The girl was lost in her thoughts for the entire duration of the trip. Eventually, they arrived at a street lined with mid-tier businesses.

The carriage come to a stop and she stepped out.

As soon as she revealed herself to the world, a small commotion rippled through the people that were going in and out of various shops. It was very common for businesses to stay open during all hours of the day.

Elder Bai instantly appeared next to the girl as she inspected the buildings around her.

“Over this way…”

She made her way to the spot where she saw the boy turn the corner. However, the only thing that greeted her was a pitch-black alleyway. She frowned before looking at the signs of shops that surrounded her.

“Elder Bai, what would a young boy be doing in this area?”

The old man looked around before scratching his cheek.

“Normally the young ones attend academy… Or perhaps he was learning a trade?”

It wasn’t unheard of for children to learn a trade skill instead of going to an academy. The concept of the child being so desperate that he was forced to work for barely anything didn’t even cross his mind.

“Hmm…”

The girl continued to eye the different shops in profound thought as she walked back toward the carriage. She closed her eyes, focusing her hearing to the absolute maximum.

Various conversations slowly filtered in as she picked through the details of each word. This lasted for a few moments before a particular conversation entered her ears.

“We won’t survive another week. Even if you don’t want to let the boy go, you must.”

The voice of an elderly man entered her ears.

Her ears became more attentive, and she located the source of the voice. Her eyes flashed as she immediately marched towards a well-kept medicinal shop. The various observers on the streets were following her every move and unconsciously began to creep closer to the medicinal shop.

Once inside, the girl called out to a female worker.

“Excuse me, but was there a boy here?”

The female worker looked up in surprise and stuttered in her reply.

“A-A b-boy?”

“Yes, maybe about… 13? No, maybe 14 years old?”

The worker was about to reply when a sharp voice cut in.

“Who’s asking about what boy.”

An elderly woman came from behind the counter. Her eyes held a defensive light as she came forth.

“S-Shopkeeper!”

The worker bowed before scurrying away.

As soon as the elderly woman laid eyes on the teenage girl, she immediately felt confusion.

“You’re clearly from a rich and powerful family, what do you want with a young boy in poverty?”

The old woman probed the girl for information.

So, he’s poor?

She inwardly thought to herself as her eyes flashed.

“I am… a relative.”

The girl tried to think of an excuse she could give this elderly woman.

“Hah! Girl if you want to lie in front of me then you are 100 years too early.”

The elderly woman snarled as her eyebrows narrowed. Before she could continue, the young girl bowed deeply in front of her, shocking her greatly.

“Please… I must find that boy.”

Seeing the young girl throw away her pride for the sake of this boy immediately crumbled the old woman’s defenses. The old woman shook her head and let out a sigh.

“Stop that. I can tell you about the boy here. Come in the back with me and we’ll tell you what we know.”

The young girl wore an excited look and followed the old woman to a sparsely furnished back room. They both took a seat by a table.

“About two years ago, I found a young boy in our shop staring at some herbs. I originally chased him out. Could you blame me? He clearly didn’t have money, and he was incredibly dirty. Bad for business you see.”

Despite her harsh words, one could sense the worry embedded in her tone.

“Once we were in the side alley, he immediately asked for a job. Said he was willing to do anything for some Tianroot as payment. I couldn’t say no to those eyes of his. So, I required him to be clean and for him to only work in the back room away from the customers.”

Why would he want Tianroot?

The girl’s thoughts roamed as the shopkeeper continued.

“He did his work flawlessly, and initially we paid him some coin along with the Tianroot he wanted. However… it’s also been two years since this business has turned a weekly profit. Eventually, we weren’t able to pay him anything else other than the Tianroot.”

The old woman had a look of guilt on her face before continuing.

“And now it seems we’ll have to close the store by the end of this week at this rate.”

The girl listened patiently with a strong gaze. Once the old woman didn’t have anything else to say, she asked her questions.

“Do you know where the boy lives?”

She said with a hopeful voice.

“Um… you do realize he’s poor, right? During the days of the week that we had work for him, he would sleep in the alleyway…”

The old woman said the last part with a little embarrassment.

The young girl was secretly shocked. She had never dealt with poverty in the city. If anything, she rarely even interacted with common people such as the shopkeeper in front of her.

“You said during the days you had work? What about the days where there wasn’t any work? Which days were those anyway?”

“Today was his last day of work for this week. So, if you come back in four days then he should be here by then. Although we won’t have work for him this time. I’m sorry I couldn’t help further.”

The woman said this with an apologetic look.

The girl shook her head.

“No, you’ve been more than enough help, thank you. This is for the information you’ve given me. Also, do you mind if I take a sample of Tianroot on my way out?”

The girl stood up and handed the woman a small pouch. The pouch itself was easily worth more than a week’s worth of sales.

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“N-no I don’t mind, help yourself.”

The old woman mumbled.

Before the old woman could say anything else, the young girl immediately excused herself, and after picking a small sample, she left the shop with Elder Bai following beside her.

Dumbstruck by the suddenness of the events, the old woman slowly opened the pouch and almost had a heart attack. Inside the pouch was easily four years’ worth of income for their mid-tier shop.

Outside the shop, the girl hopped in the carriage and spoke with the old man across from her.

“If you were poor, where would you go after the three days of work?”

She looked at the old man across from her.

“Well young miss, I’d probably go to my next job?”

The old man had an awkward expression on his face as he had never been poor in his life.

“What do you think he was doing with the Tianroot? I feel as if that is key to figuring out where he is.”

She inspected the small sample.

“Milady, Tianroot doesn’t have very many uses at all, which is why almost no shop sells it. Honestly, I think that kid wasted his hours of work by only receiving Tianroot.”

“He clearly didn’t work for money. Perhaps money held no value to him, what’s more precious than money? What holds value to everyone?”

The girl’s eyes lit up as if she discovered something new.

“Wouldn’t you say that family is more important than money? Perhaps, so important that you’d be willing to work without getting paid…”

Her voice trailed off while the old man looked at her oddly.

“Where do the poorest people live in the city?”

She suddenly asked.

“Hmm, I don’t think they really live in the city per say. More like they would live on the very outskirts.”

“How far away are the outskirts of the city? Could you get there in 2 days by walking?”

The girl’s words came out quicker as different possibilities formed in her mind. Elder Bai’s eyes ruminated in thought before he nodded.

“Then let’s go.”

“To the outskirts?”

“Yes, to the outskirts.”

With her command, they hurtled their way to the poorest area of the entire city.

In less than an hour they reached their destination. Surrounding them were scores of destroyed buildings that looked barely habitable. The only thing that looked worse than the area were the people themselves.

An uncomfortable smell lingered in the air as they slowly made their way through the different sections of living quarters. As the carriage tumbled through, the girl was on a constant lookout for any sign of the young boy. While her physical senses were in full alert, she was mostly hoping to rely on the unknown pull she would feel deep within her soul.

Unfortunately, no matter how many streets they crossed, she couldn’t feel the unnatural tug at all. She let out a small sigh before glancing at the sample of Tianroot in her hand.

“Elder Bai, can you take a deep smell of this Tianroot?”

She handed him the sample and he did as he was told.

“What do you think? Could we use this to find him?”

She asked him.

“We would have to be close enough for my senses to pick up the smell. I would be confident within 100 meters.”

He gave his best estimate.

“I see…”

The girl then took a deep smell of the Tianroot herself and let the different subtle scents fill her thoughts. She then closed her eyes and focused fully on her sense of smell.

Through her dreams, she knew her senses had reached some type of pinnacle. Elder Bai had said he would be confident within 100 meters, but she was confident within 1000 meters easily.

A few moments passed by with her eyes shut.

“Elder Bai, can you make a left soon?”

She called out. She could faintly sense the smell of Tianroot getting stronger. Before long she heard the old man cry out.

“Milady, I can smell Tianroot in this area!”

The girl smiled inwardly, and she held a happy and smug look. Soon the carriage came to a stop, and she stepped out.

“This way.”

Elder Bai led her to a broken doorway. However, instead of entering, he suddenly stopped.

“My lady… perhaps it would be best if you stayed out here.”

The old man frowned as he said this.

The girl could also smell it, the stench of death that permeated through the air. Despite the smell, she was resolute.

“No, I will be entering. I must see for myself.”

Her reply was strong willed, which caused the old man to let out a deep sigh.

“Well, you’ll come across this type of thing eventually.”

He couldn’t help but mumble before entering the ruined house.

Inside they found a sack of bread smeared in Tianroot. However, along the opposite wall lied two figures snuggled against each other. It was clear that the two bodies were adult sized, which allowed the girl to secretly breathe out a sigh of relief.

A soft blue glow appeared on Elder Bai’s hand as he illuminated the room. The inside was simple and dirty, while the two bodies held content smiles on the faces.

One previously couldn’t see it in the dark, but the two figures were loosely holding each other’s hand. It was unknown if they had died together this way, or if someone had positioned them after the fact.

The young girl stepped forward and inspected the sickly facial appearances.

“So, he was feeding these two the Tianroot…”

She spoke under her breath before turning to Elder Bai.

“Do you think these are his parents?”

She looked back to the bodies and her voice became a little shaky as she said this.

Despite having extraordinary dreams and memories, the girl was still a mere age of 16. The fact that she was handling death this well was already a feat on its own. However, she soon adjusted almost as if she had become friends with death itself.

“If this is the same boy, then I would suspect so. I am sorry.”

Elder Bai continued to look upon the bodies with unknown feelings.

“I want to give them a proper burial at the family site…”

She walked toward the exit.

“Can you take care of it?”

The old man sighed before he waved his hand through the air. Within seconds, the two bodies were entombed in ice. With another flip of his palm, they had disappeared entirely. The old man had stored the pair of corpses in his dimensional ring.

These rings were commonly called storage rings and came in a variety of grades, which indicated the size of storage space inside the ring.

“Let’s go.”

“Back to the estate?”

“No, he’s still out there. If these really are his parents, then I think he really needs me right now.”

Her voice was quiet, but she didn’t stop walking towards the carriage.

“Milady, why do you think you’re the one he would need right now? You have never even met each other before. Er, I mean of course he would be blessed to be in your presence, but still...”

His voice rambled before she turned and faced him.

“Just a girl’s intuition!”

She smiled faintly before hopping in the carriage.

“Well, where to?”

“Hmm… If I were him, then this is the last place I would want to be right now. If my family died, where would I go?”

Her gaze subconsciously wandered in the direction of the looming tower off in the distance.

“Elder Bai, please head towards the tower’s entrance with full haste!”

She gave her command and a second later the carriage carried them off into the distance.

The morning sun peeked its head over the horizon. The girl fidgeted anxiously during the entire trip towards the center of the city. The once distant tower slowly grew larger as they closed the distance.

A large pavilion could be seen around the entrance of the tower. This was built as a means to control and record passage in and out of the tower.

The carriage quickly pulled off to the side and the young girl rushed out.

“Young miss, take it easy!”

Elder Bai called out to her as he caught up.

However, at this moment, she had only a single thought. A few moments before the carriage stopped, she could already feel the tug on her soul. It was a tug that led her directly to the base of the tower itself!

She raced inside as fast as she could, but the place was extremely busy. Day and night were irrelevant to the tower’s entrance as it would always have an enormous crowd entering and exiting.

The girl pushed her way through the crowds of people, causing some commotion and she made her way to the direction of the pull. Meanwhile, Elder Bai followed in her wake while exposing some of his hidden aura to his surroundings.

The people in the crowds were instantly silenced as soon as they felt Elder Bai’s presence. Whispers began to circulate.

“What’s a high ranker doing here?”

“Why doesn’t he use the high rank line? It’s so much shorter. He’s just bullying us…”

“Wow a high ranker! One day I’ll reach his heights too!”

Different types of conversations could be heard. Some people were annoyed, while others were excited. Of course, the cause of the commotion could care less what others thought as they continued to force their way through the sea of people.

“Elder Bai…”

The girl suddenly came to a stop before looking into the distance.

At the base of the tower a large milky white film that covered a giant archway. This was the formal entrance to the tower.

One could see a stream of people registering themselves onto documents before making their way to the steps of the entrance. Meanwhile, the people exiting the tower entered a different line to register their exit.

Despite all of this, an unassuming figure walked toward the white entrance from an odd angle. It was clear that the young boy climbing the steps had skipped all registration procedures.

“S-Stop him!”

The girl cried out to the elder who immediately looked toward where she pointed. He could see the form of a dirty young boy with ragged clothes just about to enter the tower’s entrance.

“Guards! Guards! Stop him!”

Elder Bai roared loudly as people ducked and scrambled to clear out of the way.

Just as the guards glanced at the entrance in confusion, the boy had already slipped inside. Not seeing anything out of place, they looked back at Elder Bai with a collection of frowns.

“I’m sorry, sir, but please try not to cause a panic here. It could have dangerous consequences for the people…”

A guard meekly spoke to him.

Elder Bai couldn’t respond. They had finally found the boy after this whole time, and now he was gone.

“Elder Bai we must go in and get him.”

The young girl turned around and pleaded to the old man with tears already forming in her eyes.

“I… We… can’t.”

The old man had to draw a line at some point.

“Why?! Why can’t we? Let’s just go in there and get him and bring him back out!”

She grabbed his hand in an attempt to drag him to the entrance.

“Young miss… When someone enters the tower for the first time, their location is completely random. There are many potential cities he can appear in. It’s not as simple as just going inside and bringing him back out. I’m sorry. Also, the family forbids you from entering the tower until you pass all examinations, you know this.”

The old man bowed deeply before the frantic girl.

“I’m terribly sorry young miss.”

He gave a heartfelt apology, potentially the only apology of this kind he had ever given in his lifetime. He could see clearly how much that boy meant to her as he was the one who escorted her during this wild journey to find him.

The most painful part was just when the boy was within reach—he was gone.

The woman stopped pulling him towards the entrance after hearing his words. She bit her lip and looked towards the floor.

“I will pass the family exams then. But, if that boy dies alone in the tower, consider it as if I had died with him.”

She said these strong words with red, swollen eyes before stalking off.