Chapter 9 - Deal

After securing four fine lamb legs, Lei made his way toward Swirling Fog as the sun slowly gave way to the glinting stars.

The streets were packed with hundreds of people, most out to drink their worries away. Now that he thought about it, it was a touch odd to spend a night in a teahouse when you could savor the wines and the beer of the local taverns. But he was a good two hundred coppers lighter after buying those legs and was left with just about a hundred or two coppers to his name.

I'm not in the mood for drinking, anyway.

Past the Eastern Square, Swirling Fog was as lively as usual. It wasn't hard to spot Fatty Lou, who was busy talking with a lean, tall man who had a mean scowl on his face. The scar that ran from under his right eye all the way down to the side of his mouth was interesting, but not unexpected, of course.

Lei greeted Master Feng with a nod before easing onto one of the stools and laying a hand over the table.

"A good night, isn't it?" he asked, staring Scarface up and down. "I'm Liang Lei, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Long He," the man said, his dark eyes glinting with interest as he glanced at him. "You must be the cook, eh? The spiritual chef, is it? You did not strike me as a man who has one leg deep into the spiritual side of things, to be honest. You know, cultivators are often cracked people. Something about the energy, I've heard, that makes them mad."

A strong first impression.

Lei smiled as he leaned closer to him. "Straight to the point. I like it. So you know your business round cultivators, then?"

Long He nodded. "I've been a retainer once. That was some experience. He was a bastard, that cultivator was, but the pay was good, and I'd often spend days without seeing him. He holed into a cave by the Darkloom Forest, for closed-door meditation, I was told. But as I've gathered you've not sought me out for anything like that, yes?"

Lei turned to Fatty Lou who had a wide smile on his face. "I see that you haven't told our friend about the plans."

"I've told him, but he didn't believe it." Fatty Lou clapped Long He on the back, pulling him closer, and making the man wince. "But whether he believes it or not isn't important. He'll get paid, and will do the deed for us."

"Is he now?" Lei regarded the man's qualifications with a frown. His robe looked clean, and other than that nasty scar there didn't seem anything shady about him. "So tell me, Brother He, have you done anything other than being a retainer to some cultivator that you want to speak of? I'm sure you can understand that we don't want to get too much attention."

Long He lifted his chin and gave him a confident look. "My brother works in the Adventurers' Guild as a scribe. If you want someone to trust, then I'm your best pick around this part of the town."

Fatty Lou was chuckling at the side.

Why bother speaking when you have a damned scribe in the guild?

"Well, that certainly makes it easy for us," Lei said, a little more relaxed now. "Then let us talk about the missions. You must be quite knowledgeable about this stuff if you have a brother working in the guild."

"You want spiritual ingredients," Long He said.

Lei nodded. "Yes. Plants, vegetables, rice, you name it. Anything with spiritual energy will do for us."

"Brother Lou here told me the rewards for these missions would be paid in dishes, is that correct?" Long He asked doubtfully. "Don't blame me for asking, but I've never seen anything like that before. Things can get… troublesome if your dishes won't satisfy the cultivators. The Adventurers' Guild doesn't take kindly when people try to do something stupid."

"Don't worry, my stuff is the real deal, but we don't want people asking questions after eating them," Lei said. This was the crucial point. If word got around that he could cook dishes that had more or less the same effect as medicinal pills, then it wouldn't be just people who were too eager to become cultivators who'd come seeking him.

Long He raised an eyebrow. "Say you can truly cook spiritual dishes, then it's bound to get a great deal of questions from the cultivators who'd be eating them. The only thing we can do, as we've talked, is to keep your name out of this."

"What about you, though?" Lei asked, staring him down. "Any cultivator can fork up the knowledge out of you, don't you think?"

"My brother is right," Fatty Lou chimed in, his hold around Long He's shoulder tightening. "You've not much meat to your bones, Brother He. Even I can mess your face up."

Long He trembled like a mouse stuck between two cats. Then he stared at them both strangely. "What's the deal with you two? I understand that you want to be careful, but it's not like this city has hundreds of cultivators ready to kill you for just some spiritual dish. I mean, is it even real? Don't get me wrong, but I don't want to waste my time—"

"Oh, it's real." Fatty Lou's fingers dug deep into his shoulder. "The realest shit I've ever eaten, mark my words."

"You have to be careful about these things." Lei sighed. His knowledge about xianxia worlds suggested that there was always the risk of some demonic bastard seeking a chance to mess with people's lives. He was no genius, but he knew how valuable the system's gifts were.

Long He's face twisted up in fear, but he gave them a nod. "Don't worry. I can let my brother post the missions. Nobody will mess with him, trust me."

"No," Lei said, fingers of his right hand crackling as he clenched them. "You're going to do it, and you won't tell anyone about our little deal, right, Brother Lou?"

Fatty Lou flicked a finger up Long He's face, which made him nearly tumble back on his ass. He barely corrected himself before Fatty Lou closed in on him, smiling wickedly. "You're damned right."

Lei knew they had the man on the hook now. They were just missing a single piece before they closed all the gaps. He raised a finger at him. "If you do a good enough job, who knows, maybe you can get to taste my spiritual dishes. They say even a talentless fool can become a fully fledged cultivator once they'd eaten it."

"Really?" Long He's eyes jerked wide open, a greedy glint flashing behind them. He cleared his throat and tried to gather himself. "I mean, good. As I've said, you can trust me."

"It's a deal then." Fatty Lou slammed a hand on the table, which made the pot and the cups shake and rose to his feet. "You're to start immediately. We don't have a second to waste, Brother He."

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"Y-You can count on me, Brother Lou!" Long He floundered up his feet, bowed deeply, and scuttled away from the table. A moment after he stopped, turned back, and waved stupidly at Lei. "It was a pleasure meeting with you, Brother Lei."

"Mm." Lei didn't bother to wave him off.

After the man vanished into the crowd, they exchanged a look with Fatty Lou before bursting into laughter. It would be a lie if Lei said he hadn't enjoyed bullying the man.

"Did you see him go?" Fatty Lou snickered. "He's a fool, but an honest one, don't worry. And that scar… He'd fallen off a rooftop back when we were young, and some lantern hook caught him bad. He'd made good use of that, though, I must admit."

"Gives you an edge, no doubt," Lei said and sipped from the tea before frowning in thought. "You think it'll really work?"

Fatty Lou looked confident. "He's not wrong, you know. Jiangzhen doesn't have many cultivators in the first place, and those who had the fortune to become cultivators mostly work for the Governor's Office. We have to thank the Empire for that one."

"Wait, why?" Lei asked.

"There's a law that forbids the cultivator clans from residing in cities that have under a hundred thousand people. It makes you feel fortunate after seeing how things get nasty in places like Lanzhou. There must be over a hundred cultivator clans in that place."

That, I know. I was from one of those clans, you see.

"I don't know about Lanzhou, but Jiangzhen can't be considered the safest place either. People seem to forget, but it's been just a month after that cultivator attack. Nearly half the eastern part of the city had been razed to ground."

Fatty Lou's face darkened. "It's not that people forget, Brother Lei, they're just trying to carry on with their lives. If there's a person to blame, we should blame the governor for his lack of thought in this matter."

"I've never seen that man, but Master Li seems to hate him with passion. Is he that bad?"

"The worst," Fatty Lou said. "The bastard sees this city as his backyard. You know the saying that goes 'The walls have eyes', right? Well, that's him. He owns the walls and all the soil beneath our feet. Everybody knows how corrupted he is, but people fear change more."

Lei nodded. That was hardly anything new. The same was true even back on Earth, where people had all the information, but still chose the 'familiar' ones over the new guys.

Guess I can't blame them. All the old ones, the so-called pillars of the country, were once new faces people had high hopes for. What does it matter changing into a new bastard?

"Well, let's just hope he keeps the taxes this way," Lei said and gulped away the tea in his cup.

A second after Fatty Lou was staring at him, chewing on his lower lip as though he was hesitating to speak. Just as Lei was about to tell him to go on, the man breathed in deep and spilled the beans, "That boon of yours… Have you made any progress on that front?"

Lei smiled slightly. Seemed to his eyes that his brother was having some withdrawal symptoms. That wasn't surprising. It's not every day that you get high on spiritual energy, after all.

"If you're asking whether I can turn normal ingredients into spiritual ones, then no, nothing new on that side. We still need spiritual ingredients. But the other day I found out a curious thing."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah," Lei said, his smile growing wide. "Turns out those brats around the ruins had a real knack for cultivation. They'd licked my place clean after we passed out, and seems like three of the kids had stepped into the ranks of Body Tempering Stage experts."

Fatty Lou's eyes twitched, mouth gaping wide open as he stared at him. "W-What did you say?"

"I said that three of those kids had become cultivators," Lei said, then snapped his fingers. "Just like that."

"What in the eighteen hells…" Fatty Lou wiped the spit trickling out from the side of his mouth and poured himself some tea. He chugged one cup after another before finally gathering enough breath to speak, "This isn't fair."

"Nothing's fair in this world, Brother Lou." Lei shook his head. "But I guess karma is real. That's a good thing, right? They lost their parents but were blessed with talent. Makes you think if there's really some higher being watching us mortals from over the heavens."

"Some sick bastard, that's who he is."

"Can't argue with that," Lei said, drumming a finger on the table. "We have to do something. Can't let them live in the ruins anymore."

"I can go check the orphanage—"

"No, not the orphanage," Lei cut him instantly. That place already had dozens of children who suffered from the sudden attack. "I'm thinking of a new recipe for tomorrow night."

"A new recipe? Thought that menemen is doing good, no?"

"Well, it is good, but I think trying new things will help with my… gift," Lei said. It still felt odd talking about the system as it didn't feel real at times. "I bought some good lamb meat from Master Luwei before coming here."

"You bought what now?" Fatty Lou almost gasped. "Why didn't you tell me? At least I would've given you a discount—"

"You're always talking as if you own the place, but we both know Master Luwei hates your guts," Lei said tiredly. "If it weren't for Master Li, he would've fired your ass long ago. So spare me that hurt look. I mean, do you even work there at all? Not that I complain, but you're always with me."

Fatty Lou shook his head, greatly disturbed by the mention of that butcher shop as always. "That place sucks your soul. It's different. Anyway, if he wants to fire me, he can do whatever the hell he wants. It's not like I need that job. We'll become real cultivators soon."

Soon, you say? Let's hope things go smoothly for us.

"Figure something out while I ready the dish tomorrow. The last time the thing with that heavenly master was really good, but I need a whole new campaign. I've paid two hundred coppers for those legs!"

Fatty Lou sucked in a sharp breath. "Two hundred coppers… Alright, let me see what can I do."

Lei nodded. It was good that they were on the right track with the spiritual ingredients, but to save those children from the ruins, and himself from that wrecked house, he'd be needing more than two hundred coppers. That was why he had to prepare a bunch of things tomorrow.

…..