Flying Eagle

The sheer vastness of the cultivation world is something those who haven't truly wandered can't fathom. Between the Duanjie Mountain Range and Sky Rift Valley, the Mangcang Mountain Range sprawls for tens of thousands of miles, desolate and uninhabited. Juebi City is nestled within it, like a sesame seed accidentally dropped. Yet, this majestic, continuous range of a hundred thousand mountains is merely a tiny corner of the entire cultivation world.

A grand, boundless world, enough to discourage the weak, but enough to invigorate the brave.

The straight-line distance from Zhixin Temple to Sky Rift Valley is about twenty thousand miles, but to reach the region Yu Ci had visited before, the distance doubles. For ordinary people, this might be a distance they couldn't cross in a lifetime, but for cultivators, it's merely a short to medium-distance journey.

The seasons always change so suddenly. During these few days of high-altitude flight, cold air has been spreading south. Yu Ci is truly grateful for the Ghost Gauze Cloud that Baoguang lent him; it's been a great help. This item truly lives up to its reputation as the best tool for long-distance travel. Woven from special gauze-like materials and embedded with talisman formations internally, it uses absorbed moisture from the surroundings as power, allowing it to be used almost endlessly.

Four thousand miles a day!

This is the result Yu Ci achieved. Such speed already surpasses the level of some Core Formation cultivators. Of course, it comes at a price. Aside from the necessary rest time each day, Yu Ci travels for ten out of twelve hours, day and night. He has to endure bone-chilling cold currents at an altitude of several thousand feet, fend off foraging raptors, suppress his growing fatigue, and ensure he doesn't lose his way in this vast expanse.

The process is arduous, but none of that matters because he loves this feeling!

"Vast and boundless, as if riding the wind through the void; ethereal and detached, as if standing alone from the world."

Perhaps this is what it feels like to be an immortal. What is an immortal? An immortal flies in the sky!

Only when one truly takes flight, soaring through the clouds for thousands of miles, can they understand the joy of being an immortal.

He suddenly becomes incredibly greedy, because he isn't flying fast enough, high enough, or far enough!

On the morning of the tenth day, Yu Ci saw the distinctive sea of clouds of Sky Rift Valley from high in the sky. He still felt unsatisfied, and for a moment, he almost controlled the Ghost Gauze Cloud to crash into the boundless sea of clouds, to see what kind of world lay at its end. Fortunately, reason curbed his impulse.

The raptors and fierce beasts in Sky Rift Valley are not like the goshawks and great eagles he encountered these past few days. Besides flying, the Ghost Gauze Cloud has no defensive capabilities. If those brutes damaged it, he wouldn't have the face to explain it to Baoguang.

More importantly, the vicinity seems unusually lively.

The Ghost Gauze Cloud's maximum flight altitude is around three hundred zhang. At this height, amidst the boundless blue sky, it's not much. Any goshawk can fly much higher than him. But this one that's been circling him... does it really think it won't be discovered from twenty miles away?

Yu Ci hunches his body slightly, as if dozing on the clouds, but in reality, he's using the opportunity to conceal the Zhaoshen Map in his embrace, using his divine consciousness to lock onto the flat-beaked creature twenty miles away. Ever since he entered the vicinity of Sky Rift Valley, this goshawk has been following him.

Initially, it was very close, but after Yu Ci showed a hint of suspicion, it increased its distance. Unfortunately, it's still not far enough, so even the number of dark spots on its belly is not hidden from Yu Ci's eyes.

Of course, Yu Ci doesn't overlook another suspicious detail: a faint gray aura envelops the goshawk, and its pupils have two pinprick-sized red dots imprinted within them. This goshawk is being controlled.

Yu Ci knows he's being watched. He heightened his vigilance but ultimately chose to descend.

Returning to Sky Rift Valley, he felt the urgency of time even more.

When he left last time, the mountains were still verdant and charming. Upon his return, it was already late autumn. The vegetation had withered, and even the pine and cypress trees in the mountains had grown darker in color, with a sense of desolation permeating the mountains. However, the mountain stream water was much clearer than before. Cupping the water to wash his face, the gurgling sound echoed in the quiet mountain stream, as melodious as pearls rolling on a jade plate.

The icy stream water made Yu Ci's mind even clearer, and the faint human voices not far away made him feel quite nostalgic.

At this moment, Yu Ci had confirmed that within a fifty-mile radius, besides the approaching herb gatherers, there were no other conspicuous individuals. The cultivator controlling the goshawk was likely more than fifty miles away.

Indeed, there are endless secret techniques and marvelous skills. This is the first reconnaissance method Yu Ci has encountered that exceeds the control range of the Zhaoshen Map. Of course, the information seen through this method is definitely not as comprehensive as what the Zhaoshen Map reflects.

As he was thinking, four or five people were coming upstream along the stream. They were the herb gatherers Yu Ci had already noticed. Yu Ci smiled and greeted them, displaying his identity as a cultivator in a suitable manner, and then, everything became simple.

After the herb gatherers left, trembling, Yu Ci gained a general understanding of the situation in Sky Rift Valley over the past period.

Although this understanding only made him more confused.

About a month ago, around the time Jin Huan and his group went to Zhixin Temple, the two forces, Wanling Sect and Jingshui Altar, which had been suppressed by Bai Ri Mansion within Juebi City, suddenly joined forces and sent people to Sky Rift Valley.

Their reason was to search for the missing, but almost certainly deceased, Zheng De, Lu Quan, and Xu Ji—the three whom Yu Ci understood as the Poisonous Snake Monk, Daoist Lu Quan, and Xu Lao Er. Both sects were very high-profile and unafraid of losing face, frequently inquiring about the situation from herb gatherers, spreading the news far and wide.

If it were just that, it would be fine. But during the investigation, there were rumors that those three were harmed by a rising star from Bai Ri Mansion, and the story was told with such detail and conviction that it was hard not to believe. Wanling Sect was better; they didn't act rashly before the matter was clarified. However, the wicked monks of Jingshui Altar, without regard for consequences, redirected their hostility towards the herb gatherers working for Bai Ri Mansion in the surrounding area.

Within two to three days, over a hundred herb gatherers were killed or injured, and the situation became extremely chaotic. Bai Ri Mansion naturally couldn't tolerate such provocation and immediately dispatched four stewards with elite warriors to suppress the situation, putting an end to Jingshui Altar's ferocity. But the situation became even more tense as a result.

At this point, rumors resurfaced. This time, the ghost beast in Sky Rift Valley was implicated, with claims that the formations set up by the Myriad Spirits Sect and the Pure Water Altar were actually a diversion to mislead people. Their true objective was to capture the ghost beast that had been hidden in the valley for decades, thereby finding treasures left behind by a powerful immortal.

With this, Sky Rift inevitably became turbulent.

Then, the situation evolved into its current state.

Bai Ri Mansion, Wanling Sect, Xuan Yin Sect, Jingshui Altar... Except for Wusheng Sword Sect, which lacked sufficient manpower to spare, they had all arrived. Yu Ci counted them one by one, listing the five major sects around Juebi City. Among them were those he was familiar with and those he had never seen before. Yu Ci paid the most attention to three of them.

Bai Ri Mansion goes without saying; they are absolute mortal enemies. He had slapped Jin Huan in front of everyone. Such profound humiliation would be strange if Jin Huan could endure it.

In addition, there were Wanling Sect and Jingshui Altar. The reason for his attention was that he hadn't expected the case of the Poisonous Snake Monk and the others to break so quickly!

As the "culprit" who killed the Poisonous Snake Monk and the other two, although he had handled the aftermath cleanly, to prevent any unforeseen circumstances, Yu Ci had specifically inquired about their identities after returning to Juebi City. These three were somewhat famous in Juebi City and had powerful backing.

Among them, Xu Lao Er had the most significant background; he was one of the renowned Ten Great Experts of Wanling Sect. While it's possible that more than half of the "Ten Great" were just for show, Wanling Sect's strength was very real.

Fifty years ago, the story of Bai Ri Mansion's master, Jin Huan, fighting alone against Wanling Sect's master, Shi Song, and their top expert, Hu Dan, had become a legend in Juebi City, circulating in every street and alley. Although Jin Huan won, he couldn't kill even a single opponent. After that battle, Wanling Sect was forced to give up core interests in Juebi City and retreat to its outskirts. However, their power was not greatly diminished, and they still possessed the strength to strike back, being the only major force within tens of thousands of miles capable of rivaling Bai Ri Mansion.

Looking up, under the distant blue sky beyond Yu Ci's line of sight, the goshawk circled, its keen eyes serving others. Yu Ci had heard of this method. It involved attaching one's soul to a living being and controlling it as if it were an extension of one's own body.

This was precisely one of Wanling Sect's most well-known techniques.

Not only that, but the Poisonous Snake Monk Zheng De and Lu Quan were also not to be trifled with. The Poisonous Snake Monk was an important figure in Jingshui Altar, located in the southern suburbs of Juebi City. Jingshui Altar had an extremely bad reputation; the monks they harbored engaged in all sorts of sordid affairs, making them the largest den of thieves and bandits around Juebi City. However, their sect leader, Monk Yi Xin, had a mysterious background, rumored to possess Buddhist divine abilities, and was also on good terms with Lu Mingyue, the foremost rogue cultivator in Juebi City. Both were Core Formation cultivators, enough to maintain their standing and make Bai Ri Mansion wary. As for Lu Quan, he was a former subordinate of Lu Mingyue, almost like his disciple.

It could be said that if this matter were exposed, Yu Ci would essentially be making an enemy of the entire Juebi City.

Of course, no one could definitively point to him as the culprit, but if Bai Ri Mansion and Wanling Sect exchanged information and used the process of elimination, they would find that among those who stayed in Sky Rift Valley during that period and had the ability to act, he would undoubtedly be included.

Bai Ri Mansion would surely be happy to push the blame onto him...

However, he also wondered if anyone would believe that he, a rogue cultivator without any sect or backing, would commit the insane act of making enemies of Bai Ri Mansion, Wanling Sect, Jingshui Altar, and the city's foremost rogue cultivator Lu Mingyue all at once?

At this moment, Yu Ci's worry about the situation was overshadowed by the sense of accomplishment after carrying out these actions. This feeling was quite intriguing.

With a hearty laugh, Yu Ci walked forward again. Sky Rift Valley was already close at hand.

As for the goshawk still circling in the distance, who cared!