Zhou Yin noticed Zhou Chen's mood and glanced at him.

Zhou Chen gradually calmed down, his heart filled with disgust towards Yu Nuo to the extreme, but he also knew that he could settle the score with him after they got out, so he suppressed his anger and continued to talk with him.

Yu Nuo didn't see through Zhou Chen's thoughts. Thinking that he would need their help in many places in the future, he naturally maintained a friendly attitude and answered all their questions.

Zhou Yin slightly frowned, as if he had endless worries about this plan. "When the time comes, it will take time to break through the more than a dozen restrictions on the dry well. With just the three of us, our strength is limited. The other party has more people and power, and they won't be easy to deal with after all."

Yu Nuo smiled. He had already set up restrictions around the three of them in advance to prevent others from detecting them, so he wasn't worried about being overheard.

Seeing Zhou Yin's concern, he instead felt that he was being fussy and wouldn't accomplish anything big, completely different from when they first met. If it weren't for Zhou Chen, a cultivator at the Nascent Soul realm, he definitely wouldn't have chosen to cooperate with them.

"You don't know, but I have two things to rely on. First, I offered that Vast Sea Star Chart to the city lord, but little did he know it was a hot potato."

Zhou Yin couldn't wait to ask, "What do you mean?"

Yu Nuo smiled, "The Vast Sea Star Chart has acknowledged me as its master, so how could it acknowledge someone else as its master? I set up restrictions on it. When the time comes for us to leave, I'll activate the restrictions and it will be able to trap Ma Dong for a period of time.

"Moreover, Ma Dong is lustful. I've never heard of him neglecting his duties because of lust before, but he recently got a pair of sisters and is racking his brains on how to please them. He even skipped the monthly meeting."

Zhou Yin asked again, "The Vast Sea Star Chart is so precious, yet you easily gave it to someone. Even if you can trap Ma Dong, how will you get it back?"

Yu Nuo laughed, "I have my own clever plans, fellow Daoist, so you don't need to worry. But speaking of which, you chose the Sumeru Ring in that residence back then. Did it fulfill its purpose as you wished?"

Zhou Yin's eyes flashed with a hint of frustration as he unconsciously touched the Mount Sumeru Ring. "Don't mention it. I originally thought the most inconspicuous one would be the best, but who knew that now, it's just a storage ring."

Yu Nuo laughed and instead comforted him, "Fellow Daoist, you don't need to be sad. Everyone has their own karmic ties. The fact that you could resist eating the things here is already a great blessing!"

Zhou Yin sighed and said no more.

Yu Nuo couldn't help but let his gaze shuttle between the two of them. Zhou Yin seemed unable to withstand his probing gaze and slightly lowered his head, his face somewhat flushed.

Damn bastard! Yu Nuo inwardly cursed, very much disdaining Zhou Yin. He was a good cultivator, yet he went to be someone's catamite.

But he also knew that when low-level cultivators traveled outside, they often encountered many troubles. However, if you had a Nascent Soul realm cultivator as a backer, the situation would immediately be different.

Zhou Chen said, "Should we agree on a time?"

Yu Nuo nodded, "It can't be anytime soon. We have to wait until Ma Dong is dizzily infatuated by that pair of sisters. My Vast Sea Star Chart also needs time to take effect. Coincidentally, the fifteenth of next month is the Cloud Dream Birth of this Cloud Dream City. At that time, the whole city will be in a frenzy of celebration.

"According to tradition, the city lord will bestow three days and three nights of fine wine to his subordinates, and everyone will drink themselves into a stupor. That night at midnight, you two come to the North Hall to find me."

The three of them agreed on a way to contact each other, and Yu Nuo quickly left without further delay.

Zhou Chen smiled and went to touch his chin, but was slapped away by Zhou Yin.

"Oh, Ah Yin, your acting just now was really convincing. Let me take another look. You're every bit like a little wife!"

With that, he even went to imitate Zhou Yin's earlier look of lowering his head and blushing.

As soon as no one was around, Zhou Yin had already returned to his expressionless appearance. Seeing this, he glanced at Zhou Chen without saying a word.

Seeing things going well, Zhou Chen stopped and coughed, "This Yu Nuo is not very trustworthy."

Zhou Yin said, "He won't fully trust us either."

Zhou Chen said, "Everything he said seemed reasonable, but it also seemed fishy at every turn. For example, before he came in and became the head of the North Hall, how did he resist eating the things here? If you say his willpower is strong, that's not the case either."

Zhou Yin said, "Whether he's trustworthy or not, if we want to get out, we must cooperate with him. We can only be more on guard."

To be fair, the treatment Cloud Dream City gave them was really not bad.

Since the day Zhou Chen had an audience with the city lord Ma Dong, he expressed his willingness to submit under the city lord's command and also presented two magic treasures.

One was the "Rainbow Shadow" woven from the green feathers of a hundred birds, which could defend against attacks. The other was the Myriad Wonders Elixir Flower that could help Nascent Soul realm cultivators increase their cultivation and break through bottlenecks.

It should be known that since Ma Dong took office, he only had two concerns. One was being killed by others like how he killed the previous city lord. For this reason, he replaced all the attendants in the inner city with puppet people. The second was the hope that one day his cultivation could reach the Deity Transformation stage, and then he could go out, because no matter how good it was here, there were only so many people coming and going.

Even if every hundred years some new cultivators could enter, it was still not as vast as the outside world where he could command a region.

The two magic treasures Zhou Chen gave happened to suit his tastes, so he treated Zhou Chen and Zhou Yin favorably, gifting them many spiritual medicines and even bestowing a few puppet maids. He even wanted to give him a position, but Zhou Chen politely declined, saying that he was already used to being free and unrestrained, and was afraid that if he suddenly took on a heavy responsibility, he would not be able to handle it.

However, these rewards and power were of no use to Zhou Chen and Zhou Yin. All they wanted to do was to minimize Ma Dong's guard against them as much as possible.

In the blink of an eye, the Cloud Dream Birth arrived.

Cloud Dream City was a world of its own, without festivals like the Lantern Festival or New Year. Their only holiday was the Cloud Dream Birth.

This was a rule passed down from the first city lord, and every subsequent city lord did not change this rule.

Cloud Dream City had been open for a thousand years, and many cultivators had entered. Excluding those who were killed in past power struggles or those who advanced and perished, together with the puppet attendants, there were about 2,000 people in total.

However, Cloud Dream City was extremely vast, so these 2,000 people were scattered throughout the city, making the entire Cloud Dream City seem empty.

The city lord of Cloud Dream City ruled over these 2,000 people. Although he had everything he wanted, comparable to an emperor, he couldn't go out, so it was no wonder he found it boring.

Although there weren't many people here, the hierarchy was very strict, level by level, like a pyramid from top to bottom.

The one with the most power was the city lord Ma Dong.

Next were the heads of the four halls - East, West, South, and North.

Then there were the Twenty-Eight Constellations, named after the twenty-eight constellations in the sky. Each hall steward had seven people under them in charge of specific affairs.

Below them were ordinary cultivators like Zhou Chen, who had no power and had to pay the city lord a portion of their refined pills or magic treasures each month. However, because the treasures Zhou Chen had previously offered were very much to the city lord's liking, the amount of tribute he had to pay was specially reduced.

There were also some who had offended the city lord and were despised by him, then exiled outside the city, like those puppets, lower-level cultivators who had to do hard labor every day.

Only the city lord knew the way out, and Yu Nuo's predecessor, the North Steward, was silenced for knowing this secret.

So as time went by, those eager to leave became dissatisfied, but they dared not openly oppose the city lord due to his many powerful magic treasures. The South Steward Lang Kun was an example, but he secretly cultivated his power, and now he could occasionally annoy Ma Dong at the council meetings from time to time.

Despite the undercurrents, the only person who could rule Cloud Dream City on the surface was the city lord alone.