As they approached the gates, Qian Yu realized security was extremely tight compared to before. Additionally, there was a queue to enter the city as it seemed like people were being checked prior to entering the capital. 

“Did something happen?” Zhen Yue said as she curiously looked at what was going on. 

“Hmm, it’s only been a week but it seemed like we missed out on something important,” Qian Yu said as the two entered the queue to enter the city. 

“State your identity and show any proof you have,” a guard said to Qian Yu and Zhen Yue after the two waited in queue for an hour.

With his identification card and Ice Arts Sect robes taken out prior, he showed the guard as he said, “I’m a disciple from the Ice Arts Sect from the Xia Empire of the Southern Ice Continent,” 

Taking the card from him, the guard looked at it for a couple of seconds before pointing to Zhen Yue saying, “Alright, what about you?”

Intervening, Qian Yu said, “She’s with me,”

Shaking his head, the guard said, “If she doesn’t have any proof then she’ll be considered a rogue cultivator and can’t enter.” 

‘Damn it, the slave contract would be useful here,’ Qian Yu cursed as he considered just leaving with Zhen Yue. 

However, Zhen Yue, from the side, pulled Qian Yu over as she whispered, “Master, just go in ahead without me. I can wait outside while you look for information. If anything, I can just stay at the town half an hour away west of here if you don’t come back.”

“Mmm, if I don’t come back by nightfall then just head to the town then. If anything I’ll try to visit you guys in a day or two,” Qian Yu said as he remembered the town she was talking about. 

Then, making sure no one was looking he summoned Tian Xinyi and gave her to Zhen Yue saying, “If anything abnormal happens like that other village, Xinyi should signal you. Worst case scenario, you can come back here and stay outside the city. Me and Xinyi have a spiritual connection so we should be able to locate and communicate with each other if we are close enough”. If needed, Qian Yu could still use his cloak to hide from danger and the city should be relatively safe compared to outside it.

‘Take good care of her, Xinyi, I’ll make sure to reward you plenty later,’ Qian Yu said to Tian Xinyi.

“I’ll get going then,” Qian Yu looked back at Zhen Yue. 

“Alright master,” Zhen Yue nodded as Qian Yu proceeded to leave her and enter the city gate. 

‘There’s still a few days until the festival ends but the atmosphere is really tense for some reason…’ Qian Yu thought as he looked around during the city. There were notably a lot more guards and the previous joyful mood was weaker now.

‘Sigh, what could have happened. Firstly, I should get some information,’ Qian Yu thought as he headed towards one of the rogue cultivator meeting locations.

Soon, Qian Yu arrived at the market area where a meeting was supposed to be held. ‘Hmm, looks different from before as well. Normally, there were a lot of rogue cultivators that could be seen in this area but today, there aren’t any rogue cultivators here,’ Qian Yu thought to himself as he compared it to his prior experience. Unlike before, where black clothed cultivators swarmed the place, it seemed desolate today.

Wearing his white Ice Arts Sect robe, Qian Yu decided to head into the marketplace. Pretending to be interested in some items, Qian Yu walked around as he looked around for anything else abnormal. 

An hour passed and just as he was about to leave the marketplace, he heard a voice come from behind, “Hello young master Qian, my master would like to talk to you?”

“Huh? Who are you? How do you know me?” Qian Yu didn’t answer as he asked the other party. Turning around, he saw a middle aged man currently bowing. As for his cultivation, Qian Yu could easily tell he was much stronger than himself since he couldn’t feel the man’s power at all.

‘Master? Who could it be? The black dress woman would just appear out of nowhere and she shouldn’t need me anytime soon so it can’t be her. Could it be Zhong Chun? That’s the only other person I’m really acquantainted with,’ Qian Yu thought of all the possibilities. 

“Could it be Zhong Chun?” Qian Yu asked. 

“Yes, young master Qian is correct. Please follow me,” the man confirmed Qian Yu’s guess.

“Alright,” Qian Yu agreed. ‘Zhong Chun probably knows what’s going on. Looks like his background is indeed not ordinary like I thought,’ Qian Yu noted.

Half an hour later, Qian Yu and the man entered a pretty rich part of the capital and entered a small pavilion. 

As Qian Yu entered the pavillion, he saw Zhong Chun speaking with a couple of other people. Seeing Qian Yu, Zhong Chun waved his hands and the others left.

“Hey Qian Yu, I’m glad you’re fine but you must be super confused right now hahaha,” Zhong Chun laughed spiritedly. 

“Hello Zhong Chun, that is indeed the truth,” Qian Yu replied.

“Alright, alright, sit down and I’ll catch you up. I knew you weren’t no random rogue cultivator. Turns out you were even a sect disciple from a foreign country,” Zhong Chun said as he motioned Qian Yu to sit down.

“Same goes for you ‘master Zhong’. You even own a house in the Soba capital,” Qian Yu smiled back as he sat down. ‘He has been using a rogue cultivator identity like me since the beginning. I should have known when I saw his cultivation technique,’ Qian Yu thought.

Pouring some tea, Zhong Chun started talking, “Hahaha, let’s just say I’m borrowing it. A house in a country like this wouldn’t even amount to much anyways. Getting back on point, there’s been some occurrences on the spiritual beasts side in the country. Uhh, pretty much there’s going to be a spiritual beast horde attack from the Soba Summits on the capital. I’m not sure if the horde has already started moving but if they haven’t, they should be attacking soon.”

*cough cough* “What! A spiritual beast horde? Isn’t the capital surrounded by the Soba Summits on three sides?” Qian Yu yelled out at the random unexpected event. 

‘If I knew earlier I would have left with Zhen Yue instead of going on that damn trip,’ Qian Yu rubbed his forehead as he thought about what this meant. From prior experience, it had taken him 4 days to go from the capital to the eastern part of Soba Summits in the middle of the continent. If he left right now, he would just instantly become fodder to the spiritual beasts.

“Yup, other than the southern direction of the capital, the spiritual beast horde will be coming from the other three directions,” Zhong Chun replied.

“Why is the security so strict and what about all the rogue cultivators then?” Qian Yu asked.

“Well in general, when things go bad, rogue cultivators cool down and go into hiding since they are usually the first suspects for events like this. As for the security, it's just a safety measure the city has opted to do temporarily until they come up with a plan,” Zhong Chun explained.

“Hmm, that makes sense,” Qian Yu nodded. 

“While that might be the case most of the time, it’s obvious that your average rogue cultivator isn’t responsible for something on the scale of a spiritual beast horde. Have you heard of the Hunted List?” Zhong Chun asked.

“Yeah, it’s a bounty list that the World Congress created,” Qian Yu nodded as he said. 

“It’s suspected that a few people on that list were responsible for this,” Zhong Chun said as he stood up and went over to a desk to look for something.

‘Hunted List huh? Only those that are Martial Fighters or stronger are on that list. Not even that, there’s a few of them…,’ Qian Yu cursed inwardly with a solemn look.

Seeing Qian Yu’s solemn look, Zhong Chun, said “Don’t worry about it too much.” 

Then going through his desk in search of something, he continued, “As you know, the royal family in the Soba Empire is only a figurehead and doesn’t have any military power. All the sects in the country are the ones with real power, but they are only interested in protecting their own land. Even then, it’s estimated that it is still not enough so the country is requesting additional backup from abroad, which should come around tonight. Tomorrow, there will be a war council meeting in the morning which all cultivators in the city should go to. As you know, there are many disciples from throughout the world right now since it’s the Soba festival and they want all of us to cooperate.”

‘Military meeting eh?’ Qian Yu thought to himself. If this was a crisis affecting a sect normally, the disciples would easily unite together. While it was difficult to say how successful it would be with people of all backgrounds in the city, if their lives were at staked, they would naturally come together under a single goal. 

If anything, Qian Yu was fine participating in their plans as it was a good learning experience and there wasn’t any other option besides not doing anything and hoping for the best. 

Grabbing a few scrolls, Zhong Chun walked back and handed the scrolls to Qian Yu saying, “Anyways, these are the culprits.”

‘I wonder where he gets all his information from? No wonder he always had better information than me. He can probably get a lot from his real identity. He must be a noble or something like sister Bai or Zhao Xieren,’ Qian Yu was amazed as he took the scrolls from him.

“What are the plans about the towns an-,” Qian Yu started talking as he took the scrolls. Opening them, he saw a couple of hand drawn portraits. Yet as he glanced at the scroll, a face stood out. 

Memories flashed through his mind as he remembered the first portrait of a person on the Hunted List when he first came to the Soba Empire before he saw a similar face just a few days ago. Now, the same face was on here.

“Hmm? Something wrong?” Zhong Chun asked as he saw Qian Yu stop talking.

“I-I’ve seen this face… a couple days ago,” Qian Yu said with horror on his face.