"This person isn't one of the barbarians!"
"What? How does Master know that?"
Han Li's first words struck like thunder, startling Yin Yue.
"Take a look at what this is." Han Li suddenly reached out with one hand and gave a gentle grab at the empty air. A ball of green light materialized at once, then transformed into a jade-pendant-shaped projection. Carved upon it were several rather archaic characters.
"That's ancient Da Jin script." Yin Yue was surprised once more.
"In truth, if I hadn't intervened just now, this person likely would have been fine regardless. This item is a jade pendant that Feng Yue carries on his person — a top-grade magical tool. Whenever those demon birds drew near, it would automatically emit waves of spiritual energy, presumably with an auto-ward effect. Although he had hidden it beneath his waist, what could a mere layer of cloth do against my Spirit Eye? I saw it all clearly. You should recognize the Da Jin characters on it as well! Judging by these few words, there's a seven or eight in ten chance this person is from one of those so-called noble houses of Da Jin." Han Li spoke evenly.
"You're right. A style of address like 'Ning Zhong Feng,' according to the texts, is indeed the kind of name-form that Da Jin's noble families favor. It seems this Fellow Daoist Feng should in fact be 'Fellow Daoist Feng.' But what does 'Ning Zhong' refer to? Is it Ningchuan Commandery among Da Jin's thirty-six great commanderies? Or Xining Prefecture among the one hundred and eight prefectures? Or perhaps just an ordinary city with the character 'Ning' in its name somewhere." Yin Yue fell into thought.
Because they were heading to Da Jin, Han Li had naturally collected many texts on its customs, geography, and the like. Yin Yue had read a good number of them as well, so her rattling off these details did not surprise him in the least.
"No matter which noble house this person belongs to, appearing alone on the Tianlan Grassland is trouble by its very nature. The less contact with him, the better. What we need to do now is simply figure out how to leave the grassland and find a way to rid ourselves of this killing aura first." After saying this, Han Li closed his eyes, his expression blank.
"That's true enough. For someone at the early Foundation Establishment stage to possess a self-protecting magical tool of this caliber, he must be an important member of the Feng family. The fact that he's currently hidden inside a small tribe's tribute caravan means he's almost certainly in serious trouble." Yin Yue let out a soft laugh and murmured her agreement.
After that, the woman said nothing more, and silence returned to the carriage.
Outside, the young men had finally used heavy hammers to shatter the two blocks of ice and were skinning and deboning the three demon apes. They then sent the most valuable parts — six sharp claws and over a dozen long feathers — to Han Li.
The rest the two tribes divided up without ceremony.
Of course, since Han Li was the immortal master invited by the Heron Tribe, the Heron Tribe naturally took the larger share. The burly man surnamed Ba received less, but since it was an unexpected windfall and nobody had been killed or injured in the demon bird attack, he was equally delighted.
Meanwhile, inside a tightly sealed carriage of the Red Wolf Tribe, the blue-robed figure seemed to find the hood cumbersome and had removed the head covering, revealing a fair-complexioned face.
Save for lips that were a touch thin, it could be counted as handsome and well-defined.
At the moment, his face was cold and silent.
Suddenly his hand groped around his neck, and to his surprise he fished out a golden chain. At one end of the chain hung a silver-white key.
The key was as thick as a finger and several inches long, its surface covered with mysterious and ancient patterns, and on its oval-shaped handle was engraved a golden character — "Feng."
Gazing at this key, a strange look flickered in Feng Yue's eyes, and the expression on his face shifted between light and shadow — excited one moment, anguished the next, before finally settling into something utterly dark.
After letting out a long breath, he carefully tucked the key away and hung it back around his neck like a necklace.
Once he had confirmed that no outsider could see the key, he too closed his eyes and began meditating to restore the spiritual energy he had expended.
After the last remains of the demon apes were cleared away outside, it was not long before the entire caravan set off again.
Only this time, no one dared speak loudly and recklessly. The battle just now had been brief, but it had shaken these young barbarians considerably. Those possessing Spirit Roots were particularly fired up inside, yearning to sprout wings and fly straight to the Holy Temple to become mighty immortal masters themselves.
The rest of that day passed uneventfully. But by noon on the second day, Han Li — who had been sitting in his carriage contemplating the secret formula — finally sensed from a great distance the so-called "settlement" designated by the Holy Temple.
Although he did not dare probe it with his spiritual sense for fear that high-level cultivators might be stationed within, he could still faintly detect a chaotic mix of spiritual energy fluctuations inside, as though quite a few low-level cultivators were present.
Han Li's eyes flickered. His expression remained unchanged.
After another twenty-odd li of travel, the people from the two tribes surrounding the carriage nearly all let out a cheer at the same time.
Han Li's expression stirred. He gave a flick of his sleeve, and the carriage curtain rolled itself up, allowing him to gaze into the distance.
Far out on the plain, a dark speck had appeared.
With a faint flash of blue light in his eyes, Han Li saw the speck's true form with perfect clarity.
A wall three or four zhang high, constructed from stones mortared together with thick raw timber. Behind the wall rose the tall tents that the barbarians loved to live in, mixed together with crude wooden huts, and not a few barbarian commoners moved in and out, giving the place a somewhat chaotic air.
Yet among the many tents and huts, one could faintly make out several stone halls and pavilions built entirely of massive green stone, standing sparse and scattered across the area, with the occasional one or two cultivators in peculiar attire entering them.
This was the so-called "settlement." Han Li turned the thought over in his mind, then shifted his gaze to the massive stone pillars erected at intervals outside the wall.
The pillars gleamed brilliantly, each as thick as a man could embrace and rising twenty to thirty zhang into the sky. Clearly the Holy Temple had deployed a large-scale formation here to shield the entire city within.
And overhead the entire settlement, not a single cultivator was seen taking flight. The formation evidently also carried an aerial prohibition.