Without understanding why the Giant Wood Clan was ignoring A Guxi and his people's fate, Li Yan would not personally escort them to their doorstep, lest he not only fail to get the benefits of the "Wood Essence Pool" but also get himself trapped. Li Yan's actions were becoming more and more prudent. He had to first ensure his and Zhao Min's lives were safe under all possible circumstances.
More than half a day later, the flying Li Yan suddenly spoke. "We're almost there! There are people checking over there. You two should enter the spatial artifact!" Li Yan glanced at the two demonic beasts who were winking and constantly looking at the increasing number of cultivators around them.
Zi Kun and Qian Ji were staring at some of the young female cultivators with a look of great interest. Upon hearing Li Yan's words, the two demons, who had been whispering and commenting, were stunned. Then, a look of reluctance appeared on their faces. "Alright, you two go in first. With so many people, the check will definitely be very strict. You can come out later when it's safe!"
With a smile on his face, Li Yan waved his sleeve before the two demons could speak. In a flash, the two demons had vanished from the "Cloud-Piercing Willow."
The southern edge of the Yunlan Mountain Range was a relatively flat terrain. On the opposite side, the Tingyun Kingdom had built a massive city wall, a hundred zhang high, along the continuous mountain range. The city wall stretched from east to west, giving people a sense of endlessness. From time to to time, a team of armored soldiers would walk past on top of the wall, just like the green-clad guards that appeared on the Tianlan Prairie. The armored soldiers here were all cultivators, with the lowest cultivation being at the eighth layer of the Qi Condensation stage. With their cultivation, coupled with the refined powerful crossbows and stone catapults on top of the wall, a small team could fully exert an attack power no less than that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
When Li Yan and Zhao Min appeared at the edge of the mountain range and saw the continuous, tall city wall with their own eyes, a strong sense of iron-bloodedness and majesty rushed toward them. Within their Divine Senses, there were only two city gates within several thousand li. All cultivators coming out or entering were flying toward these two places.
At this time, there were continuous streaks of rainbow light of various colors all around Li Yan and his companion. Some were strong, some were weak. There were at least a hundred of them coming and going. Looking at some of the cultivators who had just flown from the direction of the city wall into the Yunlan Mountain Range, Li Yan and Zhao Min couldn't help but exchange a glance.
After recalling the two demons, the speed of the "Cloud-Piercing Willow" had also slowed down. In just this half-day, they had been attacked six times, and all of them were combined attacks by several Golden Core cultivators. Li Yan and Zhao Min showed no mercy in this regard. In an extremely bloody manner, they successively killed three Golden Core cultivators, leaving these people with no corpses left. Amidst the exploding flesh and rain of blood, the gazes of the nearby cultivators finally turned to fear. Otherwise, who knows how many more people would have tried to intercept and kill them.
In this Yunlan Mountain Range, you either had to be fast or have a large group. Otherwise, you were like a lamb in a pack of wolves, at the mercy of others!
Seeing that they had already flown out of the Yunlan Mountain Range, Li Yan's Divine Sense immediately sank into the Spirit-Storing Pouch at his waist again. Inside one of the Spirit-Storing Pouches, Ai Sang was staring blankly at the gray, misty space in front of him. Behind him, a dozen or so clansmen were sitting in a circle, whispering to each other. At this moment, their complexions were much better than a few days ago. Especially the mortals, due to the abundance of food, they actually looked even more energetic than Ai Sang and the others.
Normally, the recovery ability of mortals could not be compared to that of cultivators. But whether it was Ai Sang or those Qi Condensation disciples, almost every moment of their past was spent fighting or fleeing, constantly using their own lives and cultivation to protect their mortal clansmen. Day after day, year after year, under the severe lack of medicinal pills, cultivators died one by one. The remaining cultivators also had an accumulation of internal injuries and were even severely overdrawn on their lifespan. On the contrary, the mortals, apart from hunger and cold, were injured much less in comparison.
In just a few short days, under the nourishment of sufficient food, a trace of ruddy color had actually appeared on the faces of the mortals. And although Ai Sang and the other cultivators had also taken medicinal pills to heal their injuries, some old, stubborn injuries could not be recovered in a short while. That would require a longer process.
Ai Sang stared blankly ahead. While he was silently calculating the time, he was also very anxious. 'It should have been about four days. I wonder if we've reached the central part of the Tianlan Prairie!' Thinking of the powerful clansmen who had all died without return after leaving to escape the Tianlan Prairie, and some even being captured and tortured to death, Ai Ni couldn't help but tremble.
Those were scenes like a human purgatory. He was not willing to recall them at all, but now, apart from recalling, there was nothing he could do. In his mind, their furthest horizon was some areas in the central Tianlan Prairie. Because no one had ever reached the southern end. That was the domain of the Tianlan Clan cultivators, with experts as numerous as clouds, and a ferocious, soaring aura.
He had heard A Guxi say that even if they escaped the Tianlan Prairie, there was the even more terrifying Yunlan Mountain Range ahead, boundless and endless. Thinking of the long and bloody road home that A Guxi had mentioned, a sense of powerlessness arose in Ai Sang's heart. It wasn't that he had no confidence in those two powerful experts, but that he had long since lost confidence in returning to his own clan. What had supported them to fight to the end was only the instinct of a beast: survival! Now that they were at ease and had the hope of returning, he had become more and more nervous instead.
"I wonder how the Clan Chief and Ai Ni are doing? It would be great if they were by my side…" Ai Sang thought to himself. He was also missing the Clan Chief and Ai Ni more and more. They were his comrades in arms, the closest and most trusted people he had.
At this moment, a plain face suddenly appeared in the gray, misty space in front of Ai Sang. Ai Sang was so frightened that he almost cried out in alarm, but he immediately recognized the person's face. "Senior…" He calmed himself down and was about to get up to salute when a smile appeared on that face.
"I have good news for you. We have already left the Tianlan Prairie and are about to enter the Tingyun Kingdom!"
Ai Sang's body, which was about to stand up, froze. He felt his whole person in a daze, as if he had instantly entered a dream. His body felt soft and weak, and he could no longer stand up. "I… we've left… left the Tianlan Prai… Prairie…" He mumbled in a dream-like state, his words slurred and incomprehensible even to himself. Just a moment ago, he was wondering if they had reached the central part of the Tianlan Prairie, and now they had left?
Then, Ai Sang lost consciousness. And behind him, the other clansmen had also fainted without their knowledge. At the same time, the same thing was happening in the other Spirit-Storing Pouch.
Zhao Min watched from the side as Li Yan rolled out dozens of unconscious Giant Wood Clan members from the Spirit-Storing Pouch, and then these people disappeared again. Zhao Min couldn't help but secretly admire how cautious this junior brother of hers was.
Li Yan had said before that there were Tingyun Kingdom cultivators checking ahead, and he had immediately put the two demons away. Unexpectedly, Li Yan had considered even more. If the other party's check was thorough, although they would not ask to see their storage pouches, which contained each person's most private things, there was a high chance they would ask to see the Spirit-Storing Pouches, since Spirit-Storing Pouches could bring living beings into the Tingyun Kingdom. If Li Yan harbored ill intentions, or if his divine soul was controlled by a Tianlan cultivator, then secretly bringing some Tianlan cultivators into the Tingyun Kingdom would surely lead to endless trouble.
In order to avoid these troubles, Li Yan had instantly made a series of moves, directly sealing the Giant Wood Clan members and at the same time moving them into the "Earthen Patch." Without their knowledge, they were transferred to a safer space. Li Yan could not put a spatial magical treasure like a Spirit-Storing Pouch into the "Earthen Patch." That would cause the two spaces to repel each other, and the weaker space would instantly collapse, and all the living beings inside would die. Although the "Earthen Patch" was refined by True Lord Qianchong and was also a rare spatial magical treasure, it still could not be compared to the naturally formed laws of heaven and earth like the Verdant Continent.
Li Yan usually had several storage and spirit-storing pouches hanging from his waist. Besides being for decoration, he really couldn't hide these things. At most, he could put them in his bosom or robe sleeves.
Soon, a huge city gate was in sight. The Tingyun Kingdom and the Tianlan Prairie were completely connected in the east and south directions. Only the far west of the Tianlan Prairie was connected to a first-rate sect. It was just that that distance was too far from Li Yan's position on the prairie, and the dangers encountered along the way would increase exponentially. From here, whether going to the Yunlan Mountain Range or coming from the Tianlan Prairie, cultivators could only enter and exit through the city gate of the Tingyun Kingdom.
When leaving the pass, after their identity was verified, each cultivator would receive a token and be required to immediately refine it and carry it with them. This token was refined with the cultivator's Divine Sense imprint. Even if it was lost by accident, others who picked it up could not use it. In the future, if one wanted to return to the Tingyun Kingdom, they would have to enter the city with this token. When a cultivator holding the token infused their Divine Sense into it again, their identity information would be activated. If a cultivator's Divine Sense did not match the imprint on the token, but they probed it with their Divine Sense, the token would be destroyed in an instant. What awaited them would be capture and execution by the Tingyun Kingdom. If the token was accidentally damaged, one would need to verify their identity again, but that procedure was very cumbersome and would cost a sum of spirit stones that would make even a Golden Core cultivator's heart ache. Because, if you said you entered the Tianlan Prairie from another direction, wouldn't everyone be able to say the same after losing their token?
Li Yan and Zhao Min, of course, did not have the token to enter the city. Although they had killed other cultivators before, when they tried to probe the tokens they obtained with their Divine Sense, a puff of green smoke rose, and the token instantly disappeared, which also made Li Yan give up this idea. This was completely consistent with the information they had obtained from their soul-search. There was no chance of luck, or rather, Li Yan and Zhao Min's formation skills were not enough to break the restrictions on it.
When they were still some distance from the tall city gate, Li Yan and Zhao Min landed on the ground. At this time, there were also some cultivators around them who had landed one after another. They were also cultivators entering the city, and they all walked toward the magnificent city gate. There was already a not-too-long queue in front of them.
"Halt! Entry token!" Soon, it was their turn. A young cultivator in armor raised his hand to signal them to stop.
Li Yan had long since scanned the guards here. There were a total of twenty guards at the city gate, divided into two teams. They also divided the cultivators entering and exiting into two teams, one in and one out. These guards were led by two Late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators. The two were standing under the city gate arch, talking. They would only occasionally glance in their direction.
The one who had stopped Li Yan and his companion was a cultivator at the tenth layer of Qi Condensation. There were quite a few Golden Core cultivators who came to the Yunlan Mountain Range for training, but these low-level guards were not in the least bit polite.
Li Yan and Zhao Min had long sensed the powerful auras of the Golden Core cultivators in the city, all of which were completely undisguised. At a rough glance, there were at least twenty-five or twenty-six of them. Li Yan was even a little taken aback at first. Were Golden Core cultivators so worthless? Later, he understood the reason. Those Golden Core cultivators certainly included the garrison experts of the Tingyun Kingdom, but there were also cultivators who came and went, here for training. Thinking of the Golden Core cultivators he had encountered in the Yunlan Mountain Range before, this situation was not surprising.
Li Yan cupped his hands at the young guard. "We are human cultivators. This time, we entered from the far west of the Tianlan Prairie, so we do not have a token!"