by Tinalynge
The boss was usually very haughty because of his strength, but right now, he was worried. As a result, Xue Wei snorted and just left the tavern without looking back.
The audience felt that this ending was truly too anticlimactic, but no one in their right mind would say anything as they still feared this boss.
And when the boss turned around to unleash his rage on the servant, he realized that the target of his ire was nowhere to be found.
Frowning, he told himself that he would fire him as soon as he returned. But this servant never returned to the tavern.
“They won’t let us stay in this inn either,” Xue Wei said with a sigh as they exited the fourth inn they had visited after leaving the tavern.
“It seems like someone knew that we were coming this way. It is hard to find fault with us as we have done nothing wrong, at least according to the law, but they will try and chase us out of every major city in the future.”
“We can try the hotels,” Hei Gou suggested. Hotels were usually chains or owned by major factions, so they would not involve themselves in the conflicts of the major sects. Although they were slightly more expensive, the quality was also above ordinary inns.
“We need somewhere to relax for a bit,” Xue Wei agreed. “We need to share all the items in my bags. I have herbs, spiritual fruits, pills, and techniques from that mini-war we caused that we need to look at,” he said. “We should use them to get as strong as possible before we reach the center of the continent. It would be a waste not to.”
“I want the Rainbow Pill, you can fight for the rest then,” Bai Tianyi said smilingly. He really wanted the Rainbow Pill.
“We’ll split it later.” Xue Wei smiled evasively, but he really didn’t mind giving it to Bai Tianyi. He knew that his spirit form had a hard time taking in energy from pills unless they were special. If the Rainbow Pill could benefit him, it was worth it.
“Let’s find a hotel then,” Xue Wei said. He had considered meeting up with the Cerulean Starlight Sect, but he was not willing to stay in their territory. Although they were on friendly terms, Xue Wei had a hard time fully trusting them. Their relationship was built on mutual benefits after all.
“We can look for a hotel owned by the Golden Chambers,” Bai Tianyi added with a smile.
“They will definitely not decline us after our business with the formations. Not to mention that they have no reason to fear the factions.”
Having decided what they would do, they soon headed toward the location of the Golden Chambers’ shops. There should also be a hotel located among them.
As they walked through the city, it never occurred to Xue Wei that they should leave. The more they wanted to chase him out, the more stubborn he became, and he had now decided to stay in Cloudsoar City for some time while getting information on Wang Xiaoyun’s new faction and about the center of the continent. Besides, he wanted to see what sort of pills, herbs, and spiritual fruits they had in stock here.
Cloudsoar City was the largest city within the Chengzi Kingdom. It was a city that overflowed with life. Ergo, it would be the perfect place to gather some intel – if people were not biased against them, that is.
As they reached the district governed by the Golden Chambers, they were greeted very differently by the independent stores. There were many different departments in the Cloudsoar City’s Golden Chambers, and one of them was precisely what they needed, a hotel.
When they were informed of Ye Xiao’s request for accommodations, they were at first slightly perplexed but then thrilled. They knew of the fortune he had gained back in Golden Crow City, so if he were to spend some of it in their stores, it would enrichen their pockets quite a bit.
Xue Wei could guess their train of thought. Originally, he would not have picked the hotel belonging to the Golden Chambers, as those who rested there were mainly patrons of their shops. With their relationship, he had to spend quite a bit of wealth to satisfy them, but he had been pushed towards this option as the other inns had blacklisted them.
“I was of the impression that a miss was traveling with you?” the manager of the hotel asked tentatively when he saw that the group only consisted of three young men. Xue Wei smiled, maintaining his composure. “We have parted ways for a short time,” he explained casually, as if he truly believed so.
The manager instantly stopped asking and instead prepared three of their best suites for Xue Wei, Hei Gou, and Bai Tianyi. Although many might think that he was a small child, this manager had seen the knowledge and shrewdness in Bai Tianyi’s eyes and knew that he was no ordinary child. He would not need an adult to look after him.
Even though, they were given a suite each, all three gathered in Xue Wei’s room and sat in a circle on the floor with grins on their faces.
Xue Wei took out pills, herbs, fruits, and techniques from his storage ring, piling them into a mountain in the middle of their circle.
The moment the snow jade bottle containing the Rainbow Pill appeared, Bai Tianyi’s hand shot out with the speed of light and grasped it. He looked at it with eyes filled with expectation.
Seeing his behavior, neither Xue Wei nor Hei Gou minded, but both started laughing.
“Okay let us start sharing the items,” Xue Wei smiled slightly as he picked up the items one by one.
“The techniques are only useful for me as you have innate techniques and abilities. I haven’t unlocked any inherited knowledge yet, so I guess I will just continue to train in normal techniques.”
“I originally planned on sharing these with Xiaoyun, but I guess that’s a long time in the future now. So I’ll take them all.”
Then they reached the pills. They had many pills, and they were of different types. Xue Wei only remembered them because of the jade slip he had bought back in the Black Iron Fortress.
There were pills of all kinds that either: strengthened the fleshly body, increased the capacity of one’s meridians, increased the user’s spiritual energy pool, or improved anything related to Qi as a whole.
There were pills that allowed for a smoother breakthrough from Sky Warrior to Heavenly Warrior or from Heavenly Warrior to Ordinary Knight.
There were also pills that steadied one’s foundation. All in all, they had any kind of pill that could prove useful to them.
Chapter 3 - Infamous
Xue Wei gave the pills that helped with a breakthrough from Sky Warrior to Heavenly Warrior to Hei Gou.
Although his physical strength had reached the Heavenly Warrior level, his Qi was still a bit off.
Having these pills would let him smoothly advance, especially since he was given quite a few of them.
The pills to stabilize one’s foundation were split between Xue Wei and Hei Gou. The former had just reached the first layer of the Heavenly Warrior realm and the latter would do so shortly. Both needed them.
The herbs and spiritual fruits were distributed according to the same idea of ‘who needed them the most’. Xue Wei gave a few herbs and spiritual fruits that benefited spiritual energy cultivation to Bai Tianyi.
Bai Tianyi had previously said that all he needed was the Rainbow Pill, but he did not decline the herbs and fruits offered to him.
After portioning out the items, Xue Wei also gave them some of his essence stones, giving Bai Tianyi and Hei Gou a hundred each. It wasn’t that he being stingy but that it would be a waste to give them more. It would take them a long time to use all of those essence stones—in fact, they were pretty useless to Bai Tianyi, so giving him a hundred of them was merely a courtesy on Xue Wei’s part.
“Although they are useless to me, I am keeping them as currency,” Bai Tianyi snickered. Xue Wei just nodded his head. He was not going to take something back he had already given.
“Here is some gold.” Xue Wei also handed some gold he had to his two friends. “Okay, now that we’ve split everything, we might as well dedicate the next couple of months to cultivating and have as many breakthroughs as possible.”
“Sinc
e we are going to be doing closed door cultivation, we might not see each other for quite some time, so make do with the gold and essence stones for the meanwhile.”
Bai Tianyi gladly accepted the gold coins with a big smile on his face, but Hei Gou hesitated. “Is it really needed?” he asked, confused. Xue Wei nodded his head. “Yes.”
Because Xue Wei sounded so decisive, Hei Gou barely accepted the gold. “Now you two can go ahead and start your cultivation. I’ll go to the desk and pay for three months worth of rent here, and then I’ll pay a visit to the Cerulean Starlight Sect. They have been searching for me for half a year, after all.”
Bai Tianyi and Hei Gou both nodded their heads this time. They did not insist on accompanying Xue Wei. They were both eager to raise their strength as soon as possible.
Seeing their eagerness, Xue Wei smiled and took his leave afterwards, after which they both quickly went into seclusion in their rooms.
“You want to rent those three suites for three months?” The manager was dumbstruck when he heard what Xue Wei said, but Xue Wei just smiled at him and nodded his head.
“Three months is expensive!” The manager tried to make him understand, but Xue Wei had already accepted this fact. Still, he had no other option because the inns had denied him and his team entrance, either on the orders of the Crimson Sunshine Sect or because they did not want to be drawn into a conflict.
“Each day is one gold coin, so three months is around ninety gold coins a suite. Two hundred and seventy gold coins in total!”
Xue Wei did not hesitate and took out two hundred and seventy gold coins, which he placed on top of the counter.
The manager finally understood that he was serious. He quickly noted down that the suites had been paid for three months. Xue Wei confirmed it before leaving the hotel.
When he walked down the street, however, he noticed that he had become a walking spectacle. Every person on the street looked at him with undisguised curiosity while whispering to their companions.
After spreading out his spiritual energy, Xue Wei could hear what was being said as clear as day.
“He is the one who the Crimson Sunshine Sect has warned us about.”
“I hear he left a tavern after threatening to kill everyone inside and didn’t pay for his meal.”
“I heard that he is the reason for the mysterious murder back in Golden Crow City. He might even be an accomplice of the beasts.”
“Watch out or your children will be killed by him. He is a murdering maniac who has killed humans before.”
“I hear that the only reason he is still alive is because that genius from the Skyward Empire, Wan Qiang, stood up for him.”
It was clear that the Crimson Sunshine Sect had done a great job at giving him the image of a cold-blooded human murderer who stopped at nothing for personal gains.
The truth was that the ones who spoke were not wrong so he could not even get mad at them.
He was wondering how everyone knew his face, but the answer came to him moments after when he stepped on a painting on the ground. It was a picture of Ye Xiao’s plain face. There was a long list of the atrocities he had committed written on the back.
So they were trying to turn him into the public enemy by distributing flyers throughout the city. Xue Wei understood this now.
The citizens saw him pick up the paper, and all of them expected him to become violently angry, so they held their breath while fearfully watching Xue Wei.
Never did they expect that he would just smile and shake his head as if he did not take it seriously at all.
There were a few Heavenly Warriors affiliated with the Crimson Sunshine Sect in the crowd. They were waiting for him to make a fuss so they could step in righteously, but his lack of a reaction caught them all by surprise.
Xue Wei held on to the flyer and continued his stroll to the Cerulean Starlight Sect’s residence within the city.
The grand elder of this city’s Cerulean Starlight Sect branch had asked to meet him half a year ago, but he was unaware whether or not they would seek to maintain the relationship after this long. The lack of a response for so long could possibly have turned them off.
As he reached the complex that belonged to the Cloudsoar City’s branch of the Cerulean Starlight Sect, he found that the sect disciples standing guard outside the gate were at the Heavenly Warrior realm. Even the auras of Ordinary Knights were close by.
Xue Wei approached one of the Heavenly Warrior guards. “Hello, I am Ye Xiao,” he said, introducing himself. “I was informed that your branch’s grand elder was looking for me.”
The main sect had a patriarch, but he was located in the center of the continent. Under him were various grand elders. These grand elders were in charge of the branches they belonged to and worked as the executive authorities in their areas. Although it sounded like they were high-ranking members, they did not actually have much influence when it came to the sect as a whole.
The guard looked him over and gave a nod. He gave a whistle, after which a Heavenly Warrior walked out from inside. It appeared they were changing spots while the other went inside the compound. The one Xue Wei had spoken to gestured with his hands that they were to wait here before heading inside.
Silence prevailed outside of the Cerulean Starlight Sect’s grounds, but the inside was different. Every person who walked by the entrance and saw Xue Wei looked him over curiously and whispered to their fellow disciples with smiles—and some with jeers.
The people from the Cerulean Starlight Sect were also aware of what had happened. Some of them looked at Xue Wei with disdain for his alleged actions while others believed the rumors spread by the Crimson Sunshine Sect had been blown out of proportion.
“I am sorry. The grand elder is currently occupied.” The man who had gone in to announce Xue Wei’s arrival returned after a bit of time.
His speech was apologetic, but there was a gleam in his eyes that seemed wicked and contained disdain.
Xue Wei instantly caught on. He had been told that they were waiting for him, but now they did not want to meet him? He felt annoyed and disappointed in the Cerulean Starlight Sect.
He had a good relationship with the few of their disciples he had met so far, and he had been expecting that the rest of the sect possessed the same mentality as them, but now he understood that this sect also had different opinions internally.
Where the Skyward Empire’s branch of the Cerulean Starlight Sect was eager to befriend him, the ones in the Chengzi Kingdom were not.
Although he was a formation master, he had bad blood with the Crimson Sunshine Sect and the Argent Moon Sect.
If this Grand Elder had a good relationship with just one of the other two great sects, then he might go against a formation master.
Xue Wei sighed. He had hoped that the Cerulean Starlight Sect could be a possible ally, but reality finally clocked in for him. He could not rely on anyone but himself and his team. He came to that understanding the hard way.
Shaking his head, he gave one last glance at the guard that was giving him a disdainful look. He scoffed, almost sneering. This was their loss.
Xue Wei rubbed his chin for a while, wondering what he should say now that he had been rejected. In the end, he simply flicked his hand and threw something towards the guard. He turned to leave without speaking a word. When the guard caught it and looked at the item in his hand, it was the token of authenticity granted by the grand elder from their branch in the Skyward Empire.
The executive elder in charge of the Chengzi Kingdom branch had not dared to openly and directly refuse to work with Xue Wei because he could not handle the repercussion of turning away a formation master, but now it was too late.
They had not foreseen that declining to meet Xue Wei for no reason other than to mock him would end in him immediately cutting his ties with their sect.
The disdain in the guard’s eyes vanished in lieu of surprise, but he was quick to regain his composure.
He
had never seen the wonder of a formation with his own eyes, so to him it was a foreign item that others had grossly glorified. He did not believe that they were as wonderful as the rumors said.
So to him, it was no big deal. “We won’t see you out,” the guardsman said coldly and snorted. Xue Wei’s only response was a smile over his shoulder before he smoothly turned his head away and left.
He was currently famous all over Cloudsoar City. Everyone had seen his face and they used him as the stuff of nightmares to scare the children.
Whenever they saw him, every adult became alert, even the Golden Chambers reconsidered if they could let him stay.
