Wu Long shook his head with a smile indicating to the Sect Leader that he was not taking offence to Gong Cui’s antics.

‘It’s kind of cute to be honest’

He inwardly chuckled as he remembered her shy and at the same time pleased expression.

As Wu Long looked at Fan Shuei, she sighed and nodded since she understood what he meant by that gaze.

“Yes, your request has indeed been granted. I will personally escort you to the Great Protector”

She finally could not find a reason to delay the request. Their goal in postponing the meeting Wu Long came here for was in trying to learn what was his goal, one way or another, or at least grasp a clue. However it was apparent that Wu Long was not going to give them that opportunity, and if the request was delayed any longer, it was quite possible that he would turn hostile.

And even if any one of the Five Great Sects is a lot more powerful than Wu Family, the damage he could do while their Sect Ancestors and Grand Protectors came out of seclusion was immeasurable. Not to mention that the Blade Empress warned them not to assume that the Wu Family was his limit, as she was not completely certain even she could contend with him.

Coming from the youngest Mortal Transcendence Realm expert in history of the Three Continents and one of the only three experts in this realm in the Wood Spirit Empire, the weight this warning carried was not something they could dismiss.

“Come with me”

She then said and Wu Long followed her and two Grand Elders of the sect, the group taking a passage through the depths of the hall and arriving at a platform on one of the peaks. One of the Grand Elders took out a peculiar-looking whistle and sounded a signal, to which soon came a reply. A bird cry resounded in the vicinity and a big light gray raven with a glowing blue bead on its forehead came down from one of the distant rocky peaks that were not connected with wooden bridges with the sect.

“Hoh, a Three-Eyed Gray Raven”

Wu Long smiled as he saw a Beast of Burden for the first time since reincarnating. Beasts of Burden were a little similar to Demonic Beasts, in that they naturally cultivated, becoming quite large in size and gaining abilities based on that and had no higher intelligence than simple Wild Beasts, but the main difference was that they had almost no attack potential, and were not naturally hostile, thus being a prime target for taming. They were herbivores, so the medicinal plants that human cultivators harvested or grew in medicinal gardens were enough to tame these mostly peaceful creatures.

Fan Shuei’s eyes shone with curiosity, since these species were only native to this Spiritual Land and did not travel outside it.

The large body of this bird could only keep up the altitude when there was enough Spiritual Qi in the air, as when it spread its wings, they were further expanded by ethereal wings of Spiritual Qi that resonated the natural Spiritual Qi in the air, thus allowing it to fly. So it would simply not fly outside of the Spiritual Land where the concentration of Spiritual Qi in the air was much thinner.

As far as she knew, there were no Beasts of Burden outside this Spiritual Land, thus the fact that Wu Long not only was not surprised at the creature but also knew the species was something noteworthy.

The man who summoned the bird fed it some low-level Spiritual Qi fruit, and then the four climbed on its back as it spread its wings and took off.

The three noted with astonishment that Wu Long expertly balanced himself as if he rode this bird every day. The Grand Elder who was evidently the handler of the beast kneeled and touched the head of the raven, as Soul Power started flowing from his Niwan Palace to the bird.

This was anyone above Qi Manifestation Realm could do if they used the right technique since the communication was incredibly simple, as these creatures would not understand complex commands.

But in this small world where there were almost no Beasts of Burden it indeed required a person with peculiar interests to be able to handle them.

‘I wonder how many people died trying to tame Demonic Beasts not knowing that they cannot be tamed’

Wu Long thought as he looked at the man who was proudly commanding his flying steed.

As they flew over the forest, the surroundings were mostly peaceful. It seems there were no flying Demonic Beasts in this Spiritual Land or at least in the vicinity, so the only thing the ones on the land could do was growl or roar as they flew by.

The Three-Eyed Gray Raven was not considered a particularly fast bird in the Seven Boundless Worlds, but for this small world it crossed the distance one would need to travel a week with normal carriage speed in a few hours.

As it started to descend Wu Long saw two big pythons, their heads twice as big as a human adult male torso. ‘Profound Grade Spiritual Beasts’

Wu Long nodded as this was a real menacing force, one that could not be underestimated. These two beasts were enough to decimate practitioners of this entire continent several times over with no one being able to stop them.

“Greetings, Guardians, the one we spoke about with the Great Guardian has arrived”

Fan Shuei bowed as did the two Grand Elders when they stepped off of the bird that was visibly uncomfortable in the presence of the two pythons.

“Hmm?”

One of the pythons closely looked at Wu Long and its vertical pupils shrank.

“It is not our place to question”

The other shook its head as they both spoke in human language without opening their mouths. It was in fact a manipulation of Spiritual Qi in front of their foreheads that created the sound.

“Hmm, you may pass”

The first one nodded and the two slid to the sides as the group passed through.

When the came through to a clearing, they saw an old man in snow-white robes sitting on a stone next to a peaceful pond with closed eyes, seemingly meditating. It was a serene and somehow surreal scene as the light mist covered the pond, creating a slightly mysterious atmosphere. The old man opened his eyes and stood up from the stone.

“Greetings, stranger. This humble one heard you have sought a meeting”

He said with a neutral expression on his face, his voice somewhat monotone, without particular emotion and yet pleasant to the ear.