On the eleventh day of the tenth lunar month, Luo Jing, riding a skinny horse, arrived at Longmen Pass, the last barrier to the Central Plains and the northwest pass.
After leaving Jiamen Pass on the border of Dayue Kingdom, there is only one road.
This official road passes through the desolate Longmen Mountains in the rugged area, passing through Tiandi Pass and Longmen Pass, and finally setting foot in the Central Plains after leaving Longmen Pass.
Among the three major passes in the northwest, Jiamen Pass was controlled by the Dayue Kingdom, while Tiandi Pass and Longmen Pass were under the jurisdiction of the Central Plains court.
But the Longmen Mountains between the three major passes stretch for tens of thousands of miles, and the villages and towns of all sizes scattered in the mountains are in a kind of no-man's land.
The Divine Dynasty believed that these people were savages outside the Great Wall and were not under their jurisdiction.
The Dayue Kingdom believed that these were people from the Central Plains and had nothing to do with their Western Regions.
There were many bandits in the Longmen Mountains, and robberies by horse bandits were common on the official roads.
The Dayue Kingdom’s garrison at Jiamen Pass has never bothered to care about these Central Plains people in the mountains. As long as they don’t come to Jiamen Pass to cause trouble, it doesn’t matter.
The imperial troops stationed at Tiandi Pass and Longmen Pass would occasionally go into the mountains to raid the areas, wipe out the bandit strongholds, and bring back the heads to collect the rewards.
However, the more the imperial court suppressed bandits, the more horse bandits there were.
During the two hundred years of confrontation between the Central Plains and the Western Regions, the horse bandits in Longmen Mountain were almost famous throughout the northwest.
Many terrifying rumors circulated among merchants traveling from south to north.
However, these horse bandits did not rob Luo Jing.
Luo Jing, riding a skinny horse alone on the official road, did not look very wealthy.
Large-scale horse bandits only rob large merchant caravans and would never look down on a lone ranger like Luo Jing.
Occasionally, there would be those petty thieves who tried to rob the mountain to stop him, but they could only be turned into food for refining the Demon Blood Sword.
The Demon Refining Blood Sword slashed with one blow, leaving not even a drop of blood. The few small bandits who tried to take advantage of the situation were all sucked dry by the Demon Refining Blood Sword, leaving no trace of their bodies.
Luo Jing walked silently on the official road, passing through the Longmen Mountains at the pace of an ordinary person.
When he arrived at Longmen Pass exhausted, the soldier guarding the pass was slightly surprised after looking at his pass.
"Leaving the prison three years ago?"
The soldier looked Luo Jing up and down. Luo Jing was dusty and riding a skinny old horse. It was obvious that he had lost all his money outside the pass.
This kind of situation happens frequently. Although there is a chance of getting rich overnight by traveling to the Western Regions as a merchant, there are more people who lose all their capital.
The soldier smiled and returned the pass to Luo Jing, saying, "It's good that he's still alive... Next one."
Longmen Pass guards the northwest, and there are countless merchants coming and going every day. Even if these soldiers want to extort money, they are too lazy to make things difficult for a lone man in distress like Luo Jing.
Luo Jing was easily let into the customs without attracting anyone's attention throughout the process.
The cultivator guarding the checkpoint didn't even look at Luo Jing.
After checking the magic weapon of the demon cultivator, naturally no alarm was sounded.
When Luo Jing walked out of the Longmen Pass, he breathed a sigh of relief.
After passing Longmen Pass, there will basically be no more such strictly patrolled checkpoints on the road ahead.
For him, a magic cultivator, this is extremely good news.
Along the way, he found that the atmosphere in the Central Plains court was better than he had imagined.
Even the soldiers guarding the pass were mostly friendly and didn't say anything bad.
The Central Plains under the rule of the Empress was generally considered prosperous, and people were not as alienated from each other as they were in the Western Regions.
Although the empress has become increasingly insane and the court is in chaos in recent years, the troubles caused by those bigwigs have not yet spread to the people.
As long as Luo Jing does not reveal his identity as a demon cultivator, living in the Central Plains seems to be a good choice.
Luo Jing, riding on a skinny horse, quickly walked out of Longmen Pass. He did not stay inside the pass, but continued to go south.
Under the cover of night, Luo Jing rode a skinny horse silently forward.
In the second half of the night, the moonlight was cold and the official road seemed to be covered with a layer of silver frost and snow. Coupled with the bleak and cold evening breeze, it felt a bit chilly.
Luo Jing discovered that there was a carriage following not far behind him.
There was only one bearer in the carriage, and the lights were on inside the carriage, making it extremely conspicuous in the dark.
The skinny horse that Luo Jing was riding couldn't run fast, and the carriage didn't seem to be in a hurry to travel, so the two sides maintained a delicate distance.
Luo Jing felt a little suspicious.
This... is he here to follow him
But why follow him
Judging from the carriage, this should be a rich kid, right? Either rich or noble.
Could it be that when I came out of Longmen Pass, I attracted the attention of some important figure in the Central Plains
But if the other party saw through his identity as a demon cultivator, why didn't he attack directly, but instead chose to follow him
Luo Jing felt a little nervous.
This is the Central Plains. A demon cultivator like him is like a rat in the gutter, unable to see the light of day.
During the time he was riding his skinny horse on the official road, after nightfall, Luo Jing had already seen three different night-wandering gods patrolling the official road.
The imperial court in the Central Plains was full of martial virtue, and the kings of cities, lands, mountains and water gods all obeyed the imperial court's orders.
Although these night-wandering gods do not show their power in front of humans, once they discover evil cultivators or monsters causing trouble, they will immediately report to the Night Walk Department, and then a master will come to kill them.
Luo Jing felt uneasy, not knowing what was going on with the carriage following behind him.
Did the other party see through his identity as a demon cultivator
Maybe the other party was just guessing and was not sure that Luo Jing was a demon cultivator, so he just followed without taking any action
Luo Jing thought about this possibility and did not act rashly.
He was an illegal resident in the Central Plains and had not yet registered with the Night Walkers Division. If possible, he hoped that he could remain an unknown person.
At least for now, no one from the Night Watch has appeared to surround and hunt him. Even if the carriage behind him is really following him, it should not have confirmed his identity.
It is enough for Luo Jing to continue to pretend to be an ordinary person...
Thinking of this, Luo Jing rode on the skinny horse's back without stopping, and continued to move forward under the moonlight.
…
Inside the carriage that was so stable that there was hardly any shaking, a young man with a slightly pale face was holding a book and reading the words in the book with great interest.
Occasionally he would stop, close his eyes and think, completely immersed in the world of the book.
Although the road surface on the official road was not smooth, this carriage seemed to have some special power. Even when the wheels passed through some potholes, the shaking of the body would not be transmitted to the carriage.
The night-shining pearl hanging on the roof emitted bright light, illuminating everything inside the car instead of the oil lamp.
The interior of the carriage, which looked small from the outside, was actually as spacious as a small study room, with a row of bookshelves.
At a certain moment, a figure appeared silently in the corner of the carriage.
The figure bowed respectfully and said, "Second Young Master, there is a man ahead of us. He has been following us since he came out of Longmen Pass... Do you need someone to test his strength?"