With those thoughts, Xuan vanished from sight, reappearing in front of the store owner.

The moment the two locked eyes, the store owner raised his broom and slashed down at Xuan.

But Xuan was as fast as he was sly, and so, before the broom could hit him, Xuan was already gone.

He reappeared atop the rooftop where he left Sierra.

Xuan approached her, held out his hand, and then placed the apple monster thingy inside her palm.

The moment she felt the texture, she paused for a moment, then let out a sigh.

"Seriously... I was just joking."

As the apple monster began clawing at her palm and leaving behind faint scratches, Sierra began to regret telling Xuan about wanting one of these.

But since he already got it, there were no take-backs.

"Thank you."

Xuan smirked.

"Don’t mention it. You’ve been really helpful so far. Oh, and I guess happy birthday."

Finally, Xuan dashed off the rooftop and caught up with the rest of his group. All the while, Sierra just stood there for a few moments, her mouth slightly open.

Truthfully, she despised gifts. That was because every gift she got was for one intention, and one intention only.

A gift to please her, and marry into her rich family.

The same family who had planned to marry her off the moment she came back from China.

In a way... she was happy that the apocalypse happened, since now, she didn’t have a care in the world.

And for her first gift in this new world to be something as silly as an apple monster...

A faint smile appeared on Sierra’s face, as for a brief moment, her eyes behind the blindfold glowed.

The glow only lasted a brief moment, and once it passed, she jumped back down and caught up with the rest of the group.

"Honestly, these people have it good. Back in my estate, for running around recklessly and having spirit beasts out in the street, they’d be turned into eunuchs," Hanbi said, glancing around.

When she caught a glimpse of the dirty fountain, a disgusted look appeared on her face.

"Do the people bathe in their own fountains, or do they just not know how to clean the residual dirt?"

"Why don’t you go knock on the Three Eyed Angel’s door and ask him for yourself?" Xuan suggested, rolling his eyes.

A pout appeared on Hanbi’s face.

"You know what? I will. This is no way to be running a great sect."

Yuelan walked ahead, then paused for a brief moment. She put a hand over her chin.

"Hmm... I’m still debating whether you have daddy issues, or you’re just naive."

"D-Daddy issues?"

"She’s just naive," Xuan chimed in. "Trust me, she was worse when I first met her."

"Worse? You... If not for me, you’d still be suffering from Qi blockage. You should be thanking me instead of bad-mouthing me."

Xuan let out a chuckle and just patted her head. Surprisingly, Hanbi didn’t move away and just went with it. If anything, she became even quieter.

Seeing that kind of sight, Yuelan pouted slightly.

"How cruel of you to abandon your sister."

"Pfft. Grow up."

Her pout intensified, but despite that, their walk was fairly pleasant. They stepped through several districts, and in the end, they found themselves in the very corner of the city, standing in front of an extremely large mountain that seemed to go beyond the clouds.

On the flip side, at least there were steps embedded into the side of the mountain, so they wouldn’t need to climb like cavemen.

The man that Yuelan had taken control of earlier finally snapped out of it, and when he realized where he had led them, his gaze darkened.

He immediately reached for his sword, but before he could do that, Xuan stepped forward, crossing the distance in an instant. Then, he slammed his foot straight into the man’s chest, breaking every single rib in his body and also slightly fracturing his spine.

As the man flew to the other side of the city, paralyzed, Xuan hoped that a cultivator’s regeneration would buffer that out.

Anyhow...

"You know, if you want to reach the evil alignment, I can give you a nuking skill I have. You could spread an illness onto this whole city and kill everyone," Yuelan suggested.

Xuan raised a brow.

"I do want the evil alignment, but I’m not that cold-blooded."

If anything, he had other ideas how he was going to reach it. But if it ever came down to it, he would do whatever he needed to do.

After all, his and Yuelan’s goals were his main priority.

He didn’t care about some bystanders like these people so long as that goal could be met.

"Young miss, should I give you another napkin?" Hua Lian asked.

Yuelan nodded and then quickly switched napkins. Afterwards, she glanced at the mountain and reluctantly took the first step onto the wooden steps leading upward. Seeing how wobbly they were, she flashed a dark look at Xuan.

"I’m not carrying you," Xuan said immediately.

She stared at him with puppy eyes, trying to convince him otherwise.

And after just a few seconds, Xuan groaned and approached her.

A smile appeared on her face as she jumped atop his shoulders and grabbed his hair, then pulled slightly.

"We go this way, captain!"

"Do that one more time and I’m going to fling you off," Xuan warned.

Yuelan relaxed her grip and glanced over at her maids, as well as Hanbi and Sierra. But clearly, no one was on her side.

"Tsk... Fine. Lead the way."

Xuan nodded and jumped on the steps. To his surprise, they weren’t wobbly at all, and in short, Yuelan had bullshitted him just because she was lazy.

But now that she was mounted on his shoulders, he knew it was too late to back out.

So with that in mind, he groaned once more, and while carrying Yuelan, he and the rest of the party began quickly climbing this steep mountain.