The World Is Vast; Anywhere Can Be Reached in Three Breaths

Chen Qiu wasted no time. Gripping Huang Shikai by the collar with his left hand, he strode toward the cliff edge they had come from. The summoned Wraith could only exist for one hour before automatically dispersing.

Nor could it be paused midway.

Huang Shikai's "No Attacks from Behind or the Sides" entry was even more useful than he had imagined. He had to make the most of Huang Shikai's remaining value within the time left.

"Brother Chen Qiu."

Fat Dragon had finally recovered his senses and hurried after Chen Qiu. "You've openly summoned Huang Shikai's Wraith like this. Anyone can tell you possess the ability to turn creatures you kill into summonable Wraiths!"

"With so many people watching here, this information will definitely leak out before long."

"Then your trump card will be gone. Can a trump card still be a trump card if everyone knows about it?"

Chen Qiu strode toward the cliff edge, speaking slightly faster.

"Who said this was a trump card?"

"Pick up the pace. Time waits for no one!"

"Heh."

The armored guard commander stationed at Immortal-Seeking Gate, the main gate in the western city wall of Heaven-Question Market, watched Chen Qiu and the others' departing backs. Weighing the few taels of silver Chen Qiu had tossed him in his palm, he could not help but grin.

"That brother's a proper gentleman."

"Interesting."

He tucked the silver into his robes, then turned toward the guards behind him, who were staring eagerly at him. Laughing and cursing, he said, "What are you looking at me for? You think I'd swallow this little bit of silver all by myself?"

"Back to work!"

"After we get off duty tonight, I'm taking you lot to Windward City for some drinks!"

"Let me make this clear first. Only one girl each. I'll fucking chop off the hands of anyone who tries to touch mine!"

"Anyone who orders more pays for it himself!"

Heaven-Question Market did not allow people to remain after nightfall, except those staying at inns.

Once the inns were full, everyone else had to leave the market.

That was Heaven-Question Market's rule.

Heaven-Question Market forbade fighting. Every day, quite a few people came here seeking vengeance. One faction alone was manageable, but if too many factions came looking for revenge, even with Golden Core Realm cultivators stationed in Heaven-Question Market, they could not withstand that pressure.

Yet those seeking vengeance often paid generously in exchange for Heaven-Question Market's protection.

After weighing the matter, Heaven-Question Market established this rule.

It ensured they would not offend too many factions while also guaranteeing decent revenue.

Not far from Heaven-Question Market, atop another mountain peak, stood a small auxiliary city. It contained countless inns, taverns, brothels, and the like, providing lodging for those unwilling to descend the mountain that night, as well as the merchants from Heaven-Question Market.

In the auxiliary city, however, there was no rule against fighting.

The Heaven-Question Market guard squads rotated shifts, standing guard every other day. Tomorrow happened to be his day off, so he would take his brothers to Windward City for a good time and see what sort of elegance that courtesan rumored to have come from the Capital City possessed—the one who would not sell herself even for three Spirit Stones.

He could let his brothers feast their eyes as well.

The guard commander's face was piled high with smiles as he merrily imagined the night ahead. He worked even harder, for as a Heaven-Question Market guard, cleaning up the traces of battle around the market was his duty to begin with.

That fellow had not needed to tip him at all.

But with an unexpected windfall in hand, he still could not hide the smile at the corner of his mouth.

"Can you fly?"

Chen Qiu hurried all the way to the young man they had met at the cliff edge and said, "Take me somewhere. It needs to be fast. Name your price."

"Where to?"

The young man dressed as a scholar raised his head and casually glanced at Chen Qiu before lowering it again. "Times are changing fast. Is it fashionable now to carry a Wraith around everywhere?"

"Feeling hot? Using it to cool down?"

Chen Qiu crouched, meeting Scholar's gaze levelly. His voice was calm. "I don't have a specific location."

"Within a hundred li, where is there a place with many ferocious beasts? There should be a lot, but not too many. Preferably not demon beasts that move in groups—something with strong territorial instincts. And the strongest ferocious beast there must not exceed the Qi Refining Realm."

"Also, the place must be unclaimed, belong to no faction, and hunting ferocious beasts there must neither violate the Great Xia Law nor be stopped by anyone."

"Tsk."

Scholar, seated cross-legged on the ground, closed the little picture book in his hands. He looked meaningfully at Chen Qiu and suddenly smiled. "There is. Naturally there is. Twenty li west of here, there is a place exactly like the one you described."

"It has no name."

"It is a stone cave at the bottom of a natural chasm in the ground, several hundred zhang below the surface. There is only one kind of demon beast inside, called the Human-Faced Spider. It is a demon beast whose cultivation can never break through the Foundation Establishment Realm, nor can it ever develop intelligence."

"It loves cold, damp environments."

"But it is a pack-dwelling ferocious beast. It reproduces quickly, usually moves in groups rather than alone, and possesses an exceptionally fierce instinct to avenge its companions."

"Going?"

After pondering briefly, Chen Qiu nodded solemnly. "Yes. How long will it take to get there?"

"Three breaths."

"Three breaths again?"

"Heh."

Scholar laughed. "The world is vast; anywhere can be reached in three breaths."

"Fine, but you need to wait there for me and bring me back after one hour."

"Then give me one Spirit Stone."

Scholar slowly closed the little picture book in his arms and carefully tucked it into his robe. Then, somehow, the bearded brawny man they had met once at the foot of the mountain had already appeared beside them. Before they could speak again—

Scholar raised his right hand before his face, lightly touching thumb and forefinger while naturally extending his other three fingers. Forming a hand seal, he murmured, "Knock."

The next instant—

An Azure Edge Sword, its blade trembling without cease, shot fiercely from Scholar's coarse linen sleeve. It transformed into a streak of azure light and vanished into the clouds in the blink of an eye.

Three breaths later.

As though sensing something, Scholar's lips moved slightly, and his body vanished from the spot in an instant, leaving behind only a straw-woven meditation cushion.

Before Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon could react.

The bearded brawny man beside them seized Chen Qiu's and Fat Dragon's arms. The scenery around them immediately spun once more, heaven and earth turning upside down. In less than a breath, when the surroundings settled again, they were standing upon a wasteland where all the ground was parched and split with cracks.

"..."

Chen Qiu looked around in disbelief. There was not a single mu of spirit field, not a single official road, not a wisp of human habitation. This place looked as though it had been abandoned and plagued by drought for three years.

He looked far into the east.

He could vaguely see an immensely sprawling mountain range wrapped in mist and clouds. That was the Heaven-Question Mountains, from which Heaven-Question Market had taken its name.

Since they stood on a plain with an expansive view, he could not determine whether the Heaven-Question Mountains were truly twenty li away. But the distance definitely was not short.

Which meant—

In three breaths, they had teleported twenty li?

He also roughly guessed Scholar's entry—or perhaps the method of his cultivation art. It likely allowed him to teleport to wherever his flying sword had arrived, though Chen Qiu did not know whether there was any distance limit.

First, the flying sword reached the destination. Then Scholar teleported there, and Scholar's younger brother teleported them to Scholar's side.

With such a method—

"The world is vast; anywhere can be reached in three breaths" was no empty boast.

He had originally wanted to ask Fat Dragon whether a normal Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator's flying sword could really be this fast. But seeing Fat Dragon beside him with his jaw practically hanging to the ground in disbelief, he roughly guessed the answer.

"We're here."

Still seated cross-legged on the ground, Scholar smiled warmly at Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon. "At the bottom of this chasm lies the Human-Faced Spiders' stone cave."

Only then did Fat Dragon, who had recovered his senses, notice that this young man dressed as a scholar seemed to suffer from some infirmity in his legs and could not stand normally.