CH 19

Just as the atmosphere stilled, the person who suggested paying double spoke again, his tone full of confusion.

“Is there any reason to refuse more money?”

After the man finished speaking, he walked from the door to the innkeeper.

He wore a pale gold robe with exquisite and complex embroidery. A beaded jade pendant hung around his neck, and he carried a folding fan, exuding the air of a nobleman. Seeing Chu Qi and the others standing in front of the innkeeper, he persuaded them with a gentle tone.

“Fellow cultivators, it’s not that I’m targeting you, but that there are more than sixty shixiong and shijie in our sect. If we don’t reserve all the remaining rooms, we won’t be able to accommodate them. How about I give you double what you were going to pay and you go to another inn?”

???

Hearing what this person said, the onlookers who were originally expecting a quarrel couldn’t help but look puzzled.

How could there be such a generous person in this world? Willing to pay twice the price to ask someone to leave, while still paying to stay in this Menghua Inn?

Couldn’t he just pay double the money to rent out an entire inn elsewhere?

The innkeeper of Menghua Inn was at a loss for words when he heard this, “If you have so much money, why don’t you go to Qingyue Inn next door to make a reservation?”

The reputation of Qingyue Inn wasn’t bad.

“But my shixiong told me to come to Menghua Inn to reserve thirty rooms, wouldn’t it be absurd for me to go to Qingyue Inn instead?”

Everyone: “…”

No, if you spend money like this, your shixiong and shijie may find it even more absurd.

At this moment, the attendant following him walked up and said in a low voice, “Young Master, the Sect Elders have just entered the city.”

Chu Qi recognized this person as the one who was in a hurry to get into the city and chastised them at the gates for being hesitant over spending a single spiritual stone.

“What do you guys think? My shixiong and shijie are about to arrive, so I’m in a bit of a hurry.” He wore a pleading expression.

“No way.” Yan Jiuge’s voice sounded, rejecting the other’s offer indifferently. He raised his hand and tossed his qiankun bag to the innkeeper, “I’ll pay twice the price.”

“My shidi is rather delicate and has been traveling for many days already. After eating and sleeping out in the open, we’ve finally found a place to stay.”

Yan Jiuge’s voice was languid, almost as if he was discussing the weather, until his tone suddenly changed, carrying a bit of danger as he continued, “Do you want my shidi to suffer again?”

“Ah, this…”

The cultivator in fancy robes looked a little embarrassed.

It was at this juncture that another pair of footsteps came through the door of Menghua Inn.

“Luo-shidi, what are you doing? Have you booked the rooms?” A gentle-sounding male voice sounded.

Afterwards, Chu Qi saw the troubled cultivator walk towards the inn’s entrance as if he had found his savior.

“Ling-shixiong! You’re here! I haven’t booked the rooms yet. There were several fellow cultivators who got in ahead of me. It must be that my attendants were a step too late when they lined up at the city gate and failed to catch up. Now there are only nine rooms left.”

The young cultivator in fancy robes had a weary expression and looked a little depressed. He also didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of his shixiong, especially since he was the young master of a shameful family.

“Fellow cultivators…”

Following the words of his shidi, the newcomer couldn’t help but cast his gaze in the direction of Chu Qi and the others. After seeing the simple sword cultivator robes they wore, his eyelids twitched, and he subconsciously blurted out, “Tianxuan Sect?”

“Ah? Tianxuan Sect? What Tianxuan Sect? Tianxuan Sect is in the north of Yunhua Realm, thousands of li away from here. Ling-shixiong, why did you mention them all of a sudden?”

“You… you… go outside and wait for me to finish.”

He didn’t bother wasting his words on an explanation, and the cultivator who was called ‘Ling-shixiong’ by the young cultivator kicked him out for the rest of the sect members to deal with. He took a step forward and met the eyes of the Tianxuan Sect disciples.

“This cultivator’s name is Ling Wu, the head disciple of the Qingling Sect. I didn’t expect to bump into fellow cultivators from the Tianxuan Sect here. The one just now is our Qingling Sect’s xiao-shidi. He has only just built his foundation, and didn’t recognize the emblem on your robes. That’s why he caused such an unnecessary misunderstanding. I’m really sorry about that.”

It turned out to be a disciple of the Qingling Sect.

Hearing the newcomer declare his identity, Chu Qi’s eyes flashed with understanding. The Qingling Sect disciples didn’t have strict rules for their attire. It was well-known that they had their own aesthetics and since most of them came from aristocratic families, their style was more expensive.

In addition, there were four branches in Qingling Sect: medical cultivation, artistic cultivation, sword cultivation, and spiritual beast cultivation. There were too many specialties, and it was difficult to unify them, so Qingling Sect disciples only engraved the sect emblem on their natal spiritual weapons to identify themselves.

As for the robes of Tianxuan Sect disciples, the robes differed according to the cultivation level of the wearer and the sect emblem was a defensive spiritual pattern that was embroidered on the shoulder. Cultivators who were at a lower level than them would be unable to see the sect emblem.

Therefore, any cultivator below the Golden Core stage would only see them as ordinary sword cultivators.

“…”

After hearing Ling Wu’s words, most of the onlookers understood the identities of these sword cultivators. So, they turned out to be from Tianxuan Sect.

Eh?

Why couldn’t they see any of their sect emblems? Could it be that they were all at the Golden Core stage?!?

“Hiss—!”

The sound of sharp inhales resounded through the hall, one after another.

These people were all Golden Core stage cultivators!

The strength of Tianxuan Sect was too scary! Can sword cultivators at the Golden Core stage just look like them nowadays?

“We’ve already booked our rooms.” First-come, first-served. Even if it was ten-times the original price, it would only be a drop in the bucket to Yan Jiuge. There was nothing to worry about.

However, after Yan Jiuge said this, Chu Qi, who was standing beside him, gently tugged on the corner of his clothes.

Yan Jiuge stopped speaking for a moment and lowered his eyes to look at his Chu-shidi, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I think it’s too much of a waste for us all to live one person per room…” Chu Qi thought about his words, then checked Yan Jiuge’s expression. Seeing that he had no intention of objecting, he continued in a low voice, “If you don’t mind sharing with me, one room would be enough for the two of us.”

In this way, five hundred spiritual stones can be saved every day!

“That’s right! What Chu-shidi said makes a lot of sense. I also think that we can share one room.”

“Yes! It’ll be more enjoyable to have a fellow disciple to discuss swordsmanship with!’

“Not bad. I agree too!”

“…”

The other sword cultivators echoed Chu Qi’s words one after another.

Earlier, they were shocked by Qingling Sect’s xiao-shidi with all that money. They had been delegated to the state of onlookers, but once they heard the proposal of “two people in a room”, they couldn’t help but voice their agreement.

The spiritual stones that were saved this way could be used to nourish their natal swords!

That’s great, Chu-shidi! We could not agree more with your proposal!

However, there was still one small problem. If there were two people in a room, there would still be one person who would need a room to themselves.

Apparently, Yan Jiuge also noticed this problem. His dark eyes looked towards his shidi, “Even if we pair up with two to a room, there will still be one of us who’ll live alone.”

?

Such a good thing as this, of course, must be given to Chu-shidi! He was the only medical cultivator in their group. No matter what, he deserved this honor.

Luo Wuci was about to speak, but unexpectedly, Liu Weiming beside him spoke up first, “I’ll live alone. I don’t need to discuss swordsmanship with others.”

“En?” Luo Wuci was in disbelief, “Liu-shixiong, you said earlier that it was very helpful to talk about swordsmanship with me.”

“That was before.” Liu Weiming glanced at him.

“But Chu-shidi…” Liu-shixiong, how could you snatch Chu-shidi’s chance to live alone?

He had never realized that Liu-shixiong was such a person. Luo Weci fell into a depressed mood.

“Are you an idiot? Chu-shidi said himself just now that he wanted to live with Yan-shixiong.” Liu Weiming was tired. If he hadn’t stepped forward, Chu-shidi would have been given the single room. Luo-shidi was normally a good person, but his mind was now apparently full of straw.

“Oh, yes.” Luo Wuci suddenly remembered this point. Since it was Chu-shidi’s wish, of course there was no need for him to have the single room.

After their brief discussion ended, the decision-making power was returned to Yan Jiuge, the head disciple.

“Has everyone made up their minds? Only eleven rooms?” Yan Jiuge asked.

“En, en.”

Everyone nodded their heads like chicken pecking rice.

“We only need eleven rooms. The remaining ten are unnecessary.” Yan Jiuge said to the innkeeper.

“Okay, okay.” The innkeeper only now understood the identities of Yan Jiuge and the others. Fortunately, he had a good eye for people and wasn’t blinded by the money when that Qingling Sect disciple raised the price earlier.

“Then our Qingling Sect will book the remaining rooms.” Ling Wu said at this moment.

“No problem.” The innkeeper nodded, looking at the elite disciples from two of the major sects on his left and right, he took a deep breath and said, “The inn is having a promotional event today. Each room is discounted by 10%.”

Money or no money, how could it be more important than getting in the good graces of these talented and promising cultivators?

The innkeeper’s heart was clear.

“Then I will thank the boss.” Ling Wu smiled. Qingling Sect was involved in a lot of businesses and often dealt with people like this, so he naturally understood the innkeeper’s intent.

“It’s up to you.” Whether there was a discount or not, Yan Jiuge didn’t care at all.

But at this moment, Yan Jiuge’s expression was quite relaxed. He didn’t show the indifference he had when he was arguing just a moment ago. Anyone who looked at him now would think that he was in a good mood.

After receiving the keys to the rooms from the innkeeper, Yan Jiuge kept one and distributed the rest to his shidi.

Then, Yan Jiuge looked in Chu Qi’s direction and asked him, “Ah-Qi, why don’t we go back to the room to rest first?”

After so many years, he would finally live in the same room as Ah-Qi again.

—