A day later, inside the Sect Master's Hall of Falling Star Valley, when Li Yan stepped in, he saw three people already seated above.
Xing Ming sat in the center, and to his right, two people were seated in descending order.
One was a middle-aged Daoist with the air of an immortal. He looked to be around thirty, with black eyebrows that slanted up into his temples. He carried a huge sword casket on his back.
He held a snow-white horsetail whisk, which he occasionally flicked lightly, exuding an otherworldly, immortal aura. This person's cultivation was in no way inferior to Xing Ming's, also at the late-stage Golden Core.
'An Outer Sword cultivator!'
The moment he saw this Daoist, Li Yan thought of the sword cultivators from the Outer Sword Courtyard of the Ten-Pace Courtyard. Their most obvious feature was the huge sword casket on their backs.
They mostly cultivated sword formation arts, which were incredibly powerful, sharp, and ruthless.
The person below the middle-aged Daoist made Li Yan pause for a moment, for he couldn't immediately tell if the person was male or female.
Their skin was fair, their figure slender, and they were draped in a glazed robe. They had thin eyebrows, phoenix eyes, and a face like a peach blossom. Their handsome features held a touch of glamour.
From their clothing and flowing long hair, they should be a man. Li Yan's gaze swept past their throat and chest, finally confirming it, yet he was still amazed.
'Truly hard to tell male from female. With a slight change, who would know he is a man!'
The man in the glazed robe must have noticed the flicker of strangeness in Li Yan's eyes. He simply smiled back, showing no odd expression, clearly accustomed to this.
His cultivation had reached the Pseudo-Nascent Soul Realm. Li Yan had long heard from Xing Ming about the people who had been invited, so he naturally knew who these two were.
As Li Yan entered the hall, the three people's gazes turned towards him. Xing Ming laughed heartily, stood up, and pointed at the two men.
"Junior Brother, these are the two fellow daoists I told you about: Sect Master Feng Moru of the 'Green Wind Sect' and Second Elder Xuan Caijun of the 'Six Plates Hall'!"
Li Yan followed his lead and clasped his fists in salute.
"Zhang Ming greets you two fellow daoists!"
The two also smiled and slowly stood up. Feng Moru of the Green Wind Sect performed a Daoist salute.
"Brother Xuan and I are meeting Elder Zhang for the first time. During the grand ceremony, we were both guarding our sects and couldn't attend. I hope Elder Zhang doesn't take offense, hahaha!"
Feng Moru got straight to the point, starting with an apology. His action made him seem not like a stranger, instantly closing the distance between them.
"Indeed, indeed! But I have long heard of Elder Zhang's great name. Back in the great sect war, your combat prowess was extraordinary, killing Yu Rong while fighting above your rank. Truly amazing."
"And recently, you single-handedly fought against the three Golden Core cultivators of the 'Ghost Flood Dragon Clan.' It's admirable, truly admirable!"
Xuan Caijun's voice was not as crisp and pleasant as a woman's, but it was extremely clear and had a unique quality to it.
At the same time, the two were also sizing Li Yan up.
They had heard some rumors about Zhang Ming. The man was apparently also proficient in poison cultivation. According to rumors, he was a body cultivator, so how could he also know a type of dharma cultivation method, and one that he seemed to be quite skilled at?
'His voice alone could probably charm many female cultivators!'
Li Yan thought to himself, a smile on his face. As for their curiosity, he brushed it off with a light sentence.
"It was all just a matter of luck. The outside world tends to exaggerate. It's not worth mentioning, I've made a fool of myself in front of you two."
With that, Li Yan moved to a chair on the other side.
Xuan Caijun and Feng Moru's eyes flashed with a keen light, both thinking the same thing.
'Luck? You caused the 'Ghost Flood Dragon Clan' to lose a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator. And I heard that even 'Elder Longjiao' hasn't shown his face all these years. He's probably recuperating from poison!'
Xing Ming, however, just laughed heartily. He knew Zhang Ming didn't like others talking too much about his affairs.
"Since Junior Brother is here, I'll briefly explain the plan. Please see if there's anything amiss."
Feng Moru and Xuan Caijun were both old foxes. With smiles still on their faces, they followed his lead and sat down, looking at Xing Ming with an air of listening attentively.
Only after they sat down did Li Yan sit down with a smile.
"That Jiang Baibi is now hiding in the 'Black Forest Manor,' under the alias Song Rongdao."
"He was probably beaten to near death by Master back then. Over a hundred years have passed, and his cultivation has only just reached the late-stage Golden Core."
"But we can't rule out the possibility that he has hidden his cultivation. However, he is definitely not a Nascent Soul cultivator. This can be confirmed!"
"Black Forest Manor? Fellow Daoist Xing Ming, are you talking about the 'Black Forest Manor' on the border of the Black and White Demon territories?"
Xuan Caijun frowned upon hearing this. He had heard of such a small cultivation sect, but he wasn't familiar with it. It was just that a cultivator's memory was too formidable.
So, when Xing Ming mentioned it, some information immediately surfaced in his mind, something he must have heard from someone.
Feng Moru, on the other hand, had never heard of this small cultivation family. He showed no reaction and quietly listened to their conversation.
"Oh? So Brother Xuan has heard of this sect. Truly knowledgeable and well-informed."
"It is indeed the place Brother Xuan mentioned. To escape our sect's pursuit, Jiang Baibi actually chose to settle on the border of the demon territories. This was something that neither Martial Uncle nor I expected."
"The border between the Black and White Demon territories is vast and boundless. There are constant frictions and small-scale skirmishes, making it unstable. Most cultivators who go there are for training."
"Plus, Jiang Baibi knows that 'Falling Star Valley' is a human sect, and we rarely go to the border to avoid being targeted by the Black Demon Clan. By hiding there, he really managed to evade our search for over a hundred years."
Xing Ming first flattered Xuan Caijun subtly before explaining.
"I've only heard of such a place; I don't know much about it. Is this 'Black Forest Manor' located within the Black Demon territory or on the White Demon side?"
Xuan Caijun shook his head and immediately asked. This question was crucial.
"Hahaha, please rest assured on this point. The 'Black Forest Manor' is still within the White Demon Clan's territory. A small sect like this wouldn't be able to survive on the Black Demon side; the possibility of being swallowed up is extremely high."
After hearing Xing Ming's words, Li Yan noticed that both Feng Moru and Xuan Caijun's expressions visibly relaxed!
...
The sky grew darker and darker. The blue sky and white clouds gradually receded, replaced by a grey sky.
The green mountains and clear waters below also slowly disappeared, and the entire field of vision was filled with stout brown or black tall trees. Each tree was like a giant pillar reaching for the sky, piercing straight into the grey heavens.
The bark was rough and chapped, like deep, dry gullies covering the trunks. The broad leaves were heavy, like thick layers of rock, hanging from the sturdy branches.
It gave a feeling of weight and oppression.
Looking at the changing scenery below, Li Yan's memory returned to more than twenty years ago.
Although this wasn't Tiandu City, nor the small village where he had woken up, it was the first scene he saw when he arrived on this continent.
The air he breathed was now mixed with demonic qi. Only here did Li Yan feel a sense of reality again.
"The Demon Clan!"
He had lived in a place without demonic qi for so many years that he had slowly lost some of that feeling.
...
A faint yellow magical ruler, its light flickering, silently streaked across the sky.
Aboard it stood the four of them: Xing Ming and the others. Everything that needed to be said had already been clearly explained.
All four were people of few words. Along the way, apart from some occasional necessary communication, they barely spoke to each other.
Xing Ming stared down below and suddenly said softly.
"We're not far from 'Black Forest Manor' now. Although this magical treasure of mine can evade the detection of most Golden Core cultivators, to be cautious, we should descend here and proceed stealthily."
Xuan Caijun chuckled lightly.
"Oh, everything will be as fellow daoist arranges!"
Feng Moru and Li Yan also nodded, having no objections.
Their previous plan was to first approach "Black Forest Manor" and then formulate a new plan as the situation developed. There was no fixed plan.
Xing Ming only knew there was a fifty percent chance that Jiang Baibi would be in the manor. As for the manor's guards and protective formation, he had inquired quite clearly, but he was afraid of unexpected accidents.
Therefore, it was impossible to formulate a too-detailed plan. Everything would depend on acting according to the circumstances. It was even possible that they would find nothing and have to wait for some time.
Immediately, Xing Ming tapped the magical ruler with the tip of his foot. With a faint flash of yellow light, the four of them appeared on the ground.
Li Yan looked around. They were surrounded by towering giant trees, each so thick that it would take seven or eight adults to encircle it.
Large patches of black ground were exposed between the giant trees because the shrubs here were mostly thorny.
They grew in clusters on the ground, not connected to each other. From a distance, they looked like giant hedgehogs curled into balls.
"This is 'Bear Arrow Thorn.' It's highly poisonous. If a first-rank demonic beast falls into it, few survive."
"Of course, it's nothing to us, but we still need to be careful when traversing the forest later. Getting scratched by it would be unpleasant."
Xing Ming's voice sounded in Li Yan's ear. After putting away his magical treasure, Xing Ming saw Li Yan staring at the shrubs on the ground and knew he was unfamiliar with them.
From this, he could also deduce that Li Yan's former master must have chosen to live in seclusion, far from the Black Demon Clan's territory, so he offered a reminder.
As for Xuan Caijun and Feng Moru on the other side, they had lived on the Forsaken Continent for nearly a thousand years.
Perhaps apart from the Black Demon Clan's territory, they had traveled through most of the White Demon Clan's territory.
"Oh? So it's poisonous. Thank you for the reminder, Senior Brother!"
Li Yan said with a smile.
Xuan Caijun stood with his hands behind his back, while Feng Moru was gently waving his horsetail whisk. Hearing Xing Ming's words, they exchanged a glance, a hint of surprise in their eyes.
The two of them had long heard that Zhang Ming was less than a hundred years old. Xing Ming had even once said that Zhang Ming's actual age was only around sixty.
When they first heard this, neither of them believed it.
Someone with such cultivation talent would be directly accepted as a core disciple even in a first-rate sect. Why would he come to a second-rate sect like this to be an elder?
Even compared to the core disciples of a major sect, the cultivation resources of an elder in a small sect were vastly different.
Moreover, this Zhang Ming had joined Falling Star Valley halfway. Without an outstanding inheritance technique to entice people, cultivators only valued cultivation resources.
"Falling Star Valley" clearly did not have a deep enough inheritance to attract a Golden Core cultivator.
'He doesn't even recognize 'Bear Arrow Thorn.' Although this thing only grows near the Black Demon Clan's territory, he should have at least seen it in records.'
'This can only mean that he hasn't traveled to many places, nor has he read a wide range of books.'
From Li Yan's reply, the two confirmed a few things. Zhang Ming was either a reclusive cultivator who spent all his time in closed-door cultivation, or he was truly young and inexperienced.
But this curiosity was kept to themselves. They weren't foolish enough to go prying into someone else's background.
Next, the four concealed their auras and, with Xing Ming leading the way, flew through the forest.
An hour later, in the afternoon during the hour of Shen (3-5 p.m.), the four stopped in a forest on a mountain peak.
Along the way, they had encountered as many as seven skirmishes between cultivators. There were White Demon Clan troops chasing unknown cultivators, as well as duels between cultivators.
Most of them were Foundation Establishment cultivators.
But there were also three Golden Core cultivators fighting fiercely, which showed that the border area was quite chaotic and fraught with danger.