Arriving at Nuoding City

"Wait!" Gu Yuena supported her forehead and sighed, "Do you have any idea how far Nuoding City is from here? If the three of you walk there, it won't take you less than a month."

"Then what do we do?" Gu Tian spread his hands, looking speechless, "Wife, it's not like you don't know. I'm currently like a son-in-law living in his wife's home—penniless and destitute."

"Sigh, I'll open a spatial portal for you. Walk through it, and you'll arrive at Nuoding City." Gu Yuena extended her slender, jade-like fingers and drew a circle in the void.

A silver ripple undulated outward, then rapidly expanded to form an oval-shaped spatial portal over a person's height. Inside the gate, silver light flowed, exuding a mysterious and profound aura.

"Through this portal, you can arrive directly outside Nuoding City in Fasinuo Province." Gu Yuena withdrew her hand, a trace of reluctance in her eyes, though she quickly masked it, "Guyue, Na'er, take good care of him. If he loses even a single hair, I will hold you two accountable."

"Don't worry, Big Sister." Na'er stuck out her tongue cutely.

Gu Tian looked at the miraculous portal before him, took a deep breath, and stepped inside with the two beautiful girls of vastly different personalities.

After a dizzying spin, when Gu Tian opened his eyes again, the towering ancient trees and rich vitality were gone. The air had become somewhat dry, and beneath his feet lay a flat official road. In the distance, the outline of a grey-blue city loomed in the sunlight.

"Finally here." Gu Tian patted the dust off his clothes, a surge of indescribable excitement rising in his heart, "I have to say, this spatial teleportation ability is just convenient."

"Spatial teleportation? If I recall correctly, that's the ability of that little one, Milim! I wonder how she's doing." Ao Linxi muttered to herself, though the voice did not catch Gu Tian's attention.

The three followed the flow of people into the city.

Nuoding City was only a medium-sized city in Fasinuo Province, but because it was located on the border of the two great empires and only about two hundred kilometers from the Star Luo Empire to the south, it naturally became one of the trading hubs for merchants from both empires, and thus, Nuoding City prospered.

This place was countless times more bustling than Ancient Dragon Village. Shops lined both sides of the street, and the sound of hawking was endless.

As they walked, Na'er, who had been following obediently behind, suddenly stopped. She twitched her little nose, and those purple eyes lit up with startling brilliance.

"It smells so good..."

Na'er tugged at Gu Tian's sleeve and pointed to a stall not far away. A large pot of bubbling red oil was set up in front of the stall, and a rich aroma drifted over with the wind.

Na'er sniffed the fragrance and licked her lips; before her brain could even react, her mouth was already watering.

Gu Tian looked up and saw five large characters written on the sign: Old Wang's Spicy Rabbit Head.

That was clearly seven characters, but it didn't matter; the owner would only appear for a brief moment anyway.

"Brother Gu Tian, Na'er wants to eat that!" Na'er's voice was soft and sweet. She grabbed Gu Tian's right hand with both of hers and swayed it back and forth, carrying a sense of coquetry that made it impossible to refuse.

Gu Tian smiled helplessly and led the two girls forward, "Boss, give us six rabbit heads; we'll have two each."

"Coming right up! Six rabbit heads, thirty copper soul coins each, fifty for two, that'll be one hundred and fifty copper soul coins total." The boss packed them up nimbly and handed them over.

Gu Tian habitually reached into his pocket, but as he did, his smile instantly froze on his face.

The pack he had been carrying on his back, along with the heavy coin purse inside, had all been left in Gu Yuena's bedchamber. Being squeezed between two beautiful girls last night and being in such a rush before leaving, he had actually forgotten his most important assets!

"Um... Boss, can you wait a moment?" Gu Tian was so embarrassed he wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into. A Dragon God successor with innate level twenty soul power, actually stumped by a hundred copper coins.

There was no help for it; a penny could stump a hero. In human society, being penniless was harder than ascending to heaven.

"Actually, Boss, look at our attire. We are from a major sect of the Star Luo Empire—the Gu Sect! So, you see..." Gu Tian rubbed his hands, hoping to bluff the boss into giving them a freebie.

The boss clenched his fists, his knuckles popping with a "crack" sound, clearly full of suspicion regarding Gu Tian's claims.

"You're the tenth person to say that this month. Do I look like a fool to you? If you don't have money, stay here and wash dishes to pay off the debt!"

Just as Gu Tian was in extreme distress, Guyue, who was standing to the side, frowned slightly and extended her fair, slender right hand. On her ring finger, she wore a ring inlaid with a deep green gemstone.

"This, to cover the debt." Guyue's voice was cold, without any wasted words.

"Oh! I can't take this, this treasure is worth more than my entire stall!" Although the boss didn't know the value, he could see the gemstone was priceless and waved his hands repeatedly in fear. In the end, Guyue forcibly shoved the ring into the boss's hand and pulled Gu Tian and Na'er away.

"Yue'er, that was your storage ring, wasn't it?" Gu Tian asked with a pang of heartache.

Guyue looked at him in confusion, "Young Master is overthinking. That was just an ordinary gemstone from the bottom of the Lake of Life; I have plenty of them."

The three inquired along the way and soon arrived at Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy. It was the time for new students to enroll, and the academy gates were wide open. Gu Tian did not want to alert the guards, so he led the two girls around to a secluded section of the wall.

"Climb over."

Gu Tian tapped his toes on the ground, his figure as light as a swallow, instantly clearing the three-meter-high wall. Guyue and Na'er moved as if walking on flat ground.

It was currently the lunch break, and many students were strolling on the academy playground. Gu Tian hid behind a bush with the two girls, observing cautiously.

"Look, that's the person." Gu Tian said in a low voice, his gaze locked firmly ahead.

Under a large locust tree at the edge of the playground stood a boy and a girl. The boy wore a washed-out blue cloth garment and had a mature expression, while the girl beside him made Gu Tian hold his breath instantly.

That was Xiao Wu.

She wore the blue and white school uniform unique to Nuoding Academy. Under her short skirt, the long legs wrapped in white silk stockings appeared exceptionally slender, revealing a youthful vitality as they swayed slightly. She wore a scorpion braid that hung down to her hips, and on her pink, delicate face, those ruby-like eyes were incredibly lively. As she spoke, the cute rabbit-ear headpiece on her head trembled from time to time.

"This girl can actually resonate with my Supreme Bone; she truly is Xiao Wu!" Gu Tian adjusted his pants, pressing his gun down.

"Is this the Young Master's target?" Guyue asked coldly from the side, a hint of scrutiny flashing in her dark green eyes.

Gu Tian was about to answer when he heard Tang San speak up ahead.

"Xiao Wu, Teacher said he's taking me to the Soul Hunting Forest the day after tomorrow to capture my first soul ring. Teacher is an authority in this field, and I'd like to invite you to come with us; you might be able to pick out a suitable soul ring for yourself as well." Tang San's voice carried an inexplicable confidence, and even a hint of condescending generosity.

Gu Tian cursed inwardly: As expected of that hypocrite Yu Xiaogang's tactics; he actually wants to win Xiao Wu over this way.

"Soul Hunting Forest, huh..." Gu Tian was lost in thought; this was an excellent opportunity to intercept.

Just as he was considering a strategy, Na'er, who had been standing to the side gnawing on a rabbit head, suddenly had her eyes light up. She looked at the girl in front who also had rabbit-ear features, seemingly feeling she had found a kindred spirit.

"Big Sister, here, have some!"

Na'er darted straight out of Gu Tian's arms, transforming into a blurred afterimage as she rushed before Xiao Wu, holding a half-eaten spicy rabbit head high in the air.

Xiao Wu had been listening intently when, suddenly, her vision blurred and a stunningly beautiful silver-haired girl was thrust right into her face.

Looking at the spicy rabbit head in Na'er's hand, its entire surface was coated in a layer of glistening, fiery red chili oil, with caramel-colored braising sauce seeping deep into the crevices of the bone and white sesame seeds clinging to it like scattered stars. What made Xiao Wu's scalp tingle most were the two hollow eyes in the center, filled to the brim with shimmering red oil.

In that instant, it was as if a horror movie had bled into reality.

Xiao Wu shuddered violently, a sudden, unprovoked tremor racing from her spine to the crown of her head, making every hair on her body stand on end.

"Ah!" Xiao Wu shrieked in terror, leaping a large step backward—a primal, instinctive reaction of a rabbit.

Tang San's eyes turned cold, his right hand already reaching toward the Silent Sleeve Arrow hidden in his sleeve, ready to launch an attack on this uninvited guest at any moment.

"Oh no! Stop!"

Gu Tian was horrified, lunging out from the bushes in a desperate dash to intercept. Before Tang San could strike, he scooped up Na'er—who was still trying to peddle the rabbit head—and vanished into the nearby woods without looking back.

"Brother Gu Tian! That sister has ears too, I wanted to share one with her!" Na'er cried out aggrievedly from within Gu Tian's arms.

Left behind, a terrified Xiao Wu and a grim-faced Tang San stood in place, staring at each other in bewilderment.