Several months later, on an official road dozens of yards wide in Qiongzhou.
A grand ceremonial procession drew the sidelong glances of countless cultivators.
At the front, thirty-six snow-white dragon horses with jade horns cleared the way, their hooves treading the air and sending broad ripples of spiritual light spreading outward.
Their riders wore gleaming silver spiritual armor and carried eighteen-foot golden spears. Their auras were unmistakably at the foundation establishment peak or pseudo-core level, their eyes sharp as hawks as they scanned their surroundings.
Behind them, eight palace commandants with golden core cultivation brought up the rear, channeling their true essence to levitate an incomparably luxurious Seven-Fragrance Treasure Carriage.
The carriage had a base of century-old warm jade and a frame of agarwood, adorned with luminous pearls and fine jade. Treasure light shimmered around it, and an exotic fragrance filled the air.
Around the carriage, over a hundred soldiers of Great Jin's Heavenly Might Army escorted it on both sides, dressed in black qilin uniforms with regulation long sabers at their waists!
Every one of these Heavenly Might Army soldiers kept his aura restrained. All were at the foundation establishment late stage, their steps perfectly synchronized and utterly silent, yet an iron-blooded, murderous solemnity spread from them.
Above the procession, several enormous embroidered official banners bearing such inscriptions as "Successful jinshi," "Personally selected by the imperial brush," and "Jade of Qiongzhou" fluttered in the wind. They even had an image-recording function!
Such pomp, such majesty! Passing through prefectures and counties with extraordinary grandeur, the person seated inside the carriage truly basked in boundless glory!
Everywhere along the roads, cultivators and mortals had already crowded both sides to watch.
The instructors and students of the various prefectural and county academies had received word early, setting up incense tables beside