Chapter 220: Just Passing Through

Chapter 220: Just Passing Through

As Xing Xun Heads back to her parents' side, after giving me her impassioned hug, I can see her father looking surprised at her actions. Clearly, such things arent normal for her. He quickly recovers and hands her the orb, so that she can increase her cultivation speed.

Just like before, the room darkens and a bright light shines from the orb itself. I notice the room is ever so slightly darker and the orb is just a tad bit brighter than for the others.

But just as quickly as it had started, did it end. And then, a slightly awkward, but excited silence rains throughout the home. Considering that the orb not only speeds up cultivation, it also increases the strength to a tier higher, its clear shell be an absolute powerhouse.

While theres good energy in the home right now, a brief glance outside sees that the sun is out and bright. I know I have more things I need to do before I reach the sect I need to wrap this up.

Broaching the silence, I say a few words.

So, I hear you have a debt to pay.

If the atmosphere was warm before, now its frigid. I change it back up with my next words.

This will help to get everything back together and you guys successful again.

I place down one gold and a half gold coin. Equal to around $150,000, or worth a decently sized cultivator friendly home.

Subconsciously, my eyes draw towards Daughter With the family. Looking to see her reaction. Especially considering her predictive abilities. Her eyes are bright towards me, and my scan gives me a hint of what might go through her mind.

She seems to be surprised. This was a very unlikely situation, but still possible from the little shes gathered about me. But no matter how unlikely it is or if she predicted it, this is an enormous gift. One that cant easily be repaid.

Which is why the father begins immediately declining the gift, even to the point of trying to turn his eyes away from it to prevent them from being glued to them.

Before he can continue, he sees the look on my face, and then goes silent. Quietly, he collects the money and deeply bows towards me. The wife and daughter do the same. Based on my estimates, their debts were about half of this.

Which is honestly remarkable, considering that they used to be a wealthier group, with a larger amount of money required to keep them going. This means that they manage to actually work their debt down to this amount.

However, this is also why the scan likely made it so important to reach here before a certain time. After all, the interest rates on the debt are massive. they were selling the last of their worthwhile items.

If paid in full, with the remaining $70,000, they could still afford a luxurious home w/ plenty of land. Though, it wouldnt have much access to qi.

Which wouldnt be a problem with their cultivation speed and exceptional breathing/meditation techniques.

They could rebuild their group and go from there.

Considering the daughter and her vast intelligence I suspect it wont be such a simple path. As they said it in my world, It takes money to make money.

Changing my direction to the mountaintop in the distance, where the sect is housed, I make sure that Im being as stealthy as possible. At least, until I get close.

As an additional safeguard, I purchase another layer of clothes to cover myself with. Adding in lumps and other things to distort the shape of my body.

The clothes wear heavy on my body, making me feel like a bulky dude. I dip between multiple people, hidden behind the surprisingly high amount of tall people, like myself.

Its a good thing Ive taken these precautions. As I move through the crowds, I can see groups of people and cultivators heading towards the nearest gates. Some whispers between them give the indication that they are helping with the search outside the walls for a cultivator of my description.

Normally, the information that I had gotten smuggled into the city would be public among the information groups, by this time. However, part of my scan parameters was to make sure that the smuggler and the people involved wouldnt give away my information.

At least, not readily.

So, while I dip between crowd to crowd, there are only a few cultivators I truly have to watch out for that are still keeping an eye out, despite the notice that Im likely outside the walls.

As I move steadily towards the set, one thing that is helping me not be as noticeable is the fact that Im not looking towards the mountain, but am still heading in that direction.

The downside to this approach is that it took me all the day just to get of the way there.

I have a few choices to make.

I could wait until the last minute to go up to the site to reach the time limit. Or I could head up early to get it out the way.

Since I already know there are several groups out to get me and delay me from joining at the higher levels, its barely even a thought before I head directly towards the sect again.

Initially, I head towards the stairs, but then I realized they wouldnt allow me to go up through there, as there are other perspective members trying to take their tests.

Instead, I head up the generic way.

Before me, it is a path converging from many others, with many people traveling along it.

Despite the many architectural wonders Ive seen thus far, the varied movements and crowds of people all converging into this one area is a wonder of itself.

There seem to be multiple lines and pass for different people. Just looking at it causes me to need my scan to figure out where I should go.

And thats when I hear the rumble of a cart barreling down the road from one path towards this one. And on that path a little way ahead is a young child moving back into one of the lines.

They turn towards the cart and seem frozen in place. And if they dont move, theyll be run over by the fast cart.

Really?

Why does this clich have to happen now?