After a few turns and twists, we arrived at a large establishnt where people went in and out at a constant pace. Once the attendants at the entrance saw Fen Zei, they welcod him with open arms.
"Please follow us," the attendant said as he walked inside.
The first floor had many tables full and bustling with people enjoying their food. They feasted on boar at, fish, and other strange-looking dishes while enjoying wine and drinks of all sorts. The place seed to be reserved for the wealthy, especially since the decoration was marvelous. Not to ntion the servants who were all pretty young girls that didn’t seem to find any sha in flirting with the custors for an extra tip.
The man led us to the second floor, and once we arrived, a beautiful girl led us to a private room where we went inside and sat on comfortable chairs.
"Get us the usual," Fen Zei said, and the girl nodded.
Then she closed the room and imdiately I felt my ears popping, it was as if the room was locked airtight.
"Silent room?" I mumbled.
"Right, anything you say here will stay here. These rooms are designed to counter eavesdropping." Fen Zei said.
"Right, then what do you want to talk about?" I asked.
"Right then, well, I just wish to know more about you. See, the fact that you ca into the Imperial city flying where it is well known to be a flight prohibited area ans that you’re not from around here. Also, you didn’t seem too worried about , nor my senior disciple Xue Liu. aning that you clearly have a good background. I wish to make friends with such people, you never know when they co in handy." Fen Zei explained his reasons.
Though they seed clear and innocent, I wasn’t too dumb to believe them.
"My origin will remain mine to speak off, it’s a good strategy to keep it secret as it will deter many off of my back if I were to get into trouble. Secondly, I’m here for training."
"Oh, I understand, I wouldn’t want to pry further," the man said, and he clearly didn’t an what he just said. he still had questions and I know how he wants to extract them from .
There was a knock on the door and the girl from earlier had co with a group of servants to serve our food. It was stocked with fresh at, whale, and fish, and all sorts of delicacies that need ten n to finish. Yet the most auspicious was the alcohol.
The alcohol they brought was in covered pots that looked ancient. Old rice wine. It should be delicious.
I went for the wine first, and the mont I took a gulp, I grinned.
"This is good stuff!" I said as I swallowed what should be compared to lava and not alcohol. The damned beverage was really hot but strong and delicious.
And this confird my suspicion, this man wants to get drunk enough so I can let my guard down.
Though it’s nigh impossible to get cultivators drunk on mortal wine, cultivator wine on the other hand is powerful enough to knock out the heaviest of immortal drinkers.
Yet, that would never be the case for , simply because...Wine is poison.
I drank from the pot relentlessly, even competing with the shocked man.
"Have another drink Fen Zei!" I said as I giggled.
"I never thought you’d have such tolerance, hell, you’re a good drinking partner," the man smiled, this ti it was genuine, and he actually drank a full cup in one go, challenging to a competition.
We talked about random things, most of all, our cultivation, which I simply decided to lie to him about.
"I cultivate the Stars," I said.
"Oh, a star cultivator, rather amazing, I see why you went to those bandits at night, most star cultivators are superior at night ti."
"Yes, but we can even be strong during the day, people fail to understand that the sun is also a star. And using it to power one’s cultivation is the best way to overco difficulties." I replied as I took another gulp.
The man pondered for a while before he raised his cup in cheers, "That was rather simple yet enlightening, thank you for sharing such knowledge."
"It shouldn’t be that much, it’s common knowledge don’t ntion it." I replied, "What about you?" I asked.
"Ruthless Water Sword." The man said, he tapped the alcohol pot with a finger and the wine inside it jumped up in the air, creating a water sword, the sword hovered in the room, flew around for a bit then dipped back into the pot.
I clapped at the ’party trick’. "Amazing display of skill, I’m envious," I replied.
The man kept laughing and never forgot his primary goal of goading to reveal more about myself, yet the more I spoke, the more confused he was. I only spoke the truth, yet always incomplete truth. This way, he’ll never think that I’m lying to him, nor would he believe I’m telling the whole truth.
Lies are easy to figure out, yet incomplete truth leaves a man with a sense of incomplete understanding. He would rather not push the matter further also, because he will believe himself to be rude if he were to insist. And since I already told half-truths, he has information, incomplete, yet still, information is better than nothing and that will take him off of my back.
"Right, so you said you’re a rogue cultivator, are you willing to join our sect?" the man asked.
"I’m sorry, but I decided to go through my cultivation alone. I have no need to bind myself to a single place. I still wish to see a lot of this world." I replied.
"I respect your discission, still here," the man handed a token.
Damn, I’m collecting these like Pokémon now.
"This is a guest’s token, show it to the guards at the Imperial Sect and you’ll be granted entry, co visit whenever you wish, also for the cultivation cave you asked for, here."
The man handed a jade and a key, "This is the location to a secure house I have in the city, you can get in and use it as you see fit, there is a cave underneath it with a small spiritual vein, it’s not as powerful as the ones you find in sects, but it’s good enough for one person to cultivate in it.
"Oh, that a lot, I can’t accept such an offer!" I replied.
"Don’t worry about it, we’re friends!" the man said.
I gave the man a rueful smile, "I’ll make sure to pay you back, I don’t like to owe favors." I replied.
"Do as you wish, for now, let’s have more wine!" the man shouted as he slapped his cup on the table.
More wine kept coming in, and we didn’t leave until Fen Zei was able to see three of at once. As for , after the first cup I had, the mont I started to feel buzzed and light-headed, I began rotating my poison Qi, consuming the alcohol, destroying it, and converting it into poison Qi. And to be honest, the alcohol in this establishnt was potent enough that I actually raised my cultivation a little.
"I think I’m done for today," Fen Zei said while gulping.
"Yeah, I guess, more than this and we’ll be knocked out cold on the floor," I humored the drunk man.
We both walked out of the bar, or at least I walked out, Fen Zei was barely able to stand up and I had to carry him out.
The staff never asked for paynt, so it seems that because he was a regular, they wouldn’t bother with following us. Thank god, as I didn’t have any money on right now.
Xue Liue, the man that I t yesterday night ca over, he looked pissed.
"Fen Zei! What’s the aning of this, have you been drinking again!" Xue Liue shouted.
And in a second, the drunk man next to stoutened up, standing like a palm tree. Yet that didn’t take more than a couple of seconds before he fell to the side, losing balance.
"Yeah, I think I did drink a bit senior brother," he said while laughing.
Xue Liue took the man and gave a despicable look before he left with his junior brother.
"Well, that went well," I said as I looked around. I had already located the general area where the house Fen Zei had gifted . And I walked toward it.
The city was quite big, and since I couldn’t use my sword to fly around it, I had to rent a ’taxi’.
Which was a carriage that was dragged by a buffed man for a few silvers. And since I didn’t have any silvers, I threw the man a silver ring I found on one of the bandit’s bodies.
Once I arrived at the house, which was located in the middle sector of the imperial city. It was inconspicuous and didn’t seem to have any close neighbors. It would be perfect for cultivation.
I entered using the key that Fen Zei gave . The house was a simple two-story house, it had a couple of rooms and nothing of value. It had a trapdoor under a rug that led down to a small cultivation cave. By saying a cave, I an a dug-in square room underground that could be closed and opened.
Once I was inside the room, I made sure to check every corner and bit of the room. Once I was sure that there were no tools to spy on I began by pulling the book. Yet the book didn’t want to erge.
I understood that I didn’t check enough, the book would only reveal itself when no one else was present, and from the reaction of the Poison God’s book, soone was either spying on or there was sothing I missed.
Yet I had made sure to check everywhere...
Ah, yes I checked everywhere, but at the sa ti, I forgot the most important place to check... on myself.
I tapped at my clothes and robes, nothing ca to sight, but two things, the token Fen Zei had given , and the jade. The token didn’t have anything obvious about it, but the jade, on the other hand, shimred with spiritual energy, though I couldn’t sense the spiritual energy, the poison Qi in can easily react to it. And when I tried coating the jade with Poison Qi, it seeped into the jade and broke it. Shattering the thing into tiny pieces.
The Poison God’s Book imdiately shot out of my chest.
"I guess the jade was the spying tool. I’ll have to talk to Fen Zei about this later."
"Now, let’s start," I mumbled to myself as I pulled the pouches. I hope I could open them now.
I had about seven cultivator pouches. All belonging to the cultivators that had captured and tried to kill in the Poison God’s cave.
The first pouch I pulled belonged to the man with the crimson robes.
And just as I was about to pry it open to see what was inside it, the Poison God’s book shot right in front of opening a page.
***
Open it, and you’ll die!
***
"Right... I didn’t see that coming."
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