Chapter 180: Detection

Chapter 180: Detection

There were over 200 people who had disembarked here with Han Li, and the majority of them were humans, while the rest were beings from other races, and there were several mortals among those humans.

In reality, these people weren't actually just ordinary mortals. Instead, they focused solely on refinement of the physical body, much like the body refinement cultivators of the Spirit Realm.

Everyone made their way down the mountain path, and upon entering through the gate of the pass, they arrived in a spacious hall.

The hall was virtually completely empty with the exception of a sandalwood table that was around three feet in length situated in one corner of the hall. On the table sat an incense burner, out of which incense smoke was billowing out incessantly.

Through the thin veil of smoke, Han Li could see a purple-robed elderly man with white hair and a white beard sitting on a taishi chair behind the table. The elderly man's eyes were closed, and his head was bobbing back and forth slightly, making it impossible to tell whether he was meditating or taking a nap.

His aura indicated that he was a Grand Ascension cultivator, and right as Han Li was about to avert his gaze from the elderly man, the latter suddenly opened his eyes before fixing his gaze on Han Li.

At the same time, an elderly voice suddenly rang out in Han Li's heart.

"I won't ask why you've intentionally suppressed your cultivation base from the True Immortal Stage to the Body Integration Stage, but now that you've entered the territory of our Blaze Dragon Dao, you must follow the rules of our sect."

"Please enlighten me," Han Li replied through voice transmission.

He wasn't bothered by the slightly threatening tone of the elderly man's voice. The only thing that was rather perplexing to him was how the man had been able to glean his true cultivation base despite the fact that he was only a Grand Ascension cultivator.

"Rest assured, Senior, our Blaze Dragon Dao most definitely has the good grace to tolerate outsiders. However, as a True Immortal, you must remember at all times that you are not allowed to meddle in the affairs of the mortal world, and you certainly can't disrupt the order of the mortal world and kill mortals for no good reason," the purple-robed elderly man elaborated.

"Thank you for informing me of this. Those rules sound very reasonable," Han Li replied.

Seeing as Han Li was willing to comply, the tone of the purple-robed elderly man's voice instantly became more polite as he said, "In that case, I wish you a smooth and fruitful journey, Senior."

Han Li gave the elderly man a slight nod, then turned to follow everyone to the gate on the other side of the hall.

Outside the gate was a huge white plaza, where there were many beast-drawn carriages, some of which could gallop through the mountains, while others could soar through the heavens, and they were mostly catering toward the mortal body refinement cultivators.

On the mountains further away were layers of white forest that resembled jade belts, reflecting the light of the sun.

As soon as he arrived on the Ancient Cloud Continent, Han Li clearly noticed that the temperature here was far lower than anywhere else on the Primordial Wave Continent, and the climate was also more humid.

He paused momentarily to collect his bearings, then flipped a hand over to produce a jade slip before injecting his spiritual sense into it.

Inside the jade slip was the tracking map that he had exchanged for from the Transient Guild, and even though only a portion of the landscape had appeared on the map, it was far more detailed than when he checked it back in the Black Wind Sea.

There was also another clear point of difference compared with before, which was that an extremely eye-catching red line had appeared on the map. The starting point of the red line was the Eagle Beak Pass, and it stretched all the way to a place by the name of White Kite City in the northeast.

According to the map, White Kite City was situated in the Hundred Blessings Nation, which was quite far away from the Eagle Beak Pass.

As a safety precaution, he was planning to travel at a speed appropriate for a Body Integration cultivator, so the journey was going to take him around half a month.

In contrast with the Primordial Wave Continent, the Ancient Cloud Continent had a far greater abundance of world's origin qi and spirit veins. Hence, there were also far more immortal sects here than on the Primordial Wave Continent, thereby naturally making it a more dangerous place as well.

After taking a moment to ascertain the right direction, Han Li stowed the jade slip away, then flew up into the sky as a streak of azure light.

Seven or eight days passed by in a flash, yet as Han Li was passing over a snow-covered forest, his expression suddenly changed slightly as he drew to an abrupt halt.

Just now, he had detected the auras of Daoist Xie and his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords.

However, it was clear that both of them were still extremely far away, and he wouldn't have been able to notice them at all had it not been for his tremendous spiritual sense.

After a brief hesitation, he quickly inspected his surroundings, then flew directly down toward a snow-covered valley.

After descending into the valley, Han Li began to skip rapidly along the ground like an agile gazelle, ultimately coming to a halt on a very flat and level rock deep in the valley.

With a casual sweep of his sleeve, all of the snow that had accumulated on the rock was cleared, and he sat down with his legs crossed, then closed his eyes and began making a series of hand seals while chanting an incantation.

His consciousness began to churn as a subtle spiritual connection began to travel through the air like a winding thread, searching for Daoist Xie and the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords based on the faint connection that he had detected earlier.

However, right as the spiritual connection was gradually beginning to become clearer, the spiritual thread that was wandering through the air was suddenly cut off. Even the original connection that he had felt had faded, as if someone had cut him off.

His brows furrowed slightly as he switched to a different hand seal and fully activated his spiritual sense, trying to recapture that connection, but moments later, he reopened his eyes with a resigned expression, then sighed to himself, "Looks like it won't be so easy to recover what I've lost."

Han Li was feeling a little disappointed in the wake of all of this, and he sat in silence in the peaceful valley for a while to collect his thoughts, then continued on his journey to Whit Kite City.

Three days later.

A streak of azure light descended out of the sky outside a white city that was situated at an intersection point between a pair of rivers.

The streak of azure light then faded to reveal a tall and imposing man with a prominent forehead and a thick beard. The man's appearance was quite rugged, presenting a bit of a mismatch with his bright and piercing eyes.

The man was none other than Han Li in disguise.

Prior to entering the city, he used his mask from the Transient Guild to adopt yet another disguise, and this time, he concealed his own aura completely, posing as a mortal as he made his way into the city.

There was no snowfall near White Kite City, but it was still quite cold. There weren't many people passing through the city gates, and most of them were wearing thick cotton-padded clothes.

There was a group of cultivators situated on either side of the city gates, but most of them were only at the Foundation Establishment Stage, and they were there more so to maintain order than to examine the people entering the city.

Initially, Han Li felt this to be rather strange, but he quickly came to realize that White Kite City was only a small rural city in the Hundred Blessings Nation, and the vast majority of its residents were mortals, thereby explaining the rather lax security measures.

After entering the city, Han Li checked the map in the jade slip once again, and this time, the annotations had become even more detailed, pointing him toward a restaurant in the eastern part of the city.

Han Li made his way through the city streets in accordance with the path stipulated on the map, and he spotted the restaurant that he was looking for in a rather understated alley.

As soon as he arrived at the entrance of the restaurant, he was immediately greeted by the strong odor of fermented spirits. Perhaps it was because the memory was from too long ago, but the smell was different from what he recalled it to be like.

Back when he was a child, whenever Uncle Zhang came to visit, he would always bring some home-brewed wine to share with Han Li's father over their crude meal.

At the time, Han Li had been quite young, so he had never drunk the wine, but he recalled finding its aroma very sharp on the nose.

Han Li was momentarily dazed as these distant memories flooded into his mind, but he then shook his head in a self-deprecating manner before making his way into the restaurant.

According to the habits of the mortal world, it was already past lunchtime but not yet time for dinner. In addition to that, the alley was quite secluded, and as a result, most of the tables and chairs in the restaurant were empty, with the only exceptions being one table that was occupied by two men who were having some wine with some salted peanuts.

As soon as Han Li entered the restaurant, a waiter with a hand towel draped over his shoulder immediately approached him with a warm smile.

However, before the waiter had a chance to say anything, someone grabbed onto his shoulder and tugged him aside.

A portly middle-aged man then stepped around the waiter with a smile as he said, "This is an acquaintance of mine, so I'll attend to him in person."

As the portly manager led Han Li up to the second floor, the waiter scratched his head as he murmured to himself, "An acquaintance? How come I don't recall ever seeing him before?"

However, he didn't ponder the matter any further as he stretched lazily, then sat down onto a chair, slacking off on the job.

Han Li followed the portly manager up the creaky wooden staircase to the second floor, where he was then led into a booth at the end of the corridor.

Upon entering the booth, the portly manager stepped aside to allow Han Li to enter the room as well, following which he closed the door.

After that, he swept a hand through the air, and a layer of faint light appeared over the walls of the room, producing a soundproof barrier.

"Please take a seat, Fellow Daoist."

The portly manager made an inviting hand gesture as he spoke, and the smile on his face gradually faded.

Han Li sat down and swept his gaze around the room to find that the surrounding concealment array wasn't of a particularly high standard. If a cultivator of his caliber wanted to see what was happening in the room, then he would be able to do so from kilometers away.

However, the restaurant was quite secluded in location, and that allowed it to avoid unwanted attention and prying eyes.

The portly manager sat down across from Han Li, then asked, "I'm assuming you have the token, right, Fellow Daoist? Would you be able to bring it out to show me?"

Han Li wasted no time as he flipped a hand over to produce the jade slip that contained the missions debriefing and the tracking map, then slid it across the table toward the portly manager.

The latter picked up the jade slip before inspecting its contents for a moment with his eyes closed, then nodded as he said, "This is the right token. Looks like you are indeed a fellow daoist of the Transient Guild."