Even before Cao Mao talked to Ma Ping, the latter had made plans to migrate away from Xuan City.

After he had regained his dantian, he had noticed several nascent soul cultivators within the city, and they had also sensed him. He felt uncomfortable in the presence of so many powerful cultivators.

Ma Ping was not yet ready to fight one of his peers. He would prefer to recuperate and regain his peak form before coming out from his seclusion.

The invitation to the Siren City had therefore come at the perfect time. Even if Cao Mao was an evil demon, Ma Ping would still have agreed to move.

Ma Ping managed to persuade Ma Shoucheng, and Pang Lingming to follow him to Siren City without difficulty. Ma Moxi also had no problem with it since the city had once been his home base.

With everybody’s agreement, Ma Ping sent out Ma Moxi to tell Cao Mao that they had agreed.

Ma Moxi relayed his grandfather’s words and got many catties of goodies from Cao Mao. He rushed to his courtyard to start brewing spirit liquor for the auction.

As for Cao Mao, it took him a while to satisfy all his customers. He ended up exchanging 500 weapons for countless herbs. Although more than half of them were useless, he still kept them as materials for other alchemy recipes that he had yet to master.

As soon as everybody packed their belongings, Ma Ping visited Cao Mao and told the latter that they should depart immediately before more powerful experts reached the city. Since a few overbearing clans might want to use their residence as a hotel, Ma Ping didn’t want to deal with these people before his strength had not completely recovered.

Cao Mao agreed. The group departed from Xuan City that day.

They would come back to this city at the auction date. For now, it was not safe here.

…

Zhu Qiao was at a loss since Cao Mao changed his appearance and names often. Fortunately, she had memorized his old name and his old form.

She sketched a portrait of Mao Miaomiao with short hair and a portrait of him with long hair. Then, she went straight to the slum area to ask around.

Her effort bore fruits. One of the thugs in a slum recognized the long-haired man in the portrait.

“Are you looking for the alchemist Mao? He’s quite famous in the black market these days.”

“Alchemist Mao?” Zhu Qiao almost burst into laughter after hearing the odd title. It didn’t suit him, “Do you know him?”

“Of course. Everyone in the slum knows him. He’s solds a lot of aphrodisiac pills. The Qiang Clan and the Tang Merchant Guild’s men are talking about him these days.”

“Oho? Do you know where he is?” Zhu Qiao gave a piece of raw spirit stone to the thug.

The thug grabbed the stone and hid it in his cloth within less than a second. He grinned, “Alchemist Mao is staying at the Ma Clan’s manor. I think he’s selling low-grade weapons today. Many people are going there.”

“Thanks!”

Zhu Qiao rushed to the Ma Clan’s residence right away.

20 minutes later, she reached the front of Ma’s residence. She found a rundown steel gate and brick walls

She knocked on the door and called the people inside.

“Hello! Anybody there?”

Nobody answered.

Zhu Qiao knocked on the door again, but no one responded.

“Huh? Dafuq did they go!?”

She was mad. It had taken her almost a year to find this lead, but her only clue had disappeared once again.

While Zhu Qiao was banging the steel doors in frustration, a man in thick armor and a tiger fur cloak walked toward her.

It was Sun Wentai. His son and his three subordinates were also following him from behind.

Sun Wentai coughed, “Junior, there is nobody in the manor.”

Zhu Qiao turned around to look at the armored man. She took several steps back as she mistook him for a patrol guard leader of this city. Also, she couldn’t gauge this man’s strength.

Sun Wentai took off his helmet, revealing the face of a man in his 50s with black and white hair. The edge of his hair was white, but the rest of it was black. Because of his unique cultivation style, his hair had become odd.

“Don’t be afraid, junior. I’m also here to see my old friend. But alas, they’ve left a few minutes ago.”

The elder could still sense Ma Ping, his old friend, a few hundred meters away. He could easily catch up to them, but he chose not to bother since they seemed to be in a hurry.

Moreover, Sun Wentai could sense the faint aura of Ma Ping’s nascent soul, so he figured that the former war hero must have found a way to heal his dantian. Therefore, it would be rude to interrupt Ma Ping and his family on whatever they were doing.

Zhu Qiao realized that the elder might have sensed the other’s aura or presence from far away. She rudely asked Sun Wentai, “Excuse me, do you know where the people of the Ma Clan went? I’m looking for someone who is staying here. Oh, he goes by the name Mao Miaomiao or Alchemist Mao.”

“Mao?” Sun Wentai raised his eyebrows, “Is your friend a beastman from a weretiger clan?”

“Weretiger what?” Zhu Qiao cocked her head in confusion. This was the first time she had heard about a weretiger clan or a beastman, “That can’t be. He’s just a regular human with this face.”

Zhu Qiao showed Sun Wentai the sketched portraits of long-haired Mao Miaomiao, “I don’t know what you’re on about, but I’m looking for this guy.”

Sun Wentai examined the portrait for a moment. It wasn’t hard for him to locate Cao Mao within his domain since he was next to Ma Ping.

“Yes. I know where he is?”

“Could you tell me, please?”

“Are you in a hurry?”

“I’m afraid, yes.”

Sun Wentai sighed. He pointed at the city’s south gate, “Over there. You might catch up to them if you hurry.”

“Thank you, elder!”

Zhu Qiao bowed to Sun Wentai. Then, she jumped on top of the nearest building and Naruto-ran toward the south.

Looking at how the hooded girl left, Sun Wentai laughed, “Ah, what a waste.”

“Why? What waste? What’s wrong, father?” A 10-year-old boy in leather armor behind Sun Wentai questioned his father.

Sun Wentai’s son was dissatisfied with the hooded girl’s manner. He had the urge to reprimand the girl for a while since she showed no respect toward his father, a nascent soul cultivator. Yet, he didn’t dare to interject their conversation due to the custom of his family.

“I was planning to scout her to be your wife. But, alas, she left.”

The boy scoffed, “I don’t want a beggar as my wife! Have you noticed her clothes and manner? She has no education, and she’s so dirty! I bet she has an ugly face beneath that mask, too!”

Sun Wentai shook his head and patted his son’s head, “You shouldn’t judge a person by his or her cover. That girl just now is a succubus, so her appearance should be prettier than ordinary women. Also, it’s rare to find a virgin succubus at this age.”

“WHAT!?”

The three elders widened their eyes in shock. They thought that Sun Wentai was talking to a rogue cultivator, and they hadn’t noticed her demonic Qi. All of them turned around as they planned to capture Zhu Qiao.

“Don’t bother. She might be a guest of Ma Ping. I don’t want to offend my old friend.”

The elders nodded and stopped circulating their yang essence.

Meanwhile, the boy was still confused.

“Father, isn’t a succubus a dangerous demoness? Why would you want to make her my wife?”

“True, succubi can be deadly when they mate with men. But if you can tame one and make her your wife, she could strengthen your spirit and make you invulnerable to mind attack. Besides, I’ve heard it never gets boring with one in bed..”

“…” The mind of a 10-year-old boy couldn’t comprehend Sun Wentai’s words. He frowned and tilted his head in confusion.

As for the elders, their faces distorted, “Master Sun, that’s not something you should teach a child…”

“Whatever I teach Bofu is none of your business! You guys better get into the Ma residence and clean the place. We’ll be using this place as our base until the auction!”

“But isn’t this your friend’s manor?”

“Ma Ping and everyone in his family have left together, so I assume that he is planning to stay away from this city until the auction ends! I’ll be protecting his place until he comes back, alright? I’ll even pay him a few thousand refined stones for the trouble! Oh, come to think of it, Ma Ping has a daughter. I wonder if she’s still available.”

Sun Bofu sighed, “You’d better stop, father. I don’t want a wife…”

“You’ll need one eventually. Trust me.”

“…”

…

South Gate

All five members of the Ma Clan, Ju Shoufen, Ju Chen, and Cao Mao exited the city through the south gate. Their next destination was the Siren City, the home base of Cao Mao.

While they were leaving the city, Cao Mao suddenly had goosebumps. He also couldn’t tell if something went wrong or not since his plot armor sensor eyebrows hadn’t warned him anything.

“What’s wrong?”

Ma Xingjuan was clinging on Cao Mao’s arm as usual. She saw the goosebumps and found it funny.

“Ah, nothing.”

“You have goosebumps, though. Are you sick?”

“Cultivators can’t get sick. Well, unless we poisoned.”

“Hey! I took a bath this morning! I also don’t wear my usual makeup today!”

“… I haven’t said anything about you, though. What’re you on about?”

“Hmph!” Ma Xingjuan stomped her feet like a bratty teenager and turned to her father, “Dad, help me. My husband is bullying me!”

“Oi!”

The big family ignored the couple’s quarrel. Instead, they were discussing how they should travel.

Ma Ping suggested, “Let’s fly there. I’ll carry Moxi. Shoucheng carries Xingjuan.”

Ma Shoucheng laughed, “Isn’t it humiliating for Miaomiao to be carried by women?”

“Do you prefer carrying your son-in-law there?”

“Nope! I’ll carry Moxi.”

Ma Moxi heard the conversation. He shimmed in and revealed another of his ability, “You don’t need to. I can fly by myself.”

“But your strength is merely a meridian establishment realm. Do you have enough yang essence for a flight skill?”

“I have another method. Watch,” Ma Moxi snorted and disappeared from where he stood. A few seconds later, he was already in mid-air, but nobody could see him.

“Over here!” Ma Moxi shouted and hinted to them where he was.

Everybody looked around in shock, but they could hear his voice from the sky, “Moxi, how!?”

“Uncle, you need to start trusting your ‘trashy’ nephew a bit. I’m capable, you know?”

“…”

Although nobody from the Ma Clan could explain how Ma Moxi could fly, they rejoiced.

Then, they turned to Cao Mao, who had to be carried to their next destination.

Cao Mao rolled his eyes and circulated his life essence. He levitated while he was crossing his arms, “I can fly, too.”

“…”

Ma Ping, Pang Lingming, and Ma Shoucheng looked at each other. They wryly smiled.

“Younger generation these days. They can fly so fast.”

…

In the end, Ma Xingjuan, the white cat, and the fox cub were the only ones being carried. The rest of the crew leaped toward the sky and flew south.

“WAIT!!”

None of them noticed the hooded girl, who was running after them.

Zhu Qiao stopped and panted in exhaustion. She was just a few seconds too late. Everyone had already taken off when she got to where Cao Mao and others had stood.

“ARGH!! DAMMIT, MAO MIAOMIAO!!”

Zhu Qiao didn’t care about Cao Mao’s cultivation base and his flight ability. After all, she could also fly with the help of her P2W talismans from the system gacha.

She took out a green talisman from her spatial ring and tore it.

The torn green talisman disintegrated into particles, but they reformed into a snowboard with a jet booster. Zhu Qiao hopped on it and wore a motorcycle helmet, which she had brought out together with the jet snowboard talisman.

The girl took off and followed Cao Mao’s crews.

…

The monk, Zhao Bao, gazed at the sky and watched how Cao Mao and others flew toward the south. The children also looked at them in awe.

The rabbit boy’s eyes sparkled. He pointed at the flying people and asked his mentor, “Master, can we fly like them one day?”

The old monk laughed, “Little Yun. Once you reach the 5th-stage, the foundation establishment realm, you will be able to fly.”

“Really?”

“Naturally.”