Alex slowly opened his eyes and saw the rays of sun hitting him in the eyes. It was early in the morning, and the sun had just come up of the horizon.
He looked in front of him and saw a massive cityscape in front of him. He was high in the air, so he could see everything clearly.
Surrounded by giant mountain ranges was a massive city, at least 4 times as large as the scarlet city itself. Alex saw the tall buildings all over the city with a central area that was a massive open space with a single castle in the center.
Most of the houses were painted red, so the whole city had a red aesthetic.
"The Cardinal City?" Alex thought. Only then did he realize that the ship had stopped moving. He looked to the left and saw a few more ships approaching the city and stopped just as far as they had as well.
The disciples in that sect started getting down as well with the help of their elders. Alex looked back to check the disciples of his own ship and saw that there were none anymore.
'Are they gone anymore,' he thought and spread out his spiritual sense to check the surroundings.
"Oh, you are right here maste— " he turned around to see his master with red eyes and generally redder face. She had been crying.
"What's wrong, Master? Why are you crying?" he asked in surprise.
Ma Rong woke up from her stunned state and quickly rubbed her eyes. "Nothing. I'm not crying," she said as she sniffed a little.
"C'mon, let's go. Everyone had already left for the hotel. We are the only ones left," Ma Rong said and got up. She walked to the edge of the ship and jumped down.
Alex stood up and followed her. Alex still didn't know why she was crying. 'Did something happen while I was cultivating?' he thought. 'Speaking of which, I fell asleep once more, and master didn't wake me up? I thought she was going to.'
He looked at the sun and thought, 'Well, I woke up in time, so I guess it's fine.'
Once they were both down on the floor, Ma Rong swiped on hand mid-air and the ship suddenly changed into its miniature size. Ma Rong kept it in her robes and started walking in.
"Master, what happened in the ship? Why were you crying?" he asked once more.
"As I said, don't worry about it. Nothing happened," she said. But Alex didn't believe that whatsoever. 'Something definitely happened,' he thought, but he couldn't tell what. So he decided to change the question for now.
"So, about me falling asleep while cultivating, is that fixable?" he asked.
"Don't worry about that either. Just cultivate normally, and you will be fine. There is nothing wrong with you falling asleep," Ma Rong said.
Alex was genuinely confused now. 'Me falling asleep while cultivating is fine? What? That shouldn't be the case. That was the entire reason I cultivated last night. why would she say that?' he wondered.
He wanted to ask more questions, but they reached the gate of the city.
"Oh yeah, there are hidden masters all over the city, so try not to use your spiritual sense recklessly. They can sense it too if they have it," Ma Rong said to his through spiritual sense.
"I see, I will try not to use it then, Master," he said and quickly sucked in all the spiritual sense he was spreading to check the place.
There were many people lined up to enter the city, both individuals and big merchant groups.
"Daoist Ma, is that you?" a voice came from the left.
Ma Rong turned around to see who was calling her, and forced herself to smile a little as she said, "Nice to meet you again, Daoist Li, it's been a while."
"Haha, yeah. I haven't seen you since last year's competition." The person named Li was a tall man with a white robe and a clean, shaven face. He was holding a paper fan in his hand and made an amicable face when he spoke.
He then looked around her and asked, "Where are your sect members? Did they not arrive?"
"Oh no, they've already gone in first. I had a little something to do, so I stayed behind," she said.
"I see,' he said and then turned to Alex and asked, " Who is this young fellow?"
"This is my disciple, Yu Ming. Yu Ming, this is Daoist Li, the sect leader of Golden Eagle sect, from Rose City," she said.
"Good Morning, Sect Leader Li," Alex greeted. The person named Li simply nodded.
"So, where are your sect member, Daoist Li?" Ma Rong asked.
"Oh, they are getting off the ship right now. I saw your ship earlier and came here to meet you," he said.
"I see. Oh, they're there. You will probably need to make some arrangements of yourself too, so I will leave you to it," Ma Rong said and walked away.
Alex felt that that was a very abrupt change in conversation, but he made no comments. Soon, they reached the gate and Ma Rong was way too recognizable to be stopped at the gate.
Only after walking in did Alex ask, "why did we leave the sect leader Li like that?"
"Cause he is annoying," Ma Rong said.
Alex was a little surprised. "But you seemed quite happy to talk with him," he asked.
"He's not a bad guy, it seems he likes me a lot, so it gets annoying when he keeps talking. See how he literally left behind his sect members to talk to me?" Ma Rong asked.
"Come, let's go to the hotel. The others must've already settled. You should get settled too," Ma Rong said.
Alex walked amongst the busy street of the capital city, looking at the festival-like atmosphere with everyone moving around in the street as if they were dancing. This was much crowded than the big cities in real life.