Sage left the meeting and set out towards his inn. He’d told the guards where he was staying so that they could arrange for another meeting. There was no telling how long it would take for Zhu Su to contact the proper people, so Sage was forced to wait it out. Heading into the inn, Sage went to his room and sat down, crossing his legs to begin meditating.

A few hours later he was interrupted by knocking on the door. Not wanting to be bothered he ignored it. A few moments later there was more knocking, along with a voice, “Sir, I am the manager of the inn. Please open the door.”

Annoyed, but not wanting to draw trouble upon himself, Sage got up and went to the door. In his usual public manner he was endlessly polite and bowed to the person outside the door. The man was at the third rank, probably necessary to protect his establishment from normal troublemakers. Sage smiled, “What’s the problem, Sir?”

The manager smiled back and bowed at him in return, “I’m very sorry, Sir. A very important customer has arrived and I’m afraid I have to ask you to leave. Please forgive me, Sir. Here is double the money you paid.”

Sage held out his hand without thinking about it, accepting the return of his money. He was being kicked out? Most likely someone rich or powerful and there was nothing he could do about it. Others might complain, but Sage knew what these sorts of people did to those that spoke out against them. He accepted the money and then nodded to the manager, making his way out of the inn.

“Hurry up and get out of here, commoner trash.”

On his way out, Sage was greeted by a foul mouth. Looking up, he saw a wiry teen with a sneer on his lips. He was standing with a group of four other teenagers, and a single old man standing to the back of one of the teens. That teen in specific was dressed with the most gaudy outfit. Each of them were in the level 30s, excepting the old man whose level Sage had trouble discerning. Sage bowed to the sneering teen, “Please forgive me, Sir. I am just far too slow. I could never be as quick or powerful as you and these other great people.”

The four teenagers puffed up their chests and smiled, “That’s right, hurry along and be on your way. Just be thankful you even got to walk near the great Tang Zhelan.”

The sneering teen made sure to point out that well dressed teen with the old man at his shoulder. He spoke in a deferential and clearly fawning tone, wanting to prove how loyal he was to Tang Zhelan. Sage gave a few more bows, almost dropping to his knees for the group of four on his way out. If another cultivator saw him they would probably scoff at him. They might insult him for losing all face so easily to such a young person without even asking for an explanation.

What was face, that so called dignity, to Sage? Did it matter if someone insulted him or belittled his ability? Would he get upset if someone spoke poorly of his accomplishments? Did he even have any accomplishments? In his own opinion… of course not. Sure he’d reached Foundation Building, but did that matter? Even in his own sect there was hundreds, if not a thousand ‘elders’, cultivators who had reached the fifth rank and formed their golden cores. Sage would have trouble fighting with any one of them, so why would he care about being dignified. Sage finally reached the other side of that room and let out a breath he’d been holding as he walked away.

Another bullet dodged.

Behind him, he heard loud laughter along with a few jokes and insults made at his expense. His ear twitched ever so slightly and he found himself ducking into a small closet and listening in to the activity down the hall where he’d come from. The manager kept inviting people out of their rooms and giving them money while he kicked them out. The next two merely nodded as Sage, bowing and scraping to the group of five as they left. They got similar treatment as well, being told to be grateful after being kicked out and insulted, they’d got to walk nearby the great Tang Zhelan so they should be happy!

“Leave! Why should I leave? I already paid for my room. That other guy should just get his own room, why is he snatching mine!”

The manager tried to placate the man, but only seemed to make it worse. Soon the man was fuming with anger and walking down the hall. He was aggressively approaching the group of five and shaking his fist at them.

“You rotten cretins. How dare you force me to leave my room! The whole town is already full, where am I supposed to stay now? Who in the hell do you think you are?!”

The teen who had been sneering at everyone as they left their rooms answered the question by running up and smashing a club against the customer’s knee. A loud crack rang out as that poor man fell to the ground and started screaming. Sage winced at the sound. That sounded quite like bones breaking.

“Ugh, how crude. Somebody kill this trash before it poisons my hearing any more.”

The leader of the group spoke and his three friends actually jumped at the opportunity. They even started arguing over who got to do the deed. Sage was hidden out of view so he couldn’t see who was saying what, but he could assume who gave the order by context. The screaming had already stopped as the injured man went silent with fear before suddenly starting to beg for his life. The group ignored his pleas, in fact it only accelerated things when the ‘boss’ told them to ‘shut him up’.

A hush fell over the other customers, not just going silent, but drawing in an audible breath of fear. They’d been moving quickly to try and run from the brutal folks kicking them out, but when the man was killed they all went extremely silent and moved very slowly to not draw attention.

“What are you idiots doing, hurry up and get out of here! Whoever is still in here by the count of ten is going to die!”

Sage recognized that voice as the sneering fellow, whom Sage now took to be the mouthpiece of the group. He did all the insulting and yelling so the leader, Tang Zhelan, could stand at the back and look powerful. After that command the crowd stopped quietly shuffling and it turned into a stampede. The dozens of people smashing into each other, pushing and shoving to get out as quickly as possible. From the sounds of screams and grunts, Sage was sure more than a few people were injured. Sadly, not everyone could get out that quickly and Sage heard more terrible sounds.

“Clean this mess up.”

The inn manager did a bunch of bowing, scraping, and flattering. Sage heard footsteps as the group left the area. He then moved back around a corner to get a peek down the hallway where that group had been standing. A group of maids were already coming around the corner with horrified looks on their faces. A half dozen bodies were laying on the ground with blood splattered on the walls and floor. They’d killed so many people without a care in the world. Sage went to a maid and stopped her.

“What are those guys doing here?”

“Th.. they said that the great Tang Zhelan can’t stay at an inn where any commoner trash are at and rented the whole inn.”

Sage nodded and gave the girl a gold coin, asking her not to tell anyone he asked and leaving the inn quickly.