His feet dragged against the ground as Ren Cai's group carried Hong Zhao through the forest. He could feel the sensation, and used it to bring himself back to consciousness. Opening one eye, he allowed himself to stay limp, so as not to give off any indication of being conscious.
He was in the middle of a crowd of cultivators, with the warrior ranked cultivator dragging him. Even if he wanted to move, he would only at minimum get caught again, at worst he would be killed. "All this trouble over a little kid like this?" The man said with a sigh.
"That boy is a blacksmith." Hong Zhao heard Ren Cai call out in annoyance. "He will be useful to Zheng Guo after he is trained up a little."
"The City Lord has many blacksmiths. What makes this one any different?" The warrior ranked cultivator looked at the limp Hong Zhao with a little confusion. "I can't even sense a cultivation base off him."
"He's a ninth star student ranked cultivator." Ren Cai said with a smile. "It's pretty rare to have such a level of cultivator at such a young age. I should know, shouldn't I?"
The warrior ranked cultivator rolled his eyes. Though he was slightly irritated, he and the group of cultivators made their way through the forest. After a while, Hong Zhao could no longer pretend to be unconscious, so they bound his hands and legs. The strongest put him over his shoulder and continued on. Hong Zhao knew it would be useless to struggle, so he spent his time coming up with a plan.
Before they bound his hands, he had put the qi suppressor on, leaving the impression that he was only a student ranked cultivator. 'Everything seems to be going exactly the way she said it would.' He thought of the night prior as they were sitting by the camp fire.
"There will be a massive group of cultivators near the exit to the forest." Ren Cai had told him. "You can forget about just walking through the gates to Yuan City. That damned Huang Yi had already made a sketch of you to give to Zheng Guo before he left back to Rantori Village. Most everyone knows what you look like, and that you should be around the ninth star student rank by now."
Hong Zhao thought of Ren Cai's words as they left the exit to the forest. His face was towards the rear and he could see the tree line getting further away, but before they got too far, he saw a familiar set of green eyes. Hong Zhao gave a slight nod of his head, then the eyes disappeared back into the forest. A slight smile crept onto the bound boy's lips as he pondered what would happen next.
As far as he knew Zheng Guo only knew about him being a ninth star student ranked cultivator. Meeting the city lord, he would be able to evaluate the man, and see just how strong he would have to be in order to kill him. Though he was bound and brought through Yuan City gates upon another man's shoulder, he was at least moving forward with the plan he had enacted years ago when he had just learned of Li Xiao. Soon, they would be able to get off of this livestock raising continent and move onto Obopin Continent, where he would be able to meet their slavers once and for all.
As they entered through the city gate, Hong Zhao found the streets to be bustling with a crowd that he had never seen before. Though Rantori Village was large, and the Village of Naje wasn't that small either, comparing those two to the city would be like comparing a prairie hill to a mountain.
No matter how busy the streets were, the occupants moved out of the way for the many cultivators as they made their way through. Though he was thrown over the shoulder of the warrior ranked cultivator, it didn't seem to be an odd sight to the many citizens of Yuan City. At most, he would be spared a glance by one out of ten on the streets.
"So, they found this Hong Zhao character finally, huh?" He heard one whisper to his friend.
"We can finally shred the posters. Maybe the City Lord will allow us to take these pictures out of our pockets now that he has this child." His friend agreed.
'So even if I did enter the city, it wouldn't have been long before I was at the foot of Zheng Guo's home anyway.' Hong Zhao silently mused.
Through twists and turns in the streets, Hong Zhao saw anything from restaurants to alchemist shops, blacksmiths and bath houses. Anywhere his head turned, there was yet another attraction. He saw more than one of each shop for each city block. As they turned the last time, Hong Zhao saw the narrow street stretch until it seemed it was wide enough to fit three carriages side by side. He noticed a gold brick lining to either side of the street.
The whole time they traveled, Hong Zhao kept himself silent. He memorized every twist and turn of the roads. He also focused on the rooftops, noticing that from time to time he would see movement. 'So there will be some difficulty scaling the rooftops of this city.' He thought to himself, yet it made sense. Many more people would have access to movement abilities the closer to the capital they came. Though vortex thrust was rare, many of the cultivators might have something which closely resembled its strength. He still remembered the old disciple ranked cultivator he had run into. He seemed to be even faster than himself.
As Hong Zhao thought of a great many other things, he could feel himself ascending stairs. As he looked down, he counted each and every one, until he heard a door opening behind him. His eyes turned serious as double doors appeared in front of him. He took one last look at the city which lay in front of him, before the doors shut and he found himself in the lair of the beast, Zheng Guo's home.