Dual Cultivation God Returns

A group of people flew in the skies above vast plains at a leisurely pace.

"It's so empty…", Cao Mei noted as she looked around, her eyes reflecting a scenery of untouched nature passing below.

"This Boundless World is too vast for cultivators to stay in places that don't offer many benefits", Ye Ling replied with a light smile, understanding the sentiment.

She too, experienced the surprise of finding vast territories, and in this case even entire clusters of worlds, that were void of meaningful cultivation world civilization.

Cao Mei turned to the latter with an ambiguous smile, "I just expected it to be more…", and then paused.

"Lively?", Ye Ling guessed the implied word, and Cao Mei nodded as bashfulness became more pronounced in her smile, seemingly shy about acting 'childish'.

Ever since they started traversing these lands despite her efforts she could not hide her excitement about exploring a wider world, even if there wasn't anything that unusual or exciting in sight right now. But even her enthusiasm could not hide the surprise after passing several worlds that were empty.

"There might be some isolationist Sects occupying Spiritual Lands, or secret lairs of shady groups that benefit from how secluded these places are, but overall there are usually no benefits from being so far from civilization", Ye Ling calmly explained.

"But shouldn't there be at least settlements and countries of Mortals?", Song Lingfei spoke up.

"There are, but we are traveling from one World Stone to another in straight paths that cultivators used for an immeasurable time. So these areas are likely considered to be forbidden grounds for local Mortals. If we travel deeper to either side of these lands, instead of the direction to the next World Stone, you are very likely to see their villages, cities, and countries. But only those who seek the path of cultivation beyond Mortal Realms dare to venture close to here, often at their own peril", Ye Ling's words caused the beauties around either to nod with understanding or slightly frown with confusion.

Gong Cui who was one of the latter then raised her doubts, "Why would it be forbidden to go here? It's not like we're some kind of monsters, besides, all cultivators were once Mortals"

A light smile appeared on Wu Long's face, while Ye Ling lightly chuckled, and shook her head, "Not everyone thinks that way, Cui'er. And it isn't all that out of norm to encounter rogue cultivators whose character is questionable at the very least on these paths"

Wu Long's gaze caught a fleeting glance from Hong Yue who was mostly silent and somewhat distant in her demeanor.

'Must be surprising for her', he inwardly chuckled. After all, the fact something like this required an explanation at all was foreign to her. At the same time, it underlined the thoughts Hong Yue had lately, as she contemplated her worldview after her conversation with Wu Long.

More and more, she started to see a side of the world she was completely blind to before, and the more she saw, the more difficult it was to continue ignoring.

On the other hand, Hong Ye's reaction to this conversation was also interesting to observe. After all, unlike her twin she knew about the world existing to the other side of her own for a long time, but it was still surprising for her to see up close to what extent that other brighter world could be just as oblivious to the darker one.

"Mm? This is rare, what puts you in such a great mood?", seeing a very light smile on Xue Bing's usually expressionless face, Sui Luxiao asked from her side.

"Nothing, it's just… it feels so peaceful…", Xue Bing shook her head in her usual calm manner.

But tracing her gaze, Sui Luxiao could see that Xue Bing's words were not addressed at the overall mood of the situation, but at the state of mind of one person.

A smile appeared on her lips as well, realizing from her words how much this seemingly ordinary pastime meant for Wu Long.

"I wish I could feel it as well", she chuckled, wondering how it felt to sense the emotions of others, how it felt to feel what Xue Bing did right now.

"I think you can… you feel the same when you look at him", Xue BIng replied, turning the gaze of her cold turquoise eyes to Sui Luxiao.

"...", Sui Luxiao's cheeks flared with a rosy color, as she turned her eyes away, not sure how to reply or react.

Yu Huan who was next to them lightly smiled, noting to herself that one had to be prepared to be seen through when talking to Xue Bing if they didn't want to be taken by surprise.

Though for her, who was generally bad at expressing herself due to long years of shutting herself inside her alchemy room, it was comfortable being around someone who understood her even through her bad communication skills.

Wu Long's communication jade gave off a light response, and checking it he smiled with satisfaction, "We're closing in to a slightly more lively place now"

"Did we reach the Wei Dynasty already?", Wu Mengqi asked, distracted from her conversation with Hua Ziyan, Shen Min and Luo Mingyu.

"Hahaha, not so fast", he chuckled, "Just a relatively larger World with a decent city of cultivators. In fact, in terms of the Star Map, we're actually further away since we traveled in another direction all this time to obscure where we came from. We'll board a ride from there to the Wei Dynasty. Butler Bang, Qian, Old Yen and Guanting already arranged everything for our arrival"

"A ride?", Cao Mei's eyes shined with curiosity.

"Yeah, we're going to ride a Beast of Burden", he nodded, causing Lian Zhiqiu to quietly raise her fist in a quiet "Yes!!!" pose.

"I was wondering why we didn't hire any in the Iron Claw City, was it also because of a need to be discreet when leaving there?", Nie Xiwang who was next to her asked. She knew that if there was a way for Wu Long to make the trip more comfortable for them, he would.

"Haha, in a way, but that's not the main reason"

"What's the main one then?", Cao Xiang asked with curiosity.

"You'll see", he gave off a mysterious smile that raised intrigue.

—

"I see what you mean… there wasn't anything like this in the Iron Claw City for sure…", Cao Xiang murmured with a dumbfounded look on her face.

The other beauties also looked in the same direction as her with varying reactions, some nodding in understanding, some as shocked as she was, and some excited at the sight.

They were looking at a large city still quite far away, located on a high plateau. The side of the city that faced a steep rocky cliff extended beyond it, with large structures resembling a sea port without water resting on supporting beams, stretching out into empty air.

But what took all of the attention of the beauties were giant creatures floating in the air next to that port, large structures with pagoda roofs built atop their massive backs.

Despite their menacing size, however, the creatures strangely did not raise any feeling of danger. There was a feeling of tranquility and beauty in these large beasts, that distantly resembled a mix between giant lizards and birds. Even the movement of their great wings was very slow and shallow, clearly showing it was not kept in the air solely by that feature.

"Mm, rural areas like the Soft Meadow Continent we were in usually only have small Beasts of Burden suitable for personal use or at most a group of less than five. These are, however, medium-sized beasts, often used for commercial shipping and travel in the Boundless Profound World and beyond ", Wu Long nodded.

"M-medium? These are medium?", Bi Rui turned her round eyes to him.

"Haha, I'm just talking about class, it refers to a whole range of sizes. These happen to be a bit larger than average, but still well within the medium-sized class. You won't see many large-sized class beasts in the Boundless Profound World", he explained.

"Are these… common?", Madam Liang spoke, completely forgetting her long herbal smoking pipe, a long thin line of smoke rising from it.

"Haha, yeah. The density of Spiritual Qi in the Boundless Mortal World is insufficient for such beasts to fly, or be born to begin with, but here you will see many of them along popular travelways and in large cities of the cultivation world", he chuckled, and then made an inviting gesture forward, "Shall we?"