A year later.
As the outline of Jade Parasol City slowly emerged on the horizon, Ji Yuan stood on the deck of a short-haul Flying Boat.
The journey from Heart-of-the-Lake Island to Jade Parasol City should not have taken this long.
But he had deliberately avoided a direct route.
Instead, he had detoured through the heart of Kunxi, passing through the Teleportation Formations of several cities and crossing territories with different customs and powers.
He wanted to see Western Kun Continent with his own eyes, and to temper his One Viscera Realm cultivation along the way.
By the time the crown of Jade Parasol City's ten-thousand-year-old Jade Parasol Tree came back into view, his vital energy and blood had grown far more refined than when he first broke through.
The Flying Boat came to a stop at a berth in the west of the city, and Ji Yuan disembarked amid a thin stream of passengers.
Jade Parasol City looked much the same. A hundred races lived side by side, and roadside vendors sold spirit fruits, Talisman Paper, and all manner of Dharma Treasures.
He had not visited in years, yet the city had lost none of its bustle.
If anything, its growing fame after the Pill Origin Grand Assembly had brought even more cultivators from elsewhere.
Ji Yuan did not head straight for the Myriad Demon Grotto.
He turned into a quiet alley in the south of the city, swept his Divine Sense around him, and only after confirming no one was watching did he take out the Wind Messenger Token.
The token still felt faintly cool in his hand, neither metal nor wood. As his fingers touched it, the flowing patterns of light on its back shifted a little faster.
He sent a thread of magical power into the