Feng Zhiming and Anissa sat in a locally renowned restaurant, the Wild chicken, its atmosphere was quite distinct from the last one they dined at.
It was run down and broken in unusual places, the people sitting in the restaurant were all cultivators and quite paranoid of each other, some of them even tried to throw lecherous glances at Anissa but quickly looked away after noticing her strength.
Even the table in the corner they sat at had a shaky leg that moved constantly.
"This is a total scam." Feng Zhiming spoke as he bit down on some chicken, clearly dissatisfied with the taste.
[Assembly wide announcement to all Ethereal Core Participants]
[The Creature of the Wildlands is a worthy opponent, No one has managed to hunt it yet. The quality of the reward has been raised.]
Feng Zhiming read the announcement and smiled.
It was quite ironic for Feng Zhiming to call someone a scammer but no one who knew his past was there so he did so without refrain.
"Are you sure we can trust the words of some random kid on the street?" Anissa asked before biting a small steam bun.
As they had begun to ask around about the creature from the Wildlands a child ran up to them and took the initiative to speak.
"In the Wildchicken around noon a bald man with two rings on his finger will appear, he has information on the creature everyone is trying to hunt these days.'' After saying this the child walked away without demanding anything of them.
Feng Zhiming had calculated that either this was an elaborate trap of some mastermind to kill him, which was unlikely since he did not have any real enemies in this world yet or more likely the bald man had paid the child to spread the news and now people would try to buy the information from him.
After carefully discussing it with himself he came to the conclusion to eat at the restaurant, the fact that it served chicken did not influence him in the slightest.
"Can't hurt to try, we were aimlessly trying to gather information anyways, we'll know soon if the child was just having fun."
As he said this a group of five people walked in two women and three men, all wearing matching blue robes and drenched in sweat.
The men were fine but the two women were trying their best to not have the sweat reveal their figures underneath their robes.
Feng Zhiming instantly knew that it was cultivators of the orthodox faction and they clearly didn't realize they walked into a place they didn't belong.
"Ooo what do we have here?"
"Lemme give you shade beauties?"
"Those robes look a little wet, come here and let me dry them for you."
Some of the men in the restaurant realized that most of the group was merely at the foundation establishment stage equal to most of them and began to catcall.
A man in the group of the orthodox cultivators with thick eyebrows spoke up.
"Hold your mouth filthy vermin of the Wildlands, or I'll have you muted permanently." He released his aura at the Actualized level of the Ethereal Core.
Most of the men quieted down but one replied.
"Let's see how long you keep that holier than thou attitude little boy. The mountain smashing Sect is merely a small force in the Wildlands, acting all tough because your leader is a Spiritual Awakener." he chucked and returned to his day drinking.
The man with the thick eyebrows merely scoffed and took a seat at a table with his group, clearly waiting for something.
"It's like a group of sheep entering a wolf's den." Anissa said to Feng Zhiming as she took a small bite from the whole chicken he had been stuffing down his throat.
"I have a feeling this isn't going to end well for them." he managed to say in between bites.
Feng Zhiming was thinking about how to pass time until the bald man appeared, this was when he suddenly remembered something.
"There's a great question from a scholar I once read about, he's called Zhishi Wu." he sent over a voice transmission to Anissa.
She asked what the question was.
"It goes as follows, Is one who chases eternal life a cultivator, or does being a cultivator mean you chase eternal life?"
Anissa's eyes, which were very curious before the question, dimmed slightly as she heard the question. She brought both her hands to her head as she placed her elbows on the table and contemplated deeply.
"I don't know, which is it?" She gave up relatively quickly and asked for the answer.
Feng Zhiming was unpleasantly surprised, he didn't expect an answer but some sort of opinion on the matter would have made for a more interesting conversation.
"The answer is I-"
As he was about to tell her, the door to the restaurant swung open and a bald man wearing two rings walked in, just as the child had said he would.
He went over and sat on a table in the middle of the restaurant.
Feng Zhiming cleaned his hands with a towel and walked over to the table after asking Anissa to wait.
"20 spirit stones." he said to the man as he sat down at the table, there was no reason to make this longer than it needed to be.