Outside the market, Stony Slope bristled with strange rocks, without a single blade of grass.
Wearing a mask, Zhao Hao appeared silently in the shadow of a massive boulder, his movements ghostlike.
Two people stood nearby.
One was a man in blue robes-Wu Tang, the Hundred Treasures Pavilion's second-tier Alchemist.
The other was an old man in gray robes who exuded an aura of decay.
Foundation Establishment Early Stage.
A single glance was enough for Zhao Hao to make his assessment.
This old devil already had one foot in the grave. The deathly aura around him was thicker than that of the refined corpses Zhao Hao had seen before, and his eyes were murky. He looked like a ruthless character.
"Fellow Daoist Zhao, you're here." Seeing Zhao Hao, Wu Tang stepped forward to greet him.
He pointed to the old man beside him. "This is Fellow Daoist Sun Ze, the patriarch of a cultivation lineage. His lifespan is nearing its end, and he wishes to seek an opportunity to break through in Ten Thousand Immortal City."
"Fellow Daoist Sun, this is Fellow Daoist Zhao, whom I mentioned to you."
Sun Ze's murky eyes swept over Zhao Hao. His withered face twisted into an expression uglier than weeping, and his voice sounded like two stones grinding together.
"Fellow Daoist Zhao, I've long heard of you."
"Fellow Daoist Sun." Zhao Hao replied in an equally hoarse voice, by way of greeting.
Each of the three harbored his own thoughts, and the atmosphere immediately grew awkward.
Wu Tang gave a dry cough, breaking the silence.
"Since everyone is here, we shouldn't delay. Let's set off at once."
With that, he summoned a flying sword shimmering with blue light and landed firmly on its blade with a light leap.
Sun Ze took out a blood-red flying disc shaped like a crescent moon. It spun and swelled in the wind, and he pushed off with his toes to stand atop it, bloody vapor swirling around him.
Their movements flowed like drifting clouds and running water. With a surge of spiritual power, they shot off the ground and straight into the clouds, soon hovering two hundred zhang above the earth.
Only then did they look down, waiting for Zhao Hao to follow.
But after waiting for quite some time-
They saw Zhao Hao urging his pitch-black Ghost Bone Sword shakily up to a height of around sixty zhang, where he stopped ascending.
Given his speed and posture, it looked less like sword flight and more like a stroll through the air.
Wu Tang and Sun Ze exchanged a glance, each seeing a trace of bewilderment in the other's eyes.
"Fellow Daoist Zhao?"
Wu Tang slowly lowered his flying sword until he was level with Zhao Hao, a hint of puzzlement on his face. "Why not fly higher and faster? At this altitude, not only do you consume more spiritual power, but you can't build up speed either."
Sun Ze said nothing. He merely hovered on the other side on his blood-red flying disc, his cold gaze fixed unblinkingly on Zhao Hao, as though trying to see right through him.
Zhao Hao adjusted his flying sword to make himself appear a little steadier, then asked unhurriedly in his hoarse voice.
"Fellow Daoists, what sort of times are we living in?"
His voice was quiet, but both men heard him clearly.
Without waiting for their answers, he continued.
"The Extreme Yin Sect and the Heavenly Sword Sect are fighting so fiercely they're practically beating each other's brains out. Where in the entire Northern Lands is there any peace left?"
"At two hundred zhang up, your sword light and spiritual energy are visible from dozens of li away. You're practically beacons in the night. Aren't you afraid someone will come looking for trouble?"
"Whichever side's patrol cultivators get their hooks into us, we'll inevitably face an interrogation."
"And if our luck turns sour and we attract some faction's Golden Core cultivator, would our meager wealth even be enough to fill a gap between his teeth?"
When he finished, a brief, deathly silence fell over Stony Slope.
The smile froze on Wu Tang's face.
A flicker of lingering fear appeared in Sun Ze's murky eyes as well.
That's right!
They had been so intent on reaching Ten Thousand Immortal City quickly that they had forgotten the deadliest issue of all!
This entire region was now a vast quagmire of war, crawling with rabid dogs driven mad by slaughter!
If the three Foundation Establishment cultivators were discovered, whether the righteous cultivators hunted them down as demonic cultivators or the demonic cultivators fleeced them as fat sheep, nothing good would come of it.
Especially for Sun Ze!
He had little lifespan remaining. This journey was a gamble for his life, not a trip to throw it away! He could not afford even the slightest risk!
Zhao Hao's words had struck straight to his heart!
"Fellow Daoist Zhao is absolutely right! I was careless!"
Sun Ze was the first to respond, his aged face utterly solemn.
Without another word, he sent the blood-red flying disc beneath his feet plunging downward!
Wu Tang also drew a deep breath and solemnly cupped his hands toward Zhao Hao.
"Thank you for the reminder, Fellow Daoist Zhao. I failed to think things through."
With that, he urged his flying sword downward as well.
And so, a bizarre scene unfolded.
Two seasoned Foundation Establishment cultivators, who should have been racing through the clouds like the wind and lightning, lowered their flight altitude to a mere twenty zhang above the ground!
That was a full forty zhang lower than Zhao Hao's sixty!
With solemn expressions, they flew cautiously along the treetops of the mountain forests below, as though they were carrying out some top-secret mission with only one chance of survival in ten.
"..."
Looking at the two "seniors" flying below him even more "furtively" than he was, Zhao Hao was speechless.
At the same time, he inwardly raised his guard.
These two might look as though he had hoodwinked them into helplessness, but in truth, each clung to life more fiercely and was more slippery than the other.
Let's hope this journey goes smoothly!
"In that case, let's follow this route."
Wu Tang took out a map jade slip. The three extended their spiritual senses into it and settled on their final route together.
They would first head south through the Extreme Yin Sect's borderlands and enter the territory of the Thousand Buddha Temple, a righteous sect. Then they would travel west through the chaotic region where the territories of the Thousand Buddha Temple, the Ten Thousand Soul Hall, and the Extreme Yin Sect met, making their way to Ten Thousand Immortal City.
Although this route was somewhat roundabout, it would keep them as far as possible from the battlefront between the Extreme Yin Sect and the Heavenly Sword Sect.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Three streaks of sword light sped south in an exceedingly bizarre formation, skimming the mountains, rivers, and seas of forest.
Several consecutive days of low-altitude flight consumed considerably more spiritual power than flying high would have.
That day, when nearly half the li fire power in Zhao Hao's dantian had been depleted, all three slowed down without consulting one another.
"A hundred li ahead is a mortal city called Blackstone City. It's a stronghold on the border between the Thousand Buddha Temple and the Ten Thousand Soul Hall. How about we rest there and recover our spiritual power?" Wu Tang suggested at an opportune moment.
Neither Sun Ze nor Zhao Hao objected.
However, just as the three rode their sword light over a mountaintop and glimpsed the distant outline of the city, they all stopped short, hovering in midair.
Beneath the distant horizon, two columns of dense ghostly energy, each as thick as a bucket, coiled above what should have been a city inhabited by mortals!
One black and one gray, they resembled two savage venomous dragons, holding the entire city beneath their suffocating shroud.
An icy wind howled, and even from dozens of li away, the faint wailing of ghosts could still be heard.
It was as though the sight proclaimed to the world that this was no mortal city at all, but a city of ghosts!