The Wonton Fields, a desolate place, inhospitable to life. Only the most desperate of people live here. Or at least that was true for most of the areas of the Fields. Disregarding the few areas with an unusual amount of qi present, the only places where there was a surplus of life were the cities. All the cities in this place looked unique, and that was because they were all founded because of a resource found in the area. Whether they are in forested areas that provide the rest of civilizations wood, or if they manage the spirit springs that produce spirit stones and spirit water, all cities look unique. Take the two cities our hero has heard of, Iron Dragon City was dirty and had large walls. Only areas under direct control of large groups were not sullied by the mess of the large scale mining operations and massive mortal population. The walls were built for the same reasons, to protect the large scale mining operations and their massive mortal population.

Well, massive might have been a bit of an understatement, there couldn't have been more than 200 to 300 thousand mortals there, but in a place were some 50 thousand people are considered a decently sized city, it's more than enough to be called massive. This city may be called a massive success to some, while others would berate it for having large portions of the city be basically a large collection of shacks piled together by mortals. Most cities based around the gathering of natural resources looked similar to Iron Dragon City, but still varied greatly resource by resource.

Cities focused on the gathering of supernatural resources generally looked the opposite of Iron Dragon City. There are almost never walls in cultivator focused cities, for arrays will do everything a wall could do and more. Even in mortal cities, the only reason they use walls is because of the relatively lower costs. If mortal cities are cramped and dirty, then cultivator cities are polar opposites. Every building is a well spaced home, almost all of them using some technique or another in construction. Mortals are not even allowed to build their homes in these cities and are forced to live in smaller villages and towns in the vicinity of the city. In non-loose cities mortals generally wouldn't even be allowed inside without the express permission of a cultivator with some measure of authority.

The city our hero was traveling to was one of the second style of city. The city's name was Depths Aligned, Fang Hu had seen it referred both as 'Depths Aligned City' and just 'Depths Aligned'. It was apparently founded around the focal point of a large earth array meant to gather earth qi and store it in some kind of vessel. That was what the mortals told Fang Hu anyway, they could always be wrong. No one could tell him anything about where the array was or what the vessel was, it was apparently very hush-hush. He got the feeling that the people he asked would have been offended if he wasn't clearly a cultivator.

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In between the loose cities that our hero knows of, a young man could be seen tearing up a storm through the beaten road of the popular trade route in between Iron Dragon and Depths Aligned. Anyone seeing the youth might pause at the sight of the older man in the lads arms and a young girl tied to his back. Though, if that was what gave them pause, then they'd have to be pretty fuckin' weird themselves. It's not everyday you see a glowing man running down the road at some forty miles per hour, passengers or not. The man was also clearly setting pace, not sprinting. This might seem small compared to the initial shock of the sighting, but would only serve to add more confusion for anyone witnessing him on second thought. Why would anyone of that power be running down the main road like that?

Certainly, the few merchants and one battle between a caravan and a bandit group were surprised to see him, to say the least. The merchants had almost passed out upon seeing Fang Hu in all his glory, but the group that was most surprised to see him was the bandit group. Fang Hu had not even stopped as he stuck the demonic cultivator, injuring his dantian and using his solar qi to erase the demonic tattoo on the cultivators head. The man wouldn't be able to cultivate again without healing and might experience a few health problems in his old age, but should be fine. Well, he should be fine provided that those caravan guards didn't kill him, they did seem awfully mad as he ran by. It wasn't his place to stop them however, hell he wouldn't have stopped the bandits if it wasn't for the demonic nature of the cultivator. People had to eat somehow. As it was, Fang Hu simply performed the Pangea version of a drive-by and went on with his day.

It had taken less than two days to get here, but Jiahao and Dai Yi hadn't said much. Fang Hu knew that they were fine, mostly because of his ability to sense qi. Maybe they were just not used to traveling like this, or maybe they just couldn't talk without risking biting their tongues. Anyway, he would have to apologize if they truly didn't like this method of transportation. Our hero was actually confused on that front, he didn't feel anything from them on that front, but simply looking at them was enough to tell that they weren't happy. Fang Hu couldn't begin to tell what it was about.

"HALT!! All travelers must pay the fine to show thei- !!!"

Fang Hu had stopped listening when he felt the demonic energy radiating from the bandit leader. Soon after that the bandit cultivator stopped talking. He was too enveloped by Fang Hu's killing intent. The man was only at the fourth stage of qi gathering and had no chance at resisting. Slowly Fang Hu put down his two passengers, and slowly walked to the bandit.

*Relax buddy, I won't kill you. Let me tell you though, this is gonna ruin your day.*

"Calm yourself and rejoice! For I will not be ending you today. As joyous occasion as this is, I must regretfully inform you that this won't be pleasant.

With one fluid movement, our hero knocked his opponent's demonic knife in the sky. While taking a combat stance, our hero focused a large amount of solar and non-elemental qi into his fingers, and when the blade arced back to the ground Fang Hu used his fingertips to pierce the metal. Everyone there was presented with a vision of a little imp like creature being swallowed alongside a horrible screech. The metal turned to dust and the bandit started spasming on the ground.

A little status check and qi manipulation said this guy, apparently named Fung, would be fine, so Fang Hu left him there, picked up his bored looking disciples, and continued to the city. Nothing would get into the way of his journey to immortality, not even the abnormal amount of demonic cultivators. It was weird to Fang Hu, he just figured that this was some cult recruiting scheme or something.

If only Fang Hu had known how right he was at the time...