The Charm of Soul Pets

NEW NOVEL: First and foremost, I'm delighted to announce that our long-time veteran translator littleshanks has finally launched his new novel, Rise!  Rise is a novel about the esports scene in Shanghai, the competitive gaming capital of China. It follows the story of Lin Feng, a boy who has just moved to the city for his last year of high school. He's a passionate gamer and dreams of being the best professional League of Legends player in the world. The twist? He almost achieved his dream, but failed at the...

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Cloud City was extremely unique. It was situated on top of a snowy mountain and could be reached by walking up a flat path that was both wide and exceptionally windy. Some of the paths were even on plankways between overhanging cliffs.  Occasionally, it was possible to see enormous stone bridges connecting two mountains. Everything was imposing and magnificent. 

White snow and clouds. Perhaps this was the origin of Cloud City’s name.

The city was not as large as Chu Mu and the others had imagined. This made Chu Mu think of Tianxia City.

Tianxia City was a first rank realm city, but the area it covered was about the same as Cloud City.

After entering Cloud City, all of them finally realized that this was a mighty seventh rank realm city, yet was not as large as the sixth rank Wen City.

“That’s strange. Cloud City isn’t only this small, right?” Ye Wansheng stood on the long wooden bridge and looked with confusion. 

Cloud City was indeed smaller than everyone had imagined and everyone else was very confused. 

“This is your first time coming to Cloud City, eh?” a man walked up to them after hearing Ye Wansheng with a faint smile. 

“Yes.” Prince Chao nodded his head.

“Haha, don’t rush to enter the city. Stand for now on the bridge. After a while, you won’t feel that Cloud City is small.” said the rather courteous man as he laughed, “I’m waiting here for others. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the scenery of Cloud City.” 

The man didn’t say anything else, but the group of six didn’t continue onwards either. They discovered that besides this man who was about the same age as them, there were also many people just standing on the stone bridge. They all seemed to be waiting for something. 

“Hu hu hu hu”

A wind of wave blew over from the distance. It was like a soft hand that slowly pulled back the veil of clouds of the huge mountains. It cleansed the azure mountains and cleared the visibility of the city’s white walls and roofs. 

The clouds were continuously blown away, and the top of the mountains gradually entered everyone’s views. 

However, when the veil was pulled back, what appeared at the top of the mountain was not white peaks of snow, but instead packed rows of buildings that were not surrounded by city walls. 

In between these buildings were bustling and intersecting streets. From their vantage point, it was faintly possible to see groups of ant-like people walking to and fro...

That was a city situated on another nearby mountain. When the clouds were dispersed, it was possible to see a rainbow-like bridge that connected the two cities on different mountains together. There were people walking to and fro on this bridge. Before the clouds had dispersed, it looked like they were walking on a cloud bridge. 

“Wow, so there’s another city. Moreover, it's on another mountain. This is truly creative.” Prince Chao revealed an expression of shock. It was extremely rare to see cities built upon mountains. 

“Continue watching.” said the adjacent young man.

The moment he stopped talking, to the south of the second city, a row of towering mountain cliffs appeared when the clouds dissipated. There seemed to be sentry towers on these towering mountain cliffs where it was barely possible to see people standing there. 

Behind these sentry towers, the corner of a towering palace situated even higher gradually began to appear from in between the mountain and clouds. 

This palace was ancient and reverent. It was no splendor or dazzling sight, nor was it an overbearing presence. Yet, its ancient and antediluvian nature aroused reverence in the hearts of the people. 

The palace was slowly revealed. The terrain behind the palace contained a sudden drop, dropping to a flat and level ground. On this flat and level ground were densely packed buildings and streets… 

This was another city, and was separated from the second city by approximately three large mountains! 

Seeing this, the group of six came to a sudden understanding. Their eyes subconsciously began to survey the mountainous area covered by the clouds. 

There could be many other cloud mountains with cities built on top of them, but most of them were all covered by the clouds right now. However, the bridges that connected the large mountains with each other gradually came to view. 

There were now a dozen or so tall stone bridges that had entered everyone’s view, and even deeper into the clouds, there were shadows of even more stone bridges that reflected in the clouds, sky and in between the mountains... 

Not every mountain was level. Occasionally, it was possible to see mountain gulches or abysses where the depths were not visible. This made each city seem ever more so majestic and dignified. It was possible to imagine when all of the clouds had dissipated that, looking from their optimal vantage point, how stunning the magnificent scene of all the mountain cities in the cloud would be! 

“Cloud City is situated high up on mountains, so even the largest mountain would only provide limited space. Thus, the seventh rank realm city Cloud City, was partitioned onto several different mountains. You guys can see the enormous and lofty bridges that flit between the mountains. Those are the different pathways to different cities. Cloud City has a total of 46 cities. Each city is the size of approximately a first rank realm city…” the man laughed as he explained. After speaking, he intentionally glanced at Prince Chao and said, “So do you still think Cloud City is small?”

Prince Chao returned from his state of shock and quickly and sincerely nodded his head. This was countless times larger than Wanxiang City!

“Oh, I’ve even forgotten to introduce myself. I am called Xu Daofeng. I am a practice disciple of Divine Sect.” said the man called Xu Daofeng. 

When he mentioned Divine Sect, although he had intentionally suppressed his pride, a flicker of light could be seen in his eyes. 

Moreover, the soul pet trainers walking around them all glanced at Xu Daofeng with reverence and envy after they heard him. 

“Divine Sect seems to be very popular. Speaking of which, what is a Divine Sect practice disciple?” asked Ye Wansheng for no particular reason. 

”Xu Daofeng let out a dry laugh and said: “It’s pretty popular. A practice disciple is actually a member who is learning on the job.” 

“Then you haven’t become a full member yet. But that’s still so incredible? Look at those women who just walked past you. They’re still turning around to look at you despite having already reached the city gates.” said Ye Wansheng. 

Xu Daofeng didn’t know how to respond to Ye Wansheng. If he agreed with him, wouldn’t that make him seem full of himself? Master Official Lu who had brought him had repeatedly warned him not to be arrogant. Those with schemes in their mind would be kicked out. 

“You still have yet to introduce yourselves.” Xu Daofeng changed the topic and looked like he wanted to get to know them.

Ye Wansheng spoke the most and was the best at introducing. 

“We definitely came here because of these two beauties. Let me introduce them. This is my younger sister, Ye Qingzi, a xuan teacher. This is the Young Lady of the Mu Family, Mu Qingyi. I am Ye Wansheng. This kid is Chao Lengchuan. That cool person is Uncle Bai Yu. This is Chu Mu, our leader and his nickname is “goddess killer”.” said Ye Wansheng. 

Since he was from Divine City, Chu Mu obviously had to get to know him. Indeed, they would have to make an application to Divine Sect, and if they had someone guiding them, it would reduce quite a bit of trouble. Ye Wansheng was quite good at getting to know people. However, his nickname made Chu Mu’s face dark. 

“Oh, oh.” Xu Daofeng nodded his head. His eyes lingered the longest on Ye Qingzi.

A xuan teacher meant that she was a soul teacher that could concoct xuan items. But someone of this status was even higher than his status as a Divine Sect practice disciple! 

The truth was that Xu Daofeng had seen these two beauties and was also bored from waiting for others. Thus, he decided to chat with them. However, he never expected that one of these two beauties was a xuan teacher. Thus, he felt rather embarrassed after his moment of pride just now. Indeed, as Master Official Lu had said, there would always be those better than oneself. This female xuan teacher’s age was probably similar to his too. 

“Daofeng, what are you doing?” a woman’s voice rang out from behind them.

There were no emotions in this woman’s voice. Instead, her tone was very flat.  

Chu Mu glanced over, and saw a woman with hair to her shoulders and a white face without any hint of rosiness. 

This woman was dressed simply, yet elegantly. She was different than most women who cared about appearances. She didn’t even seem to think about putting on makeup. 

Her eyes were rather beautiful, but they were also cold and aloof. Adding on her stiff expression, it gave others a hard to approach feeling of aloofness. 

This woman actually made Chu Mu think of his mother, Liu Binglan. Although she was not as peerlessly beautiful and stunning as Liu Binglan, their temperaments were very similar. 

“Oh, Teacher Lu, I was getting to know these friends…” Xu Daofeng politely gave a bow before responding. 

Xu Daofeng seemed very nervous and reserved in front of this Teacher Lu. He seemed to be very afraid of saying the wrong thing or making a mistake. He was no longer as refined or gentle as before.

“We should leave.” this Teacher Lu didn’t evenlook at Chu Mu and the others. She didn’t even stop walking as she talked as she unhurriedly strode along. 

“Oh, ok. I will say goodbye to them.” said Xu Daofeng. 

She nodded her head, and didn’t say anything else.

”Xu Daofeng walked up to them and apologetically laughed: “She is my teacher and she is a very good person. She just doesn’t like interacting with strangers. I should leave. I am very happy to have met you guys. Once this exam ends, you guys can come to Divine Sect to find me.” 

After speaking, Xu Daofeng turned around. He quickly followed this Teacher Lu, keeping a step diagonally behind her, as per custom. 

When they entered the city, Master Official Lu glanced behind her at Xu Daofeng and asked: “Did you mention your identity?” 

“Eh… yes.” Xu Daofeng didn’t dare lie and embarrassedly scratched his head.

“Making friends is not a bad thing. However, you must be wary of those people that want to approach you and exploit your Divine Sect member status to gain for their own benefit.” said Master Official Lu. 

“It was me that went to talk to them. Teacher, that woman in blue is a xuan teacher.” said Xu Daofeng.

“Xuan teacher?” a ripple of astonishment finally appeared in Master Official Lu’s apathetic eyes.

A moment later, she continued: “Keeping an amicable relationship with a xuan teacher will make your future path even more steady.” 

Xu Daofeng nodded his head, but suddenly realized he hadn’t asked them where they were staying.

Xu Daofeng bitterly laughed. He couldn’t go back and look for them. He could only wait for them to go find him… 

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