The Blue Lotus Pavilion was a tall but unassuming building, located at the back end of a narrow alley. It was the kind of place that tended to go unnoticed by most passersby in the otherwise pompous upper district, like the housing of servantry.

Unlike with the housing of servantry however, this was very much by design. Whoever owned the place was happy not to draw too many prying eyes to it, an unusual choice for a restaurant, to say the least.

“This is it. Follow my lead and don’t ask unnecessary questions. They don’t like that around here.”

As Wencheng Gao led Qingge and Yang inside, he was visibly nervous, quite the change from his previous attitude. Qingge felt the same. Not necessarily out of fear, there was little in the city that could harm her with a Dao Attunement Realm cultivator by her side, but because of nervousness.

Whoever was illegally selling cultivation resources in the city was quite likely to be related to the smuggling ring. That kind of stuff didn’t grow on trees. Well, some of it did, but these trees were held under tight control by the sect and their yields would still need to be processed by expert alchemists before they could be meaningfully used for cultivation.

As the three stepped inside, the opening of the door rung a small bell. Other than that, the inside was equally austere and unassuming than the outside. Everything seemed old and dusted and the floorboards creaked slightly as an old lady with a crooked back and wrinkly skin walked around a corner and approached them.

“Now if that aren’t three lovely youngsters who have found their way into our humble establishment! How can I serve you dears?”

Her voice was low and raspy, her tone familial. Everything about her seemed harmless and endearing. She seemed like the kind of meek, grandmotherly figure any parent would let their child play with without a second thought.

Qingge lived in a world where one learned quickly not to underestimate the elderly, but she couldn’t imagine this lady as anything other than a lovely old granny. That was, of course, rather alarming considering what she knew about this place.

“Greetings, my lady. I am Wencheng Gao and I would like a private room for the three of us.”

“Anything for you, my dear. Any specific requirements for the room?”

“If possible, I would like one on the second floor. And no windows please.”

The last part was said with a meaningful undertone. This kind of defeated the purpose of a supposedly secretive code, which it clearly was, but Qingge supposed that was just on brand for someone like Wencheng.

The old lady didn’t show any unordinary reaction to the demand.

“No problem, dear, I’ll have it done.”

With that, she walked back to the corner and called out:

“Sweetie! There are guests here!”

A short while later a girl, maybe sixteen or seventeen turned the corner.

“What is it, granny?”

“I need you to guide these splendid youngsters to their room. They want to sit on the second floor. Give them the best room we have there.”

“Sure, granny.”

Turning to the three, she did a curtsy.

“Welcome to our humble pavilion. Please follow me.”

With that, she guided them up a flight of stairs to their left. Several narrow corridors later, they arrived at a particularly sturdy looking door. The girl took out a key and unlocked it, before bidding them inside.

The inside of the room was completely different from the part of the establishment they had seen so far. The floor was covered by a thick red carpet the wall was full of paintings and other decorative pieces. There were several luxurious armchairs situated around a robust oaken table that was covered on artistic engravings and a silver chandelier bathed everything in a dim but warm light.

“Your company will arrive shortly. Can I bring you something to drink in the meantime?”

“We’ll have a bottle of wine. Bring us something good.”

“As you wish.”

With that, the girl left the room. It didn’t escape Qingge that she locked the door behind her. Wencheng spoke up again, his nervousness even more visible than before.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“All right, until now everything went well. In a couple of minutes, someone will arrive from whom you can buy what you want. You’ll have to arrange the deal and return in a couple of days when they have everything ready.

“One piece of advice, don’t try to haggle with them. I tried once and it didn’t go over well. Pay their price or don’t. Of course, you’ll have to buy something, now that we’re here. You can’t just chicken out, or you’ll put me in a terrible position.”

“Don’t worry, buying is what we’re here for.”

After that, the three waited mostly in silence. After a while, the girl returned with the wine. Only Wencheng drank, but he drank enough for all of them, seemingly in an attempt to calm his nerves. Just as he was about to empty his fourth cup, the door opened again.

This time, it was a man that entered. He was tall and slender, clothed entirely in tight black robes. The tips of his equally black hair and his acutely trimmed mustache were the only part of his face that were visible, the rest obscured by a mask of silver and a cone hat of straw.

“Greetings, customers. You’re here to do business, I assume?”

The man’s voice was low but silky smooth and he spoke with an undefinable accent. There was a light but strict tone to his voice that seemed to hover vaguely between humorous and threatening.

“We are. These two would like to acquire some cultivation resources.”

“What a coincidence, that is just what we have to offer.”

The man sat down at the table and turned to Qingge and Yang while pouring himself a cup of wine.

“What exactly are you looking for?”

Qingge spoke up. She didn’t try to hide the insecurity in her voice, it fit well with the image she was trying to project.

“Umm… We are body cultivators. I am looking for something to speed up my progress, since my cultivation has slowed. I have no specific knowledge of what would be appropriate for such a thing.”

“I will think of something for you. What are your means?”

“I am looking to spend about a thousand taels of silver.”

That was a good amount, at least in a mortal city, while also not being enough to throw up any flags. Cultivators didn’t usually use silver in large quantity so she would have to ask the Li family to help her out, but she could easily repay them in spirit stones. There wasn’t really a fixed conversion rate, but that amount was well within her budget. She could even cover it from her personal salary, if she needed to.

“For that amount, we can make some things happen.”

The man’s voice didn’t betray any of his emotions as he took out and unfurled a scroll. He then started silently contemplating over it while occasionally sipping on his wine. After a few minutes, he looked up again, fixating Qingge.

“Personally, I would advise you to buy several lower-grade items, rather than a single more potent one. In your price-range that is going to give you the greatest benefits.”

For what it was worth, that was actually good advice.

“Since you have no specific wants, let me make you an offer. For a thousand taels, I can get you three low-grade body shaping and one mid-grade qi-gathering pill. I’m being generous here, since you two are first-time customers.”

That price was ludicrous, but actually still lower than Qingge had expected. For all their scarcity, it seemed like the sect’s restrictions still pushed the price of these resources down by a good amount. That, and maybe the black market didn’t quite know how to properly evaluate the value of what they were dealing with, leading to higher price-fluctuations.

For now, Qingge pretended not to know about these prices either and turned to Wencheng for assistance.

“Young master, do you think that is a good deal?”

“You should take it!”, Wencheng said with a serious face.

“Alright, if you say so I will trust you. I accept that deal.”

“Very well. I’ll have the goods ready for collection in two days from now. Return here with the silver at sunset. Only the two of you, nobody else. Is that clear?”

His tone became very serious at the last part.

“Absolutely clear. We’ll come alone.”

They absolutely wouldn’t.

“Good. I trust that you understand that betraying us wouldn’t be good for the state of your health.”

With that, he took one last swig of his wine, emptying the cup, before slamming it on the table with a sense of finality and rising from his seat.

“Unless you have any other business you want to take care of, I’ll leave you for now. You will be guided back out of the room in a couple of minutes. We’ll meet again in two days from now. Don’t forget to be punctual, it’s a matter of good manners.”

With that, he turned on his heel and left.

“Whew, everything went well.”

Wencheng let out a lout sigh and wiped the built-up sweat of his forehead. He then spent the rest of their time in the room thoroughly emptying out the remaining wine in the bottle.

After the girl had returned to ‘guide them out’ which was naturally a euphemism for letting them out of the previously locked room and the three had left the building, Qingge turned to him to say her goodbyes.

“I think we have had enough for the day. I deeply thank you for your generous help, young master.”

That was actually true, even though he had a very wrong idea of what that help had encompassed.

“It pains me to part ways with you, Young Lady Cui, but you are right. Today, enough has been done. Let us meet again!”

Let’s not. For all his helpfulness, the stumbling drunkard was still not exactly pleasant to be around.

Once Qingge and Yang were alone, she turned to him with a questioning look.

“How was he?”

“Dangerous, but not particularly so. Body cultivator, well trained, poison needles in his sleeves. Probably relies on a mix of stealth and speed.”

“And the woman?”

“Also a body cultivator. Accomplished but well past her prime. No stronger than an average mortal adult and probably less agile. No weaponry either, she wasn’t there to fight.”

“Thought so. She didn’t seem dangerous to my senses at all.”

Still, two accomplished cultivators working in the same extremely safe and secretive location, selling a whole host of different cultivation resources…

“I think we got our target. They have to be working or at least be associated with the organization we’re after.”

Yang spent a moment in thought before he replied.

“I think you’re right. Way too big of a coincidence for another smuggling group of this size to exist.”

“Then we’ll call off the others from their tasks. We need to prepare for an operation. Two days from now at sunset.”