Chapter 146 Yang Qing’s Pitch

"Good and if you really do put some thoughts into my words then It won't be too long before the Zhi information agency is up and running. I'm even tempted to be an early investor," Yang Qing teasingly said to lighten the mood.

"Really?!" Zhi Da suddenly asked as he hoisted himself up on the table with excitement showing in his eyes.

"Why not? I happen to think that you both would be pretty good at it given sufficient resources and time," said Yang Qing. These were his true thoughts as he admired their level of insight. With sufficient training and resources, he couldn't help but wonder what heights they would reach.

"Maybe they could join the Shadow hawks. But their training is ruthless with high fatalities and dropouts. I don't know if I should recommend them to it. Based on their fearful reactions earlier it seems they have more going on and it couldn't have ended well either judging by their guarded reactions," thought Yang Qing as took another scallion pancake.

This time instead of taking a direct bite from it he decided to dip it in the tomato and egg soup first before taking a bite.

Crunch!

Yang Qing groaned in relish as he savored the taste of his new combo.

Zhi Da seemed to hesitate about something before he finally gritted his teeth and decided to speak.

"Big brother how did you know we are not from the Empire not that I'm admitting we are not from the Empire. I just want to know so I can improve my Intel gathering skills.

It's purely for the sake of our information agency. The better I am at my job the more money I can make which should be a welcome thing since you're an investor after all," said Zhi Da with eager eyes and a fake laugh he was using to hide his nervousness.

"Me too," Zhi Luoran hurriedly added as she looked at the scallion pancake Yang Qing had placed on her plate. She seemed to be in a dilemma about picking it up or going with the pan-fried dumplings. In the end, she went with the scallion pancakes as she sighed in relief as if she had passed through an enormous hurdle.

Pfft!!!

Yang Qing quickly tried to stifle his laughter at Zhi Luoran's antics but Zhi Luoran heard him which led her to bury her head behind the scallion pancake in her hand. It didn't help that Zhi Da started laughing too.

"Well, it was a few things. You two picked me out of the crowd for a reason and if I had to guess, it was because of the robe, right?" said Yang Qing as he pointed at his robes.

"Yes," they both nodded as they sheepishly laughed especially Zhi Da when he remembered that spiel he had blurted out about Yang Qing's lofty bearing and being fated.

"Not many can tell the quality of the robe and those that do either have a certain level of cultivation base or they have had exposure to robes of this class. Either of these two scenarios means the person who notices it isn't simple.

Two kids with a body refining realm cultivation noticing my robes, of course, that would make you stand out and just having good eyes wouldn't cut it. Everything else aside, at the very least it means at some point in your life you have interacted with robes of similar quality. And not that I'm underestimating the Red maple empire but I doubt they have robes of this quality and even if they do maybe only those at the higher levels like the emperor or princes would have access to it."

The void mimicry silkworm was a hard spirit beast to track due to the areas it inhabited. It had no offensive powers but its camouflaging skills and its preference for inhabiting areas with unstable spatial fluctuations made it a hard beast to capture. Even after one captured it, converting the silk it produced into a robe required the skills of someone who was at least in the blue grade in terms of their craftsmanship. Just a single robe made of the silk would cost upwards of 100 high-grade spirit stones.

The two siblings may have not known what material it was made out of but they must have interacted with robes made out of silk from the void mimicry silkworm for a long time till it registered in their subconscious. Atleast this was what Yang Qing thought.

"The royal family has distinctive features due to their bloodline which none of you exhibit that can only mean you interacted with the robe someplace else that's not the Empire.

The second one was when you were mentioning the emperor or the royal family there was no reverence or caution when mentioning him or his family almost as if he was another geezer or passerby to you. I doubt even the noble families would be that brazen. You also couldn't hide your contempt for the noble families and it isn't purely from their bad reputation but something intrinsic like they are beneath you.  It was evident in your tone and mannerisms when you were talking about them.

And lastly, your subconscious habits that highlight you had a high upbringing. You may not even notice it since it's something you were used to doing before birth.

The first two things you can easily remedy but the last one would need a lot of effort for you to transform them into a conscious behavior instead of an unconscious habit," said Yang Qing as he decided to help himself to a small cup of their ginkgo tea since he felt his throat dry up.

"Big brother just who are you?" Zhi Luoran asked wide-eyed while Zhi Da's jaws were hanging loosely on the table with pale skin like he had just seen a ghost.

Yang Qing lightly chuckled as he felt a little smug seeing their looks of shock.

"I wonder if the old couple will have the same reaction if I broke their cover," thought Yang Qing as a mischievous glint flashed in his eyes.

But he decided to push those thoughts away as he moved on to his real goal for the whole thing.

"I don't know about your pasts and I'm not going to ask you about it either. Everyone is entitled to their privacy and secrets. But I know that you both seem like you're hiding from someone hence your reason for being in the Empire and the most crowded city to boot.

I highlighted those few things so you could work on them and keep your covers well. Though if you do want to grow those skills I could help you or if for some reason you feel tired of your current lifestyle and need some place to start over, I could help you with that..," Yang Qing paused as he eyed the two siblings who had deep thoughtful looks on their expression. Though they seemed tempted by Yang Qing's words they were also wary.

"What do we have to do to be trained in those skills?" Zhi Da asked, choosing to ignore the second option as he thought despite the background Yang Qing may have it would be difficult to match the background of what they were hiding from.

Yang Qing noted Zhi Da's choice of words and he could guess the reason behind it which made him inadvertently chuckle as he wondered what Zhi Da's reaction would be when he told him he was from the Order.  He doubted whether their background no matter how illustrious it was would be at the level where it would stump the Order.

"Well, if you want to learn those skills all you have to do is...….ELLIE!!!!!!," Yang Qing abruptly paused as his look turned grim.

"Excuse me for a bit," said Yang Qing though only his voice was left behind as he had disappeared like a formless wind from his seat leaving the two Zhi siblings with dumbfounded expressions and waves of shock hitting them

"He is not at the foundation establishment realm?" Zhi Da absentmindedly said as his voice cracked.