Chapter 9: Lian’s popularity

"This is the city of Belgrin." Lian introduced.

"City of Belgrin, huh." 

In front of them are towering walls made of bricks. At the city gate, two guards are standing in a disciplined manner.

When the two guards saw Lian, they saluted. And one of them asked when he noticed the distressed appearance of Lian. 

"What happened Miss Lian?" the guard asked.

"Nothing, we only encountered a strong monster beast inside the forest, but fortunately nothing serious happened." she casually explained.

She didn't tell them what really happened because she didn't know who was the real mastermind of the earlier incident. So she needs to be careful. She also reminded the youths not to spill out what happened to anyone.

[Smart girl.] Azrael silently mused.

"Is that so, thankfully you are alright." the guard sighed in relief.

Then they proceed to enter the city.

Inside the city, fine and sturdy buildings were erected. Carriages that are being pulled by some sort of animals and pedestrians walking on the wide road that connects the whole city could be seen. 

When they entered the city countless heads turned towards them, and when the pedestrian saw their state, especially Lian, some immediately plunged towards them.

"Miss Lian what happened?" a handsome young man asked with a worried face.

Lian explained the same explanation earlier.

"To think something like that happened."

"Yes, but thankfully someone saved us."

"Oh, someone saved you? Who is it so we can thank them for saving the beauty from our city." the young man said with a righteous aura.

"This young man." Then she pointed at Azrael beside her.

They turned their heads and looked at Azrael. Earlier they didn't notice him since they are too focused on Lian. The people in the scene raised their eyebrows and most of them were young men.

[This man saves her? They expected that it was a senior who saved her but to think of a young man and on top of that a handsome one. Hmmm, and he is standing beside her.] they silently thought.

"Oh, this young friend saved you. Then let me thank —," 

"No need. Lian has already thanked me. That's all I need." Before the young man could finish his sentence, Azrael opened his mouth.

The young man's smile froze for a good moment while some of the people, especially the young girls giggled because it was clear that he wanted to impress Lian but was interrupted.

He blushed from embarrassment, "Ehem, is that so." 

[What a nasty guy. To think he would embarrass me in front of many people.]

He looked at Azrael for a good moment but when he sensed something he couldn't help but frown.

[No cultivation?] he thought, not only him but also the other people sensed it. 

There are only three reasons if one couldn't sense the cultivation of the others.

One is that he or she had never cultivated in their life.

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Second, the gap is too big to sense his or her cultivation but even so, one would feel the pressure or aura that he or she emits.

Third, if one has a big gap of strength and the stronger one purposely hides his cultivation and acts like a non-cultivator.

But they thought that the second and third reasons are not applicable for Azrael because first, they couldn't feel some sort of pressure coming from him, and second, he was too young to have much stronger cultivation than them and hide it from them.

They wanted to say something but before they could even open their mouth, Lian spoke.

"Thank you for your concerns. But we will go first to report what happened to us. I hope you understand." she said.

"It's okay Miss Lian, we understand."

Then they walked towards a building near the gate without hindrance.

Outside the building 30 or so carriages were lined up in order.

"This is a company that rents carriages. From here to our estate it would take 20 minutes on foot. And if we walked in the street. The people would ask the same question, so we will rent a carriage, plus it would save us time since it would only take 5 minutes if we take a carriage." Lian explained.

"Is that so?"  Azrael simply said.

They rented five carriages for them to ride. 

The 20 or so youths volunteered to ride only the four carriages and let Lian and Azrael occupy the one carriage by themselves.

At first, Lian objected because she was kinda embarrassed to share a carriage with Azrael alone. But eventually gave up when David spoke.

Inside the carriage.

Seeing that Lian wasn't speaking, Azrael couldn't help but chuckle. The earlier composed and collected Lian in front of the youths of this city is nowhere to be seen. Only a little girl meekly sitting in the carriage.

"You are so popular. As expected from 'beauty' like you." he was mimicking the young man earlier.

"S-stop that. They just say anything they want and branded me like that," she said meekly while blushing.

No one would expect that this popular and always collected beauty would act like this. If the young men saw this they would die in jealousy because Azrael is seeing this sight.

"You must have many suitors given your popularity." he further teased her.

"I said stop that, and I'm not entertaining any of them. Besides, I'm still young for that."

"Then when would you entertain a suitor? When you are 100 years old?"

"I never said that. Plus even when I become 100 years old, I am sure that I will still have a younger appearance since I will become a strong cultivator in the future." she confidently declared.

The stronger the cultivator, the longer their lifespan, thus, if one breakthrough in his younger days, he could maintain his younger appearance much longer. But if they breakthrough when they are older, their appearance wouldn't look younger anymore but they can still extend their lifespan. This is the reason why there are young-looking or old-looking cultivators in the later stage of the mortal step of cultivation.

"Oh, so you are confident."

"Of course, although I struggled earlier at the hands of those black-clothed men, I still believe in my talent. The truth is, the other day, a powerful female cultivator visited us and invited me to their 'island'. She said that the island master has taken a liking to my talent and wants me to be her disciple. She said that she would return in 4 to 6 months." She boasted like a child.

At this moment she was like a child in front of Azrael. And the funny thing is, she was unaware of the change in her behavior. 

"A powerful female cultivator, huh." he smiled with profound meaning.

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