Forsaken Immortals

While Bai Rouyun kept contemplating the problem at hand, and the memories she had of the Shitian Tower, the carriage came before the city gates.

The queue was long but due to the sheer size of the gates, a large number of travelers could enter at any time. The only reason for the queue to have grown this unmanageable was due to the contest that was set to be held at the city's affiliated academy soon.

The two most prominent academies in the continent were the Holy Dragon Institute and the Cloudsoar Imperial Academy. The two schools had been at odds with one another since their creation and they were also located in the two most powerful empires within the continent that constantly tried to find the other's weakness.

The tournament was placed in a border city between the two empires. This border city was special, as it did not actually belong to either of the kingdoms, but had its own reputation, and was known as a heaven for cultivators.

Usually, this city would never have been interested in hosting something as trivial as a tournament, but due to the two empires unwillingness to let the other take care of the location, they both offered great wealth to the city in return for them taking over the task of hosting the tournament.

The city was known as Xiumeng City, and the one who controlled all power here was the City Lord.

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Xiumeng City was different from many other places, as one had to pay to enter, and due to the high cost, only the experts, weather commoners, and better quality merchants had the ability to enter, so the city was very clean.

The buildings were all extremely well maintained, and even the streets were clean and without any dirt. Such a city was truly unimaginable for many, and due to the tournament, experts were gathering from all over the continent and witnessed this grand city for the first time.

Bai Rouyun raised the window and glanced at the white walls that were towering high above the carriage. They were close to the gates, and the familiar sight of the busy streets could be vaguely seen behind the large crowd of people.

The rest of the members from the Blue Water Institute had never been here before, but Bai Rouyun had roamed the whole world in her past life, and she had often come to this city.

This was a paradise for experts as fish and dragons mixed together. One could find extremely rare treasures here, but they might also lose their lives in search of wealth.

Although Xiumeng City forbad fighting and killing, everyone knew that they only cared about such things if they were seen. If no corpse was found, then it was not their problem.

It was also due to this that Bai Rouyun loved staying here in her past life. She was an independant cultivator, so she was easily targeted by others, but when staying in this city, no one could gather too large a force to attack her, and due to her strength, not many were capable of beating her on their own.

It was not only Bai Rouyun who used the Xiumeng City as a safe hiding place. Although not many independent cultivators existed in this world, there were still some, and they all needed places like this to protect themselves.

It was also due to the power that the Xiumeng City held that they had become a faction on their own, and even ranked in the top five factions on the continent.

However, the City Lord was very low-key, and not many knew the truth behind their real strength, so even the strongest factions were not willing to confront them.

Even Bai Rouyun did not know much about the Xiumeng City's actual strength. Although she had resided within the city for many years, she had never been close to the City Lord, and they had also never tried to approach her.

In fact, after roaming through her memories, she found that they had never actively searched for new members, and it was not heard of their decision to recruit new blood.

The normal sects and factions would be on a constant search for new talents to continue their advance and ensure that they would not succumb to the passing of time.

Even the Eternal Shadow Palace was searching for new members to join, but no one knew much about the Xiumeng City.

Once upon a time, while Bai Rouyun was merely five years old, she had heard a few stories about how, at that time, the strongest sect had set out to fight against Xiumeng City, but as she grew up, she found that there was no sect that matched the name she had heard back then.

As she visited Xiumeng City for the first time, she remembered this story, but as to whether or not it was true, she did not care.

Back then she had been unfettered and could do whatever she wished for, but things were different now that she was married to Li Moyun and was the mistress of the Eternal Shadow Palace.

Xiumeng City was a faction that did not try to get involved in worldly matters, so they should not be considered an enemy or rival of the Eternal Shadow Palace, but due to the sheer size and power each faction possessed, it was only natural that they would not become friendly either.

As such, Bai Rouyun was extremely eager to see what this city and the tournament could bring her.