The White Blossom City has 4 gates. Each gate represented an entrance from a different direction, routes to different counties, and a major sect that was based in this county. The Western Gate was bordering the Whistling Vine County and also the direction of Thousand Blossoms Sect.

The Thousand Blossom Sect was a hard and steadfast qi-cultivating Dao Sect, they have many renowned branches. The most popular will be their Sword cultivation division which was headed by the mid-core inversion stage patriarch of the sect, Sword Temperance Dao Lord Tian Kun. Sword Temperance Dao Lord is the patriarch's title which he got when he advanced into the Core Inversion realm(6th stage). He is also one of the strongest cultivators in the entire Xin Kingdom and the surrounding countries as well.

The Northern Gate leads towards the Void Sea and the north-eastern coast towards the Purple Flower Sect and Xu Crane County. The Xin Kingdom itself consisted of 9 counties of about equal sizes. The white blossom county accounts for the northern-eastern side where it is facing the entrance of the void sea. The Purple Flower Sect is one of the famous sects in the county, they have more focus on pill-making and contain quite a few of the best alchemists in the entire Xin Kingdom.

The Eastern Gate was bordering the Valiant Tiger County had the Dao Xuan Temple in that direction. The Dao Xuan Temple mainly hosts Buddhist disciples who cultivate in the Buddhist sutras and try to obtain nirvana. The abbot over there was known to have sealed a strong demon in the early core inversion stage.

The Eastern Gate was also bordering the Vermillion Range which separates Xin Kingdom from the Devil Saint Dukedom. An enemy country of the Xin Kingdom. This was mainly due to different ideologies and cultivation methods as many sects over there cultivate devilish and heretical arts.

The Southern Gate was border 2 counties, Black Serpent County and Green Tortoise County. The prominent sect in this area was the Myriads Arms School. This sect is a very special sort of sect that focuses largely on weapon arts (wuxia). They even recruit mortal weapon masters to teach cultivators weapon skills if they are talented enough. The school's motto was unique in that they emphasize the idea of "Weapons surpassing cultivation bases". Nevertheless, the cultivation levels of the disciples over there were not weak. It was just that their weapon arts were much scarier.

The last notable sect in White Blossom County exists in the heart of the county. It lies in the city lord's mansion and its surrounding compounds. The Dugu Clan which manages the White Blossom County has a strong family branch that also recruits and trains vagrant cultivators.

The Dugu clan itself is very strong, only second to the Thousand Blossom Sect in power. Their resources are aplenty but often restricted within the main family. There has been word that access towards better skills requires signing a temporary contract of service to the county itself. Most cultivators who value freedom like Liu Xun would do their best to avoid the clan. Nevertheless, some still choose this place to cultivate as they believe in the saying 'rich captivity over poor freedom'.

There are also many other smaller schools and sects out there which operate on a much smaller scale. Liu Xun would rather not choose such places as they lack the most important things—backing, a proper heritage, and fame. Without the first, one would easily face trouble. Without the second, one would not be able to develop fast. Without the third, one would easily be looked down upon.

--

Liu Xun had arrived at the eastern gate. This was where he had agreed to the meet-up with Senior Qin. The gate area had a few people coming in and out. Most of them were merchants and hunters. Occasionally, a cultivator or two would also fly by.

At the side of the gate, seven people were waiting over there. Senior Qin was sitting under the tree shade in a lotus position. It was impressive that she could cultivate in such a noisy place. Liu Xun would not believe that he could have that level of dedication and focus.

Beside her, were four very familiar people. They were three of the members of the Liu Family geniuses and one of the family elders. Liu Langsheng, Waner, Ruoxue, and the fifth elder of the Liu Family.

Liu Xun was surprised to see them over here. He was expecting there to be other cultivators present, but he did not expect so many of them to come from the Liu Family.

There were two other cultivators that he did not recognize. One of them was a large man covered in bandages with a huge coffin behind him. The other was a slightly frail old man with white long hair dressed in a yellow robe.

As Liu Xun walked up to the group, the others noticed his arrival. The Liu Family genius gave him greetings. The fifth elder gave a slight nod. The other two basically ignored his existence.

Senior Qin slowly opened her eyes as she got to her feet. She walked up to Liu Xin with an apologetic expression.

"Initially, I had only planned to bring you along with my other two friends. The Liu Family has just recently sent a request to bring some of their juniors over to the Vile Moon Wolf Forest which is just located next to the orchid basin where I was planning to go."

She paused slightly as she took a breath.

"Though having more people coming along is not necessarily a good thing, I thought that we might as well have them join us. Even the senior from your family who is as about as strong as I am in cultivation level is coming with us. Do not worry, I will still help you obtain your share of beast qi materials. I won't go back on my words."

Senior Qin's reasoning is pretty sound. In the first place, Liu Xun was just leeching off her and the others. He could not be called this unfair treatment by any means.

"This is big guy is Bloody Xuan, a corpse puppet controller. The elderly man over there is Scholar Gan, a talisman user. They are both cultivators in the Essence Foundation realm as well. Both of them also have their reasons to go to the Vermillion ranges and they will be joining us until we reach the basin where they will go to their own destinations."

Senior Qin introduced the two other members of the team.

Liu Xun then walked up and greeted the two seniors, which they gave a slight response. The group then made some minor preparations before setting off from the gate.

--

Rattle. Rattle.

"Hey, hey Liu Xun. Want to talk? I am very bored. The others are all so unfriendly. They were initially willing to chat with me but they all are just ignoring me now. How rude, right? So shall we chat? How about I talk about the time Lady Bai's parrot actually escaped. It was pretty interesting..."

Langsheng who was beside Liu Xun began chattering out. Besides him, the other cultivators were all silently cultivating.

His voice was irritating as it distracted the mental state. Liu Waner was already giving the poisonous look towards Langsheng as he kept on muttering. The rest already got used to his nonsense and were just ignoring him.

It was a three-day journey to the entrance of the vermillion range. The two-horse carriage moved on as the cultivators were all seated inside the large carriage. The horses have been trodding for half a day already as the sun was about to set.

Soon, the carriage came to a halt by an old dilapidated temple. It has already been abandoned for a few years due to a previous famine that wiped the village in the vicinity out. The temple stood there in utter disrepair, the roof tiles were broken, pillars were rotting, weeds were overgrown.

All the cultivators came out of the carriage and began to set up camp. The individual members divided the labor and Liu Xun's job was his specialty, collecting firewood.

He went into the woods and found small trees as he swung his ax. There is a faint trace of qi traveling to his ax. This helped to expend some qi for cultivation as well as speed up the process of gathering wood.

Thack. Thack.Thack.

Liu Xun slowly chopped down the trees into smaller portions. He then bundled them up and brought them back to the campsite. The camp was already set up when he arrived back, there were some small animals like foxes, rabbits, and pheasants that lay by the campfire.

The group had a meal shortly after it was prepared. Everyone was just eating simple grilled meat and watery vegetable soup seasoned with salt. It was a fairly simple traveler's meal. After the meal, Liu Xun told the group that he was going to do his sign-in.

This was normal news to the Liu Family and Qin Yeqian.

However, Senior Xuan and Gan were surprised. Everyone in White Blossom County would know about Liu Xun by now due to his public announcing sign-in system. Most would not know every cultivators' appearance, much less a mortal's.

They knew that they were traveling with a beginner qi gathering novice, but they did not imagine it was this infamous junior. The both of them changed their looks of disdain to a look of sheer curiosity. Rumors have already traveled wide about this 'Liu Xun' who pulled a legendary 'Frost Yin Serenity Sword' after all. The source of the rumor and the owner of the sword are located in the same place. Interesting, they thought to themselves.

"System, sign-in."

[Signing in..]

[Congratulations Host Liu Xun for signing in at the “Abandoned Cuilian Buddhist Temple”. You have obtained the grey prize - mantou x3 (bread)!]

...

What is with temples and mantous!

They could give him anything out there like wood, paper scrolls, or even straw hats, but they always end giving him offerings!

Is the system really not making fun of me?

[Affirmative. The system is unbiased. There is just a 50% chance of pulling mantou from the trash pulls at temples. It was set up by one of the great ones.]

And why does it feel like I know which great one is the one who did that?

The group was once again surprised.