Chapter 12: A story of the past

In the capital of Shinghai a town called Ectur, the streets are brimming with life: merchants are putting their life force to sell things from casual clothes to the necessity every cultivator need. This heavy competition of commercialism was highly appreciated by travelers and nobles who profit the most from all of this. Of course, along with the day always comes the night, scam artist and organize crime were living under the dark sky despite the efforts of the emperor to stop it. It's along all this agitation that a pair of martial artists were happily drinking. One of them, a pretty boy with confidence stuff up his nose was bragging to a random girl sitting next to him who seemingly appreciate it.

- "Ah I'm telling you 4 buff guys about 6 foots-seven each with arms the size of a wine jar were bullying some poor merchant."

Then he strike a pose pointing at himself with his thumb while puffing his chest and exclaim:

- "Of course, this man right here: Luluo Kong was having none of it. I came up to those men who, by the way, had the ugliest haircut you could imagine and, you should have seem the face of the merchant when in one swoop of my hand I send them flying in the air. I'm telling you, the merchants around were so happy that I got rid of those men for them, they tried to bury me in treasure but I'm a man of virtue you know, I said worry not my friends Luluo Kong only did what was right."

The lady giggle a bit and said:

- "What were their haircut like?"

- "Oh, picture this: an oval afro that is shaved all the way through the middle except for one small antenna of hair with a small ball on top."

- "Hahaha no way, you must be lying."

- "No, I swear it's true, right Wu Chi."

Wu Chi was minding his own business calmly drinking his wine, has always he look annoyed but, he turned around revealing his strong jaw line mounted by spiky teeth and his untethered hair that was hiding his big forehead.

- "That shitty story again?"

He lean forward just to address the young lady.

- "Hey, he tells that bullshit to every cute girl he met what do you say we…"

- "What? Was this really all a lie?"

- "Of course not, don't listen to this guy he's just jealous that I get to speak with a fairy as pretty as you."

- "Ah, you think I'm pretty?"

As the two kept flirting with one another Wu Chi left the table to get more wine. Honestly he was used to it, him and Luluo have been friend since he can remember and what women were for the guy he had alcohol to fulfill it. Besides, they weren't here just to have fun, they are renown mercenaries that goes from places to places doing all kinds of work. Right now, they were waiting on another group to arrive in order to hunt a poisonous emerald boa. That beast was seen by a noble recently and not only is the reward for its head pretty gracious its fangs and skin are premium materials. Normally they would never work with strangers, but you don't decide what's on the contract and their employer demanded the help of some, supposedly, well-known sect.

- "Well they're probably going to be just a bunch of pretentious push-over if they show to be useless we'll use'em as bait." - He though out loud.

- "And who exactly are you calling useless!"

From nowhere appear a little group of 4 people from the medal on their hips Wu Chi determine that they were the group he was waiting for. They were all wearing the same uniform except the girl in the middle, she look haughty in her rich-girl robe and with her complex haircut decorate with a jade ornament. Unimpressed by them Wu Chi took a massive sip of wine that left the group staring at him awkwardly for a good 4 seconds... After he finished the jar, he took a good look at each one of them. On the left is the one who initiated the conversation and you could tell he was getting more and more irritated, being a very perceptive man Wu Chi evaluated his cultivation to be around the middle of the earth realm, a tier lower than himself. On the right, was a somewhat shy looking guy with the same cultivation as the previous one and on the front was… why does this man look so sparkly all of a sudden. His eyes were wide open and on his face shined, brightly, a big smile that was exposing his pretty white teeth, finally breaking the silence the man said:

- "Whoa.. did you just? Oh, by heaven's will, did you just drink that whole jar of wine like it was nothing!"

- "Eh??? That's your impression of this impolite man? Kan you really need to learn how to judge people." – affirmed the man on the left.

- "Princess did you see that, it was incredible wasn't it!" – said Kan ignoring the first guy.

The one he referred to: was the rich looking girl in the middle, she didn't look in front of her the entire time, always dodging eye contact she finally uttered while still looking at the ground:

- "D, don't call me that I'm not some princess a… and don't get all impress on your own for some alcoholic."

Still ignoring his friends Kan grab Wu's hand and with pitiful puppy's eyes he ask:

- "Hey, do it again would you?"

Surprised by this sudden attention Wu chi took a step back and a little bit embarrassed he replied:

- "Sure, if you buy me some wine I will."

- "Peeerfect! Alright everyone let's go inside as I recalled you were not supposed to be alone don't you?"

- "Oh yeah, we're sitting over ther…"

- "JERK!"

The lady that was with Luluo left the bar completely fuming and as she walked past them she was mumbling how despicable he was to ask her something like that. Ignoring her, the group sat down at Luluo's table who was visibly dejected to lose his date that ended up only giving him one painful kiss on the cheek with the palm of her hand. But as any player that respect himself he quickly got back on track because a new woman had sat at his table.

- "Hi, my name's Luluo Kong but you can call me Luo."

As shy as ever she awkwardly dodge his piercing stare and mumble something to the ground.

- "Great! Not only do we have an alcoholic we also have a gigolo." – said the rude man

- "Ah I'm sorry but I'm afraid I miss what you just said there was a toad croaking on your right." – continued Luluo

- "Who did you just call a toad !?"

The man was already standing ready for a fight but before things escalated too much Kan jumped in.

- "Calm down Chu Chen, try to get along with each other beside I think alcoholics are sexyy~."

As he finished his sentence he winked in the direction of Wu Chi who simply shrugged his shoulder, he was too drunk to care anyways. On the other hand, that was enough to get Chu Chen attention towards something else as he call Kan out:

- "Why would you care if a man is sexy? Besides, what is there to enjoy about a drunkard."

- "Hum? I just like their sad little black eyes. Plus, it's pretty easy to make them discover new things."

- "Uh? What's there for him to discover? If you know something that I don't you need to tell me! I want you to make me discover it too!" – innocently claim Chu Chen

- "Ok enough Chu." Said the only guy that had kept silent this entire time.

- "What! Do you know it too Chang Fu? You need to…"

From the other side of the table Luluo burst out laughing.

- "Well if I'm a gigolo, you for sure is a virgin!"

- "What Did You Say!"

- "AHH enough!" – interrupted Chang Fu

As they kept bickering back in forth the princess was fidgeting in her corner of the table and finally let out:

- "MY NAme!"

Surprised, everyone at the table stop whatever they were doing and stared at her. However, she didn't even realize it as she was, herself, staring at her thumbs doing the merry-go-round.

- "It's, it's Mariana Yuusha" - as she said her name it was a good everyone had shut up since she had begin to mumble again

Wu Chi and Chu Chen both exploded in laughter while Chang Fu shake his head disappointed and Kan didn't react at all since all his attention was directed toward Wu Chi wild charms. Marianna's face was beet red from embarrassment, but she was also gritting her teeth frustrated with her lack of communication skill. Realizing this Luluo offered her kind eyes and calmly said:

- "I think your name is beautiful."

She look to the side incapable of answering this sudden compliment.

- "AH-HA I knew he was just a playboy!" – exclaim Chu Chen proud of himself.

Just like last time a series of bickering and flirting followed and it's in this frantic atmosphere where: Wu Chi was getting drunker every minutes, Chu Chen was being rude and getting offended all the time, Chang Fu was having enough of everyone shit's, Luluo was bringing out all his trick to seduce Marianna that was clumsily trying to talk and Kan was slowly but surely closing in to his end goal, that this group of fellow cultivator learn to know one another.