Leaving the vestnt shop, Yulou and Yu'an browsed through a few other stores. As they walked, they eventually found themselves standing in front of the Beautiful Pavilion.
Yu'an still could not resist stealing a glance across the street.
Could the greeters working at a place like the Beautiful Pavilion be ordinary people?
The barker at the entrance of the Beautiful Pavilion had trained himself to keep his eyes on sixteen paths and his ears tuned to eighteen directions.
The mont Yu'an cast a glance, the man noticed.
Flashing across the street, the barker of the Beautiful Pavilion instantly appeared before the two young n.
"Today, the Beautiful Pavilion is offering a free pot of spirit tea to all honored guests who enter. Would you two Fellow Daoists care to step inside and take a seat?"
Could the Beautiful Pavilion be any sort of proper establishnt?
Seeing the barker approach, Yulou grabbed Yu'an and initially intended to just walk away.
But spirit tea...
And not just any tea, it was free spirit tea!
If they did not drink this, they would definitely regret it when they went ho tonight.
"We are still young and cannot afford to spend anything, Fellow Daoist."
Yulou pondered for a mont and, despite the tempted look in Yu'an's eyes, waved his hand in refusal.
When it ca to Dao heart, Yulou was absolutely resolute.
But the barker was a professional, an incredibly dedicated professional.
He grabbed the arms of both boys and began to coax them with honeyed words.
"Ah, you are quite mistaken! The Beautiful Pavilion does not care about giving away a pot or two of spirit tea.
I am just a helper here. Every person I pull in counts toward my quota.
You get to drink free spirit tea, and I do not lose out—I even make a small profit. Only the Beautiful Pavilion takes the loss.
How about this? If you go in, I will even throw in a small plate of dried spirit fruits.
What are you waiting for, Fellow Daoists?"
Perhaps frightened by the barker's enthusiasm, Yu'an actually lowered his voice.
"Brother, let us just go."
This ti, however, Yulou planted his feet.
Yulou obviously did not want to patronize the Beautiful Pavilion. He was purely thinking that it would be a waste not to drink free spirit tea.
This barker made it clear: the Beautiful Pavilion did not mind spending a pot of spirit tea to draw in a crowd.
However, he still had to ask one more question.
"Fellow Daoist, we brothers are descendants of the Wang Clan of Anbei Kingdom. Our clan's ancestor is the martial nephew of True Person Danri. You cannot deceive us."
The barker looked startled at first, but then his smile grew even more radiant.
"Of course not, how could we possibly have that kind of nerve? The businesses in the Huang Clan's Hundred Treasures Workshop pride themselves on honest trade. We treat the young and the old fairly!"
"If we just go in, drink a pot of spirit tea, and then leave, is that really allowed?" Yulou asked.
"Sigh, just leave quietly when you are done. Do not worry about it!
The spirit tea is a promotional expense for the Beautiful Pavilion; it is paid for by the establishnt. After you finish the pot, you can even add water for three or four more steeps. Take your ti drinking, it is completely fine."
The barker had calculated everything perfectly. He was arguably the most clear-headed worker in the cultivation world.
The spirit tea was a promotional gift from the Beautiful Pavilion; giving it away did not negatively affect his performance trics.
His performance trics belonged to him. If the two youths actually ended up spending money, he would even get a commission.
Yulou looked at Yu'an.
Yu'an's eyes were filled with determination.
"Brother, we are just going in to drink spirit tea, right?"
It seed this brat Yu'an was well aware of what kind of place the Beautiful Pavilion was.
"Right, we are just drinking spirit tea!"
And just like that, under the barker's guidance, the two entered the Beautiful Pavilion!
It was a completely different world inside.
That was Yulou's strongest impression.
From the outside, the Beautiful Pavilion simply had an attractive facade, but the entrance did not look much different from an ordinary shop.
Inside, however, it was a marvel of design.
Spirit wood ford carved beams, spirit silk acted as draperies, jade mats bore golden pillows, and enchanting figures lounged everywhere.
In the center of the Beautiful Pavilion was a pool of water with a stage rising from the middle. Arranged around it were three tiers of seating, all offering a clear view of the performances on the central stage.
The cultivators seated among these tiers ranged from elderly Qi Refining n in their eighties or nineties to teenage boys and girls. There were even Foundation Establishnt cultivators present.
The female cultivators of the Beautiful Pavilion roaming between the seats acted as servers, exuding charm with every smile and glance.
Each one wore light, revealing vestnts that were even more gorgeous than the silver-spirit gold-embroidered silk vestnt Yulou had looked at earlier.
Looking at these enchanting, elegant, or handso figures...
Wait? Handso?
n?
Excellent. The beauties of the Beautiful Pavilion were truly exceptional. They even had male beauties.
"Co with , little gentlen. I will arrange a quiet corner for you."
Leading Yulou, the barker found them a spot on the eastern side of the first floor. The two boys sat down nervously.
"No need to rush. I will go order your spirit tea. You can leave whenever you like."
The barker walked away with a beaming smile. Yu'an looked nervously at his older brother and asked.
"When are we leaving?"
"Were you not the one eager to co in just a mont ago? Why do you want to leave now?" Yulou asked with a laugh.
"There are too many strange cultivators. The clan rules say that when entering a place filled with unknown cultivators, one must maintain a sense of tension and assess the situation imdiately."
Excellent, truly a boy raised by clan rules.
As if overhearing the brothers' conversation, a female voice brimming with amusent drifted over.
"Hahaha, then go find a female cultivator and feel around. You will know the situation after a couple of touches. You two little brats are quite amusing."
Yulou and Yu'an looked at the speaker in astonishnt.
Sitting at the table right next to theirs was a chubby little girl who looked about thirteen or fourteen. Dressed in a golden gauze dress, she was staring at them, laughing uncontrollably.
"Brother, how should we respond?"
Being teased by a strange cultivator in an unfamiliar place left Yu'an completely overwheld with nervousness. He instinctively turned to his older brother for guidance.
As soon as he asked, he realized his mistake. He had spoken out of turn.
"Wait, no. Should we pretend we did not hear anything and observe the situation first?"
"Hahahaha, oh my goodness, I cannot take it anymore. Where did you two co from? Hahahaha!"
Yulou stared at the chubby little girl with dark lines forming on his face. He felt completely exasperated.
"Idiot, if you knew we should pretend not to hear, why did you say it out loud!" he scolded.
"Brother, maybe we should just run!"
"Hahahahaha, spare , you two. You are too funny, hahahaha... Cough! Cough! Cough! I cannot breathe!"
What an insolent person!
However, Yulou was not about to start a feud just because soone laughed at him. He was not so arrogant protagonist who picked fights over every little thing.
Cultivation was also about cultivating one's temperant; grace was part of the training.
Without even glancing at the chubby little girl, he said to Yu'an.
"Why should we leave? We are drinking tea!"
They absolutely could not leave.
If they ran away now, not only would they have been mocked for nothing, but they also would not get to drink the spirit tea. Would that not be a massive loss?
"Right, right, we have not drank the tea yet."
After saying this, Yu'an sat up rigidly in his seat, lowered his head, and closed his eyes.
He had made up his mind. The mont the spirit tea arrived, he would chug it and leave imdiately!
Soon, a female cultivator from the Beautiful Pavilion brought the spirit tea over. The woman serving the two brothers looked no more than sixteen or seventeen, with a cultivation base at the fourth level of Qi Induction. She wore a cool, revealing white dharma robe.
Even though she was just pouring tea and serving water, she made it look like an immortal offering a divine treasure. Her entire routine of presenting and pouring the tea left Yu'an staring blankly.
"What are you looking at? Drink quickly. Once the tea is gone, we will stuff this plate of dried spirit fruits into our pockets and leave. We are not staying here a mont longer!"
Yulou reprimanded him.
But Yu'an just sat there holding his teacup, frozen in place.
The ninth-grade spirit tea indeed tasted quite good. Yulou set down his cup and was about to pour himself another when he noticed Yu'an zoning out. He asked.
"What is wrong? Hurry up and drink! Did we not co here just for this pot of spirit tea? It is genuine ninth-grade too, not mixed with mortal tea leaves."
"Brother, I do not think we can leave."
"What?"
"The Patriarch is here to catch us!"
"Ah?"
The chubby little girl lost her composure again and burst into laughter.
"Hahahahaha, do not be afraid. Co here, you have nothing to fear. I will protect you. This is killing , hahahaha!"
Yu'an ignored the impolite cultivator. Instead, he pointed toward the entrance and said.
"Look over there. The Patriarch is at the door."
Following Yu'an's gaze, Yulou saw Wang Xianmao chatting with a man who was clearly a manager.
Yulou was genuinely dumbfounded this ti.
"Ah? Patriarch? Why are you also at the Beautiful Pavilion?"
The divine sense of a Foundation Establishnt cultivator was incredibly potent. In truth, the Patriarch had noticed the two brothers long ago.
Even though he was not at the Beautiful Pavilion to spend money, nor was he there to catch his clan's degenerate youths, he still sent a sound transmission the mont Yulou looked his way.
"You two are dead!"
Yu'an swallowed hard in terror and looked at his older brother.
"What do we do?"
Yulou did not know what to do either.
He wanted to tell the Patriarch that they really only ca in to drink spirit tea.
But he quickly realized that such an excuse sounded as ridiculous as a student telling a teacher they forgot to bring their sumr howork on the first day back to school.
After running out of ideas, he turned his gaze to the chubby little girl who had just been laughing at them.
Only this female cultivator could testify for them and prove they only ca to drink spirit tea.
The insolent female Daoist's face was flushed red from laughing so hard. Seeing Yulou look over with such a miserable expression, she lost control again.
"Hahahaha, fine, fine. I will testify for you!"
Yulou was just about to offer a polite word of thanks when the Patriarch across the room ended his conversation and strode toward the two brothers with the imposing gait of a dragon and tiger.
He was not actually that furious. They were young boys, after all, and many strange behaviors could be understood. It was just...
Upon noticing the chubby little girl seated next to the two brothers, Wang Xianmao snapped to attention with a loud slap of his heels.
Under intense terror, his soul and thoughts abandoned his body, allowing years of ingrained instinct to take the wheel.
The old Patriarch's heart raced, and he bowed deeply, flushing completely red with nerves.
"True Person Danri, please accept my respects. Xianmao did not know you were here, hence..."
Yulou looked in horror at the chubby little girl wearing the golden gauze dress. He subconsciously tried to stand up but was so nervous he nearly tripped and fell.
True Person Danri, who looked like a chubby little girl, let out a slightly bored sigh. She glanced at the two brothers, then looked back at Wang Xianmao, who was still holding his bow.
"Alright, co sit down."
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