The ninth-rank spiritual beast, the Wind-Chasing Iron-Winged Eagle, can fly seven to eight hundred miles in an hour at its fastest speed.

However, it can't maintain its top speed continuously, so its normal flying speed is about five hundred miles per hour.

It can fly continuously for sixteen to seventeen hours and rest for seven to eight hours, covering over eight thousand miles in a day.

The journey of over twenty-eight thousand miles would be completed in less than four days.

If they relied on their own Soaring Cloud technique, it would take more than half a month.

They encountered no danger on the road.

This was quite normal.

After all, not everyone can possess a ninth-rank flying spiritual beast.

Even if someone wanted to kill and rob them,

they couldn't catch up.

***

In the woods outside Yellow Rock Town,

Guo Feilong left a mystic power mark on the task jade slip of the inner sect female disciple who escorted him, indicating that the task was completed.

Once she returned to the sect, she could claim her reward using the task certificate he left in the jade slip.

"Junior Brother Guo, until we meet again."

The inner sect female disciple who escorted him flew away on the back of the ninth-rank Wind-Chasing Iron-Winged Eagle.

"When will I have a ninth-rank flying spiritual beast? Traveling would be so fast and convenient."

Guo Feilong watched enviously as the ninth-rank Wind-Chasing Iron-Winged Eagle flew away, then walked towards Yellow Rock Town like an ordinary old man.

***

"Sugar-coated haws, sweet and delicious sugar-coated haws, ten copper coins a skewer."

"Freshly steamed buns, both vegetarian and meat-filled."

"Flatbread, Wu Dalang's ancestral flatbread, three copper coins each."

The main street of Yellow Rock Town was bustling with people, and the shouts of various snack vendors filled the air.

Guo Feilong hadn't had sugar-coated haws in over a hundred years and wanted to buy one to try.

He didn't have any copper coins on him.

But before leaving the Heavenly Abode of the Spirit Creek Sect, he had prepared plenty of gold, silver, and jewels, along with gold and silver bills.

He took out a ten-tael silver bill, the smallest denomination, and handed it over.

The sugar-coated haws vendor looked troubled and said, "Old man, if you want to eat sugar-coated haws, I'll give you a skewer. I can't make change for a ten-tael silver bill."

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One tael of silver equals 1,000 copper coins.

In the Cultivation World, an ordinary person earning one tael of silver a month is considered high income.

His ten-tael silver bill was equivalent to several years of savings for an ordinary person.

No small vendor carries silver or thousands of copper coins.

The sugar-coated haws vendor was willing to give him a skewer for free, treating this white-haired stranger kindly, showing he was a good-hearted person.

Guo Feilong casually took a skewer of sugar-coated haws and stuffed the ten-tael silver bill into the vendor's hand. "I'll be staying in Yellow Rock Town from now on. Just deliver a skewer of sugar-coated haws to me every day, and this ten-tael silver bill will be the deposit."

"Where do you live, old man?"

"You'll find out in a few days."

"Hey, old man, don't walk so fast!"

Guo Feilong's figure suddenly disappeared from the street. The sugar-coated haws vendor rubbed his eyes and looked at the ten-tael silver bill in his hand, confirming he wasn't dreaming.

Who pays ten taels of silver in advance for sugar-coated haws?

Could that white-haired old man have lost his mind?

Money doesn't grow on trees. Next time he sees the old man, he'll return the ten taels of silver.

Guo Feilong went to the money exchange in Yellow Rock Town and exchanged ten taels of silver for copper coins, strolling leisurely through the streets.

Sometimes he would take a bite of the sweet and sour sugar-coated haws, sometimes buy some street snacks to try.

Yellow Rock Town was now his personal fiefdom, but the common folk didn't know that yet.

He still needed to visit Green Sun County, two hundred miles south of Yellow Rock Town, to have the local authorities announce it.

Only then would the people of Yellow Rock Town recognize him as the lord of the fiefdom.

At the same time, Guo Feilong also needed to meet the cultivators stationed by the Spirit Creek Sect in Green Sun County, get acquainted, and exchange voice transmission jade slips.

There was no rush to go to Green Sun County.

Guo Feilong spent three days in Yellow Rock Town incognito, not only learning who the bullies were but also hearing about which unmarried daughters were beautiful.

His fiefdom would not tolerate any bullies.

If there had to be one,

it would have to be him.

When Guo Feilong stepped on a white cloud and flew away from the bustling street, the people only showed envy, not shock or surprise.

Immortal cultivators were just much rarer than ordinary people, not so rare that one wouldn't see them in a lifetime.

Ordinary people often saw immortal cultivators, and some even had ancestors who were cultivators.

So it was normal for ordinary people not to be shocked when they saw cultivators flying on clouds.

In the Cultivation World, the land was vast and sparsely populated, with great distances between villages, towns, and cities.

***

After flying fifty to sixty miles from Yellow Rock Town, Guo Feilong encountered the second town, then flew another seventy to eighty miles before reaching the third town.

When he flew two hundred miles to Green Sun City, he hadn't encountered a fourth town, only a dozen small villages with thirty to fifty households each.

Green Sun City had a permanent population of over two hundred thousand, with bustling streets and a lively atmosphere, where one could also encounter cultivators with mystic power strolling around.

In just a day of strolling through Green Sun County, Guo Feilong encountered more than thirty cultivators.

Most were at the second or third level of Qi Refining, with only seven or eight at the fourth or fifth level, and none at his level of the sixth.

There were even some cultivators who looked older than him and had been cultivating longer, yet were only at the third level of Qi Refining.

This situation was quite normal outside the Heavenly Abode of the Spirit Creek Sect.

After all, the speed of a cultivator's progress is not only related to the quality of their spiritual root but also to the availability of cultivation resources.

For cultivators of the same level, the spirit stone income of outer disciples of the Spirit Creek Sect is about twice that of wandering cultivators.

If you factor in the dense spiritual energy in the Heavenly Abode and various welfare benefits, it's about three times the income of wandering cultivators.

The huge disparity in spirit stone income leads to a significant difference in cultivation levels over the years for cultivators with the same spiritual root quality.

If he hadn't saved a dying Foundation Establishment Elder of the Spirit Creek Sect from a river in his third year after crossing into the cultivation world, he wouldn't have qualified to join the Spirit Creek Sect with his low-medium spiritual root.

To join the Spirit Creek Sect:

First: The spiritual root must be at least of medium quality.

Second: Within five generations, an ancestor must have been a Foundation Establishment Elder of the Spirit Creek Sect.

Meeting either of these conditions is sufficient.

Unfortunately for Guo Feilong,

the Foundation Establishment Elder he saved from the river was too severely injured and died after two or three years.

Otherwise, he would have had a Foundation Establishment Elder backing him in the Spirit Creek Sect.

If the Foundation Establishment Elder had given him a high-grade elixir, he wouldn't have been stuck at the sixth level of Qi Refining for fifty years without breaking through.

After spending three or four days in Green Sun City, Guo Feilong either listened to stories and watched performances in teahouses or inquired about the cultivation families in Green Sun County.

What he discovered was quite surprising.

In the Green Sun County area, there were over a hundred large and small cultivation families.

There were nine affiliated cultivation families directly under the Spirit Creek Sect, and with him, there were now ten.

The remaining cultivation families had no fiefdoms.

They built their own manors in the deep mountains, maintaining estates with dozens or hundreds of servants.

In a small place like Green Sun, distinguishing the size of cultivation families was simple.

A family with a cultivator at or above the seventh level of Qi Refining was a large family.

A family with a cultivator at or above the fourth level of Qi Refining was a medium family.

Families below the fourth level of Qi Refining were small families.

To Guo Feilong's surprise, among the over a hundred cultivation families in Green Sun County, only seven were considered large families.

They were:

The Li Family in Red Pine Town, the Ma Family in Green Ridge Town, the Yang Family in Yang Family Fortress, and the Gongsun, Wang, Liu, and Su families in Green Sun City.

Of the seven large cultivation families in Green Sun County, all except the Yang Family in Yang Family Fortress were affiliated families of the Spirit Creek Sect.

***

After enjoying himself for seven or eight days, Guo Feilong finally arrived at the Spirit Creek Sect's outpost in Green Sun City, the tallest and largest building in the city—a nine-story iron tower with a diameter of a hundred meters and over thirty meters high.