"Woah, did she just cast a spell without chanting?!" Xiang Peng exclaimed, immediately closing the distance between her and Mei Gui.

"Nah, she just chanted really quietly," I quickly said, trying to cover it up.

"Oh, I see," Xiang Peng murmured in reply.

Wait, she actually believed that?!

...Okay, works for me.

I tilted my head. "Anyway, Mei Gui, what spell did you cast? Detect Presence? Ah, but wait...that's just a one-time scan, not a continuous radar..."

Mei Gui shook her head. "I used...nevermind."

Seeing her expression, I knew she didn't want to say it in front of Xiang Peng, who was still oblivious to all of our secrets...and I planned to keep it that way. Lan Xiao Su already knows, but in the end, the less people that know, the better.

[Master, I used Forbidden Magic just now.] Mei Gui sent me a telepathic message.

[Ah, I see. Teach it to me later then?]

[Gladly, Master. I can also teach you some more that I have remembered thanks to Master powering up.]

[Wait, I powered up? When?]

[If I am not wrong, Master, you should be able to cast Level Three spells now.]

[Wha...how? I've just become an Intermediate Mage...]

[I will explain more once we are alone,] Mei Gui replied, and we ended the conversation there.

The ten of us continued travelling following behind Mei Gui, sticking close together and trying to remain as quiet as possible. We agreed that we wouldn't talk unless it was absolutely necessary. In addition, we kept our footsteps light, and treaded very carefully.

Around fifteen minutes later, Mei Gui suddenly stopped, and gave a hand signal for the rest of us to do the same. We complied, and remained deadly silent.

After a while, Mei Gui finally let out a deep breath. "It's alright now."

"What was that?" I asked.

"By the amount of mana I sensed from them...probably some students, near Advanced Mage level," Mei Gui replied.

"They really sent out students this early in the year to do training?" Xiang Peng mused. "That's interesting."

"I thought you've been here many times before..." I muttered in disdain.

Xiang Peng shrugged. "Well, yeah, but most of those times were just passing through. I never really explored this city."

I shook my head and turned back to Mei Gui. "Alright, so...where are they right now?"

Mei Gui pointed in the direction behind us. "They headed deeper into the forest, Master. We're safe."

I nodded in satisfaction. "Okay, good. Let's quickly move then. There will probably be more student groups coming our way. The faster we get out of here, the better."

"U-Um, I have a question!" Lan Xiao Su suddenly said, raising her hand timidly.

I raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"I wonder...why are we avoiding these students? If they ask about us and why we are here, we could just say we're Hunters. You all have guild cards, no?"

Hm...that's true. Feng Mian, Qing Yue, Yu An Yan, Yu An Xue, and Mei Gui all have Hunter guild cards, and of course I do as well. Lan Xiao Su herself probably had a card as well, being an employee there. But the rest of us...

I sighed. "Man, all of you don't have any self-awareness, I swear."

"What do you mean?" Feng Mian asked.

"Look at yourselves. Are you just average girls? No," I said, answering my own question. "Any single boy would be head over heels over you guys at first sight. Hell, even if they already had a girlfriend, it wouldn't be a surprise if they dumped them for you."

But, to my surprise, instead of getting a reply like I expected, I saw all the girls blushing, faces as red as tomatoes. Of course, Obsidia and Mei Gui were still oblivious as usual, and Xiang Peng's expression was less of a blush and more of a sinister smirk.

"..." I had no words.

"Oho...did you just indirectly call us pretty, Big Brother Xuan Kai?" Qing Yue asked, crossing her arms with a smug grin on her face.

I sighed. "I mean, no one can call any of you ugly, that's for sure."

"A-Anyway," Feng Mian said, trying desperately to hide the happiness on her face from my accidental compliment. "Let's get going..."

"R-Right," Yu An Yan murmured.

"F-Fwah! Y-Yes, let's go!" Lan Xiao Su agreed.

In the end, we managed to make it out of the forest without any trouble. We had to exit through a fairly remote part of the forest though, since the school's teachers were probably waiting at the most used entrance to supervise. Honestly, I wasn't even completely sure we weren't detected. They could've used a Detect Presence spell or something similar without us even knowing. But it didn't matter, because we weren't planning to stay in this city for long, anyway. We would spend the night here, then hop on a high-speed rail tomorrow, heading straight for Shanghai, the Magic Capital.

It took a good hour for us to reach the urban part of the city, since we were walking by foot. Unfortunately, Xiang Peng didn't have a Space Element affinity, or else she could've simply teleported us. On the way to the urban part of Huizhou, I realized that this city was far behind Shenzhen in terms of technology, and Shenzhen was far more advanced as well. Of course, this was speaking from before the Midnight Syndicate's invasion happened. Now, any city could beat Shenzhen...at least, until it gets rebuilt and restored to its former glory.

The central, urban part of Huizhou was pretty populated and active. It was a bit weird, since we barely saw anyone on our way here, but all of a sudden there are tons of people packed in this place. The population distribution, I could tell, was severely imbalanced - very few people lived out in the countryside, and most people chose to live in the city. But at the same time, the urban city was small compared to the area of the countryside in Huizhou...

I guessed the government was already making plans to expand the urban part of this city, because if they didn't, then this overpopulation would continue, which wouldn't be good for anyone - the denizens, the environment, and the city in general.

"This place is...crowded," Yu An Yan remarked.

"Yeah, stick together," I said as we squeezed our way past the crowd, heading for a hotel.

"Wouldn't it be easier to stay together if we all held hands?" Xiang Peng suggested. "C'mon, I don't min-"

"Denied," I cut her off, declining her offer to hold hands. Sure, she was cute and had a well-developed body, but I don't really care. We were receiving enough stares thanks to the beauty of the girls, and I didn't want to attract any hate to myself, even if I would only be staying here for one night.

Luckily, we managed to make it to a hotel with all of us together. We walked up to the medium-sized line that had formed behind one of the receptionists. The other lines were longer than this one, so we just chose the shortest.

A good ten minutes later, it was our turn. I walked up to the receptionist - who, unsurprisingly, was a young woman. I found it pretty sexist how companies usually only chose young, good-looking women to be their receptionists, but there wasn't much I could do about that.

"Good morning, sir," she said with a bright, cheerful smile. "What can I do for you today?"

"Hm...can we get two rooms?" I asked.

"Oh, are you and those beautiful young ladies behind you all together?"

I nodded. "Yeah. They'll sleep in one room, while I sleep in the other. So, if possible, make one the rooms bigger."

"Of course," she replied easily. "And how many nights will you be staying?"

"Just one," I answered.

She nodded. "Okay, one moment please..."

After around a minute, she finally looked up at me from her computer. "Alright, the total cost for one night is ¥800.1

"¥800...okay, An Yan," I said, turning around and motioning for her to come over. She obliged, and pulled out her card, swiping it on the card machine.

The receptionist blinked, surprised by my actions. She probably didn't expect me, the boy of the group, to leave the paying to a girl. But she just bit her lip and didn't say anything, since undoubtedly, it would've been disrespectful for a employee to question a customer's actions.

"All done," Yu An Yan said, before walking back to her original spot. I nodded in satisfaction.

"O-Okay, here are your room cards - the room numbers are 69 and 68 respectively. Room 69 is the larger one. They are on the sixth floor."

"Got it, thanks," I replied, before taking the two room cards, and turning around to face the girls. "C'mon, let's go."

The girls complied, and together, we headed up the elevators to the sixth floor of this hotel, by the name of Huizhou Central Hotel.

For reference, RMB (¥) to CAD ($) is around 5:1. So this would be around $160 CAD/night for two rooms, which is pretty cheap ($80/room).