Dual Cultivation God Returns

"Young Master", Butler Bang, along with a few of his subordinates, greeted Wu Long and the ladies with him at the gates of the city, and then half turning in an inviting gesture, led them deeper into the streets, "This way"

"When are we departing?", Wu Long asked as they walked.

"In three days, the inn has been prepared for your stay", Butler Bang nodded, noting that despite the arrival of such a colorful party, they weren't particularly attracting much attention, while not being completely invisible either, as street vendors still called out to the group trying to get them to look at their wares.

'So this is Lady Fen Baihu's Cloak of Perception', he thought with admiration.

"Is Qian with Old Yen and Guanting?", Wu Long asked as the group stopped and as his eyes were following Wu Mengqi, Hua Ziyan, Shen Min and Luo Mingyu stop near one of the street shops, prompting Gong Cui, Cao Mei and Song Lingfei to join them as they giggled and spoke in excited tones.

"Yes, he tagged along when they went to gather information", Butler Bang answered with a light smile.

Wu Long nodded and stepped forward in response to enthusiastic beckoning from Wu Mengqi and Gong Cui.

The three days they spent in the city were rather peaceful, going on dates and shopping in the day, and watching sunsets in the evening on the sky pier.

"Are you anxious?", Wu Long asked Luo Mingyu on one such outing, as they stood all together on a pier, watching the sun setting over the distant horizon.

She turned to him with surprise at first, but knowing it was no use denying simply wryly smiled, "I was just thinking about my recent progress…"

"It is important to concentrate, but it is as important to take a rest, Mingyu. It is okay to let go for a short time, and relax while you have the opportunity. I can't say this is exactly a vacation, but since we're traveling anyway, you can just take this chance to enjoy it. So that you can have no distractions and regrets about not enjoying this time when you return to your meditations", he softly spoke, his voice reaching not only her ears, but the beauties around as well.

"Mm", she nodded with a gentle smile, turning her eyes back to the beautiful scenery, a more relaxed look in her eyes, taking the moment to enjoy this quiet comfort.

Throughout this time there was no sight of the trio headed by Old Yen, who only joined them as they boarded the Beast of Burden.

Wu Long's group took up an entire top floor of the vessel on the beast. Though Old Yen, Nie Guanting and Kwon Qianhong blended with the other passengers on the ship, taking up the cheapest rooms at the lowest level. They also didn't outwardly approach Wu Long's group, maintaining their appearance of a separate small group to continue gathering information aboard the ship.

"Are you wondering how much it would cost to buy such beasts?", Wu Long spoke from behind Sui Luxiao and Cao Xiang who stood at the edge of the balcony, watching the final preparations for departure below.

"Hehe, well, you said that they were used for commercial shipping", Sui Luxiao smiled.

"From the looks of it we need to hire Beast Tamers to control them though", Cao Xiang's eyes isolated the one controlling the beast, noting that while the crew of the vessel behaved similar to how a maritime ship's crew would in terms of cargo loading, maintenance and pre-departure inspections - which meant her Liugwei Escort Agency's members would fit right into the roles - the crucial operation of movement was entirely reliant on the Beast Tamer.

"Yes, though we could try training from our people, experienced Beast Tamers would likely have tricks of their own", Wu Long nodded as he joined the two beauties in looking at the preparations, while the sound of a Zither started flowing from the inner part of the balcony behind them.

"Hah, it seems you were once interested in Beast Taming?", Sui Luxiao chuckled, since his words implied he knew the techniques used by this profession.

"I was briefly, but I rarely practiced it since there wasn't much merit in doing it before. I did memorize the techniques just in case though", he nodded with a smile, "But yeah, it would be convenient to have vessels of our own, not only for business but for our personal use, there'd be no need to worry about pests then as well"

"Are you talking about that guy who kept staring at us when we were boarding?", Cao Xiang frowned slightly, remembering that gaze.

"Mm, it seems we'll be meeting pirates on the way", Wu Long nodded, "You don't have to worry though, it won't interfere with our travel much, we can reap some benefits instead"

Both beauties looked at each other and smiled as they turned back to him.

"And here I thought I'd get rid of him", Hong Ye's figure appeared from behind Wu Long.

"Hahaha, Qian's going to throw a fit if you do that, if something happens to the lookout the pirates will likely retreat into hiding, and there'll be no opportunity for him to practice his Dao", Wu Long chuckled as he stepped forward to stand in between Cao Xiang and Sui Luxiao.

"If Darling says so, I'll let that guy live…" , Hong Ye shrugged her shoulders as if showing that it can't be helped, "…though I'll still get rid of him when he's of no use anymore"

"What about the other group?" Hong Yue, who tagged along with her twin, asked standing a bit further away.

"Leave them be, we're going to see how the situation goes. In any case there's no reason to be hostile with them, if things go right we might even gain", Wu Long answered as he leaned his back against the rails, surrounded by three beauties.

"Hahaha, I knew it", Hong Ye giggled as she leaned against Wu Long's chest, looking back at her sister, "Didn't I tell you that's what Darling will say, SIster Yue?"

"I didn't argue with you, did I?", Hong Yue folded her arms and shifted her weight to one foot, making a sarcastic expression visible even if the lower half of her face was covered by her mask.

Wu Long and Hong Ye both chuckled at that posture, as did Sui Luxiao and Cao Xiang.

As they were talking, the final preparations were over, and with all passengers on board, the beast made a low sound, and then with a slightly more pronounced flapping of the giant wings, started slowly moving forward, away from the port, gradually raising its speed, thus starting the rather long voyage toward the Wei Dynasty.