Flying Eagle

The vastness of the cultivation world is something those who have never truly wandered it cannot imagine. Between the Duanjie Mountain Range and the Sky Rift Valley, the wild mountains stretch for tens of thousands of li, completely uninhabited. Juebi City sits nestled within them like a stray sesame seed accidentally dropped inside. Yet this majestic and continuous range of a hundred thousand mountains is merely a tiny corner of the entire cultivation world.

A grand and boundless world is enough to dishearten the weak, but it is precisely what inspires the brave.

The straight-line distance between Zhixin Temple and the Sky Rift Valley is roughly twenty thousand li, though to reach the region Yu Ci had previously visited, that distance would more than double. To ordinary folk, this is perhaps a remote distance that cannot be crossed in a lifetime, but to cultivators, it counts as nothing more than a medium-to-short-distance trip.

The shifting of seasons is always so abrupt. Over these past few days of flying at high altitudes, the cold air has continuously spread southward. He truly has to thank Baoguang for lending him the Ghost Gauze Cloud, as it has indeed helped Yu Ci immensely. This contraption is well-famed as the finest tool for long-distance travel, woven from special gauze materials and embedded with spell arrays on the inside, taking the absorption of external moisture as its motive force and able to be used almost endlessly.

Four thousand li in a single day!

This is the result Yu Ci produced. Such a speed already exceeds the standard of certain core formation cultivators. Of course, this also requires a price. Aside from the necessary daily rest, Yu Ci disregarded day and night; out of the twelve double-hours in a single day, he spent ten of them traveling. He had to endure bone-chilling cold currents at altitudes of several thousand feet, fend off foraging raptors, suppress the day-by-day accumulation of drowsiness, and ensure that he did not lose his bearings in this vast heaven and earth.

The process was very arduous, but none of that mattered because he loved this feeling!

"vast and boundless as if riding the void and commanding the wind, fluttering as though in worldly detachment."

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

Only by truly stepping off the ground to fly through the air and chasing the clouds over ten thousand li does one know the joy of immortals.

He suddenly grew incomparably greedy because he was not flying fast enough, not flying high enough, not flying far enough!

On the morning of the tenth day, Yu Ci caught sight of the trademark sea of clouds of the Sky Rift Valley from high above. He was still unfulfilled; for a single moment, he nearly manipulated the Ghost Gauze Cloud to crash straight into the boundless, unending sea of clouds to see what kind of heaven and earth lay at the edge of that sea. Fortunately, reason held back impulse.

The raptors and ferocious beasts in the Sky Rift Valley are not like the goshawks and giant eagles he encountered over the past few days. The Ghost Gauze Cloud possesses no defensive capability whatsoever apart from flight. If it were ruined by that pack of beasts, he would have no face to explain things to Baoguang.

What was more important, however, was that the vicinity seemed unusually lively.

The maximum flying height of the Ghost Gauze Cloud is around three hundred zhang. In the boundless azure sky, this altitude amounts to nothing at all—any ordinary goshawk can fly far higher than him. Yet, as for this thing that has been constantly circling and hovering around him... did it really think that from twenty li away, he wouldn't be able to spot it?

Yu Ci hunched over slightly, looking as though he were dozing off upon the clouds, but in reality, he used the opportunity to conceal the Zhaoshen Map inside his bosom, employing divine sense within it to lock onto that feathered beast twenty li away. Ever since he entered the periphery of the Sky Rift Valley, this goshawk had been following him.

At first it stayed very close, but after Yu Ci displayed a trace of doubt, it increased the distance. Unfortunately, it still hadn't pulled back far enough, so even the number of dark spots on its lower belly could not escape Yu Ci's eyes.

Naturally, Yu Ci would not ignore another suspicious detail: a layer of extremely faint greyish vapor shrouded the outside of the goshawk, and within its pupils, two red pinprick-sized dots were imprinted. This goshawk was controlled by someone.

Yu Ci knew he was being watched. He heightened his vigilance, but ultimately chose to land.

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

When he left last time, the mountains were still verdant and charming. Returning now, it was already late autumn, with withered grass and fallen foliage. Even though pine and cypress trees predominated in the mountains, their colors had deepened as well, and an aura of stern desolation permeated the great mountains. Conversely, the mountain stream water was much clearer and sharper than before. Scooping it up to cleanse his face, the babbling sound of water echoed within the tranquil mountain ravine like pearls rolling across a jade plate, delightfully pleasant to the ear.

The ice-cold stream water made Yu Ci's mind all the more refreshed, and the faint sound of human voices not far away also filled him with a deep sense of nostalgia.

By this time Yu Ci had already confirmed that within a fifty-li radius, apart from those herb-gatherers currently approaching, there were no other obtrusive figures. The cultivator manipulating the goshawk was likely beyond fifty li away.

Truly, marvelous techniques and secret skills emerge endlessly. This was the first time Yu Ci had witnessed a scouting method with a control range exceeding even that of the Zhaoshen Map. Naturally, the things seen using this method certainly could not match the comprehensive information reflected by the Zhaoshen Map.

Just as he was thinking this, four or five people came tracing the stream upward—precisely that group of herb-gatherers Yu Ci had already detected. Yu Ci smiled and greeted them, displaying his status as a cultivator in a fairly appropriate manner, and then everything became simple.

After the herb-gatherers departed with trembling steps, Yu Ci had gained a rough understanding of the situation in the Sky Rift Valley over the recent period.

Though this understanding left him even more perplexed.

Roughly a month ago—around the same time Jin Huan's party headed to Zhixin Temple—two factions within the Juebi City region that had always been suppressed by Bai Ri Mansion, the Wanling Sect and Jingshui Altar, suddenly joined forces and dispatched men rushing to the Sky Rift Valley.

Their stated reason was to search for Zheng De, Lu Quan, and Xu Ji, who had gone missing but were practically presumed dead—in other words, Poisonous Snake Monk, the Daoist priest Lu Quan, and Xu Lao Er according to Yu Ci's understanding. Both sects maintained a very high profile without fearing loss of face, frequently inquiring about the situation from the herb-gatherers, and the matter spread far and wide.

If it were merely that, it would still be fine, but precisely during the fact-finding process, news broke that those three individuals had been murdered by a certain rising star of Bai Ri Mansion, and the tale was told with such vivid detail that people could not help but believe it. The Wanling Sect was somewhat better; before the matter was clarified, they did not act rashly. But that pack of wicked monks from Jingshui Altar, paying no heed to reason whatsoever, transferred their baleful qi onto these herb-gatherers working for Bai Ri Mansion in the surrounding area.

Within two or three days, over a hundred herb-gatherers were beaten to death or injured, and the situation grew chaotic to the extreme. Bai Ri Mansion naturally could not tolerate such provocation, and immediately dispatched four stewards carrying elite warriors to suppress the disturbance, beating down the ferocious momentum of Jingshui Altar. Yet the state of affairs grew all the more tense as a result.

At that time, rumors flared up once more. This time, they dragged that ghost beast in the Sky Rift Valley into the mix, claiming that the grand array put on by the Wanling Sect and Jingshui Altar was actually a feint to the east and an attack in the west intended to delude and bewilder people. Their true objective was to capture that ghost beast which had hidden deep within the valley for decades, and thereby locate the treasure left nearby by some individual of great divine ability.

With this, the Sky Rift Valley inevitably erupted into turmoil.

And then, the situation turned into what it is right now.

Bai Ri Mansion, the Wanling Sect, the Xuan Yin Sect, Jingshui Altar... apart from the Wusheng Sword Sect, which lacked sufficient manpower and was unable to spare any, they had all arrived. Yu Ci folded his fingers inward one by one, counting up the five major sects surrounding Juebi City entirely. Among them were those he was somewhat familiar with, as well as those entirely unfamiliar. Among them, there were three that Yu Ci paid the most attention to.

There is no need to mention Bai Ri Mansion; they were absolute and mortal enemies. He had slapped Jin Huan across the face in front of a crowd, and facing such profound and utter humiliation, if Jin Huan could endure it, that truly would have been strange.

In addition were the Wanling Sect and Jingshui Altar. The reason he focused on them was that he had not expected the case of Poisonous Snake Monk and the others to come to light so quickly!

As the "murderer" who struck down Poisonous Snake Monk and the other two, even though he had cleaned up the aftermath of his actions thoroughly, just to be on the safe side, Yu Ci had still gone out of his way to inquire about the trio's identities after returning to Juebi City. All three possessed a fair bit of reputation in Juebi City, and behind them stood quite formidable powers.

The one with the greatest background was that Xu Lao Er, who was one of the renowned top ten experts of the Wanling Sect. Perhaps the so-called "top ten" had half its numbers made up just to fill the quota, but the strength of the Wanling Sect was genuine and solid.

Fifty years ago, the tale of Jin Huan, master of Bai Ri Mansion, fighting alone against Shi Song, master of the Wanling Sect, and Hu Dan, the number one expert within the sect, had practically become a legend in Juebi City, spread across every street and alley. Although Jin Huan won, he was unable to slay even a single opponent. Following that battle, the Wanling Sect was forced to cede the core interests of Juebi City and retreat toward the peripheral regions of the city, yet their power suffered no major damage and they still possessed the strength to strike back, remaining the sole major force within a radius of ten thousand li capable of contending with Bai Ri Mansion.

Raising his head beneath the distant azure sky out of Yu Ci's line of sight, the goshawk circled and hovered, using its sharp gaze to serve others. This method was something Yu Ci had heard of. Possessing souls onto living creatures and manipulating them like pointing fingers and moving arms.

This was precisely one of the methods the Wanling Sect was most known for to outsiders.

Not only that, but the Poisonous Snake Monk Zheng De and that Lu Quan were no simple characters either. The Poisonous Snake Monk was an important figure of Jingshui Altar in the southern suburbs of Juebi City. This Jingshui Altar possessed a wretched reputation; the monks raised within it solely engaged in sordid deeds, worthy of being called the largest den of thieves and bandit gang surrounding Juebi City. It was just that their sect master, Monk Yi Xin, possessed a mysterious background, was rumored to hold Buddhist divine abilities, and was furthermore on good terms with Lu Mingyue, the number one rogue cultivator of Juebi City. The two of them were both core formation cultivators, sufficient to prop up the sect's facade and make even Bai Ri Mansion hold them in some dread. As for Lu Quan, he was the young page boy whom Lu Mingyue employed in his early years, practically serving as his half-disciple.

One could say that if this matter were exposed, Yu Ci would be equivalent to making an enemy of the entirety of Juebi City.

Naturally, no one could point fingers and state that he was the murderer, but if Bai Ri Mansion and the Wanling Sect and others were to exchange intelligence and then use the method of elimination, they would discover that among those who stayed in the Sky Rift Valley during that timeframe and possessed the strength to strike, his presence could by no means be omitted.

Bai Ri Mansion would presumably be very happy to give a push...

However, he was also quite curious to know if anyone would believe that a rogue cultivator like him, without any sect, roots, or foundation, could commit such a mad act of simultaneously making enemies of Bai Ri Mansion, the Wanling Sect, Jingshui Altar, and Lu Mingyue, the number one rogue cultivator in the city!

At this moment within Yu Ci's heart, his apprehension regarding the state of affairs was instead inferior to his sense of smug triumph after having pulled off this series of deeds. This flavor was delightfully interesting indeed.

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

As for that goshawk still circling in the distance—who cares about it!