The next day.
Outside the Heavenly Cloud Manor, on a distant mountain in the northeast, Xiao Yan and his two companions, along with Luo Cheng, the head of the Luo Clan, several elders, and Luo Jin and others, were all present.
"Let's stop here. It's such a long distance; I'm sure the Tribulation Crossing Sect won't bother sending anyone to follow us."
Luo Cheng smiled as he looked at Xiao Yan and the other two in front of him, took a deep breath, and said.
Upon hearing this, Xiao Yan and the others nodded, cupped their hands in a respectful gesture to the people before them, and then said:
"Thank you so much for escorting me, senior!"
"Hehe, with your current strength, leaving here safely is naturally not a problem. We are only worried about that scum Wu Du from the Tribulation Crossing Sect. As long as he doesn't come along, the journey ahead should be much safer."
Luo Cheng chuckled as he flipped his hand and took out an Formation Plate from his Storage Ring, handing it to Xiao Yan.
"Take this. It's a seventh-tier Formation Plate, a small token of my appreciation from the Heavenly Cloud Manor. If you encounter any danger, simply activate it. While I can't guarantee it will save your life, no one below the Yuan Zun can easily break it. Even Yuan Zun expert... In short, be careful and try not to provoke those kinds of experts again."
Luo Cheng paused mid-sentence before changing his tone.
Xiao Yan naturally understood Luo Cheng's meaning. He smiled and nodded, took the Formation Plate from Luo Cheng's hand and put it away. He then glanced at the group of people in front of him, and with the two people beside him, he respectfully bowed before turning and heading northeast.
Afterwards, watching the three figures depart, Luo Jin couldn't help but feel a lump in his throat. Just as he was about to say something, Luo Ao slapped him on the forehead, laughing and scolding:
"You brat, we're both in the Central Region, it's not like we're facing life or death, why are you making such a fuss?"
Upon seeing this, the others present couldn't help but burst into laughter. Almost simultaneously, inside the secret Heavenly Cloud Manor, in the ice coffin, Xiao Yi Xian, lying quietly, suddenly and imperceptibly bent her icy jade hand, which was covered by her long dress...
Inside the secret chamber, in the invisible void, wisps of eerie energy, almost imperceptible, slowly gathered towards the lifeless, cold body. The rate of this gathering was so slow that even Luo Xiong, if present, would likely not have noticed it at all...
In the blink of an eye, more than a month had passed since Xiao Yan and his group of three left Heavenly Cloud Manor. The vastness of the Central Region was beyond their imagination. Although they had traveled a considerable distance by using the teleportation arrays in several cities, they were still clearly quite a distance away from the Xiao Clan at this moment.
" The Xiao Clan is located in the northeast of the Central Region. At our current speed, we should be able to reach Xiao City, where the Xiao Clan resides, in about another week."
Bai Hua glanced at the map in his hand, a hint of helplessness on his face. It would take them just one week, and they would have to use the teleportation array twice more to reach their destination. Even with his strong will, the distance was daunting.
Xiao Yan could only shake his head with a wry smile. As far as he knew, apart from the border area where the four major powers were located, there were large teleportation arrays in all other parts of the Central Region, which could easily teleport them to the cities they wanted to go to. However, the problem they were facing now was that, according to the map, there were no cities with large teleportation arrays around their current location. The nearest large teleportation array was none other than the Ouyang Clan's main city, Sacred Gold City.
As one of the three major clans in the Central Region, the Ouyang Clan's power is not to be underestimated. To avoid unnecessary trouble, they had no choice but to eliminate this option. Therefore, they would probably have to continue their journey for another week according to the existing plan. Of course, Xiao Yan and Bai Hua were fine, but Lian'er would probably suffer along the way.
"Girl, you've really suffered these past few days. Once we get there, I'll make sure you get a good rest."
Such a long journey was gradually taking its toll on even the two of them, let alone Lian'er, whose cultivation level had not even reached that of the Origin King.
Gently rubbing the latter's delicate little head, Lian'er nodded with a hint of resentment, then draped herself over Bai Hua's shoulder, pouting and looking languid. The two could only smile affectionately at this, and then decided to rest temporarily in the forest below. Afterwards, the three of them jumped down, but as soon as they moved, Xiao Yan suddenly stopped, frowning as he looked at a forest not far away, his eyes revealing surprise.
"What's wrong?"
With Bai Hua's cultivation level, he could naturally sense that there were many people fighting in a nearby forest. However, such things happen all the time on the continent, so they naturally didn't need to pay attention to them. But since it could attract Xiao Yan's attention, this matter was probably not as it seemed.
Without answering Bai Hua's question, Xiao Yan stared intently at the forest not far away, his Spiritual Strength involuntarily spreading out, and the situation of that battle circle came into his view.
In the mountains and forests, a group of middle-aged men dressed in black brocade robes were surrounding several people dressed in blue robes. Apart from two middle-aged men, the others were all young people.
"Hehehe, let's see where you can run now!"
Among the men in black, a middle-aged man with a pointed mouth and monkey-like face stood in the void, looking down at the disheveled group of people, and smiled sinisterly.
With all escape routes blocked, the group had nowhere to retreat. Looking at the group of men in black before them, several young people in the crowd felt utterly despondent. They never imagined they would face such a predicament after coming out here...
"Hold on a little longer, everyone! The message has been sent out. Once reinforcements arrive, these bastards, along with their families, will pay the price!"
Among the group, a young man whose breathing was still steady gritted his teeth and encouraged the people behind him before turning his gaze back to the men in black, his face filled with cold and murderous intent.
"Hehehe, you guys probably won't live to see that day!"
The eerie laughter rang out again, and the aura emanating from the group of black-robed figures began to spread outwards, enveloping the surrounding forest. The chilling killing intent caused many young girls in the battle circle to scream in alarm.
" Zhao Ming, if anything happens to us, your Zhao Clan will definitely pay the price!"
From the crowd, the young man who had spoken earlier shouted again, but the other party immediately sneered and said:
"At a time like this, you're still trying to stall for time? Move them! Leave no one alive!"
As soon as the laughter subsided, the other men in black around them also shouted loudly, releasing their powerful Origin Qi. The combined aura of more than a dozen Origin King experts was truly terrifying!
At the same time, the expressions on the faces of the people in the encirclement changed. The two middle-aged men in the lead looked at each other and then nodded in unison. With a thought, the remaining Origin Qi in their bodies surged outwards without reservation. At the same time, the two men quickly raised their hands to their chests and formed hand seals in a rapid motion. The power gathered in their palms became stronger as the hand seals changed rapidly.
It was the special hand seals that these two people were holding that caught Xiao Yan's attention. Not for any other reason than that the hand seals were actually the Gu Clan secret technique he had practiced, the Emperor Seal Art!