A sleepless night, the next morning.
Ding Yan stepped out and locked the wooden door behind him, taking a quick glance at the idyllic village before his eyes, a trace of nostalgia flashing in them, but soon vanishing.
Without bidding farewell to anyone, he left just like that...
The previous night, Ding Yan had refined the last batch of materials into elixirs, storing them in his sleeve, then resealing the earth fire. Now, with less than two years until the next elder came out of seclusion, Ding Yan decided to attempt breaking through to the position of a loose immortal and experience the power of heavenly tribulation. If successful, he could easily obtain the jade token to the mundane world. If unsuccessful, he would still have time to return to the Lotus Valley and claim the jade token.
As for the possible peerless experts on the island, Ding Yan also tried to pay attention, but found nothing.
The raft drifted into the distance following the current.
Ding Yan sat cross-legged on the raft, closed his eyes and cultivated, stabilizing the surge in his cultivation base due to the foundation-building elixir. The foundation is the most important part of the cultivation path. Even Ding Yan, who had the cultivation base of transcending tribulation in his previous life, dared not be careless.
When he woke up, it was already at sunset, and he didn't know where the raft had drifted to.
Watching the afterglow of the setting sun, Ding Yan felt a sense of desolation in his heart.
He recalled many past events.
When he became a disciple of the Qiankun Sect, then when his Nascent Soul formed, and when he infiltrated the ancient ruins and was hit by a spiritual weapon and fell, his train of thought stopped at a certain point and a figure of a woman flashed through his mind.
"Although I survived, but, Qiankun Sect... Can I still go back? Can I see her again..."
Closing his eyes, Ding Yan lay down.
At that time, he was the elder of the Qiankun Sect, and his junior sister was the head of the Qingzhu Peak of the Qiankun Sect.
"If I die, will my junior sister be sad? Maybe... maybe." Ding Yan muttered.
The raft swayed, and Ding Yan closed his eyes and rested.
After an unknown period of time, when Ding Yan woke up again, it was already night.
Looking at the stars in the sky, Ding Yan sighed.
After a thousand years of cultivation, there are still some things that cannot be let go.
"This foundation-building elixir, let's call it the Elixir of Transcendence from now on..." Gathering his thoughts, Ding Yan took out a white porcelain bottle from his sleeve and held it in his hand.
The bottle contained the foundation-building elixir that Ding Yan had refined last night.
After drifting all night, Ding Yan finally saw land on the second day at dawn.
It was a bustling port with people coming and going. Although it was a world of cultivation, many people still lived their lives like ordinary people, working at sunrise and resting at sunset. Most of these people only had cultivation bases of one or two levels, and through generations, they had already forgotten their identity as cultivators.
When Ding Yan arrived at the dock, it was already dawn.
With a light leap, after getting ashore, Ding Yan's figure disappeared into the crowd...
To the west of the city was the slum of the Zuo Hai City, where most of the people living here were of no background and had no aptitude for cultivation. Every year, many sect elders would come to this place to look for children with outstanding talent and take them in as disciples. It is said that Fuling Qinghai, the number one young expert of the Mojian Sect, was discovered in such a slum by the head of the Mojian Sect's elder.
Ding Yan walked on the cobblestone streets, and the children sitting under the low-roofed houses on both sides occasionally showed hopeful looks when they saw Ding Yan.
Apart from the immortal cultivators coming here to take in disciples, there were rarely any other people here. After Ding Yan appeared here, these people regarded him as an immortal cultivator coming to take in disciples.
Ding Yan sighed secretly and did not stay, walking past the street.
After getting ashore, he had wanted to find a quiet place to undergo the Transcendence Tribulation, but the place where he landed turned out to be under the jurisdiction of a city controlled by the Huashen Sect, and there were many disciples of the Huashen Sect guarding the entrance and exit of the city. To enter or leave the city, a certain amount of jade stones must be paid.
If it were another sect, Ding Yan would have gone directly, but the Huashen Sect was an opposing sect with a deadly feud with the Lianhua Valley. Any disciple of the Lianhua Valley entering their sphere of influence would be killed without mercy. Moreover, this city belonged to a major city controlled by the Huashen Sect, and there was a true immortal sitting in the city!
In this case, charging in would definitely not work. Who knows if this immortal had placed any prohibitions.
"Uncle, buy a flower." Just as Ding Yan was contemplating, a timid voice interrupted his thoughts.
A girl of about seven or eight years old, looking thin and pale, dressed in patched old clothes, with two pigtails on her head, her big eyes filled with hopeful eyes, looked at Ding Yan.
Ding Yan sighed secretly, stopped, walked to the girl, crouched down, and touched her head, asking, "What's your name?"
"I'm Xiaoya." The little girl's big eyes twinkled. "Uncle, do you want to buy a flower?"
Ding Yan nodded and took out the remaining jade stones from his arms, all of which he handed to Xiaoya.
Xiaoya was stunned, then quickly said, "Uncle, Xiaoya only needs one piece..." As she spoke, the little girl quickly handed over the flowers and the extra jade pieces.
"Take them all." Ding Yan said.
The little girl shook her head. "With one piece of jade, Xiaoya can buy a lot of steamed buns, and my little brother won't have to go hungry..."
Ding Yan sighed at the sound of the girl's words.
In his eyes, he could see that the little girl in front of him had gone almost two days without food.
"You have a little brother?" Ding Yan asked.
For some reason, in looking at the little girl, Ding Yan's long-sealed memories were awakened again.
At that time, he was still a child, a beggar living on the brink of survival. For a steamed bun, he fought with wild dogs and was bitten all over. If it wasn't for his Master, he would have starved to death in the wilderness and become a skeleton bone. Where would there be a future talent in the world of cultivation, the elder of the Qiankun Sect?
After more than a thousand years of cultivation, Ding Yan asked himself, he definitely couldn't be considered a good person, but for the weak, in situations where he could help, he would not hesitate to lend a hand.
"My little brother is sick." Xiaoya's eyes darkened.
Just then, a commotion came from behind. Looking up, someone was coming on horseback. The person in front was dressed in luxurious clothes, obviously a man of influence. The people behind him were also high-class, and as they rode, they didn't care about knocking over people along the way.
"Get out of the way!"
The foremost man in luxurious clothes raised the whip in his hand and lashed towards Ding Yan.
Ding Yan frowned, holding the little girl in his arms and dodged to the side.
At that moment, the man in luxurious clothing seemed to be intentional, and the whip in his hand turned directly, whacking the little girl on the forehead.
Blood splattered!
A fresh and lively life, vanished in an instant...
Ding Yan froze, looking down, the little girl in his arms still had a smile on her face after getting the jade, her big eyes filled with gratitude towards Ding Yan. However, all of this was frozen in that moment...
Blood stained Ding Yan's robe.
"Haha, caught another fish. Tonight at Fengyuelou, it's your treat..."
"That peasant actually dodged, otherwise I could've caught a fish too."
...
The sound of horse hooves faded into the distance, amid the bustling voices, one could vaguely hear that these well-dressed young men were treating the slums as a place for horse riding, toying with lives, and tormenting the innocent!
Ding Yan slowly closed the little girl's eyes, closed his own eyes, took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, a strong sense of killing intent burst forth.
"Uncle, do you want to buy flowers?"
"Uncle, just one coin for the little girl..."
"A coin for a jade, can buy the little girl a lot of buns, so my younger brother won't go hungry..."
The little girl is gone, how will her sick brother survive?
A passing encounter, due to karma!
After cultivating for a thousand years, Ding Yan's state of mind had long been calm, and the intent to kill had not been stirred for a long time. However, in that moment, he only wanted to crush those scum and avenge the departed souls.
"I will avenge the little girl." As he spoke, Ding Yan no longer concealed his cultivation, and in an instant, an astonishing aura erupted from him.
Cultivation at the perfect stage of Qi Refinement!
Taking a step forward, he disappeared.
Being born a man, it's only right to seek revenge! Everything is done with a clear conscience.
At Ding Yan's speed, it only took a few breaths to catch up with the group of mounted young men, and along the way, Ding Yan saw many poor people lying in pools of blood.
These poor people had very low cultivation, rarely reaching the third level of Qi Refinement, while these well-dressed young men generally had cultivation levels of at least five levels of Qi Refinement. A whip strike from them rarely left anyone alive.
"Die!"
Ding Yan leaped into the air, extended his right hand, and slapped the forehead of the young man in the front.
Ding Yan remembered, the little girl died at the hands of this man!
Pfft!!!
The struck young man had not yet realized what had happened when he directly died, his brain splattering, even his horse knelt on the ground with its four legs bent.
"Feng Shao!"
"Who are you!"
The young man behind high shouted, stopping his mount, exclaiming, "You killed Feng Shao!"
"No matter who you are, you are doomed!"
"Send a signal!"
These young men, who grew up in this city, had never feared anyone. Now that their dear friend had been killed, they did not think about escape, but instead, threatened. One of the young men even directly took out a signal flare and shot it into the sky.
Ding Yan stood in the middle of the road, his robe stained with blood, his black long hair fluttering in the wind.
Without wasting words with these people, with one step, a rich earth power gathered from the acupoints of his soles surged into his body.
"Earth Form Symbol, Rocky Palm!"
The palm was like a mountain, emitting a heavy force from Ding Yan's hands.
Pfft, pfft!!!
With one palm, the three men in front were directly smashed to pieces.
The street was dyed red with blood!