Zhao seized the opening and asked at once.

"Heh. What else could it be? The Morning Star Yellow-Rank Cultivator Academy of the Eastern Continent is coming here to recruit, that's what. It was the same every time they came before—to keep everyone else who got wind of it from swarming over, they seal off the docks and let no one in or out," the middle-aged man said, curling his lip.

"I see." Wei Zhao nodded. Before they had gone into the Lu Feng Forest, they had heard that a Yellow-Rank Academy from the Eastern Continent was coming to recruit; little had he expected to run right into it now.

"Truth is, word got out long ago, and whoever was going to come has come already. Sealing the docks at this point is like taking off your trousers to fart—plain pointless. Thanks to that I can't even do my work; I just stand here sucking down the northwest wind. What a damn mess!" the middle-aged man cursed and grumbled in his indignation.

"That makes no sense. Even if they're afraid of drawing too many people, couldn't they just let people out and not in? Why seal off the whole harbor outright? And with such a show of force..." Wei Zhao said in puzzlement.

"Tell me about it!" The middle-aged man shook his head helplessly. "They say they're afraid the word will spread further, and if too many people are drawn here and all jam up at the docks, it'll be easy for trouble to start. So they sealed the whole thing off. Hmph—when have the great ever bothered about what small folk like us think..."

Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao exchanged another helpless look. Now they could not leave even if they wanted to. Presumably the docks would not reopen until this so-called Morning Star Academy of the Eastern Continent had come and gone; until then, getting away would be impossible.

There was nothing for it. Standing watch at the docks any longer was useless, so Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao had no choice but to follow the flow of people back into Zhenduan City.

Since they had come back, Wei Zhao took Huang Xiaotao along with the current, drifting with the vast tide of humanity on a circuit of the place until at last they arrived at Zhenduan Plaza.

They had been here before. Back then many people had gathered here to form teams and recruit hands; it was here they had met Guo Dengtao and joined Chu Bubai and the others to enter the Lu Feng Forest as a group—which was how all their subsequent gains had come about.

And now the crowd gathered at Zhenduan Plaza was larger than before, not smaller. By Wei Zhao's rough estimate there were at least several thousand, and still cultivators kept pouring in; it seemed only a matter of time before the number reached five digits, and perhaps even more.

Yet despite the great numbers, order on the scene was much better than before. At least no one was shouting themselves hoarse recruiting for teams anymore, nor raising a clamor; even when people discussed matters among themselves they deliberately kept their voices low. All the cultivators sat on the ground of their own accord in neat rows, from time to time craning their necks in anticipation—every one of them seeming to be waiting for something.

Looking ahead, at the front of the crowd—the very center of Zhenduan Plaza—a ring of towering fences had appeared at some unknown hour, splitting the plaza into two worlds: outside the fence was one world, within it another.

Compared with the dense, jostling crowd outside the fence, the space within was much emptier. In it stood a temporary raised platform, upon which a long row of tables and chairs had been set out.

By now quite a few people were already seated on the platform—at least thirty of them—and even so, some seats remained empty. Whether they had been reserved for someone or were simply surplus, one could not tell.

Given the circumstances, those who could sit up on the platform must surely all be from that legendary Morning Star Yellow-Rank Cultivator Academy of the Eastern Continent.

And since they had come all this way to recruit, if appearances did not deceive, those seated up there were most likely personages on the order of the academy's headmaster—perhaps even greater figures still, such as a vice-chancellor of the academy.

Only, Wei Zhao had never even heard of any Morning Star Yellow-Rank Cultivator Academy before; he had only just recently heard people speak of the Eastern Continent at all. So of course he could not possibly recognize a single one of the figures seated on the platform now. But one thing at least he could see: not one of them was a common sort!

He recalled how, when he had first come to Cloud-Rank Island and gone to the back mountain for his first trial of newcomers, he had been so shaken by the mighty aura of the three elders guarding the back-mountain hall that his heart pounded and awe rose in him.

To become an elder of the Threefold Pavilion of the Northern Island, one's strength had to be at least at the Nascent Soul stage, while Wei Zhao at the time had been no more than a capable hand of the early Foundation Establishment—so it was only natural that their aura overawed him.

But times had changed. Wei Zhao was now a golden-core cultivator of the early stage who had achieved a perfect breakthrough; facing an ordinary Nascent Soul expert, he would feel not the slightest awe—indeed, genuine Nascent Soul experts had already died at his and Huang Xiaotao's hands. (To be continued...)