In the Market District on Chu Yun Peak.
After more than a year of effort, the people of Cloud-Raising Immortal City had finally built an Imperial Road over thirty thousand li long in this foreign land.
This was the day it opened to traffic. Inside and outside the Market District, lanterns and colorful decorations hung everywhere, and crowds thronged the streets. Many had come to watch the festivities.
"So this is the Imperial Road Puppet Masters usually use? It looks all black and dingy. Nothing special."
"You don't know the half of it, fellow Daoist. I heard that this thing might look simple, but it's actually a Formation Platform, built using the technology of the Mountain Gate Grand Formation."
"Oh? There's that much to it?"
"Of course. An Imperial Road is a road for swift travel. Its first and foremost purpose is to let people travel back and forth through the wild mountains and marshes without obstruction."
"High-rank cultivators can fly around all day, sure, but ordinary Qi Refining cultivators, and even those at Foundation Establishment, still have to come down and put their feet on solid ground from time to time. That makes this incredibly useful!"
"Think about it. These wild mountains and marshes are full of spiritual energy, with demon beasts roaming everywhere. They're incredibly dangerous. What does it take to make them passable? An Anti-Spirit-Gathering Formation that repels spiritual energy, of course!"
Supernatural powers abounded in this world. Spiritual energy was plentiful, vegetation grew rampant, and the population was too sparse for any road to emerge simply because enough people had walked the same ground.
The Puppet Masters' Imperial Roads were essentially simple magic arrays, kept clear through regular maintenance.
With something like this, traveling between different regions became much easier, not only for cultivators, but even