Chapter 169 – Expose

Chapter 169 - Location Revealed

Sleeping until evening, Ye Chen only just woke up. His smooth and solid skin was not wrinkled even after soaking in the water for a long time, instead, it now looked even greater than before.

Putting on a clean shirt, Ye Chen walked out of the room and went downstairs.

“Dear guest, let me show you to a private dining room.”

There were a number of waiters on shift at this moment, and the one who was currently speaking to Ye Chen, was not the one who showed him the room earlier. However, all the waiters were smart enough to realise that a guest who was willing to pay for the best room, would definitely be able to afford a private dining room as well. After all, the best room from Jin Hua Hotel costs fifty gold per night, if converted to silver, it would be equivalent to five hundred silver.

“Thanks!” Ye Chen nodded and said, he was indeed starving.

This Jin Hua Hotel had five floors in total. The fourth and fifth floors were the guest rooms, and the second and third floors was where the private dining rooms were located. The first floor was a lobby, serving also as a restaurant.

In front of the door to the private dining room labeled number six; the waiter pushed open the door for Ye Chen, bowed, and said, “This is one of our best private dining room, please.”

Walking into the room, Ye Chan looked around and found that it was a very nice looking dining room, and could very well be counted as a luxury. The room had an enormous window on the east side that allowed guests to watch the streets. However, all these were nothing special to Ye Chen. He quickly turned around and said to the waiter, “Give me all your special dishes, and three bottles of the highest grade wine— the older the better.”

“Well chosen! Just a moment, dear guest.”

Closing the door, Ye Chen sat in a leather chair in front of the table.

Watching the street view for a time, Ye Chen became slightly bored, as such, he pulled out a sword sheath from his storage ring.

Clang!

Pulling the sword from its sheath, a frosty beam of light immediately flashed across the sword; after the light faded, a long veined pattern could be seen on the sword body, its wriggling form resembling a coiled dragon.

“Dragon Spring Sword, the best one amongst those produced by the Sky Cloud Martial School. This sword is indeed a higher grade than the Hidden Cloud Sword.”

Ye Chen held the sword hilt and slightly swung the sword down.

Puff!

Without using any Zhen Qi, the sharp edge split the air. The process was perfectly smooth with not a single resistance felt.

“This Dragon Spring Sword is one of the highest grade weapons that ordinary martial artists could ever produce. I wonder how a ranked great weapon is made, and how are magical powers injected into the weapon such that it allows the sword to greatly raise the power of its owner…”Pushing the sword back into the sheath, Ye Chen murmured.

Great Weapons were not something that could be produced by random institutions, not even rank 7 institutions could. In the Windy Nation, most great weapons came abroad, while the others were found in remaining sites of ancient institutions. The production of ranked great weapons were extremely difficult, even more so than breaking into the Astral Reaching Realm. At least for reaching the Astral Reaching Realm, there was a rough path that could be followed to reach it, but no one knew anything about how to produce ranked great weapons.

The Hidden Cloud Sword was destroyed, and Ye Chan had yet to find a suitable low-ranked great sword. Fortunately, the Dragon Spring Sword was not bad at all. Apart from the fact that it could not automatically activate the sword Qi, its hardness far exceeded the Hidden Cloud Sword’s, and ought to fulfil Ye Chen’s need for a period of time. Of course, he would still need to purchase a low-ranked great sword when he has the chance.

Knocking on the door sounded, and Ye Chen placed the sword back into his storage ring.

Along with a creaking noise from the door, four waiters carrying multiple dishes walked in. The one walking in the front grinned to Ye Chen and said, “Dear guest, our Gale City is situated in the Great Devil Grassland, where all kinds of demonic beasts can be found in numbers. Hence, our most special dishes are all demonic beasts recipes, give it a try, you would definitely find that it is more tender than ordinary meat dishes.

“I’ve long heard about demonic beast dishes, tell me more about your dishes.”

“Sure. This dish is called Wing-spreading Phoenix, it is made from the wings of the third level beast, Scorching Temper Bird; it has been through eighteen processes. This one is called A Blooming Old Tree, and is made using the Gallbladder of a second level beast, Iron Gallbladder Snake…This is called Higher and Higher, and was made with Bamboo Snake meat, and this is A Snow Mountain, made from the third level beast…”

The waiter seemed to have done this multiple times, and as he narrated every single one of those dishes to Ye Chen, he did so smoothly without pausing.

Ye Chen tried one dish, and found that it was amazingly delicious. More surprisingly, the Yuan Qi contained in the beasts’ bodies had yet to completely disappear. To ordinary people, these dishes would definitely boost their body’s condition.

“Good, all of you can leave now.”

Ye Chen poured himself a glass of wine, then waved his hand and said to the few waiters.

As an old habit, Ye Chen would release his soul power while he was eating, and let his soul power cover a five hundred meters radius around him.

Hm?

Ye Chen furrowed his brows.

Inside the next private dining room.

“Boss, didn’t that man say that he would pay us once this guy shows up? Why are we still watching him?” Two men were sitting around the table, and the one who had been speaking was the city gate guard leader. By now, he had already switched his armour out for a martial suit.

The guard commander, who was also wearing a martial suit, responded, “That man is even more powerful than the general, we can’t afford to provoke him. Besides, we have been doing this job for so long, why can’t we keep watch on him for another couple of days? What are you worrying about anyways? When the time comes, you’ll have such a great time with those gold and spirit stones stuffed in your pocket.”

“I’m not complaining about the extra work, I’m just concerned whether he would actually pay us or not…”

“I think he will. He seems to have a high status, and those few gold and spirit stones don’t mean anything to him.”

“I hope you’re right.”

The voices of these two men were extremely low, and they believed no one could possibly hear them; however, Ye Chen had grasped every single word that they said.

“It seems that I’m now someone’s target. Hm, the Multiple Mountain Martial School is too far away from here, it can’t be them. It should be the Purple Sun Martial School’s people then.” Back in the Heaven Dream Ancient Region, Ouyang Ming and Ouyang Lie had tried so hard to kill Ye Chen; Ye Chen was pretty sure that it was planned, at least partially by the high-level elders of the Purple Sun Martial School.

Ye Chen’s face remained unchanged, and he continued eating and drinking as if he heard nothing at all.

After dinner, Ye Chen went back to his room on the fourth floor.

Late at night.

Sitting on the bed with his legs crossed, Ye Chen slowly let out an extra long breath.

The Great Mystery Art, sixth level.

At this moment, the Pure Jun Zhen Qi contained within Ye Chen’s body had all disappeared, the Great Mystery Qi, which was more powerful and purer, had taken its place.

The Zhen Qi spiral formed from the Great Mystery Zhen Qi was bigger than the spiral formed from Pure Jun Zhen Qi, and was a pale blue colour— extremely pure. It looked just like airwaves that were transformed from blue crystals; lively yet stable, pure yet powerful.

“My cultivation stayed at the same level, but my power has improved. Hm, I wonder what kind of boundary the seventh level will be…” Because he slept during the day, Ye Chen now didn’t feel sleepy at all, so he got off the bed.

“Enn..enn..en..enn.”

What embarrassed him slightly was that waves of moans came from next door from time to time. Although he was not experienced in human affairs, Ye Chen knew exactly what his temporary neighbours were doing.

“Well, I should just sleep earlier, since I’m setting out early tomorrow morning.”

Giving a bitter smile, Ye Chen forcibly calmed his boiling blood and surging Zhen Qi streams down, then went back to bed.

……

“What? He arrived yesterday, but is leaving today?!”

In the private room of a certain restaurant, Zhu Lieyang asked in a deep voice while the few bulging blood vessels in his forehead, twitched.

The guard commander lowered his head and responded, “Yes, he paid for his room and left just a while ago, and is headed towards the east city gate.”

“Damn you! Don’t tell me I’m going to fail again!”

Zhu Lieyang now felt only a raging fire fill his chest that he could not let out. He pressed his palms to the sandalwood table in front of him, and silently, he burnt the table into nothing, not even leaving a fistful of ash behind. The guard commander was deeply shocked by this, and did not dare to even breathe; he couldn’t help but start shivering, afraid that he would be the next one to burn.

A while later, Zhu Lieyang choked his anger back into his chest, then taking a small box out of his storage ring, he stood up and said, “In here is ten thousand taels of gold and ten pieces of low-ranked stones.”

He prepared to leave after he finished his speech.

“L-Lord,” the guard commander paused briefly, then squeezed out a fake grin and said, “Did, didn’t you promise us a hundred thousand taels of gold and a hundred pieces of low-ranked stone?”

“One more word, and you’ll die.”

“No, these will do fine, just fine.” As a guard commander, he had never felt so oppressed, but in front of this powerful man, he could only endure it; in his head, he gave a silent curse, ‘Well, you don’t seem to have the certainty of killing that guy, which is also good, I sincerely hope that he crushes you. You bloody bastard.’

Walking out of the hotel, Zhu Lieyang darted towards the east city gate.

‘Ye Chen, this time I absolutely won’t let you get away, not matter what. I’ll tail you from here and wait for the few leaders of the assassin group to come, when that time comes, it’ll be your death.’

A few months ago, Zhu Lieyang was injured by the terrifying demonic beast at the Silent Hill; it took him a whole three months to recover. By the time he was fully recovered, he received information that Ye Chen had wounded the Multiple Mountain Martial School’s outer Head Elder, a medium Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist. This was a strike to Zhu Lieyang, as he was only a early Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist and he was already no longer a match against Ye Chen. Otherwise, he would have already gone after Ye Chen himself a long time ago, not hire other people to watch him and wait for the assassin group’s leaders.

Nevertheless, the assassin group’s leaders were still half an hour away, but Ye Chen was already leaving the city.

Leaving the east city gate, Zhu Lieyang activated his Zhen Qi and accelerated at his highest speed. Soon, he saw the back of a young man; a straw hat on his head.

Ye Chen had been walking alone, not too fast nor too slow; his soul power had been completely released, and every single object within a thousand meters radius was under his watch.

Hm, he’s coming.

Without turning around, Ye Chen pictured the approaching person in his head according to what his soul power had grasped. It was a sturdy man with a scar on his face. Ye Chen recalled seeing this man at the inner disciple rank competition, and back then, this man was an invited guest and he sat with the other famous martial artists.

Retaining his speed, Ye Chan walked into a sparsely populated area.

‘Something’s wrong! Does he know that I’m following him?’ Zhu Lieyang’s eyelids began twitching. Before, he dared to approach Ye Chen directly only because they were inside the city which was filled with martial artists, including Clasping Yuan Realm martial artists. All those martial artists that were coming and going numbered many, and they perfectly protected him from standing out. But now, not a single person could be found in the surrounding vicinity for miles.

At this moment, Ye Chen turned around and looked at him with a faint smile.

Run!

This was the only thought that popped into Zhu Lieyang’s mind immediately. He instantly boosted his Zhen Qi to his limit, then turned around and prepared to run.

“You can no longer run.”

Another Ye Chen appeared right behind Zhu Lieyang, blocking his way. Zhu Lieyang didn’t even know from when and where this second Ye Chen came from.

What the hell?!

Zhu Lieyang turned back around, and saw the first Ye Chen dissipating along with the wind. It was actually only a Zhen Qi silhouette.

“What do you want?” Zhu Lieyang forced himself to stay calm.

Rubbing the storage Ring with his thumb, Ye Chen said blandly, “If I guessed right, your identity as a martial traveller was only a pretense, you’re an elder from the Purple Sun Martial School, correct?”

In institutions ranked below 7, all Clasping Yuan Realm martial artists had the chance to become outer elders; Clasping Yuan Realm disciples could choose to give up on becoming outer elders, and instead wait till they reached the appropriate grade, then, directly become inner elders and hold some real authority in the school.

“Don’t be ridiculous, I’m no one but an ordinary martial traveller.”

Ye Chen gave a frosty grin, and pulled out the Dragon Spring Sword.