WT 22 - Are you looking for a fight
"Welcome, guests." The owner of the tea shop came over from the counter with a bright smile. There was only one waiter boy, but he was dozing off at a corner.
Strangely, the owner did not scold the waiter boy for not waking up and doing his job.
A female disciple slowly inched closer to Owner Yu's back and whispered, "He is under an illusion."
The owner of the shop was smiling like a friendly host, but it was his overly dark, wide eyes that told others he was under an enchantment.
"We are looking for someone," Owner Yu said as he looked around the place. "Would you mind letting us look around?"
"You can tell me who you are searching for," The owner said, clearly rejecting his request.
"Restrain him but do not wake him up," Owner Yu told the female disciple that informed him of the tea shop's owner's state. That disciple has mastery over illusions, which will be helpful in unraveling the spell from the owner after they were done with this place.
With a talisman, the owner was restrained and Owner Yu told Bao Hai to find the source of the secret realm. With an energetic nod, Bao Hai immediately went to where she had sensed the secret realm, while at the same time adjusting her pace so that the others would stay close behind her.
She was the locator. She did not come here to risk her life.
Without dilly dally, Bao Hai marched up the stairs to the second floor, straight to the direction of the north. The room with the closed door stood out among the other opened doors. Bao Hai stopped a few feet from the closed door and pointed. "It's here."
"You are previously imprisoned by them in a secret realm?" Prince Heng asked Bao Hai.
"No. I'm at one of the shops nearby that alley." Then Bao Hai hesitated, no longer confident with her answer. "I did not sense any hidden realm around me, but that could also be I'm too weak to sense anything."
Bao Hai had told the magistrate everything she could remember of the place she had escaped from, but her memory was not good then. She relied heavily on her muffled senses to escape. After running for quite a while, she sensed the Flame Spirit that was not hiding its presence at all and rushed to that location without a thought.
At that time, she only wanted to be saved, regardless of the new person will be a bad person or not. The magistrate was still searching the place that belonged to the kidnapper, but without any precise clue, they were having a tough time locating it.
"Let me go first," One of the disciples with a short goatee offered.
"I will trouble you." Owner Yu stepped aside and watched with ease as the disciple pushed the door open without announcing himself.
Their sudden intrusion took the two people in the room aback and the wine cup they were enjoying nearly overturned from surprise. The occupants were clearly enjoying a meal before the interruption.
"Who are you?" One of the men asked in anger. "Barging into our room without permission! Are you looking for a fight?"
"Precisely."
The man obviously did not expect the goatee to answer that way and nearly caught off guard by the sudden physical attack.
"How daring!" Pulling a thick width sword out of its sheath that was lying on the table, he started counter-attacking the goatee man’s fist wrapped with the wind, his swing filled with anger.
"It’s that black wine jar with cracks!" Bao Hai quickly whispered to her allies.
However, everyone in the room was a cultivator and Bao Hai's whisper reached everyone's ears.
The two guards of the secret realm's expression turned grave and they stopped their act. One of them hurriedly grabbed the wine jar and made an escape by jumping out of the window while the other flipped the table in the direction of the intruders.
The goatee punched the air, sending the incoming plates and bowls flying away. The table was too big to be sent away with that single air punch, so another disciple helped by using his thick sword and sliced it into two. Both of them kicked each sliced part of the table, sending it far away, and crashed onto the wall.
The guard that flipped over the table did not follow his partner to jump out of the window but stayed behind to act as a distraction for his partner to escape. The strength of the secret realm guards was not trifling and he had cut down three Fruity Tree’s disciples in a blink of an eye. But going against a large number of cultivators was not easy for him either.
The disciple with goatee had the strength that was at par with an inner disciple and could content against the guard with the help of the inner disciple with a thick sword. Elder Qing Shu had already started eating pills like candy and helped out.
Unfortunately, the guard in a dull blue robe that jumped out of the window to escape had failed. Right below the window was a row of armed disciples waiting for him and immediately started chasing after him. The guard could only run back into the tea house and find another exit, but his search was fruitless.
Every exit of the tea house was already surrounded and it happened without them being aware!
Starting to feel anxiety, the guard in blue looked around for his partner, who was busy and unable to help. Despite his panic-stricken appearance, he was slippery as he dodged the attacks, as well as the stretched out hands that targeted the black wine jar in his hands.
Unfortunately, items linked to the secret realm must not be placed inside a spatial dimension or it would destroy it.
The guard in blue dropped a small white scroll into the opening of the wine jar in the middle of his escape. His action was caught by a sharp-eyed disciple. “He’s calling for help! Everyone put in more effort!”
Cursing the disciple for his hawk eyes, the guard in blue started to actively counterattack, buying time until help arrived! Instead of pulling out a reliable weapon, what he took out was unexpectedly a dice. He tossed the dice and it landed on the ground, rolling until it stopped with one black dot facing up.
“Aiyah~ Only one ah…” The guard in blue lamented, but he suddenly looked energetic and a little… expectant?
“I don’t know what weird tricks you are trying to do, but I won’t give you the chance to do it!” A disciple raced forward and swung his sword down towards the guard in blue and Prince Heng’s guards followed behind to launch their attacks.
But before they could hit the guard in blue, they were suddenly attacked by something they could not see and had to retreat warily. They felt as if they were stabbed by something, and could only see the end result of their bleeding wound. However, the invisible attack did not continue and the dice suddenly reappeared back at the guard’s palm.
With a grin filled with maliciousness, he tossed the dice again. Some quick-witted disciples immediately caught on that there was something wrong with the dice and hurried forward to stop it from hitting the ground. Some just started tossing out attacks at the dice.
“It’s a cursed item,” Bao Hai reported, who was hiding behind Owner Yu. They were standing quite some distance away from the fighting. “It’s filled with the grievances of dead souls.”
“Grievance of losing in gambling?” Liu Bing guessed. Along with his teacher, they were watching at the side, not joining the fight. The tea house was not huge and if all of them joined it, they might accidentally hurt their own people or even collapse the entire tea house.
“I don’t know,” Bao Hai said just as the cursed dice that was not damaged from the attacks at all successfully fell to the ground, showing four dots at the top.
This time, there were more people injured and once again they could not see how and who attacked them.
“Don’t get close to him. Attack at a distance!” A quick-witted disciple commanded and Prince Heng caught a subtle shift of expression on the guard in blue.
“It’s useless!” The guard laughed as the dice went back to his palm and he tossed it once again. It showed six dots on top and more of the front liners got injured again.
“Teacher… the number on the dice represents the distance from himself?” Liu Bing inquired but his tone was confident with his analysis.
“And the number of injuries they suffer.” Heng Zhen Gan spread open his folding fan and waved it with inner energy in the direction of the guard from the angle where it would not hit his own allies.
A fierce wind that could not be seen with naked eyes slashed off two fingers of the guard holding onto the dice. The wind attack earned surprised looks from the Fruity Tree sect members and was even more surprised that the attack managed to injure the enemy.
Seeing that his attack was not really effective as he was only able to cut off two fingers, Prince Heng once again gathered his spiritual energy, molding the wind into an even sharper blade.
Losing two fingers was not a big deal compared to losing a limb, but the guard in blue knew he would lose his limb next if he did not stop the incoming attack. That man with a cool gaze as he held onto an ordinary folding fan had the image of a humble scholar but was unexpected to be the strongest in the group.
The guard scolded his sect members in his heart for being too slow to come to his rescue and could only use the last resort to make sure the orthodox sect could never get their hands on what they wanted.
With the choice of dripping three drops of his blood into the wine jar or avoiding the attack, the guard chose the former. At the same time, Prince Heng's next attack hit the guard, whose wrist was cut off and happened to be the one holding onto his dice. The dice fell off from his hand and rolled onto the ground before stopping at three, which had everyone quickly backed a far distance from the injured guard.
Gritting his teeth to hold back his pain, the guard intended to bring most of them to Hell with him, but a kick on his lower back had him fall to the ground on his knees. It was just one kick, but it crippled his whole body and he could no longer move.
The wine jar was unknowingly gone from his hand and he struggled to look up with dread.
He was wrong.
This clean looking man with a friendly smile was the strongest among the group.
