The Free Meal

'Not only does the translation spell work on text, but speech as well. That would have been good to know sooner.'

Resisting the urge to shake his head, Wuxian maintained a neutral expression. 

'I should continue to play along. I'll figure out a workaround later.'

He pointed to the word on the badge. "Lieutenant."

Mister Fu turned back to the guard excitedly.

"See? You can hear the similarities, it looks like he can also read our script. From this, we can also tell that his subculture has some sort of organised military, otherwise even with such similarity in language, he would not be able to understand your rank."

The lieutenant nodded slowly, beginning to understand.

"Interesting." He tugged at his belt, adjusting its position. "How do we figure out what he's here for then?"

Mister Fu thought for a second. He looked at the concealed polearm and then at the sword tucked by Wuxian's waist.

"I reckon he's probably a mercenary or a sword-for-hire. He might just be stopping by to restock on provisions or seek employment."

Wuxian nodded in affirmation, but they did not notice his gesture.

Mister Fu continued, "By the way, since when did the gate guard become so strict with entry into the city?"

The lieutenant shrugged helplessly.

"It was an order from above. They don't tell us unimportant people much either, but from what I've heard, it's something to do with… the war."

Mister Fu had a look of revelation on his face as he nodded.

"That was a silly question for me to ask, I should have known." He muttered.

Wuxian also listened with interest. While he wasn't strong enough to participate in those sorts of affairs, nor did he wish to, it wasn't unlikely for the war to affect his future plans.

However, before he could listen to much more, a new person joined the conversation.

"Mister Fu, what's taking so long?" The newcomer asked softly.

From the sound of this person's voice, Wuxian could tell that it was a woman.

Mister Fu, upon hearing this voice, jolted. He hastily turned around and bowed.

"Mistress."

The lady in question waved her hand in dismissal.

"Forget the formalities, what's taking you so long?"

Mister Fu's radiant expression returned and he began explaining Wuxian's circumstances, adding in his own conjectures.

Looking at the mistress, Wuxian's attention was instantly captured.

She wore a green outfit with shades and tones similar to mister Fu's, but there was a cloak over the top of her dress, concealing most of her physical build.

She wore a black veil and a wide-brimmed hat as well, but her eyes were visible, though slightly obscured.

Beyond that, Wuxian couldn't make out any other specific details. 

He followed her gaze, realising that she was looking directly at him. Or rather, the interspatial rings on his hands.

Instinctively, he shifted his hands to a clasped position behind his back. In response, the mistress's gaze turned to his face.

Already, Wuxian felt uneasy. He was at an information disadvantage- she could already see his face, but he had no impression of anything other than her eyes. If this woman wished to disappear into the crowd, she merely had to discard her veil, whereas Wuxian would have to take extra care to mask his features.

This was ignoring the fact that he was much taller than most of the people around. Very obviously so.

'This person is dangerous. She seems to have recognised my rings. If she is not an immortal herself, she is most likely familiar with immortal affairs.'

The mistress seemed to pause in thought.

"Mister Fu, hire this fellow as a caravan guard."

Understanding her intention, mister Fu procured a coin from his pouch and flicked it over to Wuxian, who caught it instinctively.

"Excuse us, lieutenant. This fellow is a member of our entourage. Now, seeing as we have urgent business to attend to, we'll be heading in now."

As he said this, he stealthily passed a small pouch to the lieutenant who smiled obsequiously in return and signalled to widen the partially opened gates.

"Martial friend, this way." Mister Fu gestured.

Having seen the whole exchange, Wuxian understood that they were doing him a favour.

Though he moved towards the carriage as instructed, he did not truly think they were helping him out of the good of their hearts.

'There are no free meals. I must leave before they reveal their ulterior motive, else it will become difficult to extricate myself.'

After mister Fu and the mistress took their seats within the luxuriant carriage, Wuxian brooded silently in the corner. He was regretting not wearing the Han face mask, but it was too late for regrets now.

Besides, such a thing could only provide him an extra sense of security, not helping much to conceal his appearance. He silently cursed his tall height.

'The mistress ordered mister Fu to employ me after seeing my rings. I do not know how much these two rings influenced her judgement. 

While I am unsure whether she is a cultivator or not, or if she is, how powerful she is, she knows that I am a cultivator. After all, only a cultivator can mobilise spirit qi to access an interspatial ring. 

A mortal wearing one would be suicide.'

'Master previously mentioned that only immortals with Qi Condensation cultivation and above or silver-spoon cultivators have interspatial rings, and of the lowest grade too, so there is a chance that she merely wishes to befriend me- or more accurately, forge a connection with my backing.

They do not know that right now, in the immortal world, I am essentially alone, not dissimilar to a lone cultivator. I must not let them find out the truth, lest they decide to exploit my weakness.'

Giving the veiled mistress a concealed glance, he clenched his fists.

'In that vein, hiding my rings after she saw them was a mistake. I am clearly not a Golden Core cultivator- else I would not be entering through the gate, but flying through the sky instead.

It is likely they believe me to be a silver-spoon immortal of sorts. This kind of individual would often travel with bodyguards. If not, they would have hidden protectors instead. But I do not have any, so I must act cautiously.

At the same time, silver-spoons tend to act rather flamboyantly. They are full of confidence and like to flaunt their wealth. In that regard, a silver-spoon in my position would not have hidden their rings, but would have deliberately shown them off instead.'

He quietly constructed a persona to which he had to adopt. He eventually decided on a sort of 'silent warrior' stereotype that was neither overconfident nor too shy. For this kind of persona, he thought back to how Black Emperor Mountain Hermit described his people and their traditions.

'Speak rarely, but when I do, speak poetically. Exude confidence in my actions but also a feeling of constant alertness and awareness- the feeling of having often visited the battlefield.

Though, they cannot understand me anyway, so perhaps I shall not need to speak at all.'

This way, concealing his interspatial rings as he did previously would make sense. In war, a prime target for attack was one's supply line. In immortal conflicts, storage artifacts were often favoured targets as well. 

Not only would removing the ring decrease the immortal's sustained combat power, cutting them off from accessing pills and other supplements, it would also provide the attacker with some extra wealth.

For a bandit immortal, killing the victim was secondary. The main objective was to make money. The same principle applied to the battlefield too- even soldiers needed to eat.

After all, food cost money and conscripts were poorly paid.

During the journey, mister Fu asked Wuxian lots of questions. He asked mainly 'yes or no' questions since he was unable to understand Wuxian's speech.

Wuxian was extra careful answering these. Whenever mister Fu asked if he was from a certain state or country, Wuxian either shook his head or refused to answer.

Mister Fu was an educated man, which was to Wuxian's detriment. From the incident at the gates, he could be certain that mister Fu knew a lot about the barbarian tribes- that was why Wuxian was certain his adopted persona would be familiar to the man.

But the reason he denied any 'are you from…' type of questions was because if he agreed, he would be in a dangerous position.

First, was if mister Fu knew the local dialect or language of said place. Wuxian would be able to understand but unable to effectively reply without giving himself away.

Second, if mister Fu instead asked cultural questions, Wuxian could merely agree or disagree without knowing whether mister Fu had thrown in any trick questions, eventually giving himself away as well.

As a result, the carriage quickly descended into silence.

After approximately half an hour, the carriage stopped along with a shout from the driver.

The three passengers exited, with mister Fu going first, the mistress second and Wuxian last.

They had arrived outside a large manor, many tall trees lining the grounds and many guards patrolling the premises.

'These people are affluent.' Wuxian noted.

Not only was the carriage of high quality, their residence was undoubtedly high class as well.

"Martial friend, why don't you stay with us? You said that you were here to seek employment, no? As you can tell, our mistress is considerably powerful here. That coin I gave you earlier was not even a fraction of the wage you'll receive if you work here." Mister Fu offered with a cup of his fists.

Wuxian immediately denied the request, saluting in response. After a moment, he retrieved the coin they had paid him earlier and flicked it back at mister Fu.

'At the very least, they not only helped me through the gates but also paid me when I was the beneficiary. They have not displayed any obvious hints of ill-intentions. 

As for the employment… that was a lie from the start. My goal is to ascertain my surroundings and locate my brothers, as well as to survive. To do all of these without exposing myself, I must distance myself from this mistress.'

As he was thinking, mister Fu shot a glance at the mistress, who looked back. As if some silent message had been passed, mister Fu spoke on her behalf.

"This amount of money is nothing to us but as a foreign visitor, you'll need something to feed yourself. This single coin will be able to pay for a week's worth of meals. Treat it as a welcoming gift from the locals and a gesture of goodwill from our mistress."

Wuxian hesitated. Mister Fu had spoken the truth- an ordinary traveller would require money to pay for services and though Wuxian had some money from before- it was Liang mint. Going by the trend of things, he was not in a country that would recognise Liang money.

Liang money might even get him into trouble, drawing unwanted attention.

But Wuxian was not an ordinary traveller. He had food pills in his spatial rings, so did not require money for food. As for other services, however, he truly did require money for that.

As Wuxian decided upon accepting the coin, the Northern Dark Edge on his back vibrated, as if cautioning him.

'That settles it.'

Wuxian shook his head, declining mister Fu once again. He procured a Liang coin pouch from within his robes, giving it a shake and produced a jingling sound. Then, he saluted at the mistress first, then mister Fu, before turning and leaving decisively.

Mister Fu and the mistress looked on in silence.

"Young miss, should I…"

The mistress nodded affirmatively, turning to leave. Mister Fu bowed low, in a much more servile manner than before.

  His friendly demeanour was replaced by a solemn expression.

———

Wuxian mentally arranged a 'to-do' list as he walked down the street. Of course, he made sure to remain aware at all times.

'My ultimate goal is to rescue Mian and Xiao. In order to gather information, I need to do a few things. As I planned previously, I need to mix in with the locals and gather information. 

The best location to do so would be a teahouse, so I need to be on the lookout for those sorts of communal establishments.'

If things are similar to how they were in Liang, teahouses were divided into different levels of prestige. 

With his current state, he might just barely be allowed into the poorer teahouses, but to be allowed into the more renowned establishments, he would have to replace his attire, wash and obtain some money.

'But I should visit the less pricey teahouses first to see how much information I can gather before I try and find my way into the more renowned ones.'

Ignoring the strange looks from people around him, most likely due to his bad smell, he continued forwards.