Chapter 109

  Fading Traces (I)

  I already missed just having a certainty of a house on a peak where nobody asked me for any money to stay there, to be honest. But what was I to do? Reject her? No. We needed a place, even if for just a few days.

  "Do you take Spirit Stones for payment?" I asked.

  "Ho ho, of course. Madame Lu takes all forms of currency. How long do you plan on staying?"

  "... we'll book it for two weeks, to start with." We'll probably be long gone before then, but we may as well overpay to be left alone.

  "Very well. To rent the entire house for the day is eighty low-tier Spirit Stones. Your total is 1,120 stones. Just for you, however, it's 1,000."

  I forced a grimace on my face, making it seem as though the steep price hurt.

  Naturally, it really didn't. I had over 200,000 low-tier Stones scattered between the spatial treasures in my possession, and that was just low-tier Stones.

  I didn't hide my spatial satchel--we already marked that we were merchants, and it wasn't all that impossible for one to have a spatial treasure like the satchel, especially as it appeared quite worn out and old.

  Fetching out the 1,000 stones, I 'reluctantly' handed them over, prompting the woman to smile rather widely.

  "Would you like me to arrange daily meals for you?" I almost instinctively wanted to say 'No,' since I wanted to limit all interactions with this woman to a minimum, but I held back.

  "Hmm. Just the breakfast, if possible."

  "Of course. Please, settle in. If you need anything, there's a small bell you'll find in the bedroom; just ring it, and one of my girls will immediately come. I hope you'll have a wonderful stay."

  ... was it really this easy?

  I mean, she didn't even ask for my name, for crying out loud! Let alone a form of identification!

  Haah. Look, I hate regulations back on Earth as much as any traveler--anyone who's crossed more than six borders in their lifetime knows just how mind-numbingly annoying the bureaucracy can get, especially when the country just doesn't have any, so you have to resort to bribing everyone and their mother just to figure your way around the place.

  But at the very-damned-least, it provided a sense of comfort. It alleged that all people around me were identified and known, at least. Here? Who the hell knows who our neighbors were?

  I smiled and nodded, and she departed right after, the sound of her cane hitting the ground the only one we could hear. The hubbub of the town had long since perished, and only the occasional cawing of the crows could be heard.

  "Let's go inside." None of the kids, however, seemed particularly disturbed. Rather, they were curious--even Light.

  This was their first time venturing out, so I couldn't blame them, but have some sense of self-perseverance, for crying out loud! Or were they just that confident in their strength?

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  Or, worse yet, that confident in me?

  Yikes.

  The gates creaked slightly as I pulled them open, quickly crossing the courtyard and entering the house.

  You know... it's not bad, honestly.

  It was surprisingly roomy--two bedrooms, one smaller and one slightly larger, the common area, and even an outhouse in the back. No bath or kitchen or anything of the sort, but all things considered... it was overpriced as all hell, mind you, but I was expecting far worse.

  In fact, it was probably far roomier than anything we could have gotten in any of the inns along the main road.

  We settled inside the common area as I slowly lit up the three oil lamps hanging on the walls, giving some light to the place. There was a round table at the center and six cushions around it, so we all sat down as I took out some snacks and drinks from the rings.

  "For the next two days," I said. "We'll roam the town and try and find someone who's been in the Spiritwood Grove before. Just blend in with the others and listen; don't actively approach or draw attention to yourself."

  "The town seems nice," Xi Zhao said. "And much bigger than the Sunlight Town."

  "Hm. I noticed quite a lot of cultivators," Dai Xiu nodded, slurping some water. "A few of them were quite strong!"

  "Like that man with bushy eyebrows?" Xi Zhao said.

  "Yes! You noticed him too, Junior Brother?"

  "Of course. He tried to hide it, but I'd guess he'd already broken through to the Foundation Establishment."

  "Hm. There was also that lady with a fan," Dai Xiu said. "She was soooo pretty, too! Master, do you like pretty girls like her?"

  ... what lady with a fan? What man with bushy eyebrows?! How come I haven't noticed any of these people?! I wanted to cry out but mostly just forced on the look of indifference.

  "What matters is beauty within," I sputtered something half-heartedly, wanting to extricate myself from the convo.

  "Oooh!" the two exclaimed as though I said the most enlightened thing in the world, and even Light seemed halfway impressed.

  "The strongest, though, has to be that man that was delivering everyone drinks!" Xi Zhao said. "I actually felt a bit afraid when I looked at him."

  "Hm, me too," Dai Xiu added in a rare case of restraint. "He gave me a similar feeling to Elder Qin... maybe not as powerful, but close to it."

  Hm? What? There was a guy in town almost as strong as Elder Qin?!! And he was roleplaying as a freakin' bartender?!

  "Brother Tao, did you spot anyone odd?" Xi Zhao asked.

  "Just one," he said.

  "Who?"

  "That woman that brought us here."

  "... "Aah, here we go. I couldn't even use my Creator's Eyes on her because I stupidly already used all five of my daily charges while bored in line...

  "She... is strong? I... I didn't notice at all." Xi Zhao frowned, seeming surprised.

  "No," Long Tao said. "She used to be strong. Right now, she's as feeble as she looked. Even a mortal child could probably kill her." Oi, old man, are you doing this on purpose? Just to play with our hearts?!

  "She was a Demonic Cultivator," Light added from the side, startling the three of us while surprising Long Tao a bit.

  "You felt it?"

  "Hm. A bit. It was a familiar feeling... yet not, at the same time. Old Master, ever since you took me to that weird room, things have been... strange. What did you do to me?" she asked, seeming half-curious and half-aggrieved.

  No, no, wait. Why?! Just why, o' dearest Heavens of mine?! I just escaped one nest of people hiding themselves and suspected demonic cultivators, and now you toss me right back into another one? Do I really deserve this? Ah, the old saying of 'God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers.'

  Yeah.

  "Saved you," I said vaguely, as, honestly, even I didn't know quite what happened with her. "No wonder that woman gave me that weird feeling..."

  That stupid trait of mine that supposedly identifies 'Demonic Qi' is so goddamn inconsistent! First off, it misidentified the Spirit Sage--though it could be that it reacted to remnant Demonic Qi he had on him--and even when it 'identifies' Demonic Qi, the way it lets me know... haah, I'd have to be a freakin' robot to notice the difference...

  "Long Tao, you'll look into her," I said. "If she's alone and simply living out her life here, leave her alone."

  "Hm."

  "You three will go together and visit the restaurants and shops along the main street," I said. "If anyone asks, I sent you out to look for things we could buy to resupply as merchants. But try to interact with people as little as possible. If anything happens, however, use everything I gave you to get out of town as quickly as possible, and go to the place where we buried the bandits."

  "Yes, Master!"

  "Alright. Rest for today and night," I smiled. "We've all earned it."