Astral Dragon Monarch

Shen stretched and walked out of the guest room.

He was still puzzled on whether the mystery person of last night was real, or just a figment of his imagination.

Having made no success, he chose to leave the room. As his door slid open, Xin also dazedly walked out of her room. There were dark bags over her two eyes and her hair was a mess, her present state was a stark contrast to the jade beauty she used to be by afternoon.

On seeing Shen, she flinched and reached forwards her waist for her pretty pink hand fan, which unfortunately was not on her as she was still clad in her alluring night clothes that happened to reveal quite an eyeful of her equally alluring body.

"Shen brother?!"

In a flash, she disappeared into her room, leaving a red faced Shen staring where she stood.

"I wish this were a hentai world instead..."

As Xin slammed her door shut, the color gradually returned to her face.

'I can't believe he saw me like that.'

She was a freaking mess this morning.

She had not really slept well as she could have sworn that she was hearing fighting last night, she just had to happen to have a bad hair day, and the night clothes she was wearing was showing far more than a fair bit of skin.

She could vividly remember the strange look on his face.

'He must think I'm such a weirdo...'

Then a frown found its way to her face.

'Why do I care about what he thinks about me, though?'

Anyways, she shook off all the distracting thoughts covering her mind as she remembered a slight detail she had missed.

'He has the aura of an early Rank 2 cultivator of the first stage lower mortal tier...'

Unmistakably, she was more than sure that he was at the mundane realm, and now he was not only at the next realm, but had already advanced two whole stages in?

'Exciting!'

Here, in the First Empire, such a feat was nothing short of extraordinary. Cultivation generally had six known realms.

The Mundane realm of ordinary people, the Lower mortal realm in which one would awaken the hidden potential of their own body. The Higher mortal realm in which one would learn to control and use their new improved body, and the Lower Transcendent tier in which the body becomes fully superhuman.

Above that, was the Higher Transcendent realm where one would unlock their dantians and release their soul sāi. However, advancing by just a stage took several seasons. Except for her and a few others.

But, with Shen's cultivation speed, she now had a worthy rival.

A genius on the same level as herself.

It was no fun advancing with her insane cultivation speed all by herself, and she wanted Shen to serve as a cultivation nemesis of sorts, someone whom she would strive to surpass.

***

"Girls are really weird ..." Shen thought as he shrugged and continued walking forward, only to stop abruptly in his tracks. 'Where am I even going?' He was a guest in this place, and he did not even know his way around. It seemed like he would have to look for Xin. Luckily, he knew where her room was since she had unintentionally shown him by running away.

_knock_knock_

"Um, hello? Xin. Are you there?"

Xin was startled from the sudden knocking on her door and hurriedly fixed up herself.

"Coming!!'

For some reason, hearing Shen's voice made her insides squirm.

Not quite like how she squirmed when her father threatened to give her out in marriage to some arrogant young master from another empire, but a different type of squirming that made her heart flutter and her stomach tied tightly into knots.

'I must be nervous due to his insane cultivation speed.'

Anyways, she tidied herself as much as she could, then slid the door open.

_creak_

"Oh hello, Shen..."

Shen gazed at the jade beauty with well concealed astonishment.

She was literally a mess a few minutes ago, but now, she looked like someone going out for a modelling event. She even had time to attach her pretty pink hand fan to her slender waist.

In less than two minutes!

'Girls are strange creatures...'

He scratched the back of his black hair with a sheepish grin on his face.

"Uh... Hey. I was wondering if you could direct me to the bathroom, or .."

"Oh, no problem."

The two of them walked down the hall over to a door at the end of the passageway.

Coming out of the door, was a tall man with long black hair parked up into a pony tail.

"Good morning, Bai brother.

Xin bowed slightly.

Xin bowed back with a slight smile on his face, only for the smile to disappear in a flash as soon as he crossed eyes with Shen.

Shen also bowed slightly, copying Xin's actions, but his eyes widened into orbs as the senior cultivator fell on his knees and almost slammed his head on the floor.

"I greet you, Senior brother Shen!''

Bai was tasked with murdering Shen in the dead of night, but despite being a mid Rank 2 cultivator of the first stage of the lower mortal tier, he was ultimately almost defeated.

He was poisoned before he even knew where his supposed 'target' was, and in a flash, he was being pummelled into a pulp by the 'mundane realm' person.

He could not feel auras yet, but he knew that this person standing before him was much stronger than an ordinary mundane realm.

If he was even a mundane realm, that was.

Shen slowly nodded and bowed back slightly.

"Uh, I greet you too... I guess, weird guy I just met."