It took them around a week to arrive at Floating Seed City.
When they arrived, they couldn’t help being surprised by the number of people on the road.
Even if this was one of the biggest cities in the Southern Province, there shouldn’t have been this many people heading to Floating Seed City. It was almost on the same level as the capital of the Southern Province.
So both Lin Fan and Mu Bao Bao couldn’t help finding this very strange.
As they headed towards the city, they tried to find another group on the road to ask about the situation.
However, all of the groups that they passed were…people wrapped tightly in cloaks.𝒩𝑶𝒱𝓵xt.𝓬𝗈𝗆
Not to mention, they could feel traces of spiritual energy coming from every group that they passed.
It was clear that every group traveling on the road with them were all…cultivators!
There wasn’t a single group of merchants or commoners that were traveling on this path to Floating Seed City.
Since they were disguising themselves as normal people, they couldn’t just approach the cultivators. Not to mention, the cultivators didn’t seem like they wanted to talk to them in the first place.
Every single group kept to themselves and there were many groups that looked at each other with hostility. It was clear that there were grudges and relationships between these groups of cultivators.
All of this just made Lin Fan and Mu Bao Bao more anxious.
Luckily for them, they were close enough to the city that they weren’t bothered by this for long.
When they arrived, they were surprised by the strict check that the guards of the city were performing. There were even quite a few people that had been rejected and kept out for very simple reasons.
If they didn’t have their fake mercenary licenses, then it would have been impossible for them to get in.
Well, “fake” was a bit too much.
These were “fakes”, but they were official fakes from the Mercenary Guild that Tian Tian had prepared for them.
These were actual mercenary licenses, but they were for a fake identity that Tian Tian had created for them. So both of them were currently registered as C Rank Mercenaries under fake names.
Since they were official fakes, the guards were able to easily confirm with the Mercenary Guild their identities and they were allowed in.
That just went to show how much influence the Mercenary Guild had in this Mu Empire.
Even with this strict check, they were able to enter with the influence of the Mercenary Guild.
After entering the city, the first thing that they did was head to the Mercenary Guild. They entered the city with the status of mercenaries, so they had to keep up appearances and head to the Mercenary Guild first since it was still the middle of the day.
When they arrived, they were once again surprised by how crowded it was.
Normally, mercenaries wouldn’t be here in the middle of the day since they would be out in the field on hunts, making the most out of the daylight that they had. However, these mercenaries were all lounging around in the middle of the Mercenary Guild, making it clear that there was something interesting here.
Lin Fan and Mu Bao Bao had completely covered themselves up, so they didn’t attract any attention with all the people here.
When they made their way to the counter and showed their mercenary licenses, the receptionist wasn’t surprised by them.
C Rank was considered high for smaller towns and cities, but in a large city like this, there were plenty of C Ranked Mercenaries.
They weren’t considered that special in a place like this.
After getting registered here, Lin Fan asked, “Is there something special going on here?”
The receptionist looked at them with a surprised look after hearing this before asking, “You’re really not here because of the event?”
Lin Fan asked back in a confused voice, “Event? What event?”
The receptionist narrowed her eyes to look at the two of them before saying with a sigh, “You’re better off not knowing.”
Seeing that neither Lin Fan or Mu Bao Bao said a thing and they didn’t move, she gave another sigh before saying, “The reason why everyone has been coming to this city is because there was a tournament that was announced. The prize for that tournament is a mystery prize, so no one knows what it is, but there are still many people attracted to it.”
Then she lowered her voice to add, “Including many different sects.”
Lin Fan and Mu Bao Bao both knitted their brows when they heard this.
That explained all the cultivators that they saw on the road when they were outside the city. It seemed like there was something big that was happening in this Floating Seed City after all.
The receptionist then continued, “I’ve heard that the winner of the tournament will also receive…”
Before she could finish, the receptionist suddenly acted like she had caught herself and she stopped herself from saying anything else.
This receptionist was actually someone who quite liked gossiping, so she found it hard to control herself once she got started. But of course, she was also very serious about her job, which was why she had given these two a warning earlier.
She knew that she was about to put them in danger by saying too much, so she caught herself and stopped herself from saying anything else.
Lin Fan could tell that there was something strange about this situation and he wasn’t a fool. So he quickly said, “Thank you for your warning, we will take it to heart. We’ll just go look at the board for a mission and go.”
The receptionist nodded in response to this before saying, “The sooner you leave, the better.”
Then she turned to help another person who had come over to the counter.
Once they finished talking to the receptionist, they made their way over to the board, but of course they weren’t actually interested in any of the missions. Their licenses as C Rank Mercenaries were fake and they were much stronger than C Rank Mercenaries, so of course the C Rank and B Rank missions were interesting to them.
Instead, they just stood there pretending to look over the board while Lin Fan released Greeny’s puppets.
While he couldn’t get information from the receptionist without drawing attention, he could get plenty of information from the people around them. When they had walked in, he could already hear a bit of the gossip from the people around.
With Greeny’s puppets, it was easy for him to get all the information that he wanted.
Though it was a bit hard to focus with all of the conversations that were happening around him.
Still, Lin Fan was able to find some interesting things with Greeny’s help.
Greeny was able to control a few of the puppets with Lin Fan to help him split up the burden of having to listen to everything.
A few of the interesting rumours that they heard included…
“I heard that even the Corpse Sect and the Soul Sect are coming to the tournament.”
“Well I heard that the Sword Mountain Sect and the Sun Saber Sect are coming.”
The sects that they mentioned were well known sects of both the righteous and demonic paths. If even these sects were drawn to this event, then it was certain that there was something serious behind it.
As for the other gossip that he heard, it wasn’t anything important.
They were just talking about who they thought would win the tournament.
There were quite a few names that Lin Fan didn’t recognize, but it wasn’t strange since he didn’t follow this in the first place.
But there was one name that did catch his attention.
As for why it did…it was because it was someone who was being personally sponsored by the third prince according to the person who mentioned their name.
Even the royals were involved in this matter…
It was clearly a very important thing.
But why was it so important?
Lin Fan was very confused until he heard another rumour.
“I’ve heard that the prize is related to the inheritance of the Love Sect that was destroyed.”
The moment that the words “Love Sect” was said, Lin Fan couldn’t help focusing on the people who said it.
It was just too bad that these people were already heading out and they didn’t talk about it any further. So Lin Fan didn’t have any way of getting more information from them.
Not that he would have gotten any more information since they didn’t know anything else.
At the very least, he had obtained a lead for them to follow.
Since they had obtained a lead, there was no need for them to stay here any longer.
So Lin Fan took Mu Bao Bao’s hand and led her out.
When he took her hand, Mu Bao Bao’s heart couldn’t help skipping a beat, but she meekly followed behind him.
Once they were out, they went to find a place to stay, or rather a place to talk.
After they got the room, Lin Fan told Mu Bao Bao about what he had heard in the Mercenary Guild.
Mu Bao Bao had her brows knitted when she heard what he told her, but she still said in the end, “We’ll just wait and see for now.”
Lin Fan nodded in agreement.
He had been afraid that Mu Bao Bao might do something impulsive because of this, but it seemed like he had underestimated her.