Demon-Suppression City.

Those who dared run tea-houses and taverns in a place like this — strength was actually secondary; what mattered chiefly was needing to be thoroughly versed in the skill of reading faces and gauging expressions.

The moment they sensed anything amiss, they'd flee at the first sign of trouble without the slightest hesitation.

No one would risk their life to earn that little bit of drink-money.

Gathering the news from passing guests' conversations — that was the truly profitable business.

The tea-house proprietor had welcomed a lavish patron today.

The man wasn't the least bit picky; any rumor or hearsay at all he took without refusal. Big matters like the opening of a Thousand Demon Den cave estate, small ones like which power had offended Xuanguang Cave again — so long as it was spoken aloud, it could be exchanged for a bottle of treasure-pill.

"Might Senior have heard of Perfected Master Purple-Flame?"

Having warmed to the profit, the tea-house proprietor gradually grew somewhat unbridled. "The one who slaughtered and wiped out the Zheng family, and later showed himself outside the Thousand Demon Den. Xuanguang Cave sent people to investigate, and traced it to that Senior Tang Yuan."

"Guess what happened then?"

"What?"

Shen Yi lifted his teacup and took out another bottle of treasure-medicine.

It wasn't that he had so much foundation he'd nowhere to spend it.

Only by listening to every sort of news would he keep from exposing the thing he actually wished to know.

A proprietor who could sell others' news to him could just as easily sell his news to others.

"There's no follow-up."

The tea-house proprietor, afraid this lavish patron might think he was being toyed with, hurriedly added, "By Xuanguang Cave's temperament, even if it really did have to do with Wutong Mountain, so long as they held the right of it, they'd still dare to go and ask about it — all the more so as Senior Tang is only a registered disciple... believe me, there's absolutely something fishy in this."

"..."

Shen Yi pressed two fingers together and unhurriedly…