"After all these years, you finally deigned to come and see this old friend of yours?"
Rao Zongzhi was rather displeased. This fellow had been in the capital for so many years, yet only now had he remembered he had a friend here.
Hou Niao shot back, "I came to the Jade Capital several times and never once managed to see you. You were always off here or off there, and you have the nerve to complain? Have you kept so many mistresses outside that you can't keep up anymore?"
Rao Zongzhi was now also in the natural realm and had secured an undemanding post in the Minister of War Prefecture. Those who had attended the Southwest Dao Discussion with them were mostly elites from various regions, already one-in-a-hundred talents to begin with, which made cultivation seem not so difficult after all.
But this was merely the norm within an elite circle. If the circle were expanded-to those from the Jincheng Grand Recruitment, for instance, their fellow natives of Anhe, or even those from Yinling-it was hardly so easy. Many people drifted apart as they walked on, vanishing without a trace or a sound.
Back at the Southwest Dao Discussion, the three of them had formed a team. Hou Niao and Rao Zongzhi had both reached the upper realm, the natural realm, while Luo Yewang had fallen somewhat short and was only at Spirit Sense. He was still struggling somewhere in the Northern Lands, showing signs of falling behind.
Rao Zongzhi lived in the Rao Household rather than maintaining a separate residence. Since he was seldom in the capital, there was no need to acquire a house of his own. He was the sort who could never keep his feet still, and over the years he had visited far more