The scorching sun city was after all the place her big sister had trained, studied and cultivated for 5 years! Thinking about this, Sofie could not help the nervousness mixed with excitement slowly building up inside her, as the city in the distance grew closer by the minute.

The surroundings were filled with all kinds of red plants and even a few trees with a dark read tree trunk and light red leaves in the crow of the trees making them look both beautiful and mystifying at the same time.

The trees were scarce and only appeared around the scorching sun city because of the high density of fire qi in the city. According to Ling Yue, the red trees were called phoenix blood trees and they could be used to refine weapons and all sorts of furniture. Legend also said that phoenix blood trees only appeared at a place where a phoenix had died, but that was only legend.

"What is a phoenix?" Sofie grew quite interested in the so-called phoenix and decided to ask Ling Yue about it.

"A phoenix is a bird of sorts? Like a giant bird completely coated in fire? I have not really seen a phoenix before, but I heard a little about them from elder sun before. The scariest thing about them is how strong they are. Elder sun said that the weakest pure blood phoenix would have reached the 4'th major realm…" Ling Yue said as a trace of awe flashed through her eyes.

Sofie felt like it was hard to imagine a giant fire bird and could not help but think of an oversized chicken coated in flames desperately flapping its wings trying to fly into the sky.

A small chuckle escaped from her lips before she could supress it in time, earning yet another weird look from a certain senior sister.

Sofie really did not know why, but the image of an oversized chicken coated in fire started to make her hungry, as her stomach started rumbling in response.

"Are you hungry? We will be at the scorching sun city soon, at that time we will get something to eat." Ling Yue said to Sofie, as she seemed to have heard her stomach that started rumbling all of a sudden.

Sofie blushed slightly, as she tried to hide herself away. Sadly, her stomach did not agree with her hiding away and started rumbling with a slightly higher sound than before. Making Sofie want to jump into the closest hole in the ground, as she felt her face burning with embarra.s.sment.

Ling Yue decided it was a good idea not to say anything and acted like she did not hear anything at all.

This would all have been fine if a certain senior brother in front of them did not turn around and look towards both Ling Yue and Sofie with a weird light flas.h.i.+ng through his eyes before turning around again.

Sofie could almost imagine how red her face looked and finally started to regret not eating more before leaving the little village.

*****

The group of disciples continued to move towards the scorching sun city and the city grew bigger and bigger the closer they got.

Sofie only thought the scorching sun city was a little bigger than the little village she grew up in, but as time pa.s.sed and they got closer to the city, Sofie started to realize just how big the city was as the small silhouette of the city grew into an enormous city.

"We will enter the city shortly, I'll get things in order with the guards at the gate first." Elder sun's voice came from the front of the group, as he could be seen jumping off the fire lizard he was riding on before making his way towards the gates of the city.

It was only at this moment Sofie realized just how big the gate of the city was, being at least 10 or so meters high and decorated with a giant circle in the centre. A few letters spelling out "sun" were engraved in the middle of gate gave of an almost suffocating feeling, as Sofie found it hard to stare directly at it and quickly turned her gaze elsewhere.

The other new disciple like Sofie was no better off than her, some of them even tried to continue looking at the sun word engraved in the middle of the sun and were forced to look away after letting out a few painful voices in the process.

"W-why are they in pain all of a sudden?" Sofie asked, as she looked at the few new disciples looking away from the sun word on the gate in confusion.

"Haha, don't worry about it, they will only feel a slight pain in the head followed by a slight headache. The word "sun" in the centre of the sun engraving of the gate, was personally made by ancestor Sunfire when he established scorching sun city together with the sect. The reason they felt a slight pain from looking at it is because ancestor Sunfire infused part of his will into it." Ling Yue diligently explained for Sofie, while staring at the engraved sun of the gate in pride.

Sofie was confused about the infused will part of the explanation, but decided it had something to do with cultivation, so she would most likely learn about it sometime in the future.

Thinking this Sofie nodded in answer to what Ling Yue and looked towards the closed gate with a few guards standing in front of it.

Elder sun was standing there, talking to an elderly guard that was clearly a senior.

Elder sun and the elderly senior guard continued to talk for another 5 minutes, with a few laughs escaping from time to time annoying the some of the older disciples of the group.

"Elder sun! Please hurry up, we have to get back to the sect before evening." A senior brother who had an annoyed expression on his face could not help himself from calling out to elder sun, who had now been chatting with the elderly guard for over 10 minutes without showing any sign of returning to the group of disciples anytime soon.

Elder sun was a little shocked to hear someone yell at him, but soon showed a slightly embarra.s.sed expression as he realized how long he had been chatting with his old friend.

"Ahem, look how fast time goes old friend, I'll have to trouble you to open the gate for us." Elder sun said apologetically towards the elderly guard in front of him.

"Haha, no worries old friend! Younglings nowadays have no patience whatsoever. OPEN THE GATE." The elderly guard tried to cheer up elder sun, as he soon yelled towards the top of the gate of the city.

Sofie felt amazed the moment she saw the gigantic gates slowly opening up in front of her. She could finally see the city hidden away from view beforehand slowly entering her eyes. The only thing she saw from the city before was a lot of tall buildings in all sorts of colours towering above the wall, but now she found out there was more to the city than before, it was just hidden away behind the walls before.