Wu Teng had seen the boy accompanying his brother right from the very start but did not know who he was. At first, he had guessed that he was just one of the people that were trying to get close to the mayor through his little brother, but Wu Teng knew that his younger brother would not tolerate people like that near him.
Seeing Lin Mu freely accompanying Wu Hei and seeing that he did not mind his presence and was actually accommodating of him made Wu Teng suspicious. But now that they had sat down on this private table and Lin Mu was still here, confirmed it for him.
Ever since he had been a child, Wu Teng had seen his younger brother staying alone. His sole companions were none other than books and more books. The very few people that he tolerated were the family and the servants. He would never play with the other children, and even he had to coerce him a lot to make him play.
Years passed by like that, and his younger brother only became more and more distant. Then, back when he was fourteen, he decided to go on a scholar’s journey. His father Wu Xun was opposed to this and wanted Wu Hei to stay at home and cultivate properly.
Compared to him, he knew that his brother’s talent in cultivation was quite low, and even after twenty years of cultivating he had barely reached the peak stage of the qi refining realm. While he himself had reached the mid stage of the core condensation realm, just one stage below his father, the mayor.
Still, under the incessant petering of his little brother, their mother eventually caved and pleaded Wu Xun to let him go. And thus Wu Hei went away on his scholar’s journey throughout the empire. He spent ten years and only returned six years ago.
But after his return, he had only become more cold. Their mother had also become dissatisfied with their father during this time, and their relationship was cold. While his brother stayed in contact with him throughout the years he was gone, Wu Teng still felt as if he had greatly changed and was hiding something.
No matter how much he tried he couldn’t get him to open up, and at this point, he had just given up and had accepted that Wu Hei was simply just . This was his natural personality and there was nothing he could do to change it.
Even now Wu Teng had fully expected that his little brother would deny his teasing question, but he didn’t know that today was going to be surprising to him.
"Yes, elder brother. Brother Mu Lin is a friend of mine." Wu Hei accepted.
Wu Teng was dumb stuck and was frozen for a bit. Then finally a big grin appeared on his face.
"AH HAHAHA! Today is a truly great day! My brother brought a friend, an actual friend I say!" Wu Teng laughed out loud.
"No need to be so loud, brother. You are needlessly disturbing others." Wu Hei chided again.
"Alright, alright... But now I wanna know who this is," Wu Teng said.
"Fine, then. Elder brother, meet Lord Mu Lin from the Mu clan of Fenlong Kingdom." Wu Hei introduced.
"Greetings Lieutenant Wu Teng," Lin Mu greeted as well.
"What’s that I hear? Lieutenant? No, you shall not use words such as these. A friend of my little brother is a friend of mine. You can simply call me brother Teng." Wu Teng replied with a smile.
"Well... he’s certainly easy going..." Xukong spoke in Lin Mu’s mind.
"Indeed Senior. Comparing the two brothers... they’re simply the opposites. But this man is also quite strange... he has no decorum of a military personnel or even an aristocrat." Lin Mu replied.
"There can be certain exceptions to them, of course. This man Wu Teng is probably one of them." Xukong said while shaking his head.
"Alright then, I’ll call you Brother Teng too." Lin Mu replied to Wu Teng.
Wu Teng gave Lin Mu a clap on the back in a celebratory manner. Lord Cai’s eyes went wide and so did Wu Hei’s. Even Wu Teng only realized a second later what he had just done. He was at the mid stage of the core condensation realm and had just given the boy in front of him a clap on the back with nearly his full force.
He was suddenly worried that he may have injured him. But then when he looked at him, he saw him to be completely fine and sitting without any discomfort. In fact, now that a couple of seconds had passed, Wu Teng could feel his palm getting slightly numb, as if he had accidentally hit a hard wall.
’What is this boy... Does he practice some kind of qi skills that specialize in defense?’ Wu Teng wondered to himself.
Seeing that suddenly everyone was looking at him, Lin Mu felt awkward.
"Umm... is there something on my face?" He asked.
"Oh, no, no! Everything is fine, Lord Mu Lin." Lord Cai hurriedly spoke.
"Yeah, I kinda was a bit disrespectful there... shouldn’t have done that." Wu Teng apologized too.
"Oh, that’s fine. No harm done," Lin Mu replied.
Just as they finished this conversation, a stream of courtesans and servants arrived with trays in their hands. They were carrying various dishes and wine with them. Just from the aroma that they were emitting, Lin Mu could feel it.
"Hmm... spirit beast meat? ~Sniff~Sniff~ and what’s this... herbs of some kind?" Lin Mu wondered.
"Oh, seems like lord Mu Lin is quite a gourmet. Yes, these are some of our finest dishes that include spirit beast meat and of course some spirit herbs as well. While the herbs are low grade spirit herbs, they can still be eaten directly unlike the others that needed to refined into alchemical pills." Lord Cai explained.
Seeing that he now had some truly good food to eat, Lin Mu’s eyes brightened while Wu Hei suddenly had a bad feeling in his guts.