Chapter 521: Myriad Manifestations City
"Senior." Su Ming lifted his head, breaking the silence, his tone still respectful. "May I ask about the specific methods for using a formation to convert spiritual energy? Are there any particular intricacies involved?"
Master Xuanming glanced at Su Ming with a hint of surprise. He had thought this brutal beating would shake this Foundation Establishment disciple a bit, but instead, his first reaction was to inquire about the methods of converting spiritual energy. After all, the first time he had brought a still-Golden Core Xuanheng to the Central Continent, that kid hadn't snapped out of his daze for a whole day.
"Not bad, a steady nature." Master Xuanming snorted coldly to himself, but on the surface, he bluntly cut Su Ming off.
"We'll talk once we reach Myriad Manifestations City." Master Xuanming turned around, ignoring them, and walked straight back to the meditation cushion at the center of the airship to close his eyes and rest. "If I taught you now, you wouldn't be able to remember the complex flow of spiritual energy in this Central Continent anyway."
Su Ming nodded, not pressing the matter further.
In front of this old monster, who was calculating at every turn, appearing too eager would only expose his own bottom line. He silently clasped his hands within his wide sleeves, his gaze calm as he looked toward the front of the airship.
The spiritual vessel continued to race through the gray, hazy clouds, driving deeper into the heart of the Central Continent.
Su Ming stood at the bow of the ship, watching the ground rapidly receding beneath him.
Occasionally, he could catch sight of some mortal cities, but every single one was shrouded in a grayish-yellow miasma. This created a stark, jarring contrast with the sect's floating islands in the sky, which faintly radiated spiritual light and were protected by powerful formations.
The chasm between mortals and immortals had been stretched to a desperate, vast dimension here.
Just then, an extremely dazzling light suddenly blazed on the horizon ahead.
It wasn't the natural light of the sky, but a brilliant ocean of light formed by countless immense streams of spiritual energy interweaving together.
"That is..." Qingfeng couldn't help but exclaim, pointing a finger ahead.
Master Xuanming didn't open his eyes. He only hoarsely uttered a few words.
"Myriad Manifestations City. The largest city on the Central Continent border, and where we'll be staying tonight."
The spiritual vessel began to slow down. The ocean of light ahead gradually enlarged in their vision, eventually revealing its breathtaking, true silhouette.
It was a colossal city, so vast its boundaries were impossible to discern.
Unlike Iron Wall Pass in the Northern Frontier, which was built against a mountain, this city was directly spread out across a vast, flat plain. Suspended above the city was an enormous, translucent dome.
On that dome, tens of thousands of formation lines flowed like liquid gold metal, interweaving and operating in mid-air, completely isolating the city from the desolate outside world.
"This city-protecting grand formation..."
Standing at the ship's bow, Su Ming's pupils involuntarily contracted slightly.
Within his Consciousness Sea, the seven hundred and fifty formation runes instinctively began a frantic simulation. But the moment he merely glanced at the dome, he felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his divine sense.
"Don't look for too long," Lin Yu's voice rang out in his mind just in time, carrying a note of warning. "This is a true composite Heaven-grade grand formation. There are at least three hundred and sixty lethal formations nested within it. With your current divine sense strength, trying to forcibly comprehend its formation principles will only cause your Consciousness Sea to burst from the sheer volume of information."
Su Ming immediately averted his gaze, forcefully suppressing the surging blood and qi within his body.
"Cheep—"
Shadow let out a faint chirp from inside Su Ming's collar. Clearly, she too could feel the terrifying pressure emanating from the city-protecting formation.
The airship slowly descended about three li from the city gate.
The rule in the Central Continent was that no flying device not directly under the City Lord's Mansion was allowed to take off within one li of the city gates.
The four of them disembarked. Master Xuanming put the airship away and led them on foot toward the enormous white jade city gate, which stood thirty zhang high.
At the city gate, cultivators came and went in an endless stream, like silver carp swimming upriver.
Su Ming blended into the crowd, his eyes cast down, appearing obedient. In truth, his peripheral vision never stopped gathering information.
Cultivators in various colored robes hurried past, each face bearing an unmistakable look of exhaustion and vigilance. Occasionally, a few wandering cultivators set up stalls by the roadside, arguing vehemently over the price of a few low-grade spirit stones.
What shocked Su Ming the most was these people's cultivation levels.
In the Cloud Hidden Sect, a Golden Core cultivator could already become an inner disciple, or even a True Disciple. A Spirit Transformation cultivator was the master of an entire peak.
But here at the city gate of Myriad Manifestations City, with just a quick glance, Su Ming spotted at least five Golden Core cultivators with unfathomably deep auras waiting in line to enter the city. The spiritual pressure radiating from them instinctively caused lower-level cultivators to give them a wide berth.
Golden Cores walked everywhere, while Foundation Establishments were worse than dogs.
This saying, which was treated as an exaggerated joke in the Northern Frontier, had become a reality here.
"This is what the world of immortal cultivation should look like," Lin Yu sighed with a long, nostalgic air from within the Xuantian Ring. His soul body stretched in the void, seemingly reminiscing about this environment so full of pressure and competitive atmosphere.
Su Ming didn't reply. He simply silently adjusted his breathing rhythm, using the Aura Concealment Art to suppress his late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation aura down to the very edge of the early Foundation Establishment stage.
The security at the city gate was extremely strict. Every cultivator entering the city had to pay an entry fee of three low-grade spirit stones and receive a jade token to verify their identity.
When it was their turn, Master Xuanming casually tossed out a dozen spirit stones. The guard took one look at his unfathomable aura and didn't even ask for his identity. He respectfully handed over four jade tokens and let them pass.
The moment they stepped through the city gate.
An extremely rich wave of spiritual energy rushed towards them.
Though this spiritual energy couldn't compare to the Spirit Lake in the Cloud Hidden Sect's secret realm, compared to the barren world outside, it was like an oasis in a desert. Qingfeng and Mingyue couldn't help but take a few deep breaths, and their tense expressions finally relaxed somewhat.
However, Su Ming keenly noticed that the spiritual energy within the city was laced with an extremely complex fluctuation from the formation. This spiritual energy was not naturally occurring. It was forcibly drawn up from deep underground by the grand formation, purified, and then released.
The streets were wide enough for twenty horse-drawn carriages to travel side by side.
Shops lined both sides: Pill Pavilions, Magical Implement Halls, Spirit Beast Lodges... Towering structures flickered with various dazzling formation lights, while shop assistants at the doorways shouted loudly to attract customers.
"Let's find a place to stay first." Master Xuanming ignored the surrounding hustle and bustle, leading them straight into the depths of the street.
Finally, they stopped in front of an inn called "Cloud Return."