Chapter Twenty

In the morning, Li Feng puts on a clean gray tunic and lays in bed for a few more minutes. The sunlight shines dimly through the window at the end of his room and it helps illuminate things enough to where Li Feng doesn’t need to light the candle to see. A few minutes later, Lam Bai wakes up, too, and changes into her servant uniform. For a while, she stares at Li Feng laying in his bed.

“If young master Feng is ready to go somewhere, I am ready too,” Lam Bai says, patiently waiting for Li Feng to make the first move.

“I’m ready,” Li Feng says and sits on the side of his bed. “But what are we going to do, today?”

“Over the next five days, we’re going to explore everything Quanchang has to offer,” Lam Bai says, walks to stand in front of Li Feng. “Today, we should visit the Chen family and give them our greetings.”

“Then, let’s get going,” Li Feng says, and pushes off the bed. He slips on his shoes and walks out the door, followed closely by Lam Bai.

Once out of the hotel, Lam Bai takes the lead and walks with Li Feng to the west side of the city. The south and north sides of the city are where the city gates are at, and the estate of the Chen family is located on the west side of the city. Everything inside Quanchang is tightly packed, but the Chen estate doesn’t adhere to the same rules as the other properties. Since they own the city, they can have a wide yard filled with thick vegetation.

It takes half an hour for Li Feng and Lam Bai to arrive at the gates of the Chen estate. Like the city itself, the Chen estate is bordered by a thick wooden wall and guarded at the gate by four cultivators in the high Body levels. Each guard is wearing a blue tunic and staring at either Li Feng or Lam Bai.

“Hello, we come from the Li family in Shijiang, and we seek an audience with a Chen family representative,” Lam Bai says and takes her identification card from her pocket.

A guard steps forward to take the card, but they are all silent. After a few seconds, the guard looks at Li Feng, and he takes his identification card from his pocket to hand to the guard. After he’s done looking at both identification cards, the guard hands them back to their respective party. “Follow me,” The guard says, and opens the gate.

The guard leads Li Feng and Lam Bai inside the estate’s front courtyard. Unlike the Li estate in Shijiang, which has the courtyard in the center of the four buildings, the Chen estate has their courtyard between three buildings. Though the size of the Chen estate is smaller than the Li estate, a second estate on the east side of the city is used for housing quests, effectively doubling the size of the Chen estate.

Along the path leading to the main building of the estate, Li Feng and Lam Bai pass several cultivators practicing. The Chen family is not a family of cultivators, but their immense fortune allows them to spend their time however they please. Most members of the family cultivate to pass the time, but they are only barely at the beginning levels of the Body stage.

At the door to the main building, the guard instructs Li Feng and Lam Bai to wait behind as he enters. A few minutes later, the guard returns with another man leading the way.

“Welcome to my family’s estate,” The leading man says, holding out his hand for Li Feng to shake. Meanwhile, the guard passes Li Feng and Lam Bai, returning to his post at the gate. Li Feng shakes the man’s hand, then he shakes Lam Bai’s hand. “My name is Chen Yan, second son of the family head.”

“I am Li Feng, sixth son of the family head,” Li Feng says, introducing himself.

“And I am Lam Bai, servant to the young master,” Lam Bai says, bowing slightly.

“Please, come in; let me get you a cup of tea,” Chen Yan says, holding the door open for Li Feng and Lam Bai.