Knock, knock.
They knocked on the door of the clearly occupied room that the glowing stone led them to, but there was no response. After a few minutes of considering whether to knock again—which they decided against—the door finally opened.
"Ohh, it is you… again, what do you want?" The fat man asked as he came out.
Before Jing Tu could say anything, Chi Xianyan was about to go on her knees to apologize, but was quickly stopped.
"Don't! Say what you want to say standing up." The fat man said.
"This junior has been rude and disrespectful, this junior has seen her mistake and hopes senior will punish her to clear her conscience." Chi Xianyan said with her head bowed.
The fat man didn't reply to her, but looked at Jing Tu, who was giving him a meaningful look. He saw that he had been misunderstood, so he quickly explained.
" It is different, here she is not losing her dignity in exchange for her life, she is seeing and accepting her mistake. She could have knelt and there will still be no demon born in her heart that will disrupt her future cultivation. I just don't like girls kneeling." He explained.
"So what do you really want? I'm sure you didn't come all this way just to apologize." The fat man asked after a moment of silence.
" Senior, we want to be your disciple. We want you to take us in." Jing Tu said in a low voice, unsure of what he was doing.
"Hmmm, I don't remember telling anyone I was looking for burdens. Why would I take two strangers under my wings?" The fat man said, finding the entire situation funny.
"We are the greatest talent the Azure Alliance has had in the last hundreds of years if not ever, moreover we both have survival training in addition to our training as Azure guards. We can take care of weaker beasts and help in many ways." Jing Tu tried stating their best qualities, to which Chi Xianyan was just constantly nodding her head.
"I'm sure you are very talented to be the best out of so many." The fat man said sarcastically. Then added, "But you are still strangers."
" We've met every year for the last five years, and we already introduced ourselves back at the inn, I don't think we could still call each other strangers." Jing Tu interjected.
"Okay, I know you. You are consistent, driven and you can't be called a total stranger. But what about her, what can she offer me?" The fat man said, pointing at Chi Xianyan.
"She is even a greater talent than me. She is just nineteen and she is already in the initial stage of Grandmaster. I'm sure that even in the Azure Sky kingdom, there are not many like her." Jing Tu persuaded.
The fat man almost laughed at that statement. " You should know that talent isn't everything. There are a lot of people who couldn't nurture their talent and ended up dying weak. In fact, a lot of people use resources as an alternative for talent. If she stays here for two more years, she would probably break through to the heavenly origin realm. But what then?"
They all knew the answer, she would most likely die at the heavenly origin realm. Even if she is talented, there is no way she is breaking into the heavenly core realm without the help of an elixir in the Qi depleted place even with the Qi meditation centers.
"Moreover, my goal is unimaginable, I can't be responsible for too many people. You people probably think that Azure Sky Kingdom is the peak but I'm aiming for something much higher." The fat man said, trying to soften the blow.
"Is there something higher than the Azure Sky kingdom?" Jing Tu said, a little bit confused, this was the first time he was hearing about it.
"Do you, ....do you mean the ... upper realm?" Chi Xianyan said in a barely audible voice.
This being the first time she spoke since her apology, they both turned to look at her and noticed that her demeanor was a lot darker and she was radiating massive bloodlust as she spoke.
Jing Tu was very surprised, this was the first time he had seen her like this – but he could guess the reason behind it.
"Ohh, is this common knowledge in your Azure Alliance? Even in the Azure Sky kingdom a lot of people don't know about it." The fat man said jokingly, even though someone was about to explode in front of him.
"No, I assure you it is not. In fact I don't even know what you are talking about, and I don't think Grand commander Dijun knows about it either." Jing Tu quickly denied, in case it was something dangerous or that they were not supposed to know.
Ignoring him, Chi Xianyan brought a ring out of her pocket. Wore it and willed it to bring out two contents. A box and a sheathed sword appeared in her hands, she took out a scroll —the only content in the box out.
Jing Tu's eyes almost popped out of their socket as he saw what she was doing. He couldn't believe she would bring this out in front of a complete stranger. He thought of stopping her, but chose not to – since it was not really his decision to make.
Chi Xianyan went on her knees, and she presented the contents to the fat man.
"What is this?" The fat man asked, slightly intrigued when he saw Jing Tu's expression.
"You asked what I could offer you, please accept this as payment for me to be your disciple." Chi Xianyan said, still kneeling, as she offered the sword and the scroll to him.
As he was about to take them, she moved it back a little before saying "can you promise to take me to the upper realm?"
"My goal is to go to the upper realm, so naturally as my student, as long as you don't die you would have to come with me." The fat man said, he thought that it was too late for distrust now. If he wanted to take it forcefully, there was no one in this entire place that could stop him.
"I hope something will not keep you or you will have a change of heart." Chi Xianyan asked for another confirmation.
"As long as I don't die in this realm, which is very unlikely. There is nothing that can keep me in this realm." The fat man said, his overbearing aura pressing down on the kneeling Chi Xianyan, who refused to crash on the ground but steadfastly held the items in place. Even Jing Tu had to take a step back.
The fat man picked up the scroll and opened it to check the content.
"Hmm" he raised an eyebrow in mild surprise but Chi Xianyan mistook for confusion and tried to explain.
"It is a...." Chi Xianyan was suddenly interrupted.
"A movement technique, I know." Though it was a little shocking that there was a movement technique in the Azure Alliance, that was not what surprised him.
"You have an earth grade movement technique." He said as he looked at the bewildered Chi Xianyan.
Chi Xianyan looked like she had seen a ghost, she never expected him to be able to know that it is a movement technique with a glance. She had not yet recovered from that, and he already stated the grade.
'Is this how all the experts in the three kingdoms are' she thought to herself. 'But that is not right. Grandmother said it is impossible to see it with a glance and without being taught and guided through the technique, no one would be able to understand it.'
She had even tested the theory by showing a few people in the Azure Alliance, like the Grand commander. But none of them knew what it was, much less understood it. They saw words written there, but when they tried to understand it, it became gibberish in their mind. But this fat man seems to have no such problem.
She thought of the possibility that he was probably one of the top experts in this realm, but that doesn't explain how he knew it was an earth grade movement technique. This was the only earth grade movement technique in the entire realm, and it is not something that a person who has never seen it before would immediately recognize.
Cold sweat poured down her back, she felt something she wasn't quite sure of. She had thought she would use it as a bargaining chip –that if this person took her to the upper realm, she would teach him the technique. But he seemed to understand it more than her.
The fat man raised up his head from the scroll and asked, "You know about the upper realm and have an earth grade movement technique? How do you know all this?" The way he looked at her made her feel like he could see through all her secrets.
"My mother, ....my mother was from the upper realm." She said a little above a whisper.
"Ahh, I see. No wonder there is no restriction." The fat man seemed lost in thought before he returned to look at the technique.
After a while in complete silence, he raised his head again and asked "Is your mother dead?" Though he asked, there was no sympathy or solemnity in his voice.