After the slave owners went bankrupt, they all wanted to keep me as a mistress.

Mu Qiu shook his head and extended his hand, gesturing for the other person to sit down. The girl was initially a little reserved, seemingly embarrassed by her dirty appearance, but seeing that Mu Qiu did not withdraw his hand, she gritted her teeth slightly and still held Mu Qiu's hand.

The girl's small hands were soft and without any calluses, making her look like someone who did manual labor regularly.

Mu Qiu's eyes flickered slightly. He didn't say anything, but simply used a little force to pull the girl up and place her behind him, sandwiched between him and Fiona.

Then, he spurred the earth dragon and walked towards a small side gate on the side of the city gate.

There were several guards dressed in imperial armor, who were warming themselves around a small brazier.

As the towering earth dragon approached, the guards immediately stood up alertly, gripping their sword hilts.

"Halt! Curfew has ended, the city gates are closed, please come back early tomorrow!"

The head of the guards shouted loudly, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Mu Qiu stopped the earth-riding dragon, but didn't dismount. He simply looked down at them with a condescending expression, and snorted from his snot.

"Humph!"

He merely snorted, and Vera, standing beside him, immediately understood his meaning. She looked at the group of guards and said in a disdainful tone, "You dare to stop even our master? Is this what your city lord wants?"

"Never mind, Vera."

Mu Qiu waved his hand, appearing quite magnanimous.

"There's no need to bother with people like that; getting to the city is the priority."

As he spoke, he casually tossed out a few gold coins, then turned the reins and continued walking forward.

The captain of the guards was stunned for a moment, but a young guard next to him was indignant and was about to step forward: "Rules are rules... *slap!*"

Before he could finish speaking, the captain of the guards slapped the young guard across the face, forced him to kneel down on the shoulder, and said with a fawning smile, "Oh! Sir, look at my own eyesight! You're too kind, please come in, please come in!"

As he spoke, he waved to his men to quickly open the small side door that was only for pedestrians to pass through.

The earth dragon lowered its head slightly to barely pass through the side door.

Seeing Mu Qiu and his group pass through so easily, with three cloaked girls of unknown identity on the dragon's back, the young guard was indignant: "Captain! Why were they allowed in? Those girls were hiding their heads and tails, they might be witches wanted by the Empire, how could they be let through without even checking their identities?"

The captain lay on the ground and dug out the few gold coins that had fallen into the grass, his face beaming with smiles.

When he stood up, his expression returned to its usual sternness. He lightly tapped the young guard on the forehead, muttering under his breath:

"You little brat, you have no sense of propriety! I was just saving you!"

"What do you mean by 'rules are rules'? This is a statement meant for commoners, not nobles!"

"The law is the law! That is the law of the royal family!"

"If that important figure from earlier had forced his way through the city gates, and the city lord found out, do you believe he would only hold us responsible?"

"If we're in a bad mood, we might all die at the hands of that mage!"

The captain of the guards had seen it clearly: the mage conjured a staff radiating silver light out of thin air, clearly indicating he would attack if they didn't let him in.

Even their followers have storage rings, and they're high-level mages—something they can't afford to offend.

After reprimanding the young guard, the captain of the guard took one of the six gold coins he had just picked up, held it up, and shouted to the remaining guards:

"Brothers, everyone gets a share! What should we say if the city lord asks if anyone entered the city tonight?"

The guards said in unison:

"No one has entered the city!"

"That's right! We didn't let anyone through tonight! They were all kept outside!"

……

at the same time.

Meanwhile, Mu Qiu and his group had already entered the city.

Although it was night, the magical lanterns hanging on both sides of the main road illuminated the street as bright as day, but there were far fewer pedestrians.

Most of the shops had already closed, with only a few taverns and inns still lit up and faint sounds of noise emanating from them.

After entering the city and walking about fifty meters, the girl gently patted Mu Qiu on the shoulder.

Mu Qiu made the earth dragon stop and lay prone on the ground, allowing her to slowly get off its back.

After landing, she bowed deeply to Mu Qiu on the back of the earth dragon once again. Although her voice was still very soft, it was full of gratitude.

"No, thank you so much! Adventurer!"

After saying that, she immediately turned around, pulled her cloak tighter, and like a startled little rabbit, quickly darted into a narrow, dark alleyway next to her and disappeared into the shadows.

"They are quite trustworthy."

Vera looked in the direction the girl had disappeared and pouted, "It was all so mysterious."

"Master, where are we going now?"

Fiona asked, though she didn't find anything suspicious about the girl from earlier.

"Let's find a place to eat first, then rest. Tomorrow we'll visit the Earth Temple and also check out the potion shops and equipment stores here."

Mu Qiu's words were concise and to the point.

They hadn't walked far along the main road when they came across a rather impressive-looking hotel and tavern.

The signboard bore the four bold characters "Rock Rock Hotel," and from inside came the sounds of noisy voices and clinking glasses.

After handing the earth dragon over to the eager waiter at the inn's entrance and tossing a few gold coins as extra fees for its care and feeding, Mu Qiu led Vera and Fiona into the tavern.

The tavern was quite spacious, and it was about 70-80% full. Most of the customers were burly adventurers and mercenaries who were talking and laughing loudly, drinking wheat beer and bragging.

"Let me tell you, I almost killed a golden magical beast before..."

"Really? I'll give you fifty silver coins to see your strength."

Mu Qiu glanced around and found that most of the professionals in the tavern were at the Iron and Bronze levels, with Bronze making up the majority, followed by Iron, and Silver being the least common. There were no Gold-level professionals at all.

Yes, just as he imagined, even in a place like Earth City, gold-level professionals are few and far between, and not someone you can just run into easily.

The person who just boasted that he almost killed a golden monster was actually exuding a bronze-level aura.

The professional who offered me 50 silver coins exuded an aura of silver-level skill.

As a Gold-level professional, he could clearly sense the aura of these professionals who were a whole realm lower than him. Seeing this group of Bronze and Silver-level professionals gave him a feeling of arriving in a beginner's village.

Mu Qiu found a corner seat and sat down. A waitress with freckles on her face immediately came over with the menu.

"What would you three like to eat? Our signature dishes are stewed ibex and earth bread!"

"Give me a little bit of all the signature dishes, extra braised meat, and a few bowls of vegetable soup, the best quality ones."

Mu Qiu was too lazy to look at the menu, so he ordered a generous amount of stewed meat and some vegetable soup, as well as a pot of the best fruit wine in the area.

While waiting for their food, they inevitably overheard the loud conversations of the adventurers around them.

The loudest voice came from a table surrounded by four men dressed as mercenaries, one of whom, a bald, burly man, was speaking with spittle flying everywhere:

"Damn it, things are going to get tough now, have you heard? The Truth Association and the Starry Sky Council have jointly signed a resolution, and the Empire has issued an arrest warrant! They're going to wipe out all the witches across the land!"

His words immediately resonated with his classmates and those at the next table.

"They said they were exterminating witches, but what happened? We didn't see a single witch. Instead, we have to be searched just to enter the city! Those money-grubbing guards won't let us in until they've squeezed every last drop of profit out of us!"

"Damn it, I doubt these temple lackeys have the guts to actually capture a witch, but they're certainly bold enough to exploit her under the guise of a witch!"

"Hey, I've heard about it too. The reward is shockingly high! Capturing a witch alive starts at 10,000 gold coins, and goes up to a million gold coins!"

"There's a lot of money, but are you sure you'll live to take it?"

Another mercenary, who looked more mature, took a swig of ale and poured cold water on the idea, saying, "Do you think witches are so easy to deal with? And do you even know where witches are?"

"What are you afraid of!"

The bald, burly man shrugged it off, seemingly wanting to join in: "I heard the temple will be selling something like... a detection scroll? You can buy one for just twenty silver coins, and it can roughly sense whether there's a witch's presence within a thirty-meter radius!"

"Come on, Hack, you'll behave yourself once you buy a few hundred tickets and still fail to catch the witch."

Another skinny mercenary scoffed, "If such a good thing really existed, would it be our turn? Those big mercenary groups and the temple's lackeys would have already sniffed out the scent and pounced on it!"

"you do not say."

Someone chimed in, "You spend money but don't find the witch, and then you feel like you've lost out, so you keep spending money to buy scrolls. In the end, you spend tens of thousands of gold coins and search for several months before you finally find the witch, only to realize that you've kicked a hornet's nest. You've encountered a powerful witch, and by then it will be too late to regret it."

"They make us capture witches and then make us spend money to buy their scrolls. Hey, these temples really know how to do business!"

"It would be better to become an adventurer; dealing with these temples and nobles is more troublesome than the last."

"Come on, I heard there's been a riot in the nearby dungeons. Although it seems like not many monsters have spawned, it's best to stay away from dungeons for now. Being an adventurer is much more dangerous than being a mercenary. That's real risking your life for money. Even gold-level professionals can get killed in lower-level dungeons if they're unlucky!"

"Sigh, the dungeon riot here looks like it'll have to wait out for a while. I wouldn't dare venture into such a dungeon. Hopefully, some high-level professionals can resolve it as soon as possible."

"I wonder if the Holy Maiden will intervene..."

"I heard that the Holy Maiden usually covers her eyes with a black cloth, but I don't know why."

"It's said to be related to some kind of curse..."

"Shh, we can just criticize the temple in private, but we can't talk about the Holy Maiden's affairs. Be careful."

One of the mercenaries pointed to the sky, and the others immediately shut their mouths.

"..."

Mu Qiu listened silently, his fingers tapping the table unconsciously.

A witch?

Hmm... I can buy some detection scrolls myself later; you never know when I might need them.

However, it can only sense the witch's aura within 30 meters... If you want to catch the witch with this, you would have to mobilize the entire city and use tens or hundreds of millions of cards to achieve a carpet search.

However, the temple doesn't offer scrolls for free; instead, it wants to sell them, which probably means not many people will be willing to buy them...

After finishing his meal, Mu Qiu called the waitress to settle the bill and said directly, "Give us the best room."

The waitress's eyes lit up, and her smile became even more enthusiastic.

"The best room? Of course! Our penthouse suite will absolutely satisfy you! Panoramic views, spacious rooms, and a private bathroom! Only five gold coins a night!"

"lead the way."

Mu Qiu tossed over six gold coins, keeping the extra one as a tip.

The waitress accepted the tip and immediately beamed with joy: "Alright! Distinguished guest, please follow me!"

She led the three to the top floor of the hotel. The room there was extremely spacious, almost the size of four rooms in a regular hotel. In the center was an oversized bed large enough to sleep four or five people, covered with thick velvet curtains, and next to it was a double bed.

Through the spacious glass windows, one can overlook part of the city under the night sky, with the outline of the lord's castle faintly visible in the distance.

As soon as the waiter opened the door, Vera slipped inside first and then discreetly put the large bed away using her storage ring.

There's only one double bed left in the room.

Mu Qiu entered the room, his brows furrowing slightly.

"Ok?"

The room looks luxurious, but why is there only such a simple double bed?

Is this right?

Doesn't this seem a bit off?

"Aren't the beds in your human hotels way too small?"

Fiona sat down on the bed, complaining somewhat discontentedly, "Even the most luxurious room only has such a small bed? Our single beds are bigger than this!"

"Aren't you human too?"

Mu Qiu glanced at her.