BXBX NOVEL Chapter 149 Plans For Beech City
Chirp!
The morning dawned on Birch city with the chirping of the birds.
When Xin Ruo came into the living room of the Villa, she found four of the most powerful people in Birch City snoring with their heads on the table.
Tens of shattered jars of liquor were strewn across the floor. Just seeing the scene, she could imagine how much fun they had last night.
After the initial shock, City Lord had gone on a toasting spree, downing cup after cup of liquor. How could the other three refuse? They accompanied the bearded man to the end.
They may have higher tolerance for alcohol, but this was Spirit Wine! Soon, all of them had fallen into drunken stupor and fell asleep in their seats.
Even Xin Ruo's arrival did not awaken the usually alert men. She opened the doors and windows, letting the rays of the morning sun intrude the living room.
As the bright rays of the morning sun fell on their faces, the four sleeping men stirred. They tried to shield their faces, to no avail. Groaning with displeasure, they woke up and rubbed their eyes.
"Yaawn!"
Last to rise, City Lord Zhen stretched his back and his mouth, seemingly unaware of the surroundings. Mid stretch, he noticed the three other sense trainers looking at him with amusement.
Suddenly, the last night's memories came rushing back to him. He realized that he had slept in Ikasa's Villa.
He immediately composed himself and cleared his throat. He was not embarrassed as he at the least did not have dried drool on his chin or a bare chest with half the robe torn open.
The City Lord straightened his crumpled robe and stroked his beard. He felt something gooey stuck in it.
When he sniffed the hand, he almost vomited again. Because that was vomit on his beard!
"Lord Zhen, please come this way. I will lead you to freshen up."
Xin Ruo came to his rescue. Others also left to clean up.
Half an hour later, they gathered at the dining table again.
"This smells great!"
Gu Dan exclaimed. He had not had breakfast at Ikasa's before. This was his first time and he was enamored by the smell of spices coming from simple looking porridge.
City Lord Zhen smiled disdainfully at the poor Gu Dan who had never tasted the spices before. He grabbed a spoonful and brought it to his mouth.
A symphony of flavors began to play in his mouth. He tasted the subtle sweetness of jaggery and a hint of cinnamon in the background. He quickly grabbed another spoonful and shoved it in his mouth.
He only stopped when his bowl was empty. When he looked up he saw everyone looking at him with a smile.
"Another bowl?"
Gu Dan asked, barely hiding his amusement.
"Ahem."
The City Lord cleared his throat to hide his embarrassment but he did not say no. Changing the topic, City Lord Zhen talked to Ikasa about his plans.
"When are you planning to leave for Beech City?"
Ikasa helplessly smiled.
"I don't know if we are strong enough to navigate those muddy waters."
The Planar Rift in Beech City had attracted the attention of many major and minor forces of the Deciduous County. Sense Realm experts were everywhere and quite a few Path Finders had also joined in this chaos.
At such a time, going to the Beech City was equivalent to throwing his life away.
The City Lord nodded at Ikasa's cautiousness. But he wouldn't have asked the question if he did not have a good reason.
"Well, I have good news for you. Even if you go there with just five Sense Trainers, you will be safe in the City."
City Lord Zhen spoke, swallowing the spoonful of porridge. Ikasa looked at him with surprise.
"How can five measly Sense Trainers be safe against the Path Finders?"
"The County's Governor was directed to bring order to the increasingly chaotic Beech City by the Imperial Court. Hence, my brother has stationed five Chakra Sensing Experts in the City to maintain order until a new City Lord is chosen."
"Oh." Ikasa nodded and began to think about the feasibility of this excursion. But the City Lord was not done yet.
"In fact, this is the best time for you to go. Path Finder Zhen Ya, my sister, is also stationed there. She can guarantee your safety inside the City."
Ikasa was very much tempted by the news. But he did not jump to a decision. At this moment, Feng Yan asked a question.
"Our safety would be guaranteed in the City, but what about inside the Rift? What do we do if a Path Finder attacks us in the Rift?"
City Lord Zhen laughed at Feng Yan's question.
"Brother Feng, why are you worrying about Path Finders when you are inside the rift? Unless they can manipulate space, they are barely stronger than a Pinnacle Sense Trainer when they are inside."
Feng Yan did not know how the Chakra Sensing Experts worked, but Ikasa knew about it; thanks to his talks with Path Finder Zhen Ya.
A Path Finder only redirected the energy in the surroundings according to their will. They could not store it inside their body and use it whenever they want.
In the Planar Rift, the energies of attributes other than Space were scarce to the point of non-existence. If a Path Finder cannot find energy corresponding to their attribute, they could not use it to attack or defend. In such conditions, they were no better than a Pinnacle Sense Trainer.
This was the reason why places with extreme attribute energies like the Volcanoes, Seas and Planar Rifts were heaven for Cultivators of corresponding attributes, but hell for most others.
And Path Finders who could use the Space Energy were rarer than dragons and phoenixes in the Holy Wood Empire. Thus, City Lord Zhen assured Ikasa that they had nothing to worry about.
Ikasa was convinced of his safety after hearing the complete news. He himself was just a few points away from the Pinnacle of the Sense Realm. Also, he had a few new techniques to back his confidence.
Even though he still had not received any Battle Technique related to weapons, he had three new high grade techniques.
Two of them were offensive techniques. One was [Butt to Face], a technique best utilized by fatties and the other was [12 to 6], an elbow smashing technique.
Ikasa was most impressed by the defensive technique.
Rock Solid Armor was a high grade technique that rolled the body into a boulder-shape. Its strength lay in reducing the exposed area and making it as solid as a rock.
Just when Ikasa was about to ask for more information from the City Lord, he gave another security assurance to Ikasa.
"The He Family will also be there in Beech City. So you can be double assured of your safety."
After Ikasa's successful agreement with the Fourth Elder, He Ling, he did not receive any communication for the next month. He did not receive any orders nor did He Ling contact him with problems.
Then suddenly one day, he received orders for 10 Single-Use Manuals of Dumb Belle's Guide to strength. Puzzled, Ikasa prepared them.
To his astonishment, He Ling himself arrived the very next day and paid 1000 Gold coins for the manuals. A few days later, Ikasa received a huge bulk order.
A 100x manual of his ten most popular Battle Techniques and a Single-use manual of every other technique on the list. Just from this Ikasa had earned 2600 Gold! That was excluding the 10% of profits he would receive from the He Family!
As for Cultivation techniques, the demand was even bigger. Five 100x manuals of both the Mid Grade Cultivation manuals and 50 single use manuals of his Dumb Belle's Guide to Strength. This order amounted to another 6500 gold in Ikasa's account!
Ikasa had thus made a profit of around 13k gold from the first order!
It was not like Ikasa was the only beneficiary in this cooperation. The He Family also earned a good sum from the first shop they put Ikasa's goods in.
From Battle Techniques alone, they could earn a sum of nearly twenty thousand Gold! Even after deducting the taxes and Ikasa's share of profits, they would have about 11,000 gold left.
For Cultivation Manuals, the He's earned 9ooo gold just from the Mid Grade techniques. They planned to sell the Single Use manuals to rich fools for an average of 500 Gold per manual which would probably be tax free.
And this was just one shop in a Tier-2 city!
Ikasa received similarly large orders for their shops in other cities. All in all, he had made around 50,000 Gold just in a single month!
The He Family had also benefited just as much from Ikasa. So how could they let harm come to their wealth-bringer?
Taking all these into consideration, Ikasa readied himself to go on an adventure.