Plenty of things made little sense to William at the moment.

He wasn’t thinking about the multiple people that came to the doors at the last minute only to be turned away. Apparently, refusing service for the nobles in the city was also a tradition when closing a branch. Purely to incite displeasure against the ruling Prince and his family, which Prince Yuan was a part of.

He wasn’t even thinking about why he hadn’t received the repeatable side quest reward for visiting the Jade Healing Clinic, which was still listed as active in the system though the Clinic had closed for the foreseeable future.

No, William was thinking about how Elder Yu and Lan Yin made a big deal of staying away from the Treasure Palace but left him and Ren Bo alone in the city. He wasn’t worried that he would suddenly lose his mind and rush off to see Mei Lingxi, but wouldn’t it be easy for the Prince to force a small cultivator like him to do his bidding?

William had thought that was why Lan Yin escorted him to the Qi Refining rooms after the ordeal at the Treasure Palace. Apparently, he was wrong with that assumption.

On top of that, there was now something around his neck that a Nascent Soul realm cultivator would desire. Just another worry that William had to consider.

“You look constipated. Don’t ask me to fix that for you, Brother Wei.”

William shot Ren Bo an annoyed glance before saying, “I’m not. So where is this Xiao Yuan Village?”

“… Did you not look at a map of the Empire?”

“You saw what I was doing every day. I barely had enough time to eat!” William defended himself, even though it was mostly because he had completely forgotten about it.

“Goddess Lan would be very disappointed, Brother Wei,” Ren Bo tutted, “It’s not that far from the city. If we exhaust ourselves, it should take around a day to reach the village. Of course, that would be silly, so let’s say around three days.”

“Oh,” William nodded, “Not too bad. So, are we going to hire a carriage? Maybe join a caravan that’s going in the same direction?”

When Ren Bo looked at him like he was an idiot, William went back over his words and wondered what he said that deserved that reaction.

“Why would you want to waste so much time? It’ll take nearly a month of mind-numbing travel with either of your options! Did you secretly want to become a mercenary, Brother Wei?”

“Then how are we going to get there?”

William was honestly just thinking of the common methods he remembered reading about in novels. Something he should remember never to mention again after he heard what Ren Bo said.

“My Spirit Boat, obviously,” Ren Bo still had that incredulous look on his face, though the same now appeared on William’s.

One of the first things he had looked up in the catalog was the cost of buying a spirit boat from the Sect. After seeing the price in the four figures… in Spirit Stones, he immediately slammed the booklet shut.

William already knew that Ren Bo was valuable to the Sect, but he didn’t think it was at this level. At the very least, the mystery of why everyone casually left them alone in the city was explained.

There must be a secret protector following Ren Bo, even though that directly contradicted what Elder Yu ordered. Perhaps that was only for show so they think the mission was truly dangerous.

“Then I suppose we should get going, Brother Ren.”

“Are you sure? I don’t mind if you want to stare at the Clinic for a bit more. I can still smell Goddess Li’s flowery scent in the air.”

William shuddered in disgust and stepped away from Ren Bo, briefly forgetting how creepy the kid could get. It was a caricature-like perversion that really shouldn’t exist in real people.

“I don’t think so,” William crushed Ren Bo’s fantasies when he pointed behind them, “I think you’re smelling the flowers that lady is selling over there.”

“… Fine, let’s go, Brother Wei. There’s no time to waste.”

William followed him while chuckling occasionally at Ren Bo’s frustration. The walk to the exit was a trip down memory lane since he hadn’t visited these parts of the city since he arrived in this world. He had either gone deeper toward the center or used the array to leave the city entirely.

“So many people…”

“And?” William asked as he leisurely followed the flow of people heading to the gate, “What about the people?”

“Too many, Brother Wei. It feels like everything is packed as tight as possible.”

William could understand that point of view since the Sect grounds were beyond spacious, but this was nothing compared to the concrete jungles he knew of. He wasn’t exactly sure how large the city was, but he knew enough that mortal inhabitants from one end would never see the opposite in their lives. Not that they wouldn’t want to, but navigating the winding roads would take well over a few weeks, which they simply couldn't afford.

He was thankful that almost everything cultivators needed was within the same section of the city, so there was no need to deal with the same issues. After all, even if he was a cultivator, it wasn’t like he could fly above the city to reach his destination faster. Even he was limited by the slowness of the mortals.

William chuckled at Ren Bo’s reaction when it seemed like the mortals became even more numerous. He looked around and vaguely remembered how the buildings appeared less ornate the closer to the grand archway. He supposed it was an area with people who had less wealth, so it made sense when the number of mortals increased.

“Brother Wei, look! There are goddesses even among mortals!”

He flinched in surprise when Ren Bo grabbed his shoulder and roughly shook him while blatantly pointing at a girl uninterestedly looking out her palanquin. When the girl seemed to look at them, almost as if in response to Ren Bo’s excited yell, William activated his system’s feature.

No mortal would be able to hear that.

[Name: Princess Jin | Level: 34]

William cursed softly and grabbed Ren Bo’s arm before pulling him toward the gate at a faster pace.

“Let go of me!” Ren Bo yelled while struggling, but William was happy to see that he couldn’t get free. At least that meant he was stronger than someone for once. He reminded himself to use Observe to get accurate stats on Ren Bo.

“That girl is a princess, Brother Ren,” William whispered as he tried to weave through the crowd without seeming like he was in a rush, “Don’t bring trouble on us just when we are about to leave.”

“Princess?” Ren Bo repeated with a dumb smile, “No wonder she’s a goddess. Let me talk to her, Brother Wei! She is the one for me!”

William’s eye twitched as he resisted the urge to knock the kid out. He could barely keep his cool as he imagined being discovered by the Imperial Family and disappearing under unfortunate circumstances. In his panic, he had forgotten that he was a trash talent, with only the system letting him appear as a genius.

“Your Goddess Lan told me to avoid them. Do you want to do something she advised against?”

William thought it worked when Ren Bo silently let himself be dragged toward the quickly nearing archway. Until it suddenly changed.

“No! Goddess Lan must be mistaken. The Goddess Princess must be tr-”

Ren Bo tried to scratch at William’s hand covering his mouth, but it was ineffective due to him being too weak. Once again, William reveled at finally being stronger than someone. However, the looks they were getting from those around them significantly diminished that feeling.

“It’s alright!” William shouted to the mortals pointing at him, “My friend is a cultivator, you see. And he has these outbursts once in a while due to his cultivation.”

That didn’t work at all, but since they were close to the gates, he didn’t really care. William didn’t know Ren Bo was this much of a liability. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was just a kid and that he had healed him numerous times, no matter how questionable it was, William would have left Ren Bo behind to deal with this mess himself.

He was thinking about doing that anyway if he was honest with himself. The damned palanquin was slowly moving after them, and it sounded like someone called them to stop.

William looked at the distance between them and the gates, then at the princess following them. Even if he miraculously pulled Ren Bo to the gates successfully, it wasn’t like he could fight the guards if they were ordered to stop them.

Well, William technically could, but the only thing that would accomplish was getting the attention of the cultivators guarding the city. Even now, he remembered the ominous feeling from the dragon statue when he entered the city. He did not want to get on the wrong side of whoever was watching through that.

With a sigh, William released Ren Bo.

“Goddess Princess! I’m coming for you!”

William would have laughed at the phrasing if he wasn’t walking away from this disaster as fast as he could.