159: A wall built of iron and blood

The next day.

After collecting his ready-made clothes, Jiang Lan headed straight for the City Lord's Mansion.

City Lord Ling Tian personally received him.

When he first saw the dusty Jiang Lan, he was quite pleased.

"What is it, Brother Jiang, have you thought it over? I told you, with your methods, joining the City Lord's Mansion is absolutely the best choice."

Jiang Lan shook his head.

"I came here today to bid farewell."

City Lord Ling Tian was stunned upon hearing this.

"Bid farewell? Brother Jiang, didn't you say earlier that you wanted to hunt demons here? Why are you suddenly leaving?"

Jiang Lan smiled; he was indeed going to hunt demons.

He spoke, "I plan to spend some time alone outside the Pass."

The City Lord's expression changed slightly, "Demons run rampant outside the Pass. One careless mistake and you could lose your life. Those Demon Hunters do business with their lives on the line. Although Brother Jiang, your Realm is high, the area outside the Pass is complex. If you're unlucky and encounter a great demon in the Demon Infant Realm, you might never return."

Jiang Lan had naturally considered all these things City Lord Ling Tian mentioned.

However, in life, how can there be no accidents at all?

Moreover, a great demon in the Demon Infant Realm isn't like cabbage by the roadside; how could he encounter one so easily?

Furthermore, if he were truly afraid of accidents, he could have stayed in Yan Country. Why come to the border of Ling Country to take risks?

"My mind is made up."

Jiang Lan had already decided. The reason he came to the City Lord's Mansion was simply because he was afraid the City Lord would have thoughts if he left without saying goodbye.

Although he was too lazy to engage in the whole social etiquette thing, having more friends meant more paths, and it was hard to guarantee there wouldn't be future interactions.

The City Lord saw that Jiang Lan had made up his mind and knew that further obstruction would be useless.

Although Jiang Lan's strength was good, he had no intention of staying in the City Lord's Mansion, so the City Lord couldn't persuade him further.

The City Lord nodded, then said solemnly, "After leaving the Pass, remember to be careful."

Saying that, he got up and walked to a shelf, rummaging through it for a while before picking up a piece of parchment.

"This is a simple map of the area outside the Pass, Brother Jiang. Keep it safe for emergencies."

Jiang Lan took it, feeling a hint of gratitude in his heart.

Regardless of whether the map was valuable, the City Lord's thoughtfulness alone was already very rare.

"Thank you, City Lord."

"Between us, there's no need to be polite; it's a small matter." The City Lord said, then seemed to suddenly remember something and continued, "Oh, right, if you're going outside the Pass, you'll need a travel document. Please wait a moment, I'll find one for you."

Jiang Lan was stunned again.

He truly hadn't known about this travel document before.

It was fortunate he had come to the City Lord's Mansion this trip.

Otherwise, he might have been stopped when leaving the Pass.

Of course, with his Core Formation eighth-level strength, ordinary people couldn't stop him.

However, the necessary procedures still had to be followed.

City Lord Ling Tian rushed out the door and didn't make Jiang Lan wait too long. After about half a cup of tea, he returned.

When he returned, he was holding a small booklet.

Handing the item to Jiang Lan, the City Lord said, "With this, you can pass through the checkpoints unimpeded."

Jiang Lan took the travel document and nodded, "Thank you, City Lord."

A trip to the City Lord's Mansion saved him a lot of trouble.

However, Jiang Lan was eager to leave the Pass now and didn't continue chatting with the City Lord.

It wouldn't be too late to return and thank him once his current objective was achieved.

After a few more words, Jiang Lan bid farewell to the City Lord and left the City Lord's Mansion.

After leaving, Jiang Lan didn't wait any longer and walked directly towards the city's outskirts.

After walking quickly for fifteen minutes, Jiang Lan exited the city through the North Gate.

The city gate he had entered through earlier was the South Gate.

The North Gate, however, faced that natural chasm, and further north beyond the chasm was Lingtian Pass.

Less than thirty zhang in front of Jiang Lan was the bottomless cliff chasm he had seen earlier.

Slowly exhaling, Jiang Lan activated his True Qi and directly flew into the air.

Arriving directly above the chasm, he looked down.

Along the cliff, he could initially see some light, but further down, it was a bottomless darkness.

At this depth, if one hadn't reached the Core Formation Realm and couldn't fly, falling down would likely mean certain death, with no possibility of survival.

Crossing the chasm directly, Jiang Lan arrived on the other side.

On the opposite side, there was also a city, only it was considerably smaller than Lingtian City proper.

However, although the city was much smaller, its city walls here were exceptionally magnificent.

Standing thirty to forty zhang high, the dark city walls were stained with fresh blood, giving them an even more stark and grim aura.

And this city was entirely enveloped by tall city walls, like an impenetrable iron fortress.

The city walls not only enclosed the city but also extended on the side closer to the demon area, almost endlessly, completely separating the human and demon territories.

Jiang Lan looked up; three large characters were written on the city gate before him.

'Lingtian Pass'

At the city gate, two rows of ten Qi Gathering martial artists stood, clad in black armor.

Outside the entire city, only Jiang Lan was present. They naturally saw that Jiang Lan had flown over from the opposite side.

At this moment, a guard stepped forward.

Only those in the Core Formation Realm could fly through the air; this was common knowledge.

However, the guard showed no flattery, but rather a businesslike attitude, asking Jiang Lan, "Do you have a travel document?"

Jiang Lan nodded and took out the document the City Lord had just given him from his in arms.

After verification, the guard saluted Jiang Lan.

"Senior, please enter."

After he finished speaking, the huge, dark city gate in front of Jiang Lan emitted a series of 'creaking' sounds, slowly lifting from the ground to a height of about one person.

This city gate was also quite different from those Jiang Lan had seen before.

The city gates he had encountered previously were mostly two large double-opening doors; this type was extremely rare.

However, once he thought about where this was, it became understandable.

While double-opening gates were convenient, their security was certainly not as high as this lifting type.

Moreover, this city gate looked like it wasn't made of wood, but rather something akin to metal.

Just by looking at it, one could feel the weight of this city gate.

As soon as he entered the city, Jiang Lan's nostrils were enveloped by an lingering smell of blood.

Although he could smell this scent outside earlier, its intensity was nowhere near as strong as after entering the city.

Moreover, this wasn't just a simple smell of blood, but also mixed with the scent of wet earth after rain.

It wasn't repulsive, but instead made Jiang Lan feel a certain sensation.

As if he was born to be here!

Inside Lingtian Pass, it was much quieter than Lingtian City on the opposite side.

There were few pedestrians on the streets.

Even those who occasionally passed by looked hurried.

Moreover, Jiang Lan noticed a commonality among these people.

That was, a faint Evil Qi emanated from between their brows.

This kind of Evil Qi could not appear out of thin air without having killed several demons.