Wu Long stepped forward and the space before him became distorted and squeezed, as if someone shrank the distance between him and where he was going. He instantly crossed a great distance while already making the next step.
This was Void Piercing Step, a very high-speed movement technique. It had flaws in that it created a large disturbance in the space and was not very precise, but since there was almost no one here who could sense such disturbances and he did not need high precision in crossing wide swaths of territories like he would in a battle it was the perfect technique to use as a long-distance travel method.
Though the distance he needed to travel was longer, he was a lot faster than when they traveled in the carriages to the Imperial Capital and he also was not particular about staying in inns, as he could just set up a perimeter with talismans and sleep using his alert sleeping technique.
While he hunted demonic beasts for their cores and neidans near the sect he made sure to extract plenty of the blood of specific ones into preserving vials which was a good material for making talismans, so he was not worried about running out of them for a while.
It took him five days of travel to enter the Fantian Kingdom, and he soon arrived at a town on the border. He used towns as landmarks so that he knew that he was traveling in the right direction, so he traveled for two more days and arrived at a relatively large city by the time it was already dark, so he decided to lodge for the night.
When he was passing through the streets he overheard conversations of people, but they were mostly local idle talk.
“I heard the Blood Dragon Gang is gaining more and more power among the mountain bandits recently…”
“Yeah, it doesn’t look good, if this goes on these mountain bandits will start to unify and then it would be even harder to deal with them”
“What can we do, that leader of theirs is too strong and cunning, he is like a ghost appearing and disappearing without a trace”
The last speaker was full of helplessness and frustration as he spoke.
The constant conflicts on the border between Tuamei and Gutian created a lot of displaced people each year so there were vagrants pouring into the Fantian Kingdom, which was relatively more peaceful.
But since there was discrimination against vagrants and a lack of work due to the overpopulation of the kingdom, as well as a lot of rogue cultivators who trickled down to this area after becoming expelled from sects all over the continent, mountain bandit groups started to appear on the mountainous borders between the Fantian and Gutian Kingdoms some decades ago and made frequent raids into the territories of both Kingdoms.
It seems that recently one of the gangs started to gain some influence. But it all was simply some curiosity, not really of any concern to Wu Long. He also heard about this at the Ye family’s banquet but it did not spark much interest from him.
But when one of them mentioned the leader of the gang, the eyes of another one flashed with a different light, and the conversation changed direction.
“Did you hear that he announced that he will kidnap the young lady of the Luo noble family and make her his wife?”
“No way!”
“I guess heavens do not send blessings without disasters, they have only not long ago released news that she has this …. what was it called … Extreme Yin Spiritual Root Body?”
‘Extreme Yin Spiritual Root Body?’
Wu Long passed through the streets and arrived at an inn while casually overhearing the rumors in case something of interest comes up until his steps halted as he almost entered the gates of the inn.
Although he did not plan to make any detours on his way to the Tingren Kingdom, he always kept his ears open for information, as he was hopeful to find a few people he was not sure to find.
But this time he overheard something that was not related to his search that he could not simply ignore as always.
Extreme Yin Spiritual Root Body was a special physique much like the one Sui Luxiao or Hua Ziyan had, but on a whole different level because this physique was related to Extreme Yin.
It meant that the body could produce Extreme Yin Qi. And it was very beneficial for a dual cultivator to have a partner with it. It was extremely rare for someone to be born with this condition, so much so that one might not be born in a million years in a small world like this.
Much like Wu Long once managed to achieve Extreme Yang physique and could produce Extreme Yang Qi sometime in his past life, it could theoretically be achieved artificially, but it was very hard to do so for both Extreme Yin and Extreme Yang Qi.
These physiques were also quite unique if they were natural, and each one had a different effect. There have been cases where entire cultivation countries fell in struggle because they were so sought after.
“That’s probably the reason he made that announcement, the whole cultivation world is now in uproar, and the Frozen Garden Palace envoys arrived not long ago…”
“But if the Frozen Garden Palace envoys have arrived, how is the leader of the Blood Dragon Gang going to get her?”
“.I don’t know… well his real face is not known, it is only rumored he is handsome….that’s how he managed to stay uncaught while being chased all over anyway…”
“…”
Wu Long’s halted steps resumed and he entered the inn. But he kept thinking to himself even as he went into his room and sat down.
‘Hmm, well it’s not like I have a tight time schedule anyway, so taking a look would not hurt’
He eventually thought and slightly smiled.
Wu Long stayed in the city for the night and then continued his travel, but his route shifted slightly to the direction of the capital of the kingdom.
Not far from the capital, he slowed down as he always did near cities and encountered a squad of kingdom troops on horseback, who immediately surrounded him.
“Halt!”
They shouted as he looked at them without much emotion.
“Uncover your bamboo hat! No one is allowed to hide their face in the capital and its vicinity!”
Wu Long did not have any objections and uncovered the bamboo hat. As he did, the soldiers’ eyes became round as they saw his face.
“It’s definitely him!”
“He’s always called a handsome bastard, just look at that lucky mug on him!”
“Even if it’s not him I have to kill this bastard!”
Some of the soldiers began shouting. Some of them were not completely concerned with duty though. 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘭．𝘦𝘵
“Hmm”
Their captain, a middle-aged man, started to intently look at Wu Long, seemingly trying to gauge the possibility of the notorious gang leader being alone like this not far from the capital. They were patrolling nearby the capital in all directions because the announcement of the leader of the Blood Dragon Gang was a provocation not only to the Luo family but also to the royal family.
“State your identity”
He finally decided not to risk it and ask questions first, since Wu Long was too calm for someone surrounded on all sides by a squad of seemingly hostile kingdom troops.
Wu Long simply produced a disciple badge of the Yin Yang Unity Palace, which instantly made the captain less vigilant. At this point, another squad arrived nearby.
“Captian Xiu, what’s the situation?”
A beautiful female voice asked from the direction of the new squad and Wu Long’s face instantly became more amiable.
“Commander Feng! Reporting to the commander, we have one male traveler who we suspected, who seems to be a disciple of some sect”
The captain replied respectfully.
“Suspected? What was so suspici-…”
The female voice came closer along with the sounds of horse hooves treading the snow, and a beautiful and valiant woman with fiery red hair and olive green eyes came out of the parting rows of soldiers. There was a luxuriously decorated long bow and leather quill full of arrows behind her, as well as an army ox-tailed sword on her belt.
Her voice abruptly stopped when she saw Wu Long as her eyes widened.
“…Ahem… that gang leader is only called handsome not… anyway, this should not be our man. Continue on your patrol!”
“Yes! As commanded!”
The troops shouted and started to part, while the woman turned her horse.
“Sorry for the trouble, you should hurry up and enter the city to not encounter more patrols, your … appearance might turn them hostile”
She said to him already half-turned, as her sensual figure that could not be covered even by armor could be seen in this angle and left with the rest of the troops.
Wu Long simply smiled and went toward the capital.
“Heh, this city’s probably going to be quite fun as well”
He said to himself, as there was always room in his mind for women, especially as beautiful and alluring as the one he just saw.