Nan Dao Chen was a coastal city located just off western shore of the West Continent. It was a cultural hub that was widely considered the gateway between the wider west sea and the West Continent proper. As such it was a well known rest stop for travelers.
The massive city was a sprawling metropolis and was nominally considered under the rule of Si Hai's empire consisting of the wider ocean. In practice however, the devilish Dao effectively ran the place.
It was a day to day occurrence to see disciples of the devilish Dao walking through the city, buying and selling wares, as well as competing in competitions. The pale skinned youths were considered local celebrities and often recruited from the area as well.
"Ash Raven sect is in town again this year," a local townsman said watching the marching troupe of immortals pass by. There were low ranking disciples as well as high status elders present as well. Cultivators ranging from pre immortal tribulation to even Immortals.
"Oh yeah, it is time for recruitment," the townsman's drinking buddy said raising a glass. "Is your son gonna participate?"
"Probably, I've been trying to convince him otherwise but you know how kids are," he replied.
"Why bother? Don't you know the benefits of getting into a sect of the devilish Dao? Way better than the ocean sects," the drinking buddy said.
"Yeah, but don't you know how high the mortality rates are?" The townsman emphasised with his arms raised. "Old Qin and old San's families had a total of twenty five youths who went last time. Only little Xi came back alive and she didn't even get in."
"That bad huh," the man said taking a sip of his drink.
"Make way! Make way!"
The folks on the street's attention were drawn to the pale skinned devils forming a line. A massive elephant acting as a sedan carried a skinny bird like man wearing a large feather coat. He had a hook nose resembling a beak and a near skeletal body with visible ribs adorning his shirtless chest.
"Make way for young lord Blood Raven," an elder announced.
"What, lord Blood Raven is here to attend the recruitment?"
"Heavens, we have lord Blood Raven in town."
The city was sent into a frenzy. A person with as big of a name as Blood Raven had arrived in town to personally oversee the recruitment of new disciples for the Ash Raven sect. This man was the only son of patriarch Ash Raven and a talented figure. Everyone knew to respect this man.
Atop his elephant, Blood Raven looked in satisfaction as crowds cheered his arrival.
In a nearby restaurant, three antlered brothers sat around a table. The dragons had arrived in Nan Dao Chen days ago and were deeply troubled.
The black robbed Zulong frowned in irritation as he read a thick book of various symbols. "This is utter bullshit," he growled.
"What did you expect," Yinglong said reading an unfamiliar menu trying to make heads or tails of the text. "The west is so far removed from the east and under the control of another faction. Of course, they'd develop differently."
"Those old geezers are still godfiends, they speak chaos godfiend, they write in chaos script," Zulong said pointing at his book which was evidently a dictionary. "Why do you need a new language when everybody already spoke the same thing."
"I mean different clans in the east used different writing systems," Qinglong offered trying to read his own menu.
"But they still all speak godfiend," Zulong said gripping his forehead. "Even the west's spoken language is vaguely familiar at best. It's like someone took a bunch of languages and mashed them together. I only recognise seven sounds tops."
"Um, may I take your order?" A nervous serving girl called out. She looked visibly intimidated at the trio of men.
"What's she saying?" Zulong asked Yinglong. The winged dragon put down his menu and turned towards the girl.
"We'd use a chicken stick meat and a vegetable bowl," Yinglong said in broken devilnese. He wasn't sure what to call the local language as they were never given a name.
"So a plate of chicken sticks and salad?" She asked. The three dragons looked at each other and nodded in unison. It was better to get the headache inducing conversation out of the way first.
"Remind me again why we can't just rip the knowledge out of someone's head?" Qinglong asked.
"Because someone will notice if someone mysteriously blacks out with missing memories," Zulong said. "And that we arrived without realising the language barrier. That and of course the sentries will notice if we tried something." Zulong pointed in the direction of the mayor's office and city guards.
Amazingly, there were at least three Great Unity Golden Immortals in Nan Dao Chen. The mayor, the captain of the guard, and another person who just arrived. Zulong was certain he can easily beat all three at once but he wasn't exactly the greatest in stealth nor were his brothers. The cultivation gap was small enough for their actions to be noticed.
For now, the dragons actively suppressed their cultivation and have not done anything of note. All the talismans they had on hand were effectively bombs and not for stealth.
'I really need to learn pellucid divine water,' Zulong idly thought. To date, Da Hai had not imparted the divine water to the brothers. However, it was an incredibly useful tool to add to his arsenal.
"So it's learning a language the old fashion way," Zulong grunted and kept reading his dictionary as the food arrived. The waitress soon brought them the food along with a bowl of curry.
"What spice is this?" Qinglong said tasting the substance.
"Heard someone call it curry," Yinglong said. "Unique local dish I'd think."
"Probably from the continent proper," Zulong pointed out. "You don't get many spices like these from the ocean herbs and what little we do get is imported from the East Continent proper," he added.
"Experience from your trading town?" Qinglong asked and Zulong nodded. They dug into the food enjoying the good taste.
As the dragons were eating they took notice of the large parade outside. Of the nearly a hundred cultivators from the Ash crow sect, many stood at the Earth Immortal realm with several exceptional ones at the True Immortal realm.
Zulong can sense from their bones that their true ages were fairly young. These pale skinned men and women hovered around seven to nine hundred.
"Exceptional," he heard Yinglong comment. Every single of them were talented in their own right. The entire turtle clan as a whole would have very few individuals on par with them.
"They're a sect right," Zulong said in confirmation. "Then their talent pool is probably larger than that of a single clan," he clarified.
"Why don't we take a look?" Qinglong asked. "We'd get a better idea of the western regions and see what their selection process is like." Zulong and Yinglong nodded.
"Not a bad idea little brother, from the looks of things they just arrived. They may take a few days to actually begin the process," Zulong said.
The three got up and got to leave.
"Um, the payment," the same waitress from before began. Before she could finish Zulong tossed her a sack of immortal spirit stones and went on his way.
The west was very developed in comparison to the north. In fact, Zulong dared to say that they were more developed than the east. The west had long stopped trading with energy rich spiritual stones and had instead begun trading proper money.
Spiritual stones were still accepted of course but there was a proper coin system in place. Zulong found the system quite peculiar. The coins were evidently not spiritually active at all nor did they possess any magical properties but were yet seen with value even by immortal cultivators.
"Hey brother, check out those mounts," Qinglong pointed at the use of bestial mounts by the Ash Raven sect. Large elephants and tigers were used as steads by the disciples.
"Their fellow innate creatures," Zulong said in observation. It was not a practice he was unfamiliar with. Plenty of cultivators in the east tamed their defeated opponents as mounts upon their defeat. It was seen as an impressive display of strength. A cultural remnant from the chaos godfiends.
The brothers resumed chatting as the parade went on. Not just Ash Raven elders and disciples came through, but servants as well. All in all the entire troupe easily contained several hundreds of men and women.
"Let's retire for the night brothers," Zulong said as a gruff looking young man with white hair and silvery armour walked out of a nearby building with a barrel of alcohol. He had a medium length sword on his belt.
Aside from his armour, this white haired young also wore a coat of fur around his waist and a cape made of fur with the character '王'. This young man's attention instantly snapped to the three dragons when he heard them chatting.
"Was that the language of chaos godfiends? Someone here knows how to speak it?" He wondered in western language. His curiosity piqued, he decided to follow the three dragons.
'People of the west all speak the tongue taught by the devilish Dao, even the wider ocean clans,' the white haired stranger thought. 'The only ones who still remember the chaos godsend's language are the oldest of ancestors and those clans from the central west sea region.'
Zulong narrowed his eyes as he and his brothers were walking. His eyeballs rolled to look at who was behind him.
"Feel him?" He asked by sending a voice transmission to Qinglong and Yinglong. His brothers nodded.
"That's the same guy who walked out of that alcohol store earlier right?" Qinglong asked. Zulong nodded in response.
"Probably shouldn't have spoken so inconspicuously," Yinglong said.
"What other options are there? Just stand there silently? Better to pretend to be travellers from the north," Qinglong retaliated.
"Heads up brothers, he's closing in," Zulong said. "That alley to our left, we'll confront him there."
As the white haired stranger rounded the street into the alley, he was greeted with the three dragons folding their arms. "What do you want?" Zulong asked. He observed the white hair man before him.
This gruff looking person had a short moustache and a stubble. He looked to be a fierce warrior and it showed in his stance. He looked confident and relaxed but was yet ready to pounce at any time.
"Heard you all speaking chaos godfiend," he said in the same language.
"And? People outside the west all speak chaos godfiend, what's your point," Zulong retorted. He narrowed his eyes when he saw the white haired man's pale blue iris flash into a deep yellow colour.
"You're too rich to be from the north, not after all that's been done there," the white haired man concluded. "You're all looked to be ocean folk, I can see the origin of water on you. You from the south or west sea?"
"Could be born in a lake on the continent," Zulong countered with interest. He could tell that this young man had a special ability that had to do with sight.
"I can tell fresh from salt water, they're fairly distinct," the white haired man said. "And you didn't answer my question," He said with an arm resting on the sword handle. However he didn't look like he was going to draw it.
"For what purpose do you stop us?" Zulong asked once more.
"We can play this for a long while but fine," the white haired man said. "Everyone on the continent follows Luohu's teachings, everyone is a devil including those who're within the ocean empire. You are distinctly not devils."
"You can tell?" Yinglong exclaimed in surprise.
"You hide your cultivations and appear like inconspicuous mortals, but you move like a superior being. You have none of the telltale signs of those who follow the devilish Dao. You also speak the chaos godfiend language which leads me to think you're from the south," he said nonchalantly. "I'm just curious what you're all here for?"
"Not from the south," Zulong said much to Yinglong and Qinglong's shock. "You're not a devil either," Zulong said pointing at the man.
"Indeed I am not," the man confirmed. "I am of the west though, how can you tell?"
"I haven't been around devils for long but they do carry a fairly distinct aura," Zulong explained. "You're cloaking yourself well but I can smell the faint energy of yours. They're more along the lines of an innate creature, one who didn't follow any specific teachings but their own path." Zulong looked closely at the young man before continuing.
"I can also sense a familiar primal origin within you," Zulong said looking at Qinglong and the memory of Xuanwu. "You're an innate god aren't you. An independent one."
"Correct," the white haired man admitted. "You still haven't answered my question."
"Explorers from the east," Zulong stated.
"Explorers?" The white haired man said. "East you say, I've never met anyone from the east before."
"Who are you?" Zulong asked.
"Can't give you my name right now, trying to lay low," the white haired said. "But for the time being you can call me Bai Jian," he said turning around to leave.
"Leaving already?" Zulong asked.
"You situated my curiosity, I have no more reason to be here," Bai Jian said. Bai Jian disappeared back into the crowd on the main road.
"He felt just like Xuanwu didn't he," Zulong suddenly said to Qinglong. The azure dragon nodded.
"Thought so, his senses are sharp, very sharp," Zulong said.
"You looking to recruit him?" Yinglong asked.
"Of course, an independent is prime recruitment material," Zulong said with a laugh.
"Then why'd you let him leave?" Yinglong asked.
"We'll see it again," Zulong said. "A guy like that doesn't stay out of trouble for long," he said. The most senior of the dragons turned around and lead his brothers away.