Chapter 258: Overbearing Pressure

When the formation attack was triggered, the main formation card held by the True Lord of the Xun Sect trembled incessantly.

He furrowed his brows: the two sides have started fighting?

Having no way to contact Wu, he could only turn to Jiang Yu for a relay and ask about the situation's progress.

Jiang Yu, who had been out on the streets early in the morning, had just arrived at the city gate with Guo Jue when this news arrived.

She also worried that if fighting broke out, the teleportation array would become hard to use, but she no longer had a way to contact Master Wu, so she could only forward it to Guo Jue.

"Guo Jue, my suggestion is to wait half an hour before contacting again." If the battle is still on, no one will have time to reply.

Guo Jue gave a slight nod, then transmitted his voice to her: "Do you notice that today the city gate guards are more than yesterday?"

"Not only more, they've also added Jie Dan cultivators.

Including the patrolling enforcement squad, which is more diligent than yesterday." Jiang Yu naturally took note; she also saw a line of Foundation Establishment cultivators stopped at the city entrance.

The two stood for a while longer, then heard the guards demanding verification of the issuance dates of the entry permits.

Moreover, anyone whose permit was issued less than ten days ago must have a guarantor inside the city to enter.

Even a Jie Dan cultivator who left the city was immediately followed by another Jie Dan.

Jiang Yu understood: "They're screening us; we can't stay here forever."

The two decisively turned back to their residence; there was no time to stroll the streets now.

"Will they launch a massive search for city residents?" Guo Jue pondered whether to leave.

Jiang Yu took out the permit obtained yesterday and flipped through it: "Can the entry permit locate us?"

After finding nothing, "Dismantle our formation platform and move elsewhere to live."

Guo Jue: "Leaving the city directly is better; we can hide on any uninhabited island outside."

Those Foundation Establishment cultivators who leave the city are mostly demon hunters, so there must be a foothold nearby.

Jiang Yu hadn't thought it through: "At present, the city houses hundreds of thousands, and the permits have no tracking; the lord's mansion can only tighten security a bit, it won't launch a massive search of the city."

And cultivators aren't ordinary humans; they have no fixed household registration.

But this small courtyard rented from the Steward Hall absolutely cannot be lived in any longer.

The two hurriedly packed everything away and rented an inn at the spot closest to the city gate.

At that moment, Xu Wu sent a message: "True Immortal Ye has returned, bringing ten Nascent Soul True Lords, and the flood dragon has summoned several ninth‑rank great demons."

Both sides are locked in a fierce dispute, and the outcome is unknown.

But that city lord seems no longer to be calling for outside assistance.

"A dispute is a good thing," Jiang Yu smiled.

"What do you mean?" Xiao She Biluo popped out of the spirit‑beast bag again.

Jiang Yu guessed: "We haven't reaped the benefit yet."

Xiao She Biluo's curiosity matched that of Jiang Tu: "If we take enough, will he allow Heavenly Origin cultivators to come and go?"

Jiang Yu laid several layers of formation over the rented room; Jiang Tu also leapt out, "Stupid, once we take enough, he'll ally with the Yao Race to control the teleportation array.

Each Heavenly Origin cultivator wishing to leave the Dragon Emperor Archipelago must pay a toll of at least five hundred thousand spirit stones—a monopoly business, and he makes a fortune.

Guo Jue gave it an approving glance, "Hmm, the Heavenly Origin cultivators haven't reached the Transcendent stage, so they pose no threat to Dragon Emperor Island.

The Pursuer City Lord will surely seize the initiative, open a trade route with us, earn some spirit stones from us, and then reveal the teleportation array."

"Then we'll go shopping, thoroughly map the city, and learn what's lacking here, providing Master Wu with a clear report," Jiang Yu decided to follow the plan, and there was no need for Guo Jue to keep watching the city gate.

Reluctantly, Xiao She Biluo was pressed back into the spirit‑beast bag, "Jiang Yu, you're wealthy; can you buy a spacious spirit‑beast bracelet?"

So that I can keep Jiang Tu company.

Jiang Tu flashed quickly into the Dragon Pearl and, with obvious disdain, told Jiang Yu, "It's wishful thinking."

……

Jiang Yu knew negotiations wouldn't be settled in a day; she and Guo Jue split up, one heading west, the other east, to finish touring the remaining two‑thirds of the city.

Places like restaurants, tea houses, and inns need not be revisited; she mainly chose some large shops to inspect the variety of goods.

Then she collected local customs notebooks, aiming to compile, on Zhui Yuan Island, an overall portrait of the Dragon Emperor Archipelago's culture.

She hadn't expected that every move she made upon arriving in West City was being watched by someone with ulterior motives.

Just as she entered a grocery shop, she found the shopkeeper lounging in a rocking chair, who turned out to be the demon cultivator she had suspected yesterday.

The old shopkeeper lifted his eyelids and said, "Hehe, little girl, you really can shop a lot—going from a store in the city center to here."

As a Jie Dan cultivator, you even specifically seek the Dragon Emperor Archipelago's customs notebooks; you and those from last night are no different—you're not Dragon Emperor cultivators, are you?

He spoke in a definitive tone, and Jiang Yu found herself unable to leave; moreover, the bustling street behind her seemed to vanish, eerily silent.

The opponent's imposing pressure briefly manifested, pinning her in place, unable to move.

Jiang Yu felt a chill; this wasn't ordinary imperial pressure—it could only be a Transcendent.

"It's a Transcendent," the Dragon Soul inside the Dragon Pearl said with certainty, though it dared not keep its gaze fixed outward.

Jiang Tu nodded, "We are still of the Dragon race."

Both Dragon Kings showed concern; it was said that the Dragon Emperor Island no longer had any Transcendents—what luck Jiang Yu had?

When the pressure withdrew, she quickly performed a respectful bow, "Senior, your insight is like a torch; I am a junior who came from the Heavenly Origin Continent."

"You are indeed sincere, sit," the old shopkeeper waved over a stool.

Jiang Yu sat down anxiously, and he said, "Did you come in from the southern wasteland island?"

"Yes. Senior, are you familiar with that place?" Facing such an unfathomable high‑level cultivator, Jiang Yu had no intention of scheming; she didn't want to be soul‑searched unnoticed.

The old shopkeeper laughed, "I've used it several times, but I don't know which fool destroyed the Heavenly Origin side, causing a perfectly good teleportation array to become ruined. We have give and take. You, have you ever entered the Great Luo Celestial Realm thirty years ago?"

When Jiang Yu nodded, Jiang Tu asked the Dragon Soul, "He couldn't possibly be from the Celestial Realm, could he?"

"Within the Great Luo Celestial Realm, I am the only dragon."

Inside the Great Luo Cave Heaven, there is only me, a single dragon.

"Whether there was one before me, I'm not sure." Dragon Soul carefully searched his memory, but he truly had never seen the old man outside.

The old shopkeeper said again, "I heard that on Tianyuan Continent there is a cultivator who once dug up purple‑gold thunder bamboo in a cavern."

"Do you know that person, and do you know whether they still have any thunder bamboo?"

Jiang Yu hesitated for a moment, then asked thoughtfully, "Do you want to use it?"

The old shopkeeper raised an eyebrow and glanced sideways at her, "Hmm? Answer first before you ask."

"I just had a question, I nodded, but haven't asked yet?" Jiang Yu probed the other's limits.

The old shopkeeper let out a light hum and also nodded, "Your turn to answer."

"I know, and also." There are four thunder bamboos: Jiang Yu planted two in the dragon pearl, submitted one to the sect, forged the remaining one into her life sword, and still has a piece of the stalk.

"Alright, later you'll come with me to Tianyuan to find the person." The old shopkeeper flicked his finger, and a bolt of lightning arced into Jiang Yu's dantian.

Jiang Yu was instantly stunned, "Senior…"

The old shopkeeper impatiently tossed her a messenger maple leaf, "When we set out, wait for my notice."

Jiang Yu didn't even have time to speak before she was thrown out the door, and then the perfectly ordinary shop vanished abruptly from her sight.

Jiang Tu swallowed, "Jiang Yu, she has achieved Divine Transformation."

"If you know that you are the Tianyuan cultivator who dug up the purple‑gold thunder bamboo?"