"Whoosh, whoosh~"
High above the ground, Jun Wangyou rode his sword forward.
The fierce wind howled past his ears, noisy and chaotic.
Yet Jun Wangyou's heart had strangely calmed down.
The restlessness he had felt at Lingtian Peak was gone.
Even Jun Wangyou could not say what had caused that inexplicable irritability.
Perhaps it was because his fellow disciples were fighting on the front lines while he was allowed to cower safely in the rear due to special privileges.
Or perhaps he could no longer bear the pressure everyone at the Heavenly Dao Sacred Land had placed upon him.
Why did they want him to cultivate properly in the rear?
Was it not because they valued his monstrous talent and hoped that one day, he could turn the tide and save the people from disaster?
Jun Wangyou did not like that!
He liked freedom—not only freedom of the body, but freedom of the soul as well.
No one would ever put shackles on him!
"Whew~"
Slowly exhaling a breath of stale air, Jun Wangyou opened his eyes and asked calmly:
"Tata, do you think I did the right thing?"
Above Jun Wangyou's head, Master Pagoda lay with one leg crossed over the other, his hands tucked behind his head, looking utterly relaxed.
Master Pagoda was in a very relaxed mood at the moment, because Jun Wangyou had finally come out to gain experience.
He had actually been worried all along before this.
He had worried that, under the Heavenly Dao Sacred Land's protection, Jun Wangyou would never have a chance to temper himself.
If that happened, the Heavenly Emperor's plan would be declared a failure.
Master Pagoda was afraid that the Heavenly Emperor would blame him when the time came.
Now, things were fine. Jun Wangyou had finally come out to gain experience.
The weight hanging over Master Pagoda's heart was finally lifted.
Hearing Jun Wangyou's question now,
Master Pagoda did not think much of it and answered directly:
"Of course it was right. Whatever Master does is right."
That was Master Pagoda's true thought.
In his eyes, all of this was merely a game.
A game centered around Jun Wangyou.
Jun Wangyou was the protagonist of this game, so naturally, whatever he did was right.
Hearing that answer, Jun Wangyou's mouth twitched. He should not have asked.
"Ah, I only wanted to lie low and cultivate, but the world is never predictable."
Jun Wangyou sighed with emotion.
Above him, Master Pagoda curled his lip and thought:
Master, please don't. If you really kept lying low forever, I'd be finished.
One man and one tower harbored their own thoughts as they sped into the distance.
Nanxuan City.
One of the famous great cities in the southern region of the Eastern Continent, it was home to countless cultivators.
It also possessed a large teleportation array capable of crossing continents, with millions passing through every day.
Outside the city at this moment, a graceful young man in white robes and a bronze mask followed the queue slowly into the city.
Nanxuan City was controlled by three great superfamilies. Any one of those families, taken alone, was a colossal power in its own right.
It was said that each of the three families had one or even several ancestors in the Tribulation Crossing Realm.
Therefore, under normal circumstances, almost no one dared to cause trouble within the city.
The queue was long, containing both cultivators and ordinary people.
Everyone was quiet. No one cut in line, and they were remarkably orderly.
After about half an hour, it was finally Jun Wangyou's turn.
Before the city gate, dozens of meters high, two soldiers crossed their halberds.
One soldier wore a cold expression and held a registration book as he asked, "Cultivator or ordinary person?"
"Cultivator," Jun Wangyou said.
"State your realm and name. Entry requires ten Low-grade Spirit Stones."
"Jun Wuyou, late-stage Foundation Establishment."
Jun Wangyou altered his name slightly. After paying the Spirit Stones, he could not help asking curiously:
"Ordinary people can enter too? What do they have to pay?"
"Ordinary people do not need to pay anything. Next."
That soldier clearly did not want to deal with Jun Wangyou.
His expression was exceptionally stern.
"I see."
Jun Wangyou nodded inwardly, unable to help forming a favorable impression of the city's three great families.
Those who could establish such rules could not be all that bad.
After entering the city, Jun Wangyou headed straight toward its center.
He had only one purpose in coming to Nanxuan City: to use the teleportation array and travel east.
And he had only one purpose in going east: to kill.
All disciples of the Heavenly Dao Sacred Land who went to war had been selected by lottery.
It was fair and impartial. Whoever was chosen went, including the 108 core disciples. No one had special privileges.
Except Jun Wangyou.
Jun Wangyou hated this privilege!
Because it made him feel that every fellow disciple who died on the battlefield had a direct karmic connection to his privilege.
That placed enormous psychological pressure on Jun Wangyou.
So he simply went all the way and came to join the war as well.
Though it went against his principle of lying low while cultivating.
It was still better than acting against his conscience.
Soon, Jun Wangyou reached the city center.
But the moment he arrived, the sight before him left him stunned.
Before him was a sea of people. Crowds packed three layers deep inside and three layers deep outside surrounded the entire teleportation array.
As far as the eye could see, people were packed densely together—at least several hundred thousand of them.
At the same time, countless people shouted as they shoved their way inward.
"This..."
Jun Wangyou was a little dumbfounded.
At this rate, he definitely would not be able to squeeze in today.
After watching from the outskirts for a while, Jun Wangyou sighed inwardly.
From the discussions and arguments around him,
he came to understand where these people were all headed.
It turned out that every one of them was going to the Central Continent.
What were they going to do in the Central Continent?
Naturally, they were fleeing there for refuge.
Of the Mystic Realm's thirteen continents, the Central Continent was the strongest.
If one were to ask where in the Mystic Realm was relatively safe now, it would undoubtedly be the Central Continent.
"When disaster struck, everyone flew off on their own. But who ever thought that the land beneath their feet had raised them, that it was their root?"
Jun Wangyou shook his head and turned to leave.
Not long after Jun Wangyou left,
a mighty figure arrived through the air and said coldly to the crowd:
"By the joint order of the three great families, the teleportation array is closed to all destinations except the eastern, central, and western regions!"
The moment those words were spoken, the crowd erupted in thunderous uproar.
"What is going on? What are the three great families trying to do?"
"Isn't it obvious? They don't want to let us leave! They want us to die here alongside these fools!"
"How dare you! I am the son of the Myriad Sword Sect's sect master! I order you to open the teleportation array! You have no right to close it!"
"..."
The crowd erupted with dissatisfaction and gradually began to stir.
When several hundred thousand cultivators stirred at once, the commotion was terrifying.
But faced with this scene, the mighty figure in the air simply swung out a blast of sword qi.
The sword qi fell into the crowd, and in an instant, countless people were sliced directly in half.
The crowd fell silent at once. No one dared make another sound.
Everyone stared into the sky with extreme fear in their eyes.
At that moment, a vigorous voice rang out from a luxurious residence somewhere within Nanxuan City.
"Anyone who dares make another disturbance will be executed without mercy! In Nanxuan City, even if you are the king of heaven himself, you will lie down when I tell you to!"
"Hmph! What right do a bunch of cowardly trash have to make noise?"
Yuelai Tavern.
The tavern had five floors, with an open hollow center and no obstructions.
From the fifth floor, one could see all the way down to the first.
People from every walk of life gathered in the tavern, all sorts of people chatting away inside.
But at this moment, most of their conversations concerned the three battlefields.
Jun Wangyou sat on the second floor, sipping wine as he listened to the tavern's noisy chatter and silently gathered the information he wanted.
"Have you heard? Taixuan City, the greatest city in the east, has already been breached by the Demon-Monster Allied Army. Over ten million people in the city were slaughtered clean. Blood truly flowed into a sea."
"Bullshit! Why did I hear that an unparalleled expert appeared in Taixuan City and beat the Demon-Monster Allied Army until they fled in panic?"
"You're both wrong. What I heard was that Taixuan City has already surrendered to the Demon-Monster Allied Army..."
"..."
Listening to all these rumors, Jun Wangyou smiled helplessly.
Under such circumstances, obtaining the accurate information he wanted was truly no easy task.
Just then, Jun Wangyou, who had been smiling bitterly, suddenly shifted his gaze.
His attention was caught by a young man in a blue brocade robe.
That young man was currently moving from table to table among the patrons.
He kept asking them questions.
Jun Wangyou listened closely, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
The young man was actually asking:
"Brother, heading east?"
"Big brother, going east to get rich?"
"Brother, come on, let's go east together and achieve something great."
"Miss, going east? Big brother will protect you."
Without exception, the young man's responses were all streams of angry curses.
The most common response was, "Are you fucking stupid? Only idiots go east to die now."
Before you continue