Rays of morning sunlight shone down on the hillside, the sun slowly rising from the east as it casted a golden hue on the sky.
Lin Xuanhao slowly stood up from sitting under a tree, taking a deep breath as he slightly clenched his fists.
He had just broken through to the Second Stage of Meridian Connecting Realm and finished stabilizing his cultivation base right now.
The area around him had yet to be cleared up after last night's battle, but he didn't care about it. The Demon Beasts around would take care of the bodies.
And even if they were found, he was not afraid of anyone. By the time they might be found and he was accused of being the murderer, he might have already reached the Qi Refining Realm or even the Foundation Establishment Realm.
The strong didn't have to worry about such things. It may seem harsh but it was the truth of the Immortal Cultivation World.
And besides, those guys were the ones who attacked him first, and he only acted in self defense. He wasn't guilty at all.
He was far too beyond mortal things such as guilt to care.
Watching the sun rise up into the sky, he slowly stretched and prepared to go up the mountain and search for the Red Dragon City.
He planned to collect some information about the cultivation world and where he was right now while also cultivating there for a while so that he could breakthrough to the Qi Refining Realm safely.
He would leave after reaching the Qi Refining Realm to search for the next Dao Fragment.
He had already taken all the Spirit Stones on these fellows, amounting to a total of 18 Low-Grade Spirit Stones. He felt that these weren't as much as he initially expected, considering that those guys were connected to someone from the Immortal Sect, but he still accepted it and moved on.
Spirit Stones were divided into 4 grades, from the lowest to highest, they were Low-Grade, Mid-Grade, High-Grade, and Superior-Grade, with a hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones being worth the same as a Mid-Grade Spirit Stone and so on.
From Lin Xuanhao's past experiences, a Low-Grade Spirit Stone should be enough to cover up a week's worth of expenses of an average Qi Refining Realm cultivator, while around a hundred of them or a Mid-Grade Spirit Stone should be enough to buy a decent house under the protection of an average Vibrant Core Realm power.
However, since countless years had passed when he used to be a mortal, things might have changed vastly now.
Coming over to the corpse of the old man, he took the sword Spirit Artifact from him and examined it closely.
Since he couldn't use any of his treasures right now, he decided to use this sword temporarily to perform sword flight and fasten his search for the Red Dragon City. Not only would it save him a lot of time, it might also help him against severe situations for the time being.
He took both the scabbard and the sword along with him, attaching the scabbard around his waist and threw the sword into the air.
*Swoosh!*
Infused with Lin Xuanhao's Spirit Qi, the sword performed a full arc midair before rushing towards him from behind, a few feet off the ground.
Lin Xuanhao lightly tapped the ground as he jumped and landed steadily on the sword as it took him through the air immediately.
Soon enough, he was already a couple of hundred feet above the ground and continued to rise up the mountain while looking at the scenery, the rising sun casting a glow upon his face, being reflected in his eyes.
"It's been a long time since I used sword flight. I stopped using it altogether when I left the mortal world back then."
As he navigated through the tall trees and the sharp winds, he couldn't help but reminisce about the past, continously looking over the world beneath his feet.
After a couple hours of leisurely travel, he finally spotted a great city around a hundred miles big sitting right below the topmost peak of the Red Dragon Mountain Range.
There was no concealment formation or anything of the sort around hiding the city, probably because it was located so high up the Red Dragon Mountain Range that no mortal could casually come up here.
From afar, Lin Xuanhao could see tiny figures of cultivators going in and out of the Red Dragon City, with some even flying in and out on Spirit Artifacts every few minutes.
"It seems there is indeed no lack of Meridian Connecting Realm cultivators in the Red Dragon City."
Musing to himself, he slowly approached the Red Dragon City, flying at a normal speed. Soon, he reached the largest and only entrance to the city and stepped down from the sword.
The sword floating in the air before directly entering the scabbard at Lin Xuanhao's waist, attracting the attention of the surrounding passerbys, mainly the Body Forging Realm cultivators as they whispered amongst themselves.
"Did you see that? That senior was using sword flight just now, and his control over his sword is so precise as well! I've only ever seen a few Meridian Connecting Realm experts do that in my life!"
"Learning sword flight at the Meridian Connecting Realm is already a hard task I've heard, but mastering sword control to such a great degree must be even harder. This senior is no ordinary person!"
"He doesn't look ordinary as well. I don't think I've ever seen someone as good looking as him."
"I've never seen that senior before. It seems he's not from the Red Dragon City."
Lin Xuanhao ignored the many remarks and walked towards the entrance of the Red Dragon City, which was being guarded by 4 cultivators at the peak of the Body Forging Realm.
He knew that they must not be the only ones here guarding the entrance, there must be at least another Meridian Connecting Realm cultivator secretly overseeing it to ensure that nothing went wrong. This was the least one could expect from a cultivation city which housed several Qi Refining Realm cultivators and many Meridian Connecting Realm cultivators.
As he approached the entrance, the 4 guards noticed him and one of them stepped forward, raising a hand to stop him.
"May I know the identity of the fellow daoist?"
He asked calmly, his gaze momentarily shifting to the scabbard at Lin Xuanhao's waist before he retracted it.
A Spirit Artifact...this person isn't simple.
He concluded inwardly, deciding to let him enter the city without investigating too much.
"I just came here to the Red Dragon Mountain Range recently, I wonder if there will be any problem with me staying here for some time?"
Lin Xuanhao stated with a calm smile on his face, taking out a Spirit Stone from a pouch on his waist and handing it over to the guard.
The guard couldn't help but be stunned for an instance before he hurriedly stuffed the Spirit Stone into his robe, a smile spreading across his face.
Low-Grade Spirit Stones, for Body Forging Realm cultivators, were priceless resources which could boost their cultivation by leaps and bounds and even somewhat enhance their aptitude for achieving the Meridian Connecting Realm.
No sane Body Forging Realm cultivator would refuse a Spirit Stone, specially Loose Cultivators. Not to mention that it was extremely rare they got ahold of a Spirit Stone, perhaps once a few years or so despite being the guards of an Immortal Cultivation city.
As soon as the guard recieved the Spirit Stone, he became increasingly enthusiastic as he spoke, "The Red Dragon City welcomes all Loose Cultivators regardless of their origins, so you don't have to worry about it, senior. Do you need me to arrange accommodation for you? I can also take you around the city to familiarize yourself with it."
Lin Xuanhao just shook his head slightly before speaking, "I don't wish to walk around the city just yet, perhaps tomorrow. It would he nice if junior here could arrange accommodation for me."
"Of course, senior! I have many connections here in the Red Dragon City and know multiple landlords, you can either buy a courtyard or rent one to temporarily stay there. I need to tell my higher ups first before taking you there, though. You can wait on the other sides of the city gates till then. Oh, and my name is Yuan Zhenji, just so senior doesn't forget about me."
The guard known as Yuan Zhenji replied before quickly turning around and leaving towards the top of the city walls through a staircase from behind.
Lin Xuanhao entered through the main city gates, and what got into his vision was a magnificent view of a great city brimming with life on every corner.
Street vendors, restaurants, shops, pavilions, and even brothels were on all sides.
If someone were to look at it from afar, they may think it was no different than that of a mortal city. And this thought was true to a certain extent, as the highest cultivation within the Red Dragon City was only the Qi Refining Realm.
However, despite that, it was only upon closer look would one notice that everything here, from the bricks the city walls were made of to the items sold in the various shops were things rarely seen in the secular world, with some of them never being seen before.