The entire ancient city district was made up of old yellow-stone buildings, their surfaces seemingly worn smooth by wind and sand. At the far end, the teleportation array stood on a yellow-stone altar atop a hundred steps. To reach the altar, one had to pass through a towering city gate.
Flying over would make you an obvious target. But if you walked, there was only one narrow passage through the gate below, where it would be easy to fall into an ambush.
Carrying eight huge backpacks, Qi Dian made his way forward cautiously in the shadow of the city wall, still caked in windblown sand and bloodstains.
After watching the area for a good while, he slowly stepped into the passage.
Bang!
Before he had made it halfway, a burly, savage-looking man dropped down at the exit on the opposite end. He wore a black headscarf and had a full beard, and looked every bit like someone who'd get ten years in prison at minimum.
"Eek!" Qi Dian let out a very genuine cry of alarm.
He turned to retreat, only to find that a group of people had somehow lined up behind him. They were a band of rogue cultivators, several of them in the Third Realm. They looked quite capable, carrying all manner of magical artifacts and radiating menace.
Their leader was a young man in black carrying a massive, gold-trimmed ringed saber. He rubbed the back of his neck against the blade, then called to the other end of the passage, "Chang Daniu, we agreed that your group would take the ones flying overhead, while we took the ones walking below. Don't tell me you're trying to steal our business?"
Both groups were small bands of local rogue cultivators from Jiang City. They had happened to come