But Xiaoyao was also satisfied. Reading through all the books in the Book Fragrance Tower was enough—he had improved a lot. What he needed to do next was go to the Great Tang Empire to find books to read. He believed the Great Tang Empire would also have similar repositories of books.
The most famous one would be the First Academy Under Heaven's First Book Forest. Just like its name suggested, it was a forest of books, with a collection and coverage that was second to none on the continent.
Entering the First Academy Under Heaven was not only Guxing's idea, but also Xiaoyao's.
When Xiaoyao finished, the Young Miss and others had already departed. They had left three days earlier, and Guxing was the same, departing with the competing team.
Xiaoyao had stayed behind to finish reading the books in the Book Fragrance Tower. Originally, Guxing had wanted to stay too, but Xiaoyao said it wasn't necessary—he told her to depart with the team so they could look after each other.
Most importantly, Xiaoyao didn't want to pay for another person's travel expenses. Their current departure together was funded by the New Moon Empire, but staying behind would mean paying out of his own pocket.
Right now, Xiaoyao was short on money, so he firmly opposed such wasteful spending. Of course, if Guxing insisted on staying, he wouldn't force her—paying some travel expenses would be paying some travel expenses.
Guxing generally wouldn't refuse Xiaoyao's decisions. Although she might not see Xiaoyao during this period, she had been like this before—at most seeing Xiaoyao for one month out of a year. She was already used to it.
Now, knowing that Xiaoyao wanted to study, she wouldn't disturb him. There was no use in her staying behind anyway—it was better to depart with the team.
However, after they left, there was still one person who stayed behind with Xiaoyao—Princess Ke Xin.
Unlike the others, those who succeeded had already left, while those who didn't succeed had left before the successful ones, or had gone to the Great Tang Empire with the successful ones to watch the competition.
Only Princess Ke Xin stayed behind to wait for her master, who would take her into the sect. She didn't know what her master was doing—she had been nowhere to be seen for several days.
"Princess Ke Xin, hasn't your master come yet?" Xiaoyao asked. He had finished everything and was preparing to depart for the Great Tang Empire early tomorrow morning to catch up with Guxing's team.
Although Guxing and the others had departed three days early, Xiaoyao believed he could catch up with them midway. After all, their team wouldn't be in too much of a hurry—as long as he pursued them, he could do it.
"Not yet. She told me to wait here," Princess Ke Xin replied softly.
"Your master is a woman," Xiaoyao asked. He still didn't know who Princess Ke Xin's master was.
"Yes!" Princess Ke Xin replied.
"I thought so. Only women would be this slow. It's been almost half a month already—what matter still hasn't been settled," Xiaoyao nodded and said.
"Um, Young Master Xiaoyao, don't speak about my master like that. It wouldn't be good if she heard..." Princess Ke Xin said.
"If she hears, she hears. She's an important person—would she really argue with a little servant like me?" Xiaoyao replied casually. Being a servant was his protective shield—generally, people with some status wouldn't argue with servants, unless they were narrow-minded. Who knew if this guy became a servant for this reason.
"Hmph!"
Just as Xiaoyao finished speaking, a cold snort came from outside, leaving both Xiaoyao and Princess Ke Xin momentarily speechless as they looked toward the door.
Xiaoyao saw a very beautiful and dazzling mature woman standing at the door, looking at Xiaoyao with somewhat cold eyes, as if Xiaoyao owed her something.
While Xiaoyao was still wondering who this mature woman was, Princess Ke Xin had already spoken, clearing up his confusion!
"Master!"
Damn, so she was Princess Ke Xin's master. That meant she had heard everything I just said—no wonder she had that sour expression!
However, after learning about this situation, Xiaoyao didn't make any special gestures. He performed a bow, turned around and left to pack his luggage. Staying would only invite glares—he wouldn't do such a thing.
Seeing Xiaoyao's action, the mature woman could only let it go. As Xiaoyao had said, she was an important person—how could she argue with a little servant? If Xiaoyao had stayed, she might have said a few words to teach him a lesson, but Xiaoyao's action left her no opportunity.
The mature woman gritted her teeth at this, feeling like she had somehow been played, but she couldn't act on it.
"Ke Xin, Master had some matters to attend to, making you wait so long. We'll depart tomorrow,” the mature woman said, as if explaining that she wasn't slow, but had too many matters to handle.
"It's fine, I didn't really wait. I had Young Master Xiaoyao's company, so it was nothing," Princess Ke Xin quickly said, but her tone didn't seem hurried at all—still soft and gentle as always.
"Young Master Xiaoyao? That impolite little servant from just now? Why do you call him Young Master?" the mature woman asked with some curiosity.
"He calls me Princess, so I call him Young Master. He's someone worthy of my equal treatment—no, someone worthy of my respect,” Princess Ke Xin replied, honestly expressing her opinion.
"I understand what you mean, but he is just a little servant after all. The gap in your statuses is too great. Doing this will make people think you're lowering yourself," the mature woman said. She didn't want her disciple to be looked down upon, especially for reasons she didn't think were important.
However, the mature woman wasn't asking Princess Ke Xin to look down on Xiaoyao, just to change the form of address—removing the "Young Master" would be fine!
"How others see things is their business. I don't need to care about others' opinions," Princess Ke Xin said gently.
"Very well. Once your strength grows, these will all be minor issues," the mature woman thought for a moment. Since Princess Ke Xin insisted, she felt there was no need to specifically correct this—the problem wasn't too big.
First, as she said, strong power could silence all criticism. Second, she believed the possibility of Princess Ke Xin meeting Xiaoyao in the future was very low—perhaps they'd never encounter each other in their lifetimes, so why worry about it?
Princess Ke Xin's future time would be like hers, spending a very long time at the sect until graduation. And graduation was such a distant matter that even she hadn't reached it.
The next day, Xiaoyao prepared breakfast early in the morning—two portions in total. He ate one portion himself, and the remaining portion was for Princess Ke Xin. As for Princess Ke Xin's master, he didn't prepare anything for her.
Originally, Princess Ke Xin was just a friendly gesture—she wasn't his boss. If she were, then her master's portion would definitely be included too.
Besides, breakfast was provided here, so it wasn't troublesome. If she wanted to eat, she could just order it.
Seeing this situation, Princess Ke Xin obediently went to order a portion for her master, not letting her master notice anything wrong. She knew her master didn't have a good impression of Xiaoyao, and this would make her dislike Xiaoyao even more.
After breakfast, Xiaoyao, Princess Ke Xin, and the mature woman master began their journey. They parted ways at the entrance because they were going in two different directions, with the city gates in opposite directions.
"Young Master Xiaoyao, be careful traveling alone,” When parting, Princess Ke Xin spoke in a very low and soft voice. If the two people present didn't have good hearing, they probably wouldn't have heard such a gentle voice.
"Mm, you be careful too. Your sect is very good—work hard in your cultivation. I believe we won't have a chance to meet again for several years!" Xiaoyao replied.
"??" Princess Ke Xin looked at Xiaoyao with some confusion. She didn't know what her sect actually was, only that her master was a very strong expert whom no one in the entire Heavenly Wind Kingdom could match, which was why she had agreed.
She felt that being able to meet her master was already good enough—she hadn't thought too much about it. Whether the sect was top-tier or not didn't matter much to her. Being able to have strength like her master would be sufficient.
But now Xiaoyao said her sect was good. Was this casual talk, or did he already know about her sect? From Princess Ke Xin's understanding of Xiaoyao, she felt he shouldn't be the type to speak casually—he should have his own reasons.
Could it be that Master had already spoken with him? Princess Ke Xin looked toward the mature woman master.
At this moment, the mature woman master looked at Xiaoyao with even more confusion. She had only met Xiaoyao yesterday, and she hadn't told Princess Ke Xin which sect she belonged to. She was certain the other party shouldn't know, so why would he say this?
"Do you know my sect?" the mature woman master asked in confusion.
"Mm! Gentle Breeze Sect!" Xiaoyao nodded and replied.
"!?"
Both the mature woman master and Princess Ke Xin showed surprised expressions, though they weren't surprised about the same thing. Princess Ke Xin was surprised that her sect was actually Gentle Breeze Sect—one of the continent's top sects that everyone wanted to enter.
No wonder her master was so young yet had such high strength—she was from Gentle Breeze Sect.
The mature woman’w surprise was that Xiaoyao had actually named her sect correctly. She was certain she had no items on her that could reveal Gentle Breeze Sect, and she had never done or said anything that would expose her as being from Gentle Breeze Sect.
"How did you figure out that I'm from Gentle Breeze Sect?" The mature woman master became serious. She really couldn't think of where she had revealed anything.
"From you yourself!" Xiaoyao said.
"Where on me could you see this?" the mature woman looked at herself, very confused.
"No, you have no flaws, but I recognized who you are, so naturally I know you're from Gentle Breeze Sect," Xiaoyao replied.
"You recognize me?!" the mature woman master looked at Xiaoyao. "We've never met before. How do you recognize me?"
(End of Chapter)