"Times aren't what they used to be."
Ma Qianli gazed at the road winding into the mountains and sighed.
"Back then, when one of our sect's chiefs traveled, if they didn't ride a Cloud Ark, spirit beasts pulled their carriage. Sixteen Reverted Elixir cultivators cleared the way ahead, and another sixteen escorted them from behind. I even made up the numbers once, just after I reached the Reverted Elixir stage."
Zhao Mingyuan sighed. "Later, they didn't even need me to make up the numbers."
"They thought you were ugly. Chief Hua only used female disciples."
The moment Zuo Siming said it, he felt he had slipped up. He shouldn't have mentioned Hua Gu; it made him sound disloyal. He glanced cautiously at Su Che, who stood nearby studying the mountains and the lay of the land.
I hope Chief Yang has a generous heart and doesn't take it personally.
"From the northern border of the Solitary Bamboo Kingdom, it's a flight of thirty-six hundred li into the Hundred-Thousand Mountains just to reach this place," Su Che said, shaking his head.
"We traveled on the wind. Who knows how long a caravan would take on the ground?"
"Another fourteen hundred li north of here by air, and you reach Jiao Province in the Southern Dynasty."
"The Hundred-Thousand Mountains stretch five thousand li, cutting the Central Land off from the Southern Wastes. They've also made these sects wealthy." Su Che spoke with feeling.
The trade routes between the Southern Wastes and the Central Land were controlled by sects of the Central Land such as Azure King Valley, the South Sea Sect, and the Myriad Spirits Sect. While suppressing the Demon Kings throughout the Hundred-Thousand Mountains, they also enjoyed the wealth brought by the mountains themselves and the trade routes through them.
"Unless