"Yeah. The secret of the wine," The man said smilingly as he pointed towards the wine bottle in his hand.
"The wine is the greatest attraction of the Fragrance Pavilion and it can stimulate the Qi inside a person's body. It can make them gain a small boost in cultivation, but if there was really such a wonderful thing in this world, wouldn't there be wars over it?" the man told Long Chen with an amused smile on his face.
"Indeed," Long Chen responded.
"The wine isn't as miraculous as it's first sip would make you believe. The wine only gives a small boost to the cultivators that drink or for the first time. No matter how much you drink it after that, your cultivation won't increase," The man said as he glanced at Long Chen.
"Oh, Thanks for the explanation," Long Chen thanked him for solving a question he had.
The man couldn't help but laugh proudly.
"It's alright. I'm the bigger person, I should educate the ignorant kids," He said.
"Yeah, You're indeed the older person. Your daughter is really lucky to have a father like you," Long Chen said as he took a glance at the blonde girl.
*cough* *cough*
The man couldn't help but cough extensively as soon as he heard Long Chen's statement.
"I'm not that old! Also, I'm not her father! I'm her elder brother!" The man let out loudly.
"Oh? my mistake. I thought that you were her father as she looked so young and you looked so... Ahm, anyway, I'm Tian Shen. What's your name?" Long Chen asked.
He didn't tell him his real name since he had taken an oath in front of Lang Jing that he won't talk about himself or about Lang Jing and the people in front of him were from the Beast Hall. He gave out fake information.
"Tian Shen? That's a pretty cool name. I'm Mu Fan and this is my sister Mu Xin," The man said with a wide smile.
"Your last name is Mu? Are you the members of the Mu Clan in this city?" Long Chen inquired.
"Yeah. Our father is the Clan Master of the Mu Clan. We live outside and came back for a few days to visit our clan," Mu Fan told Long Chen.
"Oh, that's nice. I'm new to this city as well. It's a nice city," Long Chen replied.
"Yup. It is indeed a nice city. It is even better normally, but because of the assassination attempt on the Prince, everyone is on high alert," Mu Fan said as he sighed.
"Yeah, I heard about that. I personally think that it's useless though. If the assassin isn't caught until now, he has most probably escaped. This whole thing looks useless at the moment," Long Chen let out softly
"I agree that this thing is useless. It is also possible that he has escaped. If he was able to escape from the Royal palace despite him being caught, it would be strange if he wasn't able to escape the city," Mu Fan let out with a thoughtful look on his face.
___________________________________
As Long Chen was having a discussion with Mu Fan, the Second Prince had returned to the Royal Palace.
As he walked towards his rooms, he managed to see his brother at some distance.
"Brother!" He called out as he ran towards Crown Prince Rui Yao.
"Yu? You're back from the brothel so soon?" Crown Prince Rui Yao inquired.
"Ah, I didn't feel like staying there anymore," Second Prince Rui Yu said.
"Oh? I guess you're finally growing up. Alright, I'm leaving. Go back to your room," Rui Yao said as he left, leaving Rui Yu behind.
From the beginning till the end, Rui Yao looked as expressionless as always.
'It would be suspicious if I ask him to open the treasury right now. I'll ask him tomorrow,' Rui Yu thought as he turned back and walked back to his room.
_________________________________
Back in the Dark Soul Sect, there existed a dark room. There was a small pool filled with water inside that room and a pitch-black lotus was floating in the pond.
The doors of that room opened as a beautiful woman entered the place. She was the Sect Master of the Dark Soul Sect.
The Great Elder was following behind her. He was carrying a boy in his hand.
"Place Mu Zheng on the ground. I'll bring that lotus out," The woman said in her soft voice.
The Great Elder nodded his head as he stepped forward and placed the boy down on the ground.
The Sect Master slowly stepped inside the water and walked closer to the lotus.
The Lotus was calmly floating in the water until the woman caught it and picked it up. She came out of the water.
Her dress was entirely wet and sticking closer to her body that highlighted her figure even further.
Even though the Grand Elder was so old and out of the worldly affairs, he himself couldn't help but sneak a few glances subtly.
The woman walked closer to the boy on the ground and sat on her knees in front of him.
She slowly moved her hands and gently placed the black lotus on the chest of Mu Zheng. She took her hands off the lotus.
She straightened her posture and started chanting something. Her voice was so inaudible, that even the Grand Elder wasn't able to understand what she was saying.
The Sect Master kept chanting the mantra for 15 minutes straight before the black lotus started shining brightly.
It was shining in a heavenly radiance. Even Grand Elder was feeling lighter as the shine fell on top of him.
He didn't notice, but an invisible aura had started to come out of the black lotus and it was seeping inside the body of Mu Zheng.
It kept going deeper and deeper until it reached inside his Martial Space.
His martial soul was still there, though it was in 2 pieces.
The foreign aura moved towards his martial soul and shrouded it.
Mu Zheng's martial soul started recovering slowly. In less than 20 minutes, his martial soul was completely recovered, but the process didn't stop.
Mu Zheng's martial soul had started changing. It was becoming denser than it had ever been.
It was also getting bigger, though the increase in size was so small that it was barely noticeable.
The aura transfer continued for 10 more minutes before it stopped.
My Zheng's martial soul looked more real than even and it looked even more threatening. It was also 30% larger than our original size.
"It's done," The Sect Master said as she finally stopped chanting.
She noticed that the Black Lotus was starting to disintegrate. In just a few seconds, it disappeared entirely.
"Sigh, Too bad that it was only usable once. Not even 0.1% of the heavenly energy inside it was utilized today," She sighed.
'You just wasted such a heavenly item on something that could only use 0.1 percent of its energy. If we used it properly, we would be able to destroy the Beast Hall with ease,' Grand Elder Chu thought, but he didn't say anything out loud.
A few seconds later, Mu Zheng also opened his eyes. The first thing he noticed was the face of the Sect Master.
"M-master? Where am I?" He asked with a confused look on his face as he looked around.
"You stupid disciple of mine, You had a fight with Long Chen and you even lost. Sigh, I feel like I lost all my hard-earned reputation because of you," The Sect Master said as she glanced at Mu Zheng.
"Ah, Master. It's not that. I didn't even know what happened, he..." Mu Zheng tried explaining.
"You don't need to explain. Just tell me, do you feel something different?" She stopped him as she asked him a question.