Cloud City

"Actually, you didn't have to escort me; after all, my cultivation is higher than all of yours." Xue Fuyao sat in the carriage, looking at Shadow One, who was dressed as a guard, and said.

At this time, Xue Fuyao was still dressed as a man without changing her gender, having only made subtle adjustments to her facial features. They were seven parts similar to her original appearance, but the missing three parts would not lead anyone to associate her with the Xue Imperial Clan.

That was right, the Zhang Clan members were precisely what she was guarding against.

However, Xue Fuyao also knew that she could not hide forever, nor did she prepare to hide for a lifetime. It would be fine once this period passed, and she would not need to deliberately conceal herself.

"Even if Your Young Mastership's cultivation is higher than ours, you are still young, and we inevitably feel uneasy. His Maj-the old master's final order back then was for us to protect you."

Hearing Imperial Father's news from Shadow One's mouth once again, Xue Fuyao felt somewhat dazed.

"Protect me? What a joke, I... barely even saw him."

Her voice became extremely small at the end of that sentence.

Was there resentment?

There actually was.

Especially in her past life, although she was a princess, she did not enjoy a single bit of a princess's treatment, yet she ended up implicated after the fall of the nation.

But why, in Shadow One's mouth, was it not like this?

At this time, Shadow Two, who was at the side, spoke. "Young Master, actually the old master cared for you very much. He paid close attention to your food, clothing, housing, and transportation ever since you were little. It's just that, for reasons none of us know, although he cared for you, he never grew close to you. He only had us protect you from the shadows, making sure you were safe and didn't suffer grievances, while not letting us interfere in anything else."

"When the city fell, we were originally supposed to stay by the old master's side to guard it with our lives, but he sent us to protect you beforehand."

After listening to the words of Shadow One and Shadow Two, Xue Fuyao fell silent. After a long while, she spoke with a muffled voice, "These matters are already in the past; do not bring them up again in the future."

Watching Xue Fuyao retreat into the carriage and refuse further communication, Shadow One let out a sigh. He knew Her Highness harbored a knot in her heart regarding His Majesty, and this knot could not be untied in a short moment; she could only be left to figure it out herself.

Three days later, the carriage successfully arrived outside Cloud City.

Shadow One and the others did not follow Xue Fuyao into the city. Instead, after watching her enter with their own eyes, they each departed to seek their own fortuitous encounters for growing stronger.

With the items Her Highness had given them and the spirit grasses, spirit medicines, and spirit fruits plundered from the Secret Realm, they had already surpassed quite a few cultivators.

On the other side, after entering Cloud City, Xue Fuyao suddenly had a feeling of a lifetime apart.

In her past life, she had stayed in Cloud City for a very long time.

Because this was the territory of the Yuanji Sect.

The Yuanji Sect was the only sect in her past life that, while failing to accept her, did not expel her either and even provided her with some shelter, which was why she chose to join the Yuanji Sect in this life.

Although it was not the top-ranked sect, the Yuanji Sect was still a First-Class Sect in the Cultivation Realm.

Every day, within the territory under its jurisdiction, the Yuanji Sect dispatched disciples to conduct Spiritual Root tests on all children aged five to fifteen. Those with Spiritual Roots would be accepted into the Yuanji Sect.

However, Xue Fuyao had not come here to take the test; after all, she had already begun cultivation, and she planned to go straight to the Yuanji Sect to apprentice.

In the Cultivation Realm, there were three ways to enter a sect as a disciple. One was the aforementioned method: living in an area managed by the sect, where sect disciples tested one's aptitude, and that person would naturally be enrolled under the sect.

The second was to go directly to the sect to apprentice; this situation mostly occurred among Aristocratic Clan disciples.

Under this circumstance, the apprentice had usually already begun cultivation and successfully guided Qi into the body.

The third relied much more on luck: being favored by a senior sect figure who went out and brought one back to the sect.

The path Xue Fuyao was going to take now was the second one: apprenticing directly.

Her Creation Spirit Root was somewhat similar to the Wood Spiritual Root, and she could disguise herself as having a wood-element Heavenly Spiritual Root. Coincidentally, the master she intended to take also possessed a wood-element Heavenly Spiritual Root.

However, to disguise her Spiritual Root, she still needed one more thing.

After entering Cloud City, Xue Fuyao did not rush to apprentice at the Yuanji Sect. Instead, she rented a courtyard house and settled down here.

Although Cloud City was within the jurisdiction of the Yuanji Sect, there were Four Great Clans residing within the city.

To emphasize the point, these were clans, not aristocratic families.

Aristocratic clans were entities capable of going toe-to-toe with sects, whereas clans were subordinate to sects.

These four clans occupied the four regions of Cloud City-east, south, west, and north. The east district belonged to the Zhou Household, the south district to the Wu Household, the west district to the Zheng Household, and the north district to the Wang Household.

Each of these four clans had one or two Golden Core Stage cultivators holding down the fort, while the central area belonged to a place jointly managed by the Four Great Clans and simultaneously served as the Trade Market.

After settling into her residence, Xue Fuyao went out and arrived at the Trade Market in the central area.

The market was bustling and extraordinarily lively, with surging crowds and a thriving, bustling atmosphere of mortal life rushing toward her.

Yet Xue Fuyao had no mind to pay attention to these things at the moment.

She had arrived several years earlier in this life than in her past life, and she did not know whether that item was here right now.

In her past life, she had once acquired a shattered Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Treasure in this market. Although it was only one-tenth complete, its ability was extremely practical, capable of altering a person's aura, including even changing their Spiritual Root.

If it were complete, it was estimated one could thoroughly transform into a different person from the inside out.

Both sides of the street were filled with various shops, and in front of the shops were various cultivators setting up street stalls. They sold everything, and the cries of hawking and selling rose one after another.

Almost all of these people were cultivators, yet at this moment they lacked the usual aloofness of cultivators, looking no different from ordinary hawking peddlers.

Xue Fuyao did not linger at these small street stalls; instead, she walked straight into the largest merchant guild in Cloud City: the Yunlan Merchant Guild.

Here, apart from the people of the Yunlan Merchant Guild itself, there were also some people setting up stalls. However, the items on the stalls were clearly much higher in grade than those of the people outside-and naturally, the prices were much higher as well.

Xue Fuyao feigned curiosity as she looked over these stalls one by one, a streak of golden light rapidly flashing across her eyes-the Heavenly Eye opened.

She wondered if there were any magical artifacts capable of shielding the eyes without affecting vision.

Although the golden light flickered at great speed, there was no guarantee it would not be noticed by someone meticulous of mind.

She had witnessed the cruelty of the Cultivation Realm in her past life. Countless cultivators committed soul-destroying acts and backstabbed companions for a sliver of cultivation resources, let alone for a Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Treasure.

Xue Fuyao looked all the way through, and everything consisted of very ordinary items, along with quite a few that did not live up to their names, causing her to feel inevitably and deeply disappointed.