On a small hill just outside a bustling city, a young man with brown eyes stood, and his golden hair fluttered as the gentle wind drifted past.
Though the young man seemed to be unaware of this, his eyes held a distant gaze, as if lost in reminiscence about something from the distant past.
Suddenly, a bird flew near him, caught a rodent, and flew away on its merry way.
The strong gust of wind and the agonized screeches of the rodent brought the young man out of his trance. His lost gaze sharpened, and he took a deep breath while shaking his head.
After steadying his mind, the young man started walking towards the nearby city, thinking about his future steps — though the first priority in his mind was to discard his current identity as the exiled young master of the Azure Dragon Sect.
As he walked, Bai Chen's spiritual sense started to spread around him, carefully sensing for anyone who might be spying on him.
Having confirmed no one was nearby, he took a ring from his pocket, a storage ring, given to him by his father in secret a few days prior to his exile.
He probed the ring and took out a piece of paper with strange symbols written on it and injected his spiritual qi into it. This activated the symbols that flew into the air and created a barrier that prevented spying from someone even at the shattering void stage.
Making sure that the barrier was activated and didn't malfunction in any way, he once again probed the ring with his senses and took out a small purple pill.
"Though this world is really backward in terms of technology, there are some really fascinating things here. Who would have thought that such a small pill could change anyone's appearance to their desire?"
Looking at the small pill in his hand, Bai Chen whispered in a fascinated tone and gulped the pill in one smooth motion.
As the pill reached his stomach, he felt a strange energy starting to surge through his meridians. Remembering the method taught by his father, he started to control the energy to reshape his body.
His hair started to change color, from golden to a deep shade of black, and his eyes changed as well, turning from deep brown to a beautiful shade of blue.
His facial features also started to change as his sharp nose lengthened lightly, and his jaw became a little round and less chiseled. His height increased by three inches and his body became slightly less lean.
After the transformation was over, Bai Chen took out a small mirror from the storage ring and studied his own reflection in it.
As expected, the face staring back at him was his old identity—the appearance of Xiao Feng from Earth.
Once he ensured nothing was wrong with his new appearance, he confidently walked toward the city gates.
The closer he got to the city, the more hustle and bustle he saw on the stone path leading to the gates, with merchants constantly moving in and out and cultivators returning to rest from their adventures.
Occasionally, a luxurious carriage passed by, signifying the status of the nobility within the city.
Though with Bai Chen's cultivation, he could cover the distance in a few moments if he wanted to, he walked slowly like an ordinary person, enjoying every sight his eyes could capture.
As his parents had never allowed him to leave the sect, he was quite oblivious to the beauty of this world.
Thus, even the simplest sight intrigued and fascinated him, especially when he saw the strange beasts that were pulling the nobles' carriages.
There were all kinds of beasts, with some looking like the ancient dinosaurs imagined by the scientists on modern Earth, while others looked like creatures from the mythology famous in various cultures back in his home world.
He was particularly interested in the beast that looked like the halberd golem from his favorite game from Earth.
While watching all this, Bai Chen unknowingly reached the city gates and was stopped by the guards for identification.
Although Azure Dragon City welcomed everyone, being the main city near the Azure Dragon Sect, it was also important to keep the city stable, otherwise, the sect leader wouldn't hesitate to change the management staff in the city.
Thus the Azure Dragon City lord always gave his best effort to maintain the peace in the city and inspecting the newcomers to the city was one such effort.
"M-My lord! How may I be of service?" the guard stammered, instinctively lowering his head and asking with a nervous look on his face.
Usually, the guards at the city gate are quite arrogant and unruly when dealing with low-level cultivators and merchants as they themselves, are foundation establishment cultivators with the support of Azure Dragon City.
But when they sensed the Golden Core peak level aura coming from Bai Chen's body they became subservient and nervous, after all, even the city lord of Azure Dragon City was at this level only.
And now a figure equal to their city lord was standing right in front of him, how dare the guard not be nervous.
"I want to enter the city, here are my identity documents." Although Bai Chen noticed the guards' nervousness, he ignored it, as it was not worth to waste his time with these small figures.
The sole purpose of these documents was to prove that he was not a wanted criminal, and Bai Chen did not think much about it.
"N-no need, my lord," the guard almost freaked out as he saw Bai Chen pull out his documents and hurriedly said, "We just need the lord's great name to add to our register, and the lord can enter the city."
"Hmm, isn't there supposed to be an entry fee for the city?" Bai Chen asked in a curious tone when he heard the guard's words.
"There is a fee, but that fee is for the commoners. I dare not take the lord's money." As if waiting for the question, the guard immediately answered Bai Chen's question.
"Alright, my name is Xiao Feng. You can add it to your register, and also, you can inform your city lord if you want to." Bai Chen gave his previous job mainly because of his familiarity with it.
When the guard heard that Bai Chen didn't stop him from informing the city lord, he breathed a sigh of relief as he was not sure what would he do if Bai Chen forbade him from informing the lord about his arrival.
"Yes, my lord," the guard said in a respectful tone before hurriedly running toward the other guards nearby who held the city's record book.
'I guess not suppressing my aura was a good thing, though I should control it if I want to lay low in the future,' Bai Chen thought as he saw the guard's reaction to his aura.
After a few moments, the guard returned to Bai Chen's side and spoke in the same respectful tone, "you can enter the city my lord, also if you don't mind it, I can be your guide in the city if you want to visit any particular place."
Hearing the guard's words, Bai Chen was delighted in his heart but still kept a cold face on the outside. "alright, I need a place to stay for a few days," he said.
"About that, when I informed the city lord about the arrival of the lord, he said that if the lord wants a place to stay in the city, he is welcome to visit his mansion at any time." The guard told Bai Chen about the city lord's instruction to him.
'It seems keeping a low profile will be harder than I thought,' Bai Chen mused after he heard the guard's words, his gaze flickering with unreadable emotions as he prepared to meet the city lord.
"He also said that if the lord doesn't mind waiting, he would personally like to welcome you in the city." Just as the guard finished speaking, exclamations were heard from the nearby people.