With all the separation completed, Tian Zhu, the sect leader, calmly left the city.
"All of you, go to the ship, including the city's inhabitants. Only the elders will remain," he ordered with indifferent eyes, his ethereal voice echoing in everyone's minds without ever interrupting his steps.
The sect's ship in the sky moved slightly, and then a bridge of energy descended precisely beneath the sect leader's feet, who walked along it without any sense of strangeness, as if it had always been there.
At a certain moment, his body suddenly blurred, and he vanished like a ghost from everyone's sight, making them blink in a daze at that mysterious man.
Although they did not understand what was going to happen, nor the reason for being there, they were the sect leader's orders, and all they needed to do was obey. The disciples, then, without wasting time, gathered the city's people and urged them to board.
Even filled with fear and doubt about what would happen to them, after witnessing Lie Zheng's attack, which killed the city's elite as if they were mere ants with a simple wave of his hand, no one dared to lag behind.
As for those who still had severe psychological issues and could not react after the deaths of their captors, they could only be dragged along by the disciples, while they struggled fiercely, full of hatred toward their saviors for having killed the cruel villains who had inflicted all manner of atrocities upon them.
Aotian's mouth twitched as he saw the scene, but he knew it was not their fault.
With the entire population on the bridge, the sect's ship began to fly away, while everyone, unconsciously, turned to witness what was about to happen.
It was then that the elders who had stayed behind finally moved.
Hundreds of those powerful men flew into the air and spread out over a vast stretch of desert around the City of Exiles.
All of their hands suddenly turned toward the ground, and before an extremely terrifying spiritual power vibrating through their arms, to the point of distorting the air, Aotian murmured to himself.
'Reveal your form.'
A massive flash suddenly expanded, blinding everyone who watched.
Next, an intense current of wind arose, pushing robes and people backward.
Finally…
BOOOMMMM!!!
A gigantic sonic explosion threatened to rupture the eardrums of all who heard it.
Intense vibrations echoed from the ground, as the world itself seemed to tremble before that power.
Aotian witnessed all of this from every perspective and could not help but feel a tremor in his heart upon realizing that he was already capable of wielding, through the hands of his avatars, power comparable to nuclear bombs. And now, there were hundreds of atomic bombs under his control.
He felt that he was distancing himself more and more from mortality, ascending to something greater, which was a fact.
When the glare dissipated and everyone could barely open their eyes against the violent wind, shielding their faces with their hands, scarcely seeing what had happened through the gaps between their fingers, their mouths slowly began to gape open, seized by horror.
There, where the small mound of the City of Exiles had once existed, now lay a crater of unbelievable size. And within it rested something even more unbelievable.
A gigantic mountain range, stretching hundreds of thousands of miles, stood there, unscathed by the explosion.
Previously, it had apparently been buried beneath piles upon piles of sand, and even after such a detonation, it had not been completely revealed.
Still, what was already visible was more than enough to shock everyone, especially the former residents of the city, who stared wide-eyed, never imagining that the simple mound where they lived was, in truth, merely the tip of the highest peak of an enormous mountain.
They could still see their small houses, ridiculously intact, far up above.
When Aotian had entered the city earlier with the sect leader, it was not merely for a stroll. In fact, he had invaded the underground to probe and map the area before the attack, which would then allow him to unearth his target efficiently and safely, avoiding damage to the mountain range itself with the explosion.
Aotian had not gone to that location by chance. A few months earlier, during an exploration, he had already discovered that place and realized that, despite appearing to be just a small mound with the energy of an early-stage, fourth-level spiritual vein, that was far from the truth.
The reality was that beneath that hill serving as the City of Exiles rested a true fifth-level vein of medium quality, sufficient to found a Soul Formation sect.
Unfortunately, due to the nearby Mahayana Mansion, which siphoned all the surrounding energy, the vein had become merely a constant battery, without the capacity to properly nourish its own mountain, becoming desertified just like the rest of the landscape.
There was only energy in that small section of the peak because several formations had been arranged to try to contain the energy leakage, but in the end, they barely managed to sustain a fourth-level environment.
Aotian's objective in unearthing that mountain this time was to try to reverse this situation and transform that desertified mountain into a temporary home for the sect, while his main body and the core disciples attempted to conquer the Mahayana Mansion.
He did not know how long it would take to succeed in his main mission and, for that reason, decided to proceed with this plan B, since it would be extremely bad to keep the disciples on the ship, both for them and for the sect, considering the constant expenditure of spirit stones needed to sustain such a large cultivation environment.
Thus, beneath the rain of sand remnants falling from the sky, the shocked gazes of the crowd, the elders preparing for another attack to unearth the remainder, and the barren mountain composing the scene, only a single weary thought crossed Aotian's mind.
'There is a lot of work ahead…'
…
Back in the small world of the Mahayana Mansion, a large, robust wooden ship cut through the light-blue sky.
Below it, nine enormous pink earthworms writhed through the air, carrying the vessel on their backs as it streaked forward at high speed.
With his hands behind his back, Hui Lang calmly conversed with Leung Tinhou, the city lord, while the wind fiercely whipped their clothes.
Beside them, Aotian, Rihai, and Cang Song faced the same situation, their faces calm but their hearts helpless.
As cultivators from outside that restricted world, where formations were the norm, something as rustic as not even having an energy shield to block the ship's wind felt like going from opulence to poverty, something extremely unsettling for them.
Even though the worms and the vessel were, in fact, responsible for dealing with most of the wind resistance, what remained was still uncomfortable for them.
Fortunately, because they refined their bodies under the elders' orders, they did not need to embarrass themselves by putting up energy shields to protect themselves. As for the city lord, with the cultivation level he was supposed to have, his body was naturally more resilient than theirs.
"City Lord Leung, how much longer until we arrive?" Hui Lang asked calmly, looking at the dazzling scenery outside with his black eyes, while his white hair and luxurious robes were blown backward by the wind, giving him an immortal-like appearance.
Since he had been the first to arrive and speak with the city lord, Aotian, Rihai, and Cang Song unanimously decided to let him guide the conversation as if he were their leader, while they tried to remain silent most of the time.
"Not much longer, about half an hour," Leung Tinhou replied with a broad, relaxed smile.
"Hmm…" Hui Lang nodded lightly and then spoke with composure. "City Lord Leung, this time I am bringing the youngsters to participate in the testing grounds, but before that I would like them to better understand their own situation. Seeing everything only from afar and superficially ends up blinding young people's eyes." He blinked thoughtfully.
"Of course, of course, without a doubt, Daoist companion." Leung Tinhou smiled and nodded firmly, though a hint of confusion was present in his eyes, not knowing where the man was going with this.
"Then, City Lord, I hope you can explain to them your sincere opinion about the dragon seeds and about who you believe we are and what we do," he suddenly invited, freezing Leung Tinhou.
Aotian, in his main body, raised an eyebrow at the city lord, while Rihai blinked curiously at the man, waiting to hear what he would say.
Internally, however, both were left speechless by Hui Lang's elaborate questions, basically used to ask for information in an extremely direct way.
Leung Tinhou quickly came back to himself and felt a little embarrassed as he looked at everyone present. Still, he took a deep breath, composed himself, and, swallowing his pride, spoke with a serious expression as he opened his arms.
"Born from the womb of the universe to dominate all things. Dragon seeds are the masters of this world, stars that shine unattainably in the heave—" he spoke firmly, puffing out his chest with pride, which this time froze the Infinite Dao Sect disciples, who stared at him in disbelief.
"Cough, cough! No, no! That's not it!" Hui Lang quickly coughed into his fist, surprised, and waved a hand, stopping the stunned Leung Tinhou midway. "Stop, that's not what I asked. I don't want flattery, I want a cold, ordinary analysis of what people really think about what dragon seeds are," he spoke with extreme seriousness, trying to keep his mouth from twitching.
"Ah?! Ah! Well… that, then… hmm…"
The city lord was stunned and shifted awkwardly, but seeing the serious looks of everyone present, he swallowed and, this time, spoke carefully, looking at Rihai and Aotian.
"Well, what I said is what's usually spoken of in legends among the common folk. But if we look at what is truly known, anyone born with an affinity for the supreme element in their roots—the Water element—even if it is a Five Elemental Root, is taken to Dragon Summit while still a child."
"There, which is the holy land of immortality, the dragon seeds learn the legendary spells and cultivation arts that exist only in that place, which allows their strength to grow rapidly, making them invincible in the world. Even a hundred cultivators in the same realm and level are no match for a single dragon seed."
"And then there are the testing grounds scattered throughout the world. By truly passing one of them, a portion of the world's authority is made available, but only dragon seeds can enter. That is basically all I know."
"Others don't know much about this last part. Only people of a slightly higher social standing, like a city lord, usually know. In the end, people's common sense is more based on the legends about the great power of dragon seeds and the fact that they are invincible in this world."
Leung Tinhou explained in a gentle and somewhat awkward manner, staring at the pair of black and blue eyes that made him feel uneasy.
In truth, for dragon seeds who participate in the testing grounds, it is expected at minimum that they be of high rank, that is, possess high-quality spiritual roots oriented toward the water element.
But before him, the only eyes that matched someone with such affinity were Rihai's. As for hair color, none of them seemed to correspond.
Fortunately, when Hui Lang arrived, with a bit of conversation, the city lord asked him to demonstrate a spell to prove his identity. He did not say this directly, merely disguising it as a desire to witness a real spell, which was also not a lie.
At that time, right after seeing the extremely skillful spell in the man's hands, Leung Tinhou stopped doubting and welcomed him with open arms.
As for the fact that their hair and eye colors were not blue, well, there were special physiques in that world that ended up altering a cultivator's hair and eye color, without necessarily following the affinity present in their spiritual roots.
"Hmm… that explanation was sufficient. Did you understand?" Hui Lang nodded, not seeming very impressed, and looked at Rihai and Aotian, who seemed to have grown bored with the narration at some point and yawned shamelessly.
Inside, however, the four disciples were jumping with happiness at having obtained so much information and so many clues so quickly.
Looking out from the flying ship, which advanced at high speed, they felt that they were getting closer and closer to dominating that world.