Lan Jin, Qiang Yu, and Lulu each down their cup of alcohol, and watching them from different locations in the dining area of the restaurant are nearly thirty people, fathers, and sons alike. Each of them is staring at the small group of three, and judging by their furious expressions, were it not for Sun Meirong standing right behind them, the simple glares some of them are giving off might even turn into physical retaliation.

“You dare treat an outsider above my family?” One man shouts.

“How dare you allow your daughter to behave so callously! Do you no longer care about her marriage?” Another asks, his voice low and his words clipped.

“To think a young girl is already drinking with older men! A clear sign of her lack of propriety!” A third sneers, a venomous look on his face.

However, despite all of the shouting going on, Lan Jin ignores it as he recognizes a familiar taste coming from the wine. It tastes like the Red-Skinned Pears he had been eating just yesterday, and when he remembers just how many he had forced himself to eat to advance his cultivation, he can’t help but grimace.

But, despite grimacing at the flavor, Lan Jin still casts a longing glance at the wine remaining in the bottle as he realizes it contains a fairly large amount of Qi. He’d been too distracted to notice it when he was holding his cup, but the bottle seems to have the same properties as a Jadewood Box as it hides the Qi inside of it.

And though the amount contained within the bottle isn’t much when compared to how much he will need to form the next few clouds in his Dantian, and especially not when compared to his spirit stone back at the Great Physician’s place, he thinks he should still be able to receive around thirty strands of purple mist after he digests the wine and converts the Qi inside of it.

Shaking his head, Lan Jin wonders if he can convince Sun Meirong to give him that bottle of alcohol. But, before he can even think of a way to ask, she simply hands it to him.

“Why are you coveting your own possessions?” She smirks at him. “Aren’t you treating us to lunch? Did you forget that you’ll be the one paying for this bottle of wine?”

Lan Jin’s eyes widen and he turns his head to glare at Qiang Yu for buying a bottle of wine with his money, but when he looks at her and notices the realization forming on her face, he can’t help but feel stunned instead of angry.

“Did you seriously forget that I’m the one paying for lunch?” He asks, not sure whether he should place any faith in Qiang Yu’s appearance.

However, when Qiang Yu’s face turns red, Lan Jin’s words get stuck in his throat.

“Seriously?” He grumbles and looks at the wine bottle in his hand while wondering how much it costs. Considering many of the natural treasures he had found were fairly expensive and this bottle of wine contains more Qi than several dozen of them added together, he feels as though he’s going to be paying quite a bit for it.

Letting out a sigh, Lan Jin shakes his head and decides to drop it. Only a few minutes ago he had been complaining to himself about being weak. And with his spirit stone out of reach, this bottle of wine will be an effective way of increasing his cultivation level quickly. He doubts it will get him far considering how much energy each cloud takes to form, but unless he wants to prune a bunch of trees and start smoking their leaves, this is the best solution he has available to him.

But, when he sniffs the wine from the bottle, he does wish it was made from anything other than the Red-Skinned Pears because even the smell makes his stomach churn slightly.

Turning his attention back to the crowd, Lan Jin realizes that they never stopped shouting. However, since Sun Meirong doesn’t appear to be paying any attention to them, Lan Jin doesn’t acknowledge them either.

Instead, he asks, “So, how do I pay the bill? Will someone bring me a check or do I have to go to a counter somewhere?”

“You’re concerned about paying the bill now?” Sun Meirong chuckles. “Don’t you think there are more important things going on?”

Looking at the shouting people for a moment, Lan Jin turns back to Sun Meirong and shakes his head. “Not really, no.”

Off to the side, Lulu snorts and Qiang Yu gasps, and more people than he cares to count begin shouting directly at him.

“You little bastard!”

“You think you have the right to ignore me?”

“How dare you brush off my father!”

“Do you think our family means nothing in this city?”

However, Lan Jin ignores all of them.

“Hey, um,” he addresses Sun Meirong, “You aren’t going to let them attack me, right?”

Sun Meirong scoffs. “Why? Are you intimidated?”

Looking at the angry men who are all most likely far more powerful than him, Lan Jin does feel a little intimidated. But, at the same time, he feels like if they were going to attack him they probably would have done it already. And with Sun Meirong so close, he feels inexplicably safe.

Answering honestly, he says, “Only a little bit. With how pissed off they are, I feel like if they were going to attack me, they already would have. So I figure they’re all afraid of you, but I don’t know if you’d actually go out of your way to protect me so I’m wondering if I’m good where I’m standing or if I should hide behind you instead.”

With a snort, Sun Meirong rolls her eyes at him. And at the same time, the room goes silent.

“You know,” she says, “There are some things you shouldn’t say about men. And one of those things is that they are afraid of a woman. As a man yourself, even if you are a young one, I would think you should know that.”

With a shrug and a glance over his shoulder to look at the red-faced, silent crowd, Lan Jin asks, “Why? I can’t even win against your daughter in a fair fight. And I saw you kill that chicken with a chopstick when you were dozens of feet away from it, so I doubt I’d even get an unfair fight with you. Being afraid of you isn’t embarrassing. It’s smart. But acting like you’re not afraid of someone who can use a small stick to kill something across a space larger than this room? That’s not just embarrassing, that’s stupid.”

For a moment, Sun Meirong says nothing. Then she starts laughing and begins slapping Lan Jin on the shoulder.

“What a good young man! You really know what to say!” With a whimsical look on her face, she then says, “You are entirely correct. Rather than shouting at us, these men should remember that I can easily kill everyone in this room. In fact, that I haven’t killed their sons for insulting my daughter and my husband so openly is already something they should be thanking me for. I am well within my rights to declare that they are disturbing the city’s peace and even have them branded as insurrectionists for their words. And if I do that, not only can I freely take their lives, but I can even decide to take restitution from their families for raising criminals.”

Looking out at the crowd, Sun Meirong smiles and continues, “Perhaps I’ve been too lenient as of late. Reminding these busybodies why they should be more respectful of my restraint would go a long way to ensuring nobody else insults my family in public again.”

Lan Jin’s eyes widen as he hears Sun Meirong speak so casually about killing a large group of young men, but when he realizes that she has no reason to say it if she actually planned on doing it, he chooses to stay silent.

Qiang Yu, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to come to the same conclusion as him.

“Mama! You can’t!” Qiang Yu grabs Sun Meirong’s hand and shakes it slightly. “They are guilty of insulting me and Papa, but at most they should be called to account for their actions! Killing them might send a message, but not only would it weaken the city, it would also cause people to think poorly of you. I don’t want people to look down on you for just a few hurtful words!”

Sun Meirong looks at her daughter and Lan Jin notices her stifled appearance, but before she has the opportunity to say anything, someone in the crowd speaks up.

“Lady Sun, your daughter has a very good view of things! I do not know what my son said that caused you to feel such animosity toward him, but at most he’s guilty of speaking a few poor words! He will naturally be reprimanded, but this talk of insurrection? That is a needless exaggeration!”

“Lady Sun, I agree with your daughter. If things are as you said and my son truly offended your daughter and the City Lord, then I will deal with him harshly. But there is no need to label him a criminal for this!”

Lan Jin rolls his eyes as the men begin quickly changing their tune, but when he sees Sun Meirong glaring at her daughter while looking extremely annoyed, he has a hard time not laughing. He’s pretty sure she was just about to tear off a chunk of flesh from these men, but her daughter just had to go and ‘defend’ her.

After a moment, even Qiang Yu realizes what she said and her face starts to flush as she looks toward the ground. But, instead of reprimanding her, Sun Meirong just lets out a breath of air and then addresses her daughter.

“Take your sister and this young man and go to the carriage. I will be there in a few minutes.”

Qiang Yu looks like she wants to say something, but under her mother’s stern gaze she keeps her mouth shut and reaches out to grab Lulu’s hand.

“Come on, Lulu,” Qiang Yu sighs.

Lulu nods her head and the two girls begin walking through the crowd toward the restaurant’s exit while Lan Jin follows behind them while watching the crowd warily and preparing himself to summon the Auspicious Tri-Colored Flame in case anyone decides that Sun Meirong alone isn’t warning enough against foolish actions. However, his concern is unfounded as they quickly make their way to the entrance of the restaurant where Lan Jin stops when he sees their server accompanied by yet another older man.

“Hey!” Lan Jin calls out while running up to him. “How much do I owe for the wine and the food?”

The greeter-turned-server blanches as he sees Lan Jin and quickly shakes his head.

However, instead of him speaking, the older man next to him does, “Sir, we can’t possibly accept your money! We didn’t even greet you appropriately when you entered! I even came down to apologize to you myself for our lack of consideration!”

Confused, Lan Jin asks, “Who are you?”

Off to the side, Qiang Yu lets out a soft sigh, but she still explains, “He’s the manager! If he’s saying you don’t have to pay then you don’t have to pay!”

The manager quickly nods his head and says, “Yes! The Young Lady of the Qiang Family is correct! We were very rude in our service today! And you’ve hardly cost us anything, so please, don’t feel the need to pay.”

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At first, Lan Jin feels delighted that he won’t have to pay for lunch. But, after a second of thought, Lan Jin remembers that paying for lunch is meant to be a punishment for him and his gaze firms as he says, “No. That’s unacceptable. I promised to treat Lady Sun and her daughters to a meal. So I don’t really care if you were rude to me or not, I want to pay!”

Sweat appears on his forehead, and the manager begins looking flustered.

“This…” He starts, but Lan Jin interrupts him.

“Just tell me how much the bill is and I’ll pay it!”

The manager looks uncertain, but under Lan Jin’s unwavering gaze, he eventually says, “The dishes were only a total of thirty-seven small copper coins. But, the bottle of wine is five large silver coins. But, considering our rudeness, we will only charge you for the cost of the wine, so five large silver coins.”

When Lan Jin hears the price, his heart nearly stops in his chest. Five large silver coins are equal to fifty small silver coins. Or, in other words, if he traded this one bottle of wine for a smaller house in the outer city, he wouldn’t need to pay a thing for over fifteen years.

Glaring at Qiang Yu and Lulu, Lan Jin feels extremely frustrated with both of them. He won’t say for a second that he doesn’t need the wine as it has a lot of Qi inside of it— Qi that he desperately needs right now. But that some girl he hardly knows is responsible for effectively taking out a mortgage in his name, the thought irks him immensely.

Noticing his glare, Qiang Yu looks flustered and she quickly says, “I didn’t think that you would have to pay for it! I didn’t even remember you would be paying for lunch in the first place!”

Closing his eyes firmly to prevent him from glaring at her any longer, Lan Jin pulls out his money pouch and grabs a golden coin before handing it to the manager and waiting for his change.

Then, with the bill paid for and the new addition of five large silver coins to his money pouch, the three of them finally exit the restaurant.

***

Once outside, Lan Jin can’t help but scoff as he sees the large number of expensive carriages lining the road accompanied by their drivers. Some of the drivers are still sitting down with reins in hand while others are standing in small groups and chatting with their peers, and seeing them standing around chatting, Lan Jin even wants to ask them if the people they drive around are always assholes or if today was just a special day. But with Qiang Yu and Lulu moving away from him and toward their own carriage, he chooses to hold back and follow them instead. And as soon as the two girls enter the carriage, Lan Jin jumps in and closes the door behind him before taking his seat once more.

Then, without even looking at the two girls, Lan Jin holds the bottle of wine in front of his face and begins examining it closely. He finds it to be somewhat incredible as it can freely hold Qi inside of itself. And, even more impressively, until the cork was removed and Sun Meirong poured the alcohol into their cups, Lan Jin couldn’t even see the Qi inside of the bottle.

“What are you doing?” Qiang Yu asks him curiously.

Glancing at her briefly, Lan Jin considers what happened when he put his finger coated with fire into a bamboo tube full of water and how it purified everything inside but somehow left behind the liquid. He assumes that the Auspicious Tri-Colored flame is powerful enough to eliminate the liquid entirely if he lets it, at least if he uses enough of it, but with only a small amount, he thinks he should be able to purify the Qi while leaving behind the alcohol.

But, considering Qiang Yu’s question, he admits, “I’m thinking about doing something that is equal parts intelligent and dumb, but there’s also a chance that I fail entirely and get myself covered with alcohol.”

“What do you mean?” She asks him.

“Well…” Lan Jin pauses and thinks about how Sun Meirong had already seen the effects of his flame, so even if Qiang Yu doesn’t know already, he assumes her mother will eventually tell her what he can do.

“You know how your mom was saying I have a spirit flame?”

Qiang Yu nods her head.

“I’m thinking about using it to purify the Qi inside of the alcohol so I can absorb it more easily. The only problem is, the stem of the bottle is too long for me to put my finger into it and still reach the liquid. So, my thought process is that I can just drop my spirit flame into the bottle and purify the Qi that way, but there’s a very real chance that my flame just falls to the base of the bottle, burns through it, and then falls onto my lap trailing behind a bunch of alcohol as it goes.”

“What do you mean by purifying the Qi?” She asks while tilting her head slightly in confusion. “Do you make the purple energy by purifying Qi?”

“Yup,” Lan Jin admits.

“Then… The purple energy… Can you use it for both Qi Cultivation and Soul Cultivation?”

Narrowing his eyes at her, Lan Jin asks, “Isn’t that kind of obvious?”

Qiang Yu blinks at him and, her voice small, asks, “Why would it be obvious?”

With a frown on his face, Lan Jin says, “You should already know that you can use it for Soul Cultivation since that’s why you broke the Stone Prophet. And it should be obvious that you can use it for regular cultivation seeing as I made it out of Qi— which is something you saw me do.”

All of a sudden, Qiang Yu’s mouth clicks shut and her eyes widen.

Lan Jin waits a few seconds for her to say something, but when she remains silent, he continues looking at the bottle in his hand.

He decides he doesn’t want to drop his spirit flame into the bottle because the risk of damaging or even ruining something that cost him fifty silver coins isn’t worth it. But the only alternative he can think of is either drinking it directly and then purifying it in his stomach, something he is hesitant to do because he doesn’t know what will happen if he tries to light the wine on fire, or sticking his thumb into the bottle to cork it before flipping it upside down and having the flame purify it that way.

“Do you want a cup?” Qiang Yu asks him suddenly.

“You have cups in here?” Lan Jin asks her as he looks around. Not seeing anything that looks like an obvious container, Lan Jin looks at the seats and wonders if the benches can also act as storage somehow.

“Mmm.” Nodding her head, Qiang Yu stands up and then, lowering herself to the floor, she pushes two of her fingers into it to depress a hidden button and then pulls open a small sliding panel to reveal a storage compartment holding a large number of dried fruits, candies, a teapot and a set of cups to go with it, a small, portable burner, and even a few decanters full of alcohol.

“Sister Yu, can you grab me some of the dried peaches?” Lulu asks her.

“Kay,” Qiang Yu nods absently while grabbing a cup for Lan Jin and a handful of dried fruit slices from a glass jar. Then, after handing Lan Jin his cup, she sits back down and splits the fruit slices evenly before handing some to Lulu and placing the rest on her lap.

Looking at the opened compartment in the bottom of the carriage, Lan Jin doesn’t know whether he should feel shocked or not. On the one hand, it makes sense for the carriage to have some means of storing things and, if it were him, he’d also put a bunch of snacks inside of the compartment. But seeing someone else doing the same thing he would do with such an expensive carriage, he’s not entirely certain he wants to believe it.

Shaking his head, Lan Jin rids himself of his disbelief and quickly pours himself a cup full of alcohol before placing the bottle on the floor. Then, eyeing the amber liquid inside of his cup that looks like apple juice as well as the clear, glowing Qi swirling around within it, Lan Jin summons the Auspicious Tri-Colored Flame and has it coat his finger before, just as he had once done with water, he sticks it into the cup and begins stirring the liquid slowly.

It doesn’t take long before the amber liquid begins to take on a purple hue as the Qi inside is purified into Providence, and Lan Jin even feels a touch of relief as he notices the alcohol doesn’t seem to be at risk of igniting after coming in contact with his flame. And after waiting for a few more seconds to ensure all of the Qi within the cup is converted into purple mist, Lan Jin removes his finger and eyes the cup closely.

As far as he can tell, once he removed the risk of trying to purify the liquid while it was still in the bottle, everything went smoothly and now he has a cup of purple wine. However, when he goes to take a sip of it, he finds that it still smells like the Red-Skinned Pears and he can’t help but grimace.

“Did it work?” Qiang Yu asks him while nibbling on a fruit slice.

Nodding his head once, Lan Jin says, “Seems like it.”

Looking at the cup in his hand, Qiang Yu asks, “Are you going to drink it?”

Thinking about it, Lan Jin hesitates. Absorbing the purple mist on its own already has a somewhat extreme effect. Mixing it with alcohol just seems like a recipe for disaster.

Turning his gaze on Qiang Yu and Lulu, Lan Jin sighs before shaking his head and placing the cup to the side.

“You’re not drinking it?” Qiang Yu asks with a hint of surprise in her voice.

“I will later,” Lan Jin says.

Qiang Yu and Lulu look at one another and Qiang Yu seems to suddenly understand Lan Jin’s meaning and even Lulu seems to realize what he’s talking about. But instead of letting the conversation ebb away, Lulu says, “It’s okay if you drink it! I want to see what happens!”

“Lulu!” Qiang Yu admonishes angrily.

Rolling his eyes at Lulu, Lan Jin sits back in his seat and leans his head back while waiting for Sun Meirong to arrive.

“Was it difficult for you to purify the Qi inside of the alcohol?” Qiang Yu asks him.

“No, not really,” he admits. “All I really had to do was expose it to my flame and make sure the flame was weak enough that it wouldn’t destroy the liquid surrounding the Qi.”

After hesitating a moment, Qiang Yu asks, “Shouldn’t this be one of your secrets? Why are you so candid with it?”

Lowering his eyes to look at her, Lan Jin says, “Because your mom already saw the Great Physician use my flame to make a purple cloud that was big enough to literally cast a shadow over most of his compound. She even has a spirit stone full of the stuff right now. So even if I wanted to keep it a secret from you, even trying would be dumb.”

“Oh.”

“Oh,” Lan Jin agrees.

Closing his eyes, Lan Jin continues waiting for Sun Meirong to show up and, moments later, she does, and she seems to be in a very bad mood as she hops into the carriage and raps the wall sharply to urge the driver on.

Then, with a quick look around the carriage, Sun Meirong approaches her daughter, reaches out, and starts pinching her nose between her fingers as she uses her other hand to repeatedly tap on Qiang Yu’s forehead.

“You silly little girl! Who told you to defend me just then? Don’t you know that I could have won some advantages for you?”

“Mama!” As Qiang Yu whines, her voice sounds distorted due to her mother pinching her nose, but she doesn’t say anything in her defense. Instead, she apologizes, “I’m sorry! I wasn’t thinking about myself, I just didn’t want them thinking poorly of you!”

Rolling her eyes, Sun Meirong asks, “Who cares if they speak poorly of me? I’d rather them speak poorly of me because it means they will continue to remember the lessons I teach them! All you did just then was throw away a good thing for foolish reasons!”

Qiang Yu whines some more, but she doesn’t say anything else as her mother continues beating her fingers against her forehead.

After several minutes of this, Sun Meirong finally stops and then slumps down into her seat while looking at Lan Jin and the cup of alcohol next to him.

“You’ve been drinking?” She asks him.

Shaking his head quickly, Lan Jin says, “No. I was just seeing what would happen if I purified the alcohol. I didn’t want to actually drink anything with your daughters around.”

Narrowing her eyes at him, Sun Meirong looks like she’s about to say something. But, as she glances over the carriage again, she chooses to reach forward and grab the cup of alcohol instead.

“So this is ‘purified’, hmm?” She says while looking into the cup. “Then you don’t plan on drinking it?”

“Later, maybe. But I don’t know what will happen if I mix alcohol and the purple mist, so I’m planning on waiting until I’m alone before I try.”

Looking at the cup in her hand and the curious gleam in Sun Meirong’s eye, and considering the large amount of alcohol in the storage compartment below, Lan Jin asks, “Are you planning on drinking that?”

“Of course not,” Sun Meirong says and then hands the drink back to Lan Jin.

Once the drink is in his hand again, she says, “If you want to drink that concoction, I suggest you do it now. Once we’re inside the estate, you will be subject to our rules. That means no casual drinking, and you will have to store that bottle away.”

“Seriously?” Lan Jin groans. “Can’t I just not go? I am perfectly fine staying at the Great Physician’s place, and his only rules were that I couldn’t disturb the peace or mess with his servants.”

With a sniff, Sun Meirong shoots him down. “You wish! Between you and my daughter, just having lunch was enough for such a big scene to be created. And that was under my direct supervision! Outside of my supervision, who knows when the next purple cloud will appear over my husband’s city or when one of my daughters will fall on you again? Or, Heavens forbid, when some fool boy will decide to see how far they can push you before you decide to burn their face off? And since I don’t care to find out, I choose not to. And that means you are staying right where I can keep an eye on you!”

Lan Jin groans loudly and does his best not to roll his eyes at Sun Meirong. It’s really hard, though, because he doesn’t think he should have to stay with her at all.

But, since it’s clear to him that she’s going to continue being unreasonable about this, he decides he might as well take her advice and throw back his glass of alcohol now so he can at least do something to cultivate while being forced to endure yet another trip outside of his control.

Though, as soon as he drinks the purple-hued wine, he finds that his entire body begins feeling bubbly and the world around him starts distorting slightly as the purple mist ignores everything else and directly enters the Omega Browser’s Space where it immediately fuses with his purple star.

Lan Jin can’t make heads or tails of what’s happening, and he has no clue why the purple mist could fuse with his star so easily after drinking some alcohol while absorbing it, but as he looks at Sun Meirong, he finds that she looks like she has a clear film covering her body. Not only that, but he finds that he can suddenly see Qiang Yu’s and Lulu’s Qi.

As far as he can tell, the two of them seem roughly similar in the volume and purity of their Qi. In fact, the only difference he can see between them is that Qiang Yu has some purple Qi inside of her Dantian that Lulu doesn’t have.

But, what makes it incredible is that he is able to see what it looks like behind their clothing.

“Holy shit,” he mumbles to himself while shaking his head softly.

The alcohol, once purified by his flame, seems to be much stronger now than it was when he had a cup of it a few minutes prior. He even has to press his hand against the wall of the cabin to brace himself as the world continues distorting before his eyes.

Then, with a soft pop around his glabella, Lan Jin’s vision flees him for a moment before returning just as quickly. But, just like when it happened out in the forest, he finds that the world seems clearer and more beautiful than it was seconds ago.

“You… Did you just breakthrough?” Sun Meirong asks him with a look of horror and awe written on her face.

“Break through to what?” Lan Jin asks her.