Tenn finally stopped kneeling and stood up. His face was red with embarrassment and nervousness and aside from that, there wasn't anything wrong with him.
He still didn't look his uncle in the eye and shifted uncomfortably where he stood. The middle-aged man sighed and turned around. "I'll be waiting outside. Pay up and leave immediately," he said and walked away.
Tenn remained standing still for a few seconds afterward before grumbling in the complaint. He felt wronged as he hadn't come here for what his uncle thought he was here for, but he knew he was never going to be able to explain that.
Even Ning's explanation wasn't going to help him at all.
"I'm sorry you guys had to witness that," he said and walked toward Jenna to pay the price of their service today.
The two rooms in total cost the young man around 80 Fire Essence coins, which he pulled out from the storage artifact he was wearing.
"Let's go," he said and the three of them walked outside.
Tenn's uncle turned around and watched them come up to him. Then, he looked around at where he was and said, "Let's leave this place for now."
He started walking away and the three of them followed him.
As soon as they walked out of the red lights district, Tenn walked up to his uncle and started speaking up for his innocence. It was a losing battle for him, but thankfully he got his uncle to promise not to say anything to his parents or other people.
The uncle turned around toward Kaleb and Ning and looked at them carefully. "You two are participants too, aren't yoU?" he asked. "I think I saw you two before."
"Yes, we are," Ning said. "All of us are participants in the competition."
"And your school allowed you two to venture into a big city on your own? Do they not have any supervision?" the man asked.
"Our competitions are over," Tenn quickly said.
"Hmm, isn't there a few more days remaining?" the uncle asked?
"No, our competitions are over. What's remaining is for the seniors," Tenn said.
"Hmm, isn't he a senior?" the uncle asked while pointing at Ning. "He looks old."
"Huh? No, he is first-year like us," Kaleb explained. "He just joined late."
"I see," the uncle said. "And you were the one that wanted to come here huh? Why did you have to bring along someone so many years younger than you?"
"I didn't tell him to bring me here," Ning said. "I just wanted to come to the city to find a place that can help me get some information."
The uncle paused for a second and turned to Tenn. "Is he telling the truth?" he asked.
"Yes," Tenn said.
"And you chose that place? When there is a literal information agency on the other side of the city," the Uncle said.
"I know, but cousin Nalen brought me there once before and told me that was the best place for finding high-level information since old men tend to freely speak with those girls when they are drunk," Tenn said.
The uncle simply looked dumbfounded at the answer. He thought for a moment and said, "Don't follow in your cousin's footsteps. He isn't a good role model," uncle said.
The atmosphere got a little better as the uncle seemed to soften up toward his nephew and even pat his back a few times. Ning and Kaleb stopped worrying about their uncle and started enjoying the nightlife of the city.
The brilliant artifacts created from converting light into light essence hung at every wall of every building in the city, illuminating the ground as if it mattered not that the sun had set already.
The entire city was still illuminated as if it was daytime. Even the places that were supposed to be dark alleyways were bright enough to see everything inside easily.
Part of it was due to how well everyone's sight was due to their Essence rank, but part of it was genuinely due to how many light essence artifacts were around.
After walking through the busy streets for a while, the group arrived upon a large gate on either side of which were tall walls that went on for hundreds of meters.
It was as if they had somehow arrived in a different city while inside the city. The gates were wide open, but the guards were inspecting every single person that came in and out of the gates.
Tenn's uncle pulled out something from his pockets and showed it to the guards before walking in.
Tenn didn't need to show anything at all. "These are my friends," he explained to the guards.
The guards nodded and pulled Ning and Kaleb to the side. "Are you carrying any weapons?" they asked.
Ning pointed to the sword on his hips while Kaleb simply nodded. "Please hand over all your weapons," the guards said.
Ning looked at Tenn who nodded. Ning shrugged and pulled out his sword, along with the sheath. "Where do I place it?" he asked.
"I will be taking it," the guard said.
Ning smiled a bit and shook his head. "It's too heavy for you," he said. "Tell me where I will have to place it and I will."
The guard frowned a bit and even the other guard got alert. Ning saw that and sighed. "Fine, take it." He let the guard take the sword by the hilt.
The moment the guard even grabbed the sword, its massive weight made the man fall to the ground of his own volition.
Ning grabbed the sword before the man was hurt and took it. "As I said, it is very heavy. Tell me where to place it," he said once more.
Everyone present was surprised to see something like that happen in front of them. The guard wiped his brows and pointed to the room behind the gate.
Ning walked over and saw a pile of weapons and armor that were kept there on wooden shelves. He placed his sword on one of the shelves and took the token that was in its place.
After that, he walked back to the gate and looked around. "Aren't you going to take his weapons too?" he pointed to Kaleb.
The group finally came to their senses again and the guards started working.
The guard once again looked at Ning and asked, "Do you not have any other weapons?"
"Nope, none," Ning said.
"May I check your storage artifacts?" the guard asked.
"Hey! Aren't you being too much? None of the other guests have to do so much," Tenn said.
"I'm sorry, young master, but I have to check for the weapons," the guard said.
Tenn felt anger flare inside him, but he couldn't do anything. Despite having increased popularity, his influence in the family still hadn't grown by a whole lot.
If it were Nalen's friends, the two of them would have left ages ago. Instead, because they were his friends, they were being thoroughly checked as per the family rule.
Ning looked at the guard and shook his head. "I have no storage artifact. May I go in now or do you want me to waste all of the Essence in my body next?"
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