When Ian Song and his group arrived on the other side, they happened to catch a solo guqin performance. The player was a handsome middle-aged man, dressed in snow-white robes with flowing black hair—very striking.
Strangely enough, the performer actually had mid-stage Earth Immortal cultivation.
An Earth Immortal, performing at a city entertainment house?
Ian’s interest was piqued, and he listened carefully. He was himself skilled in music, calligraphy, and painting, and could judge quality—this middle-aged Earth Immortal was flawless in both technique and melody.
Moreover, listening to his guqin made one’s mood relax and one’s mind open up.
When the piece ended, the audience erupted in applause, and many people rewarded him with immortal stones.
From the surrounding chatter, Ian learned the Earth Immortal’s identity: Adrian Moon. He wasn’t the resident musician of this goulan, but a wandering cultivator extremely skilled in the guqin.
Every time he arrived in a new city, he would play at the local goulan for a while. As a result, he was famous across a hundred cities in the region.
Ian also overheard some gossip about Adrian Moon: the guy was a notorious playboy. Whenever he wandered to a new city, he’d visit the brothels and spend freely. His goulan performances were mainly to earn immortal stones.
“Now that’s living free!”
Ian chuckled to himself and left with his women.
Adrian Moon watched Ian leave, quietly thinking, “Looks like the intel was wrong. Ian Song isn’t an Earth Immortal, but a Golden Immortal. What a talent—less than a year since ascending, and he’s already reached the Golden Immortal realm!”
That night.
Ian was in bed with Lila Li and Diana Toba when Steward Mi Yu came to report: someone had broken into the City Lord’s Mansion, injuring several Earth Immortal guards, but the two intruders had vanished.
Ian was a bit irritated.
With a thought, he connected to the Mansion’s formation nexus. Instantly, a grand array rose and enveloped the entire compound. Thanks to his modifications, even a Golden Immortal would struggle to escape.
Very quickly, Ian located the intruders through the array. To his surprise, the two were already just outside his own courtyard. They were bold to the extreme, and had used some special aura-concealing technique. Steward Mi Yu and the guards hadn’t sensed them at all.
That’s right—the intruders were two women, both with strong cultivation: Golden Immortals.
“Are they here to assassinate me?”
Ian mused inwardly, then dressed and went outside.
"You all may leave now!"
Ian waved a hand at Steward Mi Yu.
"Yes, sir!"
Steward Mi Yu nodded and withdrew with the guards.
He figured the two intruders had let themselves be discovered on purpose, just so someone would bring them straight to him!
"You two, why not show yourselves?"
Ian called out toward the corner of the courtyard.
Sure enough, the two had already entered his courtyard.
The air rippled, and two green-robed women appeared.
Both had masked their real faces with a special technique, so they only showed two very plain, ordinary faces.
"Not sure why you two have come so late at night—what's so urgent?"
Ian asked in a deep voice, annoyed that they'd interrupted his pleasant evening.
The colder-tempered woman spoke: "We came because we wanted to ask you a few questions."
"Are you serious? You snuck in here in the middle of the night just to ask a few questions?"
Ian was speechless, but he suppressed his irritation and said, "Go ahead, ask!" He was curious what they wanted.
"What's your view on the current situation of ascenders in the Immortal World?"
The cold-tempered woman asked again.
Ian replied, "Ascenders are pretty much suppressed by the native Immortal clans in every way."
"Since you know that, and you're an ascender yourself, have you ever thought about changing things for ascenders?" the woman pressed.
"Heh."