Sage quickly learned that that killed commoner was right. All the inns in town had already been rented out. He spent some coin and learned that something big was going on and a bunch of influential people had pulled the same move as Tang Zhelan. Each of them went and rented out a whole inn, kicking out all the regular customers and putting them out on the streets. Some enterprising locals even started renting out their spare rooms to the evicted travelers for crazy prices. A few of them even tried to get crazy and stuff a dozen people into a single spare room, but then a few powerful cultivators got offended, killing the greedy homeowner and taking their whole house.
The night quickly fell into a modicum of chaos as more homes were taken by force. Soon, the city guard was called in and those who had stolen houses as well as some who were trying to offer rooms with crazy conditions were all arrested or killed by the guards. Order was restored and the guards were patrolling the city in large squads. Sage saw a man walking out a decent looking home and approached him with a bow of his head.
“Excuse me, Sir. Do you have a spare room that this lowly one could rent?”
He had no idea who the man was, so he was careful not to flatter him too much. If he were to say too many flowery things about a person without knowing their position he could actually end up insulting them. The man he was speaking to suddenly looked nervous, looking around to see if anyone else was waiting nearby to assault him.
“I… uh… no, I don’t have any rooms. Please move along, Sir. We don’t want any trouble here.”
Sage could tell he was uneasy and he didn’t enjoy taking advantage of regular people, but he didn’t want to leave town or be left vulnerable out on the street. A red outline appeared around his pupils as they started to slightly oscillate up and down. A yellow glow spread from the iris of his eye as he met that man’s gaze. Hypnotic Eyes. The technique from that toad, it could affect the minds of others. Those one rank lower could be mesmerized, standing motionless and dazed after meeting his gaze. Those two ranks lower could be given hypnotic suggestions, creating subtle changes in their behavior. At three ranks lower, he could even perform full on carnival tricks and make people think they were chickens or celebrities until something could disturb their mental state.
“Are you sure you don’t have any spare rooms, Sir?”
Sage tried again with the enforcement of his technique and as expected the man changed his tune. He had a wooden look on his face, and spoke in a somewhat monotone voice now.
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“I was wrong. Please come inside and stay in home.”
Sage blinked, his eyes returning to normal and heading inside with that man. He treated the man and his family kindly, offering them far more than any inn would charge for his stay. He didn’t let the man’s fear of conflict stop him from getting off the street. The next day, he went to the Zhu clan again and informed a guard of his change of address. Over the next couple days, the city continued it’s strange activities. Nobody dared to bother the Zhu clan, but many other smaller clans were essentially taken over. He heard of a few stories where some powerful clan or group from out of town needed a place to stay and rather than fight over inns they forced weaker local clans to receive them as guests. The weaker local clans had to treat them like their relatives from out of town and fawn over them to keep from suffering any damages.
Something is definitely going on.
At that time, Sage finally got invited back into the Zhu clan. At the gate an attendant received Sage and brought him to a hallway, asking him politely to wait outside of a large door. A meeting was still going on, which should be finished soon. Standing there in the hall, he caught sight of a painting across the hall and walked over to take a look. It was a beautiful scene of a flowering plum tree at the top of a snow covered cliff, the pink blossoms were floating off the cliff and swirling in the wind. Something about the painting captured his attention. The longer he stared the more he felt there was something profound about the way the leaves were painted moving along with the wind.
Bang!
With his attention divided, he was caught completely off guard as something crashed into him from the side. Even with his strength as a cultivator, he was caught unaware and knocked to the ground in a sprawl. Not knowing what had just happened, he had barely recovered his wits when he heard a loud voice.
“Why don’t you watch where you’re going, fool! What a clumsy oaf. Whoever is unlucky enough to marry you would be cursed by your ineptitude.”
Sage was face down on the floor from the collision. He’d been so focused he had been unable to even break his fall. His shoulder felt a bit raw as he climbed up to his hands and knees, turning his head back to look at who hit him as he was standing up. It was a girl, a beautiful girl from the looks of it. Sage rose to his feet and turned around to face the girl. He was astounded by her features. She was easily twice as good looking as the woman Zhu Su he met before. Zhu Su seemed like a young woman, but she was far more dignified and refine. This girl in front of him almost looked wild and unkempt. Like she didn’t even care about her looks, she seemed like she just rolled out of bed looking like a supermodel. It was almost unsettling. Before Sage finished his appraisement of her features and far before he could think of anything the say, the girl finished cursing at him and stalked away with a huff.
Sage walked her go with an unusual look on his face. Rubbing his arm, glad he was a cultivator so such an injury wouldn’t leave even a bruise let alone break his arm like if he was a normal person. That girl was obviously powerful from the force by which she struck him. He had been standing still in the middle of the hallway, so obviously the girl had been the one to cause the collision, yet she blamed and cursed at him so fiercely for it.
That was odd.
A few minutes later, the doors he was waiting nearby opened. A group of richly dressed people walked out, to which Sage lowered his head, not wanting to start any conflicts by meeting their gaze. He’d once followed around a young master on a shopping trip, the people that dared to meet his gaze that weren’t rich and powerful had been the target of his ire. Sage didn’t know who these people were, but he’d always choose to be humble and act without pride in order to avoid being made into another victim.