Forty-five days have passed since Zhou Qi stepped into the Hidden-Heaven Realm.
Forty days have passed since Yunting City.
They were relentlessly pursued throughout their journey.
Since the first wave of pursuit, small groups of two or three have continued to hunt them down.
They are usually not very strong; the strongest among them is only a cultivator at the Integration Realm Third Layer.
The weakest was even weaker than the Red Matchmaker.
According to Zhou Qi's speculation, these people were all from the nearby capital city.
But as he got closer to the Imperial Capital, the number of people chasing him visibly decreased.
No one has come for three days now.
Zhou Qi didn't know whether it was good or bad, but a faint unease lingered in his heart.
This is abnormal.
Knowing that its strength was not weak, Heaven-Escaping Pavilion would never allow this rabble to be worn down along the way, nor would it allow him to proceed unimpeded on the only road to the Imperial Capital.
Therefore, Zhou Qi guessed that the people who intercepted him on the road were not from the Heaven-Escaping Pavilion at all, or rather, they were just people with bounties from the Heaven-Escaping Pavilion.
Since those people weren't from the Heaven-Escaping Pavilion, the Heaven-Escaping Pavilion must still have some tricks up its sleeve!
Zhou Qi took out a map and glanced at the directions.
This place is about three days' journey from the Imperial Capital.
A three-day journey, nearly 80,000 li.
There's a high probability that a major crisis is lurking beneath the surface!
Exhaling a heavy breath, Zhou Qi calmed himself and continued his cultivation.
He has now reached the Late Spirit Transformation Eighth Layer, and he still needs 30 million points of proficiency to reach the Grand Completion of Spirit Transformation.
Zhou Qi already had an idea in mind.
Imperial Capital in a hurry to enter. Since someone was lying in wait, he decided to raise his strength to the Body Integration Realm first!
Six days later, in a Wasteland, on a patch of gravel.
Deep underground, an aura suddenly erupted in the Wasteland, and as the aura surged forth, a wave of energy swept outwards in all directions.
The rubble, which stretched for tens of feet in diameter above the ground, seemed to have been struck by some force and shattered with a deafening roar!
Tiny grains of sand in the air were lifted into the air by an invisible force, and then rolled and splashed outwards like a tide.
At this moment, in a space dozens of feet underground, Zhou Qi slowly opened his eyes.
He clearly felt the earth-shaking transformation within his body; the Spiritual Power that had been filling his dantian underwent a complete qualitative change.
His every gesture already possessed the essence of the universe.
Integration Realm First Layer!
Zhou Qi clenched his fist, and with a thought, he gathered all the High-Grade Spirit Stone and Supreme-Grade Spirit Stone that were mostly used up around him into his Storage Pendant.
He closed his eyes and focused intently, carefully sensing the changes in his body, a slight smile playing on his lips.
The greatest transformation after breaking through to the Body Integration Realm, besides the surge in strength, is the mastery of spatial Principle, completely transcending a completely different level.
This feeling is completely different from the crack opened with the Void-Pattern Spirit Stone before.
He could clearly sense a spatial awareness that was uniquely his own.
Zhou Qi raised his eyes, his right hand with five fingers together, and gently swept it through the air.
Sizzle--!
A tiny spatial rift suddenly formed in front of him.
The edges of the cracks are no longer chaotic as before, but rather have regular spatial patterns.
Feeling a sense of familiarity, Zhou Qi did not hesitate at all. He swayed and stepped straight into the crevice.
The next second, the void a hundred feet above the Wasteland trembled slightly, and an identical spatial rift quietly unfolded.
Zhou Qi stepped out of the crack, his clothes fluttering in the wind, and stood suspended in mid-air.
Hundred zhang!
This is the limit of his current spatial teleportation range; it may not seem far, but it represents a qualitative leap.
You should know that the silver-armored cultivator we dealt with a few days ago...
Body Integration Realm First Layer Late Stage, but could only move a distance of thirty or forty feet.
Zhou Qi felt greatly relieved, and after laughing heartily a few times, he began to sit cross-legged in mid-air.
Refine that Pink Baleful Sha.
The owner of the Pink Baleful Sha Red Matchmaker, was merely Grand Completion of Spirit Transformation.
With Zhou Qi's current strength, after two hours, the Pink Baleful Sha began to gradually recede.
Another half hour passed, and the originally soaring Pink Baleful Sha had been completely refined.
It is only ten miles away from the city gate of Xihe Imperial Capital.
The area was surrounded by a no-fly zone, forcing Zhou Qi to land on the ground.
The roadside gradually became lively, and the desolation of the Wasteland faded away.
The roadside was dotted with simple teahouses, wine stalls, and general stores, with merchants, bodyguards, and traveling monks coming and going in an endless stream, creating a noisy and bustling atmosphere.
This is the last bustling market on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital, and the final resting place for all travelers before entering the city. It is a melting pot of all sorts of people, but it is also a peaceful and stable place.
Zhou Qi completely suppressed his aura and Spiritual Power within his body, making him look no different from an ordinary weary traveler.
He took a step and slowly walked towards the official road.
I had intended to go straight into the city, but when my gaze casually swept over the rows of roadside stalls and tables, I realized...
Their gaze suddenly froze, and their steps instinctively stopped.
A simple open-air wine stall in front of the market.
Three old wooden tables were pushed together, and three men in coarse cloth and short clothes sat around one of them, with standard-issue dart knives at their waists.
The group spoke crudely, clinked glasses, and laughed loudly, attracting frequent stares from passersby.
The most incongruous thing was that sitting opposite the three of them was an extremely young boy in a blue robe.
The boy was dressed simply and plainly, with ordinary fabric and no spiritual patterns like those on a cultivator's robe.
Her black hair was casually tied up, and her face was clean and pretty; she looked to be no more than twenty years old.
He held a bowl of coarse rice wine in his hand, his posture relaxed, his eyes smiling, chatting and laughing loudly with three burly men. Every move he made blended into the lively atmosphere of the marketplace, and he looked no different from any other young traveler on his way.
Yet his overall demeanor was completely at odds with the everyday life of this city.
The other travelers were either rough and reckless or looked exhausted, their eyes revealing the weariness of days of travel.
This young man in blue, though laughing freely and speaking casually, was surrounded by an extreme sense of composure.
It was a kind of indifference that looked down on all living beings, like a bottomless abyss hidden beneath the surface of a calm lake.
It appears peaceful and calm, but in reality, it harbors a terrifying force that can devour everything.
Before Zhou Qi could investigate further, a cold system notification suddenly rang in his mind.
[Character: Jiang Mingwang ]
[Strength: Great Perfection of the Fusion-Origin Universe Realm ( Great Completion of the Integration Realm )]
The two short lines of writing instantly put Zhou Qi on edge.
The Grand Completion of Body Integration!
This is already comparable to Fu Linyuan's level!
The city remained bustling and noisy, with a cacophony of voices, and no one noticed anything amiss.
At the dinner table were three burly men, all labeled by the system as being at the fourth or fifth level of the Qi-Gathering Realm —the most ordinary low-level martial artists.
They were completely oblivious, still clutching the wine jar and laughing heartily.
Completely unaware that the easygoing young man drinking beside him is at the very top of the food chain.
Seemingly aware of being watched.
Jiang Mingwang turned around and glanced back with a smile.
Seeing Zhou Qi staring at him, his smile deepened, making him appear even more gentle and harmless.
He put down the rough porcelain wine bowl in his hand, casually waved his hand, and spoke lightly and amiably to the three burly men drinking heartily beside him:
"Please enjoy your drinks, gentlemen. I have some errands to run."
The three men, their faces flushed from drinking, burst into laughter upon hearing this, their crude and unrestrained banter echoing throughout the room.
The burly man on the left, with a full beard, grinned and joked, slapping the table:
"You're such a troublemaker! You can't even sit still after a couple of drinks, always running to the outhouse at such a young age. Are you weak or something?"
"Ha ha ha ha!"