As he swept across the land, Wei Yuan suddenly sensed something deep beneath the earth. The sensation was extraordinarily peculiar, like a call pulsing through his bloodline.
Looking downward, he seemed to vaguely perceive a colossal entity concealed in the subterranean depths. Sweeping his gaze across it, it spanned perhaps several hundred li, perhaps even thousands of li!
Yet the sensation vanished in a flash, telling Wei Yuan that the right opportunity had not yet arrived. He was still too weak; only after raising his realm would he have the chance to return and investigate in the future.
With the emergence of the True Dragon scions, Wei Yuan felt that the entire world was growing increasingly bizarre.
For now, however, it was best to leave this place first and return when he had the capability. Wei Yuan increased his output of Dao power, but soon found that his speed gained very little. The oncoming astral winds grew ever more ferocious, and at this point, every slight boost in speed consumed significantly more Dao power.
Wei Yuan slowed slightly to conserve his Dao power when several figures suddenly shot skyward from the snowy mountains below! Had Wei Yuan not reacted swiftly and veered in time, they would have intercepted him!
With thoughts racing, Wei Yuan looped around in a wide arc and continued speeding toward the southwest. By now, the figures were clearly visible—all were high-level dharma idol cultivators of the Liao Clan.
The two sides were separated by barely a thousand zhang. Wei Yuan did not immediately accelerate to full speed; instead, he took out two manifested wings and mounted them onto both sides of the frame. With these wings, the litter frame instantly felt much lighter, rising over a hundred zhang directly. Wei Yuan quickly dialed back the Dao power used to maintain levitation, thereby keeping his balance.
In the otherworldly realm, everyone understood the basic principles of aerodynamic lift, and Xu Wenwu had naturally written them down. But in this world, flying dharma treasures were endless, and cultivators could fly on their own over short distances, so the cultivators of the Palace of Grand Beginning had never shown much interest in such things.
Now, carrying Zhang Sheng—who was reduced to a mortal body—with multiple dharma idol cultivators in pursuit, Wei Yuan had to conserve every shred of Dao power. Thus, he finally recalled the concept of wings. Once installed, they indeed saved a substantial amount of Dao power required for levitation.
Next was the astral wind ahead.
Among Dao arts was the Wind Repelling Art, which generally formed a spherical barrier to part the astral winds to either side. Wei Yuan had learned this art himself, and an advanced Wind Repelling Incantation could treat astral winds as if they did not exist. However, its principle was essentially using Dao power to cleave the astral winds and divert them aside, which consumed no small amount of power.
At this moment, Wei Yuan suddenly recalled the treatises where Immortal Monarch Tinghai explained the Water Blade Art. Looking back, wouldn't the article on optimizing the water blade's profile be perfect here?
Wei Yuan instantly used his Dao power to construct a colossal water blade enclosing both himself and Zhang Sheng, leaving only the two thruster tubes exposed outside. Such a bizarre combination drastically reduced his Dao power consumption. Wei Yuan felt much relieved and maintained his original speed, keeping his distance from the dharma idols behind—just beyond the attack range of their Dao arts and magical artifacts.
The group of dharma idols pursued relentlessly. In the blink of an eye, nearly an hour passed. Wei Yuan's speed did not flag in the least, whereas the hearts of the dharma idols were pounding and their blood qi boiled; they were already starting to strain under the exertion.
As they gave chase, they conferred among themselves. Suddenly, one of the dharma idols began burning his essence blood. His speed surged dramatically, and he circled ahead of Wei Yuan, preparing to cut him off.
Startled, Wei Yuan instantly sped up, a cloud of blood surging around him! Like a meteor streaking across the sky, he matched the essence-blood-burning dharma idol stride for stride, and the two of them left the other dharma idols far behind in the blink of an eye.
The dharma idol gritted his teeth and pushed through. He refused to believe that a mere Dao Foundation cultivator could outlast him in a contest of magic power and essence blood!
The blood qi radiating from Wei Yuan was so dense that it seemed as if his body were about to burst and perish, looking as though he might drop dead at any second. Yet, wobbling and swaying, he simply refused to die.
Seeing Wei Yuan looking so wretched, the dharma idol fought desperately to hold on despite his own mounting exhaustion. After another cup of tea's time, Wei Yuan still had not collapsed, but the dharma idol himself could take no more.
The dharma idol ceased burning essence blood and was just about to utter some fierce threats when he suddenly saw Wei Yuan stop as well, appearing before him in an instant! At the same moment, a dragon guard materialized on either side of him.
Wei Yuan opened his mouth and exhaled a wisp of cold qi. The biting aura of the divine tree instantly froze the dharma idol's magic power, whereupon the three struck with a flurry of swords, slaying the dharma idol on the spot. Wei Yuan then snatched his waist pouch, spun around, and took off.
When the other dharma idols caught up, all they saw was their comrade's bloodied corpse falling toward the earth, staining the sky red.
A collective gasp of cold air rippled through them. This time, none dared to break away alone, sticking close together as they pursued doggedly.
In truth, Wei Yuan had merely released a sliver of his leftover blood qi earlier to put on a show for the dharma idol. Longying's blood qi was overwhelmingly immense; leaking even a trace made Wei Yuan look on the verge of exploding.
Seeing the dharma idols still in hot pursuit, Wei Yuan unhurriedly took out two more cylinders and installed them onto the litter frame.
With all four thruster tubes firing in unison, Wei Yuan's speed soared to eight hundred li per quarter-hour. Streaking away into the distance, he threw the dharma idols far behind in an instant, vanishing beyond their sensory range moments later.
After flying several hundred li, Wei Yuan shut down the two additional thrusters, dropping his speed back to five hundred li per quarter-hour. This speed was near the limit of a dharma idol; even Longying could not sustain it for long, so those dharma idols had no hope of catching up.
Furthermore, after adding the wings and adopting the water blade profile, Wei Yuan's Dao power consumption was cut in half. At this speed, his Dao power depleted only gradually, allowing him to fly for a long time. Zhang Sheng, still possessing her divine sense, guided Wei Yuan in adding a few minor formations, making the craft's structure even more seamless.
After flying like this for another two hours, Wei Yuan activated his concealment and made a sudden turn, heading due west straight toward the Wu domain.
An hour later, the silver-adorned Liao Clan woman descended from the sky, appearing right where Wei Yuan had changed course. Intricate patterns surfaced in her eyes. After observing for a moment, she looked west and sneered, "Thinking of fleeing to the Wu domain? No matter where you run, death is your only end!"
She abruptly accelerated, streaking across the firmament like a meteor in pursuit toward the west. Not long after she left, a figure several zhang tall with the head of a lizard appeared, radiating murderous intent before bounding off in pursuit of her direction.
The border between the Wu domain and the Liao domain was filled with magnificent scenery.
The green qi of the Wu domain and the yellow qi of the Liao domain intertwined yet remained distinctly demarcated. Below, occasional villages could be seen, their inhabitants settled within the heart of their respective domains.
In some places, the green and yellow qi were indistinguishable, completely blended together. In these mixed zones, however, flora, fauna, and living beings were thoroughly twisted, harboring no shortage of terrifying ferocious beasts. Fierce clashes among beasts raged ceaselessly within, filled everywhere with madness and gore.
Wei Yuan flew very low, only a few dozen zhang above the ground. As he skimmed past, ferocious beasts would occasionally leap into the air, snapping viciously to take a bite. Yet Wei Yuan was moving too fast; the beasts snapped only at empty air and could only watch helplessly as he sped into the distance.
Cities also dotted this borderland. Most were not large, yet they boasted towering walls, deep moats, and heavy defenses. Around each city was a zone of pure Wu domain or Liao domain qi, which began to thin only several hundred li out.
Looking at the scene below, Zhang Sheng said, "Be it the Shamans or the Liao Clan, or even the Guiche, the Li, and the Mountain Folk whom you have yet to encounter—whenever large numbers of them gather to live together, they gradually alter the surrounding heaven-and-earth environment. These cities, in truth, are equivalent to our boundary stones."
Wei Yuan asked, "Why must we humans use boundary stones? Why doesn't gathering together produce the same effect?"
Zhang Sheng said, "As your master, I pondered this question for a long time back in the day, asking many seniors and masters, but none could explain it clearly. They could only say that heaven and earth have always been this way."
"If we didn't need boundary stones, things would be much better," Wei Yuan sighed.
Human expansion was fundamentally bottle-necked by boundary stones. How much territory could be expanded depended entirely on how many boundary stones were available. Yet population growth vastly outpaced territorial expansion, so every so often, the human domain had to consume a portion of its populace. Famines, wars—most stemmed from this root cause.
Hearing Wei Yuan's remark, Zhang Sheng countered, "Our human race dwells in a land beset on all sides by war. If we lacked boundary stones and expanded too swiftly, the alien races might unite against us instead, bringing us perilously close to annihilation. Striking the right balance here is exceedingly delicate; even a sage could hardly gauge it perfectly. Furthermore, human desires differ—everyone wants to expand a bit more, and who would willingly take less? Thus, using boundary stones to regulate this pace is actually a blessing."
Wei Yuan pondered her words, thinking deeper and deeper.
Bypassing the Shaman cities, the two began penetrating deep into the Wu domain. Then, Wei Yuan turned southeast, tracing a winding trajectory as they traveled all the way toward the human domain.
A faint sense of danger lingered persistently behind them; evidently, the Liao Clan pursuers had not given up. Wei Yuan therefore kept his concealment active the entire way, which still allowed him to maintain a steady speed of five hundred li per quarter-hour. Though their flight path was convoluted, they still advanced one to two thousand li closer to the human domain every two hours.
Had it not been for the second fruit gifted by Bao Yun, Wei Yuan certainly could not have fled so smoothly. The fruit ensured that even when he exerted his Dao power to the utmost, it left only negligible traces in heaven and earth. Even high cultivators endowed with innate tracking abilities had to halt periodically and search meticulously to pick up his trail.
Had it not been for that Yin-Yang Reversal Pendant, either Wei Yuan or Zhang Sheng would surely have died first, and ultimately neither would have survived.
Thus, without the life-saving treasures sent by Bao Yun and the Bao family, the master and disciple would have long since turned to dust—and given how low their cultivation was, they would not have even qualified as the dust of history.
Zhang Sheng was the genius disciple of Sky Azure Hall in this generation, ranking among the very top across the entire palace, yet she had not a single life-saving treasure on her person and had to rely on a gift from the Bao family. Furthermore, had Wei Yuan not been thick-skinned enough to accept it, Zhang Sheng's temperament would never have allowed her to take the jade pendant.
Thinking of this, Wei Yuan truly could not hold back: "Just how did our Sky Azure Hall manage to become so broke?"
Zhang Sheng snapped, "How did it happen? Don't you have any self-awareness?"
Wei Yuan retorted, "That's not the real reason. Most of the cultivation resources I consumed were borrowed from outside or newly earned over those ten years. So before my time, the hall was already dirt-poor! Look at you—you've never even owned a decent dharma treasure."
"This goes back to your grandmaster, Perfected Fenhai..."
Wei Yuan's insight had grown, and he was no longer so easily fooled. He immediately countered, "Grandmaster wouldn't have had the capability!"
Perfected Fenhai was merely a dharma idol, and his dharma idol did not consume that much in resources; no matter what, it could never reach the point of impoverishing all of Sky Azure Hall.
"Oh, then it goes back to your Patriarch Xuanyue..."
As they traveled steadily southward, the pursuers behind them ultimately failed to catch up. The two chatted along the way about palace secrets, and in the blink of an eye, night fell. Wei Yuan found a natural cave, concealed their presence, carefully arranged the interior, and then took out a strip of cloth to blindfold his own eyes...
"It's late. Let's get some rest early!" Wei Yuan's voice was brimming with anticipation.
Chapter 372