Days later, Zhao Yan didn’t stay in the Fang Manor but instead followed Fang Chen and Xu Ge to the capital, where they met up with Li Daoye, Xia Yun, Liu Suifeng, and Tantai Qingxuan.
“You… are going to bring those two with you?” Li Daoye frowned as he gestured at Xu Ge and Zhao Yan.
Xia Yun and his two juniors disapproved too. Their journey was going to be fraught with danger, after all. Martial artists wouldn’t be of help to them; if anything, they would only drag them down.
“They are only going to Chillwater,” Fang Chen said.
“Ah!” Li Daoye exclaimed.
Xia Yun appeared to grasp something from it too. He hesitantly said, “Daoist Fang, Chillwater’s strongest martial artist is at pinnacle Earth Profound realm…”
He was implying that Xu Ge and Zhao Yan wouldn’t be able to achieve much in Chillwater.
“Xu Ge is at Ki Control, though he should be advancing to Ki Manifestation soon. This journey will be good training for him. As for Zhao Yan…” Fang Chen smiled. “You don’t have to worry about him. He’s a pinnacle Earth Profound realm martial artist.”
“Pinnacle Earth Profound realm?” Xia Yun was taken aback.
Pinnacle Earth Profound realm martial artists were comparable to eighth stage Ki Refinement cultivators. Martial artists only appeared weak in comparison due to inner ki being weaker than spirit ki, but otherwise, it was quite a formidable level.
They instinctively thought that Zhao Yan was from another grade-8 state, but they couldn’t help but wonder where Fang Chen found such a helper from.
“Interesting. I have never clashed with a pinnacle Earth Profound realm martial artist before,” Li Daoye chuckled.
Zhao Yan merely raised his hand, and Li Daoye was immediately crushed to the floor by a boundless wave of inner ki. If not for his spirit ki, his body might have been crushed into bits.
Xu Ge gloated over his embarrassment. “That’s for acting smug. You should know that Brother Zhao is our Great Xia’s number two martial arts expert! No one else in Great Xia, other than our young master, can compete with him.”
Zhao Yan released his inner ki with a smile.
Li Daoye slowly staggered to his feet, but he was reluctant to accept the result. “You only caught me by surprise! If I had more time to make preparations…”
“You still wouldn’t be a match for him. Even forcing a draw is beyond you,” Fang Chen interjected with a smile. “Your cultivation is too low. If you raise your cultivation by a stage or two, you might still be able to cross blows with him.”
“Forget it.” Li Daoye decided to step back on this one, knowing it was impossible for him to win.
“It’s getting late. Let’s head out,” Xia Yun said.
Liu Suifeng and Tantai Qingxuan nodded. They wanted to head there as soon as possible to investigate the blessed land.
“Are you capable of sword flight?” Fang Chen asked.
“…” The three of them exchanged looks before shaking their heads. Is Fang Chen capable of sword flight?
“I’m unable to do it too,” Fang Chen replied with a chuckle.
An hour later, the group rode out of the capital on horseback. Their destination—Chillwater.
Under the enhancement of spirit ki, even ordinary steeds became capable of galloping thousands of kilometers in a day, and they didn’t even need rest at night. It was just that this was extremely taxing on their spirit ki.
Xia Yun and his two juniors realized that Fang Chen was not only enhancing his own steed by Xu Ge and Zhao Yan’s ones too. Rather, it was Li Daoye who kept depleting his spirit ki, so the crowd had no choice but to stop and rest together with him.
Days later, Xia Yun took out a map and assessed the surroundings. He nodded affirmatively and said, “Everyone, we’re in Chillwater now.”
“Senior Xia, how far away are we from our destination?” Liu Suifeng asked.
“Let me take a look…” Xia Yun took a closer look at the map and did some mental calculations. To his astonishment, their destination was extremely close to Chillwater.
“Were there cultivators in Chillwater before?” Xia Yun narrowed his eyes in skepticism.
“That’s possible,” Tantai Qingxuan said. “A Spirit Marrow did emerge from Great Xia. Chillwater isn’t that far from Great Xia; there could have been cultivators here.”
“It might be possible that the other countries around Great Xia used to have cultivators too. Maybe there’s another Spirit Marrow here,” Liu Suifeng remarked.
Their eyes lit up. They decided to take a walk around the nearby countries after this trip, hoping that they might get something good out of it.
However, Fang Chen poured a pail of cold water over them. “There are plenty of cultivators in Dragonback Lane. They are likely to have taken whatever is valuable there.”
“That’s true…” The three of them lowered their heads in disappointment.
Dragonback Lane was a market created by unaffiliated cultivators. The people there were more desperate for cultivation resources than anyone else; it was likely they had already plundered whatever was useful in those few states.
The group advanced amid chatter.
They started bumping into more people as they ventured deeper into Chillwater, forcing them to slow down their speed of travel.
Just as they were passing by a town, they bumped into a platoon of Nightmare Knights. The civilians residing in the town quickly hid in their houses, fearing that they would offend these powerful soldiers. Even the martial artists wisely chose to stay out of their ways.
Even the weakest Nightmare Knight was at Ki Control, and paired with the Nightmare Steed, their fighting prowess was top-notch by Great Xia’s standards. Even in Chillwater, they were considered elites.
On top of that, they were backed by either the Ji Clan or Chillwater’s imperial family. Both were powerhouses that they couldn’t afford to offend.
Xia Yun and the others, as cultivators, wouldn’t pay any heed to these ants. They merely glanced at the Nightmare Knights Steeds while passing them by.
“Hold it right there,” a Nightmare Knight suddenly bellowed.
Fang Chen and the others didn’t even attempt to slow their footsteps. The next moment, they were surrounded by the Nightmare Knights.
“Do you need something from us?” Xu Ge clasped his fist and asked with a smile.
“You don’t look like locals. Where are you from?” one of the Nightmare Knights asked.
“We’re from Longdu,” Xu Ge replied.
Xia Yun and the others exchanged looks. They didn’t think this was necessary, but Xu Ge was Fang Chen’s subordinate, so they dared not to say anything about it.
“Longdu?” the Nightmare Knight narrowed his eyes doubtfully. He assessed the group of them before waving his hand. “Don’t cause trouble in Chillwater. A demon has recently emerged from his seclusion. You should steer clear if you bump into him,” the Nightmare Knight said before the group of them left.
Xu Ge looked at Fang Chen with a look of realization. “No wonder we would bump into the Nightmare Knights at a border town. It looks like Chillwater’s pugilistic world isn’t peaceful either.”
“Which pugilistic world is peaceful?” Fang Chen shook his head with a smile.
The crowd continued advancing.
They soon arrived before a gushing river that appeared to be a port. Quite a few people were transporting goods around.
“We’ll be traveling on water from this point onward. It’ll be much faster, or else we’ll have to scale a few mountain ranges,” Xia Yun eyed the map before saying.
“Old Xu, go and ask,” Fang Chen instructed.
Xu Ge nodded. He dove into the crowd, and soon, he returned in a hurry and reported, “Young master, I just asked and there is a boat heading toward the capital, but…”
“It’s a cargo boat. It might be a bit dirty. It’s shipping a batch of slaves on top of that.”
“It’s fine.” Fang Chen smiled before galloping toward the cargo boat with the others.
Quite a few people boarded the cargo boat, ranging from simply-dressed civilians to merchants, martial artists, and scholars.