Li Yan's expression was perfectly natural as he spoke. He had worked out how to handle this long ago.
The young guard looked Li Yan up and down. He did not ask what the two of them had been doing in the Tianlan Grasslands.
There was no point asking. They could simply say they had been searching for a certain medicinal herb and followed its trail here. Could he really investigate that thoroughly?
Their task was only to verify the pair's identities. They just needed to establish that neither was a cultivator of the Tianlan tribe.
"Human Race cultivators?"
Li Yan nodded.
"You want to enter the city without tokens? Then it won't be quite so simple for the two of you. You'll have to come with me!"
An hour later, Li Yan and Zhao Min emerged from a large courtyard. Li Yan glanced back at it before finally letting out a long breath.
"Good. At least that's settled!"
He was in fairly good spirits. The process had been troublesome, and it had cost them two thousand spirit stones before they were truly allowed into Tingyun Kingdom.
It showed just how close Tingyun Kingdom and the Tianlan tribe were to drawing swords. Still, they were safe for the moment. They should not have to worry about Tianlan cultivators pursuing them here.
During that hour, they had been placed inside one formation after another, all of which could conjure illusions.
The formations could affect even a Golden Core Realm cultivator's mind to some degree. One careless moment, and they might give themselves away.
In those illusions, relatives and closest friends questioned them. The formations could also create dreams drawn from their own minds, or plunge them into brutal slaughter until despair made them recount what they had experienced.
The formation makers