Heaven-Man Sect, Heaven-Man Holy Land

Only then did Yun Qinglan snap out of her shock.

Suppressing the palpitations in her heart, she clutched her injured lower abdomen and quickly stepped forward. She bowed deeply to Gu Changyuan, her tone respectful to the extreme:

"Senior, thank you for your assistance. The Yun family will never forget your life-saving grace!"

Gu Changyuan turned around, his gaze falling upon Yun Qinglan, and he spoke mildly:

"It is nothing."

Pausing for a moment, he added in a flat, waveless tone:

"However, I do not help for free."

Hearing this, Yun Qinglan's body subconsciously shrank back a little.

The strength of the Senior before her was too terrifying. With a mere gesture, he could obliterate a group of Nascent Soul realm cultivators. If he made any unreasonable demands, she would have absolutely no room to resist.

She quickly steadied her mind, straightened her spine slightly, and looked up at Gu Changyuan, saying:

"May I ask what Senior requires?"

Her subtle flinching naturally did not escape Gu Changyuan's eyes.

His heart stirred slightly, and he cut straight to the chase:

"Rest assured, I have no interest in your Heavenly Star Jade Marrow."

As he spoke, Gu Changyuan gently waved his right hand.

Whoosh—

In the next second, hundreds of Heavenly Star Jade Marrows, entirely translucent white and exuding dense spiritual energy, suddenly appeared out of thin air above his palm. They hovered in the air like a cluster of shining stars.

The quality of these Heavenly Star Jade Marrows was more than a tier higher than the one Yun Qinglan held in her embrace. The purity of their spiritual energy far exceeded hers; just looking at them made Yun Qinglan's heart tremble.

Yun Qinglan stared in utter shock, her mouth open wide enough to fit a fist, her jaw practically dropping to the ground.

The Heavenly Star Jade Marrow was a supreme treasure that the Yun family had spent a fortune to obtain. Yet, in the hands of this Senior, it was treated like ordinary pebbles. He took out hundreds at once, and of such astonishingly high quality?

Gu Changyuan ignored her shock. With a light squeeze of his right hand, the hovering Heavenly Star Jade Marrows instantly vanished, returning to his storage space.

In his storage space, these things belonged to the absolute lowest grade of resources.

It wasn't until the hundreds of Heavenly Star Jade Marrows disappeared that Yun Qinglan abruptly came back to her senses, the shock on her face lingering for a long time.

"I just wanted to ask," Gu Changyuan moved to the main topic, "do you know of the Tianren Sect?"

Tianren Sect?

Snapping out of her shock, Yun Qinglan immediately searched her memory for the name of this sect.

Given the strength this Senior had displayed, the sect he was asking about could absolutely not be some minor, obscure faction.

Therefore, she skipped the second and third-rate sects and focused her recollection purely on top-tier factions.

But...

"Answering Senior,"

Yun Qinglan pondered for a moment before speaking cautiously.

"It seems this junior has never heard the name Tianren Sect."

Suddenly remembering something, she added:

"However, there is a sect called the Tianren Sacred Land, which sounds very similar to the sect Senior is looking for."

"Tianren Sacred Land?"

Gu Changyuan raised an eyebrow.

"Yes!"

Yun Qinglan nodded hurriedly, her tone carrying a hint of reverence.

"The Tianren Sacred Land is currently recognized as the number one sect faction in the mortal realm. It dominates the Western Region of the Eastern Continent, boasting countless experts within its ranks. Even the top-tier factions of the Central Continent dare not make an enemy of them."

The Western Region of the Eastern Continent?

Gu Changyuan understood in his heart.

It seemed that this Tianren Sacred Land was, in all likelihood, the Tianren Sect he had founded back in the day.

"Good heavens," Gu Changyuan secretly muttered in his heart, "how did my little, rundown sect become a Sacred Land?"

Seeing that he had no objections, Yun Qinglan continued:

"Our current location is the Southern Region of the Southern Continent. It is extremely far from the Western Region of the Eastern Continent. I am not entirely clear on the exact route and distance; I would need to ask the elders of our clan to know for sure."

"No matter."

Gu Changyuan waved his hand, not in a hurry. He had already waited one thousand one hundred years; a few more days wouldn't make a difference.

"Since that is the case, I will escort you back first."

"Thank you, Senior!" A trace of a grateful smile appeared on Yun Qinglan's face.

With this Senior escorting them, she wouldn't have to worry about encountering any more danger.

She raised her right hand, palm facing upwards.

A delicate jade skiff appeared in her palm. It was only the size of a thumb, intricately carved, and shimmering with a faint spiritual light.

As she channeled her spiritual energy and gently waved her right hand, that tiny skiff instantly expanded. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a flying skiff ten meters long, three meters wide, and five meters high.

The hull was streamlined, its surface engraved with simple protective arrays, and faint cyan spiritual wings unfurled on both sides.

In a small place like Qinglan City, this was already considered a quite decent flying artifact.

But Gu Changyuan took one look at it, and the corner of his mouth couldn't help but twitch.

It had been a long time... since he had seen such a tiny flying skiff.

"Let's use mine instead; it will be faster."

Gu Changyuan said as he raised his right hand. With a light flick of his fingers, a crisp snap echoed through the air.

Buzz—!

A deep, muffled hum rang out, and the entire Mist-Hidden Forest seemed to tremble.

Immediately after, an unimaginably colossal immortal ship slowly emerged from the void, hovering above the Mist-Hidden Forest.

This immortal ship was pitch-black all over, its hull covered in complex golden runes. It was a full several hundred meters long and over fifty meters high.

It looked like a black fortress suspended in the sky, grand in its momentum and exuding an oppressive aura.

Yun Qinglan and the guards behind her all raised their heads, gazing up at the giant immortal ship above them. They were dumbfounded, their mouths hanging open wide enough to fit an egg.

Only when she remembered that this Senior might be acquainted with the Tianren Sacred Land did the shock in Yun Qinglan's heart subside slightly.

For an existence connected to the Tianren Sacred Land to possess such a giant immortal ship didn't seem too strange after all.

"Let's go."

Gu Changyuan spoke evenly.

"You will still need to point out the specific direction."

As his voice fell, he waved his large hand. A gentle wave of spiritual energy enveloped Yun Qinglan and the dozen or so guards behind her. With a light lift, he brought them all aboard the immortal ship.

After imprinting the beacon mark of Nanhua City onto the immortal ship, it shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, speeding towards the direction of Nanhua City.

It would normally take Yun Qinglan's flying skiff about half an hour to return to Nanhua City from the Mist-Hidden Forest. However, this voyage took less than fifteen minutes before the silhouette of Nanhua City appeared on the distant horizon.

It was a medium-sized city with walls about ten zhang high. The buildings inside were closely packed in rows, and right in the center were the City Lord's Manor and the estates of several major families.

The immortal ship began to lower its altitude, entering a low-altitude flight state.

According to the rules of Nanhua City, any flying artifact entering the city needed to be reported and inspected at the city gates.

If anyone dared to barge in directly from the sky, the city-protecting grand array would activate immediately, and the city guards would also step in to intercept.

But at this moment—

The several cultivator guards at the city gate looked up at the immortal ship that was blotting out the sun, and all of them froze in place.

An immortal ship of such massive proportions was an extremely rare existence in the entire Southern Region of the Southern Continent.

In the past, even if giant immortal ships appeared, they would only be passing by at high altitudes. They would never fly so close to the ground, much less actively approach Nanhua City.

Naturally, they did not dare to intercept it. The people aboard were undoubtedly formidable, and if they accidentally provoked their ire, the population of the entire city likely wouldn't be enough for them to slaughter.

In tacit agreement, they took a few steps back and simply chose to turn a blind eye. Together with the rest of the crowd, they watched the colossal immortal ship soar into Nanhua City's airspace completely unimpeded.