Leaving the City, a Mysterious Pursuit

Li Yan had thought he wanted to ask something complicated. But upon hearing the question, Su Mo found it simple enough.

Su Mo brushed her sleeve across her face, half-concealing her pear-blossom smile, and said with a light laugh.

"That is certain."

"The ancient records passed down by the sects all contain clear accounts of it."

"The two Immortal Venerables successfully ascended to White Jade Capital twenty thousand years ago and became True Immortals."

Hearing this answer, Li Yan frowned thoughtfully.

Had I been overthinking it?

Was Yan Po Shan's daughter, Yan Qing Qing, merely someone who happened to resemble Longyue?

Since both Longyue and Jin Mie had already ascended and become True Immortals.

They should not have descended to the mortal world and gone through reincarnation.

After turning it over in his mind, Li Yan felt that perhaps he had simply been too sensitive, too concerned about his two disciples.

He muttered inwardly.

"True enough. They have already ascended to the higher realm for tens of thousands of years and have long been enjoying themselves in White Jade Capital."

"Why is a little Nascent Soul Realm Daoist Child like me worrying about the two of them?"

Although his two disciples might have been disappointed after ascending to the higher realm and failing to find Li Yan.

Several tens of thousands of years had already passed. They had most likely let it go long ago.

Since that was the case, he should not let this matter distract him.

He needed to master Blood Cultivation as soon as possible, turn that group of Blood Cultivators into his subordinates, and then unify the entire cultivation world.

Although that plan sounded insane, with the Bloodline Dao Runes he now possessed, it was not impossible.

Having figured it out, Li Yan said blandly, "I understand."

"It is about time for me to leave the city for a while. You need not worry about my safety; Elder Xu will accompany me."

Hearing Li Yan say so, Su Mo instinctively nodded and respectfully presented the city-exit token with both hands.

"Alright. This is the token for leaving the city. Be sure to stay safe while you are out there!"

Li Yan accepted the white jade token and turned away with easy grace.

As she watched his retreating back, Su Mo looked somewhat dazed.

"How strange... Why do I obey his every word?"

"What is wrong with me?"

Confusion and bewilderment filled Su Mo's eyes. Why was it that whenever Li Yan said anything before her, she agreed without condition?

Lost in thought, Su Mo pondered for a long while but still could not understand the reason.

While Su Mo was still wondering why, Li Yan had already followed Sixth Elder Xu Mo aboard an Immortal Sedan, flying toward Sword Gate Western Passage.

When the Heavenly Pivot Hall disciples guarding the gate saw the Immortal Sedan approach, they instinctively stopped it.

"Stop! We have orders from above. No one may enter or leave at will."

Facing the Heavenly Pivot Hall disciples' obstruction, Sixth Elder Xu Mo, standing atop his flying sword, rebuked them.

"Do you not recognize this old man? Open the gate and clear the way at once!"

The Heavenly Pivot Hall disciple lowered his head and answered, "Sixth Elder, even you cannot leave the city freely without the Hall Master's permission."

Li Yan, seated within the Immortal Sedan, extended a hand and passed out the white jade token.

When the disciples guarding Sword Gate Western Passage saw the white jade token in Li Yan's hand, they were all stunned.

"Is... is that the Hall Master's personal token?"

"It is not fake, is it?"

They accepted the white jade token and examined it carefully, then returned it to Li Yan with panic written across their faces.

"Let them pass!"

The formation at Sword Gate Western Passage slowly opened, allowing Li Yan's Immortal Sedan through.

Xu Mo, the Sixth Elder following beside it, sighed. "Even when this old man came, they would not open the gate."

"I never expected that Your Holiness, the Holy Son, could so easily obtain the Hall Master's token."

"Could it be that... Hall Master Su is one of us as well?"

Seeing Xu Mo probe cautiously, Li Yan rebuked him from inside the sedan. "Do not ask what you should not ask!"

"Yes... yes! Understood, this one understands."

Xu Mo wore an expression of sudden realization and winked suggestively at Li Yan.

So Hall Master Su was one of them too!

Now that the Holy Son had arrived in person, and the Heavenly Pivot Hall Master was also an undercover Blood Law Cultivator, everyone had a bright future ahead.

"Holy Son, once we cross a few mountains, we will reach the agreed meeting place."

"The Blood Serving Sect will send someone to receive us."

As they spoke, Li Yan's Immortal Sedan and Sixth Elder Xu Mo passed through layer upon layer of mountains.

The scenery along the way could only be called hellish.

Beyond Cloud City, the outside world, deprived of spiritual energy, resembled a gray world.

Within Cloud City, there were still exotic flowers and rare herbs, seas of blossoms in every color.

But the mountains outside were covered entirely in withered trees and black soil.

It was as though the entire world had been scorched by the fires of hell, stripped of every color.

As far as the eye could see, the crags lay charred and cracked like heaps of dry bones, while dead trees jutted among them like broken arrows clotted with blood. Even the dust swept up by the wind carried the ash-gray pallor of death.

Only a muddled palette of gray and black remained between heaven and earth, as though time itself had been ground into dust and even the final thread of life had been drained away.

Looking through the sedan window at the scene outside.

A phrase surfaced in Li Yan's mind—post-apocalyptic wasteland.

The spiritual energy of the earth had been sucked dry, leaving the living creatures of this world with nothing but endless despair.

After the two immortal maidens, Longyue and Jin Mie, ascended, no one remained to stop it. The Dharma-Ending Era had still arrived.

Amid those deathly silent mountains, Li Yan vaguely spotted several figures.

"Hm?"

"In such a desolate place, could there still be mortals alive?"

Realizing something was wrong, Li Yan's eyes suddenly widened.

"No, they are coming for us!"

Those figures rose into the air, giving off a green aura.

This aura was utterly unfamiliar!

They were neither cultivators nor Blood Cultivators.

What these people wielded was a cultivation system Li Yan had never seen before.

Seeing those figures fly toward the Immortal Sedan, Sixth Elder Xu Mo, guarding it from the side, roared furiously at them.

"Impudence!"

"Do you know whom you are attacking?"

The people flying toward Li Yan burst into laughter.

"Nonsense. If we were not here to kill him, what would we have come for?"

As they spoke, they formed hand seals, and dark green energy erupted in the air!

Their target was clear: Li Yan.

They had come to kill him!

Seeing this, Li Yan was about to make his move.

But then Sixth Elder Xu Mo shouted, "My lord, run! Those men are no weaklings—they are Feather Ascension Realm cultivators."

"The Blood Serving Sect's people are to the north. Hurry and find them."

One had to know that the Feather Ascension Realm corresponded to the Spirit Transformation Realm.

Xu Mo, at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, was naturally no match for Feather Ascension Realm cultivators.

He was truly loyal, willing to fight to the death to cover Li Yan's retreat.

The moment Li Yan heard that his opponents were Feather Ascension Realm experts, he did not dare take the risk.

In Li Yan's dictionary, prudence came before all else.

If his opponents' realm surpassed his, Li Yan would never take a risk.

"Take care!"

Without the slightest hesitation, he threw out those two words, left Elder Xu behind to cover his retreat, and shot out of the Immortal Sedan without looking back, flying north.

Afterward, if Xu Mo died, Li Yan would at most return to erect a grave for him. That would count as doing right by him.

Seeing Li Yan abandon Elder Xu and flee, the mysterious cultivators involved in the ambush all shifted their gaze toward Li Yan.

"Leave one person behind to deal with this Nascent Soul Realm cultivator. The rest of you, follow me and pursue him! Do not let that brat escape!"

As Li Yan flew ahead, he sensed several streaks of green light chasing after him from behind.

These strange cultivators he had never seen before seemed to bear a blood-deep hatred for him, determined to kill him.