In the Verdant Stone Realm, deep within the Crimson Phoenix Empire's southern Crimson Cloud Province—once ruled by the Scarlet Soul Sect and inside the cave hidden behind the waterfall, near the destroyed Scarlet Soul Sect grounds, the empty space suddenly shattered.
And in the blink of an eye, a figure appeared out of the void.
"Looks like I'm really back," Ye Wuji muttered, scanning his surroundings. He took a deep breath and smiled faintly. The air here was filled with spiritual energy far fresher than the apocalyptic world he had just left, yet noticeably lower in quality.
As the contrast hit him, a subtle irritation stirred within. The difference in the spiritual energy's quality was massive, and his body could sense it clearly.
"Anyway, first of all," he muttered. "I need to disguise myself and sneak into the nearest city to check how much time has passed during my stay in the apocalyptic world and whether the time flow in both worlds is synchronized or not."
He sighed.
"Once I confirm that, I'll browse the local markets for any useful goods, find a place that sells a Blood Essence Harvesting Array, and during all of that… search for a suitable target to use for the Blood Demon Heart refinement."
With his plans set, Ye Wuji immediately used his disguise technique. Although it was only slightly above average technique, he had refined it over the years through countless situations, enhancing its effectiveness slightly.
His appearance shifted from that of an emotionless and stoic yet handsome youth with long, pitch-black hair and deep blood-red eyes into that of an elderly man—wrinkled, with a slightly altered face structure.
And to complete the disguise, he pulled out a wide bamboo hat from his storage ring and tucked his hair beneath it.
Though the technique wasn't something awesome, especially against those capable of recognizing and probing his Qi aura with their spiritual sense, as he isn't in possession of any Aura Concealment technique.
However, most of those who had been hunting him were only Qi Refining Realm cultivators. Given that his public reputation placed him at only the Mid Stage of Qi Refining, very few of his pursuers possessed anything like spiritual sense, not even a crude one, as even a crude one was only availible from the Foundation Establishment realm.
So, despite the technique being only slightly above average, it still allowed him to avoid countless dangers and escape numerous dangerous situations over the year.
"I recall that there is a city about two hundred and fifty miles west of the Scarlet Soul Sect ruins. If I recall correctly, it's called Rootspire City now, since the Scarlet Soul Sect was destroyed and the land was divided among the four righteous sects of the Crimson Phoenix Empire."
The four sects were: the White Crane Sect in the north, the Heavenly Mountain Sect in the west, the Golden Lotus Temple in the east, and the White Cloud Sect in the central region.
Among them, the Golden Lotus Temple was the weakest of the four, not due to lack of heritage but because of its reclusive nature as a Buddhist sect that cultivated virtue and mostly abstained from worldly entanglements.
And the strongest among them was the White Crane Sect in the north, closely followed by the Heavenly Mountain Sect in the west and the White Cloud Sect in the central region, which were both similarly strong.
Ye Wuji mused and took out his flying shuttle artifact and set off toward north to the Rootspire City.
Although, he could already use his Wings Gu instead of his old flying shuttle artifact, it was still slightly faster and more importantly the existence of his Wings Gu had to remain secret as it is currently his main trump card and revealing it could also attract greed from other cultivators as it was extremely rare Gu.
Two hours later, he arrived at the outskirts of Rootspire City and managed to get inside, arriving at the crowded Rootspire market.
"Looks like it didn't change much," he thought as he strode into the market. "The biggest change is still the change of its name. After all, previously, during the Scarlet Soul Sect's reign, this city was called Helgen City."
Ye Wuji sighed softly.
"Everything changes so quickly. One day, a sect nearly reigns supreme over an entire empire, and in the next moment, it's reduced to ashes and replaced by others."
Roughly two hundred miles northwest of Rootspire City now stood the branch of the Heavenly Mountain Sect. Three hundred miles to the north was the White Cloud Sect's branch, and not far from it was also a branch of the White Crane Sect. And to the northeast, a hundred miles away, lay the branch of the Golden Lotus Temple.
Each of these sect branches oversaw a different part of the region, managing one major city and several smaller ones beneath their banners. These cities were governed by families with deep ties to their respective sects, typically established by sect disciples or loyal cultivators dispatched to maintain order.
Rootspire City, in particular, was currently managed by the Bai Family, which served under the Golden Lotus Temple. And the patriarch of the Bai family was a cultivator in the Early Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm, already over a one hundred years old. Most cultivators who came to trade in the market were only at the early or middle stages of Qi Refining, making Ye Wuji—a cultivator in the late stage—a rare oddity.
He had already known all of this even before arriving. As Rootspire City was the only city he had dared to occasionally visit during his years on the run from the righteous sects. Because, thanks to the Golden Lotus Temple's reclusive nature, the city remained relatively unguarded most of the time and was ironically the safest city for someone like him to move unnoticed.
Upon entering the bustling Rootspire market, Ye Wuji didn't rush to seek out a place to buy the Blood Essence Harvesting Array from. Instead, he took his time, strolling casually through the wide paths of the market.
His sharp eyes swept over the wares of various sellers—herbs, talismans, pills, low-grade artifacts—examining each stall calmly if he could find something that could catch his eye.