To comprehend all laws and attain immortality

That night, in a canyon in Xuan Yin Mountain, Gu Fan and his two companions sat cross-legged on a stone platform.

The Xuan Yin Mountain stretches for hundreds of miles, spanning the states of Wu and Wei. The three of them are currently on the Wu side, preparing to set off after dark.

Li Fengyi and Wu Chengdao were like enemies who never met. Recalling the scene of being sent flying by Wu Chengdao's punch, she felt a pang of pain in her ribs.

Wu Chengdao casually leaned against the stone wall, glanced at Li Fengyi, and teased, "It seems that Fellow Daoist Li has suffered a lot over the years, and your Dharma body has improved considerably."

Li Fengyi rolled her eyes at him and snorted coldly, "I'll beat you down sooner or later."

"Hey, why are you getting all worked up after just a couple of compliments!" Wu Chengdao shook his head and chuckled, his contemptuous tone instantly igniting a fire in Li Fengyi's heart.

"you......"

Just as Li Fengyi was about to retort, Gu Fan interrupted her, saying, "Gentlemen, we've found the clue."

Wu Chengdao immediately perked up, sat up, and asked, "Fellow Daoist, please tell me!"

Upon hearing this, Li Fengyi stopped arguing and turned to look at Gu Fan.

Gu Fan sat cross-legged, with three storage bags and two jade slips in front of him, all of which he had specifically asked Xu Changsheng for before parting.

The three storage bags were all different colors. Two of them came from the demonic cultivators who had been killed, and the other came from a cultivator from the Zhu family.

The two jade slips contained a geomancer's guide from the Wu Kingdom and a record of interrogating a demonic cultivator.

The Zhu family had clearly been preparing for the defection for some time.

Besides the remaining stock in the shops of Xuan Yin Mountain Market, the family's treasures were completely looted, all the mortals in the clan were abandoned, and all the cultivators were placed under restrictions.

Even if captured, they would die instantly once the restraints were activated.

On the contrary, several of the demonic cultivators who were responsible for luring the enemy away from their mountain stronghold were captured alive, but they were all hired rogue cultivators who did not know the details.

Upon seeing the Lingxiao Sect disciples approaching, the leading demonic cultivator immediately used his escape technique to flee. It was only through Xu Changsheng's personal intervention that he was finally killed.

Gu Fan demanded these things in order to track down the Zhu family.

"Please take a look, you two."

Gu Fan stretched out his palm, and a flame rose up, stretching and deforming into a map, with more than ten small flames surrounding a fireball the size of an infant's fist.

"According to the feng shui, the location of this fireball is the site of the Blood Spirit Sect's mountain gate."

"These flames... are all from cities of human races. The Zhu family cultivators are hiding in one of these cities."

Gu Fan took out a black iron plaque from a dark red storage bag, on which the words "Crimson Serpent" were engraved. He then poured out more than a dozen iron plaques from another gray storage bag, but the engraved words had changed to "Blood Fiend".

"From the confessions of the demonic cultivators, we can learn that this group of rogue cultivators are basically from Blood Fiend City."

After speaking, Gu Fan marked the location of Blood Fiend City on the geomantic map. It was the closest human city to Xuan Yin Mountain, only eight hundred miles away.

"Could the Zhu family be hiding in Blood Fiend City?" Li Fengyi's eyes lit up.

"No." Gu Fan slowly shook his head and said, "I don't think the Zhu family is hiding here."

"Huh?" Li Fengyi tilted her head slightly, her eyes full of confusion.

Wu Chengdao sneered, "If I were the head of the Zhu family, staying in a place so close to the Wei Kingdom, I'm afraid I wouldn't even be able to meditate peacefully."

Li Fengyi immediately realized what was happening, and her face suddenly flushed red.

"What Fellow Martial Arts says is correct."

As Gu Fan spoke, he picked up the only iron plaque engraved with "Red Serpent".

"This iron plaque was found in the storage bag of the leading demonic cultivator. The words 'Crimson Serpent' written on the plaque should correspond to Crimson Serpent City in the human race city."

Gu Fan then marked the location of Chilian City, which was a full two thousand miles away from Xuanyin Mountain.

Wu Chengdao frowned slightly and said slowly, "Fellow Daoist Gu, are you saying that the leading demonic cultivator comes from Crimson Serpent City, and that they are hiring rogue cultivators in Blood Fiend City just to cover their tracks?"

Gu Fan agreed, "That's it! If I'm not mistaken, according to their plan, the leading demonic cultivator should be able to escape. In this way, those who are captured will all be rogue cultivators from Blood Fiend City, and our attention will be drawn to Blood Fiend City."

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"Even if we don't believe the Zhu family is really hiding in Blood Fiend City, it will be very difficult to find their location."

"But we were very lucky." Gu Fan grinned: "The demonic cultivators didn't expect that Senior Brother Xu would be so annoyed by the constant harassment that he personally inspected the construction progress, just in time for the demonic cultivators' attack, which exposed a flaw in the Zhu family's plan."

Wu Chengdao stroked his chin and said, "But wouldn't the Zhu family realize they've been exposed and take precautions in advance?"

Gu Fan pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said, "It's alright. The Zhu family defected from Wei and are considered outsiders in Wu. Even if they surrender to the Blood Spirit Sect, how can we allow them to move away at will?"

Upon hearing this, Wu Chengdao nodded slightly and had no further objections.

The three rested in Xuan Yin Mountain for a while, and only when night fell did they ride the moonlight towards Chi Lian City.

Half a month later, Gu Fan and his group finally arrived at a town near Chi Lian City.

If they were to fly freely, they could quickly reach the destination of two thousand miles, but that would undoubtedly expose their location and cause trouble. Therefore, the three of them traveled by night and hid during the day.

With their strength, the three of them were not afraid of encountering Foundation Establishment cultivators, but if a Golden Core cultivator made a move, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Although Gu Fan suspected that Wu Chengdao might have some kind of trump card to save his life, he really didn't want to take the risk.

Thinking of this, Gu Fan touched his sleeve.

There remains the greatest trump card that Qi Zongyuan bestowed upon him before his departure—a sword aura of the Returning Cloud Sword Lord.

Unless faced with a life-or-death crisis, Gu Fan was not prepared to use it.

Gu Fan and the others did not enter the town, but instead observed from a distance.

Wu Chengdao, with a blade of grass dangling from his mouth, squatted in the shade and sighed, "These little devils are truly vicious."

Gu Fan nodded, completely agreeing with Wu Chengdao's opinion.

The town was teeming with people, with countless mortals lined up in neat rows. At the very front of the line, several demonic cultivators clad in blood-red robes held a jar-shaped magical artifact.

The mortals took turns putting their hands into the jar, and then their bodies began to tremble involuntarily, and the color in their faces quickly faded, turning them deathly pale.

Some people collapsed to the ground, but the demonic cultivator kicked them aside and called over the next person to step forward.

The three of them had witnessed the same scene many times along the way.

The Wu Kingdom also has many ordinary towns, but they are all under the supervision of cultivators.

Towns under the jurisdiction of the Blood Spirit Sect undergo a harvest every six months. Both men and women must contribute a large amount of their essence blood after reaching adulthood, which is known as "blood tax" by mortals.

Gu Fan's journey coincided with the tax season.

If one wants to escape this predicament, the only way is for a child in the family to be found to have spiritual roots and successfully join the Blood Spirit Sect. In this case, the family can move into the Human Race City, and the blood tax will be reduced to one-third of its original amount.

"Let's go, we can't save them."

Gu Fan sighed regretfully, activated the Concealing Light Array to envelop the three figures, and headed towards Crimson Serpent City.

Chilian City is more like a mountain than a city.

Looking into the distance, one can see that the entire city is built on a mountain and is divided into two levels.

The lower level is very spacious, with houses lined up one after another, but most of them are built of ordinary bricks and stones.

The upper level is only one-tenth the size of the lower level, but the pavilions, towers, palaces and multi-story buildings are luxurious and gorgeous, and the blood-red glazed tiles shine in the sun, making it seem as if a blood-red pillar of light is rising from the mountaintop.

Based on what he had seen and heard on his way here, Gu Fan finally confirmed the purpose of the iron plaque engraved with "Crimson Serpent".

To enter the city, independent cultivators must have their cultivation technique attributes tested. Once they pass, they will receive an iron token, which they can then present to enter the city.

Each race city has a different iron plaque, and they are not interchangeable.

The Wu Kingdom sect worships the [Primordial Demon Lord], whose cultivation methods are vastly different from those of the three sects of the Wei Kingdom. Naturally, the three of them could not pass the test. If they wanted to pretend to be rogue cultivators and enter the city, they would need three iron tokens.

"Senior brother, how about I go out and steal a few iron plates?" Li Fengyi suggested.

"No need," Gu Fan shook his head.

He took out several pieces of spirit iron from his storage bag, held them in his palm, and began to burn them with Samadhi True Fire.

"It's just a low-grade magical artifact; it's easy to imitate."

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