Chapter 202: Heavenly Divine Pagoda Tree
An Jing's original plan was to get You Ruhui to use her ability while the sages engaged the heavenly fiends. They would then escape into the wilderness with the rest of the city folk. This plan would minimize casualties that would result from the battle between the sages and the fiends. The chaos that would result would also reduce the need for An Jing and Madam Huai to hide since they could just blend in with the crowd. You Ruhui was the only one who needed to mask her presence.
However, the heavenly fiends had lost too quickly. There was no longer a need for the citizens of Keensight to evacuate. If An Jing and Madam Huai left the city, they would stand out far too much. While You Ruhui's stealth ability was amazing, she could only cast it on others for two hours at a time, which wasn't enough for them to get far. They would still be well within the range that a sage could search.
It was much better to hide within the city in this case. In his mind, the Grandvoid Pathway was the ideal solution, but he didn't want to use it unless he had no other choice. They could no longer go to the terrestrial-vein nodes either for You Ruhui to hide, though, as long as she laid low and didn't move about too much, she would be able to elude detection.
In fact, An Jing and Madam Huai could serve as her smokescreen. Everyone knew that he had been living at the teahouse for a time, so it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for him to pop out to see what was going on with the commotion outside. Nobody knew that You Ruhui was there and she could remain hidden right by their side with her ability without drawing any suspicion. Failing that, An Jing would just take them to Skysource.
"Alright!" You Ruhui seemed to be quite the decisive person herself. Though she couldn't come up with a solution of her own, she wasn't resistant to following An Jing's.
"What about you, madam?" An Jing asked.
Madam Huai shook her head and said, "I have no strong thoughts on the matter."
An Jing then headed to a place he was quite familiar with while carrying Madam Huai on his back: Blessed Virtua Garden.
"Young Master Xuan?" The waiter at the door recognized him and looked surprised. "And the madam? What can we do for you?"
"Chaos broke out in the city and some people tried to barge into the teahouse," An Jing said. "Madam Huai's not in good shape, but there's no nearby clinic I can bring her to while the wind out there is blowing this hard. I didn't know where else to go and came here instead."
"Mister Jing and the madam?" Manager Li also came out and immediately knew what happened. He had been aware of the struggles that Madam Huai and her teahouse had to face behind the scenes and also knew that An Jing was the martialist that took out the seven thugs that bothered them. He was also the Dustdawner genius that rescued the kidnapping victims of the True Fiend Cult.
This was the perfect chance for him to deepen his relationship with such a promising young lad. He quickly opened the door wide and let them in. "Come in, quickly. Phew. The madam has never left that street for all her life only to be driven out by those thugs. We have truly failed her!"
"Thanks, you're a great help," An Jing said, feigning fatigue. Madam Huai was also pretending to be unconscious and let the restaurant staff carry her in. You Ruhui, on the other hand, was invisible to everyone else as long as her Hidden Earth ability was active.
With the entrance of Blessed Virtue Garden closed shut, An Jing turned back and looked at the bright flashes of sunlight and lightning in the sky. The chaos in Keensight seemed to be drawing to a close.
While Blessed Virtue Garden was a restaurant, it also allowed its customers to rent out rooms to sober up when they had a bit too much to drink. There was also on-site housing for the workers, which happened to be unfilled at the moment, so it was no trouble to get Madam Huai a place to rest.
Manager Li, who had only recently found out about how deep his so-called background was, regretted not proactively forming a relationship with An Jing earlier. Now that he had a chance, he was more than overjoyed. Mister Jing Xuan is from Dustdawn, after all. That might explain why he isn't familiar with our customs. Then again, generosity is our most important custom, and he has that in spades! Manager Li would be the first one to chew out anybody for calling his generous money tree impolite.
As for Madam Huai, An Jing didn't even need to go out of his way to ask others to take care of her. She was a household name in her own right and had helped raise many people in the community. When the master chef saw her so worn out and troubled, he even reopened the kitchen that had been closed for the day to cook her an herbal soup.
An Jing and the rest were soon able to settle down and take a breather. Though the place was safe, he made sure to always be ready to escape at a moment's notice. Given his strength, he could fight and kill average Fortification martialists. Even those at the peak of that realm wouldn't be able to kill him with his many artifacts. If a Clearing adept came, however, he would have no choice but to escape. If it was a Treasures Realm sage, he would end up captured the moment he even thought of escaping, which meant that he had to be prepared to bolt even before they came.
We'll see what You Ruhui plans to do if it comes to that. For now, there are some things I want to ask Madam Huai. He brought the tremella soup that the chef just cooked up to Madam Huai's room. You Ruhui was in there with the madam, who seemed rather alert despite appearing somewhat worn out.
"Thank you," she said as she accepted the fragrant soup with a wistful look. "I know you have questions. Ask away."
"Alright." An Jing didn't waste time and took out the bamboo vial that the vice apothecary and lord of Direlife Manor had used to store his pills. "Madam, how are you related to the Heavenly Demon Cult?"
"I am indeed a member of the divine cult," she said as she took out an identical bamboo vial. It didn't just have a similar design. In fact, both the vials seemed to have been crafted by the same person.
"Very well," An Jing said, not bothered by the frank acknowledgement and noting the specific way she addressed the cult. He took out the shard of a knuckle that had been left embedded in the vilespawn fiend and asked, "Who are these people to you? Both the owner of the vial and the owner of these knuckles?"
"Big Brother Feng... And Little Shu..." A mix of complicated emotions surfaced when she saw the items, but it didn't last long. She smiled nostalgically and said, "They're both dead, right? Finally... They're finally able to leave the human realm."
It seemed like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. An Jing didn't quite know what to make of that, but that at least confirmed that Madam Huai was of the cult. Yet, why did she seem relieved by the deaths of her fellow cultists instead of mourning them?[1]
1. The "pagoda tree" in the chapter title is a reference to Madam Huai (槐). Her name and the pagoda tree use the same character. ☜
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