After a few turns and twists, we arrived at a large establishment where people went in and out at a constant pace. Once the attendants at the entrance saw Fen Zei, they welcomed 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 meat, fish, and other strange-looking dishes while enjoying wine and drinks of all sorts. The place seemed to be reserved for the wealthy, especially since the decoration was marvelous. Not to mention the servants who were all pretty young girls that didn't seem to find any shame in flirting with the customers 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 immediately 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 came into the Imperial city flying where it is well known to be a flight prohibited area means that you're not from around here. Also, you didn't seem too worried about me, nor my senior disciple Xue Liu. Meaning that you clearly have a good background. I wish to make friends with such people, you never know when they come in handy." Fen Zei explained his reasons.
Though they seemed 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 mean what he just said. he still had questions and I know how he wants to extract them from me.
There was a knock on the door and the girl from earlier had come with a group of servants to serve our food. It was stocked with fresh meat, whale, and fish, and all sorts of delicacies that need ten men 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 moment 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 confirmed my suspicion, this man wants to get me 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 me, 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 time it was genuine, and he actually drank a full cup in one go, challenging me 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 time."
"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 overcome 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 mention 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 me 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 me 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, come visit whenever you wish, also for the cultivation cave you asked for, here."
The man handed me 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 me at once. As for me, after the first cup I had, the moment 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 establishment 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 payment, 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 me right now.
Xue Liue, the man that I met yesterday night came over, he looked pissed.
"Fen Zei! What's the meaning of this, have you been drinking again!" Xue Liue shouted.
And in a second, the drunk man next to me 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 me 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 me. 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 me. 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 mean 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 me I began by pulling the book. Yet the book didn't want to emerge.
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, someone was either spying on me or there was something I missed.
Yet I had made sure to check everywhere…
Ah, yes I checked everywhere, but at the same time, I forgot the most important place to check… on myself.
I tapped at my clothes and robes, nothing came to sight, but two things, the token Fen Zei had given me, and the jade. The token didn't have anything obvious about it, but the jade, on the other hand, shimmered with spiritual energy, though I couldn't sense the spiritual energy, the poison Qi in me 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 immediately 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 me 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 me opening a page.
***
Open it, and you'll die!
***
"Right… I didn't see that coming."
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