Hefei City 2

The second floor of the diner was still an open space where one could see the other tables. But at this time there was only one other table reserved on the whole second floor as they came and sat down next to the windows looking down onto the streets.

When they sat down and started negotiations, Xiao Fan tried his best not to look around himself while listening to Du Lan and Leo Tao speak about trade.

He was left out from this entire conversation, even by Lei Tao, who found that it was already enough to deal with her demands.

Lei Tao became somewhat hesitant to deal with them as the guests by now had given their names, but not a place of origin, and every time he would ask about it would she shut him down by saying that they came far away and would be thankful if he didn't ask about it anymore.

In the end, he had to give in this part to strike a deal with her. And while people keeping their identity secret was a normal thing, but in this one what bugged him was that they were two kids in his eyes.

These two kids had dared not to tell what he, Lei Tao of the most powerful family in Hefei City what he wanted.

However, as both of them got what they wanted, he didn't mind it too much.

Lei Tao's mood soon became a little better when hearing about their deed of killing a Body Activation realm snake on their way. To this, he even said he would have someone make some pamphlets and such to spread it.

Then even better when hearing he would be responsible for selling the loot on top of hosting their stay.

Lei Tao had during the initial bargaining with Du Lan offered to become their guide and host or the duration their stay here and would now also organise the selling of loot.

Yet as Xiao Fan's and Du Lan's loot wasn't enough they had to agree that they would pay the rest in favours to Lei Tao when he asked for them.

Still hearing this didn't raise an interruption from Xiao Fan, he owed 155 years already to someone, so how bad could the favours Lei Tao would ask for them be in the future?

Furthermore, they might just pay out those favours sometime later by making money and gifting Lei Tao some of it.

Du Lan, on the other hand, was unwanting of this, yet she also recognised that their loot wasn't much while a talent who would gather the eyes of people above Hefei City be much more valuable to have favours on.

She just couldn't bring herself to trust that Lei Tao.

Also, there was no contract made about this other than the words of three cultivators that bound their honour and prestige to uphold their part of the deal.

This was enough for Lei Tao, who would send the Lei Family after them if they broke anything.

When their negotiations ended, Lei Tao gave them a key into a property he owned near the inner city, some other essentials and stated they should be ready to help him anytime.

Du Lan took the stuff and then left with Xiao Fan by her side.

Lei Tao seeing the two leave could finally let out a sigh of relief because of two things.

The smaller being negotiating with Du Lan had been hard enough, and the real reason for such a long sigh was that he had somehow managed to find someone for today's gathering.

Just thinking about what kind of surprise he would gather in the evening party made him laugh happily in his chair.

Not knowing about any evening party, Xiao Fan and Du Lan got outside and started walking towards their new residence.

Walking there, she already started scolding him about how badly he managed to hold himself during dinner, and how the other person in the room was already looking at them weirdly because of him.

He, of course, apologised to her and said it was his first time seeing, well, everything as even carving styles in the walls made him want to jump from his bench.

Their trip to the new house didn't have the time to include anything else as by the time it ended they were in a pleasant residential area where their map led them.

The last remarks about it came when both of them stopped in front of the house. Though it didn't end, Du Lan just had other stuff to be thinking about.

Like Du Lan, Xiao Fan was also thinking about how much better a cultivator was treated in Hefei compared to some random village in the woods.

In smaller towns, cultivators of a lower level than the chief usually had only a slight increase in living conditions, but here it seemed that a cultivator lived a good life.

The street they were in first of all was very next to the centre, and all the houses around them were two-story, almost mansion-like buildings.

And though these houses weren't given for Body Warming realm cultivators could one think that they didn't have it much worse.

The worst cultivator here should still live a better life than a villages chief.

So all in all a cultivator here lived a much better compared in more rural areas by what Xiao Fan could see, but there might be a trick, so he decided to ask her.

¨If us cultivators are paid so well here, why doesn't every cultivator come here?¨

She didn't want to be surprised by his question anymore, so while unlocking the gate, she started explaining.

¨First of all its about loyalty of the cultivators, second keeping a lot of them is still remarkably expensive, third they are always used as pawns by any higher realm cultivators¨

¨And lastly, many people in the smaller villages are kept content there by their chiefs, so they don't even get the idea about leaving to look for a greener pasture¨

However, this time she only spoke in bullet points. Xiao Fan didn't get why, but for Du Lan, it was that things were piling on her too much.

She did all the thinking for strategy, negotiating for both of them, and now that they would get inside she would most likely need to start doing household chores and teach him, all the while he did what?

Run around the house try out the training room, wander around looking at the smallest details, that's it. What was he doing for the betterment of both of them other than being the stronger one?

Her nerves that were starting to boil were however calmed, for now, as when inside the mansion there was a wonderful thing waiting.

These people welcoming them were just what she needed.

The thing waiting for them wasn't, in reality, a thing, but a group of servants that were waiting for them in the lobby.

When she saw these saviours of hers through the open main doors of the house, Du Lan had a massive sigh of relief inside of her.

Indeed it was so as they told the two that Lei Tao had already sent a message to relocate some of his servants momentarily into his second house that would be hosting quest.

These people were here for Du Lan to relax while they would do her biddings, giving her who was also now a cultivator ample time to focus on more proper things suiting her.

This first taste of power made her very satisfied and confident that power was the right way. One would just need to look at Xiao Fan and realise how much power a strong person like him could have only with his brute force.

She didn't necessarily think that Xiao Fan's only good side was power, but he did believe that he didn't have much else going for him than war.

Moreover, there must be something behind why he was like this, but like he didn't, she didn't either ask about his past, only speculated about it for now.

Speculating and moulding this general of hers was enough of a job, for the time being; there was no need to dig up things he wasn't going to say.

And so their first day in this house was spent by Du Lan locking herself inside the master bathroom to take care of her body while Xiao Fan did what he knew, training, eating or using his time to stroll the garden, taking notes about flowers while holding a book.

Their alone time ended when Lei Tao's butler came reminding them about a booking for the evening.

It was one of those favours Lei Tao used, so knowing full well there was nothing else to do than comply, they took the carriage with the butler.

Inside the carriage, the butler was telling about what would happen.

The butler told them to act if they were ¨invited by Lei Tao¨ into a gathering of Lei family.

Then he told that the reason Lei Tao was inviting them here was also the help them, as the occasion they would be takin in part was a Lei Family preliminary tournament.

Their thing would be here to be Lei Tao's invited fighter that he himself had come across and then invited by him to join his efforts.

This seemed somewhat of major favour, but they still owed him a quite considerably, and it wasn't necessarily even a bad thing.

They would be under Lei Tao, but he would also be after today responsible for their safety and even more things than they had agreed to before.

Doing this was, of course, a bet on Xiao Fan by Lei Tao's part, since he was trusting a stranger he hadn't even seen fighting before and only by knowing his cultivation had he chosen to do this.

However, as the two of them didn't know how much of a tight spot Lei Tao was in, Du Lan only thought this as a mediocre or weak move while being his all-out gamble.

The butler didn't give them anything more, their quest was just to win a few matches there and say that they were following Lei Tao because of a debt of gratitude towards him and that they would be fighting under him in this tournament.

When the instruction stopped, their carriage had already gone past the inner wall and had come to the Lei Family main estate inside Hefei City.

The whole inner wall seemed to be owned by Lei Family, or at least it screamed so, for every banner and house had their colours and insignia.

Finally, when they got out of the carriage, even Du Lan was stunned by how posh the place before them was.

A massive white mansion which was tens of times larger than theirs was now towering them. It was so large that even before they would be at the entrance would they need to take tens of steps up some stairs.

Looking there they also saw nicely dressed people were hanging on those stairs talking to each other.

When instinctively comparing themselves to these people, they noticed how there was a big difference in clothing and how all of these people showcased fancy jewellery.

They had just taken something that didn't look too expensive since it was likely that the clothing would be ruined during the fighting.