"What do you mean there're no locals? Are you crazy?!"
Wu Tai was on the verge of panicking. Inside, he was really worried about the young princess. He had been taking care of her from her childhood.
The young knight in full body armor got startled at Wu Tai's sudden shout, but he stood his ground and explained.
"But sir, there really is no one!"
Only then, did another knight come and reported to Wu Tai.
'Sir, a huge number of people are gathered in that area!"
This man pointed at the direction where the arena was. A huge and conspicuous building like the arena would obviously be seen by Wu Tai, who had excellent eyesight due to his cultivation.
"Let's go!"
Upon seeing the arena, Wu Tai felt relieved. He thought that this city really was deserted despite the fact that signs of life could be seen everywhere.
.....
"Wh-what's that? Little lass, can you say that again?"
The elder rubbed his ears roughly. In fact, it started bleeding! He could not believe what he just heard. A huge number of people in the crowd was also bewildered by what just happened.
Zhao Mei repeated what she said.
"I said, I concede! I'm conced-"
At that moment, Zhao Mei was interrupted by someone. It was Wu Tai, her guardian.
"Princess Zhao Mei, come here."
Wu Tai shouted, but in a calm manner. His voice was too calm, that it sent shivers down everyone's spine.
Struggling to answer, Zhao Mei brushed her long violet hair off of her face as the wind blew.
"He-hey there, Uncle Tai..."
In an instant, this Uncle Tai flashed towards the direction of the stage, intending to stop right in front of Zhao Mei.
When Wu Tai saw Li Bai not making eye contact, instead frozen, not moving at all, he immediately panicked. Maybe he traumatized this kid, resulting in him unable to move?
Unaware of Uncle Tai's thoughts, Li Bai was in glee inside.
.....
Back a few minutes, before Zhao Mei conceded.
Li Bai opened his eyes, as if he had realized something.
Zhao Mei... the Zhao clan! So she inherited the Pure Dark Body from them, what a shame, what a shame. I was also part of the Zhao clan in my past life, and had the luck of not possessing this cursed constitution.
Li Bai shook his head subtly, his movements too small to be visible to the crowd far away from him. Li Bai started speaking.
"Zhao Mei... I am sensitive to energy. As such, I can sense an abnormal amount of energy coming from within you."
Zhao Mei was starting to get what Li Bai meant, but was also becoming increasingly concerned. Is he talking about my Dark energy? If so...
"You... you possess the Pure Dark Body, don't you?"
Suddenly, an elder in the audience spoke up, interrupting what Li Bai was trying to say.
.....
Li Bai was thinking that this was an opportunity for fame. In exchange for healing their princess, they would help him find disciples! Surely, this was a good deal.
Zhao Mei was greatly terrified of the man before her, as she snuck away while he was sleeping in the desert outside of the city.
"Mei Mei! What are you doing here?"
Hearing her nickname being used here in public made Zhao Mei blush as she hated that nickname, given by her parents.
After all, Zhao Mei despised her parents, but her getting the Pure Dark Body was to be expected. The Zhao family was founded by someone who cured himself of this curse.
-----
If you want exposition dumps, go to the Webnovel site. I put the concise version here, while the long and elaborate version goes there.
Webnovel: 3-4x longer than this one, although this summarizes the events
So both have their own pros and cons
