The gift Yi Chen had received was now placed in his backpack. Earlier, on his way downstairs, he had recovered his backpack from the waiting lounge.
"Young man, are you new here?" a middle-aged man asked.
He was sitting next to him on the wagon and had a cultivation in the Ninth Level of the Elementary Transformation Stage.
"Yes, how did you know?" Yi Chen asked curiously.
"Haha, I was able to figure it out by the way you were curiously looking at the passing buildings."
The man grinned and asked, "Do you have some connections with the Feng Clan?"
He had heard Yi Chen mention it when he was talking to the coachman earlier.
"No, I’m going there to deliver a letter sent by someone in my hometown," Yi Chen lied without batting an eye.
"Ah, so that’s the case. I thought you were also among those cultivators who were blinded by the rewards and wished to join the Feng clan as an External Disciple." The man chuckled.
"Hm? Is there something going on in the Feng Clan? Yi Chen asked when he heard a hint of mocking in the man’s tone.
"Yes, the thing is..." the man explained with a bright expression. It was evident that he liked talking, and so he not only told Yi Chen what he wanted to know but also went way beyond that.
A while later, the wagon finally stopped outside the premises of the Feng Clan.
"Bye, Brother Cao!" Yi Chen waved his hand at the man as the wagon left for its next stop.
"He sure talks a lot..." The smile on Yi Chen’s face broke as he rubbed his ears in irritation.
However, he didn’t face this torment for nothing. Thanks to it, he got to know a few things about the Feng Clan he didn’t know about earlier.
Among the twenty major clans in the capital, the Feng Clan took the twentieth spot and was on the verge of losing this position. Apparently, a tournament was to be held among all the clans in the city to determine this ranking.
’Well...that’s not a good thing,’ Yi Chen thought to himself as he turned towards the entrance.
A red gateway entered his vision. Black tiled roofs were on top, and it looked majestic to anyone’s eyes. However, when compared to what he had seen in the Zhou Clan, it was quite inferior. (A/N: These gates are known as Paifang in Chinese.)
It had a width of only a few meters, only enough for one carriage to pass through at a time.
Outside the gateway, a person of the same age as Yi Chen was standing guard...or was supposed to be guarding.
Yi Chen soon approached the man who was standing, leaning his back against the adjacent stone wall.
"Brother! Brother!"
It was only after Yi Chen had called him a couple of times that the man woke up and looked at him in a drowsy stupor.
"Huh...what? What do you need?" the man looked towards Yi Chen while straining his eyes.
"Uhm... Brother, do you know an elder with the name Feng Lei?" Yi Chen asked a second later, seeing that the man had recovered from his drowsy state.
"Feng Lei...." The man furrowed his eyes for a couple of seconds and was about to refuse when he suddenly remembered someone.
"Ah! You mean the Ninth Elder Lei," the man exclaimed when he remembered.
"Yes! So, brother does know him," the next moment Yi Chen asked, "Can you please tell me where his residence is? I’m here to meet him."
Listening to Yi Chen’s request, the man frowned, "Hah? Just because you want to meet him, I should allow you to? Do you think just anyone can meet the elders of our clan?"
Seeing the man’s frown, Yi Chen realised that it was going to get difficult, so he decided to go with his second plan.
"I met the Ninth Elder years ago when he was travelling around the kingdom. At that time, he had told me to come visit him when I became an adult.
If you’ll pass this letter to him, then he’ll definitely allow me to see him," Yi Chen then took out a scroll from inside his robes and gave it to the man.
With a frown, the man took the scroll and opened it up to read it.
However, before his eyes could read through the texts, two golden notes that were neatly placed inside the scroll appeared in his eyes.
"Brother, see this as a token of my thanks for troubling you during your duties." Yi Chen said with a meaningful smile.
The man was still in the Elementary Transformation Stage, so the Kingdom’s currency was still very useful to him.
As a result, his eyes glimmered, and with an enthusiastic expression, he said, "Ah! So, Brother is related to Ninth Elder Lei. I’ll immediately go and deliver this letter to the Ninth Elder for you."
With that said, he rushed inside the clan’s gateway towards a particular direction.
’It feels good to be rich.’ Yi Chen smiled as he saw the man’s rushing figure.
It was only after a good twenty minutes had elapsed and Yi Chen had started doubting whether the man had run away with money or not that he saw him returning with a joyous expression.
’He’s finally here!’ Yi Chen exclaimed in his mind.
"Brother, Ninth Elder has called you inside. Come, I’ll guide you to his residence," the man suggested. His tone a little more respectful than earlier.
"Yes," Yi Chen nodded with a smile and followed after the man. All the earlier complaints in his mind disappeared when he heard his words.
Along the way, they introduced themselves to each other and started doing small talk to pass the time as the Ninth Elder’s Residence was quite a long way inside.
"So, Brother Chen has come all the way from the Kingdom’s southern region. It must have been a very tiring journey, isn’t it?" the man asked.