Lin Zhixia quickly understood why she was told to "stand firm." The speed... it was beyond quick. One could no longer simply describe it as fast.
No, it was super fast and incredibly bumpy!
In this situation, her meager spiritual power was insufficient. Her eyes couldn’t stay open, and her face felt like it was being scratched painfully. Mid-flight, she accidentally slipped, and was about to fall.
Fortunately, Nanli grabbed her just in time, saving her from turning into a pancake.
When they landed, Lin Zhixia was already feeling weak in the legs, her head a mess like a bird’s nest, and she started vomiting.
Nanli asked with concern, "Are you alright?"
Lin Zhixia took a long while to recover, glaring at Nanli, "How did you control the sword? It was so fast!"
Nanli blinked, looking somewhat innocent, "Huh? Wasn’t that the normal speed?"
She was actually much slower than Yun Yubai.
Lin Zhixia, seeing her surprised expression, was so irritated but didn’t know where to direct her anger. If she kept arguing, it would only make her seem inept.
"Well... I suppose it’s normal," Lin Zhixia muttered, deciding to salvage her pride a bit, "I just didn’t sleep all night, so it felt a bit too fast."
Nanli nodded, even more convinced that this was the normal sword-flying speed.
"Alright, then I’ll keep this speed from now on."
Lin Zhixia swore to herself she would never again ride Nanli’s flying sword. Her little life couldn’t handle such turbulence.
The gates of Hundred Pass Town were closed.
Nanli noticed that both the town and its gates were protected by a magical formation, not easy to breach. However, if a powerful cultivator came, this formation wouldn’t be much of a deterrent.
As the town’s mistress, Lin Zhixia used her palm to verify the formation, and after the guards confirmed she wasn’t being forced, she opened the gates.
It was still before dawn, and the townsfolk had not yet awoken. However, the guards were very pleased to see her return.
"Miss, why did you come back alone? Where’s Brother De?" one of the guards asked, eyeing Nanli warily as he noticed her.
"Who is this old woman?!"
When Lin Zhixia opened the gate, Nanli had already used a Face-Changing Talisman, transforming into the appearance of an old woman. After all, while Lin Zhixia trusted her, others wouldn’t necessarily feel the same.
Seeing her change of face, Lin Zhixia understood Nanli’s reasoning and explained, "This is my new friend. Her... name is ’Flying Fast’—she’s a Golden Core cultivator."
Nanli twitched her mouth. She had been thinking about her own name but hadn’t expected someone to beat her to it and come up with one already.
"Flying Fast"? That sounded terrible.
Her mind went blank as she struggled to come up with a suitable name. Then a flash of inspiration struck—she remembered some of Granny Meng’s suggested names.
Clearing her throat, she said, "No, my name is Xuan Huang, also known as the ’Honghuang Cultivator.’"
The guards stared at her, confused. They couldn’t tell if she was serious or joking.
Nanli thought this was the biggest blunder of her life—failing to come up with a decent name for herself.
One of the guards pulled Lin Zhixia aside, speaking in a low voice, "Second Miss, with the formation just broken and the Upper Realm issuing a wanted notice, bringing an outsider back now could be problematic."
In other words, he didn’t trust this old woman.
Even if she were a Golden Core cultivator, if she caused trouble in the town, they wouldn’t be able to defend against her.
Lin Zhixia said, "Uncle De trusts this Honghuang Cultivator too. If you don’t believe me, wait until Uncle De gets back and ask him."
Now was a critical time, so caution was necessary.
The guard told them to wait.
During this waiting time, Nanli usually would be drawing talismans or something else.
But since they were being watched, she didn’t want to reveal anything. Instead, she took out a collection of intelligence reports and began flipping through them.
The previous cultivation books from Yao Sheng were just basic introductions, but this intelligence summary was far more detailed, recording various cultivation stages.
If someone had a Qi Sea, they could cultivate and absorb Qi into their body—this was the beginning of cultivation: the Qi Refining stage.
However, having a Qi Sea didn’t mean one had enough talent to progress further. Many people would remain stuck in the Qi Refining stage their entire lives, only gaining a slightly higher battle power and lifespan than ordinary people.
Once someone entered the Base Building stage, things became significantly different.
Not only would their body and appearance slow down aging, but their lifespan could exceed two hundred years. They would have enough spiritual energy to control a sword and could choose a cultivation path suitable for themselves. Of course, most people in the Lower Realm specialized in martial arts or sword cultivation.
Other paths like musical cultivation, talisman cultivation, pill cultivation, or spell cultivation were controlled by sects in the Upper Realm, making the Lower Realm eager to join one of these sects for a qualitative leap in their cultivation journey.
When a cultivator breaks through from the Base Building to the Golden Core stage, they must face a heavenly tribulation.
The Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Deity Forming, and Great Achievement stages are divided into early, middle, and late phases. In other words, even small differences in cultivation stages could lead to significant differences in spiritual power.
But starting from the Deity Forming stage, as the soul transitions from the Nascent Soul stage, one’s lifespan could extend up to three thousand years. Even without further breakthroughs, they would still face a heavenly tribulation every hundred years.
After reaching the Great Achievement stage, they would enter the Immortal Being stage, which was divided into six smaller stages.
The final stage is becoming a deity. However, in this fake Immortal World, only Siheng had ascended to immortality, so the deity stage was temporarily irrelevant.
If she could ascend to the Immortal Being stage, she would have to offer her respect to the Heavenly Dao.
Nanli then flipped to the page detailing Seaside City and began reviewing the plan she could implement.
The current city lord of Seaside City was Yuan Zhenxian, who had broken through to the Golden Core stage thirty years ago. He had a younger brother, Yuan Zhenhai, who was still in the Base Building stage.
Yuan Zhenhai had been suffering from a strange illness for many years, and Yuan Zhenxian had been using spirit stones to buy pills from Penglai Island to extend his brother’s life.
However, these pills only suppressed Yuan Zhenhai’s Qi Sea, and his cultivation had plateaued.
When Nanli saw this, she began forming her own plans.
Lin Zhixia, getting bored of waiting, leaned over to look at the intelligence summary, clearly intrigued. "Where did you collect all this information?"
It was highly confidential!
Even the renowned Azure Dragon Palace wouldn’t be able to gather such detailed intelligence.
"From the ghost envoy you saw earlier," Nanli replied.
The moment the elder was mentioned, Lin Zhixia shuddered, but she couldn’t help but admire Nanli. "You’re incredible. To have ghosts and ghost envoys showing such respect to you!"
She had thought that once someone died, their secrets would be guarded. But now she realized that even the souls of the dead had to be eradicated to truly keep a secret.
Nanli put away the intelligence summary and asked, "Aren’t there any evil spirits or wicked ghosts causing trouble in the Lower Realm?"
"There are," Lin Zhixia replied, "but there aren’t many cultivators with the Yin-Yang Eyes. They charge a hefty price. However, the Divine Buddha Sect is quite good. They have a technique that opens the Yin-Yang Eyes as soon as someone joins. They occasionally travel to the Lower Realm to practice, helping us capture evil spirits and wicked ghosts."