Chapter 91

“Master… you’re stressing too much,” Zhen Yue said as she moved her head forward.

“Mmm!” Qian Yu was still distracted but he suddenly found Zhen Yue had started kissing him. A fire lit up in him as he responded to her advances.

*Click* Just as Qian Yu had pushed Zhen Yue down onto the ground and his hands had roamed over her hair and body, the door opened.

*Yawn* “I couldn’t find much else,” Zhao Xieren yawned upon entering the room with a few more scrolls.

As she opened her eyes she saw Qian Yu on top of Zhen Yue, whose hair and clothing were messy and disheveled.

“...” Qian Yu and Zhen Yue stared at Zhao Xieren in silence.

“AHH!” Zhao Xieren realized what was going on and immediately ran out of the room.

“Uhm, master….” Zhen Yue was completely embarrassed as she jumped onto the bed and hid under the blanket. The two had done romantic things in public before but it had never been to the extent of a deep kiss like that. If she hadn’t been wearing a dress that had a few layers of clothing over her, Zhao Xieren might have walked in on them being naked.

“Ahem, I’ll go see what Zhao Xieren has to say then,” Qian Yu left Zhen Yue to recover her feelings as he ran out the room.

Leaving the room, Qian Yu found Zhao Xieren standing in the corridor a couple meters from the door.

“Sorry about that, we didn’t expect you to come back so fast,” Qian Yu said.

Blushing, Zhao Xieren replied, “No no, it’s my fault. I was just annoyed that there weren’t many useful scrolls with information so I just barged in without thinking.”

“Here are the other scrolls,” Zhao Xieren said as she handed Qian Yu the scrolls.

“Thank you,” Qian Yu said as he took the scrolls.

“Anyways, I’ll be going now!” Zhao Xieren ran down the corridor and disappeared into the lobby.

“She ran off like a rabbit,” Qian Yu said as he returned with the few scrolls in his hand

“There’s nothing more about Sun Hong’s matter. However, they are mainly focusing on the suspicious people and discovered that there were traces of them entering the Uninhabited Region. There’s not much sadly,” Qian Yu was slightly disappointed as he quickly glanced through everything.

“Hmm, seems like we still don’t know everything,” Zhen Yue opened the blanket and peeked at the door making sure it was locked.

“I think there’s little information because of Sister Zhao’s identity as a girl. You said that Zhao Xieren’s brother was involved in this so I think I know what’s going on. Her brother probably knows all the details and their family wants him to help resolve this issue. This will bring more prestige to their family but also him as well. Sister Zhao isn’t the bright jewel of their family so she’s just on the sidelines...” Zhen Yue said.

“Is this from your experience as a noble?” Qian Yu asked.

“Mhm,” Zhen Yue nodded.

“Hmm, it does make a lot of sense. I completely neglected that… anyways, good job,” Qian Yu smiled as he patted her head.

“Hehe, shall we resume now?” Zhen Yue said as she winked at Qian Yu.

“Ahem ahem,” Qian Yu was speechless.

Peacefully, the short days on the flying artifact soon passed as they reached the Southern Stronghold, which was the largest city near the southern border. It was also around here that the red cloud appeared.

Getting off the flying ship, Zhao Xieren quickly said, “I will need to go to talk with the people from my family.”

“Alright, we’re going to go around. We’ll stay in the inn over there,” Qian Yu said as he pointed to a random nearby inn.

“I’ll be off then,” Zhao Xieren nodded as she ran off. Perhaps like Zhen Yue said, Zhao Xieren didn’t have much access to information and had to go get some right now.

“Master, what’s the plan?” Zhen Yue was curious.

“Let’s change into rogue cultivator clothes first. If Sun Hong is in the city, I’m sure she’ll be frequenting the gatherings,” Qian Yu answered as he brought out two black robes.

“Hehe, this reminds me of our time in the Soba Empire,” Zhen Yue reminisced as she put on the robes and covered her face.

“Yea, do you remember how you were when we first met?” Qian Yu chuckled.

“M-master, don’t bring that up please,” Zhen Yue embarrassingly said as she remembered her domineering attitude when they first met.

“Hahaha, fine fine.” Qian Yu stopped teasing her as they started heading to find some gathering spots for roge cultivators.

An hour later, they arrived at an intersection with numerous random shops.

“Alright, we’re here. We’ll stay here until night time,” Qian Yu looked around and noticed some shops that stood out. Occasionally, black robe cultivators would enter it but they wouldn’t come out.

Since Qian Yu wouldn’t be able to find Sun Hong on his own as she was likely to be disguised as well, all Qian Yu could do was to openly show his face and have her recognize him as he loitered around the area.

The hours passed by and by nightfall, Sun Hong never appeared.

“Unfortunately, there was no other information about what’s going on either. It seems the higher ups are indeed trying to limit what the public knows,” Qian Yu believed after going around the whole day.

“Alright, let’s try again tomorrow,” Qian Yu sighed as the two headed back to the inn.

Waiting outside, the two saw Zhao Xieren with a slight frown on her face.

“Is something wrong?” Qian Yu asked.

“Ah, I went to talk with my brother and he told me the gist of everything. All the conflicts and fights so far have been between the suspicious group and a secret force of the royal family. They aren’t sure of the enemy’s purpose still but my brother will be entering the Uninhabited Region tomorrow to help in leading and commanding,” Zhao Xieren said.

“Do you plan to go with him?” Qian Yu asked.

“No, I think I’ll just stay with you guys tomorrow. I came down here to help you in the first place,” Zhao Xieren decided.

Like that the following day, the three of them were in black robes once again as they started heading towards another gathering spot.

“Hehe, this is my first time doing stuff like this and it feels pretty fun,” Zhao Xieren laughed.

“Yeah, this is a pretty common routine,” Qian Yu said.

As they were walking around, Qian Yu continued listening around as a certain conversation between a few kids caught his attention.

“I was so worried about you!” a young girl said as she hugged one of her friends.

“I was so scared as well. If not for that elder sister who came and saved me from those people, I don’t know what would happen,” a different girl said as tears welled up in her eyes.

“It’s alright. Don’t worry, one day, I’ll be like her and beat up all those bad people!” the girl declared.

“S-she was really strong. Hehe, she was also pretty. That was my first time seeing anyone with red hair before. I want to be strong and pretty like her!” the crying girl cheered up.

“!!!” Qian Yu stopped in place as he heard that before walking towards the group of kids.

“Is something wrong?” Zhen Yue asked as she stopped talking with Zhao Xieren.

“One of those kids might know Sun Hong. Can one of you guys do the talking?” Qian Yu said as they arrived at where the kids were.

“I’ll do it,” Zhao Xieren volunteered as she stepped forward.

“Hello younger sisters, can you talk more about this person?” Zhao Xieren said as she took off the hood covering her face.

“Eh?” The two girls were a little scared seeing a black clothed stranger approach them but as they looked upwards and saw Zhao Xieren, they changed their minds.

“Elder sister, you’re so pretty!” one girl said.

“I was playing around with some of my friends yesterday afternoon in the Uninhabited Region. We usually play there a lot since there is a lot of open space but we ran into some bad guys when we went too deep! It was there that the red-haired sister came and saved us,” the other girl said.

“Did she continue to go south and deeper into the Uninhabited Region?” Zhao Xieren asked.

“S-she was going to but we were too scared and so we asked her to bring us back to the city. We wanted to invite her to our houses but she declined saying she had some business and so she left and went back,” the girl replied.

“Did she use a large sword?” Qian Yu suddenly interjected.

“Hehe, it was really big but she swung it around so easily,” the girl laughed as she imitated her as she out a branch and swung it around.

“Alright, thank you little sister,” Zhao Xieren patted the girl’s head.

Glancing at Qian Yu, she asked, “Should we enter the Uninhabited Region? My brother and cousin have already left but I know where they’ll be stationed.”

“Yes, let’s go then,” Qian Yu said impatiently. Yet he was also relieved, knowing that Sun Hong was still fine. Additionally, he was only confused, wondering how Sun Hong was related with the unknown group.

Deciding on what to do, the trio left and after a few hours they found themselves at the camp where the Zhao Family was at.

It wasn’t long until they saw Zhao Xieren’s cousin, Zhao Xun talking with some one else.

“Anyways, it seems the enemy have created a border. Seems like there is something going on inside but for now, we don’t know,” they heard the other person inform Zhao Xun as they approached the two.

“Alright, thank you. You’re dismissed,” Zhao Xun said as he waved his hand.

Turning his head to Zhao Xieren and the rest, he said, “Cousin you changed your mind? Zhao Yong is in a meeting right now with the others.”

“It’s okay, I don’t need to bother brother right now. I just came for a few maps and scrolls,” Zhao Xieren said.

“Oh, alright, I’ll mention it to your brother then. What are you planning to do though?” Zhao Xun curiously asked.

“We are probably just going to go hunt some spiritual beasts since there are a decent amount here. I’ll probably be gone for a week or two,” Zhao Xieren replied, according to the plan they had all discussed on the way here.

“Alright. Don’t venture too deep as it could get more dangerous,” Zhao Xun nodded obliviously.

“Don’t worry cousin,” Zhao Xieren bid farewell as she left the camp with Qian Yu and Zhen Yue.

Separating from the camp, the three started planning. “What should we do?” Zhao Xieren asked as she opened the maps and scrolls.

Looking at the map, Qian Yu saw various entrances to the Uninhabited Region. There were various rivers, routes, intersections, cliffs, mountains, gorges, caves, and more labeled throughout. It was undoubtedly a highly detailed map. Additionally, there were spots indicating possible enemy locations and camps and where they have been sighted so far.

“Zhao Xieren, you should decide,” Qian Yu asked, realizing that this could be a good way for Zhao Xieren to gain back some self confidence.

Zhao Xieren grew silent as he heard his request.

“I believe you can do it. You’re a smart girl. Sun Hong is probably looking for something here or wants to travel deeper into the region,” Qian Yu continued.

Towards this matter, the maps Qian Yu had previously dealt with were very broad and specific and he only used them to know the general direction he was heading and where he was directly at.

On the other hand, this required specific analysis of the map which Qian Yu wasn’t completely comfortable with. Of course, he could always perform his own logical analysis but he wouldn’t know if it was good or not.

“Alright, I’ll do my best,” Zhao Xieren nodded, her eyes filled with vigor.