Silent Bluffing

Two silhouettes sat opposite to each other while drinking warm tea.

"This called the Moonlight Shard Tea, it's a great suppliment for your mind." 

Jian Hu's attitude had taken a complete turn. 

Firstly, Jian Hu gave Shen Wang a new pair of clothing, since his previous one became cladded in impurities, thus becoming useless. 

Naturally, Shen had to act out the part as well. 

'My understanding of this situation mostly stems from the webnovels that I've read back on Earth, however this is currently a reality for me, I can't afford to make any mistakes.' 

With his limited experiences, Shen was not confident in his ability to weave any stories which could possibly fool an experienced cultivator like Jian Hu. 

None of the two party initiated the talk, they were both waiting for the other to start speaking, thus they kept slurping on their respective cups while waiting.

Not able to withstand the eerie atmosphere that had built up any longer, Shen finally broke the silence. 

"Moonlight Shard Tea is quite a delicacy," Shen started out with a praise. 

"This one is happy to know that it suited Mister Shen's taste." Jian Hu replied immidiately with a deep voice. 

"Other than that, shouldn't you be paying me for cleansing your body of the pill impurities?" Jian Hu's asked with a playful tone. 

As soon as he finished speaking, Jian Hu's presence started to give off an illusionary pressure which descended upon Shen Wang. 

Shen's body started to palpitate, even though he had stack upon effects after effects, his cultivation was still only at the 9th stage of Qi Condensation Realm. 

The differance between Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment was nothing to scoff at. 

It would take an average cultivator 10 years to cultivate to the peak of Qi Condensation, but unless a cultivator had good aptitude, it would take at least 20 years for someone to be able to break through into Foundation Establishment. 

Those without a good quality of spirit roots could only live as the lowest of the cultivators. 

Thus, no matter whoever it was, if they were in the foundation establishment realm, they meant that they were no fools. 

'A single slip could lead me to my life's end,' Although Shen seemed to be palpitating on the outside under the pressure of Jian Hu's qi, his brain was working faster than lightening, trying to deduce his next move. 

Beads of sweat started to drip down from Shen Wang's cheeks all the way to his chin. 

However, although his body was shivering, Shen's mind was as calm as ever. 

Shen's calm naturally reflected in his eyes, to Jian Hu, this was a peculiar scene, rather on the interesting side that a cultivator who was an entire major realm below him was looking at him fearlessly even though his body was quaking like a scared frog. 

The stalemate continued as both of them kept drinking their tea, Moonlight Shard Tea's calming effect seemed to have vanished into thin air as the surroundings became more and more tense. 

After, 5 minutes or so, the tea time was finally over. 

At this moment, Shen stood up and waved his hand without uttering a single word. 

WOOSH!

Heaps of alchemy material seemed to have materialized from thin air and fell onto the ground. 

Jian Hu's poker face broke as he hadn't expected such a situation. 

This was natural, after all Shen had his inventory which could store things almost infinitely. 

However, to Jian Hu this represented things completely opposite. 

'I had expected him to have a space ring, however how big of a space does his ring have?' 

Thoughts kept erupting in Jian Hu's mind as he tried to regain his grasp of understanding over the situation. 

Jian Hu had expected Shen Wang to be carrying quite a lot of space rings as those rings only had a limited space, even a metric cube of a space ring costed thousands of spirit stones. 

This cost was justified as well, since space was extremely difficult to manipulate and it required specialised experts to produce a single ring and even that costed a lot of time and effort, so even the lowest grade of space ring carried immense value. 

Thus, Jian Hu had expected Shen Wang to carry at least a thousand of low grade space rings. 

'However, this isn't the main point to note!' Jian Hu's mind was utterly astonished at the speed at which Shen Wang pulled all of the spiritual materials. 

Usually, a space ring took at least 10 seconds to deposit or withdraw materials from it, this time naturally went down as the grade of the space ring increased. 

Thus, it was truly shocking that a Qi Condensation realm fodder like Shen Wang had such a magnificent space ring! 

'tsk, it must be at least a high-tier space ring, even I only have a low-tier one with about 5 metric cube of space, just what kind of strength is backing him?' 

Shen looked at Jian Hu's loss of composure and smiled lightly. 

Shen had planned this, 

He wanted to create a false conception in Jian Hu's eyes that he was undertaking a grand mission. 

Even though he didn't know the exact details of this world's system, he had a vauge guess that his inventory should have a great value. 

Strike when the iron is hot! 

Shen started speaking with a polite smile on his face," Elder Jian Hu, please have a look at these spiritual materials." 

Hearing Shen's words, Jian Hu's distractions vanished as he started to look at the spiritual materials stacked up on the ground making a small hill. 

Combined, these materials had a total worth equivalent to a Golden Core Realm cultivator's liquid assets. 

This was the main reason that even the Lotus Master had gotten involved in this. 

With a slight nod, Jian Hu immidiately soted them away in his treasury and locked it with talismans. 

Shen sat down quietly and waited for Jian Hu to finish. 

Shen was not a good actor, nor a great debator, thus speaking or acting excessively could lead to dire consequences, thus Shen just sat silently.

Keeping quiet to appear more mysterious, this was Shen's current plan. 

After a few hours, Jian Hu was done sorting the materials out. 

"Haha, I apologise to have kept fellow daoist Shen Wang waiting." 

Hearing Jian Hu's words and his change of adressing him, Shen smiled a little. 

"It's alright, It's alright we have enough time." 

"I thank daoist Shen Wang for his understanding, it's such a pity that I don't have a high-tier space ring like you to immidiately store away so many items." 

Space ring? 

The plan worked! 

"Haha, I don't dare claim this as mine, it's just a gift given to me by my mast- , ah I mean an item given to me for a mission." 

Master? 

Jian Hu's mind starting calculating the clues and deriving observations from them, Shen possessed a high-tier space ring, he could bypass the sect's security measures, he went far enough to induce so much pill poison in his body to rapidly increase his strength and 'his mission'? 

This Shen Wang was clearly a pawn! 

Or was he an important piece? 

How strong does his backing have to be to give gim a high-tier space ring? 

Even the Lake Lotus Sect might only have a middle grade space ring! 

Although this seemed long thinking, only a few moments had passed outside. 

In these few moments, Jian Hu had come to a conclusion. 

He wasn't going to divulge into Shen's affairs, cleansining Shen of pill impurites should have a good enough effect on improving Shen's and hopefully his backing's opinion towards Jian Hu. 

Someone who could afford afford such an amount was clearly a huge power-house. 

How could Jian Hu be willing to put himself on a chopping board by going against their plans? 

Thus, he was going to turn a blind eye. 

His conditions were already bad enough, being a slave for so many years was clearly not something he wanted to accept. 

In face he would he more than happy if someone uprooted the entire Lake Lotus Sect for him, that way he wouldn't be a slave to someone else at least! 

"Whatever your reason was has nothing to do with me Shen Wang," Jian Hu continued, "I will turn a blind eye to this matter, in fact, as long as it's kept secret, I'm even willing to help you out in some circumstances." 

Shen Wang "..." 

He hadn't expected the situation to unforld like this! 

Hey? Hey? Hey? 

Arent' you an elder of this sect? 

Did you just say that you're going to help the person who robbed you even when you know that I am the root cause of thr problems that you faced from the sect? 

"Don't ask me for reason, I, Jian Hu, son of Lian Hu swear to my dao heart that as long as you don't harbour mischevious intent towards me, I shall never hinder nor expose you." 

Shen was flabbergaster on what the actual crap was happening? 

Wasn't this Jian guy just betraying his sect? 

'Nonetheless, this progression is just music to my ears!' 

With the Dao Transcending Consciousness Tempering Art's effect of fast thinking, Shen's mind digested the situation quickly and started to think about what he could do. 

"I am grateful for Elder Jian Hu's understanding over the situation, as for Elder Jian Hu's assistance, I only need help with two things, after which I shall never bother Elder Jian Hu ever again." 

"Please speak! As long as it's under my strength I will definately do my best to help you out!" 

"First, I need you to help me remove the alchemy stench around my adobe and lastly I just need to take me in...." 

"As your alchemy apprentice!" Shen said with a smile....