After putting away the section of conjoined tree, Jiang Yang wasted no time. He left the peach grove at once, rose into the air, and hurried back.
Sword light streaked through the sky, soon reaching the Threefold Gate.
At some point, a middle-aged man with a bristling beard had stationed himself at the Threefold Gate. He had deliberately changed his clothes, making it impossible to tell which household he belonged to.
He had actually stayed behind, standing before the gate with a long halberd and collecting tolls, intent on a business that required no investment.
Seeing Jiang Yang approach, he stood with his head held high, tilted his halberd, and prepared to speak:
"Hey! You there, boy! Leave—"
The youth was in a hurry and could not be bothered with him. He casually rewarded the man with a sword strike, then swept past him like a streak of rainbow light.
"Swish! Clang!"
The light vanished almost as soon as it flashed. Amid the man's agonized cry, the halberd spun around and clattered to the ground.
That minor interlude did nothing to spoil Jiang Yang's mood. He passed through the gates without stopping and arrived in the Flower Sea, where towering trees reached toward the heavens.
The sky here was high and vast, and the exit lay directly overhead. He only had to keep ascending to leave the Blessed Land.
Jiang Yang disengaged Body and Sword as One, choosing the steadier approach of riding the wind into the depths of the clouds.
As he flew higher, everything beneath him grew smaller, until it dwindled into antlike specks.
Beyond the clouds, neither sun nor moon hung in the sky, but light still guided the way. Farther up should have been the astral wind layer, somewhere Jiang Yang could not yet reach.
But