"Cao Tang, come with me," the seer threw his arm around Cao Tang and pulled him towards himself. Tang was not too happy about this.
"What do you say we go to that place?" the seer continued.
"How about we go to the other place instead?" Cao Tang suggested.
"Why go to that deep, dark, and dire basement for our work when we can go to a vibrant, flowery, and fair place for the same work?" Neon argued.
"What about that other place then?" Cao Tang continued, still hesitant to go with the seer's idea.
Both were walking down the streets, discussing plans. Neon was confident that he would get invited by the two families and needed to catch up on current affairs and family history, which he could care less about.
"That place is smelly and disgusting. Why would anyone associate with them? I don't understand," the seer continued.
"If you want information, there are three places you can go: the beggar sect, the Hao clan, and the Whispering Clouds," the seer suggested.
"Come on, man. I thought you had a lover and a harem or something in your past life. Why do you look so shaken?" Neon questioned.
"It goes against my dao..." Cao Tang blushed as he said that.
The seer didn't know whether to cringe or laugh, so he did both.
"Don't laugh. Most Dao's are something along these lines..." Cao Tang yelled in embarrassment.
"Hehehe, alright. Why don't you pick another, better one?" the seer rolled on the ground and laughed.
"Says you, who does not have one, asshole," Cao Tang blushed even more.
"Who says I don't? Just because I don't cultivate doesn't mean I have no dao. Watch me walk my path. I shall show you the way," the seer, who had recovered, pushed aside and walked through the door of the brothel in front of which they argued.
The seer slammed the door open with all his narcissistic divinity, spreading open both his arms and walking in like a god. No embarrassment, no nothing, just pure pride exuding from the being that drew all the workers to him.
The inside of the brothel's ground floor was very generic. just tables to drink and girls to serve.A kitchen on the left corner but a luxurious and extravagant set of stairs originating from the center of the room. that split into two from the middle connecting this floor to the first floor.
"What path does he walk?" Cao Tang wondered.
And just as if the seer knew what he was wondering, he let himself be swarmed by the lovely ladies present there. Not even the Heavenly Demon Pink Flower Technique could produce the amount of charismatic aura that Neon was exuding at that moment. It's like he hit a switch and he was a heaven-descended being.
"My Dao is the one of Rizz, pure and unadulterated Rizz. That is my way, the way of the Rizz," the seer said.
Neon removed his straw hat and spun it on the tip of his left-hand finger, exposing a face that is rarely ever seen. An utterly divine look.
"I see where he gets his narcissistic tendencies from," Cao Tang thought to himself.
All other customers were getting absolutely ghosted. It was just them and the excellent being of a person who walked in.
"Excuse me, ladies, but might I trouble you for a glass of water and the owner of this fine establishment?" the seer gently bowed down with his hat to his chest.
"Oh, it's no trouble at all," they said, and they met every single one of his demands.
Cao Tang and Neon sat at a table, being bombarded with questions. Neon dealt with them perfectly, answering some and questioning some, while Cao Tang sat there unable to respond. Only fumes came out of his mouth, and he wished he was sitting far away in the ghosted section of the brothel.
Soon enough, an elegantly looking woman descended the stairs.
"I suppose I already know why you wish to see me, but I know better places that would suit your needs more perfectly," she asked in a sweet and low tone.
"Why would I go see those smelly bastards when I can smell a fragrance such as yours? And why should I have nothing but darkness in front of my eyes when I can gaze upon one such as you? Please, do put aside that decorative fan you use to cover your face. It pains me so to be obstructed in such ways," the seer replied in a tone just as gentle and elegant as hers.
There is no concept of smooth-talking in Murim. Even mediocre shit such as this does absolute and utter wonders in this sad and dire world. The hell with mediocre, even cringy shit that would normally fail and get you slapped would work wonders here.
Cao Tang couldn't believe it. The seer was utterly excellent. He had been true to his dao ever since the day he was born. He was a genius, a man blessed by his dao, with light radiating from his being.
"Oh, such flattery. Let's continue this conversation in my chambers," and she went back up.
Neon soon followed, accompanied by several others, laughing and talking. Just about halfway, he swung his hat to Cao Tang, who still sat at the table, and caught his hat.
"Does he know who the woman was? I don't think so. She is the brand new matriarch of the Hao Sect's 19th generation. Wait... did he just manage to Rizz his way into her chambers? Goddamn. I thought I was successful and great in my past life, but all I was was a pathetic loser drunk on his insignificant achievements. No wait... is he making an ex-immortal doubt his own greatness? Man, that guy's ego is larger and stronger than the Jade Emperor's. He makes the Jade Emperor look like a joke... WTF?" Just as Cao Tang's head was about to burst, a bunch of others did.
"Hey, you! You're that other guy's partner!" All the other customers were now grouping up against Tang.
"Ugh, that's all you can do, can't you? You insignificant cockroaches," Cao Tang taunted. He put his hand on the fat guy's shoulder. "Being jealous won't do you anything, my friend. You are just simply courting death."
"Courting death!" The fat man swung his arms at him. These C-grade villains were no match for Cao Tang.
It was a one-sided slaughter-fest. Almost as soon as it was over, the door was opened once again, and two men walked in, both wearing the same robe, with the only difference being that one was black and red and the other was white and blue.
They were the patriarchs of the An and Ai families, and they were here for the seer, on behalf of their children.
"What happened here?" Liu asked, who entered with Lin Hua later.
"Oh, just seer activity. He made the Jade Emperor look like a pussy, and you know people's inferiority complex compelled them to fight me as I was here with him," Cao Tang explained.
"Wow, you're starting to sound a bit like him right now," Lin Hua commented as she sat down.
The patriarchs also sat down, staring at each other, eyeing them down as if they would kill the other the moment one let their guard down.
"Anyway, where is he?" Liu asked.
"Oh, he is in the matriarch's private chambers," Cao Tang replied.
*Pffffffff*
*Choufing*
Lin Hua spilled all the water out of her mouth and started coughing intensely.
The two patriarchs both turned their eyes quickly to Cao Tang and then back at each other. None of their bodies but their eyes moved.
"He shall be back in a while once he is done with whatever he planned," Liu said confidently, with a tone that said, "Surely not what you guys are thinking. He would not. It's not something he does."
"You guys weren't there when the divinity descended upon him. It was so sudden. It was as if someone else possessed him. He made it inside purely based on sheer Rizz," Cao Tang explained.
The patriarchs were in complete sync. They kept glimpsing at Cao Tang. They paused to steal a look, and then the visual battle with their opponent continued.
The entire lower floor was empty. Only five people sat around a table, surrounded by a few dead bodies.