Gold Eagle Town,
Yao De kept scanning his surroundings with a cautious gaze as he compressed his palace spiritual sense to 200 ters around him, as opposed to the 1.5 kiloters it usually covered. Thought that range was after he injured his soul, before that he could cover a distance that was two tis that figure.
Yao De couldn’t help but sigh as he felt his heart rapidly racing whenever soone looked at him and the involuntary tenseness of his body as he prepared himself to be attacked by one of those figures.
This level of nervousness was sothing he had not experienced for thousands of years. The only ti he felt this way was when he had been roaming the continent to develop his skills as a cultivator and an alchemist. But even then, that was a different type of nervousness.
The nervousness from back then excited him and spurred him on to improve, but now his current nervousness was one of pure dread and hopelessness that he could die at any second without even knowing how it happened.
Yao De feigned a look of calm as his eyes rapidly scanned his surroundings working double ti with his palace sense spiritual in anticipation of whatever would-be attacker that was lurking about.
He debated on whether to shrink his spiritual sense further bringing it down to the 100-ter mark before he decided against it. Shrinking one’s spiritual sense amplified its sensitivity to what one could sense, the details one could sense were increased and magnified, reducing the risk of missing sothing.
Those effects were better the closer one’s spiritual sense was to their body but it also ca with so risks, one of them was one would be blind to certain elents outside of their coverage area. While his other senses were sharp thanks to his cultivation realm to the point he could see a tiny blade of grass with extre clarity even at 1km away, it still wasn’t as effective as a spiritual sense.
A cultivator without their spiritual sense was no different than being blind and deaf. The amount of things one could see or hear with their eyes and ears respectively, or even sll, or touch was but a tiny fraction of what they would be able to perceive through their spiritual sense.
When cultivators fought, the strength of their spiritual sense was an integral point in whether they won the fight or survived it, especially when it ca to ambushes and stealth attacks, which was what Yao De was most wary of.
With his spiritual sense radius shrunk to the 200-ter mark, he had to act on the assumption that he was blind to everything outside that radius even though he could sense it with his eyes, ears, and nose. He could only hope his reflexes would be able to react to anything he caught within that 200-ter radius.
The other issue with shrinking one’s spiritual sense, other than the blindness and the short distance to respond if anything did happen, the other issue was the pressure it put on one’s soul when containing the compression.
With Yao De as injured as he was, shrinking his spiritual sense made him feel as if his entire body from his head to his toe was being forcibly squeezed between two mountains. The pressure was so enormous that it made his body feel as heavy as those mountains that he could feel that the capillaries on so part of his body such as his eyes and ears were almost bursting.
But what could he do?
He had already made an enemy of the Golden Bamboo Pavilion and the Cryptkeeper, two monoliths a puny palace realm expert like him should not have angered.
It was why even though he was in a town controlled by the Order where his safety should be relatively assured, he was as nervous as he could be.
But despite how he felt currently, he had already decided that he would be remaining in Gold Eagle town for the foreseeable future and maybe until he exhausted his lifespan.
With the amount of savings and resources he had left, even if it wasn’t quite substantial, it was still more than enough for him to book a courtyard in one of the rchant inns available and book the stay for at least a thousand years without worry and that was exactly his intention. That is provided the Order didn’t kick him out of the town. If they didn’t, he would not take a single step out of it.
With the ans at the Golden Bamboo Pavilion, they could possibly have him abducted even under the Order’s nose, but this being a town under the watchful eye of the Order, they would have to be careful about how they do it, and careful would cost considerable resources, especially if one considered who’s backyard they would be operating under.
There was no safer place for him than here but he still had to be careful. Ensuring he walked along the main pathways where there was a concentration of people, Yao De carefully waved through crowds looking for an inn that would soon beco his ho.
Since all this wasn’t preplanned, he had not scouted the area before. He decided he would go on instinct, though he already had a rough criterion on what kind to go for. He would avoid all the ostentatious inns or ones whose origins were at the sa level as the Golden Bamboo Pavilion. Going to one of them was no different than delivering himself to the belly of the beast.
Large organizations traded with each other all the ti. Going to one of them was effectively converting himself into a bargaining chip for one of those organizations to use against the Pavilion.
After walking around for a bit, he finally found one. It was not that far away from the central region, being an earshot distance and the place was just as highly populated. The inn had a rustic and archaic fill to it with the entrance made of the unprocessed branches from the green mulberry tree and a simple sign written by hand with the words ’ the Mulberry of rest and longevity’.
Everything about it seed to speak to him. It checked all the boxes he had. It was simple but powerful. It was surrounded by wards that even his concentrated palace sense couldn’t breach and he wasn’t quite sure why, but he felt a sense of safety and relaxation from within his soul when he looked at it, especially the signage.
He took out a few trinkets and talismans for protection just in case, as he made other preparations before walking into the inn. The internal layout was similar to the outside. The reception was filled with potted plants of a different variety, all of them exuding a presence that evoked relaxation and vitality. The flooring was made of earthgourd vinewood and in between the spaces were green patches of yellow silk moss, another excellent plant for refreshing the mind.
Everything around the reception was geared toward promoting relaxation and ease. Yao De couldn’t help but nod inwardly in appreciation wondering if just the reception was like this what about the courtyards?
Though even if he appreciated the place, he still ensured to remain on high alert as he kept his guard up whilst approaching the lone desk that housed a middle-aged man with earthen red hair that looked like it had a few patches of dirt on it, and even a few mushrooms and flowers growing from the beard.
Yao De didn’t look down on him despite the person’s eclectic appearance. Even though it was faint, from the fluctuations released by the middle-aged man, he could tell that the middle-aged man had to be at least a middle-stage palace realm expert.
Ensuring that all his asures were in place to ensure a swift getaway in case things went south, Yao De cautiously walked toward him.
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