206: Chapter 206 Jizhou City

Soon after, Chen Changqing and the others seized this Opportunity to escape into Jizhou City.

The Cultivators of Jizhou City opened the Formation passage to let them in, and only closed the Formation passage again after tens of thousands of Cultivators had completely entered.

Outside the city, seeing this, those Cultivators had no choice but to retreat to the rear to rest and regroup. They could not stop so many Cultivators from entering Jizhou City, but fortunately, they had already slain more than a dozen Purple Palace Cultivators just now, which could be considered somewhat accomplishing their goal.

Looking at the several people who came with him to provide reinforcements, Chen Changqing felt somewhat complicated. Previously, including him, their Cang Prefecture team had six Purple Palace Cultivators, but as a result, three died as soon as they arrived.

As for Qing Prefecture, it was about the same; there were seven Purple Palace Cultivators providing reinforcements, and after a battle, three of them also died.

During the truce between the two sides, the Cultivators of Jizhou City seized the time to settle the 60,000 Cultivators who came to provide reinforcements from Qing and Cang Prefectures.

Led by other Fellow Daoists, Chen Changqing and the several other Purple Palace Cultivators headed towards the City Lord's Mansion of Jizhou City.

Walking along the streets of Jizhou City, Chen Changqing looked at his surroundings.

The entire Jizhou City no longer possessed its previous prosperity; instead, ruins were everywhere, and many Mortals were despairingly waiting for the end of this war amidst the ruins.

If they were lucky, they might live until the end of the war; if they were unlucky, they might completely perish along with Jizhou City.

Originally, Biluo Palace had already arranged destinations for these Mortals in the city before the war started. However, there were simply too many Mortals in the city, so many of them could not be taken away in time and could now only obediently stay inside the city.

Chen Changqing had some feelings about the scene before him, but not very many. Cultivating immortality... ever since stepping into cultivation, every Cultivator had an uncrossable chasm between themselves and Mortals. This chasm was not only in strength, but even more so in emotional commonality.

Even though Chen Changqing had lived through two lifetimes, he long no longer had any special feelings for Mortals, and was instead somewhat indifferent to their lives.

Just imagine, if a Cultivator could move mountains and seas, and possessed a Lifespan far exceeding that of a Mortal, how could they possibly share empathy with Mortals? In essence, the two were no longer the same species.

Chen Changqing withdrew his gaze and thought no more about it. Together with Master Lingyuan and the others, he arrived at the City Lord's Mansion.

During this period, Master Lingyuan also inquired about a lot of information from the leading Purple Palace Cultivator.

For instance, regarding the current number of Cultivators in Jizhou City: after a month and a half of continuous combat, the 200,000 Cultivators originally possessed by Jizhou City were left with less than 50,000. However, over this past month and a half, quite a few Cultivators had arrived successively to provide reinforcements, which somewhat replenished Jizhou City's combat strength.

If one added the reinforcement troops from Qing and Cang Prefectures this time, Jizhou City still had about 230,000 people left.

As for Purple Palace Cultivators, there were still 73 people.

Looking at the enemy instead, the Purple Palace Cultivators alone still numbered over a hundred, while low-tier Cultivators still had a full 400,000.

On the surface, the strength of Yan Country was much weaker compared to the Three-Nation Alliance. It was just that the quality of Yan Country's Cultivators surpassed those three nations, so even if they had hundreds of thousands fewer Cultivators than the opponent, they could still fight.

In fact, if it weren't for Ghost Abyss holding down a portion of Yan Country's forces, these three nations probably wouldn't have dared to have thoughts of invasion even now.

After all, Yan Country's Legacy had a long history, and it was even the orthodoxy of those three Nascent Soul Sects from thousands of years ago, naturally incomparable to the few small surrounding countries.

If Yan Country was at its Peak state, let alone these three nations, even with Lu, Wei, and Zheng added, they might not necessarily be able to defeat Yan Country.

Even within the territory of these seventeen countries today, if the three countries of Tang, Chu, and Zhao did not dispatch Nascent Soul True Monarchs, wanting to take down Yan Country would definitely not be simple.

It was just that after several wars, Yan Country had lost many Golden Core Masters, and there was also the Anti-Immortal Alliance making trouble in the rear, which gave them the Opportunity to invade Yan Country.

Chen Changqing and the others entered the main hall of the City Lord's Mansion. Two Golden Core Masters sat in the main seats. Looking at Chen Changqing and the others, they didn't say much, merely asking some irrelevant matters before having people arrange living quarters for them to rest and Cultivate.

"Junior Sister Bai Ye (Senior Sister)."

Master Lingyuan brought Chen Changqing along to pay respects to Master Baiye.

"Mn, so it's you two. Please sit." Inside the quiet courtyard, Master Baiye invited the two to sit down, and then she instructed a maid under her command to go brew tea.

"I didn't expect that after just a few years of not seeing each other, you actually became Senior Martial Uncle Yuxu's Disciple. Congratulations, Junior Brother Chen." Master Baiye's tone carried a hint of emotion.

"It's also Junior Brother's luck." Chen Changqing became modest.

"No, being able to gain Senior Martial Uncle Yuxu's appreciation shows that you indeed have some capability. If I remember correctly, you are only just over fifty years old now, right?"

As soon as these words came out, Master Lingyuan to the side was also dumbfounded: just barely over fifty years old?!

"Junior Brother is already fifty-one now." Chen Changqing nodded and explained.

Receiving Chen Changqing's reaffirmation, Master Lingyuan's mind was a complete mess. When he was fifty years old, he was only at the second or third level of Foundation Establishment, right?

Yet the nominal Junior Martial Uncle before his eyes had actually already made a Breakthrough to the Purple Mansion. Thinking back to the beginning, when he was close to two hundred years old, he relied on various Opportunities to fluke a successful entry into the Purple Mansion. The hardships within that, any Purple Palace Cultivator would naturally be able to comprehend.

Master Lingyuan let his imagination run wild on the side.

"Junior Brother truly lives up to being Qingling's husband; your talent is indeed extraordinary. When Senior Sister was at your age back then, my cultivation had also barely reached the seventh level of Foundation Establishment. Had it not been for various coincidental Opportunities and the help of Master and elders, I wouldn't have been able to step into the Purple Mansion at an age under one hundred."

Master Baiye praised. In reality, her mentioning an age under one hundred was considered rather modest. After all, when she stepped into the Purple Mansion back then, her age was merely seventy-one, and this was still because she spent quite a lot of time in the Foundation Establishment Stage in order to forge a better Purple Mansion.

However, facts proved how correct her decision back then had been. If she hadn't properly polished her own Qi during the Foundation Establishment Stage, I'm afraid that let alone a four-zhang Purple Mansion, even opening up a three-zhang Purple Mansion would have taken much more effort.

Hearing this, Chen Changqing felt somewhat shocked in his heart: a Purple Mansion under one hundred years old—this talent?

No wonder everyone said that Master Baiye was the most talented Prodigy of the Yuxu Sect in the past millennium. It truly lived up to its reputation. It was rumored that the Purple Mansion she opened up even exceeded four zhang, so this rumor was presumably true as well.

Although compared to him, Master Baiye was still lacking, this was relative to him. If compared to other Purple Palace Cultivators, Master Baiye was already an existence far out of reach for other Purple Palace Cultivators.

Besides this, Chen Changqing himself also knew that if not for the assistance of the dao bead within his Sea of Consciousness, let alone opening up a nine-zhang Purple Mansion, whether he could even attain the Purple Mansion would be hard to say.

Even Foundation Establishment would be hard to say.

He was able to walk to this step today entirely by relying on the dao bead.

Of course, his own perseverance was likewise extraordinary. Not to mention the period of breaking through to the Purple Mansion, even when he was at Foundation Establishment, if he hadn't had sufficient perseverance, he definitely wouldn't have been able to forge a Flawless Foundation. Without a Flawless Foundation, he wouldn't dare claim he could open up a nine-zhang Purple Mansion.