After speaking with the old man, Su Jiu learned that they were now near a small frontier city on the Spiritflight Continent.
The grandfather and granddaughter did not live in the city, however, but in a village not far from Peace City.
According to the two of them, everyone living in the city now was a cultivator. Even the ordinary people permitted to live there had some connection to cultivators.
The old man's expression was perfectly calm as he said this, but Su Jiu still detected a trace of dissatisfaction beneath that calm.
A city inhabited entirely by cultivators? That alone struck Su Jiu as deeply abnormal.
"Was Peace City a place where only cultivators lived right from the beginning?"
"How could it have been! Peace City used to-"
"Xiao Fei, it's getting late. We should go home." The old man interrupted his granddaughter at just the right moment, though his slightly raised voice still inevitably startled her.
It was decidedly deliberate-so deliberate that Su Jiu could not have ignored it even if she had wanted to.
Su Jiu studied the old man. She was now quite certain that he seemed to be afraid of something.
Su Jiu glanced at the still-unconscious Yun Huanling, her thoughts shifting. "Sir, my friend is still unconscious. Might we stay with you for a while?"
The girl turned sharply toward Su Jiu, undisguised delight shining in her eyes.
Seeing his granddaughter's excitement, the old man ultimately could not bear to refuse. "Come along, if you don't mind our humble home. With your status, you could actually enter the city and enjoy much better treatment."
Su Jiu raised an eyebrow. "Oh? In Peace City, a cultivator's status is already tied to the treatment they receive?"
The old man fell silent again, apparently unwilling to say