The law of the jungle is the immutable rule of the cultivation world. Unless one knows they are no match, they must endure humiliation to survive.
Otherwise, when it is time to deter the opponent, one must not have any reservations. It was obvious that those few had ill intentions toward him.
As for the few White Demon clansmen, they had not provoked him. Although they were also staring at him, they did not release their Divine Sense, so Li Yan, of course, would not stir up trouble.
He was still very unfamiliar with the Forsaken Continent.
The information he obtained in Shan Yiyuan's village was, firstly, unconfirmed, and its authenticity was debatable. Secondly, mortals were, after all, mortals. Although the interaction between immortals and mortals on the Forsaken Continent was frequent, mortals would certainly not truly understand the affairs of cultivators.
Li Yan had only two purposes for coming to Mingdu City this time. One was to pass his news on to Zhao Min; the other was to see if he could take the opportunity to find Zhao Min's location.
Zhao Min also had the "Heart-Entangling Twin Gu" planted on her, so she definitely knew he was still alive.
Li Yan just needed to let Zhao Min know that he already understood the meaning of her voice transmission talisman and at the same time show that he was also looking for her.
If he could pass these two pieces of news, he could act according to the circumstances later.
However, Li Yan knew that it might be extremely difficult to find Zhao Min. He could infer this just by looking at how the other party had taken Zhao Min away before he woke up, and the hidden meaning in Zhao Min's message.
The journey of a few li was a very short one for a cultivator, even on foot.
At the city gate, ten Demon Clan soldiers stood on both sides, their armor bright and distinct.
With a sweep of Li Yan's Divine Sense, he saw that the ten soldiers were only at the Qi Condensation stage. The highest-ranking captain was only at the Great Perfection of Qi Condensation.
This level of cultivation posed no threat to Li Yan, even if he were to face a hundred or a thousand of them. Even if they wanted to exhaust his spiritual power, he would have already rushed out and flown away long ago.
Li Yan soon approached the city gate. Just as he was nearing the gate's archway, something flashed from the top of the city wall, and a red light shone down on his body.
This slightly startled Li Yan, and he was about to dodge, but his reaction was also extremely fast, because he did not sense any danger from this red light.
He immediately returned to normal. Moreover, he saw that this red light was not aimed at him alone, but that several rays had flashed out at the same time, shooting towards several other people in front of him.
Those few people had obviously known about this for a long time and did not even move their bodies. Li Yan instantly understood.
Like Li Yan, those few people all had spiritual power fluctuations and were, without exception, all cultivators.
And no red light fell on the mortals entering and exiting the city gate.
The moment the red light fell on Li Yan's body, he felt his Sea of Consciousness fluctuate slightly, and then there was no other movement.
This red light was clearly a magical treasure for detecting cultivators. As for what specific realm it could detect, Li Yan did not know.
At the same time, he wondered if he used "Stealthy Night Art" to completely hide his spiritual power, would he still be detected.
This thought was just a fleeting one, out of curiosity. He did not want to do such a test here.
The cultivators on whom the red light had fallen were, without exception, all stopped by the gate-guarding Demon Clan soldiers.
They did not show any respect just because Li Yan and the others had higher cultivation than them, but began to inspect each one in detail with expressionless faces.
As for the mortals, no soldiers stopped them, letting them enter and exit the city gate freely.
It was clear that the Demon Clan soldiers here had great trust in the magical treasure on the city wall and did not want to deploy manpower for a second check.
While Li Yan was being questioned by a Demon Clan soldier who had walked up to him, he also quickly noticed the difference with others.
The three White Demon Clan cultivators who had followed behind him just now had all taken out a token that looked like a sect emblem.
The soldiers at the city gate only gave it a cursory check. After each paid two low-grade spirit stones, they were allowed to pass directly.
Li Yan and another cultivator, on the other hand, were questioned in detail about what they were going to do in the city and so on.
However, in Li Yan's opinion, the meaning of such questioning was not great, because it was not easy to distinguish the truth from falsehood, but the other party still recorded it down.
Li Yan just said that he was a rogue cultivator, coming to Mingdu City for the first time to buy some things.
The other party did not make things difficult for him. After asking a few questions, they also had him pay two low-grade spirit stones and gave him a temporary token marked with his identity.
Seeing that Li Yan did not hesitate to pay the spirit stones, the rigid expression on the Demonic Soldier's face finally softened a little.
Then, after giving detailed instructions on the precautions for entering the city, he let him go.
Regarding these, they were more or less the same as on the Desolate Moon Continent. It was nothing more than not being able to fly in the city, not being able to fight with others in the city, and so on.
There were two Golden Core cultivators stationed here every day. As long as you were not afraid of death, you could of course do as you pleased. At that time, it would be normal to attract a Nascent Soul expert to suppress you.
"The mortals here are more at ease, able to enter and exit freely without paying any fees."
"There are also cultivators stationed here. If those mortals encounter disaster outside, wouldn't it be troublesome if they all flock into the city for safety?"
Li Yan thought to himself. On the contrary, he felt that this was less reasonable than the regional jurisdiction of the Jingtu Sect in the past.
As soon as Li Yan entered the city, he saw that the streets were lined with shops, and people were bustling about.
He immediately sensed the auras of many mortals, the number of which far exceeded that of the cultivators.
There were also many creatures walking on the street with beast bodies and human faces, or human faces and beast bodies, or entirely beast bodies. Of course, he also saw some human cultivators here, but Li Yan had no intention of going up to them to get acquainted. Others would not think that just because they were of the same race, they would have any intention of helping him.
He had to do as the locals did in everything, and not leave an impression on anyone. This was Li Yan's way of doing things.
Those foreign race cultivators with entirely beast bodies either disliked transforming into a human form, or their cultivation was not high enough to support the transformation, but they all had fluctuations of spiritual or demonic qi.
When the mortals on the street met Li Yan and the others, apart from showing a respectful expression and avoiding them to the side, they did not look very surprised.
It was clear that this was how things usually were here. The so-called foreign races were, in Li Yan and the others' eyes, actually a certain race of demonic beasts.
In the eyes of these White Demon Clan mortals or other creatures, Li Yan was also a member of a foreign race.
However, to address someone by a certain race was usually reserved for powerful existences.
Although they were still demonic beasts in the eyes of others, they would generally be called by their specific racial designation, such as the Human Race, Demon Clan, Dragon Clan, Phoenix Clan, etc.
These extremely powerful races in the world were generally addressed respectfully by their race, unlike the weaker races, which were usually collectively referred to as demonic beasts.
Li Yan walked inconspicuously among the "crowd." He did not go directly to the shop called Hundred Dao Heavenly Treasure Pavilion. Instead, he first walked around Mingdu City aimlessly.
With his style of doing things, how could he easily visit without first figuring out a bit of the other party's background?
Just like that, Li Yan casually strolled around the city for about two hours and had basically walked through all of Mingdu City.
He also saw the Hundred Dao Heavenly Treasure Pavilion, but after just a glance, he walked straight past its entrance.
Afterwards, he visited a few material shops. After buying a map of the vicinity and some books introducing the Forsaken Continent, he entered an inn.
He spent another five low-grade spirit stones to rent a room with a defensive formation for two days.
Under the extremely respectful gaze of the mortal shop assistant, Li Yan took a small, palm-sized yellow flag, went straight into the room, and closed the door.
With a casual wave of the yellow flag, the defensive formation in the room was activated, completely isolating the room from the outside world.
After entering the room, Li Yan quickly checked it with his Divine Sense. After sensing the outside for a while and finding nothing unusual, he nodded in satisfaction.
The formation in this room was not bad. Li Yan could sense that the formation's restrictions could serve as a warning against cultivators below the Golden Core realm. But as for defense, it was less than satisfactory.
It could still provide simple defense against Qi Condensation stage cultivators. However, in the city, the most important thing was the warning function.
Although the formation was not bad, Li Yan still felt that the inn in Mingdu City charged a bit too much.
Even an ordinary room without a defensive formation required one spirit stone a night. In some places, one spirit stone could last for several days.
For a disciple of a small sect, getting two spirit stones a month was considered good.
Li Yan now understood why those mortals were allowed to enter the city at will.
Unless you were doing business in the city, you would definitely have to leave the city and go home before dark. The inns here were not something mortals could afford to stay in.
Li Yan remembered chatting with the elders of the White Demon Clan in the village. He learned that apart from contributing eight spirit stones to the area under their jurisdiction each year, a village of nearly a hundred people would have at most only fifteen or sixteen spirit stones left. This was what they had earned through hard work. On average, the entire village only dared to use one spirit stone a month. One can imagine how precious it was.
Immediately, Li Yan placed the small yellow flag on the table and sat down beside it.
He began to quickly outline the locations he had walked through in the city in his mind, and then connected them one by one into a map of roads and shops.
Soon, a rather rough map of Mingdu City formed in Li Yan's mind.
Then he took out the map he had bought and began to compare it with the map he had drawn in his mind.
The maps that could be bought in this kind of shop were often of the nearby thousand li. The better ones were of the area within ten thousand li.
This kind of map was already enough for mortals to use, but for cultivators, it was far from enough.
It was just that although there were maps that exceeded ten thousand li, the price was frighteningly expensive. It often required spending several dozen, or even over a hundred, low-grade spirit stones to buy one.
And that was only if you were lucky enough to run into someone selling it.
The map Li Yan bought today was of the area within about five thousand li. It was the largest and best map that could be bought in Mingdu City.
It had cost Li Yan a full seven spirit stones. Although Li Yan's current wealth was not insignificant, in the great battle at Windy Cool Mountain alone, he had obtained many storage pouches from the dead.
Besides spirit stones, there were of course many medicinal pills, talismans, magical treasures, and spirit artifacts in the pouches. It was just that he hadn't had time to deal with them.
Li Yan was also aware of the value of maps. For example, when he was on the Desolate Moon Continent, when he wanted to go home from the Malevolent Spirit Sect, and later to the Jingtu Sect, the huge maps he needed were all provided by the sect and Wei Zhongran personally. It was impossible to buy them outside.
Those huge maps were often regarded as treasures by a certain sect or individual.
The reason was still for cultivation resources. For example, if a sect accidentally discovered that a certain rare demonic beast had appeared in a certain sea area, as long as he didn't mark this map out, then there would be many fewer cultivators who could share this place.
If that location was even more remote and dangerous, it might be that only he would know about it for decades or even hundreds of years. Then the cultivation resources he obtained would be much more than some others.
Li Yan began to compare the map of Mingdu City section by section.