Starting as the heir of a marquis's mansion, I gained access to a summoning system.

Ye Gucheng stood in line, his eyes scanning his surroundings.

He noticed a wanted poster posted at the foot of the city wall. The portrait depicted a handsome man in black robes, with a long, cloth-wrapped sword at his waist. Below it was written the reward: one thousand low-grade spirit stones, dead or alive.

The portrait was of none other than Dongfang Weiwo.

Ye Gucheng turned his head without changing his expression, walked back to the back of the group, and whispered something in Dongfang Weiwo's ear:

"Young master, someone has offered to kill you."

Dongfang Weiwo glanced at the wanted poster on the city wall, his gaze calm.

He had long guessed that his arrival in Zhongzhou wouldn't be peaceful, but he didn't expect the other side to act so quickly—it had only been a short time since the fusion of heaven and earth, and people in Zhongzhou were already offering a bounty on the head of the young leader of the Azure Dragon Society.

"Who put this up?" Ximen Chuixue asked.

There was a dark mark in the lower right corner of the wanted poster, shaped like three overlapping sword marks. Dongfang Wei didn't recognize the mark, but he remembered it.

"No rush," he said. "Let's go into the city first."

The entry checks were strict, but the three were prepared.

Dongfang Weiwo slightly altered his facial features using the "Tendon Changing and Bone Renewal" technique from the "Heavenly Man Treasure Book," and sealed his aura with a hidden silk scroll taken from the secret vault of Shizhixuan. To others, his cultivation level of the Grandmaster at the peak of the Ninth Heaven was only perceived as that of the early stage of the Innate Realm.

Both Ximen Chuixue and Ye Gucheng used secret techniques to conceal their sword intent, changing their white robes into gray robes and wrapping their longswords in coarse cloth, blending in seamlessly among the rogue cultivators entering the city.

After entering the city, the streets of Fenghuo City were wider than any other city in the Eastern Continent. Shops on both sides displayed vermilion banners in the style of the Central Continent, selling spiritual materials, weapons, and cultivation techniques everywhere.

But the most eye-catching thing is the towering square pavilion in the center of the city—three sides of the pavilion are covered with wanted posters, bounty lists, and mission notices, and there are long queues at the entrance, with all kinds of martial artists coming and going.

"The rules of the martial arts world in the Central Plains are quite different from those in the Eastern Plains."

Dongfang Weiwo led the two to sit down at a food stall on a street corner and casually said,

"The Eastern Continent is a combination of imperial dynasties and aristocratic families, while the Central Continent is a combination of sects and bounties. There is no imperial court here, only sect covenants. If someone commits a crime and is wanted, anyone can accept the challenge, apprehend the perpetrator, and exchange the bounty for the arrest."

Ye Gucheng picked up a mouthful of noodles and said calmly, "The person who put the bounty on you, young master, must also be from some sect."

"Hmm. We need to find out which family those three sword marks belong to first, then we can figure out how to return the favor."

Ximen Chuixue suddenly put down his bowl and looked across the street. There stood a man—wearing a gray robe and a bamboo hat pulled low, obscuring his face, but a long, unsheathed sword hung at his waist, the scabbard engraved with a dark pattern of three swords overlapping.

It's exactly the same as the wanted poster.

The man seemed to notice Ximen Chuixue's gaze, turned slightly to the side, and disappeared into the crowd.

"Chase?" Ximen Chuixue asked.

"No need." Dongfang Weiwo put down his chopsticks. "Since he's shown his mark, he'll come back sooner or later. Let's eat."

The three continued eating their noodles as if nothing had happened.

In the afternoon, Dongfang Weiwo went to the Bounty Pavilion in Fenghuo City.

This place is similar to the Zhenfusi Yamen in Dongzhou, but it is much more open.

Anyone can enter to view the publicly available bounty notices and the list of forces in Zhongzhou.

Dongfang Weiwo spent ten low-grade spirit stones to rent a quiet room, and after flipping through the records of the Central Plains forces copied in the Bounty Pavilion, he quickly found the source of the three sword marks.

—Tianjian Pavilion, a third-rate sect in the southern part of Zhongzhou, whose sect leader is Grandmaster Zhou Yan, who is at the ninth level of the Heavenly Realm, and whose disciples number over three hundred.

Its influence has expanded rapidly in the past six months, and it is rumored that it is backed by unknown sources of funding.

The wanted list for Dongfang Weiwo wasn't limited to just him; it also included portraits of Wu Zetian, Qin Lin'an, Gui Yuan, and several others. The bounties ranged from one thousand to three thousand spirit stones, with Dongfang Weiwo's one thousand spirit stones ranking last.

"Only a thousand." Ye Gucheng glanced at it, somewhat indignant. "Wu Zetian charges three thousand."

"That's because she killed seven demon generals."

Dongfang Weiwo closed the dossier. "There must be someone behind the Heavenly Sword Pavilion. A third-rate sect wouldn't dare to offer bounties on so many geniuses in the Eastern Continent at the same time; they're just running errands."

Ximen Chuixue, who had been standing by the window of the quiet room gazing out at the street, suddenly spoke:

"The manager of the bounty agency just went out for a while, and when he came back, he looked in the direction of our meditation room three times."

Dongfang Weiwo stood up and put the file back in its place: "We're being watched. Let's go."

The three of them went out through the back door of the bounty pavilion, walked around two streets, and stopped at the entrance of an alley.

At the other end of the alley, a figure dressed in a gray robe and wearing a straw hat was standing against the wall, as if he had been waiting for them for a long time.

The man slowly removed his straw hat, revealing a face that appeared to be about forty years old, with sharp features and an old, slanted scar across his left cheek. The three overlapping dark patterns on the scabbard of the long sword hanging at his waist were clearly visible.

"I am the only one in the East?" the man asked, his voice hoarse and low.

Dongfang Weiwo stood still and met his gaze.

"yes."

The man was silent for a moment, then suddenly knelt on one knee, raised the scabbard above his head with both hands.

"Han Yuan, the Vice Pavilion Master of the Heavenly Sword Pavilion, has been waiting here for you, young master, for many days on the orders of King Yama. He only just confirmed your identity across the street and was unable to offer his respects in time; please forgive him."

The alley was quiet for a moment. Ye Gucheng raised an eyebrow slightly, and Ximen Chuixue loosened his grip on his sword a little.

Dongfang Weiwo looked at the person kneeling before him, and after a moment asked, "Did Shi Zhixuan arrange for you to enter the Bounty Pavilion?"

"yes."

Han Yuan raised his head, his expression respectful. "Three months ago, King Zhuanlun infiltrated Zhongzhou and subdued everyone in my Tianjian Pavilion with swift and decisive measures. Sect Master Zhou Yan has been afflicted with a life-and-death talisman, and all the elites in the pavilion have been transferred to the underworld's secret network."

The three sword markings were personally altered by the Wheel King; ostensibly a bounty from the Heavenly Sword Pavilion, they were actually credentials for clandestine contacts. Similar markings were found in all seventeen cities of Central Continent, specifically to pave the way for the young master's entry into the Central Continent.

A faint golden light flickered in Dongfang Weiwo's eyes.

Shi Zhixuan. This Wheel-Turning King had been lying low in Zhongzhou for half a year, silently laying a trap for him.

"Get up," Dongfang Wei said. "Take me to see Shi Zhixuan."

Han Yuan stood up, put his straw hat back on, and turned to walk deeper into the alley. The three followed closely behind, passing through three secret passages and entering a seemingly abandoned old temple. The incense inside had stopped burning, and the Buddha statues were covered in dust, but there was a hidden door under the base of the Buddha statues, which led down a stone staircase.

At the end of the stone steps was a brightly lit secret room.

A huge map of the Central Plains was nailed to the wall of the secret room. The map was densely marked with red and blue dots. Red dots represented forces that had been subdued, while blue dots represented forces that needed to be infiltrated. A middle-aged scholar in a blue robe stood in front of the map, adding annotations with a vermilion pen.

He heard footsteps and turned around.

Shi Zhixuan. A half-step Celestial Peak cultivator, the King of Reincarnation in the Underworld.

He had lost some weight in the six months since I last saw him, but his eyes were deeper and brighter than before.

The moment he saw Dongfang Weiwo, a smile appeared on his lips, and he put down his vermilion brush and clasped his hands in a salute.

"Young Master, nine spy stations have been established in the seventeen cities of Zhongzhou, and four sects and three aristocratic families have been subdued. There are a total of 247 available informants, 28 of whom are Grandmasters or higher. The Heavenly Sword Pavilion's wanted posters are merely a cover for these informant rendezvous. As you travel west, anyone you encounter bearing the three sword marks can be deployed."

He walked to the map and slid his finger from Fenghuo City all the way to the heart of Zhongzhou, landing on a location marked "Baidi City".

"I explored the ancient formation of Baidi City one last time before I left. After the fusion of heaven and earth, the spiritual energy fluctuations at the formation's core were ten times more intense than before."

After Lu Moshen disappeared, four forces successively sent people to investigate—the Central Continent Taixu Palace, the Eternal Sect, the Shen family, and a gray-clad man of unknown origin.

Dongfang Weiwo walked up to the map and stared at the location of Baidi City for a long time.

"Have you found out the origins of the man in gray?"

"No." Shi Zhixuan shook his head. "They enter and leave Baidi City as if it were empty; the city guards can't see them. Even my half-step Celestial Peak spiritual sense has only detected their presence once—"

He paused, then lowered his voice.

"At least at the mid-stage of the Celestial Realm. And it's not a cultivation method native to the Central Plains."

There was a moment of silence in the sealed room.

Dongfang Weiwo gazed at the small town marked with an ancient formation on the geomantic map and slowly spoke.

"The Demon God Lü has disappeared, and a group of gray-robed celestial beings have appeared near the array's core. What do you think they're looking for?"

Shi Zhixuan was silent for a moment, then said, "Find the key."

Dongfang Weiwo nodded, his eyes gleaming with a dark golden light that flickered like flames.

"They've found half of it," he said, "because the key has arrived."

The candlelight in the secret room flickered suddenly.

Ximen Chuixue and Ye Gucheng stood side by side behind him, one holding a sword, the other with his arms crossed. The sword intent of the two Grandmasters at the peak of the ninth level was released silently at the same time, and the air in the secret room suddenly turned cold.

Shi Zhixuan looked at the three of them, and the smile on his lips deepened.

He had been waiting for this day for half a year.