''Sister Liu, are you going to cultivate?'' Bai Longtian asked a moment later as he looked at Liu Mei.

Naturally, Bai Longtian, Jiang Chen, and Xingyi weren't surprised to hear that Liu Mei was planning to leave the city, since they had actually expected this long ago.

After all, the 3 of them knew that Liu Mei's Dao and cultivation technique were both different from theirs.

If Liu Mei wanted to advance and comprehend her Dao of Death even further, she had to kill other cultivators and absorb the essence of death around them.

Clearly, she couldn't just stay inside the city to do that.

Nodding her head, Liu Mei looked at Bai Longtian and the others and answered seriously

''Staying inside the courtyard to cultivate is meaningless to me. Even if I could absorb the qi in here, I would still have to leave the city to comprehend my Dao of Death further.''

Jiang Chen, Xingyi, and Bai Longtian all nodded, before Jiang Chen said in a calm voice

''Since that's the case, it's better to ask commander Quan for a few experts to protect you while you leave the city.''

Xingyi and Bai Longtian both agreed with Jiang Chen's suggestion, and a few moments later, the 4 of them made their way towards commander Quan's quarters.

In reality, Xingyi and the others weren't too worried about Liu Mei's survival since they knew that she still had the pendant that she had received from Elder Xuan as a gift when Elder Xuan accepted her as her disciple.

According to Elder Xuan, that pendant could save her life twice if she was in a life-threatening situation, blocking the attacks of even some late-stage Dao Emperors.

But of course, Jiang Chen and the others weren't going to take any risks, since they all understood, that right now, they were in the heart of the northern part of the central region.

The 'Northern Sovereign's city' was the biggest city in the northern part of the central region, and there were bound to be plenty of high-level experts in this place.

For an early-stage Dao King to wander alone was simply too dangerous.

This was even more so when one considered that Liu Mei was a heavenly beauty who would attract the attention of everyone around her.

A few moments later, inside commander Quan's private quarters, commander Quan agreed right away to send a squad of experts to protect Liu Mei when he heard that she was planning to leave the city.

Barely 10 minutes passed before a group of experts appeared outside commander Quan's quarters, all of them staring reverently at commander Quan in front of them.

Surprisingly, there were even 2 early-stage Dao Emperors who were leading this squad, one tall, burly man, and a beautiful middle-aged woman.

Behind the 2 Dao Emperors were 10 peak rank 9 Dao Kings who were all trying hard to conceal the looks of excitement in their eyes as they stood in front of commander Quan and received his orders.

Although these people were all soldiers who belonged to the Northern Sovereign's army, they rarely had chances to leave the city since they would spend most of their time cultivating inside the 'Northern Sovereign's estate'.

Of course, if someone within the city dared to create trouble, the Northern Sovereign's army would immediately be dispatched, but instances like these were extremely rare. After all, who would dare to make trouble within the 'Northern Sovereign's city'?

Thus, the soldiers in the Northern Sovereign's army would end up spending most of their time inside the Sovereign's estate, training for hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of years without a chance to go out.

Of course, this didn't mean that they were prisoners, but their only chance to freely move around would be to either reach the middle-stages of the Dao Emperor realm and be inferior only to the 12 commanders in status, or leave the Northern Sovereign's army and become independent.

But of course, the first option was simply too hard while the second one was extremely foolish.

Experts throughout the 'Northern Sovereign's city' were dying to enter the Northern Sovereign's army, since they would have the chance to obtain better resources and cultivation techniques the more their strength advanced.

Who would choose to leave willingly and become a rogue cultivator for no reason?

This was why the soldiers in front of commander Quan were so excited even though it was such a simple mission of protecting a small early-stage Dao King.

In the eyes of the 2 Dao Emperors who were leading the squad, this was no different from vacation for them.

A while later, the squad led by the 2 Dao Emperors followed behind Liu Mei and left the 'Northern Sovereign's estate', as they headed straight towards the city gates.

At the same time, Xingyi, Bai Longtian, and Jiang Chen all returned to the 'Southern dragon's courtyard', looking like they were in a hurry to continue cultivating.

Of course, the 3 of them all knew, that now that Liu Mei was going to leave the city, they couldn't slack for even a moment or they would be left behind by her, even if they cultivated inside this 'Southern dragon's courtyard' in the Northern Sovereign's estate.

After all, Liu Mei's 'Blood Absorption art' was perfectly suited for her Dao of Death, since it allowed her to increase her cultivation at the same time that she increased her Dao comprehension.

Additionally, the cultivation speed of Liu Mei's 'Blood Absorption art' outstripped even Xingyi's and the others' speed.

Even after they obtained immortal-grade cultivation techniques from Shun Long, Jiang Chen and the others knew that their cultivation speed was still inferior to Liu Mei's.

It was almost as if her 'Blood Absorption art' was tailor-made for Liu Mei.

...

At the same time, back in Murong city, Shun Long continued to cultivate with his eyes closed, as he continued to absorb the pure qi around him that had completely filled the foggy space inside the 'Stone of Time'.

A second... a third... and a fourth golden ball of qi appeared inside the 'Monarch's Hourglass' as the days went by, and in the blink of an eye, a month passed before the day of the auction of the 'White tiger chamber of commerce' finally arrived.

-

Author's note: 1

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