Chapter 40: The House of Lu
I came upon the city lights in the distance, the lit torches and lamps gave the whole city a serene calm, and peaceful image. A great contrast to what went on in the nearby forest.
Once I arrived at the city gate, a man flew to meet me. He seemed to be on a greater cultivation realm as he stopped me mid-way.
"Fellow cultivator, this city prohibits entering it using flight, I"ll have to ask you to come down with me." The man said.
I nodded and went down to the city gate where the man stood in front of me.
"It seems that you"re the person brother Fen Zei had talked about." The man said.
"I don"t know what brother Fen Zei had said about me, but I hope he only spoke true," I replied.
"Oh, worry not, we have received your Jade. The clearing of those despicable mountain bandits will prove quite helpful to the ma.s.ses. The people of the city are in your debt, however, as cultivators, you should remove yourself from mortal matters." The man replied.
"For me, if I see injustice, be it mortal or immortal made, and I have the capabilities to change it, I will change it," I replied.
"I will not argue your logic, just do know, we cultivators live in a realm far greater than the mortals. And if you remain bound to mortals, you"ll be unable to survive your Mortality Severing stage." The man said and turned around.
"You should head to the house of Lu, they are expecting you." The man said and threw me a jade.
I took it and placed it against my head, it had the general map of every house in the city and the location of the Lu house was highlighted.
I thanked the man and walked in the direction of the city, it didn"t take me a lot of time to arrive at the first gate separating the two sectors. The guards immediately opened the door for me, not even asking me about identification.
Someone had already given them a description about me, at least this way I wouldn"t have to worry about having to prove who I am to the house of Lu.
After an hour worth of walking, I arrived at the house of Lu. There was a swath of people standing at the gate with torches lit. Guards, servants, and handlers, all in wait. And once I arrived, the servants bowed to me and the guards came around me, escorting me inside.
I entered the house of Lu, which was a mansion within a large garden of beautiful flowers and roses. There were even ponds with koi fish swimming within it.
The servants led me towards the mansion and inside it where I saw a woman and a man standing in wait for me.
The two of them looked to be in their mid-forties, and from the colorful and well-made and probably expensive clothes on them, they seem to be the owners of this house.
"Sir cultivator! Welcome to our humble abode." The man said while giving me a deep bow, and so did the woman.
I looked around and replied, "If you say this is humble…I have no idea what extravagant is to you," I replied. As the whole building was made from expensive wood and decorations of silver and gold all around it.
"How is the girl?"
"She is relaxed, the treatment you had given her had saved her life. I sent a few more apothecaries while you were away, but they couldn"t do more than what you did, and some even urged us to know of how you managed to treat what seemed to be a fatal blow with simple medicine."
I waved my hand in disregard at the man, "Secrets of the trade, I"ll still need to check up on her and see if I need to change her bandages."
"You"ve done so much for us sir, we wouldn"t want to impose on your time." The man said.
"It"s not like I have much to do right now, I"ll have a look at the girl then leave."
"Yes, follow me please," the man said and he moved ahead and into the upper floor.
We entered a large room where the girl was asleep on a bed made of something far better than the best beds I slept on, and I was a city lord.
I took a quick look at the bandages, the wounds didn"t seem to be bleeding, and her bandage is relatively clean, but it will need to be changed.
I pulled out a few of the herbs, kneaded them, and made a medical salve. I gently removed the bandage on her face, revealing a ghastly scar on the girl"s right cheek.
I wiped the dried blood away, cleaned it with ginseng and alcohol then applied the salve again on it, finally, I covered it with bandages.
I did the same for the wound on her abdomen. And when I was done I turned to the parents who seemed to be distraught at something.
"What"s wrong?" I asked.
"My daughter, she is to be wed to the prince next fall. With that scar on her face…" the woman trailed off.
"Your daughter"s life was in danger and all you care about is a simple scar?" I replied.
"Sir, with all due respect, I don"t believe it"s easy to explain." The man replied.
I looked at the two in the eyes and removed my hood, after all, I had my face fully covered by the hood so was the rest of my body, and the only things that were visible from me were my hands that were in gloves.
Once I removed the hood and they took a good look at my face, the pustules on my arms and hands, the woman gasped.
The man immediately slapped her and kowtowed to me. "I"m greatly ashamed of my wife"s behavior oh great cultivator, she didn"t know and reacted in such a way, please forgive her ignorance! She didn"t mean to insult you!" the man said with enough gusto that it almost moved me.
"I don"t care about it, I"ve been inflicted with this for a long time. I don"t care what people think of me," I replied while I put on my gloves and covered my arms with my sleaves.
Once I had my hood back on I said, "Physical appearance isn"t more than eye candy, it will one day go away. The scar on your daughter"s face isn"t something that will devalue her or lessen her value. If the prince is naïve and shallow enough to disregard your daughter due to a simple scar, then you"re better off not marrying her to him." I said as I stood up.
"Please sir cultivator, we will not speak of this, but what you just said can amount to treason against the crown. Also, it is a diplomatic move to marry into the royal family. And with the opportunity gone, other rival houses will take this chance to marry into it and will destroy us." The man replied.
"You"re using your own daughter as a chess piece. If you get destroyed, remember, it"s not your daughter"s fault, it"s yours for being such a bad chess player. The best diplomates will never use blood relation to secure their position, think about it, find another way." I walked out of the room.
"I left a bit of the salve next to the girl, change her bandage every two days, she should wake up tomorrow. And her wounds would heal in a few weeks. She"ll need to rest for a month, and after that, she"ll be good as new. Bar the scars. You can probably get a Receptarier to make you a mortal wound healing pill, but it will be expensive. Probably it will be worth all you own. That means that you"ll be betting what you currently have, for what you could probably have, those are odds that I"ll never take." I replied to the man and left.
I didn"t need to stay in that house, otherwise, I"ll be dragged into a political struggle. I know of this because it would have been the same tactic I would use if I was in his stead.
When a powerful ent.i.ty comes to your home, your best option as a politician is to enroll them to your side and not have them go to another. And I wasn"t ready to play the sides game, at least not yet. The emperor, though I need to have a meeting with him, it"s still far too early. I"ll need to get a secure location for myself first, I have a few things I need to do.
Once I was outside the house and at the gates of the House of Lu, Fen Zei had appeared in front of me. He seemed to have been waiting.
"Brother Shen Bao!" the man smiled at me.
"Brother Fen Zei," I cupped my hand at him.
"I"ve seen your exploit on the jade, and I dare say that was an amazing display of cruel cold-blooded skill. I wouldn"t have been able to stop myself from going all out and killing them all, but I learned greatly from you. Had I tried to do it my way, the bandits would have used the girls as hostages, though their deaths are not of great value, It would have slightly bogged me. Yet you! You coldly dispatched of every bandit and gave the girls a chance at redemption, such great benevolence, and such great patience is really awe-inspiring!" the man said in a couple of breaths.
"s.h.i.+t, all these compliments, I"m screwed… he needs a favor."
"Brother Zei Fen, don"t sell yourself cheap, I"m sure you would have chosen a method even I would be inspired and awed from." I nodded at the man.
"No, I"m sure I wouldn"t, my dinner offer still stands, do you wish to come with me?" Zei Fen said.
"Yes, I"m willing, I have nothing else to do. Still, I"d like to ask you for something." I said.
Now, I know he wants to ask me for a favor, but if I ask him for a favor first, and a small one at that, it will make him unable to ask me for a greater favor. It would be rude, and for cultivators, favors must be repaid in kind.
"Y-yes, anything for brother Shen Bao."
"I"ll need a place to cultivate in, somewhere where I"m not interrupted. Can you do me that favor? I"ll owe you one."
"Oh, that"s simple, I have a few places where you can cultivate without anyone bothering you… let"s talk more about it over dinner."
"Right, lead the way," I said.
Now, with a place to cultivate, I"ll be able to work on some projects. Alchemy, and puppet crafting, also, it"s long due for those pouches. The cultivators at the Poison G.o.d"s cave have left me with a few pouches and I need to see what"s inside them. Now that I"m at the Foundation Establishment, I should be able to open them.