Chương 84: Huang Empire

"I sense something. Do you feel it too, Xiaorong?" Shu Yang asked in a low voice as he made his way down the wide and busy street in the capital of the Huang Empire.

"Cultivators," Xiaorong responded. Shu Yang took a deep breath.

'Finally.'

"Do you know how many there are? Can you feel their strength?" Shu Yang asked.

"Not many," Xiaorong answered, "Not sure. No Foundation."

"That's good," Shu Yang said. Before heading to the Huang Empire's capital, Shu Yang had traveled to the capital of the kingdom he first arrived in. But to his surprise, there were no cultivators there. Shu Yang had even gone straight to the palace, not quite believing that the king himself was just an ordinary person. But he couldn't feel the presence of any cultivator even then. Luckily, he still knew that there was an Empire to the north, so he left the kingdom and continued his journey.

'It still feels odd that there are so few cultivators around. Does the Green River Sect take every single person with spiritual roots away? Can they accommodate so many people? Or are spiritual roots a lot rarer than I thought?' Shu Yang didn't have any exact data, but from what he had gleaned from other people over the past few days of traveling, there should be a whole 23 kingdoms under the Huang Empire. Shu Yang estimated that each kingdom had a population between half a million and a million.

Adding up the people in the Huang Empire itself, there should be at least 20 million people under the Emperor's rule. It was hard to imagine that, among so many people, only a few were cultivators.

'Maybe it's an issue of spiritual qi. I haven't really felt the presence of any so far. Are all cultivators gathered in some other place?' Shu Yang walked closer to the city center, and once he came close to the palace, he could actually make out the cultivators behind the walls.

'There are three of them'"Can you feel their strength now?" Shu Yang asked Xiaorong. Shu Yang himself only vaguely felt that one of the three was stronger than the other two.

"6th stage Qi Refining, 2nd stage Qi Refining, and 3rd stage Qi Refining," Xiaorong answered.

"Better than me," Shu Yang said, a little surprised by their strength.

'How do I approach them? Or do I even try?' Shu Yang thought about it for a moment before asking Xiaorong, "Can you go inside and see if you can find any information?"

"Yes," Xiaorong nodded.

"They won't spot you, right?" Shu Yang asked.

"Impossible," Xiaorong said, sounding disdainful.

"Alright, alright. Give it a try then. I'll go around the city and see if I can find out something. These people know of the existence of cultivators, so they should know where they all are, even if they aren't cultivators themselves." Xiaorong gave him a nod and jumped off his shoulders. She flew over the palace walls with ease, and no one turned their heads to look at her.

'It should be fine, right? She is a Foundation Beast, and her bloodline makes hiding natural for her.' Shu Yang felt that if her parents had managed to escape the Qing family's pursuit back then, Xiaorong should be able to handle these weaklings with ease. He turned around and started looking for a place where he might be able to look for information. Not many people glanced his way, making Shu Yang relieved. He had bought some new clothes and some more professional makeup to cover his charm.

It wasn't anything drastic; he just darkened his skin, trying to go for a typical farmer's tan.

'Still feels a bit strange. Hopefully, I won't have to keep this up once I find the place where all the cultivators are. I shouldn't look out of place there.'

'But it would be a problem if they could tell I'm at the Foundation stage. That would attract too much attention.' This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

'It's only my body cultivation, though. Perhaps people here aren't used to that, and they can't pick up on it. Or is there a way to hide my strength? There should be, right? It would be odd if I can't hide my strength from people weaker than me, at least.'

'I'll ask Xiaorong about it later.' Shu Yang had learned a few tricks to hide his aura over the years. He could slow down his heartbeat and empty his body of innate qi, collecting it in his heart. It was effective to some degree, but not enough to reassure Shu Yang. He would prefer a more exact technique.

'Perhaps I could deduce a technique with the help of the Bloodline Tree? But that would take a long time. It might not even be possible without anything to reference.'

'I still need to deduce how to cultivate my body in the Foundation stage too. It would be unwise to postpone that too much.' Shu Yang hadn't really gotten anywhere when it came to deducing the next step. It was hard to find the time during his journey.

'I might be able to find some cultivation technique in this place. That would speed things up quite a bit. But do they even have body cultivators here?' Shu Yang snapped out of his thoughts as he spotted a bookstore further up the street.

'Books! That works.' Shu Yang entered the store, gave the clerk or manager behind the front desk a friendly smile, and started walking down the aisle, looking at the book titles. He spotted a book titled 'History of the Huang Empire' and reached his hand up to grab it, thinking it might contain some useful information. But to his surprise, the book was stuck. Taking a closer look, the book seemed to be behind a small ledge, and you would need to remove it to take out the book.

"I'm sorry, young master." The man who had stood behind the desk came up and apologized with a bow, "We have had some issues lately with people reading and not paying, so we keep the books in the store locked." Shu Yang could tell that the man was lying, but didn't really care.

"If you tell me what you're looking for, I'd be happy to tell you if we have a book on the topic. I can give you just a summary of any book in the shop, much more convenient than trying to glean any information yourself would be."

"I understand," Shu Yang said with a smile, "I'm thinking about sending the kid to try out for the Green River Sects test next year, and would like some more information on the topic. Do you have anything like that?"

"Of course," The man nodded with a smile, "Are you interested in the procedure for the test itself, or more information about the Green River Sect in general?"

"Anything about cultivators in general?" Shu Yang answered, a little excited.

"If you would follow me," The man said, gesturing for Shu Yang to follow him. The man led Shu Yang deeper into the store, and Shu Yang noticed that he had a ponytail.

'Maybe I should let my hair grow, or I might stick out too much.' He had noticed that the wealthy tended to have long hair in these parts, even if they weren't cultivators. If having short hair was rare among cultivators, he would attract unnecessary attention in the future.

'I guess I would need more time for that. Maybe I can buy a wig somewhere, along with some other stuff good for disguising myself.'

"These are the books we have on cultivators. Of course, the information about the Green River Sect is mostly compiled of rumors and such, but the testing process is very accurately detailed in this book," The man said, pointing to one of the books on the shelf, "Along with some information about the world of cultivators."

"What about…well, other forces outside the Green River Sect?" Shu Yang asked.

"Cultivation forces? You mean those in the Yuanchi Immortal Land?" The man asked.

"That's right," Shu Yang said with a nod, acting like he had heard the name many times before.

"I'm afraid that's a bit beyond my small bookstore," The man said with a small smile, "I doubt you'd find information about that easily anywhere in the capital."

"Even rumors?" Shu Yang asked.

"Well," The man hesitated slightly, "This book, 'Land of Immortals,' has a collection of stories that take place there, but it's probably more fiction than facts."

"I see," Shu Yang nodded. He was tempted to just take all the books about cultivators the man had, but he was afraid that would be a bit strange. So after asking a few more questions, he decided on five books to buy. He had plenty of money, as taking some coins from the wealthy in the cities he had passed was child's play to him and Xiaorong. He discreetly took the coins needed from his storage pouch and gave them to the shopkeeper.

He left the store with his new books and hurriedly looked for a place to sit down and read. Xiaorong would be able to sense his location easily, so he just needed to wait for her to find him. Shu Yang found a tea house where he took a seat and started reading. Even if the procedure for the Green River Sects wasn't really relevant for him, he still found himself reading about it eagerly. Everything that had to do with cultivators interested him greatly.

But the thing he was most curious about was what the man in the bookstore had called the Yuanchi Immortal Land.

'Is that where the Qing family is? Is that where Tianyi is?' Unfortunately, it didn't seem like much information about that place was available. But even if the books just contained rumors and stories, Shu Yang read every word carefully.

'Let's hope Xiaorong has managed to find some clues when she returns.'