" There it is master!" As they were flying through the sky, Qing Yi excitedly called out as she pointed towards a city slowly appearing in the distance.
They had already left the Red Dust Desert for over 5 hours and had only stopped a few times so that Qing Yi could rest. Standing on top of a flying sword was not really that comfortable in the long run…
"I see, we will land a little away from the city and walk there, don't want people to start panicking upon seeing somebody fly towards them…" Remembering the reaction of the bandits and caravan members when he descended towards them, Xuan Hao decided that it would be less troubling if they just walked into the city.
Swoosh!
Landing in a nearby forest, Xuan Hao and Qing Yi jumped off the sword as Xuan Hao quickly put it away.
…
The journey towards the Bright Sun City was not too long and both of them soon arrived at the gates of the city.
The gates of the city were filled with all sorts of people at the moment, most of them were people from the surrounding villages, who had come together with their families to watch the upcoming annual youth competition.
And, as there was no restriction on who could join the competition. Many young people had come to join the annual youth competition, it was an opportunity to stand out and maybe even get recruited by the Qing or Bai family!
Other than that, the rewards for the rankings were not bad and caused many among the younger generation to join, after all, who would say no to some extra spirit stones?
"Please show an identification token or pay 10 gold coins." As they made their way to the entrance of the Bright Sun City, a guard came over and stopped them.
Xuan Hao smiled awkwardly when he heard the guard ask for gold coins. Gold coins was the normal currency of mortals and were way easier to get one's hand on compared to spirit stones, a single spirit stone could easily be worth 500, if not 1000 gold coins!
Xuan Hao was a respected Nascent Soul expert, why would he ever carry something like gold coins around with him…?
"Do you perhaps not want to pay…?" Narrowing his eyes, the guard slowly put his hand on his sword as he threateningly asked.
It's a misunderstanding! I swear! Screaming silently to himself, Xuan Hao turned around and looked expectantly at his disciple.
Qing Yi looked at her master's expectant eyes and sighed to herself, her master was indeed a Nascent Soul expert… Carrying something like gold coins was way too much to expect…
"Here, this is my token." Taking out her own token, Qing Yi stepped forward and handed it over to the guard, who cautiously took the token from her hands and carefully inspected it.
"Ah! M-miss Qing, excuse me for being so rude earlier! You and your uncle can enter whenever you want!"
Doing a full 180-degree personality shift, the guard fawningly looked at Qing Yi with a smile on his lips.
Xuan Hao tried his best not to hit the guard, he was 21! How could he be an uncle? Just call me her big brother or something!
Looking at the guard's fawning posture as he looked like a young girl meeting her in-laws for the first time, Xuan Hao decided to ignore it and pretend he didn't hear anything.
Qing Yi was also about to jump back as she did not expect the guard to suddenly act like that.
"I-I see, just go back to what you were doing before." Taking back her token from the guard, Qing Yi hurriedly made her way into the city together with Xuan Hao as she cautiously stared at the guard behind them.
"So where is your family located?"
"Eeep!" Jumping up from the sudden question, Qing Yi turned back to look at Xuan Hao and realized that she had not told him where her family's estate was located.
"Follow me, the Qing Family's territory is mostly in the centre part of the city. The outer parts are mostly run by the Bai family." As she was talking, Qing Yi led the way through the bustling city as both of them soon stood in front of a small gate leading into the centre of the city.
Qing Yi went up to the small gate and talked to one of the guards present in front of it.
Creak~
A creaking voice was heard as the small gate slowly opened up and a tall handsome middle-aged man came out.
"Yiyi! You are back!" The man happily called out as he ran towards Qing Yi.
"Dad!" Qing Yi called back as she ran towards her father and embraced him.
Staring at Qing Yi's father as both of them were locked in a hug, Xuan Hao saw that he was at the sixth stage of the Core Formation Realm, instead of the fifth stage that he had heard he was at.
It looked like he had broken through and reached the sixth stage of the Core Formation Realm in the within the last 6 or so months that Qing Yi was gone.
"Ahem…!" Seeing as both of them looked like they would not stop hugging anytime soon, Xuan Hao decided to interrupt the happy father-daughter reunion.
"Ah! Dad, this is my master, Xuan Hao! He is a Core Elder of the Flying Sword Sect and a Nascent Soul expert!" Realizing that her master was still there, Qing Yi felt her face turn slightly red as she pushed her dad away and began to quickly introduce Xuan Hao.
"Ahem, I see. My name is Qing Yang, I heard about you taking in my daughter as a disciple, I hope that she has not caused too much trouble for you." Turning around to face Xuan Hao, Qing Yang bowed slightly as he respectfully spoke.
"Dad! Let's return first!" Feeling her face turn red upon hearing what her dad said, Qing Yi pulled on his arm, while trying to get him to move.
"Haha, it's fine, she has been doing great and is a good learner." Smiling widely, Xuan Hao decided to play along and tease Qing Yi a little more.
"!" Feeling her face turn even more red than it already was, Qing Yi did not say anything and just ran into the house located behind the gate.
"Haha, should we get going as well?" Smiling upon seeing his daughter turn shy all of a sudden, Qing Yang laughed happily as he invited Xuan Hao inside.
"Sure." Not wanting to be left too far behind by Qing Yi, Xuan Hao agreed and made his way towards the house of the Qing Family together with Qing Yi's father, Qing Yang.