Jin Tai

"I am Ryu." and "Nura." each of the guys said their real names. There was no attempt to lie since they concluded that neither of them was good with schemes and lies. "We arrived at the city two days ago. What about your name?" Ryu said, while he spoke, he served a cup of wine.

"I am Jin Tai. I live here for,..., I don't know how long." said the man, then he opened the jug in his front and took a large gulp straight from the jug. Then he asked, "Why did you two come to this city? there isn't much to achieve here."

"We are actually here to make money." said Nura picking his cup to taste it, "We need lots of money to keep evolving." added Ryu with a serious expression while staring at his drink.

At the same time, Ryu and Nura sipped their wine, and, surprisingly, the taste did not disappoint them because it was terrible as much as the aspect of the bar indicated. Jin Tai told previously that the wine was good, but that was pure misleading propaganda since there was no way that such filthy bar could have good wine.

"So you are on an adventure outside the sect?" slyly asked Jin Tai, looking if Ryu or Nura's expression would betray them.

"I would not call it an adventure, but I suppose you can consider like this." answered Nura, trying to suppress the bad taste on his mouth.

"This brings me old memories. I remember when I was young, my friend and I used to invade the Rising Clouds sect after some girls. We always ended in trouble." Jin Tai said.

"By invaded, you mean that you two actually entered the ground of the sect?" asked Ryu, astonished.

"Interested in some old stories?" Jin Tai said, "Yes, we were quite bold in your youth. By that time, my friend, Feng Liu, was hanging with a girl from the Rising Clouds. Her name was Lorraine if I remember correctly."

"She was an heir of Leon Amuk, so the elder looked after her closely, but we still had our way to sneak in ..." Jin Tai started to tell his story.

"That is amazing, and did they ended together?" asked Ryu.

"No." said Jin Tai obliterating Ryu's desire for a love store, "When Feng Liu's grandfather discovered his relationship with Lorraine, he invaded the Rising Clouds sect and dragged us out, and sent us far away to cultivate in seclusion. Feng Liu was never able to return with Lorraine."

"That's a pity." Ryu said.

"But enough of these sad stories, I will tell you about some of our adventures around the world." Jin Tai said.

For the whole night, Ryu and Nura stood in the bar with Jin Tai drinking bad wine and hearing all of his crazy youth stories. Until daylight eventually broke in, and the barman kicked them out.

...

Ryu jumped to his feet when he heard a knocking, but he raised so fast that excruciating pain shot through his head, causing him to crouch, holding his head and groaning. Another time the knocking resounded in his head, and while Ryu tried to process his situation, he heard Nura's voice.

"What is happening? Why are people trying to destroy the house?" Nura said, holding his head too.

Then, the door opened with a click, and when Ryu looked up, preparing for a fight, he saw Grace sticking her head inside the room.

"Can I come in?" Grace said with her usual gentle way of being. And when she saw Ryu crouched in the middle of the room looking at her confused, she entered the room carrying a bottle with water.

"Grace? How did we get here?" asked Ryu.

"Jin Tai brought you in the morning." Grace said, placing the bottle on the table and then going to help Ryu up and go to bed.

"What time is it now?" Nura said with a hoarse voice sitting on his bed.

"It is almost night. I was worried about you, so I came to check how you are and brought some water." Grace explained, giving a cup of water to Nura.

"Since you two are fine, I will go back down. But you two should avoid drinking with Jin Tai in the future. He drinks too much and tells too many miraculous stories." Grace said before leaving the room.

"Do you remember how we arrived here?" Ryu asked Nura.

"I don't even remember leaving the bar." Nura said, "Do you think that we could have said more than we should?"

"I don't know. But I think that there is no problem. I still don't know what his intention was in dragging us into that filthy place, but I'm sure he wouldn't do anything to cause us any trouble." Ryu said.

"Anyway, I don't want to go out today." Nura said.

"Agreed, let's just rest for tonight." Ryu said.

After drinking some water and resting for some time, their hangover improved by a fair amount, so Ryu and Nura went down to the first floor to eat something and thank Grace for taking care of them. But when they arrived at the bar, they were surprised by the uncommon activity.

Not only were there more customers than the other days, as they also chatted more energetically, completely changing the look of the bar. But, what really cheered Ryu and Nura joy was that, unlike the other bar, Grace's pub was clean, and the people didn't look like they would stab you.

"Hi, Grace. I want to thank and apologize for the inconvenience. We are not used to alcohol." Ryu said to Grace, who was very comprehensive. So Grace told them to sit while she prepared something to eat that would help their recovery.

While waiting for their food at a table near the counter, Ryu and Nura tried to hear some of what people were talking about with such excitement, but as their heads were still pounding from the hangover, they couldn't understand the conversation.

Sometime later, Ian arrived with two plates of food and a bottle of water. "Next time, don't try to keep up with Jin. That man has years of practice." said Ian, and for some reason, he appeared to be in a good mood and much more talkative.

"I wish you said that early." said Ryu. And when Ian smiled, Nura used the opportunity to ask, "By the way, why are people so agitated today?".

"Ah, since you were sleeping until now, you don't know. There was an attack on those trash of the highvale yesterday. Some say it was just a brawl outside a bar and that it's no big deal, but there are rumors that there is a group out to destroy the highvale." Ian pulled out a chair to sit in and whispered next.

"Did this happened? And what did the highvale will do?" asked Nura.

"Nothing that they don't do usually. Patroling the city, kidnapping, oppressing, and so on, they are trying to fake that it is all okay, but they are angry to the bones." Ian said.

"And you are not afraid that they will come and cause trouble?" asked Ryu.

"Nah, my great joy would be if I could dance on their tombs." Ian said.