Chapter 160: Relocating to Langhai Plain

The three of them dared not linger. After cleaning up the battlefield, they immediately boarded the Kunlun Lan and made their getaway. Only then did Luo Yu and Bai Wuhuo have the time to let Luoli burn away the grudge-worms inside their bodies.

After flying for a while, the boundless mountain ranges vanished. Across the plains beneath them, cultivator towns of various sizes began to appear, boasting towering pavilions, magnificent palaces, and boundless horizons, alongside numerous glittering pagodas with multi-tiered eaves piercing the clouds and mist. As for their height... let us just say that the World Trade Center and the Burj Khalifa paled utterly in comparison.

Along the way, quite a few cultivators riding magic treasures swept past them in the opposite direction, and they even encountered some who were guarding the outskirts of cities to commit robbery. However, when these individuals sensed their cultivation levels, they gave them a wide berth. Cultivators above the Nascent Soul stage disdained to guard city perimeters for plunder, and those bouncing around were basically at the Golden Core stage.

Having no intention of lingering in these cities, the group continued their journey toward the northeast.

After passing several more towns, the terrain ahead shifted once more, and lakes of various sizes began to emerge.

Beneath the pure, bright sky, the lake water was azure, crystal-clear, and vast beyond measure. It was as transparent as glass; if not for the occasional ripples stirred by a gentle breeze, it would have been difficult to tell where the water surface ended and the air began, allowing one to gaze directly at the swimming fish and colorful shells at the bottom of the lake.

Among these lakes were countless gentle and graceful islands. The shapes of their peaks resembled the exotic mountains along the banks of the Guilin Lijiang River, yet they possessed an even more rounded and enchanting allure.

Standing independently in isolated splendor, rarely connected to one another, some were jade-green and dripping with vitality, others draped entirely in red maples, and some even adorned with delicate pink cherry blossoms. They resembled a group of reserved maidens, each with her own unique charm, standing quietly amidst light gauze and thin mist. Viewed from afar, the expansive lakes resembled mirrors. In some places, mountain ranges piled upon peaks; in others, the landscape opened up like an ocean. The interlocking mountains and waters were scattered like stars, exactly like blue jade plates strewn with multicolored gems—bright in color, fresh, and pleasing to the eye.

Beholding this brisk and cheerful scenery, Luo Yu felt his mood lift accordingly, and the psychological trauma left behind by the Qiongqi finally dissipated.

At that moment, Qin Yue, who had been lying on the cloud, finally woke up. The gaping hole in her chest had mostly closed due to the efficacy of the medicinal pills, but she still required substantial recuperation.

Now that she was awake, if she proactively circulated her spiritual energy to regulate her breathing, her recovery speed would increase significantly.

Considering that her parents' territory was entirely filled with Yin energy and thus unsuitable for Qin Yue's healing, the main party decided to temporarily reside in this place for a few days. Since the Qiongqi had not pursued them, it was likely truly trapped; they might as well wait until Qin Yue recovered before making further plans.

Luo Yu took out the continent map and studied it for a while, learning that this place was called "Langhai Plain." It occupied a vast expanse of land, little smaller than the Korean Peninsula. However, because the map's author was of the Muwol race, further in-depth study of the region was impossible; the map merely marked the place's name and area, leaving all other details unknown.

The Kunlun Lan drifted lightly among the various spiritual islands, occasionally passing ancient trees, pavilions and terraces protruding from mountain peaks, and glittering defensive arrays. The residents here were evidently much wealthier than the paupers of Qianteng Immortal Gorge, disdaining to live in caves and instead occupying entire islands exclusively to build open-air luxury gardens. At the foot of some mountains, exquisite painted pleasure boats were kept ready, their surfaces flashing with runes—clearly magical treasures at a glance. They were truly wealthy indeed.

Aside from those moored against the mountains, delicate boats also came and went across the lake surface. They were extremely nimble, swift as arrows, gliding across the water in absolute silence, leaving only a trail of ripples before vanishing into the swirling aquatic mists. Sweeping the boats with his spiritual sense, Luo Yu discovered that the people aboard were basically Qi Condensation cultivators, which startled him immensely. Good grief, did the wealth gap really have to be this stark? Even Qi Condensation cultivators could afford such large-scale magical treasures!

Burning with eagerness at the sight, Luo Yu immediately spoke up, "We need to steer the Hegemon Vessel over here right now! The purchasing power here is simply too strong! Let's find a place to settle down first, and then go investigate the market!"

After wandering around the Langhai Plain for a long time, the group finally found a satisfactory empty island. However, with Qin Yue's injuries unheaved, the task of building a house proved slightly arduous. Seizing the time, the three of them circled the spiritual island a few times to design it before breaking ground.

Not long after they began, they spotted someone flying toward the island. The leader was a Nascent Soul cultivator riding a crane, followed by six Foundation Establishment cultivators stepping on clouds.

Once the party approached the island, before Luo Yu could even offer a greeting, the arrogant, young-master-like Nascent Soul cultivator spoke haughtily: "I am Yi Rong, the thirteenth-generation great-grandson of the Tianhu Ancestor from the Yi clan of Yinhua Island! Who are you people, and from where do you hail? What is your cultivation level, and what brings you here?"

Luo Yu felt those few sentences carried a fair amount of information. It seemed the other party was a local tyrant of the vicinity, with powerful backers above and a clan behind him, making him probably unwise to provoke. Therefore, he answered honestly, "We are the Luo family... Luo siblings, hailing from... uh, a remote town. We plan to stay here for a period of time. Is that permissible?"

Upon hearing this, the one called Yi Rong quickly descended with his group of cultivators. He flipped down from the crane, flicked his wide long sleeves to reveal his wrists, walked right up to Qin Yue, tilted his head to examine her closely for a moment, and nodded. "Have you provoked trouble and come to the Langhai Plain to hide from disaster? If you are hoping to borrow the Yi clan's hands to avert calamity, you've calculated wrong. Even if you reside here, should your pursuers come looking for revenge, Yinhua Island will not intervene."

Luo Yu said, "Our trouble has already been resolved. May I ask if the Langhai Plain is managed by your esteemed clan?"

Yi Rong rolled his eyes and said, "Managed? What a joke. Did this young master not just tell you?"

Luo Yu grew depressed. "Then what are you here for?"

Strutting with a pigeon-toed gait and shaking his head, Yi Rong circled the group before finally stopping in front of Bai Wuhuo. He brought his handsome face close to the monstrous youth, almost pressing against the latter's cheek, and said flippantly, "Since new, charming neighbors have moved in, it is only natural to come pay a visit... May I ask the beauty's honored name?"

"Aha!" Luoli let out a bizarre laugh. "What accurate eyesight! He's the only one who's still single, you know! The spring of your youth has finally arrived, second-middle-school boy! Hurry up and seize the opportunity to build a happy family!"

With a deadpan expression, Bai Wuhuo said, "Has this lord not already built a happy family with you? Hey, young man opposite, if you're looking for a man, you'd better find someone weaker than yourself, otherwise it's very easy to end up being the one dominated!" As soon as he finished speaking, his cultivation base instantly surged outward, sending Yi Rong stumbling back in disarray.

"V-Void Piercing senior!" Terrified beyond measure, Yi Rong instantly lost his bravado, hurriedly stepping back to bow in salute. "Please forgive this junior's rudeness and offense!"

Bai Wuhuo waved a hand at him. "Hah, it's fortunate you tried to flirt with me. If you had flirted with any of the others, you'd be in miserable shape. This lord is magnanimous, so I'll forgive you!"

As if granted a pardon from heaven, Yi Rong stammered, "Many thanks, Senior! Since you all have pressing matters to attend to, this junior will take his leave now and return another day to offer my apologies!" With that, he tried to make a run for it.

"Slow, slow, slow!" Bai Wuhuo hauled him back by the collar. "I see you're quite free, so why are you in such a rush to leave? Come chat with us; we're completely unfamiliar with the Langhai Plain... Consider it part of your apology!"

And thus, the ill-fated Yi Rong was forced to serve as an unpaid tour guide. By the time he and his lacklings slunk away in dejection, the new estate had already been constructed, and the Luo family had gained a detailed understanding of the Langhai Plain.

Based on its terrain, the Langhai Plain was divided into three major sections: North Plain, West Plain, and South Plain. Spiritual islands were countless within the Langhai Plain, and more than half of them stood vacant and uninhabited. The spiritual island occupied by Luo Yu and his companions was located in the South Plain. Just under half of its residents were rogue cultivators, while the greater half belonged to various cultivation families.

Although this place lacked the bustling prosperity of cultivation towns or the rugged, ethereal wonder of Qianteng Immortal Gorge, its mountain domains were sufficiently vast to easily accommodate a minor clan. Moreover, the field of vision was expansive, the scenery as picturesque as a painting, featuring both mountains and waters—dignified and elegant, perfectly matching the aesthetic sensibilities of cultivators. In terms of secular values, this was a luxury villa district. The people living here naturally needed to possess a certain taste and status; anyone capable of opening an island to establish a manor had to be a cultivator of the Nascent Soul stage or above, or else they would be driven away. Although many low-level cultivators lived here, they were either servants under someone or descendants of influential aristocratic lineages.

Counting them all up, Void Piercing cultivators across the entire continent numbered fewer than one hundred. This figure seemed somewhat low relative to the proportion found in the ancient terrestrial cultivation world. In the past, Luo Yu and Qin Yue had been thoroughly baffled by this phenomenon: logically speaking, with spiritual energy this abundant, high-level figures should be even more numerous, yet reality was precisely the opposite.

Later, after their family engaged in all sorts of wild speculation, they ultimately concluded: it was likely because these cultivators began consuming auxiliary pills to break through bottlenecks from a young age. Consuming too many caused their "spiritual barriers" to develop a tolerance, making breakthroughs even more difficult instead—of course, this was merely conjecture and had not been verified through experimentation.

Consequently, in the sparsely populated Eastern Divine Nation, Void Piercing cultivators were exceedingly rare. Conversely, the Eastern Heavenly Court migrants who arrived later boasted far more Void Piercing experts; although they kept a very low profile, even the Eastern Divine Nation dared not provoke them. Naturally, as a Void Piercing cultivator, the Tianhu Ancestor held enough renown in the Eastern Divine Nation that his descendants possessed a certain sense of superiority, making acts like flirting with beauties entirely commonplace.

This Tianhu Ancestor had migrated into the Eastern Divine Nation only a few millennia ago. When he first set foot on this continent, he was merely at the Nascent Soul stage, later acquiring some bottleneck-breaking pills that allowed him to successfully advance after consumption. He was a typical ancient Chinese man, keeping a low profile and acting with utmost caution. At first, he would still manage injustices he encountered, but later, having seen too much, he grew weary of intervening in other people's feuds. After all his sons and grandsons perished, his supervision over his descendants grew increasingly lax; as long as they didn't cross any major lines, anything went.

Take this incident with Yi Rong, for instance. Had he flirted with a backgroundless cultivator below the Nascent Soul stage, or brought a gang of vicious thugs to abduct someone for unspeakable deeds, the Tianhu Ancestor would never have sought redress for the victim. But had he known Yi Rong had flirted with a Void Piercing cultivator of the same tier as himself, Yi Rong would undoubtedly have received a severe thrashing and been sentenced to at least ten years of confinement and introspection.

Even so, the Yi clan still maintained relatively decent family discipline, with the Tianhu Ancestor constantly keeping his descendants on a tight leash to prevent them from causing catastrophic trouble. After all, his remaining lifespan was limited, and whether he could enter the Deity Integration stage remained uncertain. Should he pass away one day, and those he had offended banded together to seek collective vengeance, the consequences would be disastrous.

The backbone of this continent consisted of Nascent Soul cultivators, whose numbers were as numerous as the hairs on an ox, to the extent that even Void Piercing cultivators dared not put on airs. If they provoked public outrage and were group-beaten by a hundred-odd Nascent Soul cultivators, the outcome would be terrifying indeed. The Nascent Soul cultivators on this continent were far more troublesome than those in the terrestrial cultivation world; they lacked no equipment and possessed various auxiliary spiritual medicines to strengthen their physical bodies. Since childhood, they frequently ran off to chaotic zones for group brawls, giving them combat experience far richer than these old bones.

Consequently, the attitude of most Void Piercing cultivators was similar to that of the Tianhu Ancestor—single-mindedly pondering how to advance, and basically never interfering in the continent's affairs.