"How long has it been since I came here, the Impure Qi of the Sparrow Kingdom hasn’t improved a single bit since I left." said Wan Shui.
"You’ve been here before?"
"I used to live here but left a long time ago after the Demonic Sect recruited me."
"I see. Let’s get going. Our first stop is Bei City." said Zixin. Wan Shui then waved his hand and a twenty meters long and two meters wide centipede appeared before Zixin.
"What’s this?" he asked.
"My pet and also our form of transportation. I call him Black and he can fly. This way, we’ll spend less time on the road." explained Wan Shui.
"Good, here’s the map." said Zixin as he sat on the black centipede’s enormous head. Wan Shui caught the map and Black first crawled out of the mountain crack before taking to the sky. The speed of the centipede was lacking when compared to the bat but it was still very fast.
Two days later, the two stood on the centipede’s head and looked at the city wide crater below them. This was where Bei City was supposed to be and now only a crater was left.
"The size of this crater, a peak Soul Forming Realm Junior definitely detonated themselves in order to cause such wide range destruction and they probably also detonated their Souls to maximise the effects and take out or greatly injure those who threatened them." explained Wan Shui.
Zixin didn’t say and his face was calm but his fists were clenched so hard that they were releasing crackling noises.
"What’s the closest city to this one and also the closest sect?" he asked.
"The closest city is the Hong City, territory of the Hong Clan, a Three Star Family and the closest sect is the Red Rose Sect which we can reach in a day and we’ll reach the city in just a few hours."
"We’ll go to Hong City first before heading to the Red Rose Sect."
Hong City was a bustling city with tens of millions of people living there. Due to the destruction of Bei City, many merchants changed their trade routes from Two Star Cities like Bei City to Three Star one’s like Hong City in order to reduce the risk of more losses due to attacks, that’s why Hong City was so bustling.
Surprisingly, no hawkers or merchants approached Zixin to sell him anything, instead, they kept their distance further away from him which Zixin found both amusing and eyebrow raising.
"Wan Shui, what’s going on?" he asked.
"Well Master, it’s because of our clothes. Red robes are exclusive to the Demonic Sect so that’s why they are keeping their distance. Now, people no longer wear red in weddings but white or gold in order to not associate themselves with us."
"Mhm. Let’s get something to eat and a place to sleep, we’ll head to the Red Rose Sect tomorrow morning."
They then chose a random restaurant and sat down on an empty table. Immediately after, all the other diners stood up to leave, whether they had finished eating or not.
"Sit down and finish your food." said Zixin softly but everyone heard him due to how silent the place was. All the diners were reluctant to stay but what could they do?
"If my Master tells you to stay then that’s what you do." said Wan Shui while releasing a wisp of his aura which caused the diners to fall on their knees. The strongest of these people were only Foundation Building Realm weaklings. With such a powerful person telling them to stay, they did just that and continued to eat their food.
Soon, the owner of this small establishment and also the chef came out with food other customers had ordered. It was an old man with a hunched back and dropped eyelids caused by old age. The old man didn’t seem to notice Wan Shui and Zixin and served people their food.
"Old man, serve us all your best dishes!" said Wan Shui while throwing a gold ingot at the old man. The old man clumsily caught it, making Wan Shui burst out in laughter.
"You’re so young yet so clumsy. Just look at me, even at my old age, I’m still fit and fresh, young people these days." he said in a sarcastic voice.
"Sir, this is too much." said the old man after seeing that he was actually holding a gold ingot. His most expensive dishes would only cost about one silver ingot or a hundred bronze coins.
"It’s fine, keep the change. And don’t forget to also bring some wine. It’s been a long time since I ate mundane food and wine so I want to properly enjoy myself."
"Thank you Sir, thank you very much for your patronage." kowtowed the old man before rushing to the kitchen to cook.
"This old man is interesting." said Zixin with a smile while looking around.
"What do you mean?" asked Wan Shui.
"He didn’t show any reaction even when he saw the colour of our robes. Either he is very ignorant or powerful enough not to care about the backlash of being associated with us." Zixin explained.
"It’s probably the latter, even if you’re ignorant, it can’t be to such an extent. The Demonic Sect has existed for thousands of years and we’ve always been famous for our blood red robes, even ordinary children know about the red robes taboo. Now I’m curious about his strength and background." said Wan Shui excitedly.
Soon, the old man came out of the kitchen pushing an old and wooden trolley with all types of food placed in it. He then served the two the food, filling up the table with mouth watering delicacies.
"Enjoy." said the old man and turned around to leave.
"Old man, don’t leave just yet. Wait a minute, there’s something I want to check." said Zixin as he tore off a chicken drumstick and put it in his mouth, then the duck, the turkey, pork, fish, ribs, fried vegetables, noodles and finally, the wine.
[Ding! Host has successfully captured the poison attack. ×1]
"There it is," said Zixin with a vicious grin.