The pot bellied man finding out that there was not anything good to buy, he turned to leave. Before he left, he offered a casual remark;
" The blade is not worth the price."
When they boy heard him, he quickly asked what he meant
" Not my business," he said. "But that sword has a giant crack in the center, it is on the verge of breaking. If you don't believe me, try bending it, since you are a 'measly Advance realm cultivator' you shouldn't be able to break the blade." he walked away not caring whether he took the advice or not.
The boy reached for the sword to examine it, but the seller quickly moved it away.
"Any damage to the goods before purchase will lead you to pay for the damaged goods at full price" the merchant snapped back. " And why are you listening to an old man?"
"How can I damage a weapon that can kill a master realm expert?" the boy barked back. "Are you trying to scam me."
The boy was completely vexed, already letting his aura flare. Until a stronger aura came from the merchant showing he was stronger than him. The boy feeling at loss of what to do, resulted in threats.
"Why don't we let the azure guards decide". He threatened, pointing at three people in red and white, minding their own business.
The merchant, not wanting to escalate the matter any further, saw that he was fishing for compensation. He decided to give him a few silver coins so he couldn't risk the azure guards getting involved—because that would mean big trouble.
'So that's what they are called.' the fat man thought he had heard the conversation between the merchant and the customer though he was a bit far away from them.
He was wondering who the people that had been following him were. That was why he waited at the weapon stall, to be sure whether they were following him or he was just overthinking it when they didn't follow him from the last stall.
'She is probably the one who sent them.' Since he figured out that he's being followed, he decided it was time to move along to another village.
....
"Where is he?" Jing Tu asked as he rushed over as soon as he could. Looking at the three dumbstruck fools as they stared at the empty street he knew something had happened that shouldn't have.
"He...He disappeared". The first stammered.
The second saw this as a chance to start explaining. " We followed him as you told us to, we didn't engage and kept a distance. In fact he didn't look our way once, we made sure to be able to intercept if he tried to go to any alley." He hurriedly explained "While he was going to, I don't know, maybe get more food, he made a turn here –we didn't think much of it but as we turned at a safe distance, the place was empty."
Jing Tu and all the surrounding officers that came along due to curiosity were all stupefied. Because for those who knew, this is very identical to the Chi Xianyan story which nobody thought was a story anymore.
"And you are sure he didn't enter any of these buildings?" An officer asked.
Shaking his head, one of them explained how they had searched every non residential building. And even asked every resident that passed by, if they saw anyone that fits his description.
It had to be said that they went as far as using wind elemental arts to survey the surroundings from the sky, but they saw nothing. They were so scared of what the commander would do to them that they had the thought of searching some of the residential houses in the street, but ultimately decided against it.
As they were discussing, a burly man in the azure guards uniform joined them. The embroidery on his clothes matched Jing Tu's. As soon as the officers saw him, they started saluting and bowing slightly, especially officers from this district. Only Jing Tu remained unmoved.
The man's brows were creased, and he seemed to be annoyed about something only answering with a nod as he walked towards Jing Tu.
"Ohh, it is Tang Lei." Jing Tu said, though he was not surprised that he had come.
"Jing Tu!, I gave you enough face by allowing you to do what you want in my territory. But this... You have gone to far" Tang Lei shouted
From the moment they saw him, the officers had illustrated utmost silence. Only the voice of Tang Lei and now Jing Tu could be heard
"Good day to you too" Jing Tu answered before asking what the problem was, though he already had an idea.
"Jing Tu, I respect you, always have. That's why when you sent a letter that you wanted to track someone in my territory, I let you do as you please. But this, …this is too much." He answered back angrily "suddenly I am receiving complaints that azure guards are interrogating residents, entering people's place of business and all sorts."
Tang Lei continued "Now, you are here with this large number of officers. Do you know what people think when they see a Commander, they see a high level threat because that is the only time that will make a Commander move. They are panicking. When this is all over, I'm the one who's going to beat the brunt of it."
"We were just about to leave." Jing Tu said, turning around to leave. He stopped. "I'm sorry for the trouble I have caused you, I guess I got too excited."
He left with the officers that came with him, while Tang Lei went to deliver a public statement to calm the people down. Attributing Jing Tu presence to the appearance of a master to calm the agitated people and since there was no fight or death people believed it.
.....
A few hundred kilometers away in a neighboring village, the person that was causing them so much headache was having a fair share of his own as he stood there dumbstruck by the amount of people in front of him.
He was in a queue to enter Yinhe village and there were over two hundred people in front of him. The village had to increase the gate fee to reduce the amount of people that would want to enter the village but that barely did anything. There were constant fights for space, people trying to cut in and others leaving their position on the queue only to find it taken when they got back.
Some cultivators would show a little strength and people in the queue would open up for them to pass. He could have done it, but that will draw attention to him. That is what happened at the previous gate, he was too frivolous making him easily remembered.
As he entered the village, he noticed this village was fairly bigger than the last two he had been in but he was in no mood to explore. He was angry at the fact that he standing for over an hour on the queue and the fact that there were literally people everywhere he looked. He just wanted to find an inn so as to get away from this large number of people but the majority of the inns were full. With great difficulty he finally found an inn with a room.
"Please tell me you have a room left" He said as he entered the inn.
"Just one and that will be eighty silver coins per night" the innkeeper said.
Bringing the money out, he asked "why are there so many people in this village." While she lodged him in.
"It is a festival, we are celebrating the Grand Commander of the azure guard. This is his home town and we have celebrated him every year since he broke through to the Heavenly Origin realm and he is in the early stage of the heavenly core realm now. He could have gone to the Azure Sky kingdom, but he didn't." the innkeeper responded smiling.
'They dedicated an entire festival to him,' he thought to himself perplexed at their thinking. 'people just find any excuse to drink and party.'
After the registration was done, the innkeeper stretched out the key of the room to him. As he was about to collect it he heard a voice behind him.
"Old boy, give me the room and I will dash you some silver." The voice said.
Completely ignoring him, he collected the key from the innkeeper and started walking towards the direction of the room.
"Are you deaf, how about gold." The voice called out coming into view as a young man in his twenties dressed very expensive and exorbitant and two lesser dressed fellows around the same age all of them with slightly intoxicated, with girls beside them.
"Here are two gold coins, if you turn around now it will be yours." One of the two guys behind mocked " I know you have never seen a gold coin before" he continued smugly.
As the pot bellied man was about to make a turn towards the hall leading to his room he halted and turned around.
"Answer this question and maybe I will consider leaving the room. How are three of you going to share one room?, or are the girls just for show and you boys are just gay." He said, shaking his head with an expression that says "children of nowadays" with contempt.
This completely infuriated the young man in the middle, as he charged over; "YOU DARE!!–"