136: Chapter 136 Shattered Gold City

The Formation Lin Qing was setting up for Sun Shaoping this time was far more difficult than any he had encountered before. Even though he was already an 8th-rank Perfection Formation Master with Divine Thought far stronger than his peers, he dared not be careless in the slightest.

It took a full five days for Lin Qing to finally embed this Formation into the jade pendant.

After finishing, Lin Qing calmly opened the System interface. Sure enough, this Formation had been successfully recorded by the System—Silent Spirit Pulse-Sealing Formation (1/2000).

A full two thousand proficiency points required. One must know that the proficiency requirements for the 9th-rank Formations he currently possessed were only one hundred points; the difference was clear at a glance.

Moreover, this number also meant that this Formation was truly beyond the 10th rank.

Lin Qing suppressed the waves in his heart and calmly handed the jade pendant to Sun Shaoping: "It's done, take it."

Sun Shaoping nodded heavily, accepted the jade pendant with both hands in a solemn manner, and undisguised joy appeared in his eyes.

Sun Shaoping did not hang the jade pendant on his waist as usual; instead, he took a plain cloth strip from his Storage Ring, carefully wrapped the jade pendant, and then tied it close to his body on his waist and abdomen.

Lin Qing watched his actions quietly, feeling a sense of familiarity.

After putting the jade pendant away, Sun Shaoping looked up at Lin Qing: "Lin Qing, a great kindness, no need for words!"

"If you have any needs in the future, just say the word."

Lin Qing waved his hand. After the two chatted briefly, Sun Shaoping turned and hurried away.

Watching Sun Shaoping leave, Lin Qing took a rare night of rest; setting up this Formation was indeed very draining mentally.

The next day, after resting, Lin Qing once again used the disguise function of Ultra Instinct to quietly alter his appearance and bone structure. As for his aura, he used the Perfection-level Breath Concealment Technique.

In an instant, the original appearance of the handsome and refined youth faded, replaced by an unremarkable, unfamiliar face that would not look out of place in a crowd.

After doing all this, Lin Qing moved and headed straight for the Sect's teleportation plaza.

Lin Qing was no longer a nobody; the Xuanye Demon Court had long listed him as a key target, and his portrait and information had already been passed to all the Demon Court's spies.

To avoid alerting the enemy and letting those Demon Court Disciples receive the news and escape in advance, he absolutely could not appear in his original form.

Moreover, there were many Sect Disciples, and no one could guarantee there were no Demon Court undercover agents among them, so he began changing his appearance from within the Sect.

The teleportation plaza was bustling with people. Whenever Sect Disciples accepted distant missions, they would use the teleportation array to first travel to a location closer to their destination.

East Xuanqing Province was vast and boundless, and the Xuanye Demon Court was not the only power comparable to the Sect in size.

Besides the Chuyun Immortal Sect and the Xuanye Demon Court, there were four other forces of the same level that jointly held the right to speak in East Xuanqing Province.

They were the Duchuan Sword Gate, Wangu Cave, the Wanhe Chamber of Commerce, and the Qingyuan Sect.

Among them, the Duchuan Sword Gate had been on good terms with the Chuyun Immortal Sect for generations, while Wangu Cave was in the same camp as the Xuanye Demon Court.

The Wanhe Chamber of Commerce was a neutral force that did not participate in the conflicts between other forces, while the Qingyuan Sect had ties with all major forces.

The territory of East Xuanqing was not entirely occupied by these six major forces. For example, the Wanhe Chamber of Commerce never occupied land, only being keen on opening their own chambers of commerce in major cities across East Xuanqing.

Some powerful Loose Cultivators would independently occupy a small area; some territories were coveted by many parties but never successfully occupied; and there were remote areas that were resource-poor and ignored by everyone.

The chaotic landscape and the coexistence of many heroes also created a fertile ground for countless battles and tempering.

This time, Lin Qing would first travel to the Xuantian Empire via the teleportation array, then head south, completely exiting the territory ruled by the Chuyun Immortal Sect.

There was no need to spend a million Spirit Stones for this trip. After honestly paying ten thousand Spirit Stones, Lin Qing waited quietly in the plaza.

During the better part of the day he spent waiting, he saw Ling Shu. She was still heroic and spirited, accompanied by four powerful fellow Disciples, all of whom were top Prodigies ranked high on the Heaven Ranking.

The five of them were also heading to the Xuantian Empire, but Lin Qing had long since changed his appearance and was dressed as an ordinary Disciple, so Ling Shu and her group did not recognize him as they swept their gazes over.

The teleportation array activated, spiritual light enveloped his body, and after a familiar moment of dizziness, Lin Qing arrived at the capital of the Xuantian Empire.

He did not linger. After entering the city, he changed his disguise several times before leaving from the city's south gate.

After leaving the city, Lin Qing first maintained the flight speed of an ordinary 6th-rank Cultivator and flew slowly for thousands of miles, while constantly sweeping his Divine Thought around.

After confirming that no one was following, he finally let go and his figure suddenly turned into a stream of light, tearing through the sky.

Speeding along, after flying continuously for three days, Lin Qing finally completely stepped out of the territory of the Chuyun Immortal Sect and arrived at the blurred zone between the Chuyun Immortal Sect and the Xuanye Demon Court.

In the early years, there were still local forces and Jianghu rules to maintain the bottom line here, but with the constant fighting between the Sect and the Demon Court, the order here was completely disrupted.

Now, only isolated cities stood stubbornly, with no Dynasty jurisdiction and no Sect laws; the law of the jungle had become the only truth.

Precisely because of the chaotic environment here, it attracted top Disciples from all major forces in East Xuanqing Province to come for training. Over time, this territory was recognized as the Prodigy trial grounds of East Xuanqing Province.

After entering this territory, Lin Qing once again restrained his aura and suppressed his speed to the level of an ordinary 7th-rank Cultivator.

Soon, he arrived at the first stop of this trip, Suijin City.

Now, his Divine Thought coverage had reached 200,000 miles, easily encompassing all the cities he knew of.

But the Prodigies mixing in this region almost all possessed methods of concealment and disguise. Especially the Disciples of the Sect and the Demon Court; if they did not disguise themselves, once their identities were exposed, they would be besieged by enemy forces within a few hours.

Lin Qing's Divine Thought was actually enough to see through some ordinary disguises, but this required careful investigation after locking onto a target. A city had hundreds of thousands or millions of people; he could not investigate everyone.

Moreover, he could not recognize all the Demon Court Disciples. Everyone practiced the five types of Spiritual Qi; even if he saw the face under someone's disguise, he could not judge whether the other party was a Demon Court Disciple.

Although Suijin City had city gates, Lin Qing did not pass through them; he jumped directly over the city wall and landed on the main street of Suijin City.

After landing, he was met with intense decay and desolation.

The entire city was dirty, broken, and scarred; the streets were uneven, and one could see simple shacks and dilapidated grass huts built by poor people everywhere.

The houses on both sides of the road were ruined with peeling walls; cracks from sword slashes and mottled bloodstains from battles could be seen everywhere.

In a street corner not far away, the corpse of a Martial Artist lay quietly in a pool of blood, ignored by all, allowing the bloody scent to permeate the street.

A chaotic world, a desolate city; human life was like grass.

When Lin Qing landed from the air, the poor people and low-level Martial Artists coming and going on the street were instantly terrified, subconsciously retreating and hurriedly staying away from this area.

The local people of Suijin City were trapped in the chaotic world for their whole lives, suffering from the bullying of local Gangs, and the vast majority could only stay in the Mortal Realm for their entire lives.

They could not see Lin Qing's specific cultivation level, but they instinctively feared all Cultivators who could fly.

Lin Qing had a calm expression as he found a dilapidated tea stall on the side of the street and sat down.

The tea shed was extremely simple, with only a few old tables and chairs, covered in sword and knife marks of varying depths.

He ordered a pot of coarse tea and sat quietly at the table waiting.

Sure enough, Lin Qing had only been seated for the time it takes for a stick of incense to burn.

In the shadows of the alley outside the tea stall, several gloomy gazes had already quietly locked onto him, bringing greed and viciousness as they slowly approached.