"Isn't Exterminating Nine Generations a Bit Much?"

After asking that, Chen Qiu said nothing more. He merely looked quietly at Fat Dragon, hoping for a thirty-seventy split.

Thirty for himself, seventy for Fat Dragon.

That would also settle the debt of gratitude he owed Fat Dragon from this small world. Chen Qiu did not like owing favors.

"Seventy-thirty, then."

After pondering for a long while, Fat Dragon finally said, "Seventy for you, thirty for me. Your combat strength is already about to surpass mine. Your luck is better than mine—you randomly got a combat-oriented trait while still in the Qi Refining Realm."

"With traits like mine, the Qi Refining Realm is basically a dead end. I won't be able to put on any particularly outstanding performance."

"I'll probably have to rely on you in the future."

"You should take more this time. From now on, the two of us will travel together, so we can look out for each other in this unfamiliar world. What do you think, Brother Chen Qiu?"

"Sure."

Chen Qiu nodded without saying much else.

The final bit of time quickly ran out. Huang Shikai, off to the side, also died in the Wolf King's jaws in despair. Chen Qiu then discovered something quite interesting: the resentful spirits of those cultivators killed by the Wolf King could likewise be summoned by him.

In other words, creatures killed by his resentful spirits also counted as having been killed by him.

In a sense, it was an eternal motion machine.

That meant he could summon three sixth-layer Qi Refining Realm cultivator resentful spirits and one fifth-layer Qi Refining Realm cultivator resentful spirit at any time. It was a small trump card, at least, and gave him a little sense of security.

Dawn broke.

The white vortex exit within the small world slowly emerged once more, while the Wolf King's resentful spirit finally scattered completely between heaven and earth.

The scenery before Chen Qiu's eyes shifted as he stepped into the white vortex. Once everything settled, he had reappeared in the bamboo grove three li east of Windward City—except there were now countless people surrounding them.

More than a hundred people had encircled the two of them so tightly that not even water could pass through.

Many wore thick killing intent on their faces, their features full of flesh. At a glance, they were clearly not people to be trifled with.

"Forgot to mention something."

With the corner of his mouth twitching slightly, Fat Dragon cautiously tugged Chen Qiu's sleeve and whispered, "The greatest drawback of the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm is that wherever you enter it is where you come back out. Because of that, plenty of people like to wait at the realm entrance and surround those who emerge from it, killing them to minimize their own risks."

"We seem to have forgotten to hire escorts from an escort agency."

"If you hire escorts, then when you emerge alive from the secret realm, your escorts will successfully protect you as you escape this crisis."

"..."

Expressionless, Chen Qiu looked at the burly men several zhang away, who eyed them like tigers watching prey and had surrounded the pair tightly. He casually took a step back and said calmly, "What if there are no escorts?"

"Then you bring out your backing, your faction. That can scare off quite a few people."

"What if we don't have that either?"

"Then we leave it to fate."

Just then—

"Kill!"

A group of fierce-looking burly men wielding woodcutting blades emerged from the crowd. Their leader was the very same man who had crossed paths with Chen Qiu before. His expression was shifting unpredictably as he raised his woodcutting blade and roared, "The treasures from this secret realm must all be on those two! Whoever grabs them keeps them!"

He had never expected that this young man would survive the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm. He had expected even less that, out of the full hundred people who entered this Heavenly Dao Secret Realm, only two would emerge alive.

Everyone knew that killing-type Heavenly Dao Secret Realms were dangerous, but that was only rumor. Few had ever witnessed one firsthand.

Now that he had seen it today, the level of danger was simply terrifying beyond measure.

Yet though the leading burly man's voice brimmed with baleful intent and his roar was deafening, he had no intention of taking even a single step forward. Still, that roar instantly ignited the desires in everyone's hearts.

No one wanted to be the first to make a move, lest they run into a tough opponent.

But they also feared that someone else would strike first and snatch away all the treasures.

The moment the first person charged forward, the entire scene immediately descended into chaos. The sky was only beginning to lighten as countless burly men in the bamboo grove, weapons in hand, rushed at the skinny and fat young men standing amid the crowd.

Roars, the sound of blades slicing through flesh, blood spraying through the air.

In such circumstances, people quickly lost their reason.

They could not even tell friend from foe, feeling only that everyone around them was attacking them. They were merely Qi Refining Realm cultivators, and their methods of attack were as crude and barbaric as those of rural villagers. The scene looked frightening.

But in truth, it was not even as grand as a full-scale armed brawl between two villages.

At some point, the scene began to calm down.

Quite a few people, covered in wounds, panted heavily. Looking around, they could not find any trace of those two young men. Every one of them eyed the others with suspicion, wondering who had snatched the treasures away.

And at that moment—

Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon were already walking along an official road.

Using the Earth-Escaping Technique and Illusion Technique acquired from the secret realm, both of which had reached the perfected realm the moment they were learned, Chen Qiu had taken Fat Dragon into the ground amid the chaos and easily fled far away.

Until they reached this official road.

"Here."

Fat Dragon pulled out a piece of dry rations from his robe and handed it to Chen Qiu. "Eat something first to fill your stomach. There's a post station a few li ahead with hot food. Then, if we keep following the official road for another ten li, we'll reach a cultivator market."

"They call it a market, but it already counts as a city. It just isn't one of the Great Xia Kingdom's three hundred and sixty-five cities, so it pays no taxes."

"That market is mostly populated by cultivators. Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators aren't all that rare there. The owner of that market is a Rogue Cultivator at the Mid-Stage Golden Core Realm, known as the Barefoot Immortal."

"It's safe once you're on the official road. Great Xia law forbids anyone from attacking any living creature traveling on an official road, whether mortal, cultivator, wanted criminal, demon beast, or foreign race."

"Even if it's just a rabbit, once it steps onto the official road, you cannot kill it."

"This law is enforced with utter thoroughness in the Great Xia Kingdom. No matter how powerful or high-ranking you are, you cannot be exempt. Once you violate it, your entire nine generations are exterminated."

"Mm."

Chen Qiu nodded. He accepted the dry rations Fat Dragon handed him without disdain, wiped the dust off them with the corner of his robe, then put them into his mouth. "The importance of transportation to a country speaks for itself. If different regions cannot trade and travel frequently, if even official roads cannot be guaranteed safe, the impact would indeed be enormous."

"It's clear that Great Xia grants official roads an exceptionally high status."

"Only... isn't exterminating nine generations a bit much?"

"It is a bit much."

Fat Dragon silently nodded. "According to rumors, this has been enforced since five hundred years ago. But not long after it was implemented, one of the princes beneath the Great Xia emperor, furious that his father favored his younger brother, ran onto an official road in broad daylight and killed a rabbit."

"Many people witnessed it."

"According to the law, the entire Great Xia imperial family should have gone down to meet their ancestors."

"But granting special exemption would undermine the status of the official roads and the law."