Mortal: Starting by looting Han Laomo's entire herb garden

Central stone tower.

Lu Yan did not approach directly, but instead found a high vantage point and activated his Ghostly Eyes to observe carefully.

The tower was surrounded by mist, and under the vision of the Illuminating Demon Eye, the tower was shrouded in a faint blue halo.

The azure light, though seemingly thin, faintly exuded a chilling pressure; it was a restriction.

Lu Yan's gaze swept across the area below the tower, then he suddenly paused.

Two people were loitering around nearby.

A young, round-faced disciple, dressed in Huangfeng Valley attire, was looking around curiously.

The other one was also dressed in Huangfeng Valley attire, but he was a skinny old man with shifty eyes, whispering something to the young disciple.

Lu Yan's pupils contracted slightly.

The courtesy shown to him.

At this moment, a Nascent Soul stage expert was disguising himself as a lewd Qi Refining stage old man, trying to fool his fellow disciples.

"Fellow Daoist, let me tell you, there are definitely good things inside this tower."

Xiang Zhili lowered his voice, his face mysterious: "I've been observing this place for a long time. Look at the patterns on that door, those are ancient markings. There might be the inheritance of a Nascent Soul cultivator inside."

The young disciple asked skeptically, "Really? Then why don't you go in yourself?"

"I can't get in," Xiang Zhili said with a pained expression, pointing to the layer of blue light on the tower. "Look at this restriction; with my cultivation level, it's very difficult to break through it. Maybe if we join forces, we can manage. We can each take 70% of the treasures inside, how about that?"

The young disciple hesitated.

Lu Yan withdrew his gaze, silently offering a candle of remembrance to the passerby in his heart.

Having been targeted by a Nascent Soul stage monster, this guy is likely to be completely fooled.

He didn't want to get involved in other people's business, and his attention returned to the blue barrier.

With the full power of the Illuminating Demon Eye, the patterns of the restriction gradually became clearer.

Countless tiny wind blades swirled within the barrier, cutting away anything that tried to approach.

A name suddenly popped into Lu Yan's mind.

"Taiqing Tiangang Yuanci Shenfeng Jin".

It is one of the ten ancient divine prohibitions, alongside the Tai Miao Divine Prohibition.

Lu Yan sighed; he had to admit that he had miscalculated.

Although they obtained the treasure chest containing the restriction token, the problem was that they couldn't open it at all.

The box contains mechanisms and restrictions; even a Nascent Soul cultivator wouldn't be able to open it in less than ten days or half a month.

Was this all destined to be a fruitless endeavor? He hadn't even considered cooperating with Xiang Zhili.

The difference in cultivation levels between the two sides was too great, and he had no bargaining power at all. Since it involved smuggling himself into the spirit world, it was already a great act of kindness on the other side's part not to search his soul directly.

"Sigh... now that's the only option."

Lu Yan hesitated for a moment before activating the nameless fragment in his chest. The next second, the world spun around him.

-----

The scene before him changed, and Lu Yan steadied himself by holding onto a large tree.

The air is filled with spiritual energy, and the sky is clear.

He looked up at the sky. There were no six suns, so it wasn't the spirit realm, but the concentration of spiritual energy was clearly several times higher than in the human realm.

where is this?

Lu Yan patted his storage bag, set up the Sky-Splitting Cloud Shuttle, and flew for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before a city appeared in front of him.

He breathed a sigh of relief; it seemed the teleportation location wasn't too far from populated areas.

The spirit stones in his storage bag are being consumed at a rate of one hundred per second, so he should be able to stay in this interface for another half an hour.

Lu Yan put away his escape light and found that the people coming and going at the city gate were all cultivators.

After observing for a while, he found that the lowest level was Foundation Establishment, and the Qi Refining stage was extremely rare.

He sensed his storage bag; the spirit stones were decreasing at a rate of one hundred per second. At this rate, it could only last for another quarter of an hour at most.

As they walked into the city, a young man dressed in a gray shirt and short jacket came up to them with a smile on his face and mumbled a string of words.

Lu Yan didn't understand a single word.

Change it again.

I still can't understand.

The boy's expression changed from enthusiastic to strange, and he looked at Lu Yan as if he were some rare species.

Lu Yan sighed. He had lost this time, just like last time in Tianyuan City.

He pointed to his mouth and waved his hand, indicating that he couldn't speak the local language.

Then he took out a few spirit stones from his storage bag, waved them around, pointed inside the city gate, and made a gesture to lead the way.

The boy's eyes lit up, and he nodded repeatedly.

What followed was a flurry of frantic gestures and tentative attempts mixed with various accents.

After much fuss, the young man finally understood that this man from out of town wanted to find a place that could break through the mechanisms and restrictions, and the sooner the better.

As the boy led the way, he haltingly introduced the few common phrases he had just taught Lu Yan.

This is the boundary of the mountains, Canglan City.

The boy himself couldn't say how big the Mountain Origin Realm was; he only knew that there were five continents: east, west, south, north, and center.

Canglan City is located on the edge of the Eastern Continent, near the Endless Mountains, making it a small border town.

The largest sect on the Eastern Continent is the Canglan Sect, which is said to be related to a great figure in the True Immortal Realm known as Elder Fufeng.

Canglan City is one of the cities under their jurisdiction. In addition, there are countless sects and aristocratic families of all sizes.

However, the most famous thing about Canglan City is not its sects, but its ferocious beasts.

"A ferocious beast?" Lu Yan asked.

"There are plenty." The boy pointed out the direction outside the city: "They're everywhere in the Endless Mountains, and there are beast tides every now and then. But there are also many advantages to having many ferocious beasts. All kinds of monster beast materials are much cheaper here than in other places, and many caravans come here specifically to buy them."

Lu Yan nodded and silently made a mental note of it.

The boy was still rambling on, saying that the market in the east had the most complete selection of monster materials, and that the shop in the west offered fair prices for recycling.

As Lu Yan listened, he secretly sensed the spirit stones in his storage bag.

The boy led him through the city in a series of twists and turns, finally stopping in front of a three-story building.

The pavilion features flying eaves and bracket sets, and above the door hangs a plaque with gold characters on a black background that reads "Qianji Tower".

"This is it, the largest mechanical puppet shop in Canglan City. They also take on jobs breaking restrictions and mechanisms. Their manager's surname is Jiang, and he's a late-stage Core Formation cultivator. He's quite famous in the city."

The lobby on the first floor is spacious and bright, with all kinds of puppets hanging on the four walls, from palm-sized mechanical birds to combat puppets that are over ten feet tall.

Upon seeing a guest enter, a round-faced young man quickly came forward to greet him.

"Fellow Daoist, are you looking to buy a puppet or have a custom mechanism made?" The young man smiled warmly, his gaze sweeping over Lu Yan, a hint of doubt flashing in his eyes. Qi Refining stage? In this day and age, a Qi Refining stage cultivator dares to come to Canglan City alone?

Without wasting words, Lu Yan placed the treasure chest he had brought out from the Crimson Forbidden Zone directly on the counter: "Can this chest be opened?"

The young man looked down and his eyelids twitched.

He reached out and touched it, his expression changed, and he said with a dry laugh, "Fellow Daoist, please wait a moment. This restriction... I'll go and request an offering."

After saying that, he dashed upstairs to the second floor.

A short while later, an elderly man in a gray robe followed the young man down the stairs.

The old man was thin, with white hair and beard, and his aura was restrained, making it impossible to discern his true strength.

Those around gasped in surprise at the sight.

"Is it Chen Gongfeng?"

"I heard that Elder Chen has advanced to the Void Refinement stage. What could have troubled him?"

Hearing the surrounding chatter, Lu Yan remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he sighed: "As expected of a great realm, even a casual shopkeeper here is a Void Refinement cultivator."