Lihuo City.
It was the provincial capital of Scarlet Flame Dao Province, one of the Xia Kingdom's twenty-seven provinces. As renowned as Nine Origins City in Jiuyuan Dao Province, it too had a Marquis-Sealing expert stationed there.
Chen Xuan chose this place rather than Nine Origins City because Lihuo City was far enough from Marquis Jiuyuan's territory. However long that Marquis-Sealing expert's claws were, they could not reach into Scarlet Flame Dao Province.
He concealed his entire aura and walked slowly among the stream of people entering the city, looking like an ordinary half-step Immortal body cultivator.
The guards at the gate merely glanced at him before letting him through. With his current World Realm cultivation at the Fourth Layer of the Saint Realm, unless he deliberately exposed himself, even a Marquis-Sealing expert standing before him would struggle to discern his true strength without probing inside his body.
Lihuo City was several times more prosperous than Giant Deer City. Its main street was over a hundred zhang wide, paved with Firecloud Stone that felt faintly hot underfoot—the result of years of nourishment from the subterranean fire veins.
Shops lined the streets, their vendors' cries rising one after another. Some sold Ancient Beast materials, others hawked divine weapons and fine blades, and still others displayed signs recruiting body cultivator hunters.
Without looking to either side, Chen Xuan headed straight for the most imposing building halfway down the main street.
The Desolate Hall's Lihuo City branch.
Its style matched that of the Giant Deer City branch. Built entirely from massive silver-white stones, it stood nine stories tall, with sweeping eaves and upturned corners. Two lifelike stone beasts stood before its entrance, radiating an intangible pressure.
Chen Xuan stepped inside and went straight to the counter for cultivation arts and secret manuals.
Behind