The girl in the red skirt stood on the stairs, gazing in silence at the old man in gray, a flicker of feeling passing through her lovely eyes.
Mei Xiyao had overseen the coming and going of the Eight-Direction Dining Hall’s guests for several centuries; she could count herself well-traveled and widely read. With a moment’s thought, she could make out this old man’s identity. A Mixed Origin Grandmaster, and yet at Xuanguang Cave’s beck and call.
Great Qian’s War Temple had once been one of the three foremost human powers too, but now it was a tiger fallen to the flatlands, a touch of desolation about it. Precisely because its old renown had been so great, that renown had become a burden instead. It lived less freely these days than even a small power like the Eight-Direction Dining Hall.
“If there’s anything you need, don’t hesitate to give them your orders.”
Mei Xiyao inclined her head courteously. The old man in gray glanced back and nodded, his expression untroubled. Only once the red-skirted girl had turned and gone back upstairs did he withdraw his gaze. Listening to the whispers below, as though long since used to them, he slowly closed his eyes.
Beside the square corner table, Qinghua stood impassively. Perhaps from mimicking Shen Yi too deliberately, her every movement now carried a heavy trace of his shadow.
“My lord, does Qinghua need to go and finish off that pack of Xuanguang Cave cultivators?”
“…”
Shen Yi picked up the tea an attendant had brought and took a small sip. He quietly shot her a look, and answered with his mind in kind: “Could you win?”
Lady Qinghua deliberated carefully for a moment, then said in earnest, “I couldn’t. But Qinghua is willing to fight to the death for my lord.”
“Settle down. My thanks.”
Shen Yi set down the teacup and glanced idly at the old man. Truthfully, it did sit poorly with him. An Inspector was over there guarding a door, which meant he, a Deputy Inspector, lost no small measure of face by it as well. But he’d only just arrived, and hadn’t yet gotten a read on the situation. Charging in rashly to win a moment’s pride wasn’t his character.
The single most important goal of this trip was still the cultivator’s cave estate. Best of all if he could obtain something like a spiritual root from within it. As for that Xuanguang Cave crowd… when the chance came, Shen Yi wouldn’t mind pocketing their storage treasures along the way, to have a look at an immortal sect’s depth.
With that, he turned his gaze to his surroundings.
Even after going through no small number of books before setting out, he still couldn’t identify the others at a glance. These people, it turned out, were Core-Nurturing cultivators at the very least. Among them, one even leaked a presence only slightly below Perfected Master Changqing’s realm.
“A starved camel’s still bigger than a horse. In truth the cultivators out here aren’t stronger than Great Qian’s — it’s only that those who dare come take part in a cave-estate affair all have some means about them.”
Lady Qinghua explained attentively.
“And what are they doing?”
Shen Yi had spotted a group likewise settled in a corner, several precious jades set out beside their table; while these concealed the group’s aura, they also cut off the sound of their voices cleanly.
Qinghua drifted over to watch a while, fixing on the movement of their lips, and only after a moment came back. “Trading treasures. One of them seems to have thought he’d snatched a bargain, only to be swindled by the others — they’re mocking him for it.”
Trading?
Shen Yi thought it over and found that the most valuable thing on him was probably the Cold Jade Mysterious Silk Hand he’d just come by. As for everything else, it was either irreplaceable, or of value he couldn’t read, or of little use to cultivators above the Mixed Origin realm. His stores hadn’t been replenished in a very long time.
“Look further and report back.”
Qinghua drifted off obediently — she was a demon soul anyway, invisible to the others. Wandering here and drifting there, she was soon back with a great heap of news.
The most important of it concerned this cave estate in Eight-Direction Valley.
“By their account, this cave estate has actually appeared at least three times before, only no one knew of it earlier. It was just the Dining Hall’s people who’d go in to try to find some new ingredients. Later the Xuanguang Cave people learned of it and wrote it into their travelogues.” Lady Qinghua transmitted with her mind. “Only, last time they’d miscalculated the timing and come somewhat late. To avoid being trapped inside, they withdrew rather hastily and searched only crudely — they didn’t even find the most important treasure-storing pavilion.”
“They did, however, find traces relating to artifact-forging. The master of this cave estate is very likely an artifact-smith, which is what drew Xuanguang Cave back for a second look.”
“These people are just here to try their luck. As a rule the great powers act generously enough — they won’t haggle with them over such scraps.”
Shen Yi listened quietly, and noticed Qinghua glance instinctively upstairs before she continued. “But Nie Jun is here. If he’s set his sights on the cave estate too, it may affect my lord. Should Qinghua go and—”
Before she could finish, Shen Yi withdrew her straight back into the panel.
This one affects my lord, that one offends my lord — go about it her way, and today he and everyone else would have one side or the other lying dead in here for certain.
That was a golden body of two zhang three, not twenty-three zhang. At best a touch stronger than a cultivator newly entered into Spirit-Transformation, and even that depended on whether the other party had some killing move hidden away. It was nowhere near enough to support Shen Yi acting without restraint.
Just as he was deep in thought, a figure reeking of wine came down from upstairs with a steady tread.
His face was young, his long hair a tangle, a loose, oversized blue robe hanging open at the chest — an air of dissolute abandon about him. His narrow eyes seemed calm, and yet left one feeling, for no clear reason, a faint thread of cold.
“Move aside.”
He walked up behind the old man in gray. The old man had plainly frozen in place; only when the other spoke did he hurriedly step to one side and say respectfully, “Senior Nie.”
Nie Jun strode toward the lower floor. Compared to the clamor when Perfected Master Zhang had arrived, the whole hall now was silent as death. Only once he’d descended the stairs did he suddenly turn back with a frown. “Put away that thing at your waist. It’s an eyesore.”
At that, the old man in gray reached out and touched the jade token, hesitating an instant. Had he not learned his lesson before, who would willingly drag the power he belonged to into his own moment of disgrace? It wasn’t that he didn’t want to put it away — he simply didn’t dare.
“I told you to put it away. Can you understand that?”
Nie Jun said flatly. He had no need to ask the reason, and no need to know whom the old man stood in dread of.
The old man in gray dared hesitate no longer and hurriedly stowed the token away. “My thanks, Senior Nie.”
Only once Nie Jun had walked to the doorway did a stream of dark light fly from his sleeve, forming into a broad, dark sword. He stepped onto the blade, and his whole figure abruptly vanished from where it stood.
The sound of breathing rose again in the hall. Even Perfected Master Zhang of Xuanguang Cave came down from the third floor, and only once he’d confirmed the man had truly left did he let out a breath.
Had Nie Jun taken a fancy to this cave estate too, then however unwilling he, Zhang, might be, he’d have had no choice but to meekly yield it up with cupped hands — and might even have had to add a “you’ve worked hard” for good measure.
Mei Xiyao walked out of the dining hall to see him off, standing respectfully for several hundred breaths’ time. Only then did she turn and walk back into the hall — where she was at once surrounded by several Mixed Origin Grandmasters. “Miss Mei, now that Senior Nie has finished his meal…”
The Eight-Direction Dining Hall’s proprietor stirred himself for Nie Jun and Nie Jun alone. That old master had the skill to turn rot into wonder — a single fine dish was no worse than a rare and precious pill, and since Nie Jun used only the essence of it, this was something everyone knew.
(End of Chapter 254)