It didn't take long before Yuan Kun had successfully procured everything on the list. Leading his two subordinates out of the small town, they mounted their flying treasures and headed toward Linglong Mountain.
But the three had barely traveled twenty or thirty li from the town when a flash of silver light suddenly appeared in the sky ahead. A beautiful, enchanting young woman materialized there, gazing at the trio with a playful smile. Her bearing was utterly seductive.
"We are disciples of the Yanyue Sect. Senior, you are—" Although Yuan Kun's cultivation was shallow, the moment he saw the bizarre manner of her appearance, he immediately realized this woman was no ordinary figure. He hastily invoked his sect's name as a precaution, lest she suddenly turn hostile.
But the woman never let him finish. She let out a soft giggle, then parted her crimson lips, and a puff of pink fragrant mist sprayed from her mouth. The mist seemed to drift lazily, yet it reached the three in an instant, enveloping them head to toe.
Poor Yuan Kun, with his shallow cultivation, had not the slightest power to resist. The moment a whiff of that delicate fragrance reached his nostrils, his mind grew heavy and he lost consciousness.
The three tumbled and plummeted toward the ground.
But the young woman showed no hesitation. With a flick of her long sleeve, a swath of white radiance shot forth, sweeping the three up and drawing them to her side in an instant.
Her bright eyes sweeping over the three, she smiled, enveloped herself and them in silver light, and shot off into the distance. In the blink of an eye, they vanished.
After flying some ten-odd li, the white light descended in a desolate, uninhabited forest.
In the forest, a young man in green robes sat cross-legged beneath a great tree, his expression serene, eyes closed in meditation.
The white light suddenly materialized before him, then dimmed as Yuan Kun and his two companions lay silently at his feet. The young woman lightly descended from the sky, stood respectfully beside the young man, and spoke deferentially: "Master, they've been brought. They claim to be cultivators of the Yanyue Sect, so we should have the right ones."
"Did you alert anyone else?" The young man opened his eyes and asked calmly.
He was none other than Han Li, who had traveled day and night for over half a month to finally reach the Beiliang Kingdom.
Since he intended to secretly seek out Nangong Wan, he naturally would not announce his visit to the sect openly, lest he invite unnecessary complications.
He needed to learn about the current situation within the Yanyue Sect on Linglong Mountain, so he had lingered in the small town for a day, searching for Yanyue Sect cultivators.
Having started from the bottom as a low-level cultivator himself, Han Li knew full well that those junior disciples of cultivation sects had not yet achieved the same complete detachment from the mortal world as their high-ranking counterparts. The towns nearest their sects were naturally the places these junior cultivators frequented most.
With Han Li's formidable spiritual sense, no matter how many cultivators were in the city, none could escape his detection.
Originally, Han Li had set his sights on another Yanyue Sect Qi Condensation disciple who had ventured out.
But the moment Yuan Kun appeared in his steward's attire, Han Li naturally switched targets.
A higher-ranking disciple would naturally know more.
After placing a wisp of spiritual sense on Yuan Kun and ordering Yin Yue and the others to intercept them once they left the city, he had come to this forest to wait quietly.
"Master, rest easy. With the cultivation of these three, capturing them was practically effortless. No other cultivators noticed a thing." Yin Yue, sensing that Han Li was in a foul mood, prudently refrained from casual banter and answered dutifully.
"Good. Well done this time. Your fox body excels in illusion arts. Use that ability in conjunction with my Dream Induction Technique to make this man reveal everything without even realizing it." Han Li looked expressionlessly at Yuan Kun and said coldly.
"As you command, Master." Yin Yue replied immediately.
She turned and once again sprayed pink mist from her delicate mouth—this time spreading it several zhang wide, shrouding all three figures on the ground.
Han Li rose to his feet and slowly walked into the mist.
Shortly after, a faint green light began to flicker within the fog.
...
Although Linglong Mountain bore the name "Linglong," meaning exquisite or delicate, anyone seeing it for the first time would find it impossible to associate the mountain with those words in any way.
Far from appearing small and delicate, the mountain actually looked bloated and bizarre.
Linglong Mountain had no subsidiary peaks, but the single main peak alone spanned dozens of li. Its lower half was extremely gentle and flat, with almost no steep sections whatsoever, resembling an enormous hillside.
But from the midpoint upward, the mountain abruptly turned precipitous. Not only was the terrain sheer and forbidding—looking utterly incongruous with the lower half—but the spiritual energy also surged dramatically. Only cultivators at the Core Formation stage and above were permitted to establish cave dwellings on the upper reaches.
However, to prevent aerial invasions by outside enemies, the upper portion of Linglong Mountain was naturally adorned with numerous powerful formations and restrictions. Low-level disciples who wished to reach the summit had no choice but to follow the few designated paths—there was no other way.