Chapter 1135: Neutral Territory
Not aware of the excitement that the news of him returning to the sect had caused for his youngest disciple, Xuan Hao had already begun his journey back towards the Star Shattering Sect together with Pei Yang.
Because of the fact that he had no idea where he was and what empire he had ended up inside of after having followed Pei Yang out of the Blue Sea Empire and the person in question also not having any clue about where they were other than the fact that it was somewhere outside the Blue Sea Empire.
Feeling quite confused over the fact that an old Earth Immortal Realm Expert like Pei Yang, who should be familiar with the core region of the continent, didn’t know about where they were, Xuan Hao could only glance at him weirdly.
“Ahm! The reason I don’t know about this place is because I spent most of my time in another part of the core region! Just so you know, the core region of the continent is far larger than any other part of the continent and can almost be considered a world on its own!
Outside of those who have lived for hundreds of thousands of years, I doubt there are many Earth Immortal Realm Experts familiar with most of the core region. Even I, who have spent a good amount of time roaming the core region, still fall short and only have knowledge about a quarter or so of the core region…”
Giving a somewhat awkward cough as he said this, Pei Yang could not help feeling a bit embarrassed when faced with Xuan Hao’s weird glance…
“I see…” Not saying anything more than this as he didn’t really have any clue about how big the core region of the continent- or the continent itself for that matter was, Xuan Hao began to use his divine sense to try and search their surroundings for any living being who might be able to help them find out where they were at the moment.
“…”
Feel a bit ashamed of the clear sense of disappointment that had been present in Xuan Hao’s words, Pei Yang followed what Xuan Hao was doing and also began to use his divine sense to search the surroundings for anything that might help point out where they were located.
Soon enough, the first part of the journey back to the Star Shattering Sect ended up with them using their divine sense to try and find out where they were and what direction the Sky Empire was in.
Luckily as things would have it, they happened to encounter a rather large city that was controlled by a Soul Ascension Realm Expert, who was more than happy to provide them with the information they wanted after a quick convincing.
In the end, they found out that they were currently inside a neutral territory located between the Blue Sea Empire and an equally powerful empire. The neutral territory was compromised of hundreds of small and large city states, each controlled by different powerful experts ranging from the Soul Ascension Realm all the way up to the Earth Immortal Realm.
For them to reach the Sky Empire, they had to cross through several of these city states and a few smaller empires around the same size as the Sky Empire.
Although the journey should take around a month given that travelling through the use of the Dao of Space was a little harder when carrying Pei Yang, there wasn’t any real danger along the way from what they could tell.
The main reason for this was that most of the powerful city states with Earth Immortal Realm Experts were located towards the center of the neutral territory where the Soul Ascension Realm city lord had told them different precious spiritual herbs and other things could be found in abundance.
During the entire journey back to the Sky Empire, the strongest power that they would have to pass through was a kingdom far smaller than the Sky Empire that happened to share a border with one of the empires currently in the process of invading the Sky Empire.
From the information that the Soul Ascension Realm city lord had told them, the ancestor of the small kingdom was in the Earth Immortal Realm. The only reason why a kingdom with such a powerful ancestor didn’t decide to expand and become a powerful empire was due to the fact that the ancestor of the kingdom didn’t care about expanding the kingdom and instead preferred to quietly cultivate on his own.
As a result of this, the second strongest person in the kingdom had only just barely managed to reach the First Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm with there being no other Soul Ascension Realm Experts present in the kingdom.
“Well, it looks like we should be able to reach the Star Shattering Sect without any issues.”
“Indeed…”
Having learnt everything, they could about their surroundings from the Soul Ascension Realm city lord, Xuan Hao soon picked up Pei Yang with his dao domain, as both of them began making their way in the direction of the Sky Empire.
Considering the fact that there wouldn’t be any real danger involved in the journey back, outside of the small kingdom with the Earth Immortal Realm ancestor, Xuan Hao decided to focus on increasing his speed at the cost of becoming more visible to the different cultivators they flew by.
Although not visible to most Soul Ascension Realm Experts, it had at least become possible for those below the Earth Immortal Realm to notice them from afar.
…
“Hah… Those two finally left…”
As Xuan Hao used his dao domain to leave the city, the city lord who had been intimidated into answering all of their questions over the past few hours let out a sigh of relief while looking in the direction that they had disappeared in.
“But… To think two Earth Immortal Realm Experts appeared in this remote place, they should have come from the Blue Sea Empire- Hm!? Don’t tell me… Is the Blue Sea Empire perhaps about to start another war with the Wei Empire!?” Suddenly realizing the possible implication behind the sudden appearance of two Earth Immortal Realm Experts from the Blue Sea Empire, the city lord could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine as he recalled the last war between the Blue Sea Empire and the Wei Empire.
In the past, when the two large empires had been at war, the large neutral territory connecting the two large empires had been part of the two empires and a place where they bordered each other.
Back then, the war got so devastating that it was widely rumored existences above the Earth Immortal Realm joined in on the battle, causing what had once been a prosperous part of the two massive empires to turn into a hellscape that then ended up becoming neutral territory due to interference of some other forces in the core region who didn’t want to see the two empires fighting with each other.
Although all of this had happened tens of thousands of years ago at this point in time, some of the scars left behind by the experts above the Earth Immortal Realm could still be seen at the central part of the neutral territory where these experts had clashed with each other in the past.
It was because he knew about this past, that the city lord began panicking after seeing Xuan Hao and Pei Yang who had come from the Blue Sea Empire.
But… In the end, this was not enough to make him feel so fearful, the main thing that made him believe that the two empires might be clashing again in the soon to be future was the fact that another group consisting of two Earth Immortal Realm Experts from the Wei Empire had appeared in the neutral territory a few weeks earlier.
Even worse, the questions they had asked was almost the exact same as what Xuan Hao and Pei Yang had asked him.
The main difference was that after getting the information they wanted, the two Earth Immortals from the Wei Empire had started to visit all of the powerful city states in the neutral territory. Openly examining the strength of these city states on the premise of asking a few questions.
If the two Earth Immortal Realm Experts, who had come from the Blue Sea Empire, did the same, it was almost certain that both the Blue Sea Empire and the Wei Empire were preparing to take over the neutral territory. Nothing short of a calamity for the different city states who had been able to enjoy their independence and ability to get their hands on some of the different resources that would normally be under the control of larger powers like it had been in the past…
No! I can’t just sit around doing nothing! I have to prepare myself for the worst!
With all of this in mind, the Soul Ascension Realm city lord quickly contacted his friends before starting to pack up his things in preparation for running away…
