You know what I miss? Taco salad. It's one of those things. It's a fusion cuisine that no one really thinks about. But what do you need for taco salad? You need the cultures to mix in a way that creates a breakdown of a taco shell and a taco into a salad and at marriage of those two things have to become exactly the most crunchy thing you've had in a while.
Because no one wants to eat a non-crunchy taco salad. That's just not a thing. Because if it was, then people would actually do that and that would be shameful. So long as you don't do that, you'll be fine. But getting that correct is a lot. It's especially a lot when you're trying to consider when to add that dressing.
The girls jumping in on that improv note where I was an abusive guy or a pervert was exactly the dressing that I needed at the right time for my taco salad.
And you're probably going to wonder right now about my mood. Let's just say that I'm a bit tired of blue robes not doing their jobs.
It's getting a little bit old. They need to find these guys themselves.
To that end, I have been told that I'm going to be having an audience with the Chief inspector as well as whoever the emperor appointed as the police chief. Because apparently at some point in time, you have to switch from people that have done this job their whole life in the hierarchy to people that are appointed and hold ceremonial roles but came from outside the system.
To give you a very American analogy, it was like I was meeting with a supreme court justice about my conduct in person with the highest cop in the land. I told them first thing in the morning and they told me that they would have an armed guard around wherever I was staying.
I told them that if I wasn't able to check them all then they better not send any guards. They said har har.
We went back and forth for a little bit and it was decided that they would make a show of putting me in one particular place. Then they would have me actually go someplace else. This was in their words a way for them to ferret out these individuals that had decided to work against the law. All six of the cultivators that I had found within the ranks were summarily executed that evening after being questioned for hours. I was happy to say that I was not part of that discussion.
Whoever did that? They had my respects. The interrogators, of which there were five, were all paraded before me and I had to ascertain that they were not demonic cultivators. It felt like I was doing the most to help them out. But at least they knew that these five cultivators were not double agents. And that in itself was enough of a change for them that they were going to be able to start with that. If they had physical hands on a demonic cultivator, they could figure out if they were one. They .
What the inspector had done was to fake the results for those people that were on the take. Those demonic cultivators that had gotten onto the blue robes had been part of the group that he had taken in himself. He himself had a path that let him obscure his path, showing people a different set of internal qi than was there in reality.
You're probably wondering what that even means. I had a core that I packed full of dream qi. That was my primary aspect. All I need to do was be by the aura of people sleeping and dreaming about their lives. Even nightmares would feed that. When I meditated. I drew in on the ambient dream or around turning that into my energy that I used. The fact that my two current companions had such lofty aspirations now fueled my growth.
They were daydreamers.
I was also able to tap into Min's qi as our bond let me share energy back and forth. She was fine.
She just needed to rest into the night. I let her retire into my dantian after a long cry. It was good for her to get that out of her system.
---
Honestly, the best thing about that evening was the hot baths. And the fact that I was able to soak for a bit. Lee joined me, fully not caring that either of them were naked. Egiya talked to us from across the way, in a separate hot bath.
I loved cultivation in the way that it had let practical hot baths exist where they shouldn't be.
When you spend your days taking down monsters, you quickly realize that you don't care if you're naked around the people that you rely upon. I tried to look away, and it was definitely clear that she was keeping just a head above water out of respect for me. But Lee had no problem sitting next to me.
I was worried that I'll get found out here. None of the demonic cultivators here knew me, and the ones that I'd see my face were already in deep conversation with the interrogators that I had cleared.
That was another thing. I needed to clear these people. This was upstream of them doing their job. Trusted agents of the state didn't just do demonic BS.
They needed to have some way to vet them first. That would be a start. Even when they were vetted, I was brooding about how people who were vetted could obfuscate the results or later turn to a life of crime.
The message if you worked hard and you could make a life for yourself in the blue robes was seeming to be more of a marketing gimmick than anything else.
The only thing that they were guaranteed was the respect of cultivators that they were stronger than.
That was exactly what everybody else got.
People were constantly squaring each other up based on their perceived strengths or perceived slights to their pride.
It didn't make sense to me why they did their job, but they did. And as the heat in the bath eased the aches in my back and neck, thought about how I would change this if I was the emperor.
I hated to think that police were necessary. I had seen so many bad apples that had made them tainted in my eyes. If there's a hungry man who needs spread to feed his family, but he steals the loaf of bread why is law coming in on either side?
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Instead of taking the man into custody for stealing, they should just feed the man. But if they do that then they're bad cops. But if they take the guy in? Then they're also bad. It was a lose lose situation.
Like if the law is bad, change the law. But it didn't seem like laws changed that often here. The emperor himself had been on the throne for quite some time. I was feeling that we would butt heads eventually. My perceived disrespect at finding a nest of the enemy entrenched in his own city would probably cause an outcry. At least that's what I thought he would do.
Chances are the emperor was the same narcissistic self absorbed kind of person that the upper crust of society here created. If not? Well, I would like to be surprised.
"I would like the emperor to make my day," I said, in between blowing bubbles in the heated bath like a big boy.
"You're such a good lap dog," Lee said. "Also, you're brooding again. You told me to tell you the new time "
"Woof," I said. "It's not even that, though. The guy is either willfully looking somewhere else, to some bigger threat or he is...I know we are not supposed to criticize the emperor, but I imagine that I would do more."
It was an old wives tale that the emperor could hear it every time that his name got invoked. Still, though I wasn't going to tempt fate. I didn't need the man to drop in on my soak.
"I see that the bandages are all off now," Lee said. "Are you feeling better?"
"I am, a bit. I'm going to be sore tomorrow. Unless you know a secret martial technique to massage out the sore parts."
"Is that a secret martial arts technique or are you just happy to see me," she said, giggling.
"Well, to be honest," I said. "It's a bit of both. But I'm not going to rush anything. You did amazing with the two guys at the bar, by the way."
"I would do amazing things with you if you would take any of the hints that I have been dropping this evening," she said.
I was a simple man. I let her lead the way.
---
"So you're in a relationship now?" Egiya said, as the waiter left with a round of drinks.
"I didn't expect it, but she basically uh..." I said, pushing my food around the plate.
I wanted to say that she held me at gunpoint. But we were at breakfast and Lee had decided to get the sausages and cut them in the most on purpose way that I had ever seen someone do it. Like I have heard of girls covering their mouths when they eat, or not eating bananas the normal way in front of a man, but this was just her sense of humor finally cutting loose.
She might act mean, but she was nice as fuck.
"She is very persuasive," Egiya said, watching the spectacle. She gave her tea mug a sniff and then nodded to herself. I spared a sniff for mine and it was going to be good.
There's just something in the tea the day after a big fight. Or maybe it was the soak?
Lee cut her sausages into little chunks, somehow maintaining eye contact with me.
"She is... She is also funny. I like it when they are funny, because I can't be the only one always making the guests laugh."
Egiya giggled.
"You're terrible," she said.
"You're pretty great yourself kid," Lee said, chomping on the last bit of sausage. "Now how long until our handlers come in here all hot and bothered?"
"Less than one minute," I said, closing my eyes. "Twenty Waan."
"Bah. Make it forty, you coward," Lee said.
"Ten minutes tops," Egiya said. "Forty Waan. What's a few Waan between friends?"
I counted out my haul, or at least the amount that I had brought with me. That was on the more expensive side, but the bank of dad could handle it. If I couldn't treat the girls to a fair bit of disappointment, was I even a father figure?
It is a dads solemn duty to make his kids cringe at wholesome jokes. I wanted to take that extra far especially when Lee was doing the whole sausage thing.
"I didn't even see sausage on the menu," Egiya said.
"I had to special order it," Lee said.
That was about the time that Feng and the chief inspector arrived. Their steps were easily recognizable once they were close enough. The chief inspector was at least fourth realm, as I got absolutely nothing on his movements
This meant that there was a specific lack of sound. This lack kept movement to a loud brash man who stomped around like he owned the place.
"Feng. Where's Niko?" Lee said, deciding that this was the perfect moment to slice a sausage.
I could see him pucker.
"He got tagged on paperwork duty," the blue robed man said, as if he wasn't totally responsible for that. "Chief Inspector, I believe that we have everything that we can give you from our side. Now I think, you have some questions for our hunters of the demonic?"
The chief inspector made a show of ordering a breakfast and then dismissing the waiter before Feng had a chance to order. I didn't even know what flank noodle steak was, but it sounded amazing. I was going to have to try it some other time.
I feel like it's a good idea to try and live like a local and experience a local culture. But I definitely didn't see sausages on the menu and the flank noodles. What? I was going to have to ask a lot of questions. A lot of very pointed questions about what the heck was going on in this noodle house. My breakfast ramen was delicious and had an egg and doodles but I was not even aware that you could have that.
"I have spoken to the emperors aide. He made me recount yesterday's incident to the chancellor," the chief inspector said. "That means that sooner or later you are going to be mentioned to the emperor and his court."
He let that hang there for a little bit as his tea arrived.
"If you think you're going to pressure me to give up my trade Secrets, you have nothing coming. This is a proprietary past technique and not only do I not think it can be duplicated, I don't think it should be duplicated."
"Proprietary, hmmm," He said, sipping his tea. "There are many paths that take one from where one is to be a more powerful place. All of them begin with you taking a single step. But in each one that I've ever read, the unique ability to spot a demonic cultivator from far away is something that has never come up. We've always had to have them there in person and close enough to identify it. And then either we won't identify it through their usage of Aura or..." He trailed off, wastefully looking at the closest waiter.
The man had no chill. Shortly thereafter his food was arriving and he got caught up in that.
I Wanted to tell them. But I also needed to make sure that they were sending me people that I could trust. I didn't know any of these people, which was okay. I needed to really understand the motivations on a personal level before I decided to give up the whole thing.
" I think what we have here is an impasse. You need what I know. I don't think I can teach that to anybody. Instead, what I propose is that you send a bunch of people with me and we test them on if they could even try this. If they can do it or they can attempt it, we might have a chance with them. If not... There's always my spirit piece too. Might be able to help you. But I think that she's going to be more expensive than me."