A short, stocky cultivator next to the handsome youth first shook his head after hearing the youth's question. He looked around, and seeing that no one else was paying attention, he replied in a low voice.
At this moment, another cultivator on the other side of the handsome youth, who looked to be around thirty, pursed his lips. He glanced at Hua Siwang, who stood in front like a towering mountain with his hands behind his back, and his lips suddenly moved slightly. He sent a voice transmission to the handsome youth and the stocky cultivator.
"Old Six is right. Just before we left, I heard a few words that the Sect Master Master said to the First Senior Brother who is staying behind to guard the sect. One of them was that Master and the Great Elder would be heading to the Devil's Cliff Crevice area in a few days. The direction of the Devil's Cliff Crevice is precisely to the southeast, which is more or less in the same direction we're heading..."
"No way, I've heard that place has been the most brutal battlefield between the human and demon races since ancient times..."
"Yeah, Fifth Senior Brother, don't scare us..."
Although they were using a secret voice transmission technique, Li Yan's Divine Sense had long since reached a level unattainable by those of the same rank. With his deliberate eavesdropping, he naturally heard everything clearly.
Li Yan even sensed another powerful Divine Sense, faintly blanketing everyone here, including himself. It was Hua Siwang's Divine Sense.
So Li Yan knew that the words these disciples of Dazzling Yellow Valley thought were secret were all under Hua Siwang's surveillance. Li Yan could even see the mocking smile twitching at the corner of Hua Siwang's mouth from the side.
But Hua Siwang did not interfere with the secret voice transmissions of the Dazzling Yellow Valley cultivators behind him. In his mind, these cultivators would soon be going where they were supposed to go anyway. Nothing could be changed by their will.
After hearing this, Li Yan's intention to escape at the first opportunity changed in an instant.
Even if he escaped from Hua Siwang's grasp now, what then? The territory of the Jingtu Sect was too vast. If he had to fly all the way back while hiding from so-called "Conscription Emissaries" like Hua Siwang, he didn't know how many years it would take to return to the Malevolent Spirit Sect.
Otherwise, he could no longer borrow teleportation formations from other sects as he had before. He imagined that all the sects were now extremely strict about this. He would likely be targeted the moment he showed his face.
Even if he didn't encounter a "Conscription Emissary," he would still have to deal with the patrol and guard teams along the way, one by one. That "Grey Copper Coin" could not guarantee him free passage.
That was also why he hadn't taken out the "Grey Copper Coin" again before. He figured that even if he did, it wouldn't be of much use. In any case, it would lead to a series of questions.
Now, from the meaning of these cultivators' words, the destination of this trip was likely the Devil's Cliff Crevice. Besides the cultivators from various sects of the Desolate Moon Continent, the Four Great Sects would also be presiding there.
In that case, Li Yan felt it was entirely possible that he would meet cultivators from the Malevolent Spirit Sect. When he met them, he would then reveal his true token, and things should be much easier after that.
On the other hand, even if these few Dazzling Yellow Valley cultivators were wrong and they were not going to the Devil's Cliff Crevice, it was still a journey south, which was the same general direction for him.
His main priority now was to reach the jurisdiction of the Malevolent Spirit Sect. Once there, he could use his identity.
Having made his decision, Li Yan forsook several opportunities to escape along the way. He settled down on the giant saber and closed his eyes to rest.
The situations encountered on the road afterward were just as Li Yan had guessed. Patrol teams of all sizes began to increase. These were mostly patrols formed by the cultivators from various sects who had been ordered to stay behind.
Moreover, they also encountered many "Conscription Emissaries" like Hua Siwang along the way. From the way Hua Siwang greeted them, and the apprehensive and fearful expressions on the Foundation Establishment cultivators behind them, Li Yan could tell that they, like himself, had been conscripted from various places.
What made Li Yan even more overjoyed was that these teams grew more and more numerous. They slowly gathered together, and eventually, the leaders numbered twelve Golden Core cultivators, forming a team of over a hundred people.
This not only made them safer, but afterward, Hua Siwang and the others began to look for teleportation nodes, continuously teleporting south one after another.
And the Spirit Stones for these teleportations were all provided by Hua Siwang and the others. This made Li Yan feel quite pleased with himself. His one decision not only saved him a large amount of Spirit Stones, but more importantly, he could use the teleportation formations with ease.
As long as Hua Siwang and the others took out their tokens, those sects would all respectfully comply. He figured these teleportation Spirit Stones were not their own anyway, so they spent them without any heartache. They should have been uniformly allocated from above.
Their own team also continued to grow during the journey. After each teleportation, Hua Siwang would take out a Jade Slip and carefully press it to his forehead. Then, with a whistle, he would separate from the other teams and lead Li Yan and the others to a certain place.
A few days later, they would bring another batch of Foundation Establishment cultivators from somewhere and continue to travel south. Along the way, they might meet, merge with, teleport with, and separate from other teams again...
Just like that, after only seven days, Hua Siwang's giant saber was densely packed with over sixty people. As the number of people increased, the private exchanges among these Foundation Establishment cultivators also gradually increased, though no one dared to speak loudly.
Hua Siwang let them be, unless some people started to talk extensively about the demon invasion and mentioned which places might have fallen. Only then would he sternly rebuke them, instantly silencing them from saying another half-word about the Demon Clan.
Li Yan could guess that this was probably to avoid affecting morale.
By now, Li Yan already knew that the Jade Slip in Hua Siwang's hand should be the roster map distributed by the Jingtu Sect to each "Conscription Emissary." Hua Siwang and the others just had to follow the map, each responsible for a number of sects.
Besides supervision, Hua Siwang's job was to forcibly take away the Foundation Establishment cultivators from those sects that were trying to get lucky, and to instruct the Golden Core and above cultivators where to assemble.
Just like that, Hua Siwang led his ever-growing team forward, continuously teleporting. At the same time, any Foundation Establishment rogue cultivators they encountered on the road were, without exception, forcibly incorporated into the team by Hua Siwang. Whether you were willing or not, you had to join. Otherwise, Hua Siwang would not hesitate to apprehend you directly.
Of course, if they encountered a Golden Core cultivator, Hua Siwang would also politely step forward to check their identity and record their information in detail. Given that Hua Siwang was constantly merging and separating from other teams along the way, when they encountered Golden Core cultivators, although they were unwilling to be inspected, with several Golden Core cultivators on Hua Siwang's side from time to time, they had no choice but to accept the questioning.
As a result, these questioned Golden Core cultivators were either also on a mission, or Hua Siwang and the others would leave their information and request that they assemble at a certain place. As for whether they went or not, others would be sent to supervise them afterward.
But Hua Siwang and the others were also quite discerning. Once they encountered a cultivator at the late-stage Golden Core or above, they would sometimes pretend not to see them, directly ignoring them and whistling past.
Of course, among these, besides the cultivators from the marked major sects or large families who dared not flee, the ones who attempted to escape the most midway were the rogue cultivators and some third-rate sect cultivators.
Needless to say, rogue cultivators were used to coming and going alone. If they could escape, the world was vast, and they could hide anywhere.
Third-rate sects usually had Foundation Establishment cultivators as their highest cultivation level. Once they were conscripted, the entire sect was basically disbanded. What use were the remaining Qi Condensation stage cultivators? So they would also try to escape, then find a place to hide. As long as they were alive, the sect's legacy would still exist.
Just like that, the seven or eight cultivators who attempted to escape midway were, without exception, caught by Hua Siwang and then killed on the spot without any hesitation.
Li Yan also saw five others escape while Hua Siwang was chasing other escapees. These five probably thought their chance had come. After Hua Siwang was far away, they immediately fled.
Li Yan looked at the way these people were fleeing for their lives, and their not-so-fast speed, and couldn't help but smile helplessly. He knew that if a cultivator like Hua Siwang didn't even have this much control, he couldn't be called a Golden Core cultivator.
As early as when he flew onto the blade of the giant saber, he had discovered that Hua Siwang had left a trace of a Divine Sense marker on the corner of his clothes. This kind of Divine Sense marker was the best way to track and locate a cultivator.
Of course, if there were too many cultivators, Hua Siwang's Divine Sense wouldn't be able to split into so many strands to leave a marker on everyone, even if he was a mid-stage Golden Core.
But with just two or three hundred people, Hua Siwang could do it with ease. Li Yan could still remove this small wisp of a Divine Sense marker. After all, his Divine Sense was not inferior to Hua Siwang's, and he wouldn't leave in such a blatant manner.
With these factors, when Hua Siwang went to chase and kill the other escapees, he didn't use a formation to trap Li Yan and the others, nor did he place any further restrictions on them. This made some cultivators who thought they had a chance to escape immediately flee into the distance.
They thought that by the time Hua Siwang returned from killing the others, they would have already escaped to who knows where.
But a Golden Core cultivator was not someone they could imagine. The speed of killing was too fast. Hua Siwang took less than ten breaths to kill the first group.
No matter how many directions they fled in, they couldn't escape from Hua Siwang's grasp.
Hua Siwang returned in twelve breaths, then his figure flickered again. More than a dozen afterimages shot out from his body, chasing after the second batch of fleeing cultivators. In less than twenty breaths, more than a dozen afterimages returned one after another. In their mouths were bloody human heads. After the afterimages stood still, many people realized that they were actually "Earth Prime Bears."
Then, Hua Siwang shook his sleeve, and the eight heads from before rolled on the ground. The faces on the heads were twisted with the terror they felt before death.
With Hua Siwang's methods, killing a few minor Foundation Establishment cultivators would naturally not leave any trace of them in the world. But he deliberately left their ferocious heads and brought them back. The deterrent effect was self-evident.
This move indeed scared the remaining cultivators until their faces turned pale. From then on, they all lost the thought of escaping.
Just like that, Li Yan and the others continued their journey south. Li Yan completely ignored the Divine Sense marker from Hua Siwang on the corner of his robe. Anyway, he wouldn't be leaving the team for now. Where else could he find such free teleportation?
Along the way, there were many cultivators who were conscripted alone like Li Yan. They either sat alone in a corner of the giant saber blade like Li Yan, or they consciously moved away under the disdainful gazes of some of the major sect cultivators.
Some rogue cultivators also began to gradually gather in groups of two or three, showing signs of banding together. They started to talk among themselves, and among them was Li Yan. Of course, his purpose was to gather more information.