The vast, endless sky.
Chen Yan emerged from the space crack over ten zhang long that had been torn open in the sky, floating tens of thousands of zhang high above. His plain white daoist robe was battered and rustled loudly by the fierce winds howling through the heights.
As if in disbelief, Chen Yan slowly raised his hands.
He could clearly see the lines on his palms and the bluish-purple veins beneath his skin.
He had a physical form now, and it was truly himself.
But where was he right now?
Chen Yan lowered his gaze to the mountains and rivers below his feet—it was an entirely unfamiliar environment.
The Chenping Continent was vast, incredibly vast.
So vast that even though Chen Yan had lived in this world for over a thousand years, the territories he had traveled to still accounted for less than one percent of the entire Chenping Continent.
Thinking this over, Chen Yan decided that the top priority was to find a cultivation sect.
So he began flying through the air, searching the skies for settlements with human activity.
Currently, Chen Yan's cultivation level was at the peak of the Unity Realm, just a single step away from the Divine Ability Realm.
Of course, as had been mentioned countless times before, even if it was just a single step away, for someone like Chen Yan whose talent could at most only touch the Martial Spring Realm, it was still as insurmountable as a heavenly chasm.
And the most crucial step from the Unity Realm to the Divine Ability Realm was obtaining a natal divine ability.
If his next Reincarnation Reward was simply a realm upgrade, then without a natal divine ability, could Chen Yan truly be considered an Eighth Realm cultivator?
Or perhaps, if he was to advance his realm, the next Reincarnation Reward might grant him a natal divine ability as well.
Just like when he was in the Myriad Transformations Realm and received a Reincarnation Score Reward for advancing his realm—what it gave him wasn't some minor realm upgrade, but three thousand strands of innate true energy.
With these thoughts running through his mind, Chen Yan's flying speed through the sky reached a hundred li per breath.
And the range of his spiritual sense exploration currently extended to nearly a thousand li.
But Chen Yan had already been flying through the sky for half an hour, covering a full ninety thousand li, yet he still hadn't found any cultivation sects or human settlements.
Was this region really so desolate?
Just as doubt crept into Chen Yan's heart, he finally detected a human settlement about eight hundred li away.
It was a country, or rather, a secular dynasty.
Chen Yan's spiritual sense had already covered a third of that secular dynasty's territory. He could perceive farmers working in the fields, vendors hawking their goods in towns, and soldiers standing guard on the walls of the capital city.
Through the Emptiness Annihilation Art, his spiritual sense could even detect traces of faint cause and effect.
Most of these faint threads of cause and effect were concentrated on the dynasty's nobles and royalty, a few sons of humble families, and an extremely small number of beggars, farmers, vendors, and bandits by the roadside.
Chen Yan roughly understood what these faint traces of cause and effect represented.
They represented fortune—the kind of fortune that could influence the fate of this world.
The greater the impact one could have on the world, the stronger and more apparent this cause and effect became.
However, Chen Yan didn't find any traces of cultivators in this secular dynasty.
Not even a trace of a Body Forging Realm cultivator.
It was probably another place similar to Great Yu or Liaolong.
But it was still better than hovering over desolate wilderness. At least finding a secular dynasty meant he could try to gather some information.
Although there were no cultivators here, he could still attempt to inquire about the situation.
Next, even though the Hidden Immortal Art allowed Chen Yan to completely conceal his cultivator aura, he still fully suppressed all his spiritual energy to be cautious.
Then, transforming into a concealed streak of light in the sky, he began descending toward a village on the outskirts of this secular dynasty.
After all, dropping straight into a major city of this secular dynasty would be far too conspicuous.
Chen Yan landed by a tree beside a farmland at the edge of the village. He then fixed his gaze on an old farmer sitting on a ridge nearby, a pipe in his mouth and a straw hat on his head, with an old yellow ox standing beside him—clearly taking a break.
He walked toward the old farmer, deliberately not muffling his footsteps, wanting the man to notice his presence so as not to startle him.
Just as Chen Yan had planned, the old farmer heard footsteps behind him and slowly turned his head, casting his gaze upon Chen Yan.
The moment the old farmer's eyes landed on Chen Yan's plain white daoist robe, he froze for a second, then hastily dropped his pipe, scrambled up from the ridge, stood upright, and—under Chen Yan's stunned and bewildered gaze—performed a very proper bowing salute:
"This old man greets the Immortal Master!"
This was a development Chen Yan had never expected.
Why?
His spiritual sense had found no trace of cultivators in this secular dynasty, yet here, in a village on its outskirts, an ordinary old man could recognize his robe as a cultivator's uniform and even perform such a standard bowing salute?
Could it be that this old man, like Kang Zongdan, had traveled far in his youth and seen much of the world?
Could such a coincidence really happen?
In less than a single breath, countless speculations flashed through Chen Yan's mind.
"Old sir."
Chen Yan then spoke. Although his actual age was more than ten times that of the man before him, he still chose to address him this way, given that his current appearance seemed only twenty years old.
"I am a Rogue Cultivator traveling through this area today. May I ask you, old sir, do you know which cultivation sect is closest to this region?"
Chen Yan asked.
"This old man certainly does."
The old man with the wide straw hat replied:
"This place is Nanfeng Li Family Village. Twelve thousand li north of Nanfeng lies the Qingxuan Immortal Sect. Every five years, they recruit disciples within a range of five hundred thousand li. If the Immortal Master wishes to visit the Qingxuan Immortal Sect, simply head north!"
Upon hearing this, Chen Yan was slightly taken aback.
The Qingxuan Immortal Sect?
This was a cultivation sect Chen Yan had never heard of before.
But its recruitment range of five hundred thousand li undoubtedly declared that this sect must be a top-tier cultivation sect.
If that were the case, Chen Yan should not possibly be unaware of such a sect's existence.
Moreover, "Immortal Sect"?
How could any cultivation sect on the Chenping Continent dare to take such an arrogant name?
Even the Five Great Sects wouldn't dare, unless…
Chen Yan suddenly thought of a possibility he should have considered long ago.
That he had already left the Chenping Continent.