Above a barren mountain dozens of miles east of Beyond-the-World Valley, near the Royal City, a streak of escaping light raced through the sky toward Zhao Wuyan's location.
Suddenly, the light stopped, revealing a black-robed Blood Inkstone Palace cultivator. He looked at the object in his hand with a trace of startled uncertainty.
It was a yellowed paper map. The simple black lines sketched upon it seemed capable of changing with the surroundings, while a red dot resembling a drop of blood writhed as though alive, already very close to the center of the map.
"Old Ancestor..."
The cultivator abruptly raised his head. The space ahead rippled, and after those waves spread like ripples on water, Yin Changming appeared before him in dark blue-green Daoist robes.
"Greetings, Old Ancestor!" the cultivator saluted him with delighted surprise.
Then, looking somewhat puzzled, he took the initiative to ask, "Old Ancestor, what exactly happened just now? We saw you cross a hundred miles in an instant, going straight from north of the Royal City to its south."
At some point, Yin Changming had put on a bronze mask decorated with blue-green patterns, concealing his hideous, terrifying face, which was covered in black fuzz like a hairy jiangshi's. His voice was profoundly somber. "Cross a hundred miles? That is nothing remarkable. I encountered an expert."
"An expert?" The Blood Inkstone Palace cultivator was bewildered.
Yin Changming said, "Ask no further questions. Recall everyone at once. We are withdrawing from Xu Xin immediately."
The Blood Inkstone Palace cultivator shuddered. "Yes!"
Yin Changming passed the cultivator and continued flying south.
He moved extremely fast and soon vanished into the night.
The next day, outside the Mystic Xin Kingdom, in Blood Inkstone Palace.
Inside a vast palace identical to the one in the dream, Yin Changming sat