Back in Flowing Stream city, It could be seen the elder from Heavenly Saber sect could be seen sitting down and listening to a disciple relay information to him.
A while back, when one of the survivors from the forbidden ground told him the details of the serial killer, the elder immediately sent people to search for any information about that person.
Today, he finally received good news. a disciple came back to tell him that he found information about the serial killer.
"Elder, the serial killer is from the Eternal Glory sect. From what I was able to gather, that person first joined Eternal Glory in XX/XX/XXXX but as a servant disciple. Then, a while ago, he became an outer disciple and some days after becoming an outer disciple, he became an inner disciple. The day he became an inner disciple, he ran away from the sect. The sect itself suspects him of stealing resources from their sect so he is a wanted person."
"I see... Good job on gathering the information."
"Thank you, elder. Now, I shall excuse myself."
With that, the disciple disappeared.
"He stole resources from that sect, huh? Then, if I get my hands on him first, would I be able to obtain whatever he stole. I heard that even the sect master was looking for him but I didn't know that HE was that PERSON. Interesting."
With that, the elder also left the spot. The elder left to gather people to search for Hou Yan with him and obtain whatever he stole. It must be pretty rare if even the sect elder had to take action.
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Meanwhile, while all of those serious things were going on, Hou Yan was just taking a nap under a tree. Feeling the breeze of the wind and having the tree cast a shadow against the blazing hot sun. Even though the wind was kind of cool, but that sun was truly scorching the earth.
Hou Yan felt as if the sun concentrated all of its heat towards him and wanted to fry Hou Yan to death.
"Sigh, I should probably head out and train myself to become stronger. Oh yeah, system, don't you owe me a gift?"
'Huh? What gift?'
"You know, the gift you give me everytime I break through a realm."
'Huh? Sorry but I don't understand gibberish.'
"I'm not speaking gibberish."
'Oof, the system has just crashed!'
"Huh?!"
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Back in Eternal Glory sect, the sect master and the Peak Lords were having a meeting. The first subject was about Fragrant Cloud's incident.
"I heard that the suspect was last seen at the forbidden ground near Flowing Stream city."
"I already sent some disciples there, but they were not able to trace him."
"Just give up on tracing him. I heard that he escaped from an elder who was many times stronger than him."
"Forget about that, haven't you guys heard what he did to Heavenly Saber sect?"
"Hoho, he sure did them dirty."
"Sigh, you all are going off track."
The sect master tried to keep the meeting on topic and continued saying.
"I remember that he is from the Hou clan and that he was the illegitimate son. The kid was first a servant disciple but after a while of being a servant disciple, he was finally able to reach the requirements and became an outer disciple but in just a few more days, he became an inner disciple."
"That speed must be monstrous."
"He must have some kind of treasure helping him."
"If we get that treasure in our hands, we could strengthen ourselves and might be able to settle in the Divine Dao continent."
"Good idea. Let us send people to search for him."
With that, the sect master and the Peak Lords sent disciples after Hou Yan. Right now, two powerhouse sects were after his frail life.
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*Back to Hou Yan*
After a while of traversing through the mountains, a huge city came to Hou Yan's view. The city's size was double the size of Flowing Stream city. It had walls surrounding it all around. The gates were larger than giants and wider than a fat chungus.
Walking slowly towards the gate, Hou Yan went behind the merchants that were about to enter the gate. He could hear their conversation and such.
"Haha, Old Ling, this city never fails to amaze us by its size."
"Haha, right back at you, Old Chun."
"I heard that some guy massacred several disciples of Heavenly Saber sect. Feelsbadman."
"Hoho, that kid must be a genius."
Hou Yan added the line in order to make them think good of him.
"You think he is a genius, Old Chun?"
"When did I say that?"
"But you just said 'that kid must be a genius'."
"Huh? I thought that was you."
"Gentlemen, no need to argue, it was me."
"And who might you be?"
"Hoho, I am just a wandering hermit."
"Oh, a hermit huh? Truly a rare to see one of you. You also look so young."
"Hoho, you must never judge a cultivator by their appearance unless it is really obvious."
"Oh. You learn something new every day, huh."
"So, old fellas, mind telling me what the name of this city is?"
"You don't know about this city?"
"Nope. I don't know its name."
"I can't believe what I am hearing! You never heard of the biggest city of Profound continent? Even major sects don't dare to act wildly in here. Forget about those major sects, even rats don't dare to cause trouble in here or else they will lose their little lives."
"And, the ruler of this city, is rumored to be close to taking a half step into the legendary realm that no one knows about."
"Oh. He must truly be strong."
"Just strong? He is more than strong! He can lift the earth with his nail and destroy mountains with his boogers! He has strength even experts from Divine Dao realm are cautious of. In fact, those experts don't dare to be wildly arrogant in front of him."
Hou Yan was truly shocked. Although they exaggerated a little, hearing this would truly amaze anyone. After entering the city, Hou Yan went towards a tavern to gain information about this city.
Inside the tavern, there were all kinds of people in there. It was loud and lively but Hou Yan went towards the location of the bartender. Then he began to flood them with tons of questions but only received answers to some.
From what he learned, the reason why this city is huge and has many people living in it is due to the fact that a forbidden ground is near it. This forbidden ground has a unique name, which is 'Forging The Era dungeon'. The dungeon was said to have 100 floors and only up to the 86th floor was explored. The rest wasn't explored because of lack of strength but due to secretive information. It was said that the reason why is kept as a secret and will never be known unless you reach that floor.
"Dungeons, huh? I can finally fulfill one of my dreams. Exploring a dungeon."
With those words, Hou Yan left and went towards a Blacksmith shop. Inside there, he looked for light armor. Then he bought a random one and headed towards an inn to rest an plan out his future.
The inn he went to wasn't that high quality nor was it low quality. At the front desk, there was a teenage girl. Hou Yan rented out a room and decided to head to his room. The inn's first floor was just a place for dining and the front desk and also the kitchen. From the second floor to the third floor, it was just full of rooms. The third floor would be considered the floor of the nobles.
At the third floor, Hou Yan went inside his room and saw a king-sized bed. The bed had new sheets that were white and had a desk near it. From just a glance, one could tell that this desk was made out of the finest wood.
The room also had its own balcony, where you could see people minding their own business on the streets.
But from afar, there was a man who had three guys protecting him, bullying a young man. The man with the three guys as bodyguards looked like a young master while the victim looked like a poor person.
They kicked and shoved his head on the floor but no one stopped them.
Hou Yan took pity in that kid and went towards the place in order to do something about it.
While Hou Yan was rushing towards the scene, the young master took out a blade. He lifted above the young man and was bringing the blade down in order to kill him.
Hou Yan would be a millisecond late even if he went top speed so instead, he shouted out.
"STOP!!!!"